Please note: This course format is available on the Web at the address in the upper right-hand corner.  All essay topics, plus lots of other important course materials I'll give out in class as the semester goes on, will be posted to that address.

Instructor: Dr. Stephen doCarmo
Office: Penn 131
Hours: MWF 11:00-1:00
Phone: 215-968-8267
E-mail: docarmos@bucks.edu

Required Texts
Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama, edited by X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia.  9th edition.

Writing Research Papers, by James D. Lester and James D. Lester Jr.  11th edition.

Catalog Course Description
In English Composition II, students write critical themes assigned in response to classroom study of short stories, poems, and plays.  After instruction in research techniques, students also write a research paper.

Prerequisites
A grade of C or better in COMP110 (English Composition I) or a valid transfer of a course equivalent to COMP110.

Methods
Classes will consist of small-group workshopping, class discussions, lectures, occasional film viewings, and one-on-one conferences with me, your instructor.

Course Objectives
We've got three chief objectives in COMP 111.  They are:

1.  To help you develop an appreciation for imaginative literature, namely drama, short fiction, and poetry;
2.  To help you gain the research and bibliographic skills you'll need not only for other college courses but, quite possibly, for your professional life as well; and
3.  To give you ample opportunities to improve your reading, writing, speaking, and critical thinking skills, which are vital, of course, to all academic and professional pursuits, not just to English class.

1.  You'll need to write four multi-paragraph "lit" essays, which will be on the literature we're reading.  You'll write one during our drama unit, two during our short-fiction unit, and one during our poetry unit.

The essay you do for our drama unit and the second one you do for our short-fiction unit you'll work on mainly at home, and each will need to be a bare minimum of three pages long.

The first essay you do during the short-fiction unit and the one you do for our poetry unit you'll write in class, and I'll ask you to aim for about two pages for each of those.

All of the essays you write, whether you do them at home or in class, should possess the attributes of good writing you learned in COMP 110 -- that is, they should be thesis driven; they should be well focused; they should have sufficient support for their claims; they should demonstrate good organization, with clear transitions between ideas; and they should demonstrate good sentence structure, proper punctuation, correct diction, and correct grammar.  Maybe most importantly, though, they'll need to contain interesting and sophisticated ideas about the literature they respond to.  And while I'll provide you topic questions for all the essays well before their due dates (even the in-class ones), those questions will be broad and interpretable enough to permit you to do your own thinking, not just spew back information and ideas already familiar to you from class.

I'll put written comments on each of your lit essays and will give them A-F grades, with +'s and -'s possible.  Due dates for final and rough drafts are on the schedule at the end of this course format.

2.  You'll need to take somewhere between eight and ten unannounced reading quizzes on the assigned plays, stories, and poems.  They'll be short (five questions each), they'll be given at the very start of class, and they'll focus on important information from the readings rather than abstract matters like theme or symbol.  (In other words, I might ask you how a certain character dies in act II of a play; I won't ask what her death "means" within the work as a whole.  That's the type of thing we'll sort out together in class.)  Since these quizzes are information driven, you only need to read, reasonably carefully, for each and every class meeting to do well on them.

I'll grade each of your quizzes on a 1-5 scale.  Get all five questions right and you'll get a "5," or an A, basically.  A 4 is equivalent to a B, a 3 is a C, a 2 is a D, and a 1 is an F.

I'll drop your lowest quiz grade at the end of the semester, so don't sweat it if you bomb one or two.  But sweat it if you're bombing them consistently.

3.  You'll need to write a 2,500-word (roughly ten-page) research paper arguing your position on some important contemporary cultural issue.  I'll give you lots more information about what I expect from this paper as the semester goes on.  But let me go ahead and tell you here that it will need to

a. quote and/or paraphrase roughly ten good external sources (we'll talk in class about what "good" means);
b. come to me with at least twenty annotated external sources;
c. be written for a non-specialized audience;
d. demonstrate all the same attributes of good writing your lit-based essays do (that is, those named in #1 above);
e. adhere to MLA form, which we'll also spend lots of time learning about in class.

I'll grade your research paper on an A-F scale, with +'s and -'s possible.  The due dates for rough and final drafts are on the schedule at the end of this course format.

4.  You'll need to turn in four developmental documents related to your research paper: 1) a proposal, 2) your first three annotated sources, 3) a progress report, and (4) your two opening pages.  Due dates for these are on the course schedule at the end of this format.

When the time comes, I'll give you forms to direct you in writing the proposal and progress report.  I can also go ahead and tell you now that your progress report will need to be accompanied by twenty or more annotated external sources, and your two opening pages will need to be accompanied by a reasonably detailed outline for the rest of your paper. 

