Example

Assignment Example:

You have recently read the novel, Dracula, by Bram Stoker, and your teacher has asked you to explore how the novel reflects the history, culture, and literary contexts of the time period in which it was written. In other words, you are viewing the literature through a traditional lens of historical critical analysis. Here, you’ll be examining how the events or philosophies of the government and society of Victorian England affect the plot of story. Particulars of the author’s life that might be present in the novel are also important.

You will use outside resources to find information for your paper. You put your fangs into it, finding several essays written about your topic, a few from Google. Some are from an online database called the Discovering Collection, which offers a premium selection of reference materials for literature. It contains articles from primary and secondary resources. Looking at your chosen sources, you realize that your essays from Google are mainly dot coms. These have limitations in terms of credibility, so they are probably not reliable. Instead, you turn to those that are from college websites and library databases.

You dig deeper to learn that one of your sources was written by a college professor of literature, a credible source for sure. The other was written by a freshman composition student, hmmm. You choose to use the document written by the professor since the student has less experience and the work may not be accurate. From the Discovery Collection, you find that all eight essays are from authors, critical reviewers, and instructors at various universities throughout the United States, but just four of them discuss your particular topic. Your first search has resulted in, you COUNT f-i-v-e, credible resources to use in your paper. Spectacula!

You head off to the library where the helpful Ms. Haynes has three literary analysis books for you. In each table of contents is a mention of Dracula. As you skim the text of those essays, you find that two of them discuss, in part, your topic. You make copies of these essays so that you can take notes on the specific paragraphs addressing the history of the time period. Don’t forget to write down the information you’ll need to properly cite these books in your paper.

Later, you find a colorful book on the Victorian Era, which delves into the values and behaviors of the society during that time period. You can definitely make your own connections between this text on history and culture and your observations about the novel. On to note-taking! You read your sources carefully, taking clear, concise notes and keeping track of which information came from which text. This will be important when it’s time to cite your sources. You put quotation marks around direct quotes and introduce any ideas, facts, and examples that aren’t yours. Finally, you will use a website such as OWL at Purdue which will help you correctly cite your sources and develop your working bibliography.

You have found both digital and print resources that address your selected topic. Now, you’ll seamlessly integrate the most relevant information into a paper that will be reliable, credible, and unbiased. You’re ready to create your own masterpiece for your teacher and classmates. The parental units will go BATTY!

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