The 17th Century "Captivity Narrative" and the 19th Century "Slave Narrative. "The paper is designed to expand the scope of the course dictated by the short format.  As such, the topic selected for the paper should fall within the colonial and early federal period of American literary history.  Discussions of early American controversies, and other investigations into historical background are encouraged.  Topics will be suggested within the first few weeks of class.  The paper is approximately 5-7 pages in length, must be typed or word-processed, and the result of research AND critical thinking on a given topic.  A paper not reflective of research into the topic will not be accepted, nor will papers with no evidence of critical thinking be accepted.  Papers may also be rejected based on poor writing and/or weak grammar/syntax.  Papers should be gracefully written and stylishly presented, with margins of approximately one inch all the way around and using a reasonably sized font (12 is acceptable).