On this page you will find information about the following:
Papers:
1. Personal Essay
2. Argument or Persuasive Essay
3. Textual Analysis or Close Reading Analysis Paper
4. Substantial Revision
Blog Posts
1. Post Groups
2. Reading a Post
3. Publishing a Post’
4. Expectations for Post
5. My Thoughts Behind the Post
Choose-A-Reading Post
1. The Assignment
2. The Logistics for the Assignment
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Papers :
The Personal Essay:
There are many ways to write a personal essay (often times we think of these essays as being autobiographical scenes, almost like a memoir). This assignment is designed to encourage you to let writing be a method of thinking and journeying as well as a destination or a piece of communication. As we discussed the word “essay” comes from the French word essayer meaning “to attempt.” In this first assignment I really want you to embrace the essay as an attempt. You have the option of 1) Prior to writing this essay you should stand up side down, ride on the handlebars of a bike, go to the highest height you’ve ever gone, walk down the sidewalk sideways (so that your back is facing the street or the buildings, skip, hop, sprint, sit down somewhere you would never think to sit. The point is that you should engage physically in some movement or gesture that changes your perspective of your environment. 2) You may choose to write from your auditory journey in listening to a piece of music or a unique sound-scape. You should take the 25 essays on The Electric Typewriter as potential models. Whether you do option 1 or 2, you should make notes during your experience, review your notes, and then MAKE A DECISION about what is most important to you.
What strikes you? It may be one word. It may be a whole scene or song. If it’s the whole scene or song,you should push your self to isolate a particular part of the whole that you want to consider in even greater detail. But from there you should construct a personal essay that is not necessarily to persuade anyone to do or think something, but it should leave an impression on people. You should ask yourself about the significance of this small thing or scene. What is the significance to you? What is the significance to the people around you? What is significance in the world? So I expect the significance to you might be easier to answer than the other questions. And indeed you may not be even totally sure why you find this detail striking, but the essay is for attempting. You should speculate.
The essay is not stream of conscious. You should revise it. While it is speculative, you should get to a point where you decide that at least for this “attempt” you are focusing on this 1 or 2 idea. And you should revise your essay according to that understanding.
The purpose of this assignment is both to introduce students to the art of the essay and the potential joys of thinking through writing and allow them to exercise their use of effective description, clear explanation, and compelling organization. This paper is not an argument paper (you are not trying to persuade the reader necessarily to feel or do something, though you might inspire them nonetheless). The paper is not a close reading paper in that you are not necessarily working with a literary or art object (though you may allude to one or even quote one). Nor are you required to have an explicit thesis about how you believe we ought to read one element of the literary or art object in relation to the whole. You might not have an actual thesis statement. However this does not mean that you don’t have a central point or a claim. Remember the deCerteau or the Holmes or the Thoreau. This essay may be an abstract thinking of about a particular phenomenon (that all seems to span from exquisite view) or it may be a recounting of the everyday glories and natural theories that arise out of walking in the landscape (think Thoreau).
Persuasive (Argument) Essay:
This is a five essay should be 5 pages. The primary point of this essay is for you to convincingly argue a point-of-view. In order to make a substantial argument, you will first need a sense of your audience. With that audience in mind, you will need a sound logically-constructed argument, supported by relevant research, and effective rhetorical style.
You should pick an argument you believe in (or at least one you really think you might believe in). However the fact that you believe in your position is not enough to make the paper effective. No matter how much you say, communication is not communication unless you are heard, and so much of hearing has to do with who’s listening. Decide on your audience ahead of time, so you can figure out how to play to your audience’s sensibilities?: Is this a speech to be delivered at a PTA? Might it be helpful to start by highlighting the importance of the village in raising a child? What anecdotes, allusions, and analogies might you use to help make your points not only clear but deeply sensible to your particular audience?
While this paper is not a full out research essay (it’s not a report), you may need to call upon research (quantitative data, expert testimony, popular opinion polls, etc.) to aid you in convincing your point. Your research-whatever type it may be- must be relevant (meaning, germane to the content and logic of your argument), responsible (accurately relayed from a reputable source, which you cite properly), and reasonably interpreted. Of course you will present the research in a way that helps your point. However you may not misrepresent research to the degree that your presentation of the data is unfaithful to the source nor should you attempt to extrapolate erroneous conclusions from a piece of research. For Example: YOU CANNOT say that because one scholar of sociology says that he believes Marxism is dead that the field of sociology no longer believes Marxism exists. Nor should you say that because the NYT reports that 20 percent more students are taking online courses, that there is virtually no point of traditional classes. WHAT YOU CAN DO: You might (after you answer the question, “20 percent more than what?”) decide to say that this number suggests growing interest for online course that ought to encourage administrators to continue exploring this part of education.
