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Dr. Lori E. Amy
Georgia Southern University
Department of Writing and Linguistics

lamy@GeorgiaSouthern.edu
Forest Drive 1127
(912) 681-0625/fax (912) 681-1386

correspond to: 1127 Forest Drive Classroom Building P.O. Box 8090 Statesboro, GA 30460

Research Web Project
Susan Griffin's A Chorus of Stones

Overview
For your final project, you are to choose some aspect of the Susan Griffin novel to which you are, for whatever reason, attracted. This could be an event, a character, a theme, or a social, political, or personal issue explicit or implicit in the text. You are to research this topic--research must include at least five sources, but sources may be as varied as personal interviews, internet news or discussion groups, your own expertise, film or other print media.

Be sure to choose a topic in which you are interested!! Writing that is meaningful to you will be better than writing that is not. Think through the different perspectives through which your topic may be understood: this writing cannot be a mere reporting of information, it must have a critical perspective. If your topic lends itself to reporting (biography, historicism), bear in mind Griffin's positions on history, point of view, truth and reality and consider your work to be a recreation and intepretion for which you must define your narrative position.

The information you include always entails information you exclude; the 'facts' you emphasize and around which you form your paper slant our understanding of your work. Be conscious and critical of this. This perspective needs to be applied to your sources as well. You may critique one or more of your sources as part of the writing requirement.

Requirements
This web project should be the equivalent of 8-10 pages of critical writing. You will be doing substantial research for this project, which must include both in-text references/citations to sources and a works cited page (or bibliography). Though this is a web project and does not follow the same organizational patterns as a traditional paper, the organization of links/ideas is VERY important. Your project must show:

A strong central theme/point that you are making throughout the text and which every part of your text clarifies, demonstrates, explains, or proves in some way;
A clear relationship between each section of the text and the sections from/to which it is linked;

The biggest differences between the web project and a traditional paper are in the ways in which you organize and structure the writing, link sections of text, use images, color, sound, etc., and link to outside sources (web sites and other relevant online articles and texts). As you are writing, I want you to imagine that your audience -- who SHOULD read your work, and what good will it do them?

Steps

Develop a clear and specific set of questions to research.
As you research, keep an Annotated Bibliography of everything you read.
As you research, expand the questions you have to ask of your project -- the more you find out, the more you will realize that you need to know.
Once you have clarified an audience and a purpose for writing, complete your formal project proposal. This is a formal assignment that should be about a page and a half long. Go through the same steps for this that you would for any formal assignment-- draft, get a peer review, revise, and then submit to me.
Begin researching and drafting sections of your paper. We will be devoting a considerable amount of in-class time to the research and writing process, so I will be able to address most of your questions about this one -on -one in class.