These four documents are't graded.  But unless they've been turned in and done satisfactorily, I cannot accept your research paper at the end of the semester! So please get them done, and on time.  Their due dates are on the schedule at the end of this course format.

5.  You'll need to participate in class.  If you come to class regularly, on time, and prepared; participate in whatever in-class activities I devise; and are respectful to me and your classmates, then your reading-quiz grade will be your participation grade.  If you don't do the aforementioned things, though, I'll adjust your reading-quiz grade to reflect the overall quality of your class participation as I see it.  Also, I reserve the right to count you absent if you come in late, don't bring the necessary materials, or don't participate in in-class activities. 

Attendance
You get five free skips, "excused" or "unexcused" doesn't matter.  After that, your final grade for the course falls a half of a letter grade per absence (from a C+ to a C, for instance, or from a C to a D+, since there are no "minus" final grades at Bucks).

Since I don't distinguish between excused and unexcused absences, you shouldn't burn up all your skips thinking it'll be okay to miss more classes later should you get sick or have an emergency.  Your five skips are for sickness and emergency.  So budget them wisely.

Also...be sure to come to class on time.  I'll count three late arrivals as an absence.

If there's some crisis going on in your life that might necessitate your going over the five allowed absences, you should be in contact with me before you exceed that limit.  Please note, though, that no one who misses more than ten class meetings, no matter how extraordinary the circumstances, will be able to pass this course. 

Rewrites
You can rewrite two of your four lit-based essays to improve their grades by as much as one full letter grade.  If you do a rewrite, you'll need to 

a. turn it in within seven days of getting back the graded original from me; 
b. include the original graded essay, with my comments on it; and 
c. make significant improvements!  Simply fixing some punctuation or deleting a few lines won't get you a higher grade.

Please note also that while late papers can be re-written, the penalty for lateness never goes away.

Skipping Assignments
Sorry, but you can't. All of the writing assignments (the four lit essays, the research paper, the developmental documents for the research paper) must be submitted to me; otherwise you can't receive a passing grade for the course.

Back-up Copies
You must -- must! -- save copies for yourself of every "at-home" essay you turn in to me.  That way, in the highly unlikely event I lose one of your essays, you can re-submit it to me the moment we realize it is lost.  (In other words, "You lost the only copy I had" isn't a valid excuse for missing an assignment!)

Electronic Submissions
Unless you've made other arrangements with me before a deadline arrives, submitting an essay to me via email isn't acceptable.  I need hard copies of all your writing. 

Late Work
You can turn in late either of your two at-home lit essays at a penalty of one full letter grade per class period.  Penalties begin at the end of the class period when the assignment is due.

You can't turn in your in-class lit essays late, though.  They're due at the end of the class period on the days you write them, no matter what.  If you absolutely can't be in class the day of an in-class essay, please make other arrangements with me before that date.

You can't make up missed reading quizzes, since it wouldn't be fair to people who had to take them when they were originally given.  (I will let you take a reading quiz over the phone, though, if you call me in my office before class time on a day I'm giving a quiz.  But this doesn't erase the absence.)

Also, you can't turn in your research paper late, since it's not due till the very end of the semester.  If for any reason you're not going to be able to meet that deadline, it's imperative you talk to me well beforehand.

Tutoring
If you need help with a writing assignment for this course, please work either with me or with someone in the Tutoring Center (Library 121).

If you'd like to listen to the advice of a friend, family member, or classmate who's read a rough draft of yours, that's fine -- great, even.  But nobody besides me or a Bucks tutor should be helping you actually write sentences and paragraphsfor an essay for this course.  Please talk to me if you're confused about what constitutes too much help.

Special Needs
If you have a documented learning problem that requires your having extra time on quizzes, extended deadlines for essays, or anything else, please talk to me about it now, at the start of the semester.

Plagiarism
This is from the College Catalogue:

The expectation at Bucks County Community College is that the principles of truth and honesty will be rigorously followed in all academic endeavors.  This assumes that all the work will be done by the person who purports to do the work without unauthorized aids.  In addition, when making use of language, information and some ideas not his or her own, whether quoting them directly or paraphrasing them in his or her own words, the student must attribute the source of the material in some standard form, such as naming the source in the text or offering a footnote.

I've been teaching college writing for thirteen years now.  And I've met very few students who weren't able to pass a comp course by simply doing their own work.  You don't need to cheat to get through English 111.  But you may need help.  I expect to give lots of it, as do the people in the Tutoring Center.  So please come put us to work.

