English 102, section 07 (Susan Brodie) Fall 2002
ASSIGNMENT #1
“We believe reflection is central to learning and to taking thoughtful, compassionate, and appropriate action in the world. We mean by reflection the careful, ongoing consideration of a subject . . . . To be self-reflective is to examine yourself, your ideas, your assumptions . . . .”
Carter & Gradin, Writing as Reflective Action
This assignment asks you to explore some idea you found in one of the class readings, and to do so via description and analysis of personal experiences the reading triggered for you. Start by finding a quote in one of the readings—a quote that triggers your thinking and that triggers a connection to your personal experience and observations. Your paper will need to describe in detail the experiences triggered. Use specific wording, dialogue, contrasts. Find a word, phrase, or image that captures the essence of the idea or conflict you are exploring. For example, in one of my own reflective writings, I discovered the image of spring flowers pushing up through concrete. That’s an image of struggle and of the will to survive. Most of us have had experiences that seem like shoving against concrete, but we found light and growth at the end of the struggle. Find your own image, and use that as a central unifying feature of your writing. You may explore your ideas using one extended experience, described in detail. A model of this kind of exploration is Orwell’s “Shooting an Elephant.” Or, you may explore ideas by describing a series of similar but unrelated experiences (one triggers another). Several readings use this strategy (Staples’ “Just Walk On By,” Kriegel’s “Falling Into Life,” Jordan’s “Many Rivers to Cross”).
Remember, readers need to be able to enter into your experiences, so describe realistically and fully, include dialogue & internal dialogue, contrasts, and conflicts. But also remember that description is not an end in itself. Rather, it is a means to the goal of exploring an idea and arriving at some new way of understanding that idea (as in Kriegel’s “Falling Into Life”—an examination of the blessings of a “disability”). Obviously, you will need to search for serious ideas to explore (though you may certainly use humor). Don’t try to describe drinking parties unless there is some true, meaty idea at the basis of your exploration.
The essay must incorporate one or two quotations from readings done in class (or done on your own). Use MLA style documentation and include a
Works Cited page. Aim for a polished essay of 4 typed, double-spaced pages, plus the Works Cited.
Readings for Assignment #1:
9/3 Bryan, “Around the Corner”
Forbes, “Naked” (student essay)
9/5 Kriegel, “Falling Into Life”
Staples, “Just Walk On By”
9/10 Orwell, “Shooting an Elephant”
“Marrakech”
9/12 Dubus, “Giving Up the Gun”
Neffinger, “House of Cards” (student essay)
9/17 First draft due. Bring 4 copies for workshop.
Practice workshop procedures, then complete workshop on your drafts.
9/19 Work on style, key words & images, documentation, works cited
9/24 Revised draft due. Bring 4 copies for workshop.
Review writing problems and solutions
This paper is due Thusday 10/3. This gives you time to go to the Writing Lab. Include drafts and workshops when you submit your work.
English 102, section 07 (Brodie) Fall 2002
Assignment #2
“It is like the rubbing of two sticks together to make a fire,
the act of reading, an improbable pedestrian task
that leads to heat and light.” --Anna Quindlen
“A good question is never answered.
It is not a bolt to be tight-ended into place,
but a seed to be planted and to bear more seed
toward the hope of greening the landscape of idea.” --John Ciardi
This assignment asks you to begin with a summary of one of the readings, and to find in that reading some question (or idea) that sparks the fire of your interest. Take that question or idea (or some related idea triggered by the reading), and explore it by examining the personal experiences and observations it triggers for you. Explore it further by searching for at least two additional sources (from electronic data bases, your past reading in other classes, or from books in our library). To sum, you will find a question or idea in the reading and “spin off” to explore some related idea triggered by the reading. As you explore your idea, you will begin to create an informal argument.
Aim for 5 typed, double-spaced pages, plus a Works Cited page. Use MLA style for the Works Cited page, and to document quotes, indirect references, and paraphrases.
