research questions:

• good:
  • “Is the eponymous hero in The Great Gatsby really ‘great,’ or is there irony in the title?”
  • “How does the white whale function as a symbol in Moby Dick?”
  • “In what way does the book’s title relate to Janie’s quest in Their Eyes Were Watching God?”
  • “Which function does the ‘wound’ motif have in The Sun Also Rises?”
• bad:
  • “What happens to Ishmael in Moby Dick?”
  • “What do the other characters think about Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter?”
  • “Why is Beloved such a brilliant novel?”
  • “How does Ichabod Crane in ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ remind me of my teacher?”
• should be:
  • arguable (aka no facts)
  • provable (aka no opinions)
  • original (aka not obvious)
  • exact (aka not too general)

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page layout:

• 1.5 line spacing
  • exception: 1 line spacing for indented quotations, bibliography, footnotes
• margin left and right at least 2 cm
• new paragraphs should be indented or at the beginning of (sub)chapter !!!!
• page numbers in upper right corner

structure:

• title page
  • title + subtitle
  • my name, student ID, email address
  • course title (+ group)
  • teacher
• table of contents
• introduction
• main chapters
• conclusion
• bibliography
  • primary sources
  • secondary sources
• declaration of academic honesty

quotations:

• [...] leaving something out
• additions also in []
• [sic!] mistakes in the text
• if necessary: [my translation] after text

footnotes:

• additional information that doesn't fit the main text
• single-spaced, in the footer
• all footnotes end with a full stop (.)

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introduction:

• include:
  • what can the reader expect
  • which texts are discussed
  • research question (“This paper will discuss how..” / “I will analyze in my paper how…”)
  • key thesis (“It is the aim of this paper to show that…” / “In my paper, I will argue that…”)
  • rough overview of shape of paper (but not “First I will then I will”)
• do not include:
  • praising work/author
  • sounding vague

main chapters:

• chapter titles:
  • bad: "Description of Indians"
  • good: "Indians as Conformists"
• when a chapter has subchapters it has to have more than 1!
• no one-sentence paragraphs! !!!!
• include:
  • topic sentence for one specific idea/argument
  • completely develop a single argument
  • give details to support the argument
  • transition to next paragraph

conclusion:

• include:
  • restate main thesis
  • what are the findings (“In my paper, I have shown that..”)
• do not include:
  • just summarize
  • irrelevant details
  • exaggerated closing statements