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REQUIREMENTS

Attendance

Participation
(e.g., discussion in class and on message board)

Midterm exam

Paper
(satire anthology)

Final exam

 

 
 

MESSSAGE BOARD POSTS

Please post by 5:00 p.m. on the day BEFORE they are due.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lysistrata

1. "Make love, not war": Why are love and war so completely opposed? Can you think of examples in which love and war are aligned?

2. Withholding sex is a form of power. What does this form of power imply?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Colbert Report SQ

Did you at any time routinely watch The Colbert Report?

Do you think it's funny?

 

 

 

Candide

What is Candide about?

Why is it considered philosophical?

Why do you think it might be considered Voltaire's "magnum opus"?

Is the play applicable today? How might you rewrite it to make it a modern satire?

Swift, A Modest Proposal (1729)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

Paper for E10 Satire: a Satire anthology.

 

Imagine that an editor has invited you to put together a short anthology to be used in a course like E10.

Choose 5 satires

--One (at least) before the 20th century

--One (at least) in prose

--One (at least) in poetry

--No more than one film or TV show

--No more than one cartoon

§ Introduction: Write an overall discussion of satire (one page) that you think would be helpful to students taking a GE requirement.

§ Write one page of description (and analysis) for each satire.

§ Conclusion: Write one page that looks back to the satires you have included.

Your paper will be 7 pages.. You may, however, make it a little longer, if you'd like, by making your introduction and conclusion a little longer than one page.

 

 
 

PEER READER GUIDELINES

1. Read the paper until you find the thesis. Circle the key terms of the thesis, and put an asterisk next to it in the margin of the paper. Based on the thesis statement, how do you expect the essay to unfold? Can you imagine objections that the writer should take into account? Do you remember any material from our reading that might be helpful to the writer? (That is, can you offer the writer specific quotations that might be useful in the development of his or her paper?)
2. Read the paper through for a first impression. What strikes you about it? Whatare its best sections?

3. Were you right about the thesis? If not, what now appears to be the thesis to you? Does the paper follow through on it? If the paper seems to have more than one thesis, do you see any relation between them?

4. Locate and underline transitions between paragraphs. Do the transitions follow the "plot" or "argument" of the material being analyzed? Or do they follow the development of the writer's thinking?

5. Comment in detail on a paragraph that "works" and a paragraph that doesn't. What hooks sentences together in the paragraph that works? What kind of help does the non-working paragraph need?

6. What did you learn from the paper? What do you think the writer will learn from you?

7. Please type responses to these questions on a separate page. Make two copies give one to the writer of the paper, and turn another in with your final draft so you can get credit for your peer reading. Please also turn in with your final draft the peer-reading sheet given to you by your peer reader.

 
 

PARAGRAPH AND SENTENCE POINTERS

Say what you mean: Put the most important meaning words in the most important grammatical positions. This move is one of your most important revision strategies. It will help you get rid of wordiness, initial delaying constructions, and clunky clauses; and it will encourage you to subordinate properly.*

Hook-ups: Sentences in a paragraph must "hook" on to preceding sentences. In hooking on to a previous sentence, each sentence establishes some kind of relationship (to that previous sentence). You need to be able to say what the relation of each sentence to the one before it is. If your sentences have not met each other yet, they (almost certainly) don't belong in the same paragraph.
Look for the stated or implied connector in each of your ¶s.

Develop your paragraphs: Most paragraphs in English start out in a certain direction and keep on going that way. Many start in one direction and then turn (with such words as
"however" and "nevertheless"). There are two "rules" about turning: a) you can only turn once per paragraph; b) all sentences following the turn support that turn OR the original direction of the paragraph.* (One apparent exception is only apparent; I'll explain it in class.)

Test your paragraphs with the "paragraph test": cut the paragraph into sentences and see if another intelligent, attentive person can put the paragraph together again.

*These two ideas are from Frederick Crews's The Random House Handbook