Assignments

English 1102: English Composition II, Spring 2012

Section 13 (CRN 20236): MW 2:00-3:15PM, Arts & Sciences 150

Section 10 (CRN 20233): MW 3:30-4:45PM, Arts & Sciences 150

Literature Survey

To help make sure we do not cover something most or all have already read in high school, complete the following survey.

  1. What poets did you read in high school?
  2. What plays did you read in high school?
  3. What novels and short stories did you read in high school?
  4. What works of literature did you write about in high school?

In Class Activities

Analysis and Synthesis

Today, we'll pick a poem and do some in-class prewriting on it based upon McMahan's exercises (9-10)

  1. Express your personal response to the poem.
  2. Analyze (break down, unpack) the parts and elements of the work in order to understand it.
  3. Infer/Synthesize (draw conclusions) about the meaning of the poem based on your analysis; i.e., inform your reader about the meaing of the poem.

For the first formal paper you will analyze a work of literature in order to inform your reader of its key issues and themes. For the second formal paper you will not only analyze the work but also evaluate the significance, quality, or meaning of the poem based on your analyses, inferences, and syntheses.

2. The Most Significant Passages

In order to learn each other's names as well as to determine significant passages for yourselves, today you'll divide into six groups of 3-4 to discuss one of the student selected stories:

Here are the group tasks:

  1. Select the three most important passages that are central to understanding the characters, conflicts, and themes of the story.
  2. Explain those passages as we have been doing in large class discussion for the last couple of weeks, paying special heed to any important symbols or imagery.
  3. Decide what the core conflict and theme of the story is, then report your findings to the class.

3. Inventing the Close Reading Paper

Today we're going to walk through some of the fundamental steps in the invention, thesis, and outlining stages of the first paper by using one of our short stories as an example. Each student in the class will take part in the invention process. Although your actual thinking and inventing process will be more chaotic, and even though the close reading of a poem will involve slightly different steps, this streamlined activity is designed to highlight key points in the invention process.

  1. Pick the reading.
  2. Describe some of the work's key conflicts, tensions, and issues and select accompanying passages.
    1. Issue 1/Quote 1
    2. Issue 1/Quote 2
    3. Issue 1/Quote 3
  3. How are those conflicts resolved?
    1. Issue 1/Quote 4
    2. Issue 2/Quote 5
    3. Issue 3/Quote 6
  4. What are some of the key ideas of the work?
    1. Idea 1
    2. Idea 2
    3. Idea 3
  5. What is the overall theme of the work?
  6. What is the most significant passage that opens up the key conflicts and overall theme of the work?
  7. Compose a working thesis that makes a claim, controls the argument, and structures the paper. (Note: you will probably need to revise the thesis as you delve further into your argument, analysis, and evidence; this thesis is intended to get you started.)
  8. Construct a working outline based on the implied paper structure inherent in the thesis (Note: this outline is just intended to get you started; your outline will have a different number of sections and will probably need to be revise as you actually write your argument and analyze your evidence.)
    1. Section 1
      1. Major Point
      2. Major Evidence (Introduce the quote, quote the quote, analyze the quote)
    2. Section 2
      1. Major Point
      2. Major Evidence
    3. Section 3
      1. Major Point
      2. Major Evidence

4. Tentative Satirical Themes of Super Sad True Love Story

We start our discussion of Gary Shteyngart's Super Sad True Love Story by breaking into five groups that will in turn break down the novel's world into five cultural topics and tentatively analyze the ideas that the novel is mocking. Each of the five groups will discuss one assigned topic and report its findings to the class.

 

The five groups:

  1. Politics & Government
  2. Media & Social Networks
  3. Finances & Wealth
  4. Health & Living
  5. Love & Sex

The three discussion issues:

  1. Find two or three pertinent passages that describe the way your group's assigned cultural topic works in Super Sad's world.
  2. Given #1, what values or ideas seem to drive the culture in the first third of the novel?
  3. Given #2, what trends in contemporary American society might the novel be satirizing?

