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West Chester University
West Chester University
Home Course Syllabi and Announcements Notebook for Topics in Literature: Imaginary Worlds (Spring 2008) Notebook for Topics in Literature: Rites of Passage (Spring 2006) Notebook for Effective Writing I (Spring 2006) Go Exploring Notebook for Topics in Literature: Imaginary Worlds (Fall 2005) Notebook for Effective Writing I (Fall 2005) Go Exploring
LIT 165 Syllabus
LIT 165 Announcements and Assignments
WRT 120 Syllabus
WRT 120 Announcements and Assignments
A Reading of THE TEMPEST
Goals of the Course
Fundamental Questions about Literature
Valuing Literature
Critical Thinking and Reading Literature
Critical Approaches to Literature
Literature as ART
Ambiguity
Approaching the Art of Fiction
Defining the Short Story
Evaluating Short Fiction
Craft of Fiction: PLOT
Craft of Fiction: CHARACTER
Small Group Exercise
ARABY by James Joyce
WHERE ARE YOU GOING, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN? by Joyce Carol Oates
Our RITES OF PASSAGE Theme
A note about GIRL
POE and the art of STORY OF A HOUR
THE YELLOW WALLPAPER
YOUNG MAN ON SIXTH AVENUE
Notes on Innovative Fiction
Assignment Sheet for Paper #1
Fiction and Ambiguity - Your Questions
Writing Workshop - Short Fiction
Poetry Journal Project Assignment Sheet
LITERARY SYNTHESIS PROJECT
Defining Poetry
Reading Poetry
The Craft of Poetry
Drama and Tragedy
Study Questions: DEATH OF A SALESMAN
Paper #4 Assignment Sheet
Critical Thinking and Commentary
Casebook: Evaluating Sources Worksheet
Selecting Information
Evaluating Arguments
CASEBOOK PROJECT Assignment Sheet
Approaching Persuasive Writing
Topic Development - Profile Essay
Generating Ideas for the Profile Essay
Paper #2 Assignment Sheet
Profile Exercise
Analyzing THE FIVE BEDROOM, SIX FIGURE ROOTLESS LIFE
Objective Writing: Selected Readings
Writing Workshop: Paper #1
Expressive Writing in the NYTimes
Writing Effective Introductions and Conclusions
Paper #1: IDENTITY
Expressive Writing
Open Letter Exercise and Examples
EMERSON on Individuality vs. Conformity
Literature related to IDENTITY
Understanding the 'Rhetorical Situation'
Weblog for WRT 120
Writing Assistance on the Web
Blackboard at WCU
WCU Homepage
WCU's Francis Harvey Green Library
One Last Look at Imaginary Worlds
Franz Kafka's BEFORE THE LAW
Analyzing WAITING FOR GODOT
Approaching WAITING FOR GODOT
Paper #3: Assignment Sheet
Paper #4: Independent Project
The Problem of Stability in BRAVE NEW WORLD
UTOPIA/DYSTOPIA Links
Analyzing Huxley's BRAVE NEW WORLD
Defining Utopia
Embarking on Huxley's BRAVE NEW WORLD
A Reading of Shakespeare's THE TEMPEST
From today's news (11/3/05)
Assignment Sheet for Paper #2
Goodbye to Dante's Imaginary World
Stepping Through Dante's Inferno: Cantos 10-34
Stepping Through Dante's Inferno: Cantos 1-10
INFERNO: Questions/Analysis: Cantos 32-34
INFERNO: Questions/Analysis: Cantos 18-31
INFERNO: Questions for Analysis: Cantos 12-17
INFERNO: Structure
INFERNO: Questions for Analysis: Cantos 1-5
INFERNO: Analyzing Canto 1
Relating to Dante's Inferno
Approaching Dante's DIVINE COMEDY
A Little Help with Dante's INFERNO
Assignment Sheet for Paper #1
Notes on LEAF BY NIGGLE
Responses to LEAF BY NIGGLE
ON FAIRY STORIES: An Essay by Tolkien
Notes on Axolotl
Reading Ovid's Tales
From Myth to Literature: Approaching Ovid's Tales
Notes on THE EYE OF THE GIANT
Functions of the Genesis Tales
Analyzing Mythic Tales
Defining Mythology
Filtering the Introduction to FANTASTIC WORLDS
Commentary on LA BELLE DAME SANS MERCI by Keats
Commentary on DARKNESS by Byron
Handout: Imagination Poems Set
What is Imagination?
