Victorian Novel Research Paper

Whether you are reading Wuthering Heights or Jane Eyre, both of these Victorian Era novels are rich with social, political, religious, cultural, psychological, and historical connections. For this unit you will choose a topic of interest that connects with your book-club novel. As you read the novel, try to understand the author’s text through the lens of this topic.

 You will then explore the background of this topic by reading secondary and primary source materials and reflecting upon how you can organize these outside sources with your own analysis of the novel. After compiling your ideas and information from these sources, craft a thesis-driven research paper that connects your topic with the text of your Victorian-era novel.  

This assignment is fairly open-ended and will require much thought on your part of how to organize your ideas and execute this written product. Remember that this is a Literary Research Paper, meaning that your topic must connect to the specifics of the text you are reading.          

Due on Turnitin.com by 10:00pm on April 19^th. 

Requirements:

• 4-6 Pages plus a Works Cited Page - all in MLA Format.
• At least two scholarly outside sources. (You will probably want to use more sources than this)
•  Formal writing style. No I, me, you, or us.
• Quotes: You may use up to two non-blocked quotes from the outside sources. Quotes cannot be longer than three lines of text. (Quotes of outside sources should only be used if they are absolutely crucial to conveying your point. Most of the time you will want to rely on paraphrasing).
• Citations: You must use MLA in-text citations for all quotes and paraphrasing that is done.

Mr. Achimore’s Advice: 

Choose a topic that allows you to both examine outside sources thoroughly and analyze and discuss specific aspects of the text. That way, you will have plenty of information to talk about for four pages.

Quiz 3/17

The Brontë Sisters Book Club

Introduction:

As seniors in high school who are on the verge of graduation, you already feel the urge to grow up, mature, and act in more classy ways. Yet as classy as those older siblings of yours may seem, this sadly is a façade. Soon you will discover that this maturity never is actually attainable, but this does not keep adults from faking it. One way adults attempt to make themselves feel more mature and classy is by joining book clubs- something we will be doing for this next unit. 

For this unit you will be placed in book clubs of three students and will plan out as a group how you will proceed through the novel. The two novel choices are Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights and Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre.

Process:

On each Wednesday of this unit, your book club will meet for 45 minutes during class to discuss topics of interest to either Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights. For each of these book club gatherings one student will type up six discussion questions from the reading for that week. These questions will be provided on one piece of paper and they must be analytical reading questions, two of which must incorporate a quote. 

At the book club meeting, the student who wrote up the questions for that day will lead that book club discussion. The other three members of the book club will then take turns taking the “group notes” in response to these questions on the printed handout provided by the discussion leader. The group leader must place his or her name at the top of the sheet, and the note takers must provide their name next to that particular question. This will be collected for points.

While this assignment is separate from your individual Victorian Era research papers, you can still bring up ideas and topics that relate to your research in these discussions.

Book Club Meeting Blueprint:

Remember that it is up to you and your book club as to how you will divide up your book so that you complete it by 4/8. Because this unit lasts roughly four weeks, it may be best to divide the novel in fourths for each week. You may want to organize the unit so that you get through 20, 25, or 30 pages each weekday night. Or you can assign more reading for the weekend. It is entirely up to your groups. One thing that you will want to keep in mind is that you’ll be expected to factor in spring break into your book clubs, so it may be smart to assign reading for that week as well.

Week 1

            Wed 3/11 session leader: _Mr. Achimore______       Read to page __50_____

           

Week 2

Wed 3/18 session leader: _________________       Read to page _________

           

Week 3

            Wed 4/1 session leader: _________________          Read to page _________

           

Week 4

Wed 4/8 session leader: _________________         Read to page _________