I am posting these as a blog prompt, but they are all suggested topics for you research paper. You may choose to answer any of them in the blog as a way of beginning to think about your papers. Please post AT LEAST 4-5 paragraphs.
1. What is the relationship between memory and forgeting in Duras’ The Lover? What role does photography play in the remembrance of the past? What is the significance of the various images—both photographic ones and ones indelibly etched in the mind?
Consider the following quotation by Carol Hoffman from Forgetting and Marguerite Duras (University of Colorado Press, 1991):
"The repetition of situations, events, memories, and words abounds in Duras’s texts. This repetition seems to emphasize the changing, unstable aspect of memory and language and move the reader to question his or her own memory and examine the dynamics of forgetting. . . . memory is seen as volatile and impossible. It is a movement toward the ever-elusive and often painful ‘impossible,’ the ‘vide’ [‘void’/‘emptiness’], the ‘manque’ [‘lack’], what Jacques Lacan called ‘le réel’ [the real]. It is a remembering that destroys memory and leads to a new memory, which can replace the last only fleetingly and without substance . . . a refusal of convention or disguise, as a unity of thought and will, life and appearance" (35-6).
2. How does Duras incorporate the body into her writing? Is the body the ‘site’ of the written text? or is it the ‘space’ or ‘site’ from which the text arises?
Consider the following quotation by Leslie Hill in Marguerite Duras: Apocalyptic Desires (London & New York: Routledge, 1993):
"For Duras as for Barthes, the body is not a mode of self-identity: the body is a figure of madness, not self-possession. It is not an essence or nature, but a reverse of an essence or nature; it is a name for that which provokes crisis in the realm of representation by producing irreducible difference. And what it denotes most of all, in Duras as in Barthes, is desire" (30).
3. Marguerite Duras's The Lover is narrated from the points of view of age and youth. Although the "older" voice gives perspective and shapes the representation of the youthful self, this is not simply a dialogue or contrast between youth and age. They are intertwined in ways that suggest equally that as the artist recreates the teenage speaker, the latter has given birth to the voice of the artist. The novel chronicles loss (of family, innocence, a great love), mourning, and discovery. The speaker’s re-creation of what she has lost, with frequent references to death, suggest a process of remembering and mourning in her writing. Psychoanalyst Henry Krystal describes adolescence as a transition into adulthood and a time when an individual develops the ability to grieve (63). In this portrait of her development as an adolescent, Duras chronicles her growing capacity to grieve as she tells of individuating herself from her anguished family. Her increased independence coincides with discovering she wants to be a writer, a vocation which provides her the means to frequently revisit this period of trauma and loss the in the book (1) While The Lover tracks a time of transition and a time of loss, it is also during this time that the speaker develops her creative imagination, her ability to relate to others outside of her family, and experiences alienation and sexuality, which all help her transition towards an adult identity. In your essay, explore the ways in which the process of growth and mourning are inextricably bound together and mutually generating in her text.
4. One major theme in the novel is that of transgression - of going beyond or overstepping some boundary. The speaker transgresses, in the sense of "going over" or "going across," when she crosses the Mekong. She transgresses, in the sense of "violating some moral law," by commencing and continuing her affair with her Chinese lover. The family transgresses societal expectations just by virtue of their poverty, and then because of that poverty, by silently condoning the speaker's relationship with her lover. The family transgresses familiar/family ideals: they are not the archetypal loving and supportive family. The style of the novel transgresses traditional temporal/chronological plot structures - i.e. the narrative weaves between the past and the present, using the present tense and past tense to describe the same moments in time. Pastness is collapsed into present, but at the same time, without the past being the past, the speaker would have no subject on which to reflect. What do you think is the importance of transgression? How, as a theme, does it characterize the novel's subject, its style, and its purpose?
Some Useful Places to Look:
1. Marguerite Duras: Apocaliypic Desire, by Leslie Hill
http://books.google.com/books?id=9UYOAAAAQAAJ&dq=Marguerite+Duras+Lover+essay+questions&printsec=frontcover&source=in&hl=en&ei=FF3aSeO6KaTNlQe4tOXFDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=12#PPP1,M1
2. Marguerite Duras, by Renate Gunther
http://books.google.com/books?id=_MZhsT4W7KcC&dq=Marguerite+Duras+Lover+essay+questions&printsec=frontcover&source=in&hl=en&ei=cGTaScv9I9vtlQfro_HCDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=11#PPP1,M1
3. "Image" and Absence in Marguerite Duras' "L'Amant"
by Nina S. Hellerstein
Modern Language Studies, Vol. 21, No. 2 (Spring, 1991), pp. 45-56, Published by: Modern Language Studies (You can find it on JSTOR)
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Revised Schedule
Course Schedule
Week 1
Thursday January 28 Introduction
Week 2
Tuesday February 2 Introduction – pp. xxiii – liv
Art of the Personal Essay
Thursday February 4 CLASS CANCELED
Week 3
Tuesday February 9 Virginia Woolf – “A Room of One’s Own”
Thursday February 11 Charles Lamb – “A Chapter on Ears” – pp. 165 - 169
Week 4
Tuesday February 16 Annie Dillard – “Seeing” – pp. 693-706
Blog
Thursday February 18 NO CLASS
Week 5
Tuesday February 23 First Draft of Analytic Essay Due
Peer Review
Thursday February 25 NO CLASS
Week 6
Tuesday March 2 Richard Selzer – “The Knife” – pp. 707-714
Stylistic Devices – (handout)
Thursday March 4 Natalia Ginzburg – “He and I” – pp. 453-457
Blog
Week 7
Tuesday March 9 “Meatless Days” – pp. 458 - 475
Blog
Thursday March 11 Wole Soyinka – “Why Do I Fast” – pp. 422-430
Week 8
Tuesday March 16 The Lover – pp. 3-10
Thursday March 18 The Lover – 11-38
Blog
Week 9
Tuesday March 23 First Draft of Stylistic Essay Due
The Lover pp. 39-83
Thursday March 25 The Lover 84-end
Week 10
Tuesday March 30 NO CLASS – Spring Recess
Thursday April 1 NO CLASS – Spring Recess
Week 11
Tuesday April 6 The Pain of Sorrow in the Modern World: The Works of Marguerite Duras” – Julia Kristeva (handout)
Blog
Thursday April 8 Library Session
Week 12
Tuesday April 13 Louise Gluck - “On Impoverishment” (handout)
Thursday April 15 F. Scott Fitzgerald – “The Crack-Up”
Blog
Week 13
Tuesday April 20 E. B. White – “Ring of Time” – pp. 538-539
First Draft of Research Paper Due
Thursday April 22 Joan Didion – “Goodbye to All That” – pp. 680-688
Week 14
Tuesday April 27 Jorge Luis Borges – “Blindness” – pp.376 – 386
Thursday April 29 James Baldwin – “Notes of a Native Son” - pp. 587-604
Week 15
Tuesday May 4 Second Draft of Research Paper Due
In class conferences concerning the final Personal Essay Assignment
Thursday May 6 In class peer review of final Personal Essay Assignment
Week 16
Tuesday May 11 First Draft of Personal Essay Due
Thursday May 13 Portfolio Conferences
Final Portfolio Due
POSTED BY LAURA AT 9:04 AM 0 COMMENTS
Week 1
Thursday January 28 Introduction
Week 2
Tuesday February 2 Introduction – pp. xxiii – liv
Art of the Personal Essay
Thursday February 4 CLASS CANCELED
Week 3
Tuesday February 9 Virginia Woolf – “A Room of One’s Own”
Thursday February 11 Charles Lamb – “A Chapter on Ears” – pp. 165 - 169
Week 4
Tuesday February 16 Annie Dillard – “Seeing” – pp. 693-706
Blog
Thursday February 18 NO CLASS
Week 5
Tuesday February 23 First Draft of Analytic Essay Due
Peer Review
Thursday February 25 NO CLASS
Week 6
Tuesday March 2 Richard Selzer – “The Knife” – pp. 707-714
Stylistic Devices – (handout)
Thursday March 4 Natalia Ginzburg – “He and I” – pp. 453-457
Blog
Week 7
Tuesday March 9 “Meatless Days” – pp. 458 - 475
Blog
Thursday March 11 Wole Soyinka – “Why Do I Fast” – pp. 422-430
Week 8
Tuesday March 16 The Lover – pp. 3-10
Thursday March 18 The Lover – 11-38
Blog
Week 9
Tuesday March 23 First Draft of Stylistic Essay Due
The Lover pp. 39-83
Thursday March 25 The Lover 84-end
Week 10
Tuesday March 30 NO CLASS – Spring Recess
