English 105.009, Spring 2011, Syllabus View  (Rev. 03/28/2011 09:45 AM)

Note on this web site's typographic conventions--article and Internet webpage titles are indicated by quotation marks, like "Orson Welles – Painter" or "English 105.009, Spring 2011, Syllabus View" (see above).  Because web pages typically use underscoring to indicate the presence of a hyperlink to another web page or application, this site will attempt to follow that convention as in this link to the home page.  Therefore, italic type will be used, as MLA Style requires, to indicate titles of major works, such as books, periodicals, or Web site titles (Mosses from the Old Manse, Sight and Sound, or British Library: English Short Title Catalog).  Italics also are used to set off foreign words or phrases in English text (E.g., "As Bogart and Bergman watch from the restaurant's window, the sound truck's speakers blare the message, 'Die deutschen Truppen Stehen vor den Toren von Paris.'").  Learn to pay attention to the distinction between italics and roman type.  This difference that rapidly is being forgotten by those who read only on the Internet, where playing around with type fonts has brought readers to back the brink of the anarchic print conventions of the late Seventeenth Century.  We used to know the differences among hamlet and Hamlet and Hamlet just by the type in which they were set.   

WEEK 1--Paper #1: Product Purchase Recommendation.  Review what you learned about academic writing in previous semesters and be prepared to ask questions about anything academic writers do whose purpose you don't understand or think unnecessary.

Wed. 1/26: Before class, read the web pages College Writing Proficiency Criteria, "How is Scholarly Intellectual Property Made?, and Some Things I Assume about Academic Writing. Then we will discuss ways to approach the "Product Purchase Recommendation" paper (possible topic proposal Bb posting due this Friday, draft due next Friday; final draft due the following Friday--see below for dates).  Click here and read the hyperlinked pages for today's discussion.  At the end of class, I will ask you to write a short diagnostic essay about your writing experience last semester. 

Fri. 1/28: Click here and read the hyperlinked pages for today's discussion.  By the next class, you should have decided on the product you are researching, the audience and purpose for which it will be useful, and at least some sources of evidence you will use to form your decision about which product to recommend.  Bring this evidence (and your questions/problems) to the next class. By 5 PM today, creat a Blackboard forum posting of a short but carefully composed message that lists three possible products you are interesting in researching for the PPR, specific characteristics of readers who would be most likely to benefit from reading each of them, and specific places where you expect to find reliable expert information to guide your recommendation.  Note that some personal familiarity with the products will be essential to your ability to write the recommendation, but that no recommendation will succeed with any reasonable "best readers" without evidence and reasoning drawn from experts other than you.  Look for my reply before the next class and prepare to focus your research.

WEEK 2--Paper #1 Development and First Draft--"Information Literacy"

Mon. 1/31: Read the "Reading to Write" web page and all pages linked to it.  When class begins, I will show you where to find the answers from last week's quiz.  Click here for a guide to today's discussion.    Also take the "Paraphrase Plagiarism Risk Quiz" to see how bullet-proof you are at detecting paraphrase plagiarism, by far the most common mistake in freshman and sophomore college writing.

Wed. 2/2: PPR topic refining.  Improving your description of your best readers' needs and the product features that would satisfy them.:  Click here for a guide to today's discussion.  If you want a head start on the workshop on direct quotation, paraphrase, and summary from sources, click here.   If you have laptop or netbook computers, please bring them to class today!

Fri. 2/4: Peer-editing workshop for the Product Purchase Recommendation paper--finding better sources and evaluating them.  Consider using the "Grid" or some similar tool to collect and analyze your sources' analysis of products by feature or user need.  Bring a printed copy of your working draft, and save a digital copy to your folder on the Goucher server in addition to bringing it to class on a flash drive, laptop or netbook, etc.  Make a practice of uploading important drafts to the Goucher server at the end of each work session and you will never lose work due to a crashed computer, lost flash drive, etc.  The printed copy will enable your workshop partner to see the whole paper as it would be read by your best readers, rather than having to scroll through it 50 lines at a time.  If you have laptop or netbook computers, please bring them to class today!

