Guidelines for Projects

English 350, Appalachian Literature
Fall 2010

Dr. Tina L. Hanlon, thanlon@ferrum.edu

Ferrum College

Appalachian Literature Course Home Page
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General Guidelines:

• Your project topic and date of oral report must be approved no later than Nov. 30.
• Your project can focus on any topic that involves Appalachian literature. It can involve research and reading in any topic related to Appalachian literature and/or a creative work that you produce.
• A conference with the professor before your oral report is recommended, to review plans for your class presentation. Come in as often as you like to consult on progress on your project, or e-mail me about it. You can write in the discussion forum about progress on your project.
• Oral Report: Your oral report time will be restricted to 10 minutes per person. Be sure to plan carefully so that you cover your topic within the time limit, rather than being cut off unfinished. Obviously, you will have to be very brief. Place some emphasis in your oral report on whether you would recommend the material you examined to other members of the class and why. Avoid telling the class how a story ends if that would spoil it for future readers or viewers.
• You can use Powerpoint or any other technology or audio-visual aids.  Be sure the needed technology or materials are available and working before the time of your oral report. If you are using the classroom computer. feel free to get that set up before class begins.
• The audience for your project is this class. The class will be asked to offer comments and questions after your report, as time allows.
• For one of your formal writing assignments in this class, you can write a paper on the topic of your oral report, and it can include discussion of your process of working on the project if you wish. Other options for paper assignments are posted on a separate Web page. See below for more guidelines on contents of web pages or papers.
• With your oral report, submit a bibliography of your sources and abstract (short summary) of the project. It is optional to submit a longer outline of the project or any other supporting materials.
• DO NOT PLAGIARIZE in oral reports, Powerpoint displays, or other written materials.

Suggestions for Choosing Topics for Projects:

• Study any Appalachian author in more depth than we have studied that author in class (reading other works not assigned for the class)
• Study any Appalachian author that has not been assigned for the class.
• Your project could focus primarily on studying one novel not assigned for the class or a film about Appalachia, or a nonfiction book about Appalachia.
• Study a particular theme in Appalachian literature. Use the subject headings in the Higgs anthologies or the List of Themes posted for this class.
• Look through the web site AppLit and think about how you could contribute material to any section of the web site.
• Study a Blue Ridge Institute exhibit and any literature or stories or songs relating to that topic.
• Talk to a faculty member who has expertise on a topic you might be interested in research in relation to Appalachian literature. For example:

•    Dr. Whited on the Frankie Silver legend and literature written about it, include Sharyn McCrumb's novel
•    Dr. Grimes on fiction by John Ehle or Bill and Vera Cleaver
•    Dr. Mead on cultural diversity in Appalachia, Affrilachian poets, and issues relating to sociology
•    Dr. Rex Stephenson on folktales and adaptations or dramatizing Franklin County and Southern history
•    Ms. Becky Mushko (retired from Ferrum now), writer of stories and humorous articles set in this part of Appalachia
•    Mr. Loveland on social justice issues and labor relations; you could report on his book Under the Workers' Caps, about a NC paper mill that was taken over by the workers to keep the mill open and protect their jobs. 
•    Dr. Hanlon's specialties: folktales and adaptations in all media; use of dialect in literature; picture books and other children's books, including authors Virginia Hamilton, James Still, Ruth White, George Ella Lyon, etc.
•    Environmental science faculty on environmental issues

• Creative projects: If you want to create your own story, poem, picture book, artwork, song, folktale or folklore adaptation, you will present it to the class and your grade will be based on your account of the work you did to produce it and the connections you make with Appalachian literature we are studying.

General Resources for Topics in Appalachian Literature:

These resources may be useful for getting an overview of different topics or finding additional sources. Remember that the professional  librarians are faculty members who are available to help you with research and the BRI staff can also help with research.

Appalachian Studies Association Bibliography (online)

Appalachian Studies Bibliography Cumulation 1994-2004, WVU (online)

Encyclopedia of Appalachia. Eds. Rudy Abramson and Jean Haskell. Knoxville: Univ. of Tennessee Press, 2006. Entries are arranged alphabetically within each section, such as Cultural Traditions: Folklore and Folklife, Cultural Traditions: Humor, Cultural Traditions: Language, Cultural Traditions: Literature. (In our library's reference section.)

Edwards, Grace Toney, JoAnn Aust Asbury, and Ricky L. Cox, eds. A Handbook to Appalachia: An Introduction to the Region. Knoxville, Univ. of Tennessee Press, 2006. Excellent introduction to regional studies by a variety of scholars, including a section by Roberta Herrin on children's literature. Dr. Hanlon and the library have copies.

AppLit: Resources for Readers and Teachers of Appalachian Literature for Children and Young Adults

Other links have been provided in ANGEL to various resources.

Use the following format if you would like to submit a proposal in writing by Nov. 30, the deadline for having your topic approved.  Even if you don't use this form, you should be thinking about these same aspects of your project.

Proposal for Project in Appalachian Literature

Name:


Topic:



Statement of Purpose of Project:






Scope or Parts of Project (indicate how your portion fits into whole project if working with a group):











Procedures and Methods to be Used:











Resources to be Used (may include people and written sources):

11/16/10