great works ii – 2850 jta 12:25-2:05: love letters from the world

Nicole:

This semester in our English course has been helpful in several different ways. This class has personally benefited me by helping me understand to look deeper than the surface. I’ve realized that not everything is meant to be read so literal. As a direct person I have a habit of reading things for what they are and not for what they really could mean or symbolize. I feel that my strength is participating in the oral discussions and being able to correlate others perceptions with the reading. Another strength I realized I have is my free writing. I’m good at developing different ideas and different meanings to the readings. I do feel I could have done better on the essay if I was to pay closer attention to tiny details throughout my essay. So far I am keeping up with the posts and the reading so I am expecting and hoping for a  good grade.

Maria:

Being a Finance major, this English course definitely allows me to channel my creative and free thinking side. The stories we read for this course allow me to think critically and find the deeper meaning of the text. One strength I developed is writing clear and concise paragraphs. The structure that the professor has us write in, has definitely helped me articulate my thought in a way that the reader will understand. The group work is another component of the class that I enjoy as it motivates the group to work well as a team and support one another through responses and understanding texts. I hope to continue to strengthen my written communication skills as that is one skill I believe I need to work on. The quizzes, exams and posts definitely motivate me to not only do the readings but read and simultaneously analyze the meaning of the text. I am looking forward to the oral essay as it is definitely more creative and different from all of the speeches and presentations I have made for my other Finance courses.

Tara:

This semester I have found this English course to be productive in many aspects. Free writing during class has been helpful in remembering all ideas brought up in class. I have also learned to better construct a clear paragraph in order to make my point clearer to the reader. Lastly I’ve worked on reading things and trying to understand the underlying meaning within it. Prior to this course I never would analyze readings so thoroughly and try to understand multiple perspectives. I have found this enjoyable because I often hear thoughts that I never noticed during the reading. I think because of reading quizzes and posts every week; I have kept up with the readings which was very helpful for the exam and essay. I think I can work on my communication skills during large group discussions. As a corporate communications major I am not used to abstract thinking, however I think doing so can be helpful in my career and i’d like to improve on that.

One thing I’ve improved on so far this semester is I’ve begun to analyze more in my responses to our readings. Earlier in the semester I would summarize the readings instead of analyzing. Now I think I am doing a better job of analyzing the text. One area of improvement for me would be to participate more in our group discussions. Having a dialogue with the class is very important, especially since we only meet once a week, so participation is definitely something I am hoping to improve upon throughout the rest of the semester.

-Muneeb

Jacqueline Devine:

This semester I’ve noticed how much I need to work on my free-writing. I struggle with being able to put my thoughts into structured sentences in a limited amount of time. I am okay when it comes to actually writing an essay where I can clearly think out my ideas, and I have time to outline my strategies. But with free- writing, I have a difficult time because I become anxious about the time limit, and my thoughts start to become jumbled from stress. I hope to improve this as the class continues with our in- class writing practices. On the other hand, I think I have grown in my oral communication skills through our group discussions. I am getting out of my shyness a bit more as we discuss our opinions freely. I enjoy this aspect of our class, and it has helped me become better at speaking in front of my peers.

Thanks to everyone for your interesting proposals for exam questions and topics.

Most of you have presented some valid, and often compelling suggestions for midterm topics/questions. As in the case for most students, the most troublesome challenge with this assignment is narrowing the topic. Remember, on the exam, you will be asked to respond in paragraph form, so you will need to make sure your topic sentences are appropriate for a paragraph.

Several of you mention ideas that connect to a journey model, to the search for enlightenment, or to the protagonist as the hero. These are valid topics, of course, and ones we have spent a good deal of time discussing, but you will need to narrow these ideas quite a bit, in order to write a convincing response.

For example, some of you talk about the protagonist as a hero, and that’s a good place to start, but if you were asked to use the idea of the “hero” to compare or contrast two protagonists, how would you narrow this very large idea to a paragraph sized topic (one paragraph for each protagonist)?

Some suggestions: First, decide on what kind of hero this protagonist is: Traditional Hero (and if so, Campbell’s or Aristotle’s)? Anti-hero? Satanic Hero? A mixture of more than one? Your own definition? And you are absolutely welcome to use your own definition of a hero, but if you do so, be VERY specific. Then, after you decide what kind of hero the protagonist is, you would need to focus on a specific trait of that hero, yes, one specific character trait. This is very important, because if your topic sentence is not focused on something very specific, your entire paragraph will be much too general. Each paragraph should be an analysis, not a summary or paraphrase.

