Research Project for ENGL 4325 and ENGL 5325, Fall. This will be a research paper focusing on one of the topics below. The paper should be no less than six and no more than ten pages of text with some sort of digital enhancement. Added to these pages will be a works cited page using proper MLA formatting.
- TOPIC: England’s colony in Jamaica during the Victorian Period—its economy, its management
Digital enhancements: These do not need to be elaborate or time consuming to create, but you should have some enhancements that are not just text. I suggest a minimum of three images or two interactive spots (links) in the paper. Discuss these with Dr. Ross.
Possible digital enhancements:
- Photographs of the writers or places referenced in the paper—be sure to cite the sources
- Other illustrative images from paintings or other cited sources (e.g. of school children in the Victorian Period, ships in the Royal Navy, factories, courting couples, dons at Oxford)
- Interactive spots in the text—these can be links to additional information, a form of “digital footnote.” This is a particularly good choice for papers on the poems, though they might also be links to comments on or additional illustrations of persons, places, or things discussed in the paper.
- Brief sound recordings—these would work well on some of the poetry topics. You can grab these from existing websites (be sure to cite the source) or make your own.
- Short videos—you can grab these from existing websites (cite them!) or make your own.
What is a Working Bibliography?
The purpose of creating a working bibliography is to find out what has already been written about your topic, so you can narrow it to a manageable size, locate the most recent and relevant sources for your research, and not waste time running down rabbit holes. Ms. Dubre will help you get started on this.
Always carefully record the title and citation information about every source you find—this will include: Author, title of the book or article, where the book or article was published and when, and the page numbers you found most useful. You should also jot down a few notes about each source such as: “Good information about workers in the mills,” “not much text, but good images I can borrow,” “provides a good general overview,” “very detailed about religious controversy, maybe too much so.” Use the bibliographies of these books or articles to help you track down other sources
Examples of proper citations: a single author book, a published report with multiple authors, an article in a journal, a chapter in a book.
Beer, Gillian. Darwin’s Plots: Evolutionary Narrative in Darwin, George, Eliot, and Nineteenth-Century Fiction. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1983. Print.
Hinds, Stanley, Bishop of Norwich, and Archibald C. Tait, Francis Jeune, Henry G. Liddell, John L. Damkpier, Baden Powell, and George Henry Sacheverell Johnson. Oxford University Commission. Report of Her Majesty’s Commissioners Appointed to Inquire into the State, Discipline, Studies, and Revenues of the University and Colleges of Oxford: Together with the Evidence, and an Appendix. London: W. Clowes and Son, 1852. Print.
Ross, Catherine. “”Trying All Things:” Romantic Polymaths, Social Factors, and the Legacies of a Rhetorical Education.” Texas Studies in Literature and Language 53.4. Winter (2011): 401-30. Print.
Ross, Catherine E. “” ‘Twin Labourers and Heirs of the Same Hopes’: The Professional Rivalry of Humphry Davy and William Wordsworth.” Romantic Science: The Literary Forms of Natural History. Ed. Heringman, Noah. Albany: SUNY Press, 2003. 1-50 @. Print.
Examples of digital enhancements:
“The classrooms at the universities in the Romantic and early Victorian Periods were small and quite formal. Professors and students wore their academic regalia and might be observed by the college dean. It was not unusual for a page to be employed, as below, to help the professor with his demonstrations. For more on lecture rooms at Oxford see the full report, using the following link: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uiug.30112110870141&view=1up&seq=5
(Oxford Geology Lecture Room) (Hinds)(p.203)”
Citation for the image:
Hinds, Stanley, Bishop of Norwich, and Archibald C. Tait, Francis Jeune, Henry G. Liddell, John L. Damkpier, Baden Powell, and George Henry Sacheverell Johnson. Oxford University Commission. Report of Her Majesty’s Commissioners Appointed to Inquire into the State, Discipline, Studies, and Revenues of the University and Colleges of Oxford: Together with the Evidence, and an Appendix. London: W. Clowes and Son, 1852. Print.