One Last Thing

Given the number of papers, it would be helpful to me if you ARE going to come in, if you could let me know by email sometime today, that would be great.


Thanks!

Paper and Grade Pick Up

If you are interested in knowing grades BEFORE they actually show on the Clark website, you can drop by on Monday from 11-2.  I will be in my office happily (and probably a little sleepily) handing back papers and giving final grades.  This will get you your grade several days early.

Please note--I cannot send grades to you over email (this can be a federal offense), so if you want to know early, this is the one way to find out.

I will probably also have cookies.  To share.

If you don't come pick up papers, I will try to hunt you down next term--or you can still bring me a self addressed envelope (it needs to be one of the BIG ones that is full sheet size) and I can send them back to you.  That can be dropped off for me anytime in the main office, if it has my name on it somewhere.

Thanks! I hope that you are all enjoying the beginning of your breaks . . .

Office Hours

Now that classes are over, I have much more leisurely office hour time.  If you would like to 1)  pick up papers; 2) talk about grades; 3) see your grades for the final exam; 4) discuss the critical essay you are writing on; 5) discuss your critical essay response, I will be in my office at the following times:

Friday (12/9):  noon-4:45
Saturday (12/10):  11-4:45
Monday (12/12):  9:30-4:45
Wednesday (12/14):  9:30-4:45
Thursday (12/15):  8-noon

**Reminder:  your critical essay papers are due NO LATER than noon on Thursday, 12/15.  I will not be back to campus before grades are due, so you will fail the course if I don't have it by then.

**if you are planning to come see me, please just drop me an email and let me know so that I can be ready for you and not have 12 other people here at the same time.  Even a very approximate time is good. 

**If you come by Friday or Saturday, please remember that the door to the office suite is locked.  You'll need to knock loudly! and I'll come let you in.

Critical Essay Summary/Response

Your final assignment for the term will be to choose one of the following critical essays, read it, write a summary, and respond to the argument made in the essay.

CHOOSE AN ESSAY:  Following are six critical essays about six of the texts we have read this term.  Choose one to read carefully.  Take notes

"Bradstreet's The Author to Her Book" 
by Lisa Day-Lindsey
"Frederick Douglass' Narrative and the Subtext of Folklore"
by Kelly Rothenberg
"Mary White Rowlandson Remembers Captivity: A Mother's Anguish, a Woman's Voice"
by Parley Ann
"The "Bedeviling of Young Goodman Brown"
by Thomas F., BoswellWalsh Jr.
"`Now, gods, stand up for bastards': Reinterpreting Benjamin Franklin's Autobiography"
by William H. Shurr
"'The Cask of Amontillado' A Case for the Defense"
by Patrick White

SUMMARIZE:  Fully summarize the argument made by the critic.  When necessary for explanatory purposes, convey also the details/evidence used to support that argument.  This should take you a page and a half to two pages. 

EVALUATE:  Evaluate the essay based on the elements of 1) the credentials of the author; 2) the medium of publication; 3) the respectability of the publisher; 4) the currency of the source.  You will find further explanations of these criteria in Writing about Literature, page 114-115.  You may find that you have to do a little research to be able to complete this part of the assignment.  You can start by googling the author and/or the publication in which the essay has been published.  This should take you a well-developed paragraph.

RESPOND:  Do you agree or disagree with the writer?  Is there anything that you are confused about?  Is there something that you respond negatively to in terms of the presentation of the argument?  Is writer suggesting a different way of looking at the text than the way that we discussed it in class?  How does the writer's interpretation of the text compare to the class interpretation or your personal interpretation?  This should take you anywhere from 3-5 paragraphs. 

CONCLUDE:  Leave your reader with some kind of final statement.  Overall how useful did you find this critical essay?  Did it change or enhance your understanding of the text it was discussing?  Did you learn something from reading it?  Did you ultimately not find it helpful?  Why or why not?  Go beyond just summarizing what you have said previously in the paper--instead, try to synthesize the experience of reading this critical essay.

Of course, essays should be formatted as requested in the syllabus and you should cite, correctly in MLA format, any sources that you use (including your critical essay and the original text, if you refer to it).

**There will be copies of the articles in folders next to my door for BORROWING (not enough for each of you to take them away for good) tomorrow (Tuesday) morning.

**Be sure to email me any questions or have them ready for me in class.

DUE:  Thursday, December 15th by noon.

Exam Checklist

This is not so much a guide, as a checklist.  You could be asked about anything from the course--on this list or not.  You should know the following information, at the very least.

WEDNESDAY:  Objective.  Matching.  Fill-in-the-blanks.  Quotation identification.  No notes.  No books.

THURSDAY:  Essay.  Short and longer answer essays.  Open notes and books.