Thursday April 1 NO CLASS – Spring Recess
Week 11
Tuesday April 6 The Pain of Sorrow in the Modern World: The Works of Marguerite Duras” – Julia Kristeva (handout)
Blog
Thursday April 8 Library Session
Week 12
Tuesday April 13 Louise Gluck - “On Impoverishment” (handout)
Thursday April 15 F. Scott Fitzgerald – “The Crack-Up”
Blog
Week 13
Tuesday April 20 E. B. White – “Ring of Time” – pp. 538-539
First Draft of Research Paper Due
Thursday April 22 Joan Didion – “Goodbye to All That” – pp. 680-688
Week 14
Tuesday April 27 Jorge Luis Borges – “Blindness” – pp.376 – 386
Thursday April 29 James Baldwin – “Notes of a Native Son” - pp. 587-604
Week 15
Tuesday May 4 Second Draft of Research Paper Due
In class conferences concerning the final Personal Essay Assignment
Thursday May 6 In class peer review of final Personal Essay Assignment
Week 16
Tuesday May 11 First Draft of Personal Essay Due
Thursday May 13 Portfolio Conferences
Final Portfolio Due
POSTED BY LAURA AT 9:04 AM 0 COMMENTS
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Stylistic Essay Blog Prompt
Consider this a pre-write for your stylistic essay I have posted below. Choose which essay you will be writing on, and then try to identify the stylistic elements that contribute to the essay's overall meaning. Why does the writer write the essay in the particular style that he or she does? What themes are generally discussed, and how does style contribute to these themes?
The Stylistic Essay: Assignment
The Stylistic Essay:
Due March 23rd
In this unit you have read a number of highly stylized essays, and we have discussed different stylistic devices. In a four – five page response paper, I would like you to pick one of the following essays, “The Knife,” “Why Do I Fast,” “He and I,” or “Meatless Days,” and do a close reading of it, discussing what stylistic elements are used and how they contribute to the essay’s overall meaning. In this response you must identify the essay’s thesis, or general message, and then, after identifying that thesis, you must clearly supply your own thesis regarding the ways in which you believe the stylistic elements we’ve discussed enhance or detract from the piece you are discussing..
In your essay you may want to address some if not all of these questions: what was the author’s intention and what is the thesis? How is the thesis supported and specifically, what evidence is supplied? Make sure to give examples and quote passages. What stylistic devices are used? How do they enhance or detract from the meaning? Is the reader intended to have an emotional reaction to the essay?
Again this essay should be four – five pages long and in 12 point Times New Roman Font. Good luck and work hard.
The Stylistic Essay:
Due March 23rd
In this unit you have read a number of highly stylized essays, and we have discussed different stylistic devices. In a four – five page response paper, I would like you to pick one of the following essays, “The Knife,” “Why Do I Fast,” “He and I,” or “Meatless Days,” and do a close reading of it, discussing what stylistic elements are used and how they contribute to the essay’s overall meaning. In this response you must identify the essay’s thesis, or general message, and then, after identifying that thesis, you must clearly supply your own thesis regarding the ways in which you believe the stylistic elements we’ve discussed enhance or detract from the piece you are discussing..
In your essay you may want to address some if not all of these questions: what was the author’s intention and what is the thesis? How is the thesis supported and specifically, what evidence is supplied? Make sure to give examples and quote passages. What stylistic devices are used? How do they enhance or detract from the meaning? Is the reader intended to have an emotional reaction to the essay?
Again this essay should be four – five pages long and in 12 point Times New Roman Font. Good luck and work hard.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
The Analytic Essay
The Analytic Essay
Assignment 1.1
Due: Tuesday, February 23rd
Working from the annotated close-reading checklist and from class discussions, your essay will be to analyze one of the three essays assigned for class, namely “A Room of One’s Own,” “A Chapter on Ears,” or the “Seeing.” This is a close reading exercise in which you will identify the essay’s thesis, and the relevant evidence used to support this thesis. Furthermore, this task requires you to identify a thesis of your own – a claim based on your interpretation of the essay, and to marshal evidence to support it. Although we have discussed these essays in class, assume you are addressing a reader who is only vaguely familiar with the essay you choose. Your essay should be explanatory, in that it should address the essay’s content and “story,” but it should not be a summary. You are looking to define and analyze the essay’s requisite parts and how they crystallize to form an effective argument.
Some questions you should address are, what was the author’s intention and what is the thesis? How is this thesis supported? Give examples and briefly quote passages to support your interpretation. How is the essay constructed? Why does the author choose to open and conclude the way that he or she does? Does the essay’s construction effect its content? What emotional reaction does the author intend his or her reader to have to this essay? Did this reaction change with analysis? What should a reader pay attention to? Why?
While you are free and encouraged to draw from your free writes and your blog entries in order to complete this assignment, this essay is more formal than either. Your essay must include an introduction, discussion in the form of body paragraphs, and a conclusion. That said, the best essays will build an argument rather than just following a five paragraph essay format. Please attach your annotated close-reading checklist. This essay should be typed in 12-point Times New Roman Font and be three to four pages long.
Close-Reading Annotated Checklist:
Essay Title:
Author:
Introduction:
How does the author introduce his or her subject?
Why?
Is the introduction effective? Why?
Is the thesis introduced? If so, what is it?
Body Paragraphs and Evidence:
What is the thesis?
How is the thesis supported and what evidence is supplied?
List examples of supporting evidence:
Construction:
Where in the essay do examples of supporting evidence occur?
Where is the thesis stated?
Does the thesis evolve? If so, how?
Conclusion:
How does the essay conclude? Why?
What new insights are gained in the conclusion?
Assignment 1.1
Due: Tuesday, February 23rd
Working from the annotated close-reading checklist and from class discussions, your essay will be to analyze one of the three essays assigned for class, namely “A Room of One’s Own,” “A Chapter on Ears,” or the “Seeing.” This is a close reading exercise in which you will identify the essay’s thesis, and the relevant evidence used to support this thesis. Furthermore, this task requires you to identify a thesis of your own – a claim based on your interpretation of the essay, and to marshal evidence to support it. Although we have discussed these essays in class, assume you are addressing a reader who is only vaguely familiar with the essay you choose. Your essay should be explanatory, in that it should address the essay’s content and “story,” but it should not be a summary. You are looking to define and analyze the essay’s requisite parts and how they crystallize to form an effective argument.
Some questions you should address are, what was the author’s intention and what is the thesis? How is this thesis supported? Give examples and briefly quote passages to support your interpretation. How is the essay constructed? Why does the author choose to open and conclude the way that he or she does? Does the essay’s construction effect its content? What emotional reaction does the author intend his or her reader to have to this essay? Did this reaction change with analysis? What should a reader pay attention to? Why?
While you are free and encouraged to draw from your free writes and your blog entries in order to complete this assignment, this essay is more formal than either. Your essay must include an introduction, discussion in the form of body paragraphs, and a conclusion. That said, the best essays will build an argument rather than just following a five paragraph essay format. Please attach your annotated close-reading checklist. This essay should be typed in 12-point Times New Roman Font and be three to four pages long.
