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Irvine Valley College Marjorie C. Luesebrink, M.F.A., Professor // Literature 47 -- Fable and FolktaleResearch Paper Help Page 2 Guidelines for Selecting
a Topic Selecting a Topic is much easier if you already have a general interest area to work from. In reviewing the lecture topics, you might have decided you would like to know Witchcraft, or Archaeoastronomy (old, old stories of the sky), or Fairies, or Urban Legends, or Animal Fables. Each one of these areas is VERY big, and you are writing a relatively short paper, so the next step is to narrow down your topic to a convenient size for this assignment! There are a few good ways to begin to select and narrow a Topic for your Research Paper. The easiest way to begin to narrow your topic is to choose a story/tale that will be your focus throughout. In this way, you define exactly what you will write about. Or, as mentioned above, you may start with a general idea and go out onto the WWW to find a story that you like that is related to this idea. Finally, it may be that you will want to and be able to use the "family myth" that you shared at the beginning of class; however, some of these family stories are very limited and specific or they may not have enough plot material to work well for this project. {You can ask me about this early on.} In this initial process, you will probably be able to do much of your work on the WWW. When you have narrowed your topic and have identified some books that will deal directly with the information you seek, you should look to print sources. Example: Let's
say, for instance, that you would like to write about Fairies. A huge
topic - way too big. So you might want to start by narrowing the topic
to "fairies in Irish folklore." This is still too big,
though. So now you would begin to look for a story that you can use as
a base. A quick search of Google for "Fairies Irish" would
yield a nice place to start: A
Field Guide to Irish Fairies. This page tells us that there are
several categories of Irish Fairies: Now, this is where some of the "background" research comes in. You will want to read all about each of these types of Irish fairies so that you know what kind of stories are associated with each one. Successful papers have been written about The Banshee, Changelings, or Leprechauns. But, for this example, let us take the Dullahan. The Field Guide pages tell us that the Dullahan is a headless horseman!
"A man was on his way home one night between Roundstone and Ballyconneely. It was just getting dark and, all of a sudden, he heard the sound of horse's hooves pounding along the road behind him. Looking around, he saw the dullahan on his charger, hurtling towards him at a fair speed. With a loud shout, he made to run but the thing came on after him, gaining on him all the time. In truth, it would have overtaken him and carried him away had he not dropped a gold-headed pin from the folds of his shirt on the road behind him. There was a roar in the air above him and, when he looked again, the dullahan was gone". A search for the Dullahan will yield several Irish Folk Tales about this otherworldly creature, including the spooky Hanlon's Mill. In addition, we know of other "headless horsemen" stories, especially Washington Irving's "Legend of Sleepy Hollow." Now, with a story chosen and a thematic motif of the "headless horseman" we can begin to seriously research that topic! Choosing a story is the key action in Selecting and Narrowing a topic. You may have to spend some time exploring the possibilities, picking the best or most illustrative of the available versions. Here are - Some guidelines for choosing a story: Choose a Tale with a plot that you find attractive and interesting (a plot of some kind is a big help!). Choose a Tale with sufficient parallel versions (four or five at least). Choose a tale with a broad geographic range (two or three countries, etc.) Choose a Tale that has an identifiable Tale Type or Motif that you can use as your central theme. It is at this point that you will want to think beyond the material available on the WWW. In the case of Irish folklore, for example, there are several books that might aid your research. You do want to be sure, when you begin to secure book and print resources, that you have sufficiently narrowed your topic!
It's a good idea, too, at this point to keep the eventual documentation issues in mind. Take a look at the Standard Online Assistance in Formatting a Research Paper (including Works Cited and Bibliography) so that you are noting down the proper information for the books and Websites you access. It's just as easy to begin your Bibliography Page as soon as you begin researching and keep it up to date as you go - that way you won't have to retrace your steps to get the Title, Author, and URL information!
Go on to Research Tips Another Example: Some topics will require a bit of research in order to figure out how to frame them effectively. One student had been fascinated with the story of the Tortoise and the Hare since childhood. There are many retellings of this story in children's bookstores - but that doesn't really help much in shaping a topic, since most of these are only derivatives from the conventional "Aesop" version. However, by looking at the Tale Type, we can begin to see another way of looking at the Tortoise and Hare story. This familiar tale is of the type of "unequal contestants." D.L. Ashliman tells several related tales in his section The Tortoise and the Hareand other races between unequal contestantsfolktales of Aarne-Thompson types 275, 275A, 275A*, 275C*,
and 1074
And, since the composition of each of these tales changes the meaning and the moral, the Topic can then be focused on the nature of the "unequal contestants." Go on to Research
Tips
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Table of Contents for Research Help Section Marjorie C. Luesebrink, MFA Fable and Folktale Literature 47 Contents: About Your Class / Class Syllabus / Lecture Notes / Reading List / Recommended Reading / Assignments / Resources and Web Sites / Grading Policies / Contact Your Instructor |
