DRAFT DUE: May 17
FINAL DRAFT DUE: May 26
Paper length: 7 pages, double spaced, typed. A first draft is also required.Bring 2 copies of your draft, one for AJVS, one for your peer reader.
COMMENTARY: Along with the final draft of your paper, please write a 1-2 page commentary on the writing of your paper. How did things go? What sort of trouble spots did you run into? How did you handle them? What did you learn--from handling trouble spots and from having your paper read by a peer reader? Did anything about your thinking surprise you? What pleases you most about your paper?
|| The commentary is informal and will not be graded, but it is required. And I read it first.
Everyone is required to turn in a draft and do a peer reading for someone else in the class (as well as having a peer reading for your own draft).
I will comment on drafts but not on revisions. What do you think of this idea? Would you rather have comments on your finished (revised) paper or on your draft?
PAPER TOPICS:
NB ("Nota bene" = "note well"):
A. ALL topics require you to deal with 2 writers or works and, therefore, to think comparatively. You will discover your own thesis--and it will be original (so far as you know). Consider using "portability" (as we have done in class) as a method of analysis.
B. Some of the topics allow (or require) reading ahead of the course schedule. Please notice whether that is the case BEFORE setting out on your topic.
C. For all topics, please read and take seriously "Paragraph and Sentence Pointers."
D. You will find below the "key" to my comments on drafts.1. The concept of honor is important in a number of the works we have read, and its meaning is often contested. Trace the word carefully and compare the uses of this word (and this concept) in the work of two writers.
2. Analyze the Earl of Rochester's treatment of reason in Satyr Against Mankind and then compare his use of this term to that of one other writer.
3. The Pilgrim's Progress is the one dissenter's work we read. After reviewing the definitions of "dissent" in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), extend your use of this concept and see if the term would be appropriate to use as a key term for understanding other works we have read.
4. Imagine Mary Astell going to see The Country Wife. What's at stake in the way Astell and Wycherley treat marriage questions? If you don't want to read ahead but do want to work with marriage questions raised by other works, you may do so. Let me know what your plan is.
5. The course is in part framed by political events. Choose works by two writers read for the course and explain how the politics of the period significantly shapes them.
6. We have seen that in her poetry, Katherine Philips elevates friendship above the body, calling the body, for example, a “carcase.” Her poetry has caused readers to use the term “Sapphic-Platonics.” Mary Astell was a “neo-Platonist,” who also called women’s attention away from the body: “I suppose then that you’re fill’d with a laudable Ambition to brighten and enlarge your Souls, that the Beauty of your Bodies is but a secondary care. . . .” Compare the work of Katherine Philips with the work of Mary Astell, considering these questions: What is the status of the body in their works? Philips was a coterie writer and Astell shared the elitism that was a part of her social training. Does their work necessarily have a restricted audience today, or is it more generalizable? (Why?) What vocabulary do they share? What vocabulary is characteristic of one but does not appear in the other?
7. Fear is important to both Rochester's and Bunyan's works. Compare the way these authors use fear (you may use what we have said in class, but you should go beyond it).
8. If you'd like to shape your own topic, please come to my office hours and let's talk about the possibilities.
SAMPLE FIRST PARAGRAPHS
These examples will come from you.
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.
8. If you would like to participate in peer conferences, sign up on the sheet on my office door.
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 each case, look for the stated or implied connector.
In hooking on to a previous sentence, each sentence does something to the previous one. You need to be able to say what each sentence is doing to the one before it. If your sentences have not met each other yet, they don't belong in the same paragraph.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.
Key to AJVS comments and questions
Check = nice, good, etc.
Check, check = very nice, good, etc.
_______ ________= Something is wrong with the connection
between circled or underlined elements.¶ = Paragraph.
¶ development, coherence, and unity. "Paragraph & Sentence Pointers" may help you with this.
Sp = spelling.
SS = sentence structure.
SVA = subject-verb agreement.
// ism = parallelism.
ref = reference not clear (for pronouns, etc.).
frag = sentence fragment.
P = punctuation problem.
ROS = run-on sentence.
CS = comma splice.
NI = not idiomatic.
Pass = passive voice used inappropriately.
Pred = predication. Something is wrong with the way you are putting
together a subject and a verb.wd ch = problem with word choice.
T = problem with shift in verb tense or with sequence of tense.
# = spacing. You need to add a space or spaces.
POV = point of view. You may want me to explain this problem while
looking at your paper.Rep = repetition.
Redundant = redundant.
Transition = Something amiss with transition between sentences or
paragraphs.Subordination = problem with subordination.
Logic = Problem with logic, e.g., your evidence doesn’t match your
claim; you have made an unacknowledged assumption or you have
assumed agreement that doesn’t exist; you have drawn an inference
that doesn’t follow from your observation or from your evidence.Leap = Same as above.
Meaning ? = Even with effort, I find this sentence or phrase
hard to understand.Hm . . . = I’m not persuaded. Sounds doubtful to me.
This = Try not to usethe word "this" without a noun following it. Say
"this point," "this idea," "this problem," etc., rather than "this,"
"this,","this."GSS = Getting-started sentences; omit.
TOTS = Too obvious to state.
TSINWVH = This sentence is not working very hard.
TSDNATKEO = These sentences do not appear to know each other.
Please introduce them. And please see paragraph and sentence
pointer on "hook-ups."AMAT = Ask me about this [point].
CA = Clarify assertion. One frequent possibility: Put the most
important meaning words in the most important grammatical positions.
See advice on sentences and paragraphs: "Say what you mean."Condense = Clarify assertions, subordinate appropriately, and aim for
economy in expression. You often need to condense in order to see
what needs to be developed.