Second Expository Essay (Research Paper) Your second essay is a research paper that makes use of both primary and secondary sources. Hence it requires the acknowledged and relevant use of expert opinions and explanations from at least fourscholarly secondary sources to make your own discussion cogent and persuasive. Your thesis statement is a clear and specific answer to any one of the following prompt questions on your primary sources. PROMPT QUESTIONS: What is Tagore’s point about the plight of Hindu widowhood in “Skeleton”? OR Develop either a comparison or a contrast between Mahfouz (“Half a Day”) and Hawthorne (“Young Goodman Brown”) in their discussion of the condition of averageness. OR What is Hawthorne’s attitude towards the Puritan society in “Young Goodman Brown”? OR Develop either a comparison or a contrast between Hawthorne (“Young Goodman Brown”) and Melville (Bartleby, the Scrivener) in their discussion of freedom of choice. OR Develop either a comparison or a contrast between Hawthorne (“Young Goodman Brown”) and Melville (Bartleby, the Scrivener), or between Tagore (“Skeleton”) and Melville (Bartleby, the Scrivener) in their use of irony. OR Develop either a comparison or a contrast between Hawthorne (“Young Goodman Brown”) and Melville (Bartleby, the Scrivener) in their exploration of internal conflict. OR What is Melville’s point about individuality as he discusses the topic through the characters of Bartleby, the Scrivener? What role does individuality play in the context of Melville’s culture? Is Melville’s focus on individuality an expression of the intellectual climate of his culture? OR Melville’s Bartleby is an alienated and homeless individual. What are the psychological and socio-political ramifications of isolation on an individual? OR Hawthorne (“Young Goodman Brown”) and Melville (Bartleby, the Scrivener) discuss the mental faculties of emotions and rationality. Do their discussions show the exact same attitude to the faculty of emotions and / or the faculty of rationality as Romantics, or is there a certain difference in kind? OR Is there a connection between historical accounts of mid nineteenth-century Wall Street and Melville’s depiction of it in Bartleby, the Scrivener? In what ways does the historical Wall Street and Melville’s depiction of it anticipate the twentieth- and twenty-first-century Wall Street of corporate America? Highlight the question of your choice and attach this sheet to your essay. Do not write a summary. Do not generalize. Focus on the question of your choice. As you begin working on your draft, remember the acronym SCAN (Search, Cogitate, Analyze, Necessitate) that I mentioned to you earlier in the semester. Like any other essay, the research paper requires a thesis statement (the main point, which is your argument). Avoid using vague words. Because your aim is to be clear, concise, and concrete, you have to choose your words well. Be economic with your words but not miserly!.

1. Second Expository Essay (Research Paper)
Your second essay is a research paper that makes use of both
primary and secondary sources. Hence it requires the
acknowledged and relevant use of expert opinions and
explanations from at least fourscholarly secondary sources to
make your own discussion cogent and persuasive. Your thesis
statement is a clear and specific answer to any one of the
following prompt questions on your primary sources.
PROMPT QUESTIONS:
What is Tagore’s point about the plight of Hindu widowhood in
“Skeleton”?
OR
Develop either a comparison or a contrast between Mahfouz
(“Half a Day”) and Hawthorne (“Young Goodman Brown”) in
their discussion of the condition of averageness.
OR
What is Hawthorne’s attitude towards the Puritan society in
“Young Goodman Brown”?
OR
Develop either a comparison or a contrast between Hawthorne
(“Young Goodman Brown”) and Melville (Bartleby, the
Scrivener) in their discussion of freedom of choice.
OR
Develop either a comparison or a contrast between Hawthorne
(“Young Goodman Brown”) and Melville (Bartleby, the
Scrivener), or between Tagore (“Skeleton”) and Melville
(Bartleby, the Scrivener) in their use of irony.
OR
Develop either a comparison or a contrast between Hawthorne
(“Young Goodman Brown”) and Melville (Bartleby, the
Scrivener) in their exploration of internal conflict.

2. OR
What is Melville’s point about individuality as he discusses the
topic through the characters of Bartleby, the Scrivener? What
role does individuality play in the context of Melville’s culture?
Is Melville’s focus on individuality an expression of the
intellectual climate of his culture?
OR
Melville’s Bartleby is an alienated and homeless individual.
What are the psychological and socio-political ramifications of
isolation on an individual?
OR
Hawthorne (“Young Goodman Brown”) and Melville (Bartleby,
the Scrivener) discuss the mental faculties of emotions and
rationality. Do their discussions show the exact same attitude to
the faculty of emotions and / or the faculty of rationality as
Romantics, or is there a certain difference in kind?
OR
Is there a connection between historical accounts of mid
nineteenth-century Wall Street and Melville’s depiction of it in
Bartleby, the Scrivener? In what ways does the historical Wall
Street and Melville’s depiction of it anticipate the twentieth-
and twenty-first-century Wall Street of corporate America?
Highlight the question of your choice and attach this sheet to
your essay.
Do not write a summary. Do not generalize. Focus on the
question of your choice. As you begin working on your draft,
remember the acronym SCAN (Search, Cogitate, Analyze,
Necessitate) that I mentioned to you earlier in the semester.
Like any other essay, the research paper requires a thesis
statement (the main point, which is your argument). Avoid
using vague words. Because your aim is to be clear, concise,
and concrete, you have to choose your words well. Be economic
with your words but not miserly! When you write, keep in mind
that you are sharpening your ability to explicate and analyze in

