Assignments

English 2200 Writing about Literature, Spring 2021

TR 9:30-10:45 a.m., Online

Attendance Make Up Posts

You are required to attend all classes on Zoom. However, you can make up one missed Zoom class per week by submitting a 100-200 word post to the GeorgiaVIEW discussion forum entitled Attendance Make Up by the Sunday after you missed class. Posts made after Sunday will not be counted toward your weekly attendance record. If you attend all Zoom classes in the week, you do not need to post to the discussion board.

Small Group Activities

1. Actively Reading Poetry

To begin our discussion of one of the contemporary poems, let's divide into 6 groups. For about 10 minutes, each group will discuss one or two of the questions for active reading on page 12 of the Gardner and Diaz chapter and then report the results of your analysis to the class.

  1. Bullet 1: Why did the poet have to write it? What other occassions do you see throughout this poem?
  2. Bullets 2-3: Who is the main speaker of the poem? For whom is the speaker writing the poem?
  3. Bullet 4: How does the poetry use imagery to make you feel the experience in the poem?
  4. Bullets 5-6: How is the poem arranged on the page? Where do you see patterns of repetition?
  5. Bullet 7: What has the speaker realized (or not realized) by the end of the poem?
  6. Bullet 8: How would you describe the language of the poem?

2. Analyzing a Book of Poetry

Today, we'll divide into groups to analyze the numbered parts and evolving themes of Jericho Brown's The Tradition, and then return to the large class discussion to build an understanding of the structure and significance of the collection as a whole.

 

Here are the discussion questions:

  1. What are some of the poems in your assigned section literally and narratively about?
  2. What are some recurring topics and issues from your assigned section?
  3. How does your assigned section differ in content and theme from the other two sections of the book, especially with regard to its "Duplex" poem.
  4. Choose a poem that exemplifies a key issue or two of your assigned section and briefly explicate it.

Here are the groups:

  1. Part II
  2. Part III
  3. Part II
  4. Part III

3. Explicating a Significant Passage

Today, let's gain an overview of the first part of Richard Power's The Overstory, Roots, as well as practice close reading of a significant passage of fiction by dividing into groups, discussing questions, and reporting our findings to the class.

 

Here are the questions:

  1. What is the main character's core conflict or issue?
  2. What does key tree symbolically represent?
  3. How does the central tree comment on the main character, and vice versa?
  4. Select and discuss a significant passage that illustrates the relationship between character and tree.

Here are the groups:

  1. Nicholas Hoel
  2. Mimi Ma
  3. Adam Appich
  4. Ray Brinkman and Dorothy Cazaly
  5. Douglas Pavlicek
  6. Neelay Mehta
  7. Patricia Westerford
  8. Olivia Vandergriff

4. Developing a Thesis

Divide into small groups. Using members' ideas from Close Reading Prewriting 4: Brainstorming and applying the guidelines from "The Thesis" section of Gardner and Diaz's chapter 3 The Writing Process (25-29), compose two potential thesis statements for a potential Close Reading Paper, one on a work of poetry and the other on a work of fiction, that make a claim, define the scope of your argument, and shape your argument.

5. Determining the Complex Theme

The general theme of the Richard Powers' The Overstory involves environmental. Today, we're going to determine the specific and complex theme (or themes) of the novel by comparing and contrasting how the conflicts and journeys of the main characters are concluded. First, divide into groups, elect a secretary to record your collective response, and answer the questions below. Groups will then share their discussion with the large class, which will interpret the overall theme of the novel.

 

Here are the questions:

  1. Where do the characters end up at the end of the story, physically, psychologically, intellectually, and/or spiritually?
  2. What ideas are conveyed by the characters' journeys from the beginning of the novel to the conclusion?
  3. How do the ideas from #2 compare and contrast?