Core Curriculum Goals & Objectives for Comp 111
This course fulfills the following BCCC core curriculum goals and objectives:

For the COLLEGE LEVEL WRITING II category:

Goals
Upon completion of College Writing Level II, students will:

1. develop and apply skills learned in College Writing Level I;
2. produce well-written and grammatically correct papers in a variety of academic and/or professional formats, applying appropriate organization and including necessary development and support;
3. use knowledge and skills to become open-minded, curious learners and careful, critical readers who can evaluate information, form connections within a source and between sources, discern implicit warrants within sources, and forge educated opinions based on the compilation and analysis of such information;
4. develop sensitivity to and respect for cultural norms and opinions other than their own.
5. become independent researchers and autonomous learners who can recognize the objectives of a task and understand the steps necessary to complete that task;
6. become knowledgeable about research involving both print and electronic sources;
7. understand plagiarism and know how to avoid it, including the use of formal documentation.

Objectives
Upon completion of College Writing Level II, students will be able to:

1. formulate an argumentative thesis and support it drawing on primary and secondary sources (1, 2, 3, 4);
2. organize support and development consistent with the requirements of a particular assignment (1, 2, 3);
3. write compositions that demonstrate unity, coherence, and development; varied and correct sentence structure and appropriate diction; and correct spelling, punctuation, and grammar (1, 2);
4. analyze a primary source effectively (3, 4);
5. evaluate the relevance and reliability of secondary sources (3, 4, 5, 6);
6. distinguish between referential and emotive language and between scholarly and unsupported sources (3, 5);
7. outline an extended research project (5);
8. write an extended research paper utilizing print and electronic sources in which they summarize, paraphrase, interpret, and synthesize primary and secondary sources; infer connections between sources; and recognize and avoid plagiarism through the use of a specified documentation format (3, 5, 6, 7).

For the CRITICAL THINKING AND READING category:

Goals
Upon completion of College Writing Level II, students will:

1. understand and express the meaning and significance of a variety of communications (Interpretation);
2. use methods, concepts and theories in new situations (Application Skills);
3. identify the explicit and implied features of a communication, especially in arguments that put forth a conclusion. (Analysis skills);
4. integrate and/or combine knowledge from multiple sources to create new knowledge. (Synthesis);
5. assess the credibility of a communication and the strength of claims and arguments. (Evaluation Skills);
6. reason from what they know to form new knowledge, draw conclusions, solve problems, explain, decide, and/or predict. (Inductive and/or Deductive Reasoning Skills);
7. communicate and justify clearly the results of their reasoning. (Presenting Arguments Skills);
8. monitor their comprehension and correct their process of thinking. (Reflection Skills);
9. be open-minded: strive to understand and consider divergent points of view.

Objectives
Upon completion of College Writing Level II, students will be able to:

1. formulate categories, distinctions, or frameworks to organize information in such a manner to aid comprehension (1);
2. make comparisons; note similarities and differences between or among informational items (1);
3. identify contradictions or inconsistencies in written or spoken language, data, images, or symbols (1);
4. use methods, concepts and theories in new situations (2);
5. identify the ideas presented and assess the interests, attitudes, or views contained in those ideas (3);
6. identify the main conclusion of an argument (3);
7. determine if the conclusion is supported with reasons and identify those that are stated or implied (3);
8. identify the background information provided to explain reasons which support a conclusion (3);
9. generalize information based on facts (4);
10. evaluate the credibility, accuracy, and reliability of sources of information.(5)
11. collect and question evidence (6);
12. locate and cite various independent sources of evidence, rather than a single source of evidence, to provide support for a conclusion (6, 9);
13. present an argument succinctly in such a way as to convey the crucial point of an issue (7);
14. present supporting reasons and evidence for conclusion(s) which address the concerns of the audience (7, 9);
15. make revisions in arguments and findings when self-examination reveals inadequacies (7, 8).

For the RESEARCH SKILLS category:

The following Goals and Objectives for Research Skills were adapted from the Literacy Competency Standards for Higher Education published by the ACRL.

Goals
Upon completion of College Writing Level II, students will:

1.  be able to determine the nature and extent of the information needed;
2.  access needed information effectively and efficiently;
3.  evaluate information and its sources critically and incorporate selected information into his/her knowledge base and value system;
4. understand many of the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information and access and use information legally and ethically.