Close-Reading Annotated Checklist:
Essay Title:
Author:
Introduction:
How does the author introduce his or her subject?
Why?
Is the introduction effective? Why?
Is the thesis introduced? If so, what is it?
Body Paragraphs and Evidence:
What is the thesis?
How is the thesis supported and what evidence is supplied?
List examples of supporting evidence:
Construction:
Where in the essay do examples of supporting evidence occur?
Where is the thesis stated?
Does the thesis evolve? If so, how?
Conclusion:
How does the essay conclude? Why?
What new insights are gained in the conclusion?
Friday, February 12, 2010
First Blog Prompt:
Hello all,
For your first blog entry I would like you to give a detailed analysis of either "A Room of One's Own" or "A Chapter on Ears," responding to the ways that either author moves between the personal and the universal. In class today we talked about "writing strategy." What do you think this means? What is Woolf's strategy? What is Lamb's? Feel free to respond and write to each other.
See you Tuesday.
Best,
Laura
For your first blog entry I would like you to give a detailed analysis of either "A Room of One's Own" or "A Chapter on Ears," responding to the ways that either author moves between the personal and the universal. In class today we talked about "writing strategy." What do you think this means? What is Woolf's strategy? What is Lamb's? Feel free to respond and write to each other.
See you Tuesday.
Best,
Laura
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Revised Syllabus
ENGLISH 120W
SECTION: E6TBA
(Tuesdays & Thursdays, 6:30 – 7:45 PM
Classroom: KP 326)
Office: KP 347
Instructor: Laura Reznick
Email: Lauralisa.reznick@gmail.com
________________________________________________________________________
Required Texts (available in the Queens College Bookstore)
The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present. Ed. Philip Lopate (038542339X)
A Writer’s Resource. Second Edition. Elaine P. Maimon, Janice H. Peritz, & Kathleen
Blake Yancey (0073259381) - Suggested
The Lover. Marguerite Duras (0375700528)
One Loose-leaf lined notebook for in-class writing assignments
A portfolio for all writing assignments to be turned in at the end of the semester
________________________________________________________________________
Course Description
English 120W is a writing intensive course, which focuses on the personal essay or memoir. A personal essay examines a specific experience or feeling in a way that is universal and relatable to others. The personal essay is opposed to a scholarly or argumentative essay, in that rather that analyzing primary sources and reacting to them, it uses the self as the primary source and analyzes it. The personal essay doesn’t necessarily reveal personal secret information, although it can. It is not a diary entry. The purpose of the personal essay is to show the mind at work; to track the ways we make sense out of our personal lives and to relate them in a way that is universally relatable – or, in another words, personal essays are personal but are also intrinsically interesting. The personal essay is traditionally more thought-driven than story-driven.
In this class you will read a number of personal essays examining the structure of their arguments, their stylistic elements and their tones. In this class we will pay attention to developing narrative and argument, descriptive, and organizational skills, as well as exploring your personal voice and style. Readings are intended to deepen your understanding of the personal essay as a form. In some essays you will be asked to analyze the arguments and/or narratives these essays create and react to them. In other essays I will ask you to use the same skills you use to analyze other professional essays such critical thinking, insightful analysis, and careful editing in order to create your own personal essays. It is my hope that the readings and writing exercises will guide you into greater self-awareness as a writer and as a person.
Course Requirements
Writing: This is a writing intensive course. Expect to both read and write frequently in response to the assigned readings, class discussions, and on blackboard.
• Reading Assignments: You must read all of the assigned readings for this course. They will provide the material to which your essays respond. They will also furnish models of successful writing. We will be analyzing and deconstructing their constituent parts and how they crystallize to form effective arguments.
• Quizzes and In-class Writing: Often you will be expected to respond to the reading assignments. These responses will motivate you to read closely and carefully and allow me to determine any problem areas or misunderstandings. Performance on these responses will count towards your grade.
• Blog Journals: In addition to your formal essays, I will assign topics for daily journal entries. You will write these entries on our class blog at http://thepersonalandtheuniversal.blogspot.com/. I may ask you to briefly summarize a reading assignment – what ideas/themes are being expressed? How do the author's stylistic elements relate to the main idea of an important theme? I may ask for a subjective response – how does the story, theme or style affect you? Does something in the text startle you, interest you, make you think or wonder? Use other entries to experiment further with things done in class, or for your own creative purposes. In-class writing exercises should also be collected on the class blog. Journaling is a good writing habit and will help you to generate ideas for your essays. I will review these journals and try to respond to them. Although you will not be graded on the content of your journal, the consistent (or inconsistent) fulfillment of it will account for a percentage of your final grade.
• Essays: This class will be structured around four essays, each building on the skills you’ve learned from the last. Each essay will go through a draft phase, which I will collect and we will discuss in class. This draft will then be returned to you and you will revise it for a grade. Only the revised essays will be graded. All drafts must be typed in 12 point Times New Roman font.
∗ Essay 1 – The Analytic Essay, 3-4 pages: In this essay you will be asked to respond to one of the essays assigned in this unit. You will be analyzing the content, style, and the construction. How and why did the author choose to construct the essay in the way he or she did? How does the form effect the content? How is this essay an effective argument? What is the thesis and how is it supported by relevant evidence and specific examples? How and why is this essay a personal essay? In some ways your responses to these essays will mimic the essays themselves, as they are examples of good and effective writing. By analyzing how these essays are put together you will learn to shape and form your own.
∗ Essay 2 – The Stylistic Essay, 4-6 pages: In many ways this essay resembles the analytic essay, in that you will be examining the construction and form of the assigned reading. In this essay, however, you will be paying particular attention to style. We will learn about specific stylistic elements and how they are used in effective prose. Important questions to ask yourself will be why the author chose to write in a particular style. How does the style effect and create meaning? How does style effect an essay’s thesis? Can an essay, which relies heavily upon style, be an effective personal essay? For this essay you will examine one of the readings and explicate its stylistic elements, while at the same time attempting to incorporate those elements into your own essays.
∗ Essay 3 – Research Paper: This essay is the longest and most rigorous essay you will complete for this course. We will read Marguerite Duras’ The Lover, and in reaction to it you will choose one area to research. Your essay and its thesis must be supported by evidence and you will use at least three academic sources to support your claims. Like the analytic essay you will pay particular attention to the structure of this paper, making sure that your paragraphs follow each other logically, while quoting sources when required. We will visit the library where you can get a lesson in appropriate research techniques.
∗ Essay 4 – Personal Essay, 5-6 pages: This final essay is somewhat of a departure from the other essays that you will write for this course in that rather than responding to another author’s work, you will be asked to write from personal experience. I will give you prompts for and examples of good personal essay writing. In this essay you will examine a specific experience or feeling in a way that is universal and relatable to all readers. The emphasis will be on the specific personal experience but this piece must also be universally relatable. We will discuss this further in clas
• Grading: Your grade will be calculated in the following way:
∗ Essay 1: 15%
∗ Essay 2: 20%
∗ Essay 3: 25%
∗ Essay 4: 20%
∗ Journal Entries: 10%
∗ In-class Participation and Quizzes: 10%
• Attendance and Participation: Because this is a discussion class and not a lecture course, attendance and active participation are paramount. More than three absences for any reason will negatively affect your grade. If you must miss a class try to notify me at least two hours ahead of time by email, and make an appointment to meet with me so that we can go over the material you’ve missed. You are responsible for getting any missed readings and to turn in any assignments on time. Failing to actively participate in class will negatively affect your grade in the same manner that missing a class will. In order to actively participate you must arrive on time to class having done the assigned reading or writing, and, once in class, engage in classroom discussion.