Here are the groups:

  1. Nicholas Hoel / Mimi Ma
  2. Adam Appich / Ray Brinkman and Dorothy Cazaly
  3. Douglas Pavlicek / Neelay Mehta
  4. Patricia Westerford / Olivia Vandergriff

6. From Conflict and Theme to Idea and Significance

In preparation for the next formal paper, let's transition from discussing the core conflict and overall theme to also explicitly exploring the ideas and significance of literary works. Divide into groups of and discuss the following issues:

  1. What are some of the core conflicts of My Favorite Thing Is Monsters?
  2. What are some of the general themes of the graphic novel?
  3. What ideas does My Favorite Thing Is Monsters explore and advance?
  4. Why are those ideas important, and why is this graphic novel significant?

7. Developing an Idea and Significance Thesis

Let's practice writing thesis statements for the idea and significance paper.

 

On your own...

  1. Select a genre (poetry, fiction, graphic literature, or drama) on which you did not write your close reading paper.
  2. Select a specific in class work from that genre.
  3. What are some of the important ideas that the work explores?
  4. What are some of the reasons why those ideas are significant (personally, existentially, legally, politically, morally, culturally, and so forth)?
  5. Write a thesis that states both the key idea of the work and why it's significant (it will probably be a compound or compound complex sentence).

Next, with a partner...

  1. Share your theses and provide feedback on whether or not the statements make debateable claims, defines the scope of your argument appropriate to a 4-6 page paper, and shapes the organization of your essay.
  2. Repeating steps 3-5 from above (ideas, significance, thesis), collaboratively write a thesis statement for a potential idea and significance paper on Jackie Sibblies Drury's Fairview.

8. Film Analysis

Today, we're going to start the film and television unit. Break into groups and use Timothy Corrigan's "Film Terms and Topics for Film Analysis and Writing" and/or the Film Analysis handout to discuss the following film elements in Un Chien Andalou:

  1. mise en scène (Corrigan 51)
  2. the shot (Corrigan 57)
  3. the edited image, i.e., editing (Corrigan 65)
  4. sound (Corrigan 71)

9. Comparing Film and Television

Let's begin our discussion of television by breaking into groups to compare stylistic elements of television with those of film. Using Victoria O'Donnell's "Television Style" as a reference, compare a film style of creating meaning with a television episode's style of creating meaning based on your group's assigned film, television episode, and element.

 

Here are the groups:

  1. Contempt and Dragnet pilot: Length of Shot and Framing
  2. Contempt and Leave It to Beaver pilot: Lighting
  3. First Cow and Dragnet pilot: Sound and Editing
  4. First Cow and Leave It to Beaver pilot: Directing and Art Direction

10. Developing a Summary and Evaluation Thesis

Let's practice developing summary and evaluation theses.

 

On your own before class on Thursday, April 8,

  1. Choose a work of literature from a different genre than you've written about in the previous two papers.
  2. Brainstorm the core conflict and overall theme of the work.
  3. Brainstorm what about the text seemed effective and successful to you as well as what about the text seemed to be ineffective and unsuccessful.
  4. How does the effectiveness or ineffectiveness bear on the conflict/theme of the work, and vice versa?
  5. Compose a practice thesis statement both summarizes and evaluates the text.

Next, with your fellow group project members in class on Thursday, April 8...

  1. Share your theses and provide feedback on whether or not the statement makes a debateable claims, defines the scope of your argument appropriate to a 4-6 page paper, and shapes the organization of your essay.
  2. Repeating steps 2-4 from above (conflict/theme, effectiveness/ineffectiveness, relationship between conflict/theme and effectiveness/successfulness), collaboratively write a thesis statement for a potential summary and evaluation paper on the first episode of End of the F***ing World or Fleabag.

11. Literary Theory

For our final day of regular discussion of a work of literature, let's preview some of the systematic approaches to interpreting literature that you'll learn about in ENGL 3900 Critical Approaches to Literature by applying Gardner and Diaz's "Literary Criticism and Literary Theory" chapter to Watchmen's "This Extraordinary Being."

