Students taking the course as a Pro-seminar should read D. C. Greetham, "Textual Scholarship" in Introduction to Scholarship in Modern Languages and Literatures, ed. Joseph Gibaldi, 2nd ed. (New York: Modern Langauge Association, 1992), 103-37. (Central Library Reserve).
Then choose one of the following texts and write a short paper discussing the issues involved in choosing an edition to teach or cite in a scholarly article:
Submit your paper by posting it to my Inbox in the Files module of Prometheus.
Directions for posting: save your paper to a disk or your computer's hard drive in Microsoft Word. Go to "Files" in Prometheus, then click "Post File." A dialogue box will come up. In the "Title" space, type "Your Last Name, Choosing text." Next click the "Browse" button on the screen, locate your paper on your disk, highlight it, and click "Open." Skip the "Associated Session" space and go to the drop-down menu by "Post File To". Click my name under "Inboxes," then you are ready to press the "Submit" button.
This assignment will count for 10% of the final grade.
Construct a bibliography of primary and secondary sources on a topic, preferably one that will figure in your final conference paper. Use at least 3 electronic databases and 2 printed resources. Identify the resources you use and your rationale for using them in a preliminary paragraph. In the list itself, try to be selective. Make educated guesses as to what will be important to your research. Use MLA documentation style. There is no page limit for this assignment, but you should not be indiscriminate: take care to identify a manageable topic and choose relevant sources.
Skim ch. 1. "Research and writing," ch. 2. "Mechanics of writing," ch. 3. "Format of the research paper," ch. 4. "Documentation: preparing the list of works cited" in Joseph Gibaldi (ed.), MLA handbook for writers of research papers, 5th (New York: Modern Language Association of America, 1999). Available in the Reference Room of Central Library: call number LB 2369 .G53
Post your paper to my Inbox in the Files module of Prometheus. In the "Title" space, please put "Last Name, Bibliography." This assignment will count for 10% of the final grade.
Working from the most recent entries in your bibliography, determine which sources appear to be the most important items in two of the following three categories: (1) the interpretive tradition; (2) the historical and/or biographical context; and (3) theoretical or methodological issues raised by the topic. Write a short paper discussing the critical heritage on your topic in two of these three areas. Give a sense of how the critical discourse has evolved in both categories.
Post your paper to my Inbox in the Files module of Prometheus. In the "Title" space, please put "Last Name, Footnote Trail." Please name your file the same way. This assignment will count for 10% of the final grade.
Pick a text that you plan to use in your final conference paper. Analyze the state of the current critical debate about this text. What issues seem important to the best critics? What methods predominate and how are these methods reflected in the resulting critical positions? Although you should attend to the way in which debate has evolved over the years, charting major shifts in critical thinking, the focus of your discussion should be on the current state of criticism.
Choose a text that has a sufficiently large body of criticism to make your survey valuable. If the text has an immense critical heritage, then you should choose a particular aspect of the critical debate to discuss.
Post your paper to my Inbox in the Files module of Prometheus. In the "Title" space, please put "Last Name, State of Criticism." Please name your file the same way. This assignment will count for 10% of the final grade.
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Deliver an oral report on a topic to be chosen in consultation with the instructor. Oral reports will be 15 minutes in length and involve substantial research beyond the week's readings. Possible topics are listed on the class syllabus. This assignment will count for 20% of the final grade.
Write a description of the research project you plan to complete for this class. You should model your paper on a Dissertation Enhancement Grant proposal, which are 2 pages in length. Students are encouraged to discuss their plans with the instructor well in advance.
Carolyn Levinson has samples of Enhancement Grant proposals on file from previous years.
Submit by email to jay.clayton@vanderbilt.edu as an attachment file. In the subject line, please put "Name, Research Proposal." This assignment will count for 10% of the final grade.
Write a rough draft of research paper - 10-25 pages.
Submit by email to jay.clayton@vanderbilt.edu as an attachment file. In the subject line, please put "Name, Short title of paper - draft." This assignment will not be graded.
Final draft of research paper - 20-25 pages, due December 16. Your model should be a critical article suitable for submission to a refereed journal. Use MLA documentation style.
Submit by email to jay.clayton@vanderbilt.edu as an attachment file. In the subject line, please put "Name, Short title of paper - final version." This assignment will count for 10% of the final grade.
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