ENGLISH 20101CRN 21274 Spring 1999
INTRODUCTION TO MODERN FICTION
ENGLISH 20101DDIGITAL TOOLKiT FOR STUDENTS!!!
LearntheNet:
From "getting started" Internet basics to the web, email, newsgroups,
searching, web publishing, and multimedia. Clear explanations and useful
links.
The
WWW Modern Fiction Discussion Board Where You Post Your Stuff
Introduction
to English 201--A Virtual Version
The
Calendar: What You Need to Read, Write, and Do Day by Day
Details
on the Analytical Papers Assigned in This Class
How
to Write Excellent Analytical Papers
Some
Sample Analytical Papers Written by English 201 Students
Frequently
Asked Questions
Discussions
of ESL Problems at Dave's ESL Cafe!!
Stories
and Their Origins
Weekly
Prompts for Writing Your Short Story
Some
On-Line Fiction Sites
Some
Sample Stories Written by 201 Students
Writers'
Gallery of Pretty Good Liknesses
Home
Page Resources
Writers'
Gallery of Pretty Good Liknesses
Home
Page Resources
A Glossary of Literary Terms and A Handbook of Rhetorical Devices
For some excellent and detailed advice and tutoring on How Do I Read (and Write) Like That? Writing Papers for Literature Courses study the information contained in the links offered here. They are a gold mine of practical advice, definitions of terms, "rules" for documenting sources. The comprise your private on-line tutor, one that may be consulted at any time.
To help you understand such terms as "dependent clause" and "dependent clause," please consult Jack Lynch's own Grammar and Style Noteswhich lives at http:www.english.upenn.edu/~jlynch/Grammar/ This document, complete with a search engine, will answer just about all of your grammar and usage questions. Use it--often! And try Guide to Grammar and Writing [Javascript, Java]
I'm including this interesting set of linksLiterature Resources for the High School and College Student even though it contains an editing error that I cannot abid. Here's the sentence: "These listings are suppose to be fun to visit." I've quoted exactly here. Can you find the error? When you do, drop me an e-mail to show me how smart and observant you are.
A collection of Online Writing Centers and Resources contains good resources for all sorts of writing "challenges."
Resource lists for writers from The Univesity of Missouri includes all sorts of good stuff and links to more.
Online Resource For Writers at The University of Maine Writing Center
A great collection of very useful sites for the reader and writer compiled by Jack Lynch, an incredible graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania. I'm including a few here but you really should take a look at his entire list.
For CRITICAL PAPER #1 please select and analyze a scene from any story in our text EXCEPT any scene that I may use as an example. The paper must make an argument. That is, it must have a clearly articulated thesis that should appear at the end of your introduction and that is developed systematically with evidence and analysis, all presented in acceptable standard written English. To assist you in this task I have compiled a list of excellent resources available on the World Wide Web. Please explore and study these materials and benefit from being able to access this kind of "at-your-fingertips" help from your home. Write a serious draft of the paper on your word processor so that it is 5 to 7 pages long (double spaced). After you edit, proofread, and correct it, post it to the ENG 201 DISCUSSION LIST no later than midnight of the day it is due. Please keep in mind that everyone and anyone can and will read your work! You'll want to make it the best possible, won't you? See CALENDAR OF ASSIGNMENTS. I will grade this draft and return it to you by e-mail. If revisions are necessary, I'll give you a date when they are due.
For CRITICAL PAPER #2, please select and write an analysis of any character (characterization) from any story in our text. Again, your paper must make an argument with a clearly articulated thesis as described above and follow the instructions for paper #1 in all respects here except that the topic of your investigations is the nature and consequence of the characterization of a particular character. After you edit, proofread, and correct it,post it to the ENG 201 DISCUSSION LIST no later than midnight of the day it is due. See CALENDAR OF ASSIGNMENTS. I will grade this draft and return it to you by e-mail. If revisions are necessary, I'll give you a date when they are due. I will put the best papers on a WEB page on this site for all to read.
Look at this site for a rather generalized explanation of how to write literary analyses (and any other kind too of course). However, for this assigned paper, I have a definite structure that I want you to follow. First of all, you need to know what a "scene" is. We can make use of analogy here. I'm sure you are all familiar with movies, TV dramas including soap operas, and perhaps with plays. Each of these media constructs its materials in scenes, that is, in segments of action during which the characters generally do not leave, usually focus on one action, and may engage in thought, action, and dialogue. In Louise Erdrich's story "Fleur" (36-45), the story opens with summarized actions (narration) and descriptions of characters but beginning after the additional white space (a "4-line" space transition), the scene-- beginning as if a camera were zooming in slowly after an establishing shot--focuses on Fleur's arrival in Argus. If you notice, the focus gets tighter and tighter until at the bottom of p. 38, the focus is entirely on Fleur, describing her at first physically and racially, then in terms of how she played cards in the context of a community in which women did not usually play cards. The scene then becomes dramatic, that is, it shows her playing cards with the men at Koska's, still maintaining the point of view of Pauline but rendering more than narrating. The scene ends on p. 41 with another 4-line white space transition device.