5. "The pogrom within and the pogrom without"

Last time, we discussed the cultural values that the book was satirizing. For our second day of discussion, let's examine the core conflicts of the novel. After introducing Eunice to his friends at a bar called Cervix, where the group's revelry was juxtaposed to the violent, fatal suppression of Central Park protesters, Lenny has a fight with Eunice and thinks to himself, "My mind was full of sickening Jewish worry, the pogrom within and the pogrom without" (164). Divide into five groups to discuss one of the novel's key internal or external conflicts.

 

The five groups:

  1. Financial and Class
  2. Political and Military
  3. Existential (Life and Death)
  4. Love, Sex, and Relationships
  5. Family

The discussion questions:

  1. Describe the opposing forces that comprise the conflicts and subconflicts within your group's assigned general issue.
  2. Select two or three passages between pages 99 and 203 that best illustrate the tension.
  3. How does your group's assigned issue overlap with or relate to some of the other topics? What is the novel's core conflict?

6. Inventing the Significance Paper

Today we're going to walk through some of the fundamental steps in the invention, thesis, and outlining stages of the second paper by using Super Sad True Love Story as an example. Each student in the class will take part in the invention process. Although your actual thinking and inventing process will be more chaotic, and even though the close reading of a poem will involve slightly different steps, this streamlined activity is designed to highlight key points in the invention process.

  1. Describe some of the work's key conflicts, tensions, and issues and select accompanying passages. (Note: there may be more; we're limiting to three for the purposes of this brainstorming activity)
    1. Issue 1/Quote 1
    2. Issue 1/Quote 2
    3. Issue 1/Quote 3
  2. How are those conflicts resolved?
    1. Issue 1/Quote 4
    2. Issue 2/Quote 5
    3. Issue 3/Quote 6
  3. What are some of the key ideas of the work?
    1. Idea 1
    2. Idea 2
    3. Idea 3
  4. What is the overall theme/meaning of the work?
  5. What is the cultural significance of the work? (Note: for your own paper, you may argue personal significance, but for the purposes of this class activity, we're exploring cultural significance.)
  6. Compose a working thesis that makes a claim about the theme/meaning of the work, controls the argument about the work's cultural significance, and structures the paper. (Note: you will probably need to revise the thesis as you delve further into your argument, analysis, and evidence; this thesis is intended to get you started.)
  7. Construct a working outline based on the implied paper structure inherent in the two-pronged (meaning and significance) thesis (Note: this outline is just intended to get you started; your outline will have a different number of sections and will probably need to be revised as you actually write your argument and analyze your evidence.)
    1. Section 1
      1. Major Point
      2. Major Evidence (a good rule of thumb is that each major point be supported by a quotation that is introduced and analyzed)
    2. Section 2
      1. Major Point
      2. Major Evidence
    3. Section 3
      1. Major Point
      2. Major Evidence

7. The Agon of Othello

For our first day of discussion of William Shakespeare's Othello, we're going to break into research project groups to focus on the conflict from different characters' points of view as well as give groups a few moments to discuss project topics due Wednesday.

 

Here are the groups:

  1. Brabantio and Rodrigo
  2. Iago
  3. Othello
  4. Desdemona
  5. Cassio
  6. Emilia

Here are the discussion questions:

  1. Describe the character's point of view, her motivations, her agenda. Describe the play's conflict from the character's perspective, i.e., how does she see the situatuation?
  2. Do a close reading of a monologue or exchange that best illustrates the character's point of view.
  3. Spend a few moments talking about possible research topics for the group project due Wednesday.

8. Pretending to Present Wilson's Fences

For our final week of discussion before we devote the class to group projects, let's pretend we're tasked to present (i.e., teach) August Wilson's Fences to an audience next week. (This activity practices what your real group's will have to do on their own.)

 

Day One

 

1. How do we go about analyzing the play? How might the play be broken down in meaningful ways that can be communicated to an audience?