  1. Formalism and New Criticism: Discuss the structure, tone, characters, setting, and symbols of the episode
  2. Feminist and Gender Criticism: Discuss the status of women as well as the gender expectations in the episode.
  3. Queer Theory: Discuss the representation of sexuality in the episode.
  4. Marxist Criticism and Cultural Studies: Discuss the class issues as well as the representation of marginalized groups in the episode.
  5. Historical Criticism and New Historicism: Discuss the episode's use of history and historical artifacts as well as how the episode gives insight into history.
  6. Psychological Criticism and Reader-Response Criticism: Discuss the mental state, desires, and motivations of the episode's main characters as well as reflect on your interactive viewing process with the episode.

Close Reading Paper

Prewriting 1: Annotating and Responding

Choose one of the poems for the class on Tuesday, January 26. While reading it, annotate it. After reading and annotating the poem, write down your initial response: What did you find interesting or significant? What ideas does the poem inspire? What questions does the poem raise?

Prewriting 2: Poems and Pictures

Choose one of the images in a poem in Jericho Brown's The Tradition. Describe what the image is and interpret how the poem either comments on the image or uses the image to advance its theme.

Prewriting 3: Explication

Choose one poem (or section of a poem) of Jericho Brown's The Tradition and write a journal entry responding to the poem in general and specific sections of the poem as exemplified on pages 15-16 of Gardner and Diaz's Reading and Writing about Literature.

Prewriting 4: Brainstorming

Choose any poem on the syllabus. Brainstorm its various tensions and meanings. What is the core conflict and overall theme of the poem? Choose any short story or novel on the syllabus. Brainstorm its various tensions and meanings. What is the core conflict and overall theme of the work of fiction?

Poetry or Fiction Explication

We have discussed at length poetry by Jos Charles, William Carlos Williams, Ocean Vuong, and Jericho Brown and fiction by Flannery O'Connor, Kevin Wilson, and Richard Powers. You have written about some of these works in your prewriting. Now is your opportunity to rigorously analyze a work of literature. For the first formal paper, write a 4-6 page essay that either 1) explicates, line-by-line, a short poem or section of a long poem assigned on the syllabus (Charles, Cullen, Dickinson, H. D., Stevens, Williams, Bidart, Smith, Stallings, Vuong, Young, Brown), 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 or novel assigned on the syllabus (O'Connor, Wilson, Powers), 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 key passage of fiction, you should write a paper that interprets the 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.

Parameters

Peer Response

The dual goals of this course are for you to read and write about literature in a variety of manners. Prewriting and formal papers allow you to analyze the literary works. 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 close reading paper 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. 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.

  1. Writers upload their papers (in Word or RTF format so everyone can read it) to both GeorgiaVIEW > Course Work > Discussions > Close Reading Peer Response and GeorgiaVIEW > Course Work > Assignments > Close Reading Paper on Thursday, February 18.
  2. Each group member reads, take notes on, and prepares to respond to fellow group members' papers before the peer response class.
  3. During the peer response session, the peer response group will collectively complete the Close Reading Paper peer response sheet for each writer, then upload the completed response to GeorgiaVIEW > Course Work > Discussions > Close Reading Paper Peer Response.

Here are the groups:

Idea and Significance Paper

Prewriting 1: Personal and/or Cultural Significance

After reading Jackie Sibblies Drury's Fairview respond to 1) why and how the play is personally significant for you as a reader and/or 2) why and how the play is important for the audience in general? In other words, what ideas does it explore, and how are those ideas significant for an individual and/or our culture?

Idea and Significance Essay

In the first formal paper, you closely read a poem or fiction 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 both personally and culturally. In the second formal paper, you will also interpret the conflict and main idea of a literary work up to March 16 on the syllabus, but in a different genre than you wrote on in your Close Reading Paper (for instance, if you wrote about a poem then, you must write about fiction, graphic literature, or drama now). 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: What is the core conflict and overall theme of the work, and 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.

Parameters

Peer Response

The peer response process for the Significance Paper is the same as the procedure for the Close Reading Paper.