3. a relevant and coherent way. Do not pass off someone else's
words or ideas as your own but acknowledge all your sources.
Always remember that plagiarism is an unpardonable offense.
Also, keep in mind that a research paper is not an annotated
bibliography or a cluttering of quotations. As Diana Hacker
states in A Writer's Reference, "[y]our research paper is a
collaboration between you and your sources" (83). Indeed, your
idea grows from the ideas of expert readers, and it is this
connection between them and you that you need to clarify and
establish in your research paper. Try to show the contribution
made by certain expert readers on the topic of your choice, and
try to add an insight of your own to this body of information. At
the end of your essay you may have a section for notes if you
wish to add some information that does not belong in the body
of the essay. In-text citation (parenthetical reference to your
sources inside your essay) and the Works Cited page (the
reference page at the end of your essay) are not optional; they
are necessary. I will not accept an essay that does not have in-
text citation and the works cited page. Make use of articles from
journals and books for your secondary sources. If you are
unfamiliar with library resources, take the help of librarians. If
you use internet resources, use them sparsely and warily. Do not
use any site that does not provide the writer's name. Restrict
yourself to online journals. Remember that at least four of your
secondary sources, which have to be relevant to the primary
source of your choice, must be scholarly. Encyclopedic
references are permissible but are not acceptable as one of your
four sources. Follow the latest MLA guidelines for format and
citation of sources. Also, your research paper must be printed in
12-point Times New Roman font, and the lines must be double-
spaced.
In the introduction you should introduce the subject matter
and work your way from the motivator to the thesis statement.
Try to begin your motivator in an interesting way so that your
reader is motivated into reading your essay. Mention your
primary source (the author’s name and the title of the text) in

4. your introduction. The first part of the motivator is the broadest
part of your essay because you introduce the broad subject first.
Then you narrow down the scope so that you can lead your
reader to your limited subject. After this you are ready to state a
claim about your limited subject in a thesis statement. Consult
the question(s) I have mentioned under any one of the topics I
have given you to generate your claim. The thesis statement is
not a question but rather a specific answer to a question. And it
must answer the “so what” question. Explore the possibilities
implied by the prompt question of your choice so that you may
construct any kind of argument: comparison/ contrast/ causal/
definition/ evaluation/ classification/ process/ resemblance, etc.
State the thesis by the end of the introduction. If your topic
comes from somebody else's expert opinion (a secondary
source), mention this information as part of your motivator. The
thesis statement is a precise point about a limited subject
matter. Hence it should not be a “fact” of the text but an
interpretation of a fact. Nor should it be a claim that is exactly
what someone else has claimed. When using someone else's
claim as part of your main point, make sure of adding something
of your own to come up with your own specific claim. If you
cannot come up with an idea which grows out of a particular
secondary source’s idea, think of combining two secondary
sources’ ideas in such a way that this particular combination
itself can become an argument. Before spelling out this
combination, acknowledge both secondary sources and mention
their ideas clearly.
After the introduction comes the body of the essay. All the
paragraphs here are called central paragraphs. As the
introduction is the “claim” part of your essay, so the body is the
“support” part of the essay. Here you explain your main point
through sub points and specific support. In short, you show
what you tell in the thesis statement. You may choose different
methods of development (patterns of organization) for this part
of the essay: examples and illustrations that come from your
interpretation of the primary source and somebody else’s expert

5. opinion, definition, evaluation, comparison and contrast,
process, cause and effect, classification, etc. Every quotation
you cite should be relevant to your main point, and hence
should be in support of the sub point for which you are using it.
The number of your paragraphs here will depend on the number
of sub points you provide to back up your main point. Each of
the paragraphs in the body of the essay should explain only one
sub point and provide specific support – examples that come
from your interpretation of the primary source and from
somebody else's expert opinion – for that sub point. Whether or
not you make use of secondary sources for your main point, you
certainly must do so for your sub points. And all these sources
must be given credit through thorough documentation. Quote or
paraphrase all your sources relevantly and accurately. Do not
use a secondary source to make reference to a “fact” of the
primary source. All borrowed language must be within
quotation marks, and all quotations must be documented
accurately. Also, when paraphrasing or summarizing a source,
or when borrowing an idea from a source, you must include a
citation. Each sub point, whether or not it grows out of
somebody else's expert opinion, should be connected with the
main point. Begin each of these paragraphs with a topic
sentence. (A topic sentence sums up a sub point. In other words,
it provides the point of the paragraph.) Develop your sub points
logically. Do not jump from one point to another (or even from
one sentence to another). Do not move from one point to
another without having adequately developed that point, and try
for a smooth transition. Make your sub points show a gradual
progression of thought.
The last paragraph is the conclusion. You can summarize
your main point and sub points, but do not repeat the exact
words of your introduction. Sometimes, the last sub point can
work as the conclusion. Try to throw in a clincher in your
conclusion. Think of the clincher as a fresh way of adding
insight to your discussion. If that does not come, don’t worry.
Try to say something that may develop from your main point

6. but do not say something unconnected or contradictory to what
you have established in your essay.
Prepare a schedule so that you have sufficient time for all the
stages: (1) gathering sources, (2) planning, (3) drafting, and (4)
revising. Do not spend too much time gathering sources. Do not
wait until the last moment to begin writing because in that case
there will be no time to revise.
Please identify your claim after you mention your name and
course number on the left-hand corner of the first page of your
essay.