Can someone explain this please?
Our research paper must not be a general biography of the writer and/or a book report. It should instead focus on controversies or differing interpretations about his/her work, or on questions raised by the writer’s work and critical approaches to understanding these questions. Your research paper should engage with literary criticism. You should be able to either identify your specific critical approach, or foreground the critical approaches employed by your sources and show how these approaches affect your thesis.
Okay.
Firstly DO NOT give your teacher "author was born in, author wrote" That's not the task.
Secondly. You have a choice
A> Look at different interpretations of the novel/poem etc OR controvesy "fights/disagreements" regarding the novel. A good example of this would be To Kill a Mockingbird
B> Look at what kind of questions your author raised in their work and try to answer them. Something like Animal Farm might suit.
The teacher wants you too criticie the work using a specific critical approach or using specific and well known steps. So have steps and it should follow some kind of method she showed you in class or find in a journal.
The teacher wants you to identify a specific approach or use approaches that your sources used. IE if you have no idea how to do it read different academics analysis of your novels/poems and apply this.
You need to show how these approaches affect your thesis.
Thats how I read it but maybe check with a teacher...