ENGL 302
Final Research Paper
Spring 2008

For either Thurs May 1st or Fri May 8th (if you bring a 6-10 page draft on the 1st), write a research paper (minimum 10 pages; maximum 14 pages), typed and double spaced, not including your works cited/reference page.  Consult Hacker's Pocket Style Manual and her online documentation site at http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/ for the proper format for in-text citations (or footnotes in Chicago) and works cited/reference pages.  Organize your paper around a thesis and incorporate summaries, quotations, and comparisons from sources you have found in your research as you develop and support your argument.  As we have discussed in class, a thesis is the position you are taking on an issue or your answer to a question you have posed.  Make sure you clearly define the issue you are exploring and set out your thesis somewhere near the beginning of the paper.  Do not try and cover too much since you have only a few weeks to complete your research and writing.  You will need make significant use of at least ten sources including three books, three websites and three articles (the latter found through the online databases provided by George Mason).  To see the proper format for citing articles you find in online databases (provided by the library or other services) see:  http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/humanities/list.html#31 and  http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/social_sciences/listref.html#20.  Enclose your paper in a folder and include all preliminary drafts (with comments and editing sheets), your original paper plan, the paragraph structure sheet, and an account of what you changed as you worked on your project. Also indicate which citation format you used (APA, MLA, Chicago or one of the Sciences listed on the Hacker documentation site).

You can write on one of the following subjects: 

  1. Film censorship in the 1930s or later.  You can expand on your papers on Scarface but you will need to incorporate new research and develop an argument of your own.  Another option  would be to write on bad girl or fallen women films using the Forbidden Hollywood series or Mae West's films.  Here books like Lea Jacobs The Wages of Sin: Censorship and the Fallen Woman Film and Marybeth Hamilton's When I'm Bad, I'm Better: Mae West, Sex, and American Entertainment provide a useful starting point  Another option would be to explore the issue of violence in the films of the 1930s and start with Steven Prince's claim, in Classical Film Violence, that the Hays' Office was more concerned with criminal behavior than violence per se.  A third option would be to compare the 1932 and 1983 versions of Scarface and  discuss the impact of pre-production censorship and the ratings system on the portrayal of gangsters and violence.  All of these books and films are on reserve in the JC library.   Database research to find newspaper articles from the time period as well as peer reviewed scholarly articles is essential as well.   
     
  2. The regulation of children's television and other forms of entertainment targeted at the young.  Here Minow and Lamay's Abandoned in the Wasteland and the documentary Does TV Kill provide a useful starting point as does the research you did using ProQuest and Expanded Academic ASAP on the researchers mentioned in the Frontline documentary.  
     
  3. The regulation of new technologies like the Internet or Video-games.  You could approach these subjects in a variety of ways--business issues, government and regulation, or psychology and education--depending on your major and interests.  Wallace and Mangan's Sex, Laws and Cyberspace and Steven Johnson's Everything Bad is Good For You might provide useful starting points here.   
     
  4. A paper on one of the subjects covered in the Culture Shock series from PBS:  Huckleberry Finn (literature and education); Manet's Olympia (the nude in art); Jazz in the 1920s and the Production Code.   This option is designed for majors in English, Education, Art History, Music and Film and Media Studies.  You do not have to focus on the subject matter covered in the Culture Shock documentaries but do need to tie your paper to one of the larger issues we have discussed this semester and draw on your knowledge of material you have covered in your major.  You need to get my permission to do this assignment.
     
  5. A dual-submission paper, that is, a paper you are currently working on in a course this summer or in a larger project in your major.  If you take this option you will need to follow the policies established for dual-submission assignments by the English Department.  According to the Department :  "Projects dually submitted will follow the multiple-draft process standard . . . and will be independently evaluated by the ENGL302 professor. Because criteria in the ENGL302 section may differ from those established by the professor in the major course, students should be prepared to revise the projects differently in the two courses. Dual submission is intended to help students learn how to develop and present information in different ways to meet the demands of different readers."  These policies also require that:  "any students wishing to take advantage of the dual submission option, should sign a copy of the Permission Form for English 302 Dual Submission. Students will then need to show this form to the professor of the major course to inform him/her of the dual submission policy."