The Cultural Author OR Era / Playwright
Research Study Assignment

American Authors - Mr. Dawursk

1. Choose a cultural author or playwright from the following list.  You MUST have Mr. Dawursk’s approval to choose an author or playwright as only one student per class may choose any author from the list.

Your study should include an evaluation of the writer’s style, use of literary devices, social impact, and contribution to cultural literature, with special focus on one story or set of poems that you read by the author. An effective presentation will synthesize (combine) your insight with the author’s own observations and third party evaluations of his/her work.

IMPORTANT DUE DATES:

+ FINAL CER IS DUE:__________________

+ FINAL ESSAY PAPER IS DUE:_________________ *

+ MEDIA PROJECT PRESENTATION IS DUE: _________________**

*Early bird 10% extra credit is awarded for essays totally completed the day before.

**Early bird 10% extra credit is awarded for media projects totally completed the day before.

2. For full credit, the research study assignment must include ALL of the following:

A. A complete CER form turned-in prior to the essay’s final draft.

B. A 3-4 page original typed informational or persuasive essay on the author’s life and works (final draft).

· Paper must have a clear introduction with a specific “thesis” and at least three reasons to prove your thesis.  In the body of the essay, each paragraph reason must be supported by at least one piece of quoted evidence with proper citation (MLA format).  The citations must come from at least three different sources.

· Paper must use at least THREE different sources put into a “Works Consulted Bibliography” list in MLA format at the end of the essay.

· The conclusion paragraph will effectively restate the thesis and summarize the reasons while bringing the essay to an appropriate close.

C. A 2 to 3 minute media speech presentation to the class about the author you studied. Please be prepared to read a small piece (15-30 seconds) from your author’s writing as part of the presentation.

3. The media project presentation must include ONE of the following:

A. A power point presentation about the author’s life and works. 

· Quantity: At least 6 slides (title plus 5 information slides)

· Look: laid-out according to the specifics of the project format/content sheet

· Artwork/ Picture: At least one per slide

B.  A creative, colorful, detailed and professional-looking poster about the author’s life and works.

· Size: 28” x 22” or greater

· Look: Laid-out according to the specifics of the project format/content sheet

NOTE:    E-mail completed power point files to: dawursg1@milwaukee.k12.wi.us
          or bring it to class on a disk or usb stick. No accessing personal accounts for power points.

All other documents (essay, bibliography, etc) MUST be printed-out
PRIOR to the class period; Mr. Dawursk will not print-out any student work.

Author Choices

Note: All media materials are due the first date for full credit.  The presentation dates are below:

	Day 1		Day 1		Day 2		Day 3		Day 4
	African American		African American		African American		African American		African American
1	Booker T. Washington	1	Sterling A. Brown	1	James Baldwin	1	Claude McKAy	1	Malcolm X
2	Charles W. Chesnutt	2	Arna Bontemps	2	Eugenia W. Collier	2	Jean Toomer	2	Martin Luther King, Jr.
3	Ida B. Wells	3	Richard Wright	3	Alice Childress	3	Langston Hughes	3	Ishmael Reed
4	W.E.B. Du Bois	4	Chetser Himes	4	Dorothy West	4	Countee Cullen	4	Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
5	Paul Laurence Dunbar	5	Margaret Walker	5	Ralph Ellison	5	Zora Neale Hurston	5	Gwendolyn Brooks
6	James Weldon Johnson	6	Ann Petry	6	Paule Marshall	6	Randolph Fisher	6	William Melvin Kelley
7	Jesse Faust	7	Alice Walker	7	Ernext J. Gaines	7	Reginald McKnight	7	Diane Oliver
	Hispanic American		Hispanic American		Hispanic American		Hispanic American		Hispanic American
8	Isabel Allende	8	Oscar Hijuelos	8	Louis Santeiro	8	Reinaldo Arenas	8	Carla Mari Trujillo
9	Julia Alvarez,	9	Maria Hinojosa	9	Gary Soto	9	Junot Díaz	9	Alex Abella
10	Sandra Cisneros	10	Geraldo Rivera	10	Ernesto Quiñonez	10	Virgil Suárez	10	Ana Menéndez
11	Patricia Santana	11	Sandra Cisneros	11	Marcos McPeek Villatoro	11	Margo Candela	11	Dagoberto Gilb
12	Barbara Louise Mujica	12	Denise Chávez	12	Patricia Preciado Martin	12	Rudolfo Anaya	12	Manuel Luis Martínez
	Asian American		Asian American		Asian American		Asian American		Asian American
13	Jessica Hagedorn	13	Amy Tan	13	Bienvenido Santos	13	Kyoko Mori	13	Ha Jin
14	David Henry Hwang	14	Lois-Ann Yamanaka	14	John Okada	14	Chang-Rae Lee	14	Peter Ho Davies
15	Maxine Hong Kingston	15	John Yau	15	Ai	15	Lisa See	15	Laurence Yep
	Arab American		Arab American		American Indian		American Indian		American Indian
16	Susan Abulhawa	16	D.H. Melhem	16	Ssipsis	16	N. Scott Momaday	16	James Welch
17	Wadi Bahout	17	Gregory Orfalea	17	E. Donald Two-Rivers	17	Sherman Alexie	17	Louise Erdrich.
18	Evelyn Shakir’s	18	Susan Muaddi Darraj's	18	Drew Hayden Taylor.	18	D'Arcy McNickle	18	David Treuer.
19	Mahmoud Saeed	19	Hayan Charara	19	Vine Deloria Jr	19	Kimberly Blaeser.	19	Tomson Highway.
20	Saladin Ahmed			20	Maria Campbell	20	Ray A. Young Bear	20	Jim Northrup

Playwright Choices

Note: All media materials are due the first date for full credit. 
The presentation dates are below:

	Day 1		Day 1		Day 2		Day 3
	Medieval/Renaissance		19^th -20^th Century		Early-Mid 20^th Century		Contemporary
1	Hrosvitha	1	Henry Ibsen	1	Author Miller	1	Tony Kushner
2	Christopher Marlowe	2	August Strindberg	2	Eugene Ionesco	2	Tom Stoppard
3	Ben Jonson	3	Oscar Wilde	3	Samuel Beckett	3	Paula Vogel
4	William Shakespeare	4	Anton Chekhov	4	Lorraine Hansberry	4	Moises Kaufman
5	---	5	Bernard Shaw	5	Wole Soyinka	5	Suzan-Lori Parks
	17^th -18^th Century		Early-Mid 20^th Century		Contemporary
6	Moliere	6	John Millington Synge	6	Harold Pinter	6	Sarah Ruhl
7	Aphra Behn	7	Susan Glaspell	7	Maria Irene Fornes	7	John Patrick Shanley
8	William Congreve	8	Luigi Pirandello	8	Sam Shepard	8	Conor McPherson
9	John Gay	9	Federico Garcia Lorca	9	Caryl Churchill	9	Yasmina Reza
10	Chikamatsu Monzaemon	10	Eugene O’Neill	10	Athol Fugard	10	Tracy Letts
11	---	11	Bertoit Brecht	11	David Mamet	11	Lynn Nottage
12	---	12	Tennessee Williams	12	August Wilson	12	---