While evidence and rhetorical style are important, your argument should not only rely on these appeals. Your argument must be sound in its own logic. It should not rest on syllogisms or logical fallacy (both of which we will discuss in class).
Critical Analysis Essay:
The point of this paper is to exercise students’ analytical and interpretive skills (or as we like to say in the discipline of literature, your close reading skills. For more on what a close reading is, see: Close-Reading-Strategy-Clean) and for putting close readings into a comparative analysis, see, click here. Close reading is important. Perhaps it is too much of a reach to say that close reading makes the world go round, but we can say, at least in this course, that close reading is what allows us to appreciate and articulate the world’s turning. Close reading is an engagement with the particulars of language, form, and content in order to provide a “careful, sustained interpretation of a brief passage of text” or a particular image or object. Certainly if you choose to continue on in the humanities, close reading skills will be an essential practice. However even if you go on to study other things, the ability to not only breakdown and clearly articulate the parts of a particular object or text, but to also be able to analyze and interpret how you see one part or a particular set of parts informing the way you believe we ought to read the whole is invaluable.
This paper should be 7-8 pages long. You will provide a close-reading based argument about a giving text. This paper should have a clear, cogent, and arguable thesis. Whereas in the argument essay, you may get away with not having one explicit statement and in the personal essay, you may have actually arrived at the clearest articulation of the point at the end, here you must very early on state a thesis statement. Similarly you must early on explain how you plan to go about illustrating the claim of your thesis (I call this giving your audience a roadmap). Your sub-points should be clearly introduced and well organized. You should do a good job not only of having relevant examples (passages from a text) but of providing a detailed explanation of how you are reading that particular evidence in a way that allows you make your thesis claim.
One common mistake in these types of papers is that students bite off too much and then they feel like they are choking. YOU CANNOT assess a whole book or even really a whole chapter, which also means you cannot have a thesis or a conclusion that mainly seeks to endorse or condemn the book. You must pick either a tiny self-contained portion (maybe a paragraph) or a small device that reoccurs in the text (perhaps the repletion of the image of a “dark face” or “shadowed face”). You will then examine what’s going on in this small part, and you will try to understand how it affects our understanding of the whole.
* note: I am not so much interested in making you a literary scholar in this paper. What I am interested in is your ability to read the formal parts and social-cultural context of a given text (whether it be a literary, artistic, material, cinematic text). I want to see you demonstrate an ability to understand these components and engage them by examining a small part in relation to how we read the whole. This is to say I want to see you display an interpretive angle, perspective, or argument about the text at hand. To this end, if you would prefer to write on an image, short film clip, etc., you may do so, but ONLY if you get prior approving from me. The same is true if you decide to pick a literary text not on the syllabus.
On Papers: [worth 20 points each]:
I use four assessment categories for papers:
1) thesis [or main point/claim]: Do you have a thesis? Is it articulated clearly? Is it logically sound?
2) argumentation and/or structure: Is your paper organized and presented in a manner that effectively present your argument? Do you have a clear and purposeful outline? Do you have topic sentences and transitions that facilitate the communication of your argument?
3) explication of evidence and sub-point: [persuasive and relevant descriptions]: Do you provide relevant examples? Do you describe your examples and your particular points about each example in a manner that relays the fullness of your thinking and convincingly proves your point or illustrates your paper’s overall thesis?
4) grammar and style: Does your language usage aid or hinder your ability to communicate your ideas? Is your usage of punctuation, prepositions, and other parts of speech keeping with the standard writing rules as detailed in Aaron, Jane E. The Little, Brown Essential Handbook, 7th edition. Longman, 2010 you’re your drafts and revisions address the specific language issues highlighted in class and/or on comments given by instructor on previous work?
Each category is worth 5 points. (Each paper is worth 20 points à 4 categories x 5 points = 20 possible points.)
Blog Posts:
Post Groups:
Each student will submit at least five blog posts. Two of the posts are whole class posts. There is a whole class post assignment at the beginning and the end of the semester. During the semester, the class will be divided into three groups, Group A, Group B, and Group C. (Posts groups will be assigned by Friday, September 5th. ) When it is your group’s week to post, you are responsible for posting 24 hours before class. You can see which groups you are responsible for posting on the schedule of assignments.
