Can you write a 1500-1800 word english paper of the life of Langston Hughes the American poet and social activist The paper will need to follow an organizational plan as follows: An introduction that
The Research Paper for English 1302
Investigations in Biographical and Literary Analysis
In a well-documented, MLA-formatted research paper of 1200-1800 words (appx. four to six pages, excluding works cited), analyze and interpret one or more of the writer’s work(s) in light of the writer’s life. This approach to writing about literature by studying the writer’s life and looking for connections to the biography and the writing is called Biographical Criticism. 
Biographical Criticism
In the literary terms glossary for the text, biographical criticism is defined as “an approach to literature that suggests that knowledge of the author’s life experiences can aid in the understanding of his or her work.” According to this approach, learning about biographical influences in author’s life can enhance the reader’s ability to analyze, interpret, and understand the author’s writings.
As you read and research to find a focus for an eventual thesis statement, look for the following kinds of connections you might make between the writer’s work and the writer’s biography:
Childhood experiences
Historical circumstances or events
Geographical influences.
Cultural influences.
Social influences (including movements, such as Civil RIghts)
Influence of another writer (or writers).
Adult Experience (or experiences)
Religious, philosophical, or ideological influences.
Once you’ve found an interesting topic and read sufficiently to get a feel for what direction your research will lead your writing, formulate a preliminary thesis statement. The following is a list of sample thesis statements that you could use or adapt for many of the topics you have available.
A Sampler of Possible Topics and Hypotheses
The following are sample thesis statements that you can adopt, adapt, or simply view as an example to formulate your own thesis about any the authors you chose.
Topic Choice: Robert Hayden
Sample Thesis: The poet’s childhood relationship with his stepfather illuminates the reader’s understanding of the poem “Those Winter Sundays.”
Topic Choice: William Faulkner
Possible Thesis: The fictive world of Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, which provides the setting for all of the author’s fiction, was created from real people and places Faulkner knew in his native north Mississippi.
Possible thesis: William Faulkner was one of the first major southern writers to humanize African-American characters with sympathetic portrayals. As such, Faulkner’s sympathetic treatment of these African-American characters reveals a writer whose attitudes and views on race were ahead of his time for the Deep South in which he was raised.
Topic: John Donne
Possible Thesis: Professing the doctrine of an ordained minister of the Anglican Church in his sonnet “Death, Be Not Proud,” John Donne employs compelling personification and rich imagery that declares the confident Christian’s faith and hope in eternal life.
Topic: Edgar Allan Poe
Possible Thesis: Edgar Allan Poe’s extensive use of Gothic elements in his 19th century American short stories, including “The Cask of Amontillado,” was influenced by the Gothic movement that originated in Europe.
Possible Thesis: The pattern of lost love is a recurrent theme in many of Poe’s poems. These poems of “lost love” parallel frequent incidents of loss in Poe’s real-life story.
Topic: Langston Hughes
Possible Thesis: Langston Hughes’s poetry is deeply influenced by the sights, sounds, and rhythms of his adopted home, Harlem.
Possible thesis: Langston Hughes’s poetry reflects the poet’s strong convictions against racial discrimination and injustice in the American pre-Civil Rights era.
Topic: Robert Frost
Possible Thesis: Robert Frost’s poetry has strong regional roots that reach deep beneath the soil of New England landscapes. These landscapes and the images associated with them provide subject matter for many of Frost’s most celebrated poems.
Topic: Joyce Carol Oates
Possible Thesis: The plot of Oates’ short story “Where Have You Been, Where Are You Going” is based on the real-life serial murder case in the Desert Southwest that Oates read about.
Topic: Nathaniel Hawthorne
Possible Thesis: Many Nathaniel Hawthorne stories explore themes of guilt and religious hypocrisy rooted in his family’s ancestral connections to Puritanism and the Salem Witch Trials.
Topic: John Updike
The engaging portrayal of American middle-class life in John Updike’s fiction was influenced by the author’s own middle-class, small-town origins.
Topic: Kate Chopin
The female protagonists in Kate Chopin’s fiction represent Chopin’s own unconventional and controversial views toward family, sex, and marriage.
Topic: William Wordsworth
Possible thesis: As a poet of the English Romantic movement, Wordsworth was a leading voice. One of his most famous works, “I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud,” provides an model of the subject matter, style, and characteristics of this Romantic form.
Additional Specifications for the Documented Essay
Length: minimum 1200-1800 words, excluding the "Works Cited" page. Exceeding the minimum length is permissible.
MLA manuscript form and citation style.
Clear statement of a bio-critical thesis at the end of the introduction.
Development: Orderly, sub-topical plan that develops the thesis according to a preconceived outline.
Separate, MLA-style "Works Cited" page that lists a minimum of three acceptable sources, at least one of which must be a primary source and two of which must be secondary sources.
Acceptable sources include books written by credible editors and authors; specialized biographical and literary reference articles from public or university libraries; full-text articles or book parts accessed through online library subscription data bases; and websites sponsored by respectable organizations that do not feature commercial advertisements.
Unacceptable sources include general encyclopedias (Britannica, Americana, Compton’s, Wikipedia, etc), web sites that sell or promote questionalbe goods or services, and web sites that do not provide evidence of qualifications for the authority responsible for the site’s information.
Evidence of conscientious drafting, revising, and rewriting is required to earn a passing grade on the assignment. Posting deadlines for various phases of the drafting process will be announced.
Photos and graphics may be included in the paper, as long as you use text wrap to keep the pictures from disrupting the flow of text. Reminder: Using photos rather than text to help meet the length requirement will not mask the deficiency of underdevelopment!