Objectives
Upon completion of College Writing Level II, students will be able to:

1.  define and articulate the need for information (1);
2.  identify a variety of types and formats of potential sources of information (1);
3.  reevaluate criteria used to make information decisions and choices (1);
4.  select the most appropriate investigative methods or information retrieval systems for accessing the needed information (2);
5.  construct and implement effectively designed research strategies (2);
6.  retrieve information on-line or in person using a variety of methods (2);
7.  refine the search strategy if necessary (2);
8.  extract, record, and manage the information and its sources (2);
9.  summarize the main ideas to be extracted from the information gathered (3);
10. articulate and apply initial criteria for evaluating both the information and its sources (3);
11. synthesize main ideas to construct new concepts (3);
12. determine probable accuracy by questioning (a) the source of the data and (b) the limitations of the information gathering tools or strategies and the reasonableness of the conclusions (3);
13. investigate differing viewpoints encountered in the literature (3);
14. determine whether the initial query should be revised (3);
15. demonstrate an understanding of intellectual property, copyright, and fair use of copyrighted material (4);
16. demonstrate an understanding of what constitutes plagiarism and will not represent work attributable to others as his/her own (4);
17. select appropriate documentation style and use it consistently to cite sources (4).

For the ADAPTING TO LIFELONG CHANGE category:

Goals
Upon completion of College Writing Level II, students will:

1. gain confidence in their ability to adapt to or initiate change.

Objectives
Upon completion of College Writing Level II, students will be able to:

1. assess their own abilities, motives, and use self-assessment to make decisions. (1)
 

Course Schedule
Please bring your Literature anthology to class on any day when we're discussing a play, short story, or poem.
Please bring your Writing Research Papers book to class whenever a "research paper workshop" is scheduled.
And please be sure to do the readings for the date on which they appear below!

Wednesday Aug. 31: Introduction to the course.
Friday Sept. 2: We'll begin our Drama Unit by discussing pages 1897-1916 of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman. (Just read up to the point where Uncle Ben appears on 1916.)

Wednesday Sept. 7: Discussion of pages 1916-1939 of Miller's Death of a Salesman.  (Just read up to "Young Bernard rushes in" on 1939). 
Friday Sept. 9: Discussion of the remainder of Miller's Death of a Salesman. 

Monday Sept. 12: Research-paper workshop.  (We'll be looking together at the model research paper on pages 238-249 of your Writing Research Papers book.)  I'll also give out the instruction sheet for your research paper on this day. 
Wednesday Sept. 14: We'll be meeting in room 220 of the library on this day for bibliographic instruction.
Friday Sept. 16: Discussion of pages 2064-2081 of August Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone.  I'll also give out the "form" for you research-paper proposal on this day.

Monday Sept. 19: Discussion of 2082-2099 of Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone.  (Just read to the start of scene 2 on page 2099.)
Wednesday Sept. 21: Discussion of the remainder of Wilson's Joe Turner's Come and Gone. 
Friday Sept. 23: Research-paper proposal due.  After that, we'll have a research-paper workshop, so be sure to bring along your Writing Research Papers book.  I'll also bring you the topic for your first at-home "lit" essay on this day.

Monday Sept. 26: Wrap-up discussion of our two plays.  We'll also do some workshopping for your first at-home "lit" essay.
Wednesday Sept. 28: Class replaced by one-on-one draft conferences with me for your first at-home "lit" essay.  I'll have sent around a sign-up sheet before this date.
Friday Sept. 30: Rough draft of at-home "lit" essay 1 due.  In-class workshopping on drafts.

Monday Oct. 3: Research-paper workshop.  Please be sure to bring along your Writing Research Papers book.
Wednesday Oct. 5:Final draft of at-home "lit" essay 1 due, along with all drafts, critique sheets, outlines, etc.  After that, we'll begin our Short-Fiction Unit by discussing John Updike's "A & P" (15-20).
Friday Oct. 7: Discussion of Joyce Carol Oates' "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" (654-667).  I'll also bring you the topic for your first in-class "lit" essay on this day.

Monday Oct. 10: Discussion of Jhumpa Lahiri's "Interpreter of Maladies" (37-53). 
Wednesday Oct. 12: First in-class "lit" essay due.  You'll write it in class on this day.
Friday Oct. 14: Discussion of Bobbie Ann Mason's "Shiloh" (643-654).

Monday Oct. 17: First Three Annotated Sources due.  Also, discussion of Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" (431-443). 
Wednesday Oct. 19: Discussion of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" (571-584).  I'll also bring you the topic for your second at-home "lit" essay on this day.
Friday Oct. 21: Discussion of Raymond Carver's "Cathedral" (109-121).

Monday Oct. 24: Class replaced by one-on-one draft conferences with me for your second at-home "lit" essay.  I'll have sent around a sign-up sheet before this date.
Wednesday Oct. 26: Rough draft of your second at-home "lit" essay due.  In-class workshopping on your draft.
Friday Oct. 28: Research-paper workshop.  Be sure to bring along your Writing Research Papers book.

