ENGL 653: Assignments

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1. Regular Attendance and Participation in Group Conversation. More than one absence will lower your final grade. More than three absences will result in failure of the course. I do not make the distinction between excused and unexcused absences.

2. Seminar Presentation: Contexts for Reading and Interpretation (25% of Grade)

Each student will participate in a group seminar presentation that provides the rest of the class with essential information about contexts within which we will discuss an author or authors. I strongly urge you to choose a seminar presentation subject that will help you with your research for your scholarly essay. You may consider any number of contexts in your presentation, including the social, cultural, political, theoretical, critical or material contexts. Each presentation will last 30 minutes and will use whatever techniques seem most appropriate (interactive, lecture, lecture/discussion, slides, videos, PowerPoint, web-based presentation). It is important that these presentations stay within the thirty-minute limit. If you are unsure of how to gauge your time, try a "dress rehearsal" or run-through before class. Be advised that it takes roughly twenty minutes to deliver a 9-10 page double-spaced paper.

I have provided an extensive set of links to scholarly sites that will be helpful in the study of the Central and Latin American women writers we will study. As the course progresses, I will meet with the groups responsible for presenting contextual materials to suggest potentially useful sourcesAssessment Criteria: The seminar presentations will be assessed according to the following criteria: the substantiveness of the information, its relevance to the course, the clarity of the presentation, the organization or the material, the presentation techniques or strategies, and the observing of the thirty-minute time limit. I will distribute a peer assessment sheet so that the rest of the class may participate in the assessment of this activity, and the assessment statements of the class will weigh heavily in my assessment.

3. Weekly "Probes and Insights": 2 substantive discussion questions and 1 insight for each set of assigned texts (25% of Grade)

Because the reading for this course is quite heavy, I want to grant credit and assign a grade for completing that work. My assumption is that each of you intends to read all the texts thoughtfully, striving to grasp as much as you can and asking fruitful questions. Therefore, I would like to assign the letter grade of "A" to this course activity from the outset of our work together. As long as you demonstrate that you have read and thought about each of the assigned readings, I can assign an A for this portion of the final grade.

To demonstrate that you have read all the readings, each week please prepare a set of (for want of a better word) "Probes and Insights." Please type these and shoot for about one page each week.

By "probes" I mean essential, critical questions that get at what you feel are the central issues of the pieces we read. These should be substantive questions, dealing with fundamental concerns. When we have more than one assigned text, your "probes" should deal with as many of them as possible; you may wish to create questions that "probe" the issues of a couple of the assigned texts.

By "insights" I mean just that--ideas that have come to you after careful reflection upon each piece. Make your "insight" be the one idea you would most like to contribute to our conversation about one or more of the assigned readings each week; again, you may create an "insight" that deals with a couple of the assigned texts. I would like at least two "probes" and one "insight" each week. Come to class prepared to share these with others and to explain them more fully. Our conversations each week will be rooted in your own concerns as articulated in your questions and ideas. I will collect these each week and use them to plan for future class meetings.

Assessment Criteria: To receive a grade of "A," submit your "Probes and Insights" on the due date. Be sure your Probes and Insights demonstrate that you have read the assigned works in their entirety. Your Probes and Insights should make specific references to the assigned texts each week; they should begin with something specific in the text and then develop a question or an insight from that specific material. Late work or incomplete "Probes and Insights" will necessarily lower the grade.

3. Annotated Bibliography of 12 Sources for Scholarly Essay (25% of Grade)

4. Scholarly Essay (25% of Grade)

Each student will complete a fully researched scholarly essay that grows out of our work in the course. The essay should be narrowly focused so that you can demonstrate it convincingly in about 15-25 pages, counting the content endnotes and works cited pages. The essay should be addressed to a specific audience, either a particular conference or scholarly journal, or some other quite particular audience; it should pursue a clear purpose and demonstrate a central thesis idea. Those of you who are writing theses about writers pertinent to this course may complete one of your chapters to fulfill this activity. Those of you who are studying for the Masters Degree in other departments may integrate your own discipline into this activity; for example you might write a more personal reflection on the content of the course and how it comes to bear on your discipline, your own education, or your professional work.

Possible Options for the Scholarly Essay:

For both of these options, I encourage you to consult the sources provided on the "653 Links to Resources" web page. JStor, Project Muse, Historical Abstracts, America: History and Life, and InfoTrack are online bibliographies and/or data bases that should prove invaluable to you in researching your essay.

Journal Article: Target a specific journal, find out the required page length and format, and direct your article to that journal. When you submit your essay, indicate your target journal. Most articles run between 18-25 pages, counting content end notes and works cited pages. Substantively researched scholarly articles usually integrate between 20-30 sources into their arguments. Strive for a substantive, fully researched piece of scholarship that integrates a rich array of sources into its presentation. Proper MLA documentation is required.

Conference Paper: Target a specific conference and direct your piece to its audience. When you submit your essay, indicate your target conference. Most conferences allow a twenty-minute presentation. Text should be no more than 10 pages. You should, however, provide additional elaboration, references, and materials in at least a couple of pages of content endnotes. Text, content endnotes and works cited pages should total about 15 pages. Conference papers should be no less substantively researched than scholarly articles; the only difference is that they compress their scholarship much more, and offer adequate evidence to be convincing but not exhaustive proof; they often rely on explanatory endnotes for the elaboration that must be omitted from the text. Try to integrate at least 20 sources into your argument, using content notes when necessary to compress. Proper MLA documentation is required.

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