English 201

·Objectives: Students will analyze characters from The Aeneid and formulate a working thesis for their research papers.

· Reading preparation: “Virgil” and The Aeneid (Books I, II, and IV).   Rea

This week assignment final research paper.

You may choose one of the following works as your topic:

1. Gilgamesh

2. The Iliad

3. The Ramayana of Valmiki

4. The Aeneid

5. The Song of Roland

6. Dante’s Inferno

7. Sunjata: A West-African Epic

8. Machiavelli’s The Prince  Once you’ve decided on your topic, you cannot change it. This will help you stay on track as your work on your paper.

· Your thesis must be clear and arguable.

Response Paper
For this assignment, you will respond to the reading you’ve chosen for your final research paper. In
the response, you should identify a specific idea (concept) found in the work and discuss how it can be
applied to a current global issue. Your response paper should be at least 500 words in length.
Your response paper will be graded on the following rubric:
Analysis 30 points
MLA Style 30 points
Mechanics, Grammar, and Punctuation 10 points
Structure 30 points
Analysis
 In your analysis, you should clearly identify the title of the reading you’ve chosen and the
author’s name. You should then provide an analysis of the specific idea you’ve chosen to
discuss how it can be applied to a current issue.
 You may want to discuss an idea and global issue related to one of the following:
o Systems of government o Gender roles
o Political movements o Race relations
o Belief systems o Environmental issues
o Organized religions o Exploration (land, water, space)
o Class Systems o Immigration
 Your response must contain at least one specific quote from the reading to help support your
analysis. Secondary sources are optional.
MLA Style
 Your paper must be formatted according to MLA format.
 You must include a works-cited page at the end of your paper.
 You must include in-text citations within the body of your paper.
 For more information about MLA style, you should view the Purdue OWL’s pages on MLA:
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/.
Mechanics, Grammar, and Punctuation
 All written assignments should be mechanically and grammatically correct with proper
punctuation.
 For more information on each of these, you should view the Purdue OWL’s General Writing
Resources page: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/1/.
Structure
 The introduction should include a clear thesis statement. It should also clearly identify the title
of the reading you’ve chosen for your research paper, the author’s name, the idea found in the
reading, and the global issue being discussed in your response.
 Each body paragraph should have a clear topic sentence that relates back to the thesis. The
information in each paragraph should relate to the topic sentence. In the body paragraphs, you
should focus on how the idea relates to the issue being discussed (e.g. does it offer a solution,
explanation, warning, etc.).
 Before you begin writing, I recommend that you write an outline to organize your ideas. Doing
this will help you write a logical, well-organized essay.