• Conferences: You will meet with me at least once during the semester to discuss your work and your feelings about the course. In these conferences we will discuss your progress, your concerns, and your goals. Please do not limit our meetings to these conferences. I will also be happy to talk to you at other times about any questions or concerns you have.
• Peer Review and Workshops: Each of the three essays you will write during the semester will be discussed in a workshop group. I will assign you to a workshop group for each essay and you must bring enough copies of your draft for everyone in the group. Consequently, you are not only responsible to me, but to each other. Come to class prepared to discuss; try to engage with other students' writings as you will with those of the other writers we will read. Be constructive, and approach your classmates' work as you would have someone approach your own. Address the ambition as well as the result. Take notes on the work itself – don’t rely on memory. (That said, this is not a correspondence course. I expect each of you to express yourselves aloud in class so your peers can benefit from your comments.)
• Plagiarism: Plagiarism is a serious offence and is an act of academic dishonesty. Plagiarism is stealing and passing off the ideas or words of another as one's own, using another's production without crediting the source, or presenting as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source. Queens College regards acts of academic dishonesty (e.g. plagiarism, cheating on examinations, obtaining unfair advantage, and falsification of records and official documents) as serious offenses against the values of intellectual honesty. The college is committed to enforcing the CUNY Policy on Academic Integrity and will pursue cases of academic dishonesty according to College Integrity Procedures. It will be very difficult to succeed at plagiarizing as, "Queens College has a pilot license for the use of Turnitin, a system that detects plagiarism by comparing students' essays to a large database of essays and web content." (Queens College Provost Office). Any use of plagiarized materials will be reported to the Dean and will result in a failing grade for the course.
Learning Goals
1. Obtain overall fluency in the elements of academic writing, including thesis, evidence, analysis, format, revision, critical reading, summary, and paraphrase.
2. Attain reasonable fluency in various modes of thinking and writing, including observing and reporting, analyzing and interpreting, evaluating and arguing, and making inferences.
3. Make use of prewriting and invention techniques, including freewriting, notetaking, brainstorming, developing ideas and language through a process of planning, drafting, revising, and editing.
4. Learn a variety of rhetorical strategies (including tone, context, genre, form, audience) and types of essays (including descriptive, narrative, analytical, argumentative, expository).
5. Analyze their own and other students’ writing for clarity, focus, and rhetorical effectiveness and understand themselves as writers developing their own voices.
6. Employ standard usage of English grammar and mechanics, including spelling, capitalization, sentence structure, punctuation.
7. Understand the conventions of oral presentations; prepare and deliver them; lead discussions based on such presentations.
In writing research papers, students will learn how to . . .
Identify genuine intellectual problems and conduct scholarly research by learning to recognize the conventions of literary and cultural criticism and theoretical academic essays.
Find and incorporate relevant source material (including visual, graphic, or numerical information) into writing, using appropriate scholarly resources such as books, journals, indexes, online catalogues, web search engines, and libraries. Create annotated bibliographies, learn correct citation methods (Chicago style, MLA), and use of the Oxford English Dictionary. Understand issues of plagiarism. (Adopted from the resource provided by Queens College English Department).
Course Schedule
Week 1
Thursday January 28 Introduction
Week 2
Tuesday February 2 Introduction – pp. xxiii – liv
Art of the Personal Essay
Thursday February 4 CLASS CANCELED
Week 3
Tuesday February 9 Virginia Woolf – “A Room of One’s Own”
Thursday February 11 Charles Lamb – “A Chapter on Ears” – pp. 165 - 169
Week 4
Tuesday February 16 Annie Dillard – “Seeing” – pp. 693-706
Blog
Thursday February 18 NO CLASS
Week 5
Tuesday February 23 First Draft of Analytic Essay Due
Peer Review
Thursday February 25 NO CLASS
Week 6
Tuesday March 2 Richard Selzer – “The Knife” – pp. 707-714
Stylistic Devices – (handout)
Thursday March 4 Natalia Ginzburg – “He and I” – pp. 453-457
Blog
Week 7
Tuesday March 9 “Meatless Days” – pp. 458 - 475
Blog
Thursday March 11 Wole Soyinka – “Why Do I Fast” – pp. 422-430
Week 8
Tuesday March 16 The Lover – pp. 3-38
Thursday March 18 The Lover – pp. 39-83
Blog
Week 9
Tuesday March 23 First Draft of Stylistic Essay Due
The Lover pp. 84-end
Thursday March 25 Library Session
Week 10
Tuesday March 30 NO CLASS – Spring Recess
Thursday April 1 NO CLASS – Spring Recess
Week 11
Tuesday April 6 The Pain of Sorrow in the Modern World: The Works of Marguerite Duras” – Julia Kristeva (handout)
Blog
Thursday April 8 In class peer review of Research Paper
Week 12
Tuesday April 13 First Draft of Research Paper Due
Louise Gluck - “On Impoverishment” (handout)
Thursday April 15 F. Scott Fitzgerald – “The Crack-Up”
Blog
Week 13
Tuesday April 20 E. B. White – “Ring of Time” – pp. 538-539
Second Draft of Research Paper Due
Thursday April 22 Joan Didion – “Goodbye to All That” – pp. 680-688
Week 14
Tuesday April 27 Jorge Luis Borges – “Blindness” – pp.376 – 386
Thursday April 29 James Baldwin – “Notes of a Native Son” - pp. 587-604
Second Draft of Research Paper Due
Week 15
Tuesday May 4 Second Draft of Research Paper Due
In class conferences concerning the final Personal Essay Assignment
Thursday May 6 In class peer review of final Personal Essay Assignment
Week 16
Tuesday May 11 First Draft of Personal Essay Due
Thursday May 13 Portfolio Conferences
Final Portfolio Due
SECTION: E6TBA
(Tuesdays & Thursdays, 6:30 – 7:45 PM
Classroom: KP 326)
Office: KP 347
Instructor: Laura Reznick
Email: Lauralisa.reznick@gmail.com
________________________________________________________________________
Required Texts (available in the Queens College Bookstore)
The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present. Ed. Philip Lopate (038542339X)
A Writer’s Resource. Second Edition. Elaine P. Maimon, Janice H. Peritz, & Kathleen
Blake Yancey (0073259381) - Suggested
The Lover. Marguerite Duras (0375700528)
One Loose-leaf lined notebook for in-class writing assignments
A portfolio for all writing assignments to be turned in at the end of the semester
________________________________________________________________________
Course Description
English 120W is a writing intensive course, which focuses on the personal essay or memoir. A personal essay examines a specific experience or feeling in a way that is universal and relatable to others. The personal essay is opposed to a scholarly or argumentative essay, in that rather that analyzing primary sources and reacting to them, it uses the self as the primary source and analyzes it. The personal essay doesn’t necessarily reveal personal secret information, although it can. It is not a diary entry. The purpose of the personal essay is to show the mind at work; to track the ways we make sense out of our personal lives and to relate them in a way that is universally relatable – or, in another words, personal essays are personal but are also intrinsically interesting. The personal essay is traditionally more thought-driven than story-driven.
In this class you will read a number of personal essays examining the structure of their arguments, their stylistic elements and their tones. In this class we will pay attention to developing narrative and argument, descriptive, and organizational skills, as well as exploring your personal voice and style. Readings are intended to deepen your understanding of the personal essay as a form. In some essays you will be asked to analyze the arguments and/or narratives these essays create and react to them. In other essays I will ask you to use the same skills you use to analyze other professional essays such critical thinking, insightful analysis, and careful editing in order to create your own personal essays. It is my hope that the readings and writing exercises will guide you into greater self-awareness as a writer and as a person.
Course Requirements
Writing: This is a writing intensive course. Expect to both read and write frequently in response to the assigned readings, class discussions, and on blackboard.