 

2. Now that you have broken down the key aspects of the play in terms of character sketches (Troy, Bono, Cory, Rose, Lyons, Gabriel, Alberta, Raynell), plot and structure, setting, symbol, and conflicted relationships, break into groups to analyze your assigned aspect of the play.

 

Day Two

 

3. Now that we have broken down the different aspects of the play, we need to determine the core conflict and the overall meaning as well as argue the play's significance. For Wednesday, individually write a one page response to the plays meaning and significance in Informal Writing 8. In class on Wednesday, we'll discuss the meaning and significance of the play as a class.

 

4. Now that we have determined the meaning and significance for ourselves, we need to conduct research from literary scholars to find support for our analysis as well as learn new insights into the work. For Wednesday, individually research and read a scholarly journal article on Wilson's Fences and write a one page annotation of the article in Informal Writing 8. In class on Wednesday, we'll collect our research findings and compare them to our own interpretations of the play.

Selected Reading

In order to encourage you to take responsibility for this class—for your education—each member of the class will choose a work for the class to read.

 

To avoid choosing the same work of literature as another person, confer with other students signed up for your genre (poetry, fiction, drama) before making your selection.

 

Selections from Literature and the Writing Process are due by W, 1-18. Short stories should be at least 5 pages long.

 

Selections from Best American Poetry 2011 and Short Stories 2011 are due W, 1-25. (I only have one copy of each book, so you'll have to share.)

2:00-3:15PM Section [scroll down for 3:30-4:45PM Section]

Date Selection Student
W, 1-25
Alexie, "This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona" (McMahan 414-22) 1 Michaela Pollock
Faulkner, "A Rose for Emily" (McMahan 287-93) 2 Demarcus Vereen
M, 1-30
Heaney, "Digging" (McMahan 644) 3 Kaitlyn Black
Dickinson, "I'm Nobody, Who Are You" (McMahan 583) 4 Emily Foerster
Plath, "Mirror" (McMahan 637) 5 Natalie Hain/Professor Pick
Williams, "The Red Wheelbarrow" (McMahan 601) 6 Heather Reynolds
Hardy, "The Ruined Maid" (McMahan 468) 7 Sierra Watkins
W, 2-1
Millhauser, "Phantoms" (GeorgiaVIEW) 8 Kelsey Richardson
Slouka, "The Hare's Mask" (GeorgiaVIEW) 9 Austin Parks
M, 2-6
Collins, "Here and There" (GeorgiaVIEW) 10 Keely Lawson
Benn, "Think of the Unsatisfied Ones" (online) 11 Heath Jarriel
Feldman, "In November" (GeorgiaVIEW) 12 Matt Glaze/Professor Pick
Ferry, "Incubus" (online) 13 Danielle Shellman
Ferry, "Coffee Lips" (online) 14 Brandon Hammer/ Professor Pick
W, 2-8
Bergman, "Housewifely Arts" (online) 15 Léa Dickinson
Egan, "Out of Body" (GeorgiaVIEW) 16 Katharine Fesperman
M, 2-20
Dunn, "In Love His Grammar Grew" (online) 17 Chloe Hobgood
Ostriker, "In Every Life" (online) 18 Steffen Hurdle
Benn, "Last Spring" (online) 19 Melanie Charyton
Howe, "Footsteps" (online) 20 Taylor Smoak
Forbes, "Momma Said" (online) 21 Morgan Sullivan/Professor Pick
W, 3-19
Shakespeare, Othello (McMahan 889-975) 22 Professor Pick
M, 4-2
Wilson, Fences (McMahon 770-817) 23 Karissa Martin

3:30-4:45PM Section [scroll up for 2:00-3:15PM Section]