After you identify a scene (and the wise student picks a scene that she or he has questions about, reactions to), then read it several more times (in addition to the multiple readings you give the whole story) and mark it up. Try to discern its form, its structure. Identify carefully the place(s) it focuses on, the characters who act within those spaces, the actions, the who-does-what- to-whom elements in the scene. Now you are ready to begin to think analytically, to ask yourself what the significance might be of the action on, for instance, characterization (how a character is constructed and revealed), on plot (how each action is motivated, made believable or credible), on theme, the ideas being enacted within the scene, and on the story as a whole.
Now it's time to review your notes, your questions, and begin to brainstorm, to write rapidly but in a way that is focused by your interogation of the text to this point. Then you should be ready to draft a thesis sentence. I want you always to remember that literary criticism is always an argument; that is, it acknowledges that other views may exist but it insists on a particular position because of the several supporting claims that can be made on its behalf, each of which may be buttressed by evidence from the text that the writer analyzes to show its relevance to the supporting claim being developed at this point. That's why crafting your thesis in the form of an argumentative thesis is the required tactic here. What does an argumentative thesis sentence look like? In its extreme form, the one that I require for this assignment, it has the form of: counter claim, main claim, supporting claim (i.e., CC/MC/SCS, little formula you should always remember. The CC is always a dependent clause, the MC an independent clause, and the SCs dependent structures (such as clauses, phrases, or even words). What does one look like on the ground (on the page)? How about this sample thesis that would make an argument about writing an analytical paper? Although writing an analytical paper may seem like a daunting task, approaching the assignment as a logical task of reading, analysis, and writing develops in the critic skills useful in every walk of life because it requires close attention to words and their structures, enhances one's powers of logical thinking through inference and deduction, and develops through the writing a strong sense of confidence in one's abilities to gather analyze evidence and present the results of that search and thought in a coherent, clear, effective form.
As you can see, the CC (counter claim) is expressed in the opening dependent clause, "Although writing an analytical paper may seem like a daunting task," which is followed by a comma and the MC (main claim). The MC is the independent clause--"approaching the assignment as a logical task of reading, analysis, and writing develops in the critic skills useful in every walk of life"--which articulates clearly the heart of the argument of the paper that could be written from it, the thesis. Introducing the several SC's (supporting claims) is the word "because," a subordinate conjunction that signals a series of dependent clauses: "[1] because it requires close attention to words and their structures, [2] enhances one's powers of logical thinking through inference and deduction, and [3] develops through the writing a strong sense of confidence in one's abilities to gather analyze evidence and present the results of that search and thought in a coherent, clear, effective form."
You should then structure the paper as follows: an introduction that identifies the story, defines and briefly describes the scene your are analyzing, and articulates at the end of the paragraph your thesis sentence. The second paragraph should deal with the counter claim in such a way as to acknowlege its support and merit or lack thereof, then segue to the MC and the first SC. Each section of the paper then takes up its particular supporting claim, brings in evidence, analyzes the evidence to show its relevance to the claim being developed, and finally shows how the supporting claim because of its evidence and analysis really does support the main claim of the paper. Thus, the argumentative thesis sentence provides a clear and effective outline for the writer, a logical engine which checks the logic of the assertions the writer is making in the paper, and a roadmap for the reader, who can clearly see where the paper is going.
Thus, this kind of analytical writing assignment helps you develop reading, analytical, and organizational skills, not to mention, skills in articulating and writing about your newly discovered perceptions.
DIGITAL TOOLKiT FOR STUDENTS!!!
LearntheNet:
From "getting started" Internet basics to the web, email, newsgroups,
searching, web publishing, and multimedia. Clear explanations and useful
links.
The
WWW Modern Fiction Discussion Board Where You Post Your Stuff
Introduction
to English 201--A Virtual Version
The
Calendar: What You Need to Read, Write, and Do Day by Day
Details
on the Analytical Papers Assigned in This Class
How
to Write Excellent Analytical Papers
Some
Sample Analytical Papers Written by English 201 Students
Frequently
Asked Questions
Discussions
of ESL Problems at Dave's ESL Cafe!!
Stories
and Their Origins
Weekly
Prompts for Writing Your Short Story
Some
On-Line Fiction Sites
Some
Sample Stories Written by 201 Students
Writers'
Gallery of Pretty Good Liknesses
Home
Page Resources
Writers'
Gallery of Pretty Good Liknesses
Home
Page Resources
A Glossary of Literary Terms and A Handbook of Rhetorical Devices
Last revised 05/06/99. Copyright Theodore C. Humphrey.