• Reading Assignments: You must read all of the assigned readings for this course. They will provide the material to which your essays respond. They will also furnish models of successful writing. We will be analyzing and deconstructing their constituent parts and how they crystallize to form effective arguments.
• Quizzes and In-class Writing: Often you will be expected to respond to the reading assignments. These responses will motivate you to read closely and carefully and allow me to determine any problem areas or misunderstandings. Performance on these responses will count towards your grade.
• Blog Journals: In addition to your formal essays, I will assign topics for daily journal entries. You will write these entries on our class blog at http://thepersonalandtheuniversal.blogspot.com/. I may ask you to briefly summarize a reading assignment – what ideas/themes are being expressed? How do the author's stylistic elements relate to the main idea of an important theme? I may ask for a subjective response – how does the story, theme or style affect you? Does something in the text startle you, interest you, make you think or wonder? Use other entries to experiment further with things done in class, or for your own creative purposes. In-class writing exercises should also be collected on the class blog. Journaling is a good writing habit and will help you to generate ideas for your essays. I will review these journals and try to respond to them. Although you will not be graded on the content of your journal, the consistent (or inconsistent) fulfillment of it will account for a percentage of your final grade.
• Essays: This class will be structured around four essays, each building on the skills you’ve learned from the last. Each essay will go through a draft phase, which I will collect and we will discuss in class. This draft will then be returned to you and you will revise it for a grade. Only the revised essays will be graded. All drafts must be typed in 12 point Times New Roman font.
∗ Essay 1 – The Analytic Essay, 3-4 pages: In this essay you will be asked to respond to one of the essays assigned in this unit. You will be analyzing the content, style, and the construction. How and why did the author choose to construct the essay in the way he or she did? How does the form effect the content? How is this essay an effective argument? What is the thesis and how is it supported by relevant evidence and specific examples? How and why is this essay a personal essay? In some ways your responses to these essays will mimic the essays themselves, as they are examples of good and effective writing. By analyzing how these essays are put together you will learn to shape and form your own.
∗ Essay 2 – The Stylistic Essay, 4-6 pages: In many ways this essay resembles the analytic essay, in that you will be examining the construction and form of the assigned reading. In this essay, however, you will be paying particular attention to style. We will learn about specific stylistic elements and how they are used in effective prose. Important questions to ask yourself will be why the author chose to write in a particular style. How does the style effect and create meaning? How does style effect an essay’s thesis? Can an essay, which relies heavily upon style, be an effective personal essay? For this essay you will examine one of the readings and explicate its stylistic elements, while at the same time attempting to incorporate those elements into your own essays.
∗ Essay 3 – Research Paper: This essay is the longest and most rigorous essay you will complete for this course. We will read Marguerite Duras’ The Lover, and in reaction to it you will choose one area to research. Your essay and its thesis must be supported by evidence and you will use at least three academic sources to support your claims. Like the analytic essay you will pay particular attention to the structure of this paper, making sure that your paragraphs follow each other logically, while quoting sources when required. We will visit the library where you can get a lesson in appropriate research techniques.
∗ Essay 4 – Personal Essay, 5-6 pages: This final essay is somewhat of a departure from the other essays that you will write for this course in that rather than responding to another author’s work, you will be asked to write from personal experience. I will give you prompts for and examples of good personal essay writing. In this essay you will examine a specific experience or feeling in a way that is universal and relatable to all readers. The emphasis will be on the specific personal experience but this piece must also be universally relatable. We will discuss this further in clas
• Grading: Your grade will be calculated in the following way:
∗ Essay 1: 15%
∗ Essay 2: 20%
∗ Essay 3: 25%
∗ Essay 4: 20%
∗ Journal Entries: 10%
∗ In-class Participation and Quizzes: 10%
• Attendance and Participation: Because this is a discussion class and not a lecture course, attendance and active participation are paramount. More than three absences for any reason will negatively affect your grade. If you must miss a class try to notify me at least two hours ahead of time by email, and make an appointment to meet with me so that we can go over the material you’ve missed. You are responsible for getting any missed readings and to turn in any assignments on time. Failing to actively participate in class will negatively affect your grade in the same manner that missing a class will. In order to actively participate you must arrive on time to class having done the assigned reading or writing, and, once in class, engage in classroom discussion.
• Conferences: You will meet with me at least once during the semester to discuss your work and your feelings about the course. In these conferences we will discuss your progress, your concerns, and your goals. Please do not limit our meetings to these conferences. I will also be happy to talk to you at other times about any questions or concerns you have.
• Peer Review and Workshops: Each of the three essays you will write during the semester will be discussed in a workshop group. I will assign you to a workshop group for each essay and you must bring enough copies of your draft for everyone in the group. Consequently, you are not only responsible to me, but to each other. Come to class prepared to discuss; try to engage with other students' writings as you will with those of the other writers we will read. Be constructive, and approach your classmates' work as you would have someone approach your own. Address the ambition as well as the result. Take notes on the work itself – don’t rely on memory. (That said, this is not a correspondence course. I expect each of you to express yourselves aloud in class so your peers can benefit from your comments.)
• Plagiarism: Plagiarism is a serious offence and is an act of academic dishonesty. Plagiarism is stealing and passing off the ideas or words of another as one's own, using another's production without crediting the source, or presenting as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source. Queens College regards acts of academic dishonesty (e.g. plagiarism, cheating on examinations, obtaining unfair advantage, and falsification of records and official documents) as serious offenses against the values of intellectual honesty. The college is committed to enforcing the CUNY Policy on Academic Integrity and will pursue cases of academic dishonesty according to College Integrity Procedures. It will be very difficult to succeed at plagiarizing as, "Queens College has a pilot license for the use of Turnitin, a system that detects plagiarism by comparing students' essays to a large database of essays and web content." (Queens College Provost Office). Any use of plagiarized materials will be reported to the Dean and will result in a failing grade for the course.
Learning Goals
1. Obtain overall fluency in the elements of academic writing, including thesis, evidence, analysis, format, revision, critical reading, summary, and paraphrase.
2. Attain reasonable fluency in various modes of thinking and writing, including observing and reporting, analyzing and interpreting, evaluating and arguing, and making inferences.
3. Make use of prewriting and invention techniques, including freewriting, notetaking, brainstorming, developing ideas and language through a process of planning, drafting, revising, and editing.
4. Learn a variety of rhetorical strategies (including tone, context, genre, form, audience) and types of essays (including descriptive, narrative, analytical, argumentative, expository).
5. Analyze their own and other students’ writing for clarity, focus, and rhetorical effectiveness and understand themselves as writers developing their own voices.
6. Employ standard usage of English grammar and mechanics, including spelling, capitalization, sentence structure, punctuation.
7. Understand the conventions of oral presentations; prepare and deliver them; lead discussions based on such presentations.
In writing research papers, students will learn how to . . .
Identify genuine intellectual problems and conduct scholarly research by learning to recognize the conventions of literary and cultural criticism and theoretical academic essays.
Find and incorporate relevant source material (including visual, graphic, or numerical information) into writing, using appropriate scholarly resources such as books, journals, indexes, online catalogues, web search engines, and libraries. Create annotated bibliographies, learn correct citation methods (Chicago style, MLA), and use of the Oxford English Dictionary. Understand issues of plagiarism. (Adopted from the resource provided by Queens College English Department).