Date Selection Student
W, 1-25
Hawthorne, "The Birthmark" (McMahan 225-36) 1 Colleen Bayliss
Chopin, "The Story of an Hour" (McMahan 246-7) 2 Katie Kurnett
M, 1-30
Koertge, "Cinderella's Diary" (McMahan 702) 3 Chloe White
Plath, "Mirror" (McMahan 637) 4 Nathan Spinosi
Oliver, "The Black Snake" (McMahan 680-1) 5 Derek Brown
Hemphill, "Commitments" (McMahan 665-6) 6 Ben Provencial
Crane, "War Is Kind" (McMahan 686) 7 Niall Lutes
W, 2-1
Powers, "To the Measures Fall" (GeorgiaVIEW) 8 Nicholas Collins
Johnston, "Soldier of Fortune" (GeorgiaVIEW) 9 Alyssa Huntt
M, 2-6
Feldman, "In November" (GeorgiaVIEW) 10 Kayla Conley
Beeder, "Lithium Dreams (White Sea)" (online) 11 Chase O'Dell
Ferry, "Coffee Lips" (online) 12 Carrie Ragan
Ferry, "Incubus" (online) 13 Haley Reeves/Professor Pick
Collins, "Here and There" (GeorgiaVIEW) 14 Emma Gates
W, 2-8
Bergman, "Housewifely Arts" (online) 15 Julia Weinrich
Bissell, "A Bridge under Water" (online) 16 Paige New
M, 2-20
Cirelli, "Dead Ass" (GeorgiaVIEW) 17 Kearstin Moreland
Howe, "Footsteps" (online) 18 Morgan Heyward/Professor Pick
Dunn, "In Love His Grammar Grew" (online) 19 Melissa Willard/Professor Pick
Forbes, "Momma Said" (online) 20 Lauren Klipp
Stallings, "Momentary" (online) 21 Karen Underwood
W, 3-19
Shakespeare, Othello (McMahan 889-975) 22 Courtney Bergman
M, 4-2
Wilson, Fences (McMahon 770-817) 23 Matt Purcell/Professor Pick

Informal Response

The goal of informal writing assignments is to get you to think actively and write critically about literature. These short assignments of 1-2 double-spaced, typed pages will also prepare you to write the longer, formal papers. You will be asked to respond to or practice analyzing some element of fiction (conflict, character, setting, imagery, figure of speech, etc.), respond to a thematic issue, or practice summarizing scholarly criticism in preparation for formal papers and research projects.

 

Responses will be due by the start of class on the due date, either as a typed hard copy or a Word/RTF file (here is a template; and here is how to convert) in GeorgiaVIEW > Assignments > Informal Writing #. To retrieve your graded electronically submitted paper, go to GeorgiaVIEW > Assignments > Informal Writing #. Be sure to click the "Graded" tab. You can retrieve your graded response in the same dropbox; look for the file (not the comments, not the grade, but the actual file) under submissions posted by me. Here is a grading rationale and calculation of informal writing assignments; and here is a handout on how to use GeorgiaVIEW.

  1. Achebe's "Dead Man's Path" or Erdrich's "The Red Convertible"
    • Choose one of the stories and write a character sketch of the main character. Where does he start and where does he end? What are his core conflicts in the beginning and what happens to him by the conclusion?
    • Due: Monday, January 23
  2. Speaker and Tone
    • Spend 10 minutes describing your assigned poem's speaker, the core issue in the poem, the poem or speaker's attitude toward that tension, and the overall tone of the poem.
    • To Be Written in Class Monday, January 30
  3. Setting and Theme
    • Briefly describe the setting of each student selected story.
    • What is the overall theme of each story?
    • How does setting play into or point to each story's central idea?
    • To Be Written in Class Wednesday, February 8
  4. Super Sad Quiz
    • Since more than a third of the class has not been reading and since you can't discuss or write about literature unless you read it, you will take quizzes to encourage you to read Super Sad True Love Story. If you have an excused absence, you may make up the quiz by writing a two page response answering the discussion questions from the in class activity.
    • To Be Taken in Class Wednesday, February 22
  5. Another Super Sad Quiz
    • To keep you in the habit of reading for class, we're going to have a couple more quizzes. If you have an excused absence, you may make up the quiz by writing a thesis statement and outline for a potential paper analyzing Super Sad's meaning and arguing either its cultural or personal significance.
    • To Be Taken in Class Wednesday, February 29
  6. Short Plays Quiz
    • To Be Taken in Class Monday, March 12
  7. Othello Quiz
    • To Be Taken in Class Wednesday, March 21
  8. Annotating an Article
    • In order to prepare for the research project, you're going to write a practice annotation on a work of scholarly criticism.
      • Write one page discussing 1) the core conflict, 2) overall meaning, and 3) significance of August Wilson's Fences.
      • Find a peer-reviewed scholarly journal article on Fences using the Literary Researchs Methods page.
      • Write a one page annotation of the article discussing 1) the thesis and the scholar's interpretation of the play, 2) what the scholar finds significant about the play, 3) what the article illuminates about the play for you and how it compares to your interpretation of the play.
    • Due Wednesday, April 4