        The first draft of the Product Purchase Recommendation is due by 9 AM Saturday posted to the Blackboard discussion forum as an attached MS-Word file--minimum content: a working title, an introductory paragraph with a clear statement of a focused thesis, a strong indication that the best reader has been identified and her/his needs understood, and an outline of preliminary support and reasoning to persuade your best readers to believe your thesis.  Click here for the course style sheet.  This is the deadline day for dropping a full-semester course.

WEEK 3--Paper #1: Product Purchase Recommendation Revision / Start of Paper #2, Literary Analysis--The Hawthorne Project

Mon. 2/7: Read the course Style Sheet and its examples of MLA Works Cited format, and read the evaluation criteria for the PPR paper. The Product Purchase Recommendation final drafts are due Friday by 9 AM in my email Inbox as an attached MS-Word file.  Click here for additional Internet source citation format examples to supplement the Style Sheet.  Click here for a guide to today's discussion.

Click here to READ AHEAD!  the next assignment requires some major reading.

Wed. 2/9: Before class, read Hawthorne's "My Kinsman, Major Molineux,". and the "Dream of the Text and Literary Analysis" and "Textual Analysis Worksheet" web pages.  Click here for a guide to today's discussion.

Friday. 2/11: PPR final draft peer-editing workshop.  Brainstorming ways to use textual interpretation techniques to develop independent discoveries in Hawthorne's short stories.

        Final Draft of PPR due by 9 AM Saturday in my email Inbox as an attached MS-Word file.

WEEK 4--Paper #2: Literary Analysis, Primary Sources, and Getting an "Insight"--The Hawthorne Project

Mon.. 2/14: Read Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown" and be prepared to reread the story closely for the ways NH introduces ambiguity, illusions and hallucinations to complicate readers' efforts to determine what actually happened in the narrative.  (Hint: apart from the words of the narration, itself, nothing happens in fiction (and often in poetry). If you are new to college-level literary critical interpretation, please read these web pages about ways to detect textual patterns of evidence that are called "stylistic," and about the "best reader" concept as it applies to a literary analysis paper.  Click here for a guide to today's discussion.

Wed.. 2/16: Read Hawthorne's "Rappaccini's Daughter."  Click here for a guide to today's discussion.

Fri., 2/18  Topic development workshop: discovering a thesis in your evidence.  Bring all three stories in printed form, together with your notes and any other research aids you have.  That might include a laptop.  Our goal by the end of class is to have a completed first draft of your Blackboard forum posting on one or more of these three stories.   Due by 9 AM Saturday in a Blackboard forum posting: some prewriting that considers things you found in "MK,MM," and/ or "YGB" and/or in "R'sD" that non-scholarly readers wouldn't notice, things you found in common or interestingly in contrast, and especially (but not only) things you begin to suspect you know about Hawthorne's prose style, his methods of tale construction, and his expectations of the reader.  Make sure you at least attempt to hypothesize an explanation for the evidence pattern you see, but do not exaggerate the strength of your claim beyond what the evidence will support.  Provide a proper Works Cited bibliographic citation for the story you are writing about in your posting.  Consider using the "Grid" or some similar tool to collect your evidence from the story and to begin to analyze its significance! 

Read Ahead!  Starting next week, the class will meet for two weeks in Athenaeum 435 at Special Collections and Archives on the fourth floor.  General library research training is scheduled for next class to help you find scholarly sources to support your research.  There are many ways to use research to improve your ability to help readers interpret Hawthorne better, but make sure you are using only scholarly sources who publish their work in print or in online-accessed peer-reviewed scholarly journals!  Anonymous sources, especially those found on amateur web sites and in popular print like newspapers or magazines, are not be acceptable for this assignment.  Click here for a review of some simple ways to tame scholarly printed books to your uses.  