Course Schedule
Week 1
Thursday January 28 Introduction
Week 2
Tuesday February 2 Introduction – pp. xxiii – liv
Art of the Personal Essay
Thursday February 4 CLASS CANCELED
Week 3
Tuesday February 9 Virginia Woolf – “A Room of One’s Own”
Thursday February 11 Charles Lamb – “A Chapter on Ears” – pp. 165 - 169
Week 4
Tuesday February 16 Annie Dillard – “Seeing” – pp. 693-706
Blog
Thursday February 18 NO CLASS
Week 5
Tuesday February 23 First Draft of Analytic Essay Due
Peer Review
Thursday February 25 NO CLASS
Week 6
Tuesday March 2 Richard Selzer – “The Knife” – pp. 707-714
Stylistic Devices – (handout)
Thursday March 4 Natalia Ginzburg – “He and I” – pp. 453-457
Blog
Week 7
Tuesday March 9 “Meatless Days” – pp. 458 - 475
Blog
Thursday March 11 Wole Soyinka – “Why Do I Fast” – pp. 422-430
Week 8
Tuesday March 16 The Lover – pp. 3-38
Thursday March 18 The Lover – pp. 39-83
Blog
Week 9
Tuesday March 23 First Draft of Stylistic Essay Due
The Lover pp. 84-end
Thursday March 25 Library Session
Week 10
Tuesday March 30 NO CLASS – Spring Recess
Thursday April 1 NO CLASS – Spring Recess
Week 11
Tuesday April 6 The Pain of Sorrow in the Modern World: The Works of Marguerite Duras” – Julia Kristeva (handout)
Blog
Thursday April 8 In class peer review of Research Paper
Week 12
Tuesday April 13 First Draft of Research Paper Due
Louise Gluck - “On Impoverishment” (handout)
Thursday April 15 F. Scott Fitzgerald – “The Crack-Up”
Blog
Week 13
Tuesday April 20 E. B. White – “Ring of Time” – pp. 538-539
Second Draft of Research Paper Due
Thursday April 22 Joan Didion – “Goodbye to All That” – pp. 680-688
Week 14
Tuesday April 27 Jorge Luis Borges – “Blindness” – pp.376 – 386
Thursday April 29 James Baldwin – “Notes of a Native Son” - pp. 587-604
Second Draft of Research Paper Due
Week 15
Tuesday May 4 Second Draft of Research Paper Due
In class conferences concerning the final Personal Essay Assignment
Thursday May 6 In class peer review of final Personal Essay Assignment
Week 16
Tuesday May 11 First Draft of Personal Essay Due
Thursday May 13 Portfolio Conferences
Final Portfolio Due
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Syllabus
ENGLISH 120W
SECTION: E6TBA
(Tuesdays & Thursdays, 6:30 – 7:45 PM
Classroom: KY 326)
Instructor: Laura Reznick
Email: Lauralisa.reznick@gmail.com
________________________________________________________________________
Required Texts (available in the Queens College Bookstore)
The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present. Ed. Philip Lopate (038542339X)
A Writer’s Resource. Second Edition. Elaine P. Maimon, Janice H. Peritz, & Kathleen
Blake Yancey (0073259381) - Suggested
The Lover. Marguerite Duras (0375700528)
One Loose-leaf lined notebook for in-class writing assignments
A portfolio for all writing assignments to be turned in at the end of the semester
________________________________________________________________________
Course Description
English 120W is a writing intensive course, which focuses on the personal essay or memoir. A personal essay examines a specific experience or feeling in a way that is universal and relatable to others. The personal essay is opposed to a scholarly or argumentative essay, in that rather that analyzing primary sources and reacting to them, it uses the self as the primary source and analyzes it. The personal essay doesn’t necessarily reveal personal secret information, although it can. It is not a diary entry. The purpose of the personal essay is to show the mind at work; to track the ways we make sense out of our personal lives and to relate them in a way that is universally relatable – or, in another words, personal essays are personal but are also intrinsically interesting. The personal essay is traditionally more thought-driven than story-driven.
In this class you will read a number of personal essays examining the structure of their arguments, their stylistic elements and their tones. In this class we will pay attention to developing narrative and argument, descriptive, and organizational skills, as well as exploring your personal voice and style. Readings are intended to deepen your understanding of the personal essay as a form. In some essays you will be asked to analyze the arguments and/or narratives these essays create and react to them. In other essays I will ask you to use the same skills you use to analyze other professional essays such critical thinking, insightful analysis, and careful editing in order to create your own personal essays. It is my hope that the readings and writing exercises will guide you into greater self-awareness as a writer and as a person.
Course Requirements
Writing: This is a writing intensive course. Expect to both read and write frequently in response to the assigned readings, class discussions, and on blackboard.
• Reading Assignments: You must read all of the assigned readings for this course. They will provide the material to which your essays respond. They will also furnish models of successful writing. We will be analyzing and deconstructing their constituent parts and how they crystallize to form effective arguments.
• Quizzes and In-class Writing: Often you will be expected to respond to the reading assignments. These responses will motivate you to read closely and carefully and allow me to determine any problem areas or misunderstandings. Performance on these responses will count towards your grade.
• Blog Journals: In addition to your formal essays, I will assign topics for daily journal entries. You will write these entries on our class blog at http://thepersonalandtheuniversal.blogspot.com. I may ask you to briefly summarize a reading assignment – what ideas/themes are being expressed? How do the author's stylistic elements relate to the main idea of an important theme? I may ask for a subjective response – how does the story, theme or style affect you? Does something in the text startle you, interest you, make you think or wonder? Use other entries to experiment further with things done in class, or for your own creative purposes. In-class writing exercises should also be collected on the class blog. Journaling is a good writing habit and will help you to generate ideas for your essays. I will review these journals and try to respond to them. Although you will not be graded on the content of your journal, the consistent (or inconsistent) fulfillment of it will account for a percentage of your final grade.
• Essays: This class will be structured around four essays, each building on the skills you’ve learned from the last. Each essay will go through a draft phase, which I will collect and we will discuss in class. This draft will then be returned to you and you will revise it for a grade. Only the revised essays will be graded. All drafts must be typed in 12 point Times New Roman font.
∗ Essay 1 – The Analytic Essay, 3-4 pages: In this essay you will be asked to respond to one of the essays assigned in this unit. You will be analyzing the content, style, and the construction. How and why did the author choose to construct the essay in the way he or she did? How does the form affect the content? How is this essay an effective argument? What is the thesis and how is it supported by relevant evidence and specific examples? How and why is this essay a personal essay? In some ways your responses to these essays will mimic the essays themselves, as they are examples of good and effective writing. By analyzing how these essays are put together you will learn to shape and form your own.
∗ Essay 2 – The Stylistic Essay, 4-6 pages: In many ways this essay resembles the analytic essay, in that you will be examining the construction and form of the assigned reading. In this essay, however, you will be paying particular attention to style. We will learn about specific stylistic elements and how they are used in effective prose. Important questions to ask yourself will be why the author chose to write in a particular style. How does the style effect and create meaning? How does style affect an essay’s thesis? Can an essay, which relies heavily upon style, be an effective personal essay? For this essay you will examine one of the readings and explicate its stylistic elements, while at the same time attempting to incorporate those elements into your own essays.
∗ Essay 3 – Research Paper: This essay is the longest and most rigorous essay you will complete for this course. We will read Marguerite Duras’ The Lover, and in reaction to it you will choose one area to research. Your essay and its thesis must be supported by evidence and you will use at least three academic sources to support your claims. Like the analytic essay you will pay particular attention to the structure of this paper, making sure that your paragraphs follow each other logically, while quoting sources when required. We will visit the library where you can get a lesson in appropriate research techniques.
∗ Essay 4 – Personal Essay, 5-6 pages: This final essay is somewhat of a departure from the other essays that you will write for this course in that rather than responding to another author’s work, you will be asked to write from personal experience. I will give you prompts for and examples of good personal essay writing. In this essay you will examine a specific experience or feeling in a way that is universal and relatable to all readers. The emphasis will be on the specific personal experience but this piece must also be universally relatable. We will discuss this further in clas
• Grading: Your grade will be calculated in the following way:
∗ Essay 1: 15%
∗ Essay 2: 20%
∗ Essay 3: 25%
∗ Essay 4: 20%
∗ Journal Entries: 10%
∗ In-class Participation and Quizzes: 10%
• Attendance and Participation: Because this is a discussion class and not a lecture course, attendance and active participation are paramount. More than three absences for any reason will negatively affect your grade. If you must miss a class try to notify me at least two hours ahead of time by email, and make an appointment to meet with me so that we can go over the material you’ve missed. You are responsible for getting any missed readings and to turn in any assignments on time. Failing to actively participate in class will negatively affect your grade in the same manner that missing a class will. In order to actively participate you must arrive on time to class having done the assigned reading or writing, and, once in class, engage in classroom discussion.