Peer Response

Goals

The dual goals of this course are for you to read and write about literature in a variety of manners. Informal writing and formal papers allow you to analyze the texts. Peer response sessions extend the reading and writing process by allowing you and your peers to engage in direct oral and written dialogue about matters of composition and interpretation, with the ultimate goal of improving your formal papers. You have the opportunity to revise your first two formal papers based upon comments by your peers and professor. You will provide constructive criticism to two or three other members of the class as will they to you.

 

Note: If a group member does not submit her paper in Word or RTF format at least two days before the peer response session, the rest of the group is not responsible for responding to her paper.

Paper 1 Peer Response

  1. Writers upload their papers to both TurnItIn > Paper 1 Close Reading and GeorgiaVIEW > Discussions > Paper 1 Group # by the start of class on Monday, February 6.
  2. Each group reads, take notes on, and prepares to respond to just fellow group papers before the peer response class.
  3. We will not be holding regular class during the peer response sessions. You need only attend class during your group's scheduled date and time, see below.
  4. For the peer response session, either bring your laptop or bring paper print outs of the papers. The peer response group will collectively complete the Paper 1 Close Reading peer response sheet for each writer, then upload the completed response to GeorgiaVIEW> Discussions > Paper 1 Group #.

Paper 2 Peer Response

  1. Writers upload their papers to both TurnItIn > Paper 2 Significance and GeorgiaVIEW > Discussions > Paper 2 Group # by the start of class on Wednesday, March 7.
  2. Each group reads, take notes on, and prepares to respond to just fellow group papers before the peer response class.
  3. For the peer response session, either bring your laptop or bring paper print outs of the papers. The peer response group will collectively complete the Paper 2 Significance peer response sheet for each writer, then upload the completed response to GeorgiaVIEW> Discussions > Paper 1 Group #.

Paper 3 Peer Response

  1. Research Paper peer response groups are the same as Group Project memberships.
  2. Writers upload their papers to GeorgiaVIEW > Discussions > Research Group # by Friday, April 27.
  3. Each group reads, take notes on, and prepares to respond to just fellow group papers before the peer response class.
  4. For the peer response session, either bring your laptop or bring paper print outs of the papers. The peer response group will collectively complete the Paper 3 Research peer response sheet for each writer, then upload the completed response to GeorgiaVIEW> Discussions > Research Group #.

Paper 1 Close Reading

We have discussed Stallings, Boyle, Baraka (3:30), Olds (3:30), Piercy (2:00), Achebe, Erdrich, Alexie (2:00) Faulkner (2:00), Hawthorne (3:30), and Chopin (3:30) at length in class. You have written about some of these works in your informal responses. Now is your opportunity to rigorously analyze a work of literature. For the first formal paper, write a four-five page essay that either 1) explicates, line-by-line, a short poem assigned on the syllabus, being sure to illuminate, through nuanced reading of figurative language, diction, connotation, and symbol, how the central tensions, ambiguities, and contradictions constitute a cohesive theme or 2) examines the most important passage in one of the short stories we have read so far, interpreting it sentence-by-sentence through nuanced reading of figurative language, diction, connotation, and symbol, and arguing its centrality to the core conflicts, character, and overall theme of the story. In other words, using either this short poem or this short story key passage, you should write a paper that interprets the universal theme of the work by explicating the fundamental conflicts within the particular lines of text. Your essay should be driven by a thesis that argues the work's theme and logically organized by close reading of the text: unpack the tension and conflict, connotation and diction, idea and theme.