Monday Oct. 31: FInal draft of second at-home "lit" essay due, along with all drafts, critiques, outlines, etc.  After that, we'll begin our Poetry Unit by discussing Percy Bysshe Shelley's "Ozymandias" (1078). 
Wednesday Nov. 2: Discussion of Robert Hayden's "Those Winter Sundays" (1185). 
Friday Nov. 4: Discussion of E.A. Robinson's "Richard Cory" (842).  I'll also give out the "form" for your research-paper progress report on this day.

Monday Nov. 7: Discussion of Sylvia Plath's "Daddy" (1222).
Wednesday Nov. 9: Discussion of Gary Sotos "Mexicans Begin Jogging" (Not in your book.  I'll have given you a copy before this date.)
Friday Nov. 11: Research-paper progress report due, along with your twenty (or more) annotated sources.  After that, we'll have a research-paper workshop, so be sure to bring along your Writing Research Papers book.

Monday Nov. 14: Discussion of Sharon Olds's "Sex Without Love."  (Not in your book.  I'll have given you a copy of it before this date.)
Wednesday Nov. 16: Discussion of Mary Oliver's "Woodchucks."  (Not in your book.  I'll have given you a copy of it before this date.)
Friday Nov. 18: Research-paper workshop.  Be sure to bring along your Writing Research Papers book.

Monday Nov. 21: First two pages of your research paper due, along with your outline for the rest of your paper. 

Monday Nov. 28: Discussion of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven."  (Not in your book.  I'll have given you a copy before this date.)
Wednesday Nov. 30: Class replaced by mandatory research-paper conferences with me.  I'll have sent around a sign-up sheet before this date.
Friday Dec. 2: Class again replaced by mandatory research-paper conferences with me.  I'll have sent around a sign-up sheet before this date.

Monday Dec. 5: Discussion of Allen Ginsberg's "America."  (Not in your book.  I'll have given you a copy before this date.)  I'll also give out the topic for your second in-class "lit" essay on this day.
Wednesday Dec. 7: Research-paper workshop.  Be sure to bring along your Writing Research Papers book.
Friday Dec. 9: Wrap-up discussion on our poetry unit.  We'll also do some prep for Monday's in-class essay.

Monday Dec. 12: Second in-class essay due.  You'll write it in class on this day.
Wednesday Dec. 14: Research-paper workshop.
Friday Dec. 16: Research-paper workshop.

Monday Dec. 19: Research paper due, along with all required supplementary materials.
 
 

Instructions for the Researched Essay
(45% of your final grade, final draft due at the last class meeting of the semester)

Assignment:
Please write a roughly ten-page (2,500-word) researched essay arguing your position on some topical cultural issue of your own choosing. 

Criteria:
To do well on this assignment, the final draft of your essay will have to...

1. have a clear, interesting, and unmistakable thesis statement;
2. provide ample support for its major claims, in the form of facts and opinions from experts and your own observations about the world;
3. quote and/or paraphrase roughly ten good outside sources;
4. adhere to proper MLA form throughout;
5. demonstrate good organization and clear transitions, with every sentence and paragraph in the essay clearly growing out of those preceding them;
6. use correct grammar;
7. be well edited, with correct spelling, punctuation, and appropriate diction throughout;
8. come to me with at least twenty annotated sources created before or during the drafting of your paper (your essay isn’t acceptable without these, and they need to adhere to the guidelines I’ll give you soon); and
9. come to me with whatever drafts, outlines, and/or organizational exercises you’ve done to help produce your final draft.

(1) a research-paper proposal, 
(2) your first three annotated sources, 
(3) a progress report, and 
(4) your two opening pages, plus complete outline. 

Please remember that of the twenty (or more) annotated sources I get with your final draft, at least ten should be books and/or articles published in popular magazines or scholarly journals.  Your other ten (or more) annotated sources can be good web sites, newspaper articles, pamphlets, reviews, and/or personal interviews with experts in the field you’re writing about. 

Of the twenty-plus sources you annotate, roughly ten should wind up quoted and/or paraphrased in your paper, and so listed on the “works cited” page at the end of your paper. 

You should write for non-specialists.  Any specialized terms you use or knowledge you discuss must be explained well enough that people not expert in the field you’re working in will be able to follow you. 

If between 10% and 15% of your final draft is comprised of direct quotes from outside sources, that’s good.  If, as you’re working, it becomes clear you’re going to deviate significantly from that rule of thumb, you should talk with me about it.  (It’s fine, though, if you’re paraphrasing beyond that 10% to 15%.)

To help you be sure you’re adhering to proper MLA form, you’ve got your Writing Research Papers book (with its model MLA essays) and the MLA pamphlet the Bucks tutoring center provides. 
 

