Assignments – ENGL 130 (Spring 2019)

Annotated Bibliography (Due 5/9)

Scour the internet and library to find 5 scholarly or credible sources related to the required texts. They can be scholarly articles, book reviews, interviews, etc.

List each source by its fully using MLA 8 style. A good source reference for MLA 8 style is Purdue’s Owl.

Under each source, write 2-4 sentences very briefly summarizing the article and why it’s interesting or helpful to you. When you blend a bibliography (list of sources) with commentary like this, it’s called an Annotated Bibliography.

Essay III

Purpose
The purpose of this essay is to show that you can write about an interesting or important topic using the literary texts we’ve read this semester as the raw material, or data, of your analysis.

Discussion Board (due 4/30)

For this week’s Discussion Board post, choose one of the three Mama Day topics and respond to either the prompt or to another student who has already posted.

Essay II ideas (due 4/4)

Look through at least two of the resources I’ve posted. Also do a search for reliable information about the Mexican Revolution online (only scholarly sources will be allowed for the essay).

Next in a reply to this post (or to someone else with a similar idea) gather your thoughts around one or two possible arguments. Be specific and practical. What are you arguing and what kind of evidence would you need to write it well? Include a discussion about why your topic(a) interest you.

CFP: Intimate History and Like Water for Chocolate (Essay II, draft due 4/11)

“Human beings participate in history both as actors and as narrators. The inherent ambivalence of the word ‘history’ in many modern languages, including English, suggests this dual participation.”
— Michel-Rolph Trouillot, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (1995)

“Liars tell half-truths and he told everyone that during the battle the captain had suddenly gone crazy and deserted the army. That is the way history gets written, distorted by eyewitness accounts that don’t really match the reality.”
— Laura Esquivel, Like Water for Chocolate (1992)

. . . [Shakespeare‘s sister] died young—alas, she never wrote a word. She lies buried where the omnibuses now stop, opposite the Elephant and Castle. Now my belief is that this poet who never wrote a word and was buried at the cross-roads still lives. She lives in you and in me, and in many other women who are not here tonight, for they are washing up the dishes and putting the children to bed. But she lives; for great poets do not die; they are continuing presences; they need only the opportunity to walk among us in the flesh. This opportunity, as I think, it is now coming within your power to give her.
— Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own (1929)

DB: Essay I ideas (due 3/5)

In a reply to the Essay I ideas thread on the discussion board, write about your ideas for Essay I. You are free to reply to another student’s comment if you’re writing on a the same theme–sometimes conversation is more helpful than simply waiting for your instructor to check in!

Some tips:

Continue reading “DB: Essay I ideas (due 3/5)”

Essay I: Close Reading (draft due 3/12)

“. . . I never may believe / these antique fables, nor these fairy toys. The lunatic, the lover, and the poet / are of imagination all compact.” — THESEUS
(MND 5.1.15-18)

Write a professional essay in which you identify an important theme in MND and discuss how the the play explores that theme by comparing two scenes. Consider imagery, symbols, allusions, references, indications of tone, hints at stage directions, verse forms, ect.

Write some verse! (Due 2/26)

It’s hard to appreciate how much meter affects writing without trying it yourself. So for this post, get ready to roll up your sleeves and write some poetry!

In a reply on the Discussion Board, please write a four line stanza (quatrain) in one of the three meters listed below (all of which appear in A Midsummer Night’s Dream). Please label your poem with its meter. Finally, briefly describe your experience writing it. What surprised you most? What was the most challenging aspect? Does it change your view of Shakespeare’s writing. If it doesn’t, explain why, too.

Discussion board (due 2/21)

You have two options for the discussion board this time:

Identify a monologue of at least ten lines, in Act I or II that you think is particularly representative of a character (e.g. what’s something that Helena says that’s just so Helen?). In a post in that character’s discussion board thread, carefully explain why, drawing attention to critical words and phrases and how they evoke the character’s personality in your chosen lines. If the thread doesn’t exist yet, create the topic with the character’s name and with appropriate tage.

Identify several key themes that stand out to you in Ovid’s telling of Pyramus and Thisbe. Compare those themes to the key themes you see emerging in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. For instance, do the two works share sympathetic or critical views of the young lovers? Are there similarities of imagery or plot? Do they share similar morals? Use line numbers and pages for references.

Discussion Board (due 2/14)

For this discussion board assignment, choose a character and briefly compare the three different “versions” of the character (your own, and the two productions). How do the different interpretations stack against your reading? Is there one that’s perfect, or totally wrong? Where does your differ and what in the text leads you there? You’re encouraged to cite lines to help support your ideas (see below for how).

Category: Assignments