Senior Research Paper: Developing Your Topic

Literature cannot be fully appreciated in isolation. All literature is part of a larger story, or I
should say, one continuous story. Your assignment is to research a topic that is considered an
archetype, a pattern that has occurred throughout literature, and explore how this archetype has
evolved, how it has remained consistent and how it has been handled by different authors in different
time periods. You will develop a thesis statement, an arguable claim, about how your chosen archetype
has developed over time and prove it using primary and secondary sources. Your primary sources will
need to span at least one hundred years and contain at least one novel or play. You will need to provide
at least three primary sources (poetry, drama, or novels) and three secondary sources (literary analysis,
historical analysis, biographical analysis, etc.).
Your objective today is to choose the topic you will study. You may choose a topic from Thomas
C. Fosters How to Read Literature Like a Professor: A Lively and Entertaining Guide to Reading Between
the Lines (Harper, 2014) or you may develop your own. No more than two people can have the same
topic.

In order to choose your topic, open the Collaborative Brainstorming handout in Word (not the
online version). Then use the Find feature to search the document for a few potential topics (CTRL+F).

1. Begin by searching for archetypes that have caught your interest. Choose one that will
be the topic of your research paper (this may change as the progress moves forward).
Record this in the chart below.
2. Then begin refining your search through the secondary search terms that your peers
listed. You should refine your search to a manageable, yet useful, number of terms. List
the secondary search terms below.
3. List all of the literary works related to your topic. Include the title, the author, and the
genre. (Note: novels and plays are italicized; poems are placed in quotation marks). Use
this format: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (novel), The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by
Samuel Coleridge (poem). Highlight the works that you have not read or those with
which you are not familiar.
4. Summarize the major patterns that emerge from the connections made on the
brainstorming chart. Do not feel obligated to connect everything here, but begin to
make general statements about the topic and what you see emerging. Look at the big
picture. What insight into human existence is gained from the authors use of this
archetype? Generally, how is this achieved? List several specific statements regarding
these patterns.
5. Find a peer in the class who has read a work related to your topic. This should be a
piece of literature that you have not read. Conduct an informal interview with this
person about the post that he/she made on the collaborative brainstorming document.
Ask more specific questions based on a hypothesis that may be emerging. Dont just try
to prove your hypothesis and mold facts to fit what you think. Keep an open mind and
allow for your conclusions to find you, not the other way around. Record a summary of
this interview, specifically explaining how your topic is developing into something more
specific. Include the name of the student who you interviewed in your summary.
 Archetype
(Topic of paper)
Significant
secondary
search terms
Literary Works
related to the
topic
Patterns within
the topic
Summary of
Peer Interview

Then, complete the following:

Brief description of the archetype (Your Research Topic). This should be more developed
that the chapter title you began with. Include general conclusions that youve made based
on the secondary search terms.

Phrase the topic in the form of a question (Your Research Question). What do you want to
find out about this archetype? This should connect, in some way, to the human condition,
the effect on a work as a whole, the purpose of the author, etc.

What will you prove? (Hypothesis; Draft of Thesis). Based on your reading of the
collaborative brainstorming chart and your interview with your peer, construct a working
thesis.

What novel/play will you be reading in the third quarter? Briefly explain how you anticipate
this book relating to your topic. What will you be reading to find?