 

1. Pick any poem or short story on the syllabus up to February 1.

2. Do a close reading/textual analysis of the poem or key story passage that explicates particular, significant words and lines.

3. Interpret the key conflict and overall theme/meaning/idea of the work of literature.

 

Note: You will write at least one draft of this paper and have the option of revising. The first draft, which will also be reviewed by your peers, will be given a tentative grade. If you choose to revise, the second draft grade will replace the first. If you earn an F on the first draft, you must revise, otherwise you will fail the course.

Paper 2 Significance

In the first formal paper, you closely read a poem or short story passage and in so doing explicated how the literary language set up the core conflict and overall theme. Since then, we have discussed how literature is significant in five ways: 1) personally and 2) culturally/historically, in terms of 3) ideas, 4) literary history, and 5) readerly pleasure. In the second formal paper, you will also interpret the conflict and main idea of a literary work of your choice on the syllabus up to Wednesday, March 7 but not the one on which you wrote your first paper. Beyond simply discussing the issues, you will also examine the text's personal or cultural significance, in other words, its meaning in either your life or the lives of others. Discuss either why this work of literature is important to you or why this work is or should be important to the world. Some questions to consider include but are not limited to: Why is the literary work important—or not? What ethical, psychological, political, or cultural consequences does the text have? Who do you think should read this work, why do you think they need to read it, and how do you think it will affect them? How has the work of literature confronted, challenged, or changed either your world view or the belief system held by the particular audience? Your thesis should make a claim not only about the meaning of the text but also about the text's significance. Your paper should not only analyze the meaning of the work through textual evidence but also argue the text's significance.

  1. Select any work of literature on the syllabus up to March 7, but not one already written about in Paper 1.
  2. Using textual evidence, explicate the core conflict and key meaning of the literary work.
  3. Explain why and how the literary work is significant either personally or culturally.

Note: You will write at least one draft of this paper and have the option to revise. The first draft, which will also be reviewed by your peers, will be given a tentative grade. While MLA style penalties can be corrected in the second draft, any late assignment and paper length penalties from either draft will be deducted from the final paper grade. If you choose to revise, the second draft grade will replace the first. If you earn an F on the first draft, you must revise, otherwise you will fail the course.

Group Project

Groups of 4 will choose a work of literature from the assigned genre (poetry, fiction, drama) that is neither by an author on our syllabus nor mentioned on members' literature surveys, compile a 12-16 source annotated bibliography of scholarly literary criticism on the text, write a 4-6 page paper summarizing the literary debate on the text, and share their findings with the class in a 20 minute presentation and 10 minute question and answer session.

 

You may write your research paper on the same topic as your group project, or you may choose another literary work, neither on our syllabus nor mentioned on your literature survey, and subject to professor approval.

 

I expect each group member to respect the group, communicate with the group, attend group meetings, and do her fair share of the work. If there is a major problem that the group cannot manage, let me know (anonymously if warranted).

 

Timeline

 

Date

Due

March 12

group sign up

March 21

topic

April 2

bibliography

plan of action

April 9

groups 1-2 conferences

April 11

groups 3-4 conferences
April 16

groups 3-4 conferences

April 18

groups 1-2 presentations

April 23

groups 3-4 presentations

April 25

groups 5-6 presentations

research paper draft 1

April30

peer response

May 2

research paper draft 2

1. Sign Up

On Monday, March 12, you will self-select your groups of 4. Those who have no preference and those who are absent will be placed in a group by the professor.