Readings to trigger your thinking:
Th 9/26 Didion, “On Self-Respect”
Berger, “Ways of Seeing: Men Looking at Women”
T 10/1 Robinson, “Family”
Th 10/3 V. Woolf, excerpt from “A Room of One’s Own”
T 10/8 Dunn, “Locker Room Talk”
Theroux, “Being a Man”
Angier, “Why Men Don’t Last: Self-Destruction as a Way of Life”
Th 10/10 First draft due: bring 4 copies for workshop
Work on style & on integrating quotes
T 10/15 Revised draft due: bring 4 copies for workshop
Work on use of quotes, documenting, Works Cited
Paper #2 is due on Thursday, 10/24
English 102, section 07 (Brodie) Fall 2002
Assignment #3
“Academic writing, reading, and inquiry are inseparably linked; and all three are learned by not doing any one alone, but by doing them all at the same time.” --James Reither
This assignment is much like assignment #2, except that you will need to explore an idea or question through analysis of experience as well as analysis of 5 outside sources (search electronic data bases and books in our library).
As with assignment #2, I’ll ask you to discover some question or idea triggered by a class reading. Then explore that question or idea by examining experiences it triggers. Extend your exploration through reading at least 5 outside sources (you may also make use of reading done for other classes or in your past). Use MLA style for documentation of quotes and paraphrases, and for the Works Cited page.
Aim for 5-7 typed, double-spaced pages, plus a Works Cited page.
Th 10/17 T. Wolff, “Last Shot”
Burroughs, “Decoy”
T 10/22 Norris, “Annunciation”
Graham, “The Future of Love: Kiss Romance Good Bye”
Th 10/24 Seshadri, “My Pirate Boyhood”
Early, “Ali, the Wonder Boy”
T 10/29 Malkin, Wornian & Chrisler, “Women and Weight: Gendered
Messages on Magazine Covers”
Shulevitz, “Modern Makeup: Two Cheers for the Beauty Industry”
Meloy, “The Voice of the Looking Glass” (Student work)
Th 10/31 First draft due: bring 4 copies for workshop
Work on style, use of key words/phrases/images to capture ideas
Review APA documentation and bibliography format
T 11/5 Revised draft due: bring 4 copies for workshop
Review APA documentation and bibliography format
Paper #3 is due Thursday, 11/14
English 102, section 07 (Brodie) Fall 2002
Assignment #4
The greatest challenge, which yields the greatest discoveries,
is thinking ‘outside the box’
—outside the boundaries of our accustomed paradigm.
--Jim Olson (loose paraphrase)
Assignment #4 asks you to discover some issue or question triggered by class readings, and to explore that issue or question through analysis of personal experience and at least 5 outside sources. Seek an issue or question of personal relevance. You may wish to begin with a narration of some experience that captures the essence of the issue. Your task is not to argue a point, but to explore possible causes or solutions for the issue.
Th 11/7 MacFarquhar, “Who Cares if Johnny Can’t Read?” (handout)
School to Work: Training vs Education (2 short articles on Reserve)
Th 11/14 Gelernter, “Unplugged: The Myth of Computers in the Classroom”
Winn, “Television Addiction”
Computer-Mediated Communication (7 short articles)
T 11/19 Tannen, “Sex, Lies, and Conversation: Why Is It So Hard for Men
and Women to Talk to Each Other?”
Shelton, “When White Boys Kill, White Dads Fail”
Etzioni, “Parenting as an Industry”
T 11/26 First draft due: bring 4 copies for workshop
Review APA style of documentation and bibliography
T 12/3 Revised draft due: bring 4 copies for workshop
Review APA style
Th 12/5 Review problem areas
Paper #4 is due on Tuesday, 11/10
English 102, section 07 (Brodie) Fall 2002
Assignment #5: Final Exam
Due Monday, Dec. 16, 3:30 – 5:30 pm
For the final exam assignment, I’d like you to select two pieces and to revise them significantly (work on sharpening ideas, re-organizing, adding significant detail, and showing a significant development of thinking). You may want to try a completely different start for these papers. In any case, you must do more than correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling. Study my comments and questions, and use them as a guide to re-seeing and re-thinking the papers. During the exam period, I will ask you to write an analysis of your revising strategies and to assess the impact on your final products.