Final Exam Study Checklist

YOU SHOULD KNOW THE NAMES OF ALL THE PIECES OF LITERATURE WE READ THIS TERM, WHO WROTE THEM, AND THEIR GENRE.

Be prepared to define (or give the important characteristics of) the following genres of literature. Also, be prepared to give examples of each.

Myth

Poem

Novel

Short Story

Sermon

Speech

Autobiography

Captivity Narrative

Letter (or Missive)

Essay

Be prepared to define (or give the important characteristics of) the following terms. Also, be prepared to give examples of each or explain how they relate to specific pieces of literature we've read.

Canon

Oral Literature

Puritan

Pilgrim

Geneva Bible

Plain Style

Old/Middle/Modern English

Great Chain of Being

Age of Enlightenment/Age of Reason

John Locke

French Revolution

Tabula Rasa

Deism

Nostalgia 

Unreliable Narrator

Double Consciousness

Parable

Be prepared to identify passages, as you were asked to do on the last quiz, and to 1) explain the context of the quotation; 2) discuss the significance of the quotation to the text specifically and/or to the work of the author generally. 

Answer these questions in short-answer form (4-6 thoughtful sentences). [These are examples. They may or may not show up on the actual exam.  This will be the content for the exam on Thursday]

What are three differences in Puritan and Deist theology or philosophy?

What are some of the changes that occurred in the literature toward the middle of the 19th century?

What were some of the factors that led to changes in literature toward the middle of the 19th century?

Discuss one text that we have read in which the writer seems to have some sense of nostalgia. What is the name of the piece? Who wrote it? And for what is he/she nostalgic?

What are some of the American institutions that were founded during the 18th century that still exist? How do these institutions reflect 18th Century values?

Compare and contrast the audiences and purposes that Benjamin Franklin and Frederick Douglass had in mind for their autobiographies. Do the autobiographies have anything in common?

Which of the texts written in the age of discovery most surprised you and why? Be specific. Give examples from the text.

What are some of the differences between oral and written texts? Why do you think that your editor (Giles Gunn, in this case) felt it necessary to include pieces of oral literature in a print anthology?

Be prepared to write about some of the "American" aspects or themes that we have seen in the literature this term.

Reading Response Due Tuesday, November 29th

This assignment is in lieu of a second explication paper.

Please choose one of the short stories we have read by Irving, Hawthorne, Melville, or Poe.  Write a reader response/reaction paper of about 3 pages.  For the sake of this assignment, you may assume that your reader knows the work you are writing about, so there is no need to summarize it at length.

Instead, you will examine your personal reaction to the text and then explain and defend that reaction.  While there is no "right response" or "wrong response" to a piece of fiction (at least not for the sake of this assignment!), there may be "weak responses" (ones that do not demonstrate a deep understanding of the text or are not well supported with evidence from the text) or "strong responses" (ones that show thoughtfulness about the text and use evidence from the text to support claims made).

Please write a thoughtful, organized, and well-supported (using direct evidence from the text) answer to the following three questions:

1.  What about this story stands out in your mind or strikes you either emotionally or intellectually?
2.  What in your background, values, needs, and interests contributes to your reaction?
3.  What specific passages in the work trigger that reaction?
4.  (Optional)  You may also want to consider whether this reaction is one that the author might have anticipated, or if it is one that his readers might have shared with you.

Your essay must:

• Mention the title of the text and the author and provide a short (1-2 sentence) summary of what the text is about, in the introduction.
• Include a thesis statement that makes an argument that encompasses all the claims you make in the paper (in other words, the paper cannot be a laundry list of your reactions to the text--your claims about the text and your reaction need to be connected through a central thesis).
• Document your source with in text citations and a works cited page, as needed.
• Be well written and proofread.  Use Standard English.  Write in complete sentences.
• Follow the guidelines as listed in the syllabus--EXACTLY.  

If you have any questions, please email me over the weekend.  I would also be VERY HAPPY to look at rough drafts, if you send them no later than Sunday evening.  You might also look at this webpage, which has a great process for brainstorming ideas for a reaction paper. 

Please remember that this will be your only, graded draft of this paper.  Good luck.  I look forward to hearing what you come up with.

Links for End-of-Term Readings

We will spend more time on "Sleepy Hollow" next Tuesday, but also read:

"The Minister's Black Veil"
"Young Goodman Brown" 
Both by Hawthorne

And for Thursday it will be all Poe:

"The Cask of Amontillado"
and "The Haunted Palace"

The following week for Tuesday, please read the selections from Walden Pond
and from Emerson's Nature  (Selections are on the previous blog post.)

Please let me know if you have problems accessing any of these.