The term paper is an analytical argumentative paper in which you discuss a topic or
theme from one of the texts on our syllabus. This paper must be at least six full pages long. Make
sure you cite extensively from the primary text and that you explain your quotes, that you give a
reading of them. Incorporate quotations from two journal articles, to support your argument.
Dont use electronic sources, with the exception of articles accessed through the librarys
databases JSTOR and LION. No websites, no matter how pretty they look or how handy they
were. I need you to use reliable material, and with many websites its just really hard to judge
that. Using the librarys databases is not as hard as you may think, and well talk about how to do
that.
In this term paper you will delve into a theme in one of our textslook at how a single
issue (love, gender, loyalty, food, hair, race, etc.) is treated and valued. Make sure you cite
extensively from your primary text and that you introduce and explain any quotes from primary
and secondary sources. Please submit a draft of the term paper by the date indicated on the
reading schedule. If you dont, theres a grade deduction of ten pointsthat may sound harsh but
this is the kind of assignment that you just have to start early, and its worth 20% of the final
grade. I will post a set of guidelines on Blackboard; for now let me just say Im looking for
MLA-style formatting, 1″ margins, 12-pt font.
Books we have read
Gilgamesh, xi-95
Sophocles, Oedipus the King, 129-251
Sophocles, Antigone, 35-128
Virgil, Aeneid
Marie de France, Lais, ix-85
Chaucer, General Prologue and The Knights Tale (xi-79)
Chaucer, The Millers Tale (79-99)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Dante, Inferno,
Shakespeare, Othello
