Archive Assignment
The archive assignment for this class is designed to help you gather and organize a small collection of materials for use in essay 2, when you'll be using secondary sources in conjunction with primary.
An archive is a collection of related materials that speak to a particular subject or area of interest; often, they will contain only primary sources, in which case they are often aspects of a library's special collections, but this assignment asks you to incorporate secondary sources as well. Note that you will not be creating a webpage for your archive; however, those students who wish to participate in this online collection of resources for Pope's Rape of the Lock are encouraged to upload selections from your print archive.
The archive assignment has several distinct components. Your archive should consist of at least two primary sources beyond Pope's Rape of the Lock and at least four secondary sources outside of anything assigned in class. IIn each case, your materials should be potentially useful in defining your research problem for essay 2. You will be collecting copies of each archive component, creating an annotated bibliography entry for each source, and turning in one complete copy of your archive to me. On the due date, each student will present to the class on the scope, content, and application of his or her archive, going into more depth with one of the secondary sources and one of the primary sources. You should end up with two complete copies of your archive in print form, and enough copies of your annotated bibliography for everyone in class. In presentation, you might want to circulate your archive as you discuss its content. For those of you participating in this electronic archive, I encourage you to bring up your contributions on the computer for display.
Primary Sources
Your archive should contain copies of at least two primary sources that may be useful in defining your research project, outside of The Rape of the Lock. Only one of the primary sources may be drawn from the Bedford Cultural Edition we're using in class; the other must be found using the databases of primary source material--Burney Collection, EEBO or ECCO--which we'll learn about in class.
A good primary source to include in your archive will be something that helps you understand the historical or cultural context of Pope's poem, or some particular aspect of that context. For instance, you might find a short poem about tea in Eighteenth-Century Collections Online, or a first-hand account of early modern exploration in Early English Books Online, either of which can help flesh out a reading of Rape of the Lock. You may include the entire source, or a selection from that source, in the case of very long pieces. You can include letters, images, early responses, periodical essays from the period, and so on. What you choose will depend on how you define the problem of your research essay. You might want to refer to the kinds of materials included in your Broadview edition of Heart of Darkness and your Bedford edition of Rape of the Lock for starting directions.
Secondary Sources
Your archive should contain copies of at least four secondary sources, outside of anything assigned in class, that may be useful in defining your research problem for essay 2. Your secondary sources may be researched in the MLA international bibliography or any of the other electronic indexes of scholarship we learn about in class. Each of your secondary sources should be scholarly, reputable, and useful for your research problem. **If you use an entire book, please include a review of that book in your archive; if you're only using a chapter, include a copy of only that chapter.
Annotated Bibliography
Each element of your archive should have an entry in your annotated bibliography. An annotated bibliography is a specialized form of documentation meant to help the scholar quickly apprehend the content, scope, and potential use of a source, as well as keep track of citation information. I have made a sample annotated bibliography available as a model, though it doesn't include primary source entries. You may view student samples online. Your annotated bibliography should contain entries on all your archival components, including primary sources; an annotation for a primary source should contain a brief summary as well as a sense of how that text will be useful to your research problem. If you draw only on a portion of a long primary source, you should include a basic overview of what the source as a whole is but focus on the portion that interests you. You will have to consult your MLA handbook for information on documenting primary sources from an electronic fulltext or facsimile database.
Preparation and Submission of the Archive
When your archive is complete, you will have at least six sources and an annotated bibliography, all in print form. Those who participate in the online collection here should still turn in a print archive. Create a cover page with the following information: your name/our course information, a working title for your research essay, and a statement of your research problem. To submit the project, give me one complete copy and make enough copies of your annotated bibliography for your peers.
Presentation
On the due date, each student will distribute copies of the annotated bibliography and present on the content and scope of his or her archive -- How did you find your materials, what resources did you use? What did you find? Will it all be useful for you? What will be most useful, and why? Did you discover anything unexpected or particularly interesting, either about the topic or about the act of conducting research?
Finally, select the one secondary source and the one other primary source that you feel will be most useful to you. Sketch out for your peers the argument and/or content, focusing on specific ideas, and describe how you plan to use these resources for your own argument. You might choose to pass your copy of the archive around as you present, or pull up your electronic contributions for class display.