LibGuides: ENGL B2: American Progressive Era: Welcome

Narrowing Your Topic Example

Before you start your research, you need to create a narrow research topic or question that fits the scope of your assignment. Here is the example Professor Keckley used in her presentation.

Narrowing Questions & Examples:

1.Which author or work interested you?

Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane

2.What theme from the work can you relate to or interests you?

Naturalism: environment & society determine person's character & fate; once born in tenements there's no hope for anything better; exposing realities of tenement life & society

3.What time period within the Progressive Era do you want to focus on or was the work set in?

Gilded Age (1880-1900)

4.What events or personal experiences from the time period can relate to your chosen theme?

Women's Club Movement: changed from self-improvement to serving & reforming society; improved conditions of sewer systems, clean water, public health legislation; Tenement House Act of 1901; muckrakers exposing social issues

5.How does this all tie into “legacies”?

Social reform improving living conditions of the poor

Example Research Question:

How does Stephen Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Street’s expose the realities of tenement life and society to reflect the need for social reform in the Gilded Age?

Example Thesis Statement:

Stephen Crane exposes the realities of tenement life and society in Maggie: A Girl of the Streets to reflect the need for social reform in the Gilded Age by using imagery of the family spaces, which reinforce violence and alcoholism to portray the realism of what tenements are like and reflect why actions such as the Women's Club Movement and the Tenement House Act of 1901 are needed to improve the living conditions of the poor.