Guidelines for Term Paper
Students will choose a either a narrative or a character from the Prophets on which to write a paper of 1500-2000 words. The completed paper must be emailed to me by the last day of finals week. The guidelines below should be used to contribute to a unified theory of the author’s objective in composing the story or in developing the character. You do not have to address every single one of these questions.
On a narrative:
Why do you choose to begin and end your narrative where you do?
What are the main theme/s and how are they developed?
What is the structure? Where is the climax?
Who are the main and tangential characters and what is the function of each?
How does your narrative contribute to its larger context and to the book as a whole?
On a character:
How and when is the character introduced? Why?
What does the character contribute to the theme/s of the book or story?
Is this a main character? What does he/she highlight in other characters?
How does the character develop?
Are the character’s emotions and/or moral stature presented or implied?
For both of the above:
How are narrative and dialogue balanced? What does each contribute?
How does the pace of the narrative fluctuate and why?
From whose perspective is the story related? Does this change? Why?
What does the narrator choose to tell the reader and what is left out? Why?
Additional examples of literary tools:
Enclosing language
Key words and other forms of repetition
Extraneous language and its function
Literary structures (such as chiasm)
Research tools will be discussed in class.
