Canterbury Tales Critical Research Paper

EN352: The Canterbury Tales

Critical Research Paper Assignment

A critical research paper, approximately 12-14 pages long, is due at the beginning of class on Wednesday, May 2.

For this assignment, you should select one of the pilgrims or tales from the Canterbury Tales that you are interested in studying in depth. Using the resources of the library and the library's on-line databases as well as the bibliographical and explanatory material in the Benson edition of the Canterbury Tales, you should research the secondary critical material on the tale or character that you have chosen. You should develop an original thesis on the topic, and you should write an essay supporting the thesis and applying to its argument at least three critical sources.

Please note that the critical sources should have been published in scholarly sources. This usually means books from academic presses or articles in peer-reviewed journals. It usually does not include popular sources or reference works (on-line or printed).

In class, we will discuss strategies for locating sources, evaluating sources, and incorporating critical sources into an argument defending an original thesis.

Please note the following important dates:

Monday, April 23 and Tuesday, April 24: Students will meet with me individually in my office to discuss the research paper. You should by this meeting have identified the tale or pilgrim you are studying, and at least two critical sources that you intend to apply to your argument.

Monday, May 7: At the final exam, graded research papers will be returned. You will have the option of revising the paper in light of my comments.

Friday, May 11: Revisions of the research paper are due, in the box on my office door or as e-mail attachments, by 5:00 PM.

Format: All submitted papers should follow the Modern Language Association (MLA) guidelines for formatting a paper. These guidelines can be found in the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 6th ed., which is available in the Reference Section of the library and in the Writing Center, but they are also summarized on pp. 121-162 of Hacker and Sommers’s Pocket Style Manual. When commenting on your essays, I will refer to Hacker on matters of format and style.

Following the MLA style, all papers should cite their sources on every occasion that they are used, and all paper should include a complete list of works cited.