Cranston High School West Library: Federman - Hawthorne Research Spring 2021

1. Type of Assessment: Response to Literature-Prose and response to informational text

Assignment Instructions:

Research Paper:  All steps will be graded as either homework, a quiz or a test.  All steps must be completed before the final project, or the research paper will not be accepted.

Required materials:

• Copies of Nathaniel Hawthorne’s short story: “The Birthmark” and “Rappaccini’s Daughter”

• Folder in Google to hold all research-paper related materials 

 Step One: Analysis of Primary Sources

2. Read the stories with focus on determining Hawthorne’s attitude towards scientific experimentation, scientists themselves and individuals who tamper with nature or a natural process.

3. Find and copy out (typed) 4 quotations rom “The Birthmark” and “Rappaccini’s Daughter” that  in some way demonstrate Hawthorne’s views related to any aspect of science.  You need  4 quotations followed by 4 clear and thorough explanations for each story-so that’s a total of 8 quotes/explanations.

4. Explain in your own words (typed) how these passages reflect Hawthorne’s view of scientists.

Example: From another Hawthorne story

“These he cultivates with his own hands, and is said even to have produced new varieties of poison, more horribly deleterious than nature, without the assistance of this learned person, would ever have plagued the world  withal” (Rappaccini’s Daughter 4).

In this passage, Baglioni comments on Rappaccini’s scientific experiment with the flowers in his poisonous garden. By describing these substances as deleterious, Hawthorne indicates that the result of Rappaccini’s scientific exploration contains harmful and horrible materials.  This suggests that Rappaccini, the scientist himself is harmful and horrible.

Step Two: Write a  few paragraphs which explain Hawthorne’s view of scientists in the short stories, “The Birthmark” and “Rappaccini’s Daughter”Include at least two quotes. from each story.

Step Three:  Research one of the following topics:

• Elective Cosmetic Surgery rather than surgery that corrects a birth defect or fixes an injury resulting from an accident

• Genetically Modified Foods

• Vaccines

Find 4 RELIABLE (at least) articles (pieces of research) that focus on your topic (make sure you record all the information related to your articles i.e. author, title, web address, date of publication etc.). Copy out two quotations from each article.

1. Type an explanation of what the quote is saying and whether the information, for the most part, supports or contradicts Hawthorne’s view of scientists.

2. You will hand in these quotations with correct MLA citations.

Step Four:

1. List reasons why your research supports or contradicts Hawthorne’s views.

2. In one sentence, state Hawthorne’s view of science and why your particular research either supports or contradicts that view.

Step Five:  Introductory paragraph which leads to a thesis that asserts whether the research on your topic supports or contradicts Hawthorne’s views of scientists in the short stories and why.

Step Six: The Outline

You must complete an outline that includes your introduction with the thesis, a plan as to how you will structure your body paragraphs, and quotes from both primary and secondary sources with clear explanations. (See sample outline and format handout). Include a MLA-formatted Works Cited page.

Step Seven: The Research Paper

• Must be at least three pages long

• Must include at least 5 secondary quotes from 3 reliable/validated sources with proper citations

• Must include at least 4 primary source quotations from “The Birthmark” and/or “Rappaccini’s Daughter.”

• Must have a Works Cited page in MLA format

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The following video shows how to search for Academic Journal articles, save to Google Drive and cite the source.