the gothic

Description

Description: This paper is designed to teach the writer and the reader something valuable about a chosen topic and about the nature of discovery. As opposed to the standard research paper where a writer usually assumes a detached and objective stance, the “I-Search” paper allows you to relate your experience of hunting for facts and opinions firsthand, and to provide a step-by-step record of the search process. It’s a research paper that is intentionally reflective.

Length: 6-8 pages This does not include the Works Cited page.
Number of sources: Your essay will need at least 7 sources, but more are encouraged.
You will need to locate, read, and use 2 scholarly, peer-reviewed articles from academic journals.
You will need to locate, read, and use 4 other sources that can include: scholarly books, essays, journal articles, interviews, or educational videos. Keep in mind, however, that these still must be credible!
Wide Sargasso Sea will be your 7th source and must be included in your annotated bibliography.
Topic: Choose a topic that genuinely interests you from the list provided at the end of this document. What are you curious about? What do you want to discover? For example, when I first read Wide Sargasso Sea, I was very curious as to how a husband could simply lock his wife up in the attic when she was no longer useful to him. So, I started researching. The list I provide is broad: there will be something there for everyone. But if there is a topic you are really interested in that isn’t on the list, please ask me and I will decide if you may pursue it or not. Regardless of what you choose, the topic needs to be something about which you have little or no prior knowledge. The idea is to use this I-Search paper as an opportunity to learn something new, not reinforce ideas you already have. Also, please note that this is NOT an argumentative paper, meaning that you should not write this to “prove” a point. Rather, it is an exploration of a topic.
Format: Your paper should have four distinct sections, as explained below. The four parts of this paper should be organized implicitly as a seamless essay. The fifth part is the Works Cited page.

PART I: WHY I AM INTERESTED (1-2 page)

In this section, you will describe why you are interested in the topic you have chosen. Do you connect to it personally? Is someone you know impacted by it? Maybe you saw something on TV about it, and this piqued your interest. Whatever your reasons, you need to articulate them here. Moreover, this is where you need to explain (in one or two paragraphs) how this topic emerges from Wide Sargasso Sea. This first section is also the area where you want to include a thesis. This thesis should provide the reader with what your paper will be about and a brief (like 1-2 sentences) of what you ultimately learned from the experience and about the topic.

PART II: WHAT I KNOW, ASSUME, OR IMAGINE (1-2 pages)

This section is to be written before conducting formal research. In this section, you will write a section in which you explain to the reader what you think you know, what you assume, or what you imagine about your topic. For example, if you decide to investigate women’s rights in the 19thcentury, you might want to offer some ideas about what you think women’s rights were like several centuries ago, provide your estimate of the severity of the treatment of women, and create a portrait of what you think life was like for an imagined woman living in the West Indies, or England, or America prior to conducting research. You will want to refer to Wide Sargasso Sea as it will have influenced your ideas about the topic you are researching.

PART III: THE SEARCH (1-2 pages)

Test your knowledge, assumptions, or conjectures by researching your topic thoroughly. Consult useful books, scholarly articles, films, and library databases for information; do not consult “open web” sources, such as Wikipedia or random blogs, for this assignment. The library is going to be your starting place, so please reach out to our wonderful research librarians for help on your research. After collecting information, write about your search in a narrative form. That means chronologically with specific details, in order to record the steps of the discovery process.Do not feel obligated to describe everything but, instead, highlight the happenings and facts you uncovered that were crucial to your hunt and contributed to your new understanding of the topic. If you discuss any of your sources specifically, then you need to cite them!

PART IV: WHAT I DISCOVERED (3-4 pages)

After concluding your search, compare what you thought you knew, assumed, or imagined (look back at your first sections for this) with what you actually discovered and offer some personal commentary and/or draw some conclusions. Moreover, you should explain how your research has given you a deeper understanding of Wide Sargasso Sea. For example, after completing your search on women’s rights in 19thcentury Great Britain, you might learn that the restrictions on women were far more severe than you previously thought and had more complicated implications in terms of what a woman could and couldn’t do than you had ever imagined. You may have assumed men had some form of control over their wives and daughters, but now you’ve discovered that the level of control was all-encompassing. Consequently, you might want to focus on the specifics of what you discovered and how they have changed your view of the past and of British or western culture. You might even find yourself more aware of the great struggle that western women have had to fight to come as far as they have and, perhaps, you might have become more aware of how much farther the work of gender equality still has to go; there is, after all, no equal rights amendment for women even now in the United States of America. You may find yourself reflecting on the unfortunate fact, that while in many ways things have “progressed” for women in the Americas, for women of color, or from other marginalized groups, this “progress” is less apparent. Perhaps that is why reading works like Wide Sargasso Sea is continually important: these works remind us of how far we have come but also lay bare the failures of our advances. This part of the paper will also contain citations indicating the information you learned from your sources.

PART V: WORKS CITED PAGE

Your I-Search essay will be based on a variety of sources retrieved primarily from the Hancock College Library (books, articles, videos, etc.). All quoted, summarized, or paraphrased material must be cited parenthetically within the text, using the correct MLA format for in-text citations. You must also include an entry in your works cited page for every source that you cite in your paper. I have posted on Canvas numerous documents and links to resources to help you with your works cited page. Please set aside enough time to make sure you are using your citations correctly. All disciplines have methods and forms; MLA is the form and research documentation method for literary studies and many other humanities disciplines.