Vital Statistics:

Directions:

1. Choose one question below.
2. Create a thesis that answers one of the questions listed below.
3. Argue for your thesis using analysis, support from the text, and support from research.
4. Research to support your ideas. 
5. Consider the brainstorming questions, but you need not answer all of them, or any of them, specifically. If you do, your paper will lack focus.
6. Cite all quotations, and all ideas, statistics, and information from outside sources, even if they are in your own words. Yes, this includes quotations from the novel.
7. Include a Works Cited page.
8. Turn in five copies of a draft on November 29.
9. Revise your work before handing in a final copy.

The Questions:

1.  What exactly prompts Scrooge to reform and become a better man?

    Brainstorming questions:

• When does Scrooge change?
• When do we see evidence of Scrooge's change?
• Is the change the direct effect of one thing, or many?  Of which thing(s) specifically?
• Does Scrooge change because of the visions presented by the three Ghosts, or does he change for another reason?
• Do all of Scrooge's changes come about because of one thing?  Or do different things inspire various changes?

2. Consider one of the social problems presented in the novel (such as working poverty or childhood mortality).  How does Dickens use this social problem to make his point in A Christmas Carol? What point does he make?

    Brainstorming questions:

• What social problems are brought up during the novel?
• What were the realities of this social problem when A Christmas Carol was written?
• Is that social problem portrayed realistically?  Does Dickens change the facts about that social problem?  In what way?  For what purpose?
• How does this social problem and its portrayal affect the plot, characters, theme, and / or tone?
• How does this social problem tie into Scrooge's experiences and his later reformation?

Research Requirements:

You are required to use:

1. Five critical resources.  Critical resources deal specifically with the novel A Christmas Carol and analyze certain aspects of it, or deal with one of the social problems and analyze it.
2. At least three sources must be print.  In other words, at least three of your resources must be published in journal or book form.  Yes, if you have an article from a print source like Modern Language Notes but you read it on-line, that counts.
3. You may also use documents that simply list the historical or cultural facts, but they do not count as critical sources unless they analyze them.
4. You may NOT use Wikipedia!  Any paper that cites uses Wikipedia as a source will lose a letter grade!

Use the research to support your ideas.  Don't simply just report what the research says; I already know that you can read something and summarize it.