Some Possible Topics for Your Comp 111 Research Paper
Please note these are only suggestions!  You don’t need to choose the topic for your paper from this list.  Any topic about which there’s serious debate in our culture – and about which you have a strong and defensible position – will do.

Gun control and/or the National Rifle Association
Uniforms for public-school students
School safety
Gasoline prices
Music swapping on the internet
Fuel-cell technology
Israel and the Palestinians
The government’s response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster
The lack of/need for a third major U.S. political party
Security spending after 9/11
U.S. defense spending
U.S. education spending
The U.S.’s role in Afghanistan and/or Iraq
Gays and lesbians in the military
Gay and lesbian marriage
Gays and lesbians in Christian churches
Depictions of minorities in the mass media
Children and violent entertainment
Media and eating disorders
Bilingual education in public schools
Proposals for a national health-care system
The U.S. health-insurance crisis 
Funding for the arts in public schools
Taxpayer funding for controversial art
The FCC and decency standards for television and radio
The right-wing talk show phenomenon
U.S. Immigration Policy
Animal rights and the food industry
Animal testing
NASA and the future of manned space flight
Campaign finance reform
Drug companies and the HIV/AIDS crisis in Africa
Feminist politics in the new century
The alleged “glass ceiling” for women and minorities in major corporations
The “exporting” of American jobs
CAFTA (the Central American Free Trade Agreement)
Free speech and the world-wide web
Human cloning and/or stem-cell research
College athletics and Title IX
The cost of higher education
 

Instructions and Requirements for Research-Paper Annotated Sources

An "annotated source" is a printout (or photocopy) of a source you’ve read for your research paper with your notes and highlightings on it.  A source can be... 

• a book;
• an article in an anthology;
• an article from a magazine or professional journal;
• a newspaper article;
• a pamphlet;
• a review (as of a movie, play, book, etc.);
• an interview with a specialist; or
• a good website.

When I get from you your progress report for your Comp 111 research paper (due Friday, November 11th), it must come to me with at least twenty annotated sources, roughly half of which will end up actually cited (that is, quoted or paraphrased) in your paper.  I’ll also need to get all of your annotated sources from you again with the final draft of your research paper, due on the last day of the semester.

I’m going to break annotated sources into two different camps: 
 

Of the twenty or more annotated sources you give me with your research-paper progress report, at least ten must be from Camp 1! 

In order for a printed or photocopied source to count as an annotated source, I’ll need to see that you’ve…

• given it a number in its upper right-hand corner (1-20, or however many you’ve got),
• written all the information about it required in a proper MLA bibliographic citation at the top of its front page, 
• highlighted or underlined its most important (or “quote-worthy”) passages, 
• taken appropriate notes in its margins and/or “blank spaces,” and
• written on the back of its last page (or stapled to it) a short paragraph reminding yourself why the source does or doesn’t seem likely to be useful to you in your project. 

Instructions for the First At-Home "Lit" Essay
(15% of your final grade; rough draft due Friday Sept. 30; final draft due Wednesday Oct. 5)

Assignment
Please write a three-page (bare minimum!) essay in response to one of the following:

1.  Choose either Miller’s Death of a Salesman or Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone and do two things for me: (1) trace throughout the play some “big idea” its writer seems determined to get across to you, and (2) explain why that idea is or isn’t relevant to the United States of today. 

2.  Look at both Wilson’s Joe Turner’s Come and Gone and Miller’s Death of a Salesman and do two things for me: (1) trace throughout the plays some “big idea” they have in common, and (2) explain why that idea is or isn’t it relevant to the United States of today.

You should also write in the third person for this essay (no “I”), and you should absolutely, positively quote the text(s) you’re writing about!

Criteria
In order to earn a high grade on this assignment, the essay you write will need to 

• present a clear and interesting central idea, or thesis, which should be plainly stated at some point early on in the essay; 
• demonstrate unity, with every part of the essay clearly relating to the thesis; 
• provide sufficient support for its claims in the form of quotes from the texts or your own observations about the “real” world; 
• demonstrate coherence, with every sentence and paragraph clearly growing out of the ones preceding them; 
• use proper punctuation, correct spelling, and appropriate diction throughout; and 
• use grammatically correct sentences of varying lengths – not just noun-verb-object ones over and over.

In a heated argument, Biff tells his father, “I am not a leader of men, Willy” (1965).

If you need to quote a lengthy chunk of the text where the speakers change, please double tab from the left (this is called “block quoting”) and reproduce the text exactly as it looks in your anthology, without quotation marks around it.  For instance: 

WILLY: [Astonished.]  What’re you doing?  What’re you doing?  [To LINDA.]  Why is he crying? 
BIFF: [Crying, broken.]  Will you let me go, for Christ’s sake?  Will you take that phony dream and burn it before something happens?  (1965)

Please don’t use exorbitantly long quotes.  Use just what you need to help you make your point.  If you want to cut stuff out of the middle of a 
long quote, show that you’ve done so by inserting ellipses (…) at the point where words have been removed. 

