Planning a Research Paper

You should have three or fewer topics selected from your initial list of 20.

1. Define and refine your topic.  Make sure your topic is specific and not too broad.
2. Plan your research.  Gather background information about your topic.  Consult general reference sources to learn key terms and concepts.  
3. Find resources.  These are the sources you will cite in your paper.  Do you need articles?  Books?  Audio recordings?  Will you need to conduct interviews or surveys?
4. Create a thesis statement.  What is the thing you are going to prove?  This should be one or two sentences in length.
5. Make an outline. Let your focus guide your research.  Write down how you will organize your main points.  
6. Write a first draft of your paper.  
7. Revise and rewrite in order to create a final draft.  

Due dates: Rough Draft: 4/4  Final Draft: 4/11

Essay

We are working on the Hiroshima essay in class today and tomorrow. 

Hiroshima Quotation Activity

Choose eight quotations from Hiroshima that you think are important.  Choose two from each chapter. 
Copy the quotation and note the page number it came from.
For each quotation, write a sentence or two that explains why you chose it.  Be specific.
Hand this in.

Yesterday, Revisited

Please see yesterday's post for today's work.

Hiroshima by John Hersey

For each of the following characters, makes sure you have information about:

who they were before the bombing
where they were when the bomb dropped
how they were affected
what they did and where they were in August and September of 1945
where they ended up a year after the bombing

Reverend Mr. Tanimoto
Mrs. Hatsuyo Nakamura
Dr. Masakazu Fujii
Father Wilhelm Kleinsorge
Dr. Terufumi Sasaki
Miss Toshiko 

Additionally, there are some minor characters that reappear throughout the book. 
Who are they?  What roles do they play?

What is the tone of the book?  In other words, what is the author’s attitude toward the victims of the bombing and the bombing itself?

What techniques does John Hersey use to “shape” the plot of the book.  How does he turn a factual story into a novel-like plot?

Here is the full text of chapters 1-4 (the original publication).

Compassion and Sacrifice

Compassion and Sacrifice

Directions: Using literature from this unit, write a well-developed essay explaining its specific ideas concerning compassion and sacrifice. Discuss characters, events, literary devices, and/or genre-specific vernacular. Use specific textual evidence and edit your work carefully.

Guidelines:

Choose literature that best relates to your understanding of the theme of compassion and sacrifice.
Keep the following essential questions in mind:

1) How can perspective affect the reader’s understanding of compassion and/or sacrifice?

2) What motivates characters/individuals to be compassionate and/or to sacrifice?

3) When characters/individuals decide to be compassionate and/or to sacrifice, what internal and/or external conflicts might they face?

4) What are the outcomes of acts of compassion and/or sacrifice?

5) How are characters/individuals ultimately affected by compassion and/or sacrifice?

Oedipus

We have finished reading Oedipus Rex.  Here are is what we are working on today:

1.  Make a plot diagram for the events in Oedipus Rex.  Make sure you include elements such as rising action/complication, climax, and falling action.  Also be sure to include his interactions with other characters and things he learns about himself.
2.  Make a timeline of event in Oedipus’ life, from his birth to his final action in the play.