All posts by Jody R. Rosen

Homework Instructions, Week 11

Quoting Beloved effectively

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In our most recent class, we talked about using quotations more effectively. For homework, and to help you develop your next project, please use the method below to discuss one quotation you plan to use for Project #2. In your post, rather than writing this as a paragraph as you will in your project, break your work into each of the five steps, identifying each part so you can see what goes where, and so we can identify each part in each other’s responses.

Also include a response to using this method: what does it offer you that you didn’t already have in your writing tool-kit? What might it restrict you from doing?

Using Prof. Rebecca Devers’s IQIAA Method, with minor revisions, we’ll call this the five-step method for incorporating quotations:

Introduce: Use transitional phrases to inform your readers that you’re about to use someone else’s words.

Quote: When you quote someone, you are obligated to represent their words accurately. This means avoiding typos and mistakes, and it means providing accurate citations that tell your reader what source provided the words or images.

Interpret: If a quotation can stand on its own without interpretation, then your readers don’t need to read your project or essay. After including a quotation, explain it to your readers. Put that quotation into your own words, or into a language or discourse that your audience can better understand. To get comfortable doing this, consider starting sentences after quotations with phrases like, “In other words, . . . .”

Analyze: Interpretation translates the original author’s words into a language your audience will understand. Analysis tells your readers why that quotation is so important. It highlights the significance of an author’s word choice, argument, example, or logic. Analysis goes beyond the obvious, telling the reader what they may have missed if they didn’t read as carefully as you are.

Apply: Each time you use a quotation, make it clear to your reader how it supports your argument. You can do that by applying your analysis to your thesis statement. Remind your readers of your purpose for writing, and tell them how this quotation, and your analysis of it, helps you support your argument.

As you follow this method to construct a paragraph (or to write your broken-apart paragraph here), you may want to “quote the quote,” pointing to specific words or phrases within the quoted passage that carry meaning or deserve attention.

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Discussion

Finishing Beloved

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As you finish reading Beloved for Wednesday’s class, share your questions, concerns, and ideas here: I had asked everyone to follow certain recurring ideas in the novel–motifs–so that we could talk about how they shape the story and our understanding of it. Add a comment here about one or more of those motifs, looking at different examples from the novel. For example, in our first discussion on Beloved, we looked at two passages that dealt with memory, and then added another in our last class when we thought about Paul D’s rusted tobacco tin in his heart. Is there a consistent point your motif raises, or does it leave more questions or concerns?

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Homework Instructions, Week 10

Pivotal passages in Beloved

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In your questions in this week’s discussion, it is clear that the flashbacks can confuse us as readers, that there are details we miss, that there are whole sections that require re-reading. In class, we can think about the extent to which this is important in how the story is told. We will continue to discuss the novel so that we can all understand it better.

For homework this week, consider a scene that you think is so pivotal that if it hadn’t happened, the whole novel would be different. Identify the scene, and write a post, 350-500 words, about what is so important about it for the novel.

Categorize your post under Homework, Week 10. Choose the tag Beloved, and any other tags that apply or that you want to create.

 

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Discussion

Continuing Beloved

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As Spring Break winds to an end, your reading beckons. The last time we met, we agreed to read through page 247 (if you have the red cover). This is the chapter that begins with the sentence “Beloved is my sister.” It ends with “She’s mine, Beloved. She’s mine.”

Since we’re covering so much of the novel before we meet in person, let’s use this week’s online discussion to formulate questions and do our best to answer them. In the comments below, please ask a question of the class–something you want to think more about, something you want explained, something that bothers you, excites you, intrigues you. Frame your question with what you do understand and what you’re thinking about it, and quote specific passages that help you set up the question. You can ask related questions in one comment, but if you have more than one unrelated question, please ask them in separate comments.

For homework (instruction post to come soon), we’ll all dive in to answer these questions.

Since we’re still on spring break, discussion participation is due after break: Monday at 3pm.

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Homework, Homework Instructions, Week 9

Close readings of Beloved through p. 100

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We’ve started an interesting discussion about setting, characterization, narration, and plot in Beloved. I’ve set up a poll (see the sidebar) to see globally what you’re thinking about the novel. To take our thoughts into the text and focus more carefully on it for this week’s homework, choose a passage that stands out to you, one that you want to spend more time thinking about. Write a post that includes the following:

  • the passage, for all of us to read (you probably want to choose something about a paragraph long so you have enough material to focus on, but it might instead be a section of dialog or a piece of a longer paragraph)
  • what you understand the passage is saying. This is a chance for you to say what the passage says, but in your own words. You might decipher any difficult or figurative language, or clarify any references to previous plot points. This is like a translation of the passage into language we will all understand clearly.
  • what  you think it means: this is where you analyze the language and ideas in the paragraph. What is significant about it, and why? This is where you can look closely at particular words or images and analyze their meaning.