While I will try to put the post groups and the post dates on the WordPress site, I suggest making a note of the dates you’re responsible for submitting post in your calendar at the beginning of the semester.
Reading Other People’s Post
Even though you are only required to post when your group is assigned, you are required to read every post before class each week. (Note: if there are 18 people in the class, then you would never be responsible for reading more than 6 posts per week).
Publishing a Post
Important: blog posts MUST be posted 36 hours prior to when class starts, which means by Sunday morning at 2:55 am (otherwise thought of as super late Saturday Night). 36 hours is the least amount of courtesy to me and your peers in terms of allowing us time enough to read the posts. (If it were only 24 hours, this would mean that people who work on Mondays before class would only have Sunday evening to read the posts.) If you anticipate some conflict, you must contact me well in advance (the Wednesday class before) and we will make arrangements. It is disrespectful to other people’s time to give less than 36 hours. The preference is that you will post even earlier. However I will not be sympathetic to postings after the Sunday 2:55 am (postings are time stamped) unless the student has made prior arrangements with me.
Expectation for Blog Posts:
Three main guideline for posts about readings.
1) Attempt to offer what you think the reading was trying to do as a whole. Note you might focus on one of the readings more than the other.
2) Identify some aspect of the reading that you found interesting (even if you hated it). It may be the repetition of a phrase or a weird metaphor or an off color joke in another wise serious piece. Do your best to describe what and where this detail is in the piece.
3) Offer us some thoughts about what that interesting aspect does to how you read what the piece is trying to do as a whole.
** at any point you may make quick associations to other text, theorize far out from your original observation or point, and you may even change your mind about how you felt about the text or that aspect while writing the post, all of which you can include.**
My Thoughts Behind the Post Assignments:
One of the things we will stress in the class is the difference between the act of writing and the creation of a piece of writing. The act of writing is a process that is not always linear. In fact it is rarely linear. It meanders and jumps. It’s messy. It’s a matter of exploration, experimentation, and creativity. A piece of writing even though it may be the end product of several sessions of writing is a thing that communicates or tries to make an impression on some audience other than the writer. It therefore makes use of logical, rhetorical, and semantic structures. It tends to have at least one central point, and it works at every level to work on the reader.
The act of writing and a piece of writing are not (obviously) mutually exclusive. However making a distinction will help us to embrace the complicated (and often frustrating though also rewarding) experience of writing. Though there is no separation of the act of writing and a piece of writing, I hope that you will use the blog posts as a time to embrace the act of writing. Yes you are still creating a piece of writing here, but it is okay for you to show us the path o your thinking and for you to ask exploratory questions. In fact you are encouraged here to speculate. The only thing I ask is that you work hard to explicate (explain in specific detail) where your thoughts are coming from (i.e. how are you reading a particular scene, or what two lines have you put side by side in order to come up with your question.). Even if you cannot answer your question, you need to tell us how you got to that question and why it is an important question.
In as much as you cannot avoid the fact that the blog posts are pieces of writing (though low stakes pieces of writing), please keep your posts between 100-350 words. Your posts should be clear and grammatically sound.
Choose A Reading Posts:
The Assignment
While normally your post should take the reading for that week as the subject, you will see that one of the post for your group is attached to a week with no readings! These weeks are blank because, it will be your job to find the readings for that class. You will see that each group has a particular assignment. One group must find readings that demonstrate compare/contrast techniques and another narration. You are responsible for finding a reading (or with prior permission another type of text) that meets these qualifications. Your reading should not exceed three pages (remember five other people are posting readings too!). You may excerpt from a larger piece if you need to.
Logistics for this Assignment
NOTE IMPORTANT, IMPORTANT, IMPORTANT: There are two due dates associated with this assignment. The first is the date when you must get the readings up on the class site, and the second is the date by which you should publish your post on your reading and the others. The second date in keeping with the post guidelines is at least 36 hours before the start of class. The first date however is 56 hours (4 days) before the start of class.
Clarification: If you are scheduled for the Monday readings, you must post the reading by the previous Thursday at 2:55 pm. And you must post your blog post as usual by Sunday morning at 2:55 am (also thought of as super late Saturday night).
If you are on for the Wednesday, you must post the reading by the previous Saturday at 2:55pm, and you must post your blog posts, by Tuesday morning at 2:55 am (also thought of as super late Monday night).
Yes it is confusing, but it is designed to give maximum time for people to read both the readings and the post and come prepared to class. The schedule has been designed to keep in mind that some people work weekdays, others weekends, some days, and others nights.