How Beowulf defined British Literature
Write a 6-8 page researched essay on one of the assigned texts in ENG 2470-800 (WE) “How Beowulf defined British Literature”. Obviously you are not to write an open-ended essay about a book in the course, so your initial task is to select a topic that piques your imagination. As you would recall from your college composition courses, selecting a topic is a key, first step in the construction of a good research paper. You may want to spend a day or two reviewing the fundamentals of research writing and weighing the various assigned readings in the course.
As you do your review, you will recall that a research paper is, “the culmination and final product of an involved process of research, critical thinking, source evaluation, organization, and composition. It is, perhaps, helpful to think of the research paper as a living thing, which grows and changes as the student explores, interprets, and evaluates sources related to a specific topic. Primary and secondary sources are the heart of a research paper, and provide its nourishment; without the support of and interaction with these sources, the research paper would morph into a different genre of writing (e.g., an encyclopedic article). The research paper serves not only to further the field in which it is written, but also to provide the student with an exceptional opportunity to increase her knowledge in that field. It is also possible to identify a research paper by what it is not” (Purdue OWL).
Back to the task of selecting your research essay topic: You will select your own topic based on the guidelines I will provide here.
Guidelines
You should choose a text that you know you have read (OR PLAN TO READ) carefully and completely, because your research paper must be based on a text. Secondary materials and others’ opinions will only help strengthen your own interpretation of the text.
2. Topics that are based solely on cultural, historical, literary concepts will not work for this paper. While such are important, the topic must be anchored in a text or texts.
3. This is your paper, so you should think carefully about the works you are reading in this course and choose a topic that would be worthwhile investigating.
4. Choose a topic that is based an idea that is born out of your own careful reading.
5. Choose a topic that affirms your imagination and provides opportunity for innovation.
6. Look at your topic as an opportunity to conduct research that can be completed in the short time you have.
7. Select an angle that brings into focus a unique nuance to a discourse. Do not simply re-state what others have written about.
8. Resist the urge to tackle topics whose premises are rooted in bias.
9. Avoid topics that are considered cliché.
10. You should choose a topic that elicits some degree of disagreement in the scholarly community. If there is no element of disagreement, then there would be no point doing the research. The purpose of research is to answer unresolved questions. For example, there would be no point for a scientist to conduct research to prove that the earth is round. That is a resolved question, unless there is some aspect of the roundness that needs further clarification.
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