Posts should be approximately 350-450 of your own words in addition to the passage.

Choose the category Homework and subcategory Week 9, and the tag Beloved, plus any additional tags you want to add or create.

Finally, please read your classmates’ posts and click the thumbs-up if this is a passage you want us to discuss further.

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Discussion

Beginning Beloved

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With the midterm behind us, we can begin looking forward to Spring Break. In the intervening week before Spring Break, we will begin reading and discussing Toni Morrison’s 1987 novel,  Beloved. Remember to get your copy: ISBN 978-1400033416. The City Tech bookstore still has copies, or you can find it in any bookstore. Look online if you want a used copy–you should be able to find one for only a few dollars. We have several weeks devoted to our discussion of Morrison’s acclaimed novel, and we’ll use the time to consider how our study of fiction can apply to a longer text, how we can bring research into our examination of the novel, and can even consider film within our study of narratives–all really exciting opportunities.

By next Wednesday, April 1, please read through page 100. If you want to get started before you have a copy of the book, you might start reading here, but I expect you to have a copy of the book that you can mark up in class. In case you start there, our reading for the week ends approximately halfway through Part 1 with the words “‘That’s pretty, Denver. Real pretty.'” You can use the find function to locate the end point for the week.

For our discussion (due Sunday night, 3/29), there are so many directions we can go, and collectively we can cover a lot of material if we don’t duplicate each other’s comments but instead build on each other’s comments or move the discussion in a new direction. If your comment contributes to what someone else has added, please reply to that comment so we begin to group together like topics. To get started, let’s each choose something from the list below to focus on:

  • setting
    • location
    • time
    • social or cultural situation
  • characterization
    • who are the characters? focus on one to bring them into our discussion
  • narration
    • who is the narrator?
    • is the narrator consistent throughout these chapters?
  • imagery
    • what descriptive language helps you visualize the story?
    • do you see symbolic meaning in the descriptions?
  • themes
    • choose a theme that has begun to emerge and trace it in the story so far
    • do any of the themes connect to our previous readings?
  • quotations
    • are there any passages that stand out to you that you want to bring to the class’s attention?
  • questions
    • what questions do you have for clarification?
    • what questions do you have to move our discussion forward?

 

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Homework Instructions, Midterm Exam, Week 8

Homework for the Midterm Exam

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Rather than writing a blog post for homework this week, I ask that you spend that time preparing for the midterm by preparing your quotation sheet. This is a sheet that you will bring to the midterm. It should have your name and the quotations you will use to respond to any of the three questions that you have prepared for. It should not list the text names and authors, since you will be tested on that material in the identifications in Part 1 of the exam.

As you prepare, think about what passages from the stories best support the comparison you want to make. If you have two passages for each of the two texts for three essay topics, you might have as many as 12 quotations. Some quotations would work for more than one topic, so you might find that you don’t need 12, but instead 11 or 10. For example, you might draw on similar material to write about confinement as you do to talk about illness, so that there is overlap in the materials you have prepared for those topics.

Please make sure you have voted for your first choice among the topics–there is a poll in the sidebar of the site. I’ll take those votes into account as I choose the three of the five choices to include on the midterm exam. You will then choose one of the three topics to respond to in an essay. I may edit them to make them more consistent, but the ideas will be the same.

If you have any additional questions, please continue to add them to our discussion. Good luck with your preparation!

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Discussion, Midterm Exam

Preparing for the midterm exam essay

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To prepare for our midterm exam, find below a draft of the essay portion. Included are five possible topics, though you’ll only find three there on the day of the exam. For our discussion, consider ONE of these topics and answer the following questions about it by Sunday night:

 

  • What does responding to this topic allow you to understand about each story?
  • How does the topic allow you to further explore the stories?
  • What does the comparison bring out about both stories?
  • What’s a draft of a thesis statement for one of these essays?

Vote for your top choice! Use the poll in the sidebar (or if you’re viewing the page from a smartphone, all of the sidebar material appears at the bottom on the screen, so scroll down).

 

Midterm exam draft:

In a well-developed essay, consider how two of the short stories we have read this semester (excluding the one you wrote about in Project #1) compare in their approach to one of the following issues, topics, or themes. Compare two examples from each story, using quotations from your quotation sheet as evidence to support for your thesis-driven essay.

