Guidelines—Please read carefully before you begin:

• After you have finished reading, “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “Story of an Hour,” “The Yellow Wallpaper,” please choose only TWO of these stories to write this essay.

• You may use your text and your dictionary to plan and write your essay.  

• Your essay must have an introduction with a clear thesis statement, body paragraphs, and a conclusion.

• Please follow MLA guidelines to cite your in-text citations—this means that each paragraph must have at least ONE quotation from your PRIMARY and ONE quote from your SECONDARY source IN EACH BODY PARAGRAPH to support your point.

• Please make sure your essay is at least 2 typed pages (skipping a line in between). Please include a proper heading. 

• Sources: Along with your primary source, you must also use at least TWO academic journals which I HAVE INCLUDED AS A LINK WHEN I SENT YOU AN EMAIL ABOUT THIS LECTURE.

• A Works Cited page must be added at the end of the paper— this page must list all the sources that you have included in your paper.

• The OUTLINE of how you should write your paper is on the next page.

• Finally, please number all pages and proofread your work before submission.

• Note: NO LATE submissions. 

Before starting your paper, please read the following and do the exercise that follows…

Understanding the Value of Secondary Sources:

An Academic Journal or an Academic Article or a Peer-Reviewed article all mean the same thing—these are articles you can find in the library’s database. And NO, they are not articles from a newspaper or an entertainment magazine! Because this semester, you did not get an opportunity to see a librarian, I am taking the liberty to send you a few academic articles myself (you will find this in a separate email I will send you next week). 

Why do we use these articles? Well, we know that we already need to include a quote from the primary sources, but we also use secondary sources such as academic sources because they help strengthen the argument of your paper.

Here, watch this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xHUDaKmN8E

What are some of the most important features of an academic article—like, how will I know if I’m looking at an academic article and whether I can use it or not? Well, they must have the following:

1. They MUST be Peer reviewed, and a librarian can help you find a peer reviewed article for an assignment for your other class. Luckily for you, I will be sending these to you this week, so you won’t have to do the work!
2. Most decent academic peer-reviewed articles have important information such as dates when they were published, volume, the name of the scholarly magazine they were published under, whether this magazine is published twice, quarterly, each year, or once a year—and all this information will usually be at the top of your article. 
3. Additionally, a good article should have something called an ABSTRACT—which is usually a short summary of the article.
4. These articles can be one page, or it can be several!

What makes an article relevant?

Does a student need to read every article they find to know whether it will be good enough to quote from in their paper? NO. No one has that kind of time! By reading the title of the article and seeing when it was published (dates matter! You don’t want an outdated article if you’re doing a paper on a current topic, but you may want information from an article that is a little old if you’re doing historical research), you can decide if the article is right for your paper! Remember, articles are written in many countries, not just the USA, so, make sure the article is relevant to the geographical location you are researching on. Also, remember that articles are very, very specific, so you must find articles that is suitable for your target audience. Here’s an example:

Let’s say your topic is on Drug Addiction in the 90s with Teenagers aged 13-18 in NYC.

This is an incredibly specific topic, but that’s good because most papers that require outside research tend to be. The more specific your topic, the more chances of you doing a good job on your paper. So, you must try and find articles related to teenagers and drug addiction during the 90s in NYC. Let’s say you can’t find something this specific. what do you do now? Well, can you find something about what drug addiction was in the 90s? Can you find statistics for teenagers who consumed alcohol or smoked cigarettes during this period? That would be just as good! The idea here is to find research related to your field that will give strength to your paper!

______________________________________________________________________________

Exercise to prepare for your paper:

Your job is to find three academic articles (peer reviewed) from the library’s database that will strengthen your argument in your research paper. 

For each article, please fill in the following:

Article One

Name:

Abstract (briefly summarize the text in your own words):

Rationale (the specific reason you are choosing this secondary source): 

—————————————————————————————————————————-

Article Two

Name:

Abstract (briefly summarize the text in your own words):

Rationale (the specific reason you are choosing this secondary source): 

—————————————————————————————————————————-

Article Three:

Name:

Abstract (briefly summarize the text in your own words):

Rationale (the specific reason you are choosing this secondary source): 

—————————————————————————————————————————-

THE RESEARCH PAPER

Topic:

Mental illness affects about 42.5 million Americans each year. Some of these illnesses go unnoticed, while others still have stigma attached to them. In the texts we have covered (“The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Story of an Hour,” “The Yellow Wallpaper”) our authors create characters that suffer from various mental illnesses. These illnesses ultimately lead to our character’s eventual demise. In an essay of over 600 words, choosing TWO STORIES AND TWO CHARACTERS from two different texts, explain what type of mental illness the characters suffered from and what caused their eventual downfall.  Please make sure that you not only use your primary sources, but, you also use at least TWO SECONDARY SOURCES (from the “Sources” list in Google Classroom). Your paper should be up to 3 typed pages double spaced using all conventions of MLA that you have learned. 

PLEASE FOLLOW THE BELOW OUTLINE TO WRITE YOUR ESSAY

Introduction 

Please make sure your introduction follows a general to specific pattern and it mentions the title of the two stories that you want to discuss. Please make sure that your introduction has a clear thesis that incorporates the characters of the two stories you have chosen.

Body 1

Topic Sentence: In the first story, _________________ by_________, the character_________ has…

FOLLOW T.E.E.P TO WRITE THE REST OF THIS PARAGRAPH AND MAKE SURE YOU ADD A QUOTE FROM BOTH, THE PRIMARY AS WELL AS SECONDARY SOURCE

Body 2

Topic Sentence: : In the second story,_________________ by_________, the character_________ has…

FOLLOW T.E.E.P TO WRITE THE REST OF THIS PARAGRAPH AND MAKE SURE YOU ADD A QUOTE FROM BOTH, THE PRIMARY AS WELL AS SECONDARY SOURCE

Body 3

Topic Sentence: The difference or similarities between both stories,____________,______________ are that they both are____________________________.

FOLLOW T.E.E.P TO WRITE THE REST OF THIS PARAGRAPH AND MAKE SURE YOU ADD A QUOTE FROM BOTH, THE PRIMARY AS WELL AS SECONDARY SOURCE

Conclusion:

Paraphrase your main idea, paraphrase your three topic sentences, give a final recommendation about mental health in today’s environment.