Research Paper (due Sunday, May 9, 10:00pm).

Your paper for this course will give you an opportunity to take some of the ideas that we will be talking about in class and explore them in greater depth. My only requirements are that you consider connections between courtesans and Asian culture. You might choose to focus on a specific courtesan, a specific body of literature or painting, a specific genre of poetry, perceptions of courtesans in a particular period, communities of courtesans, or the similarities/differences of particular aspects of courtesan culture in China/Japan, Asia/Europe, etc. I encourage you to talk to me about possible paper topics. Note that you should turn in a proposal for your topic on Wednesday, Feb. 17; this should be no longer than one paragraph, and the point of turning it in is so that I can make sure that you are choosing a manageable topic.

For the research stage of the project, I suggest that you consult the Bibliography of Asian Studies Online, JSTOR, Oxford Art Online, and the Art Index (online databases on the Library's web page under "Databases"). Note: for all of these online resources, you must be connected to the HWS campus network. Don't overlook the books on reserve for our course at the Library (not only their contents but also their bibliographies). I plan to go over how to find resources on courtesan culture in class on Wednesday, Feb. 3.

If you need to search for proper Chinese names, you should know that there are two romanization systems in common use, Wade-Giles and Hanyu Pinyin, as well as a third for place names, and this means that you should search using multiple systems (Nan-ching and Nanjing are both possible romanizations of the name of the city in Jiangsu province famed for its entertainment district). Please refer to the conversion sheet attached to this assignment, or ask me for help.

On Wednesday, Mar. 24, you should turn in an annotated bibliography of your sources, with printouts of online search results for material in the library catalog or databases. The annotated bibliography should be a list of the sources found by this date that you plan to use in your paper, with a sentence or two explaining why it is useful in your research. (Of course, it is fine to continue to look for sources after the annotated bibliography is due.) It is particularly important that you pay attention to your sources. Although looking for information on the internet is very convenient, internet sources are not always subject to peer review in the same way as books and journal articles. For this reason, I expect the majority of your bibliography to consist of peer-reviewed books and journal articles. Although I cannot stipulate how many sources I expect to see, certainly the more you have and the more academic they are the better: part of the point of doing a research paper is to demonstrate the amount and quality of research you did, and this is done through your bibliography.

The paper should be about 3000-4500 words (roughly 10-15 pages).

Develop a thesis or an argument around which to organize your writing. (Note: this should not be a vague, inflated claim such as "This painting exemplifies the beauty and grandeur of Chinese art.") Pay attention to your language: please avoid judgmental words like "good" or "bad," as well as overused adjectives like "nice" and "interesting."

Be sure, in addition to including a bibliography at the end of your paper, to cite your sources throughout your paper using either footnotes (preferred in humanities courses) or parenthetical references: see any style manual for details on how to do this. Note that bibliographic and note forms are different.

If you have further questions about writing research papers, you might visit the HWS Writes website.

Format for Written Work
One of the things you will learn in an art history class is the importance of presentation. This applies to your written work as well:

1. Type all work in a 12-point font.
2. Double-space.
3. Leave one-inch margins on all sides.
4. Number your pages.
5. Staple your work.
6. Put your name on every page and the date on the first page.
7. Check that your spelling, grammar and punctuation are correct—these are crucial to effective communication of your ideas. Your grade will drop if you have excessive errors.
8. If you cite another source, you may use either parenthetical references or footnotes. (See A Note about Cheating and Plagiarism below.) Make sure that you follow a standard documentation style such as MLA or Chicago style.
9. Include a picture with a caption if appropriate (and please attach it to a clean sheet of paper—do not give me a loose postcard, an illustration torn from a magazine, or a copy of the book you found the picture in. Black-and-white photocopies are okay).

A Note about Cheating and Plagiarism
I will not tolerate any form of academic dishonesty. Not only does it destroy the trust that I have in you to do your best, it is unfair to the other students, and obviously you will not learn anything if you resort to cheating. If I find that you have cheated on a test or on a written assignment, you will receive a zero for the assignment and I will contact the Deans and/or the Committee on Standards about your case.

Now, just in case you are not clear about what plagiarism is: plagiarism is the use of someone else’s words or ideas without giving that person credit.  In application, this means that in your writing assignments, you need to cite your sources. When quoting directly from a text—say, five words or more in succession—you need to put those words in quotation marks and include a parenthetical reference or footnote citing the source. When rewriting a passage from a text in your own words, you don’t need the quotation marks but you do still need the parenthetical reference or footnote. If you don’t understand exactly what constitutes plagiarism, or how to use parenthetical references or footnotes, please ask me. I would prefer to explain what it is and how to avoid it before it happens rather than after.