WEEK 5--Paper #2: and Reading Hawthorne Stories in Contemporary Print Editions--Using Sources in Literary Analysis: Biography, Original Print Editions, Manuscripts Journals, and Secondary Critical Sources  [Meet in the Library, Athenaeum 435, this week and next week.]  During this week, make sure you go to the Writing Center early, for at least 1 hour with a Writing Center tutor to talk about the Hawthorne stories and possible thesis ideas.  Bring the stories and your notes to help your tutor understand what you are talking about.  That way you will have those materials ready to use as paraphrase or direct quotations when you write your paper.

Mon. 2/21: Meet at Athenaeum 435.  Bibliographic research training--retrieving, evaluating, and using secondary critical sources. Introduction to secondary source research in the MLA Bibliography and JSTOR, and primary source research in WorldCat, ABEBooks, and Karlsrhue Institute of Technology Library.  Click here for a guide to today's bibliographic research session.

Wed. 2/23: Meet at Athenaeum 435.  Research collaboration and data sharing.  Bring to class fourteen copies of a one-paragraph annotated bibliography entry for at least one source which may be relevant to your research on Hawthorne's short stories, his early publishing history, the economics of C19 American literature, or any other topic you are pursuing. Be prepared to critique each other's sources, recognizing their quality and potential relevance to Hawthorne research, and offering suggestions for improvement and development.  Click on the hyperlink for a sample annotated bibliography entry.  You can save money and paper by printing the bibliographic entries two or three to a page and cutting them apart before class. 

Friday, 2/25: Meet at Athenaeum 435.  Interpreting fiction in context of its early publication.  Before class, read "Little Daffydowndilly," which was located just before "My Kinsman, Major Molineux," when that was republished as the last story in The Snow Image and Other Twice-Told Tales (1852).  I have given you the link to an online edition, but reading it on screen or in a printout will not duplicate the experience Hawthorne's readers had when they opened The Snow Image and encountered "LD" and "MK,MM" in sequence.  I urge you, as a physical and mental experiment, to visit the Rare Book Reading Room and undertake the experiment.  Ask the Snow Image "from Arnie's book truck" after carefully washing your hands, parking your backpacks etc. in a locker, and refreshing your memory about the rules for handling old books.  This also would give you the opportunity to see other editions of Hawthorne's short fiction collections and the library's first edition of his first novel, The House of the Seven Gables, and the Christmas annual The Gift which contains the first published edition of Poe's "Eleonora," a story with distinct structural similarities to "Rappacini's Daughter" and published two years before it in 1842.

        Rough Draft of the Hawthorne paper due by 9 AM Saturday in an MS-Word file attached to a Blackboard forum posting.  Click here for links to all the Hawthorne paper assistance pages, especially those describing the shape and intentions of typical college-level literary analysis papers.  For the full evaluation criteria which will be used for the revised draft, due next week, click here.  Minimum content for the rough draft includes a working title and an introduction containing a clear and focused statement of your thesis about the literary work(s) you are writing about, an outline of passages in support of it, at least one body paragraph illustrating the reasoning you will use to explain some of those passages, and at least some scholarly sources (in a properly formatted Works Cited section) which might be useful to a paper on such a topic. Cite page numbers as you find them in the story editions, including the U.Va. digital versions of the Modern Library edition.

WEEK 6--Paper #2: Thesis Development and Final Draft--Reading Hawthorne Stories in Contemporary Print Editions and Hawthorne's "Lost Notebook"