 

On Wednesday, March 14, groups will be assigned genres—poetry, fiction, or drama.

2:00 Section

 

Group

Students

 Individual Research

1 Fiction

Toni Morrison,

Song of Solomon

Kaitlyn Black

evaluation of Milkman

Keely Lawson

Biblical references

Michaela Pollock

parent/child relationships

Heather Reynolds

intersectionality of race and gender

2 Poetry

William Wordsworth

Emily Foerster

Romantic Self

Kelsey Richardson

French Revolution

Danielle Shellman

Nature

Sierra Watkins

Mind

3 Drama

Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun

Natalie Hain

intraracial debate: assimilation vs roots

Brandon Hammer

interracial tensions (blacks and whites)

Steffan Hurdle

internal family strife

Karissa Martin

African Americans and the American dream

4 Fiction

Philip K. Dick,

Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Matt Glaze

changes between novel and film

Heath Jarriel

humanity

Austin Parks

O'Henry

Demarcus Vereen

Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

5 Poetry

Pablo Neruda

Melanie Charyton

communist utopia

Lea Dickinson

portrayal of nature in love poems

Katharine Fesperman

portrayal of Chile

Taylor Smoak

conception of self in a collection of poetry

 

3:30 Section

 

Group

Students

 Individual Research

1 Fiction

Ernest Hemingway,

"The Snows of Kilimanjaro"

Derek Brown

death and regret

Nick Collins

character evaluation/debates

Niall Lutes

Monday

Nathan Spinosi

writing style, writing in story

2 Poetry

T. S. Eliot

Katie Kurnett

psychology of Prufrock

Kearstin Moreland

irony of the love song

Carrie Ragan

Jackson, "The Lottery"

Chloe White

who is Prufrock addressing?

3 Drama

George Bernard Shaw,

Pygmalion

Kayla Conley

social class

Alyssa Huntt

Eliza

Lauren Klipp

Higgins

Michael Zinke

Moore, Watchmen

4 Fiction

Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Marble Faun

Courtney Bergman

Orwell, Animal Farm

Chase O'Dell

art's relation to character

Ben Provincial

Saramago, Blindness

Matt Purcell

Palahniuk, Fight Club

5 Poetry

Sylvia Plath

Colleen Bayliss

Confessionalism

Emma Gates

men

Morgan Heyward

children

Melissa Willard

depression

6 Drama

Henrik Ibsen,

A Doll's House

Paige New

is feminist play relevant today?

Haley Reeves

role of fatherhood

Karen Underwood

is the play feminist or not?

Julia Weinrich

Nora character evaluation

2. Topic

Poetry groups will select a few poems or a book of poetry by a single poet; fiction groups will select a couple of short stories, a short story collection, or a novel by a single author; drama groups will select a full length play by a playwright. Groups may not select works by authors who are on our syllabus or on members' surveys. In other words, choose an author and work you have not studied in this or other classes.

 

On Wednesday, March 21, groups will submit three ranked choices of literary works to the professor, who will advise and approve the final selection based upon appropriateness and researchability.

3. Bibliography and Plan of Action

On Monday, April 2, groups will submit in hard copy or GeorgiaVIEW > Assignments > Bibliography and Plan of Action

  1. a 20 source bibliographical list in MLA Format of approximately half scholarly books from the GCSU library and GIL express and approximately half scholarly journal articles from databases like Academic Search Complete using the Literary Research Methods handout.
    • Do not submit primary texts by the author, encyclopedia entries, magazine articles, newspaper articles, book reviews, websites, or study guides like Sparknotes and MasterPlots, or plagiarism paper mills.
    • While other professors might consider encyclopedias, newspapers, magazines, and website study guides to be appropriate for college level research, I deem academic books and peer reviewed journal articles the only appropriate sources for scholarly research.
    • Those groups with problematic bibliographies must revise and resubmit them Monday, April 9 either via hard copy or in GeorgiaVIEW > Assignments > Bibliography Resubmission.
  2. a plan of action listing when the group will meet outside of class as well as each group member's responsibilities

Optional Works Cited Page

 

After you have narrowed down your bibliography to the 16 sources you will annotate, you may put those sources in a Works Cited page for your professor to check MLA format. Simply bring the page on your lap top to class on Monday, April 16.

