ENG4412 - Research and Essay Writing: Focus on Plays

Objectives:

On successful completion of the module, students will be able to:

Make effective use of a broad range of library and ICT resources to find critical essays and other information relevant to a particular literary topic;
Demonstrate the ability to research and explain the generic conventions of dramatic texts;
Show an awareness of historical developments in drama by engaging with primary and secondary sources;
Engage in critical debate in their own essays, summarising and quoting from other critical essays and discussing the implications for their own argument;

Content:

The first part of the module will be focussed on learning to use online resources and present work appropriately, and a series of online exercises and tests will be completed as formative assessment. Students will then learn to read and understand a representative selection of critical essays, learning the techniques of critical scholarship and discussion which students can then apply in their own work. In the second part of the module students will study a selection of plays. Throughout the module a small number of canonical literary texts (ie texts which have generated a lot of critical debate and on which a good range of critical material is available) will be used as reference points for research, online exercises, analysis of critical debate, and assessment. Students will also be offered the experience of studying a less canonical text, putting into practice their newly acquired critical and scholarly skills.

Learning and Teaching Information:

Workshops in IT labs
Contact hours: 10
Intended Group size: 20

Seminars
Contact hours: 30
Intended Group size: 20
Guided independent study
Hours: 160

Further details relating to assessment
Students will carry out exercises in class, directly related to their assessment. Both essays will be scholarly assignments, testing what students have learned about research, analysis, and scholarly presentation. Essay 1 will normally be in sections, e.g. sections relating specifically to work carried out in IT labs, sections on critical theory, and a gloss on how each paragraph contributes to the overall argument. Essay 2 will consist of a sustained progressive argument making a case about one or more plays. Research is in standard scholarly mode, using published literary and critical sources, and hence does not require ethical approval.

Other relevant matters
In IT workshops, students will carry out specified exercises relating to research. In seminars students will consider source material, both primary and secondary, and examine ways in which such sources can be analysed and presented in scholarly work. On Moodle, timetables, the email forum, reading lists, exercises, handouts, links and other resources will be a vital support.

Assessment: