Purpose and  Content Ideas
The purpose of this assignment is for you to have a little bit of intellectual fun exploring a text, an issue, or a topic related to the material that we will cover this semester.

What would you like to explore? The list below is only a list of possibilities. Perhaps a topic here will inspire you or will make you think of some other topic that you would like to pursue. The choice is yours.

1. Write an in depth character analysis of a character from a story or play that we have read.
2. Explore the theme in a work that we have read and how the author reveals his or her ideas through plot, through character, through symbol, through setting, through language and style, etc.
3. Discuss how individuals in the era thought or felt about one relevant issue of their day and how their thoughts and feelings are apparent in their works.  Possible issues include evolution, industrialization, imperialism, colonialism, religion, war, women, and minorities.
4. Select one of the complementary pairs of poems from Blake's' SOngs of Innocence and SOngs of Experience.  How do they illustrate Blake's thesis that they show "Two COntrary States of the Human Soul"?  Incorporate a discussion of the related etchings or drawings that accompany the poems if you want.

 

The Technical Parameters
Please follow these guidelines for the written portion of this assignment: 

1. Type an outline of the information that you will present, double-spaced, using one of the following fonts:
• Courier New, size 12 
• Bookman, size 12 
• Arial, size 12 
2. The page layout must follow MLA guidelines.  Review the sample on p. 733 of the Holt Handbook (6th ed.).  Use Roman numerals for your main divisions, Upper case letters for your major subdivisions, and Arabic numerals for your minor subdivisions and specific details, like this:
3. Be sure to include plenty of references to the years and to the age of the writer during significant events in his or her life.
4. All material that is borrowed from the text—whether quoted, paraphrased, or summarized—must be documented appropriately following MLA guidelines. Use parenthetical references rather than footnotes or endnotes.  Include a "Works Cited" or a "Works Consulted" page in which you list the complete citations for all your sources.