College
Writing II ENG102
Professor Mead Autumn 2012
Outcomes:
Students will
HOCs Understand the difference between an
argumentative thesis and a descriptive thesis;
Understand what makes a thesis interpretive or significant;
Understand that each paragraph conveys a single idea that directly
supports the thesis;
Understand that every paragraph requires a topic sentence that
unifies the paragraph and connects it to the thesis
Understand why and how paragraphs proceed in a particular order;
Have demonstrated a growing, professional prose voice;
Have demonstrated significant progress in the ability to read
critically, using techniques of close reading for primary sources and
resource evaluation for secondary sources
Have demonstrated significant progress in the ability to use secondary
sources for support, analysis, background, antithesis, and
comparison;
LOCs Learn to self-edit all recurrent errors
in usage, grammar, and punctuation;
Demonstrate attention to verb-centered prose;
Perfect use of MLA-style format for research papers;
Demonstrate progress in
achieving a larger vocabulary;
Demonstrate progress in “cutting the fat” in every sentence.
|
Syllabus (subject to the slings and
arrows of outrageous fortune)
August
29 W Introduction
30 R MASS OF HOLY SPIRIT
31 F The
Things They Carried, 1-84
September
3 M NO
CLASS
5 W The Things They Carried, 85-148
7 F The Things They Carried, 149-207
10 M The
Things They Carried, 208-233
12 W Catch-up
14 F The Iliad,
Book 1
17 M The
Iliad, Book 2
19 W In-class Paper drafting
21 F Edit Session
24 M Paper
#1 Due.
26 W The
Iliad, Books 3-4
28 F The
Iliad, Books 5-6
October
1 M The Iliad Books 7-9
3 W In-class
Paper Drafting*
5 F Edit Session*
8 M Paper
#2 Due.*
10 W The Iliad, Books 10-11*
12 F NO
CLASS
15 M The Iliad, 12-14
17 W The Iliad, 15-16
19 F The Iliad, Books 17-18
22 M The Iliad, Books 19-21
24 W The Iliad, Books 22-23
26 F The Iliad, Book 24
29 M In-Class
Drafting
31 W Edit
Session
November
2 F Paper
#3 Due.
5 M
7 W
9 F
12 M NO
CLASS
14 W
16 F Thesis
Due
19 M
21 W
23 F NO
CLASS
26 M Complete
MLA Works Cited Due
28 W
30 F Big
Edit, Part I
December
3 M Big Edit, Part II
5 W Evaluations. Final
Paper Due.
You will notice that there are many days without a schedule
planned. These are not “free” days, but
workshop days in which students will make use of the classroom, the library,
the writing center, the instructor, and/or the study groups to develop and perfect
their final paper.
Paper #1 Tim
O’Brien writes that “a true war story is never about war. It’s about sunlight” (81). Homer has a verse-paragraph that reads:
Now
the goddess Dawn climber up to Olympus heights,
declaring
the light of day to Zeus and the deathless gods
as
the king commanded heralds to cry out loud and clear
and
muster the long-haired Achaeans to full assembly.
Their
cries rang out. Battalions gathered
quickly.
(2.
57-61).
In a five-page, thesis-driven essay, examine the contexts
of these quotations and argue what you think O’Brien means by his assertion.
How does O’Brien’s line help you to understand Homer’s non-narrative
techniques? Conversely, how does Homer’s
method of story-telling (with lots of nature similes and descriptions of time
and place and sound and sight) support or challenge O’Brien’s assertion?
Paper #2 Consider
O’Brien’s story “The Man I Killed” (and its after-notes throughout the book)
and the death of Gorgythion in The Iliad
(8.342-353). You might also want to
re-read O’Brien’s passage that reads “any battle or bombing raid or artillery
barrage has the aesthetic purity of absolute moral indifference—a powerful,
implacable beauty” (77). Based in your interpretation of these passages, write
an essay that argues for an original definition of violence that someone could use to understand The Things They Carried and The
Iliad more interpretively.
