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 module will be taught in two strands each week. One strand will be focussed on learning to use online resources and present work appropriately, using research into one play as a focus. 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 apply in their own work. In the other strand, 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
Directed activities: these consist of weekly tasks that must be completed and submitted for inspection at timetabled sessions each week. The assessment will be assessed on a pass/fail basis with a pass requiring at least 75% of all weekly tasks to be completed successfully. A pass will lead to the full award of 10% towards the final module mark. A fail in directed activities will contribute 0% to the final mark.

Assessment 2/3: Both essays will be scholarly assignments, testing what students have learned about research, analysis, and scholarly presentation.

- Essay 1 will normally be a three-part task: two sections reporting on material retrieved from research databases, and a final section summarising and evaluating the argument of a recent critical essay, all in relation to one specified text (eg Othello).
- 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.
- Formative assessment will be provided in terms of verbal feedback on Directed Activities.

Assessment:

001 Directed activities; throughout semester 1 10%
002 Essay; 2000 words; end of semester 1 45%
003 Essay; 2000 words; end of semester 1 45%

Fact File

Module Coordinator - Amina Alyal
Level - 4
Credit Value - 20
Pre-Requisites - NONE
Semester(s) Offered - 4S1

Click here to go back to previous page