Please don’t use any sources beyond the readings we’ve done!  This includes both your book’s editors’ comments and any and all material from “study guide” web sites.  Stuff from the web is not public property! 

Please double-space your entire essay.  Please use 12-point font.  Please have one-inch margins all around.  Please don’t bold your text or skip lines between paragraphs. 

Your should put your name in the upper left-hand corner of your first page.

Beneath your name, you should have a good title for your essay, centered on the page and in the same font as the rest of your essay.  (No 
bolding, italics, big font...anything like that.  This is also good MLA form.)

I think that’s it.  If you’ve got questions…don’t be shy!  Get in touch with me.  Don’t forget you can do a conference with me on this essay on Wednesday, Sept. 28th, if you want.  I’ll bring a sign-up sheet to class before then.
 

Instructions for the First In-Class “Lit” Essay
(5% of your final grade.  To be written in class on Wednesday, Oct. 12) 

Topic
Please write a roughly 500-word (two-page) essay in response to this prompt:

Choose either Sammy from Updike’s “A&P” or Connie from Oates’s “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” and explain what larger cultural struggle that character’s conflict with his or her antagonist might be read as symbolizing.

You should quote whichever story you’re writing about.

You should write for an audience of strangers (not just for me!), and your main purpose should be to persuade that audience of the validity of your central idea, expressed in your thesis statement.

Criteria
In order to earn a high grade on this assignment, the essay you write will need to 

• present a clear and interesting thesis statement stated plainly at some point early on in the essay; 
• contain a number of paragraphs, each exploring an idea stated by its own topic sentence;
• demonstrate unity, with every paragraph of the essay clearly relating to the thesis; 
• demonstrate coherence, with every sentence and paragraph growing logically out of those preceding it; 
• provide sufficient support for its claims in the form of quotes from the text(s) you’re writing about your own observations about the “real” world;
• be as free of spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors as the time constraint allows.  (You should do your best, at least, to avoid major sentence-level grammar problems like fragments, run-ons, and comma splices. 

You’ll want to have your literature anthology out as you write, so you can accurately quote it. 

When I get your essay at the end of class on Wednesday, I should also get whatever pre-writing work you did in preparation for the in-class writing. 

You should always, always introduce your quotes.  That means you should have a phrase or sentence of your own that lets your readers know whose words they’re about to hear, and in what context they originally appeared.  Like this:

Facing Connie through the screen door, Arnold Friend tells her that “if you don’t come out we’re gonna wait till your people come home and then they’re all going to get it” (664).

If a quote you’re using is going to run more than four lines on your page (though you should use such long quotes very sparingly), you should “block” it by double-indenting it from the left and leaving the quotation marks off it.  And in this case the page number in parentheses comes after the period ending the quote.

Direct quotes from our readings should ideally take up 10-15% of your essay.  It’s, fine, though, if you do some paraphrasing beyond that. 

Please don’t use exorbitantly long quotes.  Use just what you need to help you make your point.  If you want to cut stuff out of the middle of a long quote, show that you’ve done so by inserting ellipses (…) at the point where words have been removed.  You should never have ellipses at the beginning or end of a quote, though! 

Please double-space your entire essay.  Please use 12-point font.  Please have one-inch margins all around.  Please don’t bold the text or skip lines between paragraphs! 

Your name should appear in the upper left-hand corner of your first page.

Beneath your name, you should have a good title for your essay, centered on the page and in the same font as the rest of your essay.  (No bolding, italics, big font...anything like that.  This is also good MLA form.)

Let me know what questions you’ve got!
 

Instructions for the Second At-Home “Lit” Essay
(15% of your final grade; rough draft due Wednesday Oct. 26th; final draft due Monday Oct. 31st)

Assignment
Please write a three-page (bare minimum!) essay in response to the following:

Choose any two stories from our short-fiction unit that speak to each other in interesting ways and explain how they do so.

You should also write in the third person for this essay (no “I”), and you should absolutely, positively quote the text(s) you’re writing about!

Criteria
In order to earn a high grade on this assignment, the essay you write will need to 

• present a clear and interesting central idea, or thesis, which should be plainly stated at some point early on in the essay; 
• possess a number of paragraphs, each having its own controlling idea;
• demonstrate unity by having every paragraph relate clearly to the thesis;
• demonstrate coherence, with every sentence and paragraph clearly growing out of the ones preceding them;
• provide sufficient support for its claims in the form of quotes from the texts or your own observations about the “real” world;
• use proper punctuation, correct spelling, and appropriate diction throughout; and 
• use grammatically correct sentences of varying lengths – not just noun-verb-object ones over and over.