  1. the significance of setting details, including their symbolic significance
  2. the intricate relationship between freedom and death
  3. Restriction or confinement as limiting or enabling
  4. Depictions of the grotesque or unnatural
  5. The treatment of Illness as transformation

Your essay should be 500-600 words—if you’re writing 5 words per line, that’s 5-6 pages in the blue book, fewer pages if you get more words per line. There’s no need to count all of the words: check to see roughly how many words you write per line on a few lines, then multiply that by 20 (lines per page) and the number of pages you have. When you include a quotation, even though it is already on your quotation sheet, I ask that you copy it into your essay. Rather than using whiteout or making a mess, when you need to make a correction, just cross out what you want to delete.

To get started, you should use the time before the exam to plan your three possible essays. On Wednesday, take time at the start of the exam to think about what you want to write, and use the blue book to write down notes before you start writing the essay. There’s no need to skip every other line, but you might want to skip a line or two between paragraphs to give yourself space to add in any additional words or sentences when you re-read your essay.

Don’t forget–there will be short-answer questions to start the exam.

If you have questions, feel free to ask them here.

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Classwork, Midterm Exam, Week 7

Wrapping up Project #1, Working toward the midterm exam

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I ask you to write me a letter addressing the following questions about your work for Project #1 in any order you like. I will then write a letter to you to provide feedback on your work.

  • What are you most proud of in Project #1?
  • What challenged you the most in Project #1?
  • If you had more time, what would you change?
  • If you could have changed the assignment, how would you have changed it?
  • Is there anything else I should know about your work or about you as a writer or as a student?

 

Describing the Midterm Exam:

Part 1:

There will be 8-10 passages from which you will choose 4-5 (I haven’t decided yet). For each, you’ll have to:

  • Identify title and author
  • Identify which concept the passage exemplifies (there will be a list from our discussion of the elements of fiction)
  • Explain why the passage exemplifies that concept
  • Although each passage and each concept can me paired in different ways, you must use each concept only once.

Part 2:

There will be 3 possible essay questions from which you will choose one to offer a comparison. This should be a well-organized essay that begins with an introductory paragraph ending in a thesis statement, followed by paragraphs that focus on evidence (in the form of quotations and paraphrasings) that support the argument you make in your thesis statement, and ending with a conclusion that not only addresses what you have written but aims to show why it matters.

In the most general terms, your essay should answer three questions: what’s up? how come? so what?

We will generate a long list of possible themes and topics for comparison that we will narrow down to 5 possibilities. You will vote on your preferences after considering these questions:

  • What does answering the question allow you to understand about each story?
  • How does the question allow you to further explore the stories?
  • What does the comparison bring out?
  • What examples and quotations would you use in your response?
  • What thesis statement would you include?

I will incorporate these questions into the discussion and homework for Week 8 so that we can continue collaborating on them.

For the exam, you will need to:

  • Study the elements of fiction
  • Review the stories we have read
  • Practice identifying significant passages in each story

 

  • Prepare for at least three of the five possible essay questions
  • Bring a quotation sheet that you can use to incorporate quotations into your essay. I will collect this with your exam. This is an important part of preparing for the exam, and of writing a successful essay.
  • Write your essay about two stories other than the one you wrote about for Project #1.

Margaret Atwood, “There Was Once” 1992

Gary Parks, “Elements of Fiction”

Kate Chopin, “The Story of an Hour” 1894

William Faulkner, “A Rose for Emily” 1930

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Cottagette” 1910

— “The Yellow Wall-Paper” 1899

Susan Glaspell, “A Jury of Her Peers” 1917

Nathaniel Hawthorne, “Young Goodman Brown” 1835

Franz Kafka, “The Metamorphosis” 1915

Thomas Wolfe, “Only the Dead Know Brooklyn” 1935 (optional)

Illness in “The Yellow Wall-Paper” and “The Metamorphosis”: how people deal with unexpected situations, what that brings out in a person; we could also think about mental illness in “A Rose for Emily” as a result of the way others have treated her, shaped her; “The Story of an Hour” and heart trouble (thinking about how Josephine talks to her, peers through the keyhole–through actions and interactions, delicate treatment)

Compassion: “Only the Dead Know Brooklyn” and “The Story of an Hour”: He had to understand the stranger who didn’t know Brooklyn; Mrs. Mallard wanted to be compassionate about her husband, but also to live for herself. What about “The Cottagette”: Ford had compassion for Malda in her needs and what she wants to do artistically

Think instead about women attaining freedom/ exertion of power: “The Cottagette” (good relationship) and “The Story of an Hour”; “A Jury of Her Peers” (bad marriage) Mrs. Wright ; “The Yellow Wall-Paper”; “A Rose for Emily”

how setting functions: time period: how women spoke, perceived they had to act. “The Yellow Wall-Paper” and “The Cottagette” how women spoke and felt they had to.

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