ENG 207 Poetry Project 1 Spring 2007
The first project involves researching the characteristics of a school of poetry (or poetry movement). Characteristics might include literary style, interests, subjects, main concerns, connections to other arts. Things that define a school will vary. You'll also compile a list of poets associated with the school. You then will choose one short poem by those poets to explicate. A lottery will determine the school you will cover. Up to three students may be assigned to the same group. Some limited switching (by mutual agreement of all parties involved and with my expressed agreement to a new configuration that does leave any school with fewer than two or more than three students) may be possible if done no later than the class following the lottery.
Students covering the same school will cooperate in choosing the poet and poem each will explicate (each will do a different poem, and, ideally, a different author). Teams will collaborate to create and present a one-page bulleted outline (reduce the type size if needed, but not smaller than 10 point, to fit it on one page) of the school's main characteristics and poets. After the team presentation (very short), members, individually, will briefly discuss their poems (also very short).
With no collaboration, each student will write a 1000-1200-word MLA-style research paper that briefly discusses the school's characteristics, but your focus will be on your poem as an example of the school. The thesis will make the connection between your poem/poet and the school. The explication (as explications do) will touch on all elements to present a comprehensive understanding of the poem as a poem, along the way addressing how the poem exhibits its school's characteristics. I encourage students to use secondary sources for the explication, not just for the background, so long as they don't rely on just one or two sources. That makes it someone else's explication.
All team will complete their research and bring it to class 3/27. On 3/27 and 3/29, teams will meet (in class) to prepare their bulleted outline and decide on presentation logistics (who does what, who goes first).
On 4/3, All teams will submit to me a copy of their bulleted outline. Each team member of all teams will submit a copy of his/her poem and the notes (rough outline, or something similar, of the explication) s/he will use to present the poem. Teams and team members also should have ready enough copies of the bulleted outline and their poems for each class member (40 copies, counting mine).
Groups will present on 4/3, 4/5, 4/10, and 4/12. During those two weeks of presentations, (along with preparing Test 2 (take-home) students will work on writing the paper. The final draft is due 4/12.
These Schools or Movements (not necessarily listed in chronological order) will be raffled off:
- Symbolists
- Surrealists
- Imagists
- Objectivists
- Deep Imagism
- Harlem Renaissance
- San Francisco Renaissance
- NY School
- Beats
- Confessional Poets
- Black Arts Movement
- Black Mountain School
- New Formalism
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ENG 224 Spring 2007 Research Project 1 The Gatsby Paper
Project 1 will be a 1200-word paper on the role of the automobile in F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Your paper will analyze how the novel depicts the automobile's influence on the culture (attitudes, behavior, customs, values, etc.) of the time (the Gatsby era).
Step 1. Read the novel carefully. Note every mention of cars (trucks and roads, too, when applicable). Use a separate electronic or paper note card to record each "car sighting" (notes will have to be reassembled by category—impossible if you take them in your journal). Note descriptions and depictions of cars and roads (pay attention to imagery and symbols too), types of cars and how they designate economic or social class or status, characters' thoughts and feelings about cars, characters' actions in and around cars, etc. You are the driver of this paper, so your observations are central. You will use Step 2 to help support and explain what you've uncovered. Complete Step 1 by 3/13.
Step 2. Research the topic. Two approaches: A. Find information on cars and car ownership in the 1920's, including the cultural changes brought about by the automobile. Connect this research information to specific depictions of cars you've found in the novel. If you choose, you may write your paper using just A. approach information and making all the connections yourself. One or two good sources may be all you need if you are all you need for a totally or primarily A. approach paper. B. Find articles (Academic Search Premier—ECHOhost?—Jstor) that deal with the car/tech connection to Gatsby. Such articles do some of the work for you—they've already applied the information found in the A. approach to examples in the novel. The B. approach IS NOT A SUBSTITUTE for Step 1. You still must "call the shots" and use your research to support and interpret your own findings, not replace them. Your paper will be weak (or outright plagiarized) if you let approach B. do all the work for you. Although you might be able to find enough information using just the B. approach, even if you don't end up plagiarizing, you're likely to produce a stronger paper include A. approach information. You will need to find several sources (to avoid relying too much on one) ff you are using primarily B. approach information for your paper. Complete source gathering for Step 2 by 3/15. Before you begin writing the paper, go through your source material and take notes (again, use electronic or paper note cards) on what you'll need for your paper. Carefully document where each idea came from and carefully paraphrase (put totally in your own words) your sources' words to avoid plagiarism. Review what constitutes plagiarism in a recent-edition writing handbook or online (handbook publishers' or writing program websites are easy to access).
Step 3. Write the paper. Follow the MLA manuscript format and documenting style. This is a relatively short paper for this topic, so you need to be very focused. Your writing must be concise and relevant—include no long quotes (limit yourself to short "key word" quotes and total quoted material should not make up more than about 10% of your paper); no wordy, ineffective constructions; and no irrelevant ideas or information (no background or general information on cars or culture that you don't directly tie to examples in the novel). Use college-level standard American English. Start by organizing your notes into categories (see the project description and Step 1. directions for possible categories). Your introductory paragraph will contain your thesis (the overall critical point you are making about the car's influence on culture as seen in the novel). Don't be afraid to name the aspects (categories/areas) in the introduction. The body will develop your thesis category by category or point by point. Each paragraph must include specific examples from Gatsby. Most paragraphs will also include information from your sources. Use MLA style in-text parenthetical citations for all references to both the text and to outside sources (find this information in writing handbooks or online, as above). A concluding paragraph will wrap up the paper. Don't just summarize what you've already said. Refer back to your thesis idea (but don't repeat it) and consider its significance in light of what you've written in your paper. Include an MLA-style Works Cited list. Be sure readers can easily (at first glance) match your parenthetical citations to your Works Cited list. Include the bibliographic information from all your cited references, including the Gatsby text, in the Works Cited. Complete and submit two typed copies of your final draft on 3/29.