Our Course Theme: Imaginary Worlds
LIT 165 Assignments: Fall 2005
LIT 165 Announcements: Fall 2005
Imaginary Worlds: Course Syllabus
Paper #4: Independent Thinking/Reading/Writing
Casebook Preparation Checklist
Casebook Assignment Schedule
Evaluating Sources for the Casebook
Casebook Project Assignment Sheet
Notes on Rational Argument
Argument
Assignment Sheet: Objective Writing
Reviewing Elements of the Profile Essay
Writing the Profile Essay
Readings: Objective Writing
Assignment Sheet: Expressive Writing
Rubric for Evaluation of Writing
About SKIN DEEP
Emerson on Individuality vs. Conformity
Mind-map: Identity
Understanding the 'Rhetorical Situation'
Assignments Page
Announcements Page
WRT 120 Course Syllabus for Fall 2005
Weblog for WRT 120
Writing Assistance on the Web
Blackboard at WCU
WCU Homepage
WCU's Francis Harvey Green Library
The Flowers (handout/online)
The Story of an Hour (p. 15)
The Sorrowful Woman (p. 38)
A & P (p. 553)
Eveline (p. 432)]
Araby (handout/online)
Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been? (online)
Lust (p.282)
Girl (p. 517)
Soldiers Home (p. 154)
How to Tell a True War Story (p. 473)
Miss Brill (p. 252)
Young Man on Sixth Avenue (online)
Optional Readings
The Birthmark (p. 328)
Popular Mechanics (p. 264)
The Yellow Wallpaper (online)
The Lesson (online)
Half a Day (online)
Barn Burning (p. 400)
Young Goodman Brown (309)
In Dreams Begin Responsibilities (handout)
Directions: Develop your own specific topic based on either an expressive, objective, persuasive, or creative approach to the readings. Your paper should engage one or more of the assigned or optional readings in depth. Research to supplement your own critical/analytical commentary is strictly optional, but if you do include researched material from a source other than our textbook, you are responsible for documenting it correctly using MLA style parenthetical documentation. You are invited to work with a text(s) not on the reading list as long as you include in your discussion at least one text from either the assigned or optional lists above.
Final Paper requirements: 4-6 pages; typed; double-spaced
Topic development due: Thursday 2/23 or Tuesday 2/28 (in conference)
Workshop draft due: Thursday 3/2
Final Paper due: Due Tuesday 3/7
These are suggestive, not exclusive.
Develop a paper that explores the your feeling about the relevance of one or more of the stories on the reading list. Test the work’s value by exploring how it relates to your own life experiences. Use the literature as a springboard to inspire a discussion of your own personal opinions, responses, and feelings about some of the broad themes you can identify relating to “rites of passage.” What have been your own “rites of passage” from childhood to adulthood, and how do they relate to the experiences you’ve read about?
- What was a profound moment of change in your life in which you passed from innocence to experience?
- What experiences have you had that either empowered you or paralyzed you in some profound way?
- What was a profound moment in your life when your childhood illusions and fantasies were invaded by “reality”? Did this invasion of reality result in growth or disillusionment, or a combination of the two?
OBJECTIVE
Develop a paper that objectively analyzes and/or interprets the meaning of one or more of the works on the reading list.
- Write a comparative analysis of two or more stories on the readings lists above.
- Write a synthesis essay which traces the development of a common theme through more than one work.
- Analyze one or more of the stories to demonstrate the ways in which they illustrate ideas about the art of fiction discussed in class and in the handouts.
- Present an interpretive analysis of plot, character, theme, symbol, or conflict in one or more of the works on the readings lists above. (Note: analysis = observation + inference; your inferences are your interpretations.)
- Write an evaluative critique by establishing and applying evaluative criteria to one or more of the works on the reading lists above.
PERSUASIVE
Identify one or more elements (plot, character, symbol, theme) in one of the works listed above which might be considered debatable or ambiguous and then argue for a particular interpretation. Acknowledge other interpretations but prove, by your close analysis of the details in the text, that your interpretation is a convincing one.
CREATIVE
Write a short story about a character who moves from a state of innocence to experience; or about a character who becomes empowered by a particular experience; or about a character who becomes paralyzed when faced with an opportunity to grow and change; or about a character who experiences a sense of disillusionment as a result of a significant experience.