Your final project allows you to engage the themes of our course on your own terms. Now is the time that you will draw on the interpretive and research skills you have developed this year to analyze an artifact relating to war, chosen by yourself. Your artifact might be: a political manifesto, novel, film, poem, diary, newspaper article, work of visual art, stage drama, piece of music, advertising campaign--even a line of clothing or book of recipes. Choose something that you are curious about or passionately interested in. The more you want to find out about it, the better your research project will be.
The point of your project is to understand and write about how and why your war artifact creates meaning in a cultural context. As you discover more about your artifact, you will ask a series of humanistic research questions that will help you structure your thinking and enrich your research process. Your own thoughts, reading, discussion, and drafting must lead you to the formulation of clear theses and arguments that respond to the research questions at the heart of your project.
To begin, consult your Writer’s Handbook chapter “Developing Your Research Project.” Note: Your artifact must be approved by your instructor. Unlike the kind of “policy paper” you might write in a course where the expectation is to take a position on a social issue, your challenge is to interpret a cultural artifact through the lens of humanistic inquiry.
Write an essay that analyzes the humanistic significance of a cultural artifact related to war. Your essay must pose and answer humanistic research questions about your artifact and must engage critically with at least 4-6 scholarly monographs or peer-reviewed articles.
In addition to your final draft, you will produce an annotated bibliography, prospectus, rough draft, and oral presentation. All components of the research paper are required. The final draft should be 9-12 pages and will count for 50% of your total writing grade.
