Description
As part of your researched argument you will be gathering some sources in a literature review. Even if your final project isn’t “academic,” you’ll still engage with this academic genre. See the assignment description for the final project below.
Your literature review will be a thorough collection of academic sources that directly speak to your argument. This should be narrow enough that it becomes clear that you are contributing something new to scholarship–you are filling a gap in scholarship. But it should also be thorough. You are trying to get a scope of how much has been said about your topic and where you fit in the larger scope of scholarship. You’ll discuss how these sources create a conversation around your topic, and importantly how your research will contribute to that conversation. You’ll also evaluate the sources–you’ll focus on their limitations, the extent to which they are useful. Your research will take the topic beyond that extent/limit even if only in a small way.
Your review should discuss the sources that are most important to your topic. Not every single source needs to be analyzed or evaluated. Some may be only briefly mentioned or even just listed.
Your literature review will have a work cited/literature cited page.
Final Project
The final project will demonstrate a researched argument about the potential influences of a contemporary poet (living as of the start date of the course) and their contributions to a new literary tradition. Each student will submit a proposal for their final project.
A “term paper/conference paper” is only one way of looking at this assignment. Students can write a researched essay that engages with existing scholarship and close readings in a 10 to 12 page paper–an approximate length of a 20 minute presentation at a scholarly conference.
Another possibility is a “unit plan” that could be used in the classroom. This could include two or three lesson plans, an outline of a multi-week unit, and a well researched rationale.
A more general audience might be considered. This might be an online representation of the poet’s “heritage” that remediates scholarly sources for such an audience: this could take the form of an interactive graphic/presentation, a “podcast” episode, a website, etc., etc. or even a real-world delivery like a “talk,” book club discussion(s), or prepared speech.
Creative projects, too, are an option. Students might create a chapter-length fictional piece in which the living poet interacts with their (deceased) influences. A collection of original poems could place the living poet among their influences as well. A personal narrative/memoir piece might engage readers with a personal connection to the living poet and their influences.
