Connections A Hypertext Resource for Literature

Reading Practices Paper

In this 1500-2100 word paper (roughly 5-7 pages), you will explore some aspect of reading practices in relation to this class. You have three options for the topic of the paper:

  • You can write a relatively traditional analytical essay about some aspect of reading or books as they appear in Austen's novels so far.
  • You can write a more personal essay about your experiences of reading in the class, drawing on the reading situation assignments in your Commonplace Document.
  • You can write an analytical essay expanding one of your regular response posts in the Commonplace Documents into a research paper.

Whatever option you choose, the paper will quote and cite at least three critical or contextual sources that you find using the library's databases. For papers that take up topics related to historical reading practices, the bibliography of Wynne's chapter from the first day of class may be especially useful.

Consider your audience as continuous with that of your blog posts: informed readers of our primary texts who can still benefit from your well-developed analytical thoughts.

Along with the rest of your assigment, you will submit a submission sheet that helps you and me see clearly that you have completed it fully. Here is a template for the submission sheet; open it, save your own version, fill it out, and submit it with your assignment.

For all your citations, use Chicago Style in the Notes and Bibliography (NB) version. For formatting the paper in Chicago NB Style, you can use my quick guide (PDF). If you use a tool that generates bibliography entries automatically, that's fine as a starting point, but such tools often get details wrong. Do the final version of your entry yourself, carefully. You are responsible for what you submit.

Important final note: take care with your quotations and sources! Citing a non-existent source or a quotation that you cannot trace is a violation of the College's policies on academic honesty and will require me, by College policy, to refer your assignment to the Committee on Academic Standing.