Writing the Capstone Project Essay

Beginning a Seminar Paper

The goal of this paper is for you to analyze primary sources (fiction, poetry, drama and other creative works) and engage with secondary sources (literary criticism, literary theories, history books) to develop an extended, original analysis of the literature you have chosen. The paper should be a thesis-driven analysis of a primary text or text and must support its thesis with specific, well-explained quotations and examples as well as critical and theoretical arguments.

I. Choose your primary texts and topic

See “Selecting a Topic for Senior Seminar” handout for more details. All handouts are available through http://www.uscupstate.edu/english . Click on Senior Seminar and the Capstone Paper, then Guides and Checklists.

II. Identify secondary sources you will use to describe and define your topic

As you define and explain your topic, you will want to identify your central question and your methodology. This means that you choose a type of literary theory (Marxist, New Historicist, Feminist, Psychoanalytic, etc.) to help you explain your interpretation. (See “Entering the Critical Conversation” handout for more details).

For example, if you choose New Historicism you will want to give some information about the historical context, the political and cultural knowledge that influenced your primary author, and how your topic is significant to shaping the experience or ideas of that primary author. Use your annotated bibliography to gather and organize critical articles and books to help you establish your methodology and answer your central questions.

Sample New Historicist Introduction:

The period from 1830-1865 in the United States was a time of radical change in the ways people thought of religion and race. As Daniel Walker Howe argues, many Americans believed in a “providential design” in which God planned “human efforts contributing to the realization of human progress” (285). People interpreted this “providential destiny” in radically different ways. Renowned black abolitionist Frederick Douglass , for example, was inspired by Nat Turner, who “listened to the spirit that spoke to the prophets in former days and interpreted signs of divinity in the world around him” (Howe 324).

III. Draft your thesis and a working title highlighting the focus of your paper

See Thesis handout for more details and English Senior Seminar Web page for sample thesis statements and titles.

IV. Insert your critical positioning paper at the beginning of your seminar paper

See Critical Positioning Handout for more details.

This section could be between 1-3 paragraphs long with follow-up explorations of critical positions in various sections of your paper, or it could be 3-5 pages long, offering a prelude to your entire text-based close reading to follow. Be sure to use the organization that works best for you.

Filling in the Middle of the Seminar Paper

Identify the parts of your thesis that you need to prove and outline them

You may even divide your paper into sections with headings to highlight this outline if you like. Each section will need complete evidence from your primary text(s) and additional support from your secondary sources to support that part of your argument. These sections will be 3-6 pages long, depending on how many sections you have.

Example:

Thesis:

The Lethal Weapon films directed by Richard Donner, produced by Joel Silver, and starring Mel Gibson and Danny Glover attempt to redefine the terms of masculinity during the late twentieth century, through Gibson’s character Riggs as a hypermasculine white hero and with regard to race with the modification of Black masculinity. . . . [The Lethal Weapon series] takes two characters that are not models of black and white masculine stereotypes. . . . As they defeat characters who are dysfunctionally [though stereotypically) masculine, they end up showing audiences a model of how to be a man in the late twentieth century in the United States.

Headings for Different Parts of the Thesis You Must Prove:

(3 pages) Define the “terms of masculinity,” both white and black in twentieth-century America. (This point belongs in the Critical Positioning Section, since it is the foundation of the argument and must be defined through secondary sources.)
(3-4 pages) Riggs and Hypermasculine Whiteness—this section will define hypermasculine whiteness and offer close readings of the Riggs characters to prove that he is not a model of “white masculine stereotypes” because he is excessively masculine.
(3-4 pages) Murtough and the Black Family Man—this section will offer analysis of the ways that Murtough modifies and defies the stereotypes of black masculinity
(6-7 pages) Lethal Manhood and the Interracial Buddy Film—this section will use analysis of the films to highlight the ways that these two atypical characters defeat different male villains who fit conventional definitions of masculinity but reveal it to be dysfunctional. By defeating these enemies, Riggs and Murtough show audiences a new model of masculinity.
(2-3 pages) Conclusion--That final point will lead nicely into a conclusion about why we might want such a new model and what is interesting about finding that new model in a text like Lethal Weapon .

Total pages of all sections: 17-21 pages. Hooray!

Concluding the Senior Seminar Capstone Project Essay

The concluding section (whether labeled separately or not) should bring all the parts of your paper together and show what your new way of reading the text(s) has accomplished. This may mean that you suggest that we re-evaluate the value of a neglected text (as in the _Lethal Weapon_example), that you suggest we pursue future research in this period or genre to help answer the new questions that your work has opened up, that you offer possible applications of your interpretation in high school or college classrooms, etc.

Remember back to your goals for your critical issue and your critical position and reflect on the ways that you have achieved those goals and added to our knowledge in the field in some way (even in a very small way).