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Research Proposal
English Composition 102 – 355:102:05
John Aveni: Fall 2022
Research Proposal
The proposal is your first step in writing your final formal papers of the semester. Its function is to
provide space to begin brainstorming and narrowing down your research topic, generate ideas relating
to the research topic and the essays read in class, and formulate questions you may wish to consider
when writing your fourth and fifth papers.
In Paper 4, you will locate relevant scholarship related to the specific theme you have chosen to
analyze in Yezierska, and you will address the relevance of that specific scholarly approach to
Yezierska’s depiction of her theme.
In Paper 5, you will locate relevant primary source documents, which will allow you to develop a
comparative study of a second identity group as it relates to the Jewish Immigrants in Yezierska’s
story. Here, you will assess the relevance of Yezierska’s authorial project to your chosen comparative
identity group as represented by your primary sources.
You may structure your proposal any way you wish, but please make sure you address at the very
least the following:
Indicate the theme addressed by Anzia Yezierska that you will be exploring. Be as specific as
possible.
In which chapters and how does Yezierska present this issue? Summarize this briefly.
Describe whether/how Alice Kessler Harris presents this theme in her introduction.
How does this theme intersect with the issues you’ve explored in your first three papers?
Discuss at least two scholarly theoretical sources you will use to analyze Yezierska and your
case studies. At least one of these must be a leading scholar addressing the current or historical
(early 20th century) status of your chosen theme, but you must also use at least one concept
from Omi and Winant or Nagel to complete your analysis.
For each scholarly source, you should discuss your plans for connective analysis. Specifically
name its relationship to Bread Givers and/or your other primary sources.
At this point in your planning, what is your position re: the relevance of your chosen scholarly
arguments to Yezierska’s project?
Introduce the two primary sources you plan to use in Paper 5. Most students choose a single
novel, memoir, or short story whose author or protagonist represents a specific immigrant
experience and accompany it with an interview or second work from the same author.
How focused is your comparative immigrant group? Consider what identity groups are
represented by the primary sources you’ll use in Paper 5 (time period, geographical location,
race, ethnicity, gender, religion, etc.)
For each primary source document, you should discuss your plans for connective analysis.
Specifically name its relationship to Bread Givers and/or your other sources.
At this point in your planning, what is your position re: the relevance of your chosen comparative
primary sources to Yezierska’s project?
This assignment should be approximately 3 double-spaced pages (approx. 900 words).
1st draft due: Monday, November 7, 2022. Name it yourlastname-PR-D1 and upload to Canvas.
2nd draft due: Thursday, November 9, 2022. Name it yourlastname-PR-D2 and upload to Canvas.
Final draft due: Thursday, November 16, 2022. Name it yourlastname-PR-FD and upload to Canvas.
REMINDER: All Drafts must be accompanied by an annotated bibliography.
Annotated Bibliography
English Composition 102 – 355:102:05
John Aveni: Fall 2022
The annotated bibliography must include at least seven substantial sources that you plan to use in
your research paper, including Bread Givers and other readings we’ve read for our first three papers.
At least two of your sources should come from your own original research. In addition to Bread
Givers, the following sources should also be included:
Omi and Winant, Nagel, Alice Kessler Harris’s introduction to Bread Givers
at least two researched scholarly sources, including a book and an article from a peer-reviewed
scholarly journal (these will be secondary sources)
two researched case studies (these are primary sources) for Paper 5. Most students Most
students choose a single novel, memoir, or short story whose author or protagonist represents a
specific immigrant experience and accompany it with an interview or second work from the same
author.
Each of the bibliographic entries must have two parts:
bibliographic information in MLA style (see Hacker, Eighth edition 139-173).
a short (1-3 sentence) summary of the author’s central argument.
For theoretical sources, it is important that you phrase your annotations as summaries of
arguments rather than summaries of information. For case studies, you should be also focus on
the item’s meaning more than the details of the stories told.
A sentence or two explaining the specific text(s) you will use in analyzing this source in
connectively analyzed body paragraphs. If the source is primary, name the theoretical and/or
scholarly texts you will use to gain a deeper understanding of its language. If the source is
secondary, name the primary sources you will use to gauge the effectiveness of its concepts and
arguments. You MUST say how each source relates to your thesis question and to the
other sources you will explore.
When you are writing, be sure to acknowledge the author’s argument, using phrases like, “According to
so-and-so…,”and “So-and-so argues that…” Sometimes your sources will present themselves as
informative or objective rather than argumentative, but this just means that you will have to read more
closely-read “between the lines”-in order to ascertain where the author is coming from and what his or
her perspective on the topic is. Feel free to use direct quotations in your summaries.
Remember: A bibliography does NOT take the place of a works cited list. The Works you cite are only
part of your research. Your bibliography is everything you’ve obtained and read, whether or not you’ve
used it in your current draft. As such, your bibliography may contain MORE sources than your works
cited list. A copy of this bibliography will be due with both drafts of the proposal and all drafts you
submit of your fifth paper. NO EXCEPTIONS.
1st draft due: Monday, November 7, 2022. Name it yourlastname-AB-D1 and upload to Canvas.
2nd draft due: Thursday, November 9, 2022. Name it yourlastname-AB-D2 and upload to Canvas.
Final draft due: Thursday, November 16, 2022. Name it yourlastname-AB-D3 and upload to Canvas.
P4 Draft Due: Monday, December 1, 2022. Name it yourlastname-AB-D4 and upload to Canvas.
P5 Draft Due: Thursday, December 14, 2022. Name it yourlastname-AB-D5 and upload to Canvas.
REMINDER: All Drafts through the end of the semester must be accompanied by a bibliography.