Paper # 3 You have now written an essay exploring
imagery in our two texts and an essay that required you to compare and contrast
the authors’ imagery of violence. How
can you strengthen your arguments by placing these discussions in the context
of the visual rhetoric of Ancient Greece/or the 1960’s? Find two to three famous sculptures or vase
images of warriors from the Ancient to Golden Age (5th century
Athens) and find at least three scholarly articles on the conventions of
representation at work in these objects.
How do they represent violence?
What kind of “social” or cultural work did they objects perform? Who looked at them? How do they support or challenge your
observations about Homer’s imagery? To
what end, or what do you make of this?
Similarly, the Vietnam War occurred during a visual
revolution: it was the first televised
war. Instead of focusing on the Greek
text, you can study the American book.
Find two or three famous photographs, newsreels, or recordings from
1964-76 and find at least three scholarly articles on the war, its
reportage, or its larger consequences. Who was the original audience for these
images? How important was objectivity to
the image-creators? From your
twenty-first century perspective, which is more lastingly important, the actual
events or the representation of those events? Can you separate them?
Final Paper This
paper is meant to be the culmination of your reading, thinking, studying,
talking about, and writing about interpretive ideas of The Things They Carried and The
Iliad. Read through your earlier
papers and find a single, unifying idea that offers the reader of your essay an
original interpretation of O’Brien, Homer, or both. If you have been working in a focused manner,
you will find yourself developing parts of your earlier papers in this final
paper. You might even transfer whole
paragraphs that address your thesis.
This is not “cheating”; rather, this is how academics and professionals
(doctors, lawyers, business persons) work.
Certainly the research you have been doing throughout the semester will
find its way into the final paper.
This paper is to be no less than ten pages long, excluding
Works Cited and Notes (both of which are required). It must have at least ten SCHOLARLY sources
(articles from peer-reviewed journals or books from university presses) AND at
least four images, recordings, etc. from visual artifacts relevant to the
paper.
Because you will have a month to finish this paper and
because the paper will be founded upon work you have done for the two months
previous to the last month, the standard of excellence will be accessible, but
firm. There will be no reason to turn in
unpolished work if you are taking advantage of the course “process” of building
research—a process that enables the disciplined student to achieve his or her
highest potential. Focus on the High
Order Concerns (thesis, voice/tone, organization, development of ideas) and
bring these elements to a complete development before you address Low Order
Concerns (grammar, punctuation, spelling, format). Be sure to check my blog http://stephenxmead.blogspot.com/
for a treasure of resources, especially the Purdue Writing Center and the
U.P.S. paper revision links.
Students must complete ALL assignments to pass this course.
Texts: The Iliad, Homer. trans. Robert Fagles. Penguin
The Things They
Carried, Tim O’Brien. Mariner Books,
2009.
The Transition to
College Writing, by Keith Hjortshoj, 2nd Edition Bedford/St.
Martin’s 2009.
Office : OM312B, MWF 10-11, TR 8:30-9:30 AND BY
APPOINTMENT
tel. 438-4336 smead@stmartin.edu You may leave me a
voice or electronic message, but I cannot promise to respond before the next
class period.
Students with special
needs should inform the instructor at the earliest possible moment, and he will
make all reasonable accommodations.
Students suspected of plagiarism
will be required to produce evidence of multiple drafts of their work that
shows the progression of thought and development, according to their
explanation. Students suspected of plagiarism who cannot produce drafts or
explanations will be given a grade of zero for the assignment (with the
possibility of re-doing the assignment for a reduced grade); they may choose to
withdraw from the course; they will be reported to the Vice President for
Academic Affairs, and may be required to create a contract with their academic
advisor that outlines their plans for graduation according to the rules of
honesty.
The following are but a shallow delving into the web’s
resources for historical and popular sites on both Ancient Greece and The U.S.
Vietnam War era.
No comments:
Post a Comment