Mon: 2/28.  Meet at Athenaeum 435.  Before class, read "A Select Party," which was located just before "Young Goodman Brown" when that story was republished by Hawthorne in Mosses from an Old Manse (1846).  "YGB" directly preceded "Rappaccini's Daughter" in that collection.  What would have been the effect on readers of encountering those three stories in succession?  "Rappaccini's Daughter," which was first published in the December 1844 issue of The United States Magazine and Democratic Review can be read in my copy of that magazine in the Rare Book Reading Room, or online if you follow this link to the discussion of its republication y Hawthorne in Mosses from an Old Manse.  In that collection, readers went from Professor Baglioni's famous question at the end of "R's D" to a story titled "Mrs. Bullfrog," which you also should read before class.  How would readers reconsider "R's D" in the light of the clearly ironic, even satiric, "Mrs. Bullfrog"?  In both casese, I have given you hyperlinks to online editions of the stories in case your schedule prevents you from reading them in print.  However, if you actually go to the Rare Book Room to read the stories, you might also be led to consider the long-term effect of the shift from print reading in magazines and printed books to reading online texts and "e-books."  How must modern "e-readers" adjust their interpretations to understand how earlier eras' readers encountered literature, and how will future generations of authors write differently for the e-reading public.  (Hint: how would an author of "flash fiction" rewrite "MK,MM," "YGB," or "R's D" so that at least some of its impact was transmitted in a single paragraph intended for one-screen reading?)  If you are working on evidence in "Rappaccini's Daughter" (1844), you might find it interesting to compare "Eleonora" by Edgar Allen Poe (first published in 1842--the Rare Book Collection has a copy or you can read a later edition of it online) or "Paradise (to be) Regained," by Henry David Thoreau (1843--available online in several editions).

Wed.  3/2:  Meet at Athenaeum 435.  Private journal writing and published fiction.  Go to the Library circulation desk and request Hawthorne's lost notebook, 1835-1841 : facsimile from the Pierpont Morgan Library.  This printed book, which is on reserve for our section of English 105, contains photographs and transcriptions of Hawthorne's journal entries in a notebook which dates from the years 1835-6 (i.e., three years after "MK,MM," the year before "YGB," and nine years before "R'sD").  Photocopy and read pages 1 through 20.  (You can share a photocopy with another student, but make sure you bring your print copy to class.)  We are looking for the creative roots of the stories we have read and insights about NH's enduring thematic interests.  Click here for a guide to today's discussion and some advice before you read the notebook excerpts.

Fri. 3/4: Meet at Athenaeum 435.  Peer editing workshop and additional research in scholarly sources, and hands-on work with the 1st editions etc. in the Rare Book Collection.  Click here for a guide to our research work in the classroom and at the library, and links to three important pages of information about information quality in scholarly sources.

        Paper #2 Final Revision due by 9 AM Saturday in my Inbox as an attached MS-Word file.  Click here for links to all the Hawthorne paper assistance pages, especially those describing the shape and intentions of typical college-level literary analysis papers.  For the full evaluation criteria which will be used for the revised draft, due next week, click here.

WEEK 7--Paper #3: Film Analysis Project--terms and techniques.  [Note that the class returns to Van Meter 202 for the rest of the semester.]

Mon. 3/7: Start the Film Analysis Project.  Before class, read this glossary of film terms which will be useful in analyzing cinema and be ready to apply them to film stills and short clips.  Click here for a guide to today's discussion.

Wed. 3/9: Film illusion, continued.  Click here for two important web page links and a guide to today's discussion. 

Fri. 3/11: Preparing to watch a film as film scholars vs. watching only for entertainment.  Share tips and techniques for observing a film while taking notes, preparing an outline of the film's major scenes from the DVD "chapter" breakdown and printed script, and using DVD time stamps as "page numbers" to share data with other researchers.  Prepare for today's class by researching (using any source you like) the historical situation before, during, and after World War II.  We will share what we know about the war and try to refine our sense of what happened in each year between 1939 and 1949, when the "Cold War" began between the Communist and Capitalist victors of World War II.  Casablanca (1942-3), the first film we will study was made in the early 1940s when America was beginning its last (or most recent?) great war for survival.  Germany, Italy, and Japan had successfully expanded their territorial control of the world and were united in an alliance that planned to conquer the remaining free nations.  The American people were not united in support of the war, many hoping that we could wait it out and make treaties with the victorious "Axis" alliance.  At that time, we did not know of German plans to develop nuclear weapons (which were begun before our Manhattan Project) or their developing plan for governing a conquered America as a German colonial possession.  By the time of the second movie we will watch (The Third Man, 1949), the previous war's alliances were completely destroyed and the world once again anticipated a war of total global destruction even as Europe's cities still lay in the ruins of the previous war.  What more do you need to know to watch a movie made in an era so different from our own?  Before you watch Casablanca, be sure to read Scott Sayare's "French Chateau's Owners Enter a Thicket of Intrigue," The New York Times (3/2/10) A7 (Blackboard Course Documents folder).  The events of World War II have not completely ended, even now.

