Assignments -- Romantic Era (Spring 2005)

Goal: To produce sophisticated essays and documentation that point to original interpretation, linguistic clarity, and  academic maturity and integrity.

• Participation, attendance, and discussion questions--25%
• 2 Formal Writing Projects--50%
• Final Exam--25%

• Grading Rubric: A+ 100-98; A 97-93; A- 92-90; B+ 89-87; B 86-83; B- 82-80; C+ 79-77; C 76-73; C- 72-70; D+ 69-67 D+; 66-63 D; 62-60 D-; 59-0 F
•   Papers should be no longer or shorter than the length assigned and submitted on time. Use twelve-point type, in Times New Roman or CG Times (or 10 pt. in Veranda, etc.). Late papers will result in grade reductions. Never submit a paper without proofreading it carefully.
• To teach students to avoid plagiarism, lectures will also include instruction in MLA documentation (online link) of all work. This course engages in questions of authorship, including web authorship (online link: web.html). Submitting work and words that are not your own will result in failing this course and disciplinary action by the Dean of Students.
  

Essay 1: Romantic Revolutionaries     due M 2/28 at 10 am

The purpose of Essay 1: Romantic Revolutionaries is to give students the opportunity to engage critically with the writers, texts, and culture of 1790’s Britain. Successful papers (3 full pages minimum, 5 maximum) will demonstrate not only sophistication, maturity, and independent originality, but also linguistic clarity and professional editing skills. A central argument or well-developed and clearly articulated main point should shape your response to this assignment, for which general prompts are suggested below. You have two options for the type of assignment you will write:

Option A: Traditional Literary Analysis [choose one of the following]

1.    Develop your own critical topic based on a close reading of at least one, no more than three, texts from Unit I: Romantic Revolutionaries.

2.    [GENERAL / individual specification needed!]: Selecting one to three texts as your basis for analysis, define the values of England’s middle class reading audience around 1800. Some questions you might consider are: What are their hopes, dreams, and fears? What political and cultural issues define this generation of writers? How is “virtue” defined for men and women? What is the concept of the nuclear family? And why is “romantic” a term that shifts in meaning between different types of writers and genres? In order to investigate divisions among this reading audience, you might compare and contrast a conservative with a liberal writer or a male with a female writer (such as Burke / Blake; Barbauld / Wollstonecraft, etc.).

3.    On what grounds do Wollstonecraft, in A Vindication of the Rights of Men, and/or Paine, in The Rights of Man, attack Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France?  What pertinent political and cultural issues does Burke’s text raise? Another question you might consider is the relationship of the term “romantic” to these writers’ differing positions on revolution and human rights.

4.    Propose an extra-literary research question. Research a cultural issue from the 1790s that interests you, hopefully presenting original research from a then contemporary periodical (MSU library has The Times on microfilm). Other scholarly resources are available online: http://chss.montclair.edu/~nielsenw/e536.html#j

5.    Compare and contrast a male and female writer’s response to the horrors of global slave trade. Pairings might include (but are not limited to) Prince / Equiano or Dorothy Wordsworth / Blake. What do their similarities and differences indicate about Romantic era reading audiences and “revolutionary” aspects of this period?

Option B: Creative Writing + Brief Analysis [or choose one of the following]

Use creative writing to engage with one to three Romantic texts and include a cover letter (at least one full page) that analyzes your own writing and explains, analyzes, and interprets your literary techniques and rationale in relation to your understanding of interpretive themes or issues. This cover letter should present a clearly defined interpretation of the work(s) (like a thesis, argument, or controlling idea) and provide support (from the literary texts and/or your own creation) for its assertions in a logical and sophisticated manner. The success of these creative responses will depend on how well you define your reading audience, e.g., the title of the fictional publication for which you are writing. Your creations should show sophisticated appreciation for the style and diction of polemical essay (or dramatic, #8) writing around 1800.

6. Using Polwhele, Barbauld, Hannah More, and/or Blackboard Discussion (10 Feb. 2005) as guidelines for reader response, write A New Vindication (or title of your choice) of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman for a clearly defined audience (either a contemporary one, like readers of The (London) Times in the 1790s, or a modern one, like The Montclarion). [It would be interesting (but not required) to explore why the academic term for dissecting gender identity and women’s rights in literature, feminism, has been subordinated to 1970’s stereotypes.]

7. Write an “Anti-Jacobin” response to either Wollstonecraft (VRM or VRW), Godwin, Inchbald, or Paine, taking on the persona of a contemporary parson for the Church of England or another persona of your choosing, such as Edmund Burke. 

