Guide: Comic Book Character Research Paper

1. Guide: Comic Book Character Research Paper Instructions: What to do and How to do it. Start here: Go to either the Marvel Comics or DC Comics website and select a comic book character (heroic or villainous) that interests you. Next—and this is the most important part—locate the biographical information or “origin story” on the character that you have selected to do this writing assignment and read the biographical information. As you sift (read) through the biographical information on the character, locate the problems or troubles the character is having or has had in his or her life and explore how these problems are part of larger issues that are widespread in society.

2. Guide: Comic Book Character Research Paper Instructions: What to do and How to do it. 4. Once you have read through the biographical information on the comic book character you have chosen, begin thinking how to write this essay, exploring how the character symbolizes or represents a larger societal problem or that larger groups suffer with in society. 5. Do not write about the character!This is not the assignment. You are writing about how the character is a reflection of a societal ill or societal problem, which the creators of the character depicted visually, so citizens will address them and form solutions for them.

3. Guide: Comic Book Character Research Paper Instructions: What to do and How to do it. 6. You must have three sources written on your Works Cited page, “but” you must write four citations written in the body of your essay as supporting details. The citations will be from the web source where you borrowed the biographical information on the character, one citation from both chapter 1 and chapter 7 of How to Read Literature Like a Professor, and one citation from a nonfiction article that discusses the social problem you have learned is connected to the comic book character.

4. Guide: Comic Book Character Research Paper Instructions: What to do and How to do it. 7. Specific writing instructions You must use standard MLA Format Times New Roman font face Double Line Spacing throughout the essay. 12” font and 1” margins--top, bottom, left, and right Heading (name, class title, class period, Instructor’s name, and date, 10 September 2012) in the upper left hand corner of the first page).

5. Guide: Comic Book Character Research Paper Instructions: What to do and How to do it. 7. Specific writing instructions continued Last name and page number on the first line of each page—e.g. Vickery 1, Vickery 2, Vickery 3 and so on. Place in the upper right hand corner of each page. Provide a Works Cited page, listing all of the sources used in the paper.

6. Guide: Comic Book Character Research Paper What To Remember! 8. This is not a writing assignment where you talk about what you like or dislike about the character you have selected. You are exploring how the character’s troubled life is symbolic of the social issue that is attached to his or her persona. Your task is to show how the character reflects any one of the many social problems societies have to contend with and explain how the character contributes to either its progression or regression.