Sat. 3/12-Sun. 3/20: SPRING BREAK--if you have time, you might want to watch videos of the two films we'll be working with, Casablanca and The Third Man.  Both were so popular that they usually are available even in chain video/DVD stores.  If you do not see Casablanca during Spring Break, be sure to attend one of the Library's showings of the film

WEEK 8--Paper #3: Film Analysis Project--into the illusion.  Film script and image database links.

Before class on Monday, 3/21--arrange to watch Michael Curtiz' Casablanca (1942/1943). Before you watch the film, click here for some pre-viewing instructions.  A serviceable version of the printed film's shooting script is available online.  (Just remember never to assume that what is written in the script actually occurs in the movie.)  Click here for a page illustrating the proper MLA format to use when citing the movie and a list of the DVD's "chapter" titles.   Click here for the cast members of Casablanca and parts they played, as well as the shooting crew, director and other personnel.  Click here for a time line that traces the writing, production, and release of Casablanca. 

Wed. 3/23: Read the complete lyrics of "As Time Goes By," an obviously important thematic element in the soundtrack, click here.  Click here for a guide to today's discussion.

Fri. 3/25: Go to the Library's Circulation Desk and ask for the following reserve readings for the course: Robertson (Casablanca Man 77-80), Harmetz (Round Up the Usual Suspects 227-38).  Read their differing views on the script and shooting of the film, especially the problem of the film's ending.  Can you tell which source's opinion is the best supported and, therefore, the most likely to be correct?  Click here for a guide to today's discussion.

         By 5 PM Friday, 3/25, create a Blackboard forum posting in which you describe a pattern of non-obvious evidence in Casablanca which you have detected by "close viewing" and a paragraph speculating on its significance. 

WEEK 9--Paper #3: Film Analysis Project--Illusion answers illusion--how one era's films reflect and reject the values of previous eras films. [During this week, make sure you go to the Writing Center early, for at least 1 hour with a Writing Center tutor to talk about the two movies and possible thesis ideas.  Bring photocopies of relevant images or passages of dialogue to help your tutor understand what you are talking about.  That way you will have those materials ready to use as illustrations or direct quotations when you write your paper.]

Before the next class, arrange to watch Carol Reed's The Third Man.  Click here for a guide to viewing the film.  Click here for an online copy of The Third Man script.  Note how much more detailed the shot instructions are than those in the Casablanca script!  That's a sign of Reed's and Green's greater individual control over what you see in the film.  Because this film was not shot on a Hollywood sound stage as most of Casablanca was produced, significant parts of it were improvised while shooting on site in Vienna.  You will detect significant additions to the film, visually and in spoken dialog. Some versions of the printed script preserve the improvisations using footnotes, but others do not, so be careful which versions of the script you rely upon.  In general, never trust a printed or online film script without verifying what is in the movie, itself.  This script contains lines which were improvised during shooting.  To see the pre-production script, see the Sight and Sound screenplay where improvised lines are in square brackets (791.437 T445g.1).  Click here for the cast members and the names of the parts they played.  Click here for a page illustrating the proper MLA format to use when citing the movie and a list of the DVD's "chapter" titles.

Mon. 3/28: Analyzing Reed's The Third Man, with approaches to generating theses about visual themes, sound-track elements, dialog, characterization, etc. Click here for a guide to today's discussion.  If you have a tight scnedule this week, read Ahead to get started on Wednesday's class!  Get collaborative research group assignments.

