I always wind up hating my papers when I look back on them. Like I said, pretty self-conscious/critical.
The only thing I can think of that I'm still proud of, is a 20 page paper on factors effecting the prevalence of interracial marriage within the U.S. But that was for my Anthro major, and I don't think anyone wants to read all that.
That "Hero's Journey" concept, was super helpful for me, to begin understanding and analyzing story structure though.
That wikipedia page is pretty daunting in its length and depth, but there's a ton of good info in there.