• Conferences: You will meet with me at least once during the semester to discuss your work and your feelings about the course. In these conferences we will discuss your progress, your concerns, and your goals. Please do not limit our meetings to these conferences. I will also be happy to talk to you at other times about any questions or concerns you have.
• Peer Review and Workshops: Each of the three essays you will write during the semester will be discussed in a workshop group. I will assign you to a workshop group for each essay and you must bring enough copies of your draft for everyone in the group. Consequently, you are not only responsible to me, but to each other. Come to class prepared to discuss; try to engage with other students' writings as you will with those of the other writers we will read. Be constructive, and approach your classmates' work as you would have someone approach your own. Address the ambition as well as the result. Take notes on the work itself – don’t rely on memory. (That said, this is not a correspondence course. I expect each of you to express yourselves aloud in class so your peers can benefit from your comments.)
• Plagiarism: Plagiarism is a serious offence and is an act of academic dishonesty. Plagiarism is stealing and passing off the ideas or words of another as one's own, using another's production without crediting the source, or presenting as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source. Queens College regards acts of academic dishonesty (e.g. plagiarism, cheating on examinations, obtaining unfair advantage, and falsification of records and official documents) as serious offenses against the values of intellectual honesty. The college is committed to enforcing the CUNY Policy on Academic Integrity and will pursue cases of academic dishonesty according to College Integrity Procedures. It will be very difficult to succeed at plagiarizing as, "Queens College has a pilot license for the use of Turnitin, a system that detects plagiarism by comparing students' essays to a large database of essays and web content." (Queens College Provost Office). Any use of plagiarized materials will be reported to the Dean and will result in a failing grade for the course.
Course Schedule
Week 1
Thursday January 28 Introduction
Week 2
Tuesday February 2 Introduction – pp. xxiii – liv
Art of the Personal Essay
Thursday February 4 Virginia Woolf – “A Room of One’s Own”
Week 3
Tuesday February 9 Charles Lamb – “A Chapter on Ears” – pp. 165 - 169
Thursday February 11 Annie Dillard – “Seeing” – pp. 693-706
Blog
Week 4
Tuesday February 16 First Draft of Analytic Essay Due
Peer Review
Thursday February 18 NO CLASS
Week 5
Tuesday February 23 Stylistic Devices – (handout)
Thursday February 25 Richard Selzer – “The Knife” – pp. 707-714
Week 6
Tuesday March 2 Natalia Ginzburg – “He and I” – pp. 453-457
Blog
Thursday March 4 Wole Soyinka – “Why Do I Fast” – pp. 422-430
Week 7
Tuesday March 9 “Meatless Days” – pp. 458 - 475
Blog
Thursday March 11 In class peer review of Stylistic Essay Drafts
Week 8
Tuesday March 16 First Draft of Stylistic Essay Due
The Lover – pp. 3-38 39-83
Thursday March 18 The Lover – pp. 39-83
Blog
Second Draft of Analytic Essay Due
Peer Review
Week 9
Tuesday March 23 The Lover pp. 84-end
Thursday March 25 Library Session
Second Draft of Stylistic Essay Due
Week 10
Tuesday March 30 NO CLASS – Spring Recess
Thursday April 1 NO CLASS – Spring Recess
Week 11
Tuesday April 6 The Pain of Sorrow in the Modern World: The Works of Marguerite Duras” – Julia Kristeva (handout)
Blog
Thursday April 8 In class peer review of Research Paper
Week 12
Tuesday April 13 First Draft of Research Paper Due
Louise Gluck - “On Impoverishment” (handout)
Thursday April 15 F. Scott Fitzgerald – “The Crack-Up”
Blog
Week 13
Tuesday April 20 E. B. White – “Ring of Time” – pp. 538-539
Second Draft of Research Paper Due
Thursday April 22 Joan Didion – “Goodbye to All That” – pp. 680-688
Week 14
Tuesday April 27 Jorge Luis Borges – “Blindness” – pp.376 – 386
Thursday April 29 James Baldwin – “Notes of a Native Son” - pp. 587-604
Second Draft of Research Paper Due
Week 15
Tuesday May 4 Second Draft of Research Paper Due
In class conferences concerning the final Personal Essay Assignment
Thursday May 6 In class peer review of final Personal Essay Assignment
Week 16
Tuesday May 11 First Draft of Personal Essay Due
Thursday May 13 Portfolio Conferences
Final Portfolio Due
SECTION: E6TBA
(Tuesdays & Thursdays, 6:30 – 7:45 PM
Classroom: KY 326)
Instructor: Laura Reznick
Email: Lauralisa.reznick@gmail.com
________________________________________________________________________
Required Texts (available in the Queens College Bookstore)
The Art of the Personal Essay: An Anthology from the Classical Era to the Present. Ed. Philip Lopate (038542339X)
A Writer’s Resource. Second Edition. Elaine P. Maimon, Janice H. Peritz, & Kathleen
Blake Yancey (0073259381) - Suggested
The Lover. Marguerite Duras (0375700528)
One Loose-leaf lined notebook for in-class writing assignments
A portfolio for all writing assignments to be turned in at the end of the semester
________________________________________________________________________
Course Description
English 120W is a writing intensive course, which focuses on the personal essay or memoir. A personal essay examines a specific experience or feeling in a way that is universal and relatable to others. The personal essay is opposed to a scholarly or argumentative essay, in that rather that analyzing primary sources and reacting to them, it uses the self as the primary source and analyzes it. The personal essay doesn’t necessarily reveal personal secret information, although it can. It is not a diary entry. The purpose of the personal essay is to show the mind at work; to track the ways we make sense out of our personal lives and to relate them in a way that is universally relatable – or, in another words, personal essays are personal but are also intrinsically interesting. The personal essay is traditionally more thought-driven than story-driven.
In this class you will read a number of personal essays examining the structure of their arguments, their stylistic elements and their tones. In this class we will pay attention to developing narrative and argument, descriptive, and organizational skills, as well as exploring your personal voice and style. Readings are intended to deepen your understanding of the personal essay as a form. In some essays you will be asked to analyze the arguments and/or narratives these essays create and react to them. In other essays I will ask you to use the same skills you use to analyze other professional essays such critical thinking, insightful analysis, and careful editing in order to create your own personal essays. It is my hope that the readings and writing exercises will guide you into greater self-awareness as a writer and as a person.
Course Requirements
Writing: This is a writing intensive course. Expect to both read and write frequently in response to the assigned readings, class discussions, and on blackboard.
• Reading Assignments: You must read all of the assigned readings for this course. They will provide the material to which your essays respond. They will also furnish models of successful writing. We will be analyzing and deconstructing their constituent parts and how they crystallize to form effective arguments.
• Quizzes and In-class Writing: Often you will be expected to respond to the reading assignments. These responses will motivate you to read closely and carefully and allow me to determine any problem areas or misunderstandings. Performance on these responses will count towards your grade.
