FALL 2010 - FIQWS 10027 Adj. Lecturers G.D.

Peters and Jon Udelson

KILLER STORIES: Killing in Short Fiction
cronish@gmail.com/judelson@ccny.cuny.edu
RESEARCH PAPER GUIDELINES
1. DEVELOP YOUR OWN TOPIC:
Using the guidelines in the “Assignment” section below, you are to develop your own topic for your research paper.
This means you are to consider the subject of killing in the context of various moral, ethical, philosophical,
psychological, and/or sociological considerations that we have discussed in jour classes, and propose a topic that
examines the central theme of killing utilizing one or more of these broader considerations.

2. SOURCES:
 At least one (1) primary text (story) from the Pearson text;
 AND at least one (1) supplementary text from the either section (which includes the student presentation
texts);
 NOTE-you are NOT to exceed three texts without approval. This means you may use two primary texts
and one supplementary text, or one primary text and two supplementary texts, but not more than 3 in total.
 AND at least two (2) secondary sources, which must be academic/scholarly essays from reputable
journals or publications (no Web sites, etc.).
3. THE ASSIGNMENT:

Utilizing the sources listed above, research and write an essay which examines the theme of killing in the
greater context of one or more of the broader categories that we have been examining this semester, such as
morality, ethics, philosophy, psychology, and/or sociology.

Your primary question is the theme of the course, which is killing, but you will want to examine killing in the way
the texts raise greater issues that these contextual categories represent. For instance, if you are writing about killings
committed by women in a male dominated society, you will want to examine the psychological/emotional pressures
that Miss Emily Grierson, or Minnie Foster, or Delia Jones were contending with, such that they found themselves
backed into a corner from which killing seemed the only escape. But a larger question remains: what role did their
respective societies play in creating, tolerating, encouraging the environments in which these dynamics flourished?
4. THE REQUIRED LENGTH AND FORMAT:
Your essays shall by 8-10 pages in length, PLUS a Works Cited page, which does not count as part of the 8-10
pages required. The essay must conform to MLA Formatting and Style. An MLA Stylesheet Template has been
uploaded to the “Assignments” page of the Blackboard. You may download this template and use “overtype” to
write your essays directly onto this template, and it will automatically be in MLA format. You MUST use a header
with name and page number; missing header will result in half a grade (5 points) deduction.

The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University is also an excellent Web resource, and contains proper
instructions/examples of MLA Formatting (if you Google “MLA Format” your first result will be this site):
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
5. THE REQUIRED METHODS OF DELIVERY:
As per our syllabus, papers are to be delivered to us the following ways, at the beginning of class on the due date:
 Hard copy, printed in MLA Format;
 By email to us at cronish@gmail.com and judelson@ccny.cuny.com
No paper will be graded that is not delivered to each of us in these two ways. No late papers will be graded. No
make-ups will be permitted.