  1. Writers upload their papers (in Word or RTF format so everyone can read it) to both GeorgiaVIEW > Course Work > Discussions > Significance Paper Peer Response and GeorgiaVIEW > Course Work > Assignments > Significance Paper Draft 1 on Thursday, March 18.
  2. Each group member reads, take notes on, and prepares to respond to fellow group members' papers before the peer response class.
  3. For the peer response session on Tuesday, March 23, the group will collectively complete the Significance Paper peer response sheet for each writer, then upload the completed response to GeorgiaVIEW > Course Work > Discussions > Significance Paper Peer Response.

Here are the groups:

Summary and Evaluation Paper

You practiced close reading of textual evidence to prove the core conflict and overall theme of a literary work in the first paper and then added argument regarding a literary work's ideas and significance in the second paper. In the third paper, you will also summarily analyze a literary work (in a different genre from the first two papers), proving its conflict and theme, but the focus of your argument will now be on evaluating the text from an aesthetic, moral, or true standpoint. Some questions to help your brainstorming include, but are not limited to: Does the work cohere aesthetically, or does it have a problem with unity? How do you judge the moral content of the text, in other words, is the work moral? Are the characters and the plot realistically portrayed, or is the work satirical or experimental, and why/how does it matter? Is the literary truth conveyed by the text insightful and original or is it trite or contradictory? (Note: These questions are designed to get you thinking, not to be explicitly answered in your paper.) Your paper's thesis should summarize the meaning of the work and evaluate the work. Your summary and evaluation paper should both 1) summarize the text, providing analysis of conflict and theme based on textual evidence, and 2) evaluate the text, providing the reasons for your judgment, i.e., the standards with which you are assessing the work.

Parameters

Peer Response

The peer response for the Summary and Evaluation Paper is the same procedure as the two previous papers. The peer response groups for this paper are the same as the group project.

  1. Writers upload their papers (in Word or RTF format so everyone can read it) to both GeorgiaVIEW > Course Work > Discussions > Group Project and GeorgiaVIEW > Course Work > Course Work > Assignments > Summary and Evaluation Paper on Thursday, April 15.
  2. Each group member reads, take notes on, and prepares to respond to fellow group members' papers before the peer response class.
  3. For the peer response session on Tuesday, April 20, the group will collectively complete the Summary and Evaluation Paper peer response sheet for each writer, then upload the completed response to GeorgiaVIEW > Course Work > Discussions > Group Project.

The peer response groups are the same as the group project groups

Group Research Project

Groups of 3-4 will choose a work of literature from their selected genre (poetry, fiction, graphic literature, drama, film, and television) that is neither by an author on our syllabus nor researched in high school, compile a 12-16 source annotated bibliography of scholarly literary criticism on the text (4 sources per group member), and share their analysis and research of the text with the class in a 20 minute presentation and 10 minute question and answer session.

 

You may write your research paper on the same literary work as your group project as long as each group member proves her own distinct topic; or you may choose another text which you've not previously written on, subject to professor approval.

1. Sign Up

Poetry

Whitman, Leaves of Grass

Thursday, 4-22

Nicole Parkerson

Catherine Rogers

Cam Shaw

Lilly Stephens

Fiction

Gilman, "The Yellow Wallpaper"

Thursday, 4-22

Cierra Clark

Lani Daniel

Isabelle Rader

Graphic Literature

Moore and Lloyd, V for Vendetta

Tuesday, 4-27

Angela Cote

Jude Harvey

Mattie Stewart

Drama

Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet

Tuesday, 4-27

Annie Garner

Ashley Mooney

Serena Rahaman

Laurel Sneller

Film

Fight Club

Thursday, 4-29

Chase Geier

Eva Sheehan

Ben Voorhies

Television

Friends

Thursday, 4-29

Grace Barker

Emma Futch

Hannah Lee

Ryan Williams

2. Topics, Bibliographies, Plan of Action

The poetry group will select a few poems or a book of poetry by a single poet; the fiction group will select a couple of short stories, a short story collection, or a novel by a single author. The drama group will select a full length play; the graphic literature group will select a graphic novel. The film group will choose a film, and the television group will select a television series.

