QEP Research Project Requirements 1

You have read a number of short stories, poems, and plays this semester and you have read
information about the literary periods Realism/Naturalism, Modernism, and
Postmodernism (the latter only a 16-week course).
a. Discuss/argue a piece’s characteristics based on which literary period it belongs.
b. Identify a literary element that stands out in one of them (see the “Basic Literary
Terms” and “Writing in English 1102/2132” lectures). Discuss the significance of
that element.
c. Examine a text based on its discussion of a universal theme, such as love/marriage,
birth/death, men/women, law/order, religion/spirituality, work/survival, social
class, treatment of women, children, animals, the disabled, the disenfranchised, etc.
d. Compare the treatment of one of the above themes (or another one you find) in two
different texts.
QEP Research Project Requirements 2

e. Compare and contrast the treatment of one of the above themes (or any other
literary element) in two pieces by the same author.
f. Discuss a text in its historical context.
g. Discuss the piece of literature’s genre.
Here are two Websites that list some common themes in literature (please note that I am
NOT using .com Website and you should not either!):

http://www3.delta.edu/drsnyder/commonthemesinliterature.html

http://www.udc.edu/docs/Common_Themes_in_Literature_Literary_Themes.pdf