Wed, 3/30:  As described in this hyperlink, in groups of two or three, come to class prepared to do collaborative research based on readings in the Course Reserve on Graham Greene's film script and the "novelization" of the film (at least pages 133-48), on reserve for English 105.15);  and Michael Walker's "Film Noir: Introduction" (from Cameron, ed., The Book of Film Noir, pages 8-16 (and pages 25-32 are highly recommended re: film noir visual style in the Course Reserve copy if you are interested in this approach).  On Friday, present the results of your groups' discussions in short (10-15 minute) panel discussions or reports.  (You can write out your findings and hypothetical suspicions or discuss them from a list or outline of talking points, but meet before class to develop what you plan to say and who will say it.) 

Fri. 4/1:  Collaborative research group presentations/discussions, and film paper thesis brainstorming.   Click here for a guide to today's discussion if we have time after the reports have been given..  By 5 PM today, compose and post Blackboard forum thread in which you describe a pattern of non-obvious evidence in The Third Man which you have detected by "close viewing" and a paragraph speculating on its significance.  Click here for a guide to discovering and posting this evidence.

WEEK 10--Paper #3: Film Analysis Project--Paper Development During this week, make sure you go to the Writing Center early, for at least 1 hour with a Writing Center tutor to develop your thesis and organize your support.

Mon. 4/4:  Read this worksheet for our in-class rough draft workshop for the film paper,  and this web page about finding sources for difficult topics.  Click here for a guide to today's rough draft workshop.  If you have a full schedule this week, read ahead!   Prepare to do some research in secondary scholarly sources by reading ahead for Thursday.  Click here for a list of cast members and the names of the fictional characters they played.

Wed. 4/6:   bring to class enough printed copies for the entire class (and one for me) of an annotated bibliography entry (one/1) using correctly cited summary/paraphrase or direct quotation from a book or article relevant to our study of Michael Curtiz' Casablanca, Carol Reed's The Third Man, politics and film making, film noir, etc.  Explain the usefulness of the source with a brief comment (one paragraph, probably).  Also post your bibliographic note to Blackboard when you have completed it.   Click here for a guide to today's discussion with links to a sample source annotation.

Fri. 4/8: Read this web page about psychological and moral approaches to analyzing The Third Man,  Film Paper Rough Drafts are due by 9 AM Saturday in a Blackboard forum posting as an attached MS-Word file.  Click here for advice about how to "hold your ground" to preserve the paper's independent authority while using primary and secondary source evidence.  Last day to withdraw from a semester course with a “W” – adviser’s signature required.  Last day to elect pass/no pass, or change pass/no pass to a regular grade, in a semester course. Adviser’s signature required.

WEEK 11--Paper #4: Independent Research Project (click on this link to see the overview of the project's stages and links to guidance for how to complete them)

Mon.. 4/11: Click here and read all the attached web pages for today's discussion.  Strength of claims in academic prose

Wed. 4/13: Click here for class readings and a guide to today's discussion.  By 8 AM tomorrow, post to the Blackboard Discussion Forum a proposal for the discipline, topic, and issue(s) you believe you want to research, together with some possible sources you may use.  You are not yet committed to this line of research, but it is your hypothesis about what you can and want to do.  We will work together in conference Friday to refine your proposal.  Remember that these issues need to be the subject of current research by scholars, which means there will be debates about what the facts are, or at least how the facts should be interpreted.  That's how you know new knowledge is being created.  It's hot.

Fri. 4/15: 8:00 AM--Blackboard possible topic postings due;  9AM-5 PM, Independent Research Topic Conferences.  [Note that the Film Analysis final draft is not due until Saturday by noon--please take advantage of the time to focus your argument, organize it effectively, and explain it coherently.  Read the paper aloud to yourself before you consider it done.  Read the paper to a skeptical friend before you turn it in.   Your ear will catch mistakes your eye cannot see.]

Sat. 4/16, by 9 AM: a final draft of Film Analysis Project is due in my email Inbox as an attached MS-Word file.

