March 2009 Listing

Stories are universal, but they also serve a puprpose for specific audiences.

Steinbeck

If you have been keeping up with your blogging, this should only take you a few minutes to compile. If you've fallen behind, this assignment is a chance for you to catch up.

Generally, you should include all your entries, if only to demonstrate that you blogged each time I asked you to. But some people blog more than they strictly have to, so I don't formally require everyone to include every blog entry they wrote. (You might, for instance, post an agenda item before the due date, but then post a longer, more thoughtful entry after the class discussion. I'd rather you put the more thoughtful essay in your portfolio.)

Finish

Propose something thought-provoking and fun.

1. Topic (a question about the literary work, not the real world)
2. Thesis statement (answer the question, with a precise but non-obvious opinion; offer a blueprint for the paper -- "[Claim], because A, B, and C.")
3. Quotations supporting your thesis
4. Quotations supporting alternate or opposing arguments
5. Preliminary conclusion
6. MLA-style Works Cited list (demonstrating your knowledge of the correct format)
7. Format the presubmission as an MLA-style paper (title block, pagination, etc.)

Foster; Wilder

Ch 21-24

Finish

Cassuto, David. "Turning wine into water: Water as privileged signifier in The Grapes of Wrath."    Papers on Language & Literature. 29:1 (1993) 67-95.

• You can find the full text online through Reeves Library, using the Academic Search Elite database. (Finding the article online is part of the assignment.)
  
• This is a peer-reviewed academic article -- a scholarly document, written by an academic literature specialist.
  
• Please write your "agenda item" quotation as you normally would. I'm also asking you to consider these questions as you read: (You don't have to post your answers to your blog, though you're welcome to do so if that helps you work through the essay.)
• What the article's thesis?
  
• To what extent is the thesis non-obvious? 
  
• To what extent is the thesis supported by evidence?  (What kind of evidence?) 
  
• What are some opposing / alternative views presented by the author?

I'll extend the deadline for the agenda item for this reading; please post your agenda item by Monday at noon.

Ch 25, 26, 12 (again)

The poets we'll be looking at today are Theodore Roethke, Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Lowell, and Sylvia Plath, so keep an eye out for their names in the introduction.

I've assigned three sets of poetry readings (the first is this page, and the other two are on separage pages for Roethke and Plath). I'm asking that you post three separate agenda items, one for each chunk of readings. You don't need to post 2-4 comments for each set of readings; if you post a total of 4 comments this week, that would be fine. (You're welcome to post more of course, as extra credit to boost your participation grade; just make sure you call my attention to your extra work when you submit your next blog portfolio.)

(I've created separate pages for the section on Roethke and the section on Plath. Post your agenda items for those readings on the appropriate pages.)

Readings for this section:

• Pages xv-xxiv in the introduction.
• Elizabeth Bishop: "Armadillo" (page 47); "Manners" (48); "Filling Station" (49)
• Robert Lowell: "The Drinker" (93) (97); "Robert Frost" (103); "Bringing a Turtle Home" (105) and "Returning Turtle" (106)

The son of the poets Ted Hughes and Sylvia Plath has taken his own life, 46 years after his mother gassed herself while he slept.-- Times Online

Upload a single word-processor file, to the Paper 2 Presubmit slot in turnitin.com.

1. Topic (a question about the literary work, not the real world)
2. Thesis statement (answer the question, with a precise but non-obvious opinion; offer a blueprint for the paper -- "[Claim], because A, B, and C.")
3. Quotations supporting your thesis
4. Quotations supporting alternate or opposing arguments
5. Preliminary conclusion
6. MLA-style Works Cited list (demonstrating your knowledge of the correct format)
7. Format the presubmission as an MLA-style paper (title block, pagination, etc.)

Prologue - Ch 14