 

On Thursday, 4-1 in GeorgiaVIEW > Course Work > Assignments > Group Project, groups will submit 1) 3 ranked choices of literary works, 2) 3 bibliographies (one bibliography for each literary work, each bibliography consisting of 5 scholarly journal articles and 5 books or book chapters) compiled using the Literary Research Methods handout, and 3) a plan of action for the group work. The professor will advise the final selection based on appropriateness and researchability. Please submit the following information in one file:

  1. a list of 3 ranked choices of literary works
  2. 3 bibliographies in MLA Format, compiled using the Literary Research Methods handout
    • Each bibliography must consist of 5 scholarly books from the GCSU and USG libraries and 5 scholarly journal articles from databases like Academic Search Complete and JSTOR.
    • 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 literary research.
  3. a plan of action listing when the group will meet outside of class as well as each group member's responsibilities

3. Conferences

On Thursday, April 15, the Poetry, Fiction, and Graphic Literature groups will conference with the professor. On Tuesday, April 20, the Drama, Film, and Television groups will conference.

 

For your conference, be prepared to discuss the status of your group project as well as the topic of your individual research paper, which can either add research to a previous paper or be based on your group project.

 

Conference Date and Time

Group

Thursday, April 15, 9:30

Poetry

Thursday, April 15, 9:50

Fiction

Thursday, April 15, 10:10

Graphic Literature

Tuesday, April 20, 9:30

Drama

Tuesday, April 20, 9:50

Film

Tuesday, April 20, 10:10

Television

4. Presentation and Annotated Bibliography

On Thursday, April 22, Tuesday, April 27, and Thursday, April 29, 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, one group member will submit the group's 12-16 source annotated bibliography (4 sources per group member) to GeorgiaVIEW > Course Work > Assignments > Group Project. Be sure to put the annotated bibliography entries

in one file.

 

The presentation should teach the class the literary work by analyzing a key part of it, conveying the core conflict and overall theme of the work, arguing the idea and significance of the work, summarizing and evaluating the work, and sharing scholarly research that supports your interpretation of the work. Clips, like those from 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. I recommend answering the following questions:

  1. What question, issue, or topic is the source investigating?
  2. What is the source's thesis or conclusion regarding the work of literature?
  3. How does the source help your understanding of the work of literature?

And I suggest using this template.

 

Submit the bibliography as one file to GeorgiaVIEW > Course Work > Assignments > Group Project on the day of your presentation. Retrieve your graded project approximately one week later in the same dropbox.

5. Group Policy

Each group member is responsible for staying connected with the group, attending meetings, actively participating in meetings, doing her delegated work, i.e., contributing her fair share to the project. In order to hold singular members accountable in a team project, each group member should individually compose and submit to GeorgiaVIEW > Course Work > Assignments > Group Project - Individual Evaluation a paragraph that assesses their own performance and their peers' service to the assignment. If it becomes apparent that a group member did not participate (skipped meetings, didn't complete her assigned work, etc.), that member will be assessed individually rather than receive the group grade.

Individual Research Paper

You've written three papers that closely read a literary work, argued a work's significance, and evaluated a work. In groups, you've researched a work of literature and taught it to the class. For the research paper, you will interpret a work of literature using secondary sources (literary criticism) to prove your analysis. 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.

 

You may write your research paper on the same literary work as your group project as long as each group member proves her own distinct topic and claim; or you may choose another text which you've not previously written on, subject to professor approval.

 

Your paper should integrate at least 5 works of scholarly criticism (journal articles, books, and/or book chapters) to provide support and/or counterargument for your reading of the issue.

 

The threefold emphasis of this paper is your thoughtful appreciation 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.

 

There will be no official peer response or first draft grade for this paper. On the one hand, you should apply the critical techniques learned from the three previous peer response sessions and professor feedbacks; on the other hand, you are encouraged to workshop drafts among your group project members and seek informal feedback from your professor.

Parameters

 

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