4. Conferences

On Monday, April 9, Groups 1 and 2 will conference with the professor while other groups work in class on their projects. On Wednesday, April 11, Groups 3 and 4 will conference; one Monday, April 16, Groups 5-6 will conference.

 

For your conference, be prepared to discuss the status of your group project and compose a working thesis for your individual research paper.

5. Presentation, Annotated Bibliography, Debate Paper

On Wednesday, April 18, Monday, April 23, and Wednesday, April 25, groups will teach the class their selected literary works in a 20 minute presentation with a 10 minute question and answer session. On the day of the presentation, groups will also submit their 16 source annotated bibliography (4 sources per group member) and their 4-6 page literary debate paper to GeorgiaVIEW > Assignents > Group Project. Be sure to put the annotated bibliography and literary debate paper in one file.

 

Your presentation may use any of the equipment in our room (chalkboard, projector, speakers, web browser, Powerpoint, DVD). Clips like YouTube may be used but do not count toward the 20 minute time limit.

 

An annotated bibliography is an MLA styled works cited list of scholarly books, book chapters, and peer-reviewed journal articles that provides a 75-100 word summary of each secondary source's argument as well as how the secondary source interprets and illuminates the meaning of the primary text, i.e., the literary work. Do not simply summarize the topic, provide the thesis.

 

A literary debate paper summarizes the literary research findings, poses the predominant questions literary critics ask about the meaning of the literary work, and argues the opposing ways of interpreting the primary text.

 

Submit the bibliography and paper as one file to GeorgiaVIEW > Group Project on the day of your presentation. Retrieve your graded project approximately one week later in GeorgiaVIEW > Group Projects.

6. Group Policy

Each group member is expected to attend meetings, respond to group communication in a timely manner, and complete the work delegated to her.

If a group member fails to attend meetings, keep in contact, and/or do her share of the work, a fellow group member may confidentially request that the professor speak to the group about group member responsibilities. If that does not resolve the issue, a group member may confidentially request that the group grade be made individual. In that case, the professor will ask each member to submit an evaluation of her personal performance in the group as well as her fellow group members' efforts and use these self and peer evaluations to determine individual member grades.

Paper 3 Research

In the first formal paper, you analyzed a particular passage, and in the second paper you not only analyzed but also evaluated the significance of a literary work. In the third paper, you will move beyond your own analyses and arguments by engaging what real-world literary critics find significant about a work of literature. For the research paper, select a literary work that you have neither studied in high school nor have written about in this class or any other class; then clear your choice with your professor. (If you submit a paper that you wrote for another class, you will fail the assignment and the course.) You may write about the same literary work as your group project, but you may not write on the same issue as your fellow group members.

 

Write an in depth analysis and interpretation of an issue (some meaning that is in dispute, some interpretation that is open to debate, or a key conflict in the text) that both you and literary critics find provocative. Your paper should integrate at least 5 works of scholarly criticism (journal articles, books, and book chapters) to provide support and counterargument for your reading of the issue.

 

The threefold emphasis of this paper is your thoughtful evaluation of the issue at work in the text via rigorous analysis of the text and the use the secondary sources to aid and challenge your interpretation and critical judgment.

 

You submitted the previous formal papers to both your peers and professor for review (and a tentative grade from your professor) in order to develop the best compositional practice of drafting and revision. In this paper, in order to prepare you for regular, non-composition classes in which the professor only grades the final paper, you will be expected to draft and revise on your own with only the help of your peers and without the initial grade from your professor.

 

© Alex E. Blazer 2024