WEEK 12--Paper #4: Independent Research Project

Mon. 4/18: Read this web page about how to combine data and reasoning from multiple sources to arrive at insights none of the sources could invent.  Bring your laptops and sources to class for a research workshop--Use your first sources, Works Cited sections, bibliographies, etc. and additional index searches to acquire more and better sources. After the first 30 minutes, show me both sets, explain your search strategy, and discuss possible source clusters and topic overlaps.

Wed. 4/20:  Bring your laptops and sources to class for a second-round research workshop. Click here for two ways to make a resistant set of sources show you the patterns they contain so that you can arrive at an independent thesis.  Click here for a thought experiment about "interdisciplinary," ways you can use research in another discipline to develop new insights about your primary discipline. 

Fri. 4/22: 9AM-5 PM, Independent Research Topic Conferences  Rough draft of Independent Research Project due by 9:00 AM as an MS-Word file attached to a Blackboard forum posting.  Minimum content: a functional title, an introduction describing the specific part of the discipline or field you are studying and naming at least two persons whose ideas will contribute to your thesis, along with some reasoning about what you can do with their work, and bibliographic documentation of the sources appropriate to the discipline in which you are working.  (When in doubt, follow the style of the articles published in scholarly journals for your field.)   Click here for the evaluation criteria I will use when reading the Independent Research Project reports6

WEEK 13--Paper #4: Independent Research Project--Introduction to the scholarly conference or congress presentation panel.

Mon. 4/24: Email me your presentation title and an abstract of 100 to 250 words that describe your project, its main sources of evidence, and your preliminary conclusions. Also, fill out and send to me the IRP Conference Participant Information Form, which will insure that the classroom equipment is properly set up for your presentation.  English 105 Independent Research Project Presentation Sessions.  Click here for a guide to presenting preliminary research and to being the audience for such presentations.  Click here for the schedule of presentations. 

Wed.. 4/26: English 105 Independent Research Project Presentation Sessions.  Click here for a guide to presenting preliminary research and to being the audience for such presentations.  Click here for the schedule of presentations. 

Fri. 4/28: English 105 Independent Research Project Presentation Sessions.  Click here for a guide to presenting preliminary research and to being the audience for such presentations.  Click here for the schedule of presentations. 

Paper #4 Final Revisions are due by 9 AM Saturday as a MS-Word file attached to an email to me. Indicate clearly in your email's message if you believe you likely will use this paper in your final portfolio!  That will determine the order in which I read the papers.  Later delivery on Saturday can be negotiated, especially if you aren't planning to revise this again for the final portfolio.  Click here for the evaluation criteria I will use when reading the Independent Research Project reports.

Week 14--Final Porfolio Workshop

Mon. 5/2: Information Literacy review; final portfolio peer editing conferences.  Read  this web page defining "substantive revision" for the final portfolio revisions.  Bring one paper from among papers 2, 3 or 4, and be prepared to work with someone from the class to help add value to the paper's revision. 

Wed. 5/4:  Last class--self-evaluations and reflection on current trends in academic research writing.  If you're in doubt about the College Writing Proficiency Criteria, click here.  If you have time, take a look at Jordan W. Smoller's "Etiology and Treatment of Childhood." and think about how its rhetoric and format simulate "scholarly writing for the sciences."  Alas, future generations probably will not detect the article's pointed reference to "scholarly articles" written by cartoon characters, The Three Stooges, Mister Rogers, and other cultural artifacts of the late 1900s.  Freud, Durkheim, and the rest are the real thing and their theories are creatively misapplied.  This parody works because Smoller is a professional educational psychologist who knows the rules of his discipline well enough to adapt them even to absurd data.

Mon. 5/9: Final Portfolios, previous drafts due by Noon at VM G57 or in my VM mailbox, and final drafts due in my inbox as an attached MS-Word or RTF file.  The Final Portfolio should contain all your drafts for the paper you have chosen for revision, including the final drafts with my comments, and workshop sheets containing your readers' responses to the paper.  Remember that, if your readers have given you valuable advice, you can give your readers extra credit if you construct an endnote explaining specifically what they did to improve your paper.