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English 120 Course Materials
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Assignments
Summary of Assignments
Conferences
Conferences You will be required to meet with me at least three times during the term, including an introductory conference at the beginning of the term. (Naturally, you are welcome to consult me more than three times.) If all goes well, this should be a pleasant requirement to fulfill; I just want to let you know the conferences are coming. All I ask--nay, beg--is that you show up when we agree that we'll meet. If you really really can't do so, please email me to let me know not to wait for you. Responses This assignment was adapted from one given by Michael Barsanti There are many assignments due for this class that are called "Responses." Students are often confused by these assignments, in part because they are less formal than what they have been asked to write for classes in the past. These are not essays or themes: they do not need to support a single argument or provide a neat introduction and conclusion. Responses can include questions for the class, conjectures, gut feelings, and speculations. They should, however, provide specific textual evidence for whatever points they want to make. (In other words, quote readings specifically, with page numbers, rather than referring vaguely to them.) Responses should represent a first attempt to make sense out of the assignment, a first attempt at getting the bits and pieces you have marked in the reading to hang together in some way. In grading them, I will reward careful presentation of textual evidence, intellectual risk-taking, and efforts to provide material for class discussion. I also expect you to write in standard prose, as opposed to the less formal language of email. As far as the content of responses goes, however, be fearless: the correctness of these preliminary thoughts is not a factor. Responses are due by 10:00 pm the evening before the class for which they are assigned. Because the success of this course depends on our ability to read and consider responses in advance of each class session, late responses will incur severe grade penalties: the maximum grade for a late response will be a C. Here's how I imagine you doing these assignments: You read the assigned readings, and mark them up accordingly with passages that strike you. In some cases, you may be assigned to follow a particular theme or answer a particular question. Other times, I will leave the assignment open-ended.
Should you have trouble with the discussion board server for any reason, send an email to the class (including me) with your response, and post it to the board when the technical problems are resolved. These responses will be fodder for class discussions and for papers. Each student should print all the responses for each class and mark potential comments or questions. I might collect your copies of the responses occasionally to see how well this process is working. Groupwork The response groups will each work together on leading class sessions twice during the term, once on an assigned short story and once on a poem of the group's choice. For each presentation, the group will meet to draw up a plan and then touch base with me. Next, the group will assign the class the reading (or optional additional reading, in the case of the short fiction session) necessary for the class session. Then the group will preside over the class session itself, which should include class discussion as well as any material that the group wants to present about texts and critical approaches. After the class session, each group member will write up a brief narrative of the group's work, including an evaluation of each group member's contributions to the session. Quizzes Because the class does not have a final exam, we will have occasional quizzes on the reading. The quizzes will consist of straightforward questions on the explicit content of the readings rather than interpretive matters. Paper Prospecti In advance of each paper that you write, you will need to submit a paper prospectus. An ungraded, informal assignment, the prospectus functions as a way to start your conversation with me in a pre-paper conference. (You can hurt your grade with the prospectus only by turning it in late or failing to turn it in at all.) At minimum, the prospectus consists of a long paragraph to a page explaining the topic you want to pursue. If you have progressed far enough to give me more information, I will read whatever you want to give me as a prospectus. Fiction Analysis Paper The fiction analysis paper should be about 1200 to 1500 words long, roughly four or five pages. It should address Wuthering Heights, and it should use at least one critical article about the novel (the assigned articles are fine) to situate its argument. For guidance about what I look for in papers, see the following links. They contain a lot of information; I assume that each of you will find some parts more relevant and useful than others.
Scene Analysis Paper The scene analysis paper should be about 1200 to 1500 words long, roughly four or five pages. Aside from the goals of clarity, coherent organization and so forth that apply to every paper, this paper asks you to describe a scene from a film in a way that a) demonstrates a facility with analyzing film as film, including descriptions of film-specific techniques, and b) uses details from the chosen scene as a way to say something about the film as a whole. The following three "circles" describe the levels at which the paper can work; the best scene analyses will combine all three kinds of analysis. Three Circles of the Scene Analysis
Center circle: the specific elements of one scene. Example: "The lighting of the boarding house scene starts with the page of Thatcher's manuscript fading into the white of the snow." This circle will supply most of the evidence your paper cites. Details from your chosen scene will populate the body paragraphs, certainly, but they can also work to add specificity to your introduction or conclusion.
Second circle: the context of your chosen elements in the work. Example: "The boarding house scene is lighted environmentally, creating a 'natural' effect unlike the obviously artificial directional lighting of the rest of the film." This circle may not require its own section, but dropping in details that situate your scene in the film as a whole can help your reader bridge the gap between your smallest details and your largest claims about the whole film.
Outer circle: the consequences of your point for the work as a whole. Example: "Even though the presence of an abusive father seems to complicate Kane's nostalgia for an innocent childhood, the lighting of the boarding house scene reinforces the 'naturalness' of childhood that feeds our sympathy for his nostalgia. Your introduction and conclusion can do a lot of the work of moving your paper into this circle, where the paper explains to its reader why paying attention to details of a scene will result in some kind of new understanding of the film. This circle allows you to move beyond the most straightforward explanations-a scene uses dark colors to represent evil, and so does the film, for example-to showing something a little unusual that your analysis brings out in the film. Final Paper The final paper should be about 1800 to 2200 words long, roughly six or seven pages. It should address a piece of poetry primarily (any poem, whether assigned for the class or not, is fine), and it should substantially engage at least two critical pieces, putting them in conversation with each other and with your own critical voice. The same general expectations linked above apply to this paper. Grade Breakdown
Responses: 10%
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