The goal of college-level research is to learn as much about a topic (for instance Robert Louis Stevenson and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) to be able to write and discuss it from a number of angles. Below are two examples, although there are many more you will encounter in your college courses.

Reader Response: This approach would have you write and discuss the text based only on what you thought of it (and why you thought it). Remember how you were to respond to questions on Popular Mechanics using only the story itself?

Historicism: This approach would have you read about the time period the text was written. You would gain information about what people thought at the time, how they used language, what they did for work, how the author grew up, etc.

After reading the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, explain how 2 “contexts” and 2 “criticisms” would help a reader better understand the story. Each section should be around 1-page for a total of 4 pages minimum and 6 pages maximum. This isn’t a research paper in the sense of an introduction, body paragraphs, etc. You can think of it as 4 different responses or combine 2 under one heading.

For example:

2-pages on how Stevenson’s The Use of Dreams and John Symonds’ Passion for the Male Sex helps the reader understand the story from a psychological perspective

1-page for Halberstam An Introduction to Gothic Monstrosity

1-page for Showalter’s Dr. Jekyll’s Closet

The goal is to show how the secondary readings help you see the story from other perspectives. You might think of this assignment as the start or draft of a research paper. Keep in mind though, you are not writing a full paper. Just write the 4 sections listed above.