This library course guide will introduce you to the Library's resources which may inform and support your research your project in Professor Pennino's class
Required texts:
Motorcycle Diaries by Ernesto Che Guevera
Labyrinths by Jorge Borges
The Heights of Macchu Picchu,
The Captain's Verses: Love Poems
by Pablo Neruda
Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Marginal Voices: Selected Stories by Julio Ramon Ribeyro
Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel
Adam in Eden by Carlos Fuentes
Adios Hemingway by Leonardo Padura Fuentes
Old Rosa by Reinaldo Arenas
Title: Old Rosa
Length: 13-15pages (using Time New Roman 12 point font, double spacing between lines, 1”margins). Titles pages and work cited pages do NOT count toward your total. 12 pages and a line on page 13 is not 13 pages.
Literature Review: 50 points due on April 6 (MUST be turned in via e-mail)
Paper: 400 out of 1000 points due on May 2 (to be turned in by hand)
For this paper, you need to choose one of the major works we have read in class. You have a great deal of leeway in choosing your topic, but this work must be at the center of your paper. You can be a bit imaginative here, utilizing the perspective of another humanities discipline (philosophy, history, art, music, etc.). You need, however, to clear your topic with me.
For this paper, you must have at minimum eight sources. The work you choose counts as one source. Three of your sources must be from JSTOR or Academic Search Premier, and they must be from peer-reviewed journals (no reviews). Of the remaining five sources, you may use interviews (such as with another professor here at Stevens), another work from the class, other works by the author you have chosen, criticism of the work, etc.
Take pride in your work. The material you hand in should have a clean and professional presentation.
Sources you may not use include but are not limited to:
Encyclopedia and dictionary entries
Wikipedia
Sparknotes
There are literally hundreds of these short-cut sites online, so many that I cannot list them all here. Suffice it to say that any online site that purports to provide the student with quick and easy answers is out-of-bounds. The best way to avoid using an improper source (and thus suffer a lower grade as a result) is to communicate. If you use an inappropriate source, you will lose points.
For the literature review, you must have the following:
1.) A paragraph or two on your project –what your goals and directions are, even what your argument might be.
2.) A review of at least 5 of your sources and how each source will benefit you in your research. The discussion of EACH source must be approximately 50-100 words.
Bibliography and all citations must be in MLA format. Be careful to cite properly all of your work. It goes without saying – but I will mention it any way – that you should avoid plagiarism. If you have questions about how to cite properly, ASK. It is always better to err on the side of caution. Cases of suspected plagiarism will be reported to the Honor Board.
We will be having an orientation with the library staff. Date: Monday, March 7.
Some clues that demonstrate your professor is not an idiot:
1.) If you don’t number your pages, I will number them anyway.
2.) If you play with the margins, fonts, or line spacing, I will know.
3.) One mention of The Motorcycle Diaries in your paper means that The Motorcycle Diaries is not central to your paper.
4.) I check sources.
5.) I also know when you say you are using a source and really aren’t.