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ENG 224 Spring 2007 Research Project 2 Period Study of the Literature/Culture and Sci/Tech Connections
Research Project 2 will involve team collaboration in researching a period's scientific/technological/ literary/ cultural (with some acknowledgement of socio-political theory) background; in sharing their research material with each team member; and in presenting highlights of the period to the whole class.
A lottery will determine team, period, partner, and period area assignments. Some very limited switching (by mutual agreement of all parties involved and with my expressed agreement to a new configuration that doesn't affect team numbers or area coverage) may be possible if done no later than the class following the lottery.
Research Project 2 also involves writing a 1200-word research paper discussing how science/technology influenced the creation and production of literary text. Students will share their team's research sources but write their own paper with no further collaboration.
Periods Team 1: 16th and 17th C; Team 2: 18th and 19th C; Team 3: 20th C (1st half); Team 4: 1950-now.
Areas (same for all periods): Two members of each team will cover each area: • Science/technology: scientific thought (ideas, attitudes), discoveries/inventions (printing and publishing, including those related to printing and publishing; major scientists and inventors. • Literature: literary thought and characteristics, including forms and genres; major writers and their most important texts; production/distribution of literary texts. • Society/culture, politics/history: background gauging the overall climate or tenor of the period.
Research and Presentation Team partners will decide how to best research their assigned area of their team's period. Each team member will copy of all her/his sources for every other team member. Team partners will collaborate prepare a one- or two-page bulleted outline of their research (they may choose to do a separate one-page outline depending on how they have split the research responsibilities). Area partners will give a copy of the bulleted outline to all other team members during the last group meeting, at least a few days before the presentations begin. All students will give me the bulleted outline the day the presentations begin (4/24) and every classmate one at the time of presentation. Teams will be assigned a presentation date; each team member will use her/his bullets as prompts, elaborating as appropriate, to present an overview of the research.
Research Paper. Using the team's shared research material, each team member will write a paper (see description above). The research sources provide the raw data: who, what, when, where. Your paper will not be simply a summary of the research aspect by aspect; you must analyze and synthesize data to show how (and maybe why) science/technology influence the creation and production of literary texts—you must select and reshape appropriate data (you won't use everything from every aspect) to make the inferences and connections needed. As with the previous paper (Research Project 1) follow the MLA manuscript format and documenting style. Find a focus (decide on clear points to make so you don't just ramble around the topic. Write concisely (no wordy, ineffective constructions) or irrelevant information (doesn't directly and specifically address the "how"). Limit yourself to short "key word" quotes that make up no more than about 10% of your paper. Use college-level standard American English. Create an introductory paragraph (with a thesis) and a conclusion, and write body paragraphs that develop clear points supported by cited information. Include an MLA-style Works Cited list. Be sure readers can easily (at first glance) match your in-text parenthetical citations to your Works Cited list. Complete and submit two typed copies of your final draft on 5/1.
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Research Project Introduction to the Creative Process Spring 2007
This semester’s project will be a 1200-word paper on an author’s creative process. You’ll find information about how your author thinks, imagines, writes, and revises--how or where your author conceives/finds, generates, shapes, and develops ideas, how ideas become words, how methods or rituals inform his/her creative process (for example, does s/he write beginning to end or out of sequence, finish writing the whole work before revising or revise along the way, complete one work before starting another), and even where and when s/he writes). Your paper may deal with any or all of these areas and will include cited (in-text parenthetical) references to your research findings. What your paper won’t include is ANYTHING NOT CLEARLY, SPECIFICALLY, DIRECTLY RELEVANT TO THE ABOVE—no extraneous information, biographical or literary.
A library demo will show you how to research this topic. Starting 3/28, hands-on in-class instruction will show you how to write the paper.
Begin researching right after the library demo. If you don’t know right away which writer you want to do, start by checking out a few to see who interests you. Submit your choice on 3/28 and continue researching that one writer.
You must cite at least six different sources in the body of your paper (many students will cite more than six). Find a variety of angles and types of sources. Include what scholars have said about your writer’s creative process (articles in scholarly journal) as well as what your writer has said about her/his or her own creative process (in interviews, personal journal/letters, or other types of commentaries). Find at least 10 or 12 potential sources: some may offer nothing you don’t already know; others just may not be useful as your paper begins to take shape. As you find sources that seem promising, print out or copy them. You will need the copies to use in class, and you must submit copies of all sources cited when you turn in your final draft.
Check the syllabus for what you must complete and bring to each week. You will use your own research material and, as you begin writing, parts of your paper-in-progress “how to” and “what to” classes, the writing workshop, and the manuscript peer edit (3/28-4/25). Final draft package (two copies of the typed manuscript and copies of all source material in a manila-type envelope) is due 5/2.
Eligible writers for Spring 2007 Choose one whose work you’ve read or are willing to read (at least a small sampling) so the research has more interest and meaning:
Margaret Atwood Ray Bradbury Sandra Cisneros Robert Coover Don DeLillo? Stephen King Ursula LeGuin? Frank McCourt? Toni Morrison Grace Paley Alice Walker Tobias Wolff