ENGLISH 120W
SECTION: E6TBA
(Tuesdays & Thursdays, 6:30 – 7:45 PM
Classroom: KY 326)
Instructor: Laura Reznick
Email: Lauralisa.reznick@gmail.com
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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
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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
