ENGL
496: Syllabus
Baker's Home Page | 496 Description | 496 Requirements | Course Descriptions and Syllabi
“Doing”
English in the Twenty-First Century—Why Study English?
1/9 Course
Objectives and Expectations
Active,
critical reading strategies; framing focus questions
Description of the Senior
Thesis Project. Download and print
this assignment and bring to class.
Choosing an Advisor for your Senior Thesis;
cultivating a mentoring relationship with your advisor
Senior Thesis Contract
available through this link. Download
and print two copies. Give one to your
advisor, and keep one so that you can get your advisor’s signature after each
required meeting.
7:30 221
Walker Technology Lab
Invention Workshop to find a topic for your
senior thesis.
Guided Freewrite #1 : Exploring
Possibilities for the Senior Thesis. By
next week you should have chosen a topic for your senior thesis and decided
upon an advisor. Continue the thinking
and writing process this week until you have finalized your topic. Complete this freewrite and bring it to
our next class. You must finalize your
senior thesis topic by next week’s class.
During the next week, you must meet with
your faculty advisor, get your contract signed, and work out a schedule of
meeting times with him or her. You must meet with your faculty advisor three
more times before you submit your final revision of your senior thesis. During this first meeting, be sure to ask
your advisor for suggestions about sources that you should read and annotate
for your project as well as about how to narrow your topic.
1/16 Class Meets in 221
Guided Freewrite #1 Due. Contract signed by you and your thesis
advisor due.
YOU MUST BRING TO CLASS THE PRIMARY TEXT OR
TEXTS ABOUT WHICH YOU WILL WRITER YOUR SENIOR THESIS.
Description of Bibliographic
Projects: Working Bibliography and
Annotations. Download and print these
assignments and bring them to class this week.
Research Workshop: Using McConnell Master Menu, MLA Bibliography, RU Electronic Catalog, Interlibrary Loan, Infotrac Expanded Academic Database
Guided Freewrite #2: Preliminary exploration of topic, purpose, and justification for your choice of subject for senior thesis; narrowing your topic so that it’s manageable; focusing on a central question or issue—what’s the big “so what?”
The Discipline
of English Studies--The Function of English Studies Then and Now: “Dispassionate Pursuit of the Truth” or “Mask
of Conquest”
1/23 Guided Freewrite #2 Due
Focus Questions #1 Due: Eaglestone, “Where Did English Come From?” (Eaglestone, Doing English 7-16); Eagleton, “The Rise of English” (Richter 49-59); Vishwanathan, “Introduction to Masks of Conquest” (Richter 60-67); Himmelfarb, “The New Advocacy and the Old” (Richter 85-88).
NOTE: YOU
SHOULD WRITE ONE QUESTION ABOUT EACH ASSIGNED CHAPTER. SEE DESCRIPTION OF REQUIRED FORMAT FOR FOCUS QUESTIONS BY FOLLOWING THIS LINK. YOU MUST FOLLOW THIS FORMAT. FOCUS QUESTIONS MUST BE TYPED.
8:00 8:00 221
Doing English
Studies: Why We Read
1/30 Focus Question #2 Due: Eaglestone, “Doing English Today,” “English and the ‘Right Answer,’” “Critical Attitudes” (Eaglestone, Doing English 19-44); Vendler, “What We Have Loved Others Will Love” (Richter 31-40); Graff, “On Disliking Books at an Early Age” (Richter 40-48); Kolodny, “Dancing through the Minefield: Some Observations on the Theory, Practice, and Politics of a Feminist Literary Criticism” (Richter 302-309).
“Okay, So Now What?”: A Series of Guests Speaking about Career Paths
“Okay, so what can I do with an English major?” Professor Carolyn Mathews will chat with us about her career path: from an English Education degree - to teaching in middle school - to a doctorate in American Lit. - to teaching aspiring teachers at RU.
8:00
221
2/6 First Set of Annotations Due. (20-item
working bibliography; annotations for 10 sources). Class Meets at 6:30 in 221
Electronic
Technology Workshop (6:30). Bring your
first set of annotations AND the primary text or texts about which you are
writing your senior thesis.
Workshop: Using Historical Abstracts,
Guided Freewrite #3 (in class): What have you
got? What do you need? Where do you go from here?
During the next week, you must meet with your
advisor to discuss the progress you've made in your research and to discuss
where you might go from this point in your research. Bring a hard copy of guided freewrite #3 for
your advisor. Have your advisor sign
your contract in the appropriately dated space.
Doing
English Studies: What We Read; Or, Loaded Canons
2/13 Contract Signed by Advisor Due
Focus Questions #3 Due: Eaglestone, “Literature, Value, and the Canon”
AND “Doing Shakespeare (Eaglestone 47-72); Bloom, “Elegiac Conclusion” (Richter
225-234); Tompkins, “Masterpiece Theatre:
The Politics of Hawthorne’s Literary Reputation” (Richter 137-146);
Purvis, “Telling Our Story about Teaching Literature” (Richter 211-218). RECOMMENDED
8:30 Viewing of bell hooks, Cultural
Criticism
Doing
English Studies: Who’s Reading; Or, the Vexed Question of the Reader and the
Author
2/20 Focus Questions #4 Due: Eaglestone,
“The Author is Dead?” (Eaglestone 75-86); Fish, “How to Recognize a Poem When
You See One” (Richter 268-78); Dasenbrock, “Do We Write the Text We Read?”