In a heated argument, Biff tells his father, “I am not a leader of men, Willy” (1965).

If you need to quote a lengthy passage from a text (one that will run four or more lines in your own essay), please double tab it from the left margin and reproduce it exactly as it appears in your anthology, without quotation marks around it.  (This is called block quoting.) 

Roughly 10-15% of your essay should be direct quotes from our readings.  That works out to an average of 3-4 lines per page.  It’s okay if you do some paraphrasing beyond that 10-15%, but those paraphrases should be introduced, the same way you introduce direct quotes.  They should also have page-number citations after them. 

Please don’t use exorbitantly long quotes.  Use just what you need to help you make your point.  If you want to cut stuff out of the middle of a 
quote, show that you’ve done so by inserting ellipses (…) at the point where words have been removed. 

Please don’t use any sources beyond the readings we’ve done!  This includes both your book’s editors’ comments and any and all material from “study guide” web sites.  Stuff from the web is not public property! 

Please double-space your entire essay.  Please use 12-point font.  Please have one-inch margins all around.  Please don’t bold your text or skip lines between paragraphs. 

You should put your name in the upper left-hand corner of your first page.

Beneath your name, you should have a good title for your essay, centered on the page and in the same font as the rest of your essay.  (No 
bolding, quotation marks, italics, big font...anything like that.  This is also good MLA form.)

Please don’t turn in any essay for which you don’t have a backup copy!

Please include with your final draft any and all developmental materials you’ve got: outlines, freewrites, drafts, peer critiques, etc.

I think that’s it.  If you’ve got questions…don’t be shy!  Get in touch with me.  Don’t forget you can do a conference with me on this essay on Monday, Oct. 24th, if you want.  I’ll bring a sign-up sheet to class before then.
 

Instructions for the Second In-Class “Lit” Essay 
(10% of your final grade.  To be written in class on Monday, Dec. 12th) 

Topic
Please write a multi-paragraph essay in response to this prompt:

Choose from our third-unit readings a poem you like and write a multi-paragraph essay “teaching” it to your readers, illuminating for them not only the poem’s “big idea” but the more subtle touches it uses to get that idea across. 

If you’d like to write about a poem we didn’t read in this unit, I can work with you on that – but talk to me about it first!

You should write in the third person for this essay.  (No “I,” “me,” “my,” or “mine” – unless you’re quoting a poem that uses those words!)

You should definitely quote whatever poem(s) you’re writing about.

You should write for an audience of strangers (not just for me!), and your main purpose should be to persuade that audience of the validity of your central idea.

Criteria 
In order to earn a high grade on this assignment, the essay you write will need to

• present a clear and interesting thesis statement somewhere early on in the essay; 
• contain a number of paragraphs, each with its own controlling idea;
• demonstrate unity, with every paragraph of the essay clearly relating to the thesis statement; 
• demonstrate coherence, with all sentences and paragraphs growing logically out of those preceding them; 
• provide sufficient support for its claims in the form of quotes from the text(s) you’re writing about your own observations about the “real” world;
• be as free of spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors as the time constraint allows.  (You should do your best, at least, to avoid major sentence-level grammar problems like fragments, run-ons, and comma splices.)  

You’ll want to have your literature anthology and/or our poetry handout with you, so you can accurately quote your poem(s).  

When I get your essay at the end of class Monday, I should also get whatever pre-writing work you did in preparation for the essay.  

Be sure to always introduce your quotes, letting your reader know whose words they’re about to hear and in what context they originally appeared.  

Please show line breaks in direct quotes from your poem(s) by inserting a slash ( / ).

Direct quotes from your poem(s) should ideally take up 10-15% of your essay.  It’s, fine, though, if you do some paraphrasing beyond that. 

Please don’t use exorbitantly long quotes.  Use just what you need to help you make your point.  If you want to cut stuff out of the middle of a long quote, show that you’ve done so by inserting ellipses (…) at the point where words have been removed.  You should never have ellipses at the beginning or end of a quote, though! 

Please double-space your entire essay.  Please use 12-point font.  Please have one-inch margins all around.  Please don’t bold the text or skip lines between paragraphs.    

Your name should appear in the upper left-hand corner of your first page.

Beneath your name, you should have a good title for your essay, centered on the page and in the same font as the rest of your essay.  (No bolding, italics, big font...anything like that.  This is good MLA form.)

Let me know what questions you’ve got!