Remember our paragraph form: (and these items need not be in this order)

1 Concise topic sentence (your assertion, which is actually a sub-topic of your thesis)

2 Short introduction to your support (putting your quote in a context).

3 Support for your topic sentence/assertion (not more than one or two sentences). You are only to use one quote per paragraph, so make sure it is a very rich quote.

4 Explanation of why, very specifically, your quote defends your assertion. This is most of your paragraph, so you need to make sure you are doing an in-depth analysis of your chosen piece of text, and not simply a summary or paraphrase. You will certainly want to go back into the quote and point out specific words that “prove” your assertion.

Do you see any similarity in how Monkey and Bartleby changed their behavior? Why do you think they changed or why do you think they did not change?
– Joaquin

Pick a character from from Journey to the West, Life of the Sensuous Woman, or Bartleby and explain the theme of punishment and how this specific character overcame this challenge.
– Katarina

Monkey from Journey to the West and the narrator from The Life of a Sensuous Woman both go through the heroic journey even though their journeys are different. Compare the two journeys that explains their story as well as the common theme they may share.
– Onu Mezbah

Compare and Contrast Monkey King and Bartleby’s attributes and qualities and choose one heroic themes (Traditional hero, Satanic Hero, or Anti Hero) that ties to these two characters’ personalities.
– Farhan Zaman

Rebecca:

Both Bartleby and Monkey contemplate life and it’s purpose- and come to a conclusion. However, they react in different ways. Show how these two characters react in contrasting ways, and provide evidence from both stories.

Michelle:

In both Journey to the West and Life of A Sensuous Woman, both characters go on their own different journey. These journeys had an impact on both character’s growth from the beginning to end of the story. Include two quotes and/or examples that demonstrate the growth of each character, one quote from the beginning and one from the end.

Songyun:

Compare Journey to the West and Bartleby the Scrivener, are they different kinds of “heros”, or the same kinds of “heros”, traditional hero, anti-hero, satanic hero or no hero at all. Explain and using some quotation from the text.

Compare how Monkey from Journey to the West and Bartleby from Bartleby the Scrivener, may be viewed as any one of the following “heroes”— Traditional Hero, Anti-Hero or Satanic Hero. Provide at least one quote from each text to support your statement.

• Aly Yoon

The narrator, from Bartleby the Scrivener, and Monkey from, Journey to the West, face challenges throughout the course of the text that results in them changing one way or another. Provide evidence from each story that shows how each character changed and whether the change resulted in a positive or negative way.

• Jorge Moreno

Monkey from Journey to the West and the woman in the Life of a Sensuous Woman both go on their own type of heroic journey.  Discuss how their journeys are similar or different.  Provide evidence from each story.

• Preston Cheung

The narrator from Bartleby, the Scrivener, and Monkey from Journey to the West, can both be viewed as traditional heroes. Discuss the qualities that both characters display that would put them in the category of “traditional hero”. What evidence from the text suggests that these two characters can be viewed as traditional heroes?

-Muneeb Khan

Daphne Young:

Looking at the Heroic Journey model by Joseph Campbell, how is Monkey’s journey to enlightenment (from Journey to the West) similar to the narrator’s journey from Life of a Sensuous Woman?

Susanna Domosi:

How does Melville, the author of Bartleby the Scrivener and Saikaku, the author of The Life of a Sensuous Woman use their main characters to comment on society? How is this commentary on society similar and how is it different?

Jiwoo Han:

          Compare the main characters, Monkey and Bartleby, from “Journey to the West” and “Bartleby the Scrivener”. How do their character traits help Monkey’s journey to enlightenment and Bartleby’s heroic journey respectively?

In “Journey to the West”, would you say Monkey is more like the main character from “Life of a Sensuous woman” or Bartleby in “Bartleby the Scrivener”? Explain why do you think these two characters are similar and what character traits do both posses.

-Bintou Samura

Compare the obstacles that Monkey in “Journey to the West” and the Sensuous Woman in “Life of a Sensuous Woman” had to overcome to achieve enlightenment.

    -Joseph Morreale

Following the Heroic Journey model, between the woman in Life of a Sensuous Woman and Bartleby in “Bartleby the Scrivener” which journey(s) are similar. How are they similar?

-Keauna