Final Assignment - The Term Paper

The final paper will be a more developed, somewhat longer paper that builds on all the skills we have practiced so far: focusing on a narrowly defined topic, locating and entering a conversation, and supporting a strong claim. For this final paper, we will be increasing the number of peer-reviewed sources to 5. The purpose of this added research will be to allow you to more fully develop the conversation you are joining, and to allow you to more authoritatively address the relationships between your sources and your position within the conversation.

For paper four, you might think of yourself as in a similar position to that of a journalist who is investigating a specialized issue and attempting to translate it into terms understandable by the general public. Talking to experts and reading their work will not only help you first grasp and understand the terms of the conversation, but it will allow you to clarify what you think is most important about the issue for your own readers, and to do so with authority. Comparing and contrasting the different scholarly views will let you clarify assumptions that one scholar relies on but that another scholar either disagrees with or articulates in a different form.

Once again, you are free to write on any topic that is related to our course materials and discussions over the semester. If you are feeling stuck, remember that we have discussed two major types of papers so far: those that apply theories and research to specific pieces of comedy, and those that analyze an issue in comedy theory. You can focus on either of these or produce some combination of the two; you can also use any prompt from the earlier paper assignments as a topic for this essay (though do not write on a topic you have already written on and make sure to fulfill the requirements of this assignment). The most important thing, regardless of topic, is to focus the majority of your paper (70-80%) on explaining/justifying your central claim and analyzing your evidence.

The final paper should be 2000-2500 words long (not including works cited page) in Times New Roman, 12 point font, with 1 inch margins. If you want to have a chance to submit an early draft for a grade and full comments, you will need to submit it by Monday, November 25. The final paper is due Friday, December 13, by midnight.