• Blog Journals: In addition to your formal essays, I will assign topics for daily journal entries. You will write these entries on our class blog at http://thepersonalandtheuniversal.blogspot.com. I may ask you to briefly summarize a reading assignment – what ideas/themes are being expressed? How do the author's stylistic elements relate to the main idea of an important theme? I may ask for a subjective response – how does the story, theme or style affect you? Does something in the text startle you, interest you, make you think or wonder? Use other entries to experiment further with things done in class, or for your own creative purposes. In-class writing exercises should also be collected on the class blog. Journaling is a good writing habit and will help you to generate ideas for your essays. I will review these journals and try to respond to them. Although you will not be graded on the content of your journal, the consistent (or inconsistent) fulfillment of it will account for a percentage of your final grade.
• Essays: This class will be structured around four essays, each building on the skills you’ve learned from the last. Each essay will go through a draft phase, which I will collect and we will discuss in class. This draft will then be returned to you and you will revise it for a grade. Only the revised essays will be graded. All drafts must be typed in 12 point Times New Roman font.
∗ Essay 1 – The Analytic Essay, 3-4 pages: In this essay you will be asked to respond to one of the essays assigned in this unit. You will be analyzing the content, style, and the construction. How and why did the author choose to construct the essay in the way he or she did? How does the form affect the content? How is this essay an effective argument? What is the thesis and how is it supported by relevant evidence and specific examples? How and why is this essay a personal essay? In some ways your responses to these essays will mimic the essays themselves, as they are examples of good and effective writing. By analyzing how these essays are put together you will learn to shape and form your own.
∗ Essay 2 – The Stylistic Essay, 4-6 pages: In many ways this essay resembles the analytic essay, in that you will be examining the construction and form of the assigned reading. In this essay, however, you will be paying particular attention to style. We will learn about specific stylistic elements and how they are used in effective prose. Important questions to ask yourself will be why the author chose to write in a particular style. How does the style effect and create meaning? How does style affect an essay’s thesis? Can an essay, which relies heavily upon style, be an effective personal essay? For this essay you will examine one of the readings and explicate its stylistic elements, while at the same time attempting to incorporate those elements into your own essays.
∗ Essay 3 – Research Paper: This essay is the longest and most rigorous essay you will complete for this course. We will read Marguerite Duras’ The Lover, and in reaction to it you will choose one area to research. Your essay and its thesis must be supported by evidence and you will use at least three academic sources to support your claims. Like the analytic essay you will pay particular attention to the structure of this paper, making sure that your paragraphs follow each other logically, while quoting sources when required. We will visit the library where you can get a lesson in appropriate research techniques.
∗ Essay 4 – Personal Essay, 5-6 pages: This final essay is somewhat of a departure from the other essays that you will write for this course in that rather than responding to another author’s work, you will be asked to write from personal experience. I will give you prompts for and examples of good personal essay writing. In this essay you will examine a specific experience or feeling in a way that is universal and relatable to all readers. The emphasis will be on the specific personal experience but this piece must also be universally relatable. We will discuss this further in clas
• Grading: Your grade will be calculated in the following way:
∗ Essay 1: 15%
∗ Essay 2: 20%
∗ Essay 3: 25%
∗ Essay 4: 20%
∗ Journal Entries: 10%
∗ In-class Participation and Quizzes: 10%
• Attendance and Participation: Because this is a discussion class and not a lecture course, attendance and active participation are paramount. More than three absences for any reason will negatively affect your grade. If you must miss a class try to notify me at least two hours ahead of time by email, and make an appointment to meet with me so that we can go over the material you’ve missed. You are responsible for getting any missed readings and to turn in any assignments on time. Failing to actively participate in class will negatively affect your grade in the same manner that missing a class will. In order to actively participate you must arrive on time to class having done the assigned reading or writing, and, once in class, engage in classroom discussion.
• Conferences: You will meet with me at least once during the semester to discuss your work and your feelings about the course. In these conferences we will discuss your progress, your concerns, and your goals. Please do not limit our meetings to these conferences. I will also be happy to talk to you at other times about any questions or concerns you have.
• Peer Review and Workshops: Each of the three essays you will write during the semester will be discussed in a workshop group. I will assign you to a workshop group for each essay and you must bring enough copies of your draft for everyone in the group. Consequently, you are not only responsible to me, but to each other. Come to class prepared to discuss; try to engage with other students' writings as you will with those of the other writers we will read. Be constructive, and approach your classmates' work as you would have someone approach your own. Address the ambition as well as the result. Take notes on the work itself – don’t rely on memory. (That said, this is not a correspondence course. I expect each of you to express yourselves aloud in class so your peers can benefit from your comments.)
• Plagiarism: Plagiarism is a serious offence and is an act of academic dishonesty. Plagiarism is stealing and passing off the ideas or words of another as one's own, using another's production without crediting the source, or presenting as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source. Queens College regards acts of academic dishonesty (e.g. plagiarism, cheating on examinations, obtaining unfair advantage, and falsification of records and official documents) as serious offenses against the values of intellectual honesty. The college is committed to enforcing the CUNY Policy on Academic Integrity and will pursue cases of academic dishonesty according to College Integrity Procedures. It will be very difficult to succeed at plagiarizing as, "Queens College has a pilot license for the use of Turnitin, a system that detects plagiarism by comparing students' essays to a large database of essays and web content." (Queens College Provost Office). Any use of plagiarized materials will be reported to the Dean and will result in a failing grade for the course.
Course Schedule
Week 1
Thursday January 28 Introduction
Week 2
Tuesday February 2 Introduction – pp. xxiii – liv
Art of the Personal Essay
Thursday February 4 Virginia Woolf – “A Room of One’s Own”
Week 3
Tuesday February 9 Charles Lamb – “A Chapter on Ears” – pp. 165 - 169
Thursday February 11 Annie Dillard – “Seeing” – pp. 693-706
Blog
Week 4
Tuesday February 16 First Draft of Analytic Essay Due
Peer Review
Thursday February 18 NO CLASS
Week 5
Tuesday February 23 Stylistic Devices – (handout)
Thursday February 25 Richard Selzer – “The Knife” – pp. 707-714
Week 6
Tuesday March 2 Natalia Ginzburg – “He and I” – pp. 453-457
Blog
Thursday March 4 Wole Soyinka – “Why Do I Fast” – pp. 422-430
Week 7
Tuesday March 9 “Meatless Days” – pp. 458 - 475
Blog
Thursday March 11 In class peer review of Stylistic Essay Drafts
Week 8
Tuesday March 16 First Draft of Stylistic Essay Due
The Lover – pp. 3-38 39-83
Thursday March 18 The Lover – pp. 39-83
Blog
Second Draft of Analytic Essay Due
Peer Review
Week 9
Tuesday March 23 The Lover pp. 84-end
Thursday March 25 Library Session
Second Draft of Stylistic Essay Due
Week 10
Tuesday March 30 NO CLASS – Spring Recess
Thursday April 1 NO CLASS – Spring Recess
Week 11
Tuesday April 6 The Pain of Sorrow in the Modern World: The Works of Marguerite Duras” – Julia Kristeva (handout)
Blog
Thursday April 8 In class peer review of Research Paper
Week 12
Tuesday April 13 First Draft of Research Paper Due
Louise Gluck - “On Impoverishment” (handout)
Thursday April 15 F. Scott Fitzgerald – “The Crack-Up”
Blog
Week 13
Tuesday April 20 E. B. White – “Ring of Time” – pp. 538-539
Second Draft of Research Paper Due
Thursday April 22 Joan Didion – “Goodbye to All That” – pp. 680-688
Week 14
Tuesday April 27 Jorge Luis Borges – “Blindness” – pp.376 – 386
Thursday April 29 James Baldwin – “Notes of a Native Son” - pp. 587-604
Second Draft of Research Paper Due
Week 15
Tuesday May 4 Second Draft of Research Paper Due
In class conferences concerning the final Personal Essay Assignment
Thursday May 6 In class peer review of final Personal Essay Assignment
Week 16
Tuesday May 11 First Draft of Personal Essay Due
Thursday May 13 Portfolio Conferences
Final Portfolio Due
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)