1.) If you have not already done so, select a specific literary work to be the main focus of your research paper. You will be referring to this work throughout your paper. 2.) Develop a research question that considers a particular approach and specific aspects of the work of literature. This should be refined from the annotated bibliography project, based on what you found during your research. 3.) Turn your research question into a thesis statement in which you attempt to answer your research question. It should be specific, persuasive, direct, and innovative. 4.) Use your sources to support, defend, or contest your claims. Some will be primary sources (the literary work[s] itself). Some will be secondary sources (articles about the literary work, writing on aspects of literature, history, politics, current events, etc.). Or you may incorporate more creative texts, like songs, films, TV shows, etc. that you’re connecting to your literary work somehow. Every source should further your innovative, thought-provoking analysis of the literature in some way. 5.) Organize your writing with an introduction, body, and conclusion. Since this is a large, complex paper, an outline is necessary to keep you organized. Every paragraph should have a clear topic sentence that should directly support the thesis. 6.) Include a Works Cited page detailing your sources, all of which must be cited parenthetically and accurately incorporated within the body of the paper. 7.) In the last week of the class, volunteers will present their papers in informal class presentations. Just explain your main point and summarize the most compelling evidence you used to prove it. Your paper should be 6-7 pages long (not including the Works Cited page), double-spaced, in 12-point Times New Roman font, with page numbers and 1” margins all around. Remember that you are adding something new and innovative to the study of your literary work. Do not just mimic another essay; add to it in some meaningful way. Make connections to other texts, historicize the time period of the author or work, address more recent issues and texts, and/or focus on a particular aspect of the work (gender, race, symbolism, psychoanalysis, etc.), and so on. . You could fail the paper if you are not careful about differentiating between your words/ideas and your sources’.

In sociological terms, modern social systems produce all sorts of pressures that pull marriages and families apart, creating tension and discord as they exert their influence. According to Andersen, what do sociologists identify as the major sources of marital instability and divorce? Does she offer any final judgments on whether the family is "dying" or "thriving" or what? In her view, how do those sources of strain work to produce instability or divorce? How do functionalists explain the changes that American marriages and families have experienced over the past fifty years?