(Richter 278-89); Rabinowitz, “Actual Reader and Authorial Reader” (Richter
258-65).
“Okay, so where can I go with an English major?” Representative from Career Planning and Placement Office will meet with us about job opportunities for English majors, preparing a portfolio and interviewing for a job.
8:00 221
Doing English Studies: The Ethics of
2/27 Focus Questions #5
Due: Morrison, “ Black Matters” (Richter 310-22) ; Achebe, “An Image of
8:00 221
3/6 Second Bibliographic Project Due (20-item working
bibliography; annotations for 10 sources)
Class Meets in 221
Guided Freewrite #4: Audience, purpose, thesis
Before the end of this week and before we go on
spring break, you must meet with your advisor to discuss all the
research you have accomplished to date and to discuss your ideas about the
audience, purpose, and possible thesis for your essay. Bring a copy of guided
freewrite #4 to that meeting with your advisor.
Have your advisor sign your contract in the appropriately dated space.
“Okay, so now that I have a Ph. D. in English
and can’t find a job, what can I do?” Your old friend will chat about her career
path: from college dropout – to
volunteer service – to B. A. in English – to doctorate in Renaissance Lit. – to
administrative position in university student affairs – to law school admission
(but decision not to attend) – to teaching you at RU
3/20 Drafting Workshop. Class meets in 221
Bring
Bibliographic Projects #1 and 2, Guided Freewrite #4, the primary text(s) about
which you are writing, all research materials that you will need to work on
your draft.
Contract Signed by Advisor Due
Individual Conferences on drafts
3/27 First Draft of Senior Thesis Due advisor by 5:00 and to Baker at
beginning of class. Class meets in 221
Bring two hard copies of your paper, one for you to revise on and one for
me.
Revision Workshop
You must submit the first draft of your essay to me during class time
and to your advisor by 5:00 today. Failure to do so will automatically lower
the final grade on the essay by one letter grade. Your advisor will e-mail me
the same suggestions for revision that he or she will share with you. You must meet with your advisor one more
time before you submit your final revision of the essay. Have your advisor sign your contract and hand
it in when you turn in your final draft of the thesis.
Description of final project: Career Path Portfolio. You
will begin finding an opening, creating a resume, and writing a cover letter
for your first career move beyond RU.
Begin your career path search using Internet and other sources of information for an ad for your "ideal" professional, educational, volunteer service, or internship opportunity. Make hard copies of all pertinent job ads, internship opportunities, volunteer services, or graduate school announcements you find as you sort through the information.
You will need to complete your
search for your “ideal” placement by April 10, when the job ads or placement
information about the next potential move along your career path is due.
Doing
English Studies: Loaded Canons, Revisited
4/2 Focus
Questions #6 Due: Robinson, “ Treason
Our Text: Feminist Challenges to the
Literary Canon” (Richter 153-66); Gates, “Canon-Formation, Literary History,
and the Afro-Americn Tradition: From the
Seen to the Told” (Richter 175-82); Sedgwick, from The
Epistemology of the Closet (Richter
183-88); Said, “The Politics of
Knowledge” (Richter 189-98)
OR
field trip to Blackfriar’s Theatre in
Doing
English Studies: The Ethics, Politics, and Practical Uses of English
4/10 Contract
Signed by Advisor Due. Career Path
Portfolio Ad Due: Job ad or other
announcement about the placement you will seek as part of this assignment
Bring your first draft with
your thesis advisor’s comments and suggestions for revision
First Drafts Returned
/ Discussion of Strategies for Revision
Focus Questions #7 Due: Booth, “”Who Is Responsible in Ethical Criticism, and for What?” (Richter 349-55); Nussbaum, “The Literary Imagination” (Richter 356-65); Scholes, “A Fortunate Fall?” (Richter 111-20)
8:00 Viewing of Out of the Past
4/17 Final Revision of Senior Thesis Due to
advisor by 5:00 and to Baker at beginning of class
Class
Meets in 221
Bring
your most current resume to class on disk.
We will have a workshop on revising the resume and composing a cover
letter for the position which you are seeking
Bring
the job ad, career opportunity notice, summer internship ad, volunteer service
announcement, or graduate school program description that you found for your
“ideal” next move on your career path.
“Okay,
so now that the fun’s over, how can I move toward a profession?”
Professor Rick Van Noy will chat with us about his career path: from a B. A. in English and an avid love of
nature - to teaching English in a
private school – to a technical writing job -
to a doctorate in American Lit. - to teaching Technical Writing and
Environmental Lit. at RU.
4/24 Revising the Cover Letter. First
draft of cover letter /letter of application due (on disk and in hard copy)
Class Meets in 221 Walker
In a manila folder, submit
the following: Printouts of job ads or
placement information, resume, and cover letter
Final Exam: Career Path Portfolio due at the beginning of
exam time for all students who did not submit it on 4/24.
In a manila folder, submit
the following: Printouts of job ads or
placement information, resume, and cover letter
Baker's Home Page | 496 Description | 496 Requirements | Course Descriptions and Syllabi