8. We have read some examples of Romantic era dramatic writing, such as Elizabeth Inchbald’s The Massacre or Hannah More’s Village Politics (p. 100). Convert a scene we have read in prose form to a dramatic scene. Suggestions include (but are not limited to) Edmund Burke’s description of the royal family’s flight from Versailles, Equiano’s Interesting Narrative, or Prince’s History. Key here will be the audience for your dramatic scene: Covent Garden in the Romantic era, twenty-first century PBS viewers, etc.. You might also include an “Advertisement” for your play that can feed into / serve the function of your cover letter.

~ * ~

Please post your Prospectus (= an announcement of your paper topic, your initial thoughts on its scope and content) on Monday 2/21 on Blackboard/Discussion. No final paper will be accepted without a draft-in-progress being submitted to Blackboard/Discussion first, on Thursday 2/24.

As the online criteria for evaluation suggest <http://chss.montclair.edu/~nielsenw/a346.html#eval>, all responses must have a creative title and document their assertions with reference to the text. Secondary critical material is available on Blackboard/Critical Essays. With the exception of Literary Analysis #4, you are not required to support your papers with outside research; the development your writing voice and critical I/eye is more important than regurgitation of others’ assertions. All paraphrased references and absolutely any citation of four or more words from another author must be cited according to the MLA parenthetical method (author page #), which depends on Works Cited, not footnotes.

Plagiarism, cheating, and pretending another’s words are your own are unethical practices subject to academic sanction and failure in this course. Please cite all consulted material, from websites, books, articles, to the backs of books, as critical engagement with and acknowledgment of others’ words is part of the larger academic conversation and ethic. Late papers are still accepted until the final day of the course, though two points are deducted from the grade for each class day the paper is late (i.e., a paper turned in a week late is deducted four points, or about a half grade—from 91/A- to 87/B+). This levels the playing field for your classmates who submit work on assigned dates.

Please post your Prospectus (= an announcement of your paper topic, your initial thoughts on its scope and content) on Monday 2/21 on Blackboard/Discussion. No final paper will be accepted without a draft-in-progress being submitted to Blackboard/Discussion first, on Thursday 2/24.

Nielsen / ENGL 346    Essay 2: Romantic Poetry + Essay Group Sign-ups

The purpose of this final writing assignment is to make students fluent in the language of poetry, Romanticism’s most canonical and widely taught genre. The final paper, due Monday 4/11 at 10 am should be 2 pages (minimum) to four pages (maximum). The final paper may be loosely based on the one-page essay you bring to class in your Essay Group (EG) or provide a clear paper trail; draft work must show progression.

You will be assigned to one of four Essay Groups. On your assigned day,  write a one-page essay on one (or more, but no more than three) of the selected poems, bring a copy or two or three to class, and post the paper on Blackboard. You will share your interpretation of the poem with the class. Students are required to share their work with the rest of the class. If you miss class on your assigned day, you must email your essay to everyone via Blackboard in a timely fashion. This should be a close reading of the poem that meditates on the meaning of a specific motif or symbol or attempts to decipher another unclear aspect of the poem.

This peer review process will help you to define your topic early enough to write a sophisticated essay. Papers will be evaluated according to argumentation, originality, support, development, clarity, sophistication, and advanced literacy. A tutorial in library resources will make secondary material available to you, should you wish to consult outside sources.

EG 1: R 3/24; The Prelude I, X Wordsworth 388-403, 429-38   : Faith, Susan, Alana, Audra, Lauren Greed, Donna, Laura Lobay, Melanie W.

EG 2: M 3/28; Women Writers Respond; M. Robinson 221-25; Shelley 462-63; D. Wordsworth 465-69, 478-84: Michelle, Sylvia, Tania, Veronica, Brian, Yelena, Estefania, Nilda

EG 3: R 3/31; "To one . . . ;" "Ode on a Grecian Urn”; Keats 852-54, 856, 882-83, 913-15; Byron 791-92: Theresa, Antonella, Cristina, Edward, Daniell, Safiya, Jaclyn, Melissa V.

EG 4: M 4/4; "Hymn . . . "; "Mont Blanc"; P. B. Shelley 752-60: Paula, Valbona, Maureen, Annamaria, Alyce, Lauren DeMatteo, Marisa

Plagiarism, cheating, and pretending another’s words are your own are unethical practices subject to academic sanction and failure in this course. Please cite all consulted material, from websites, books, articles, to the backs of books, as critical engagement with and acknowledgment of others’ words is part of the larger academic conversation and ethic. Late papers are still accepted until the final day of the course, though two points are deducted from the grade for each class day the paper is late (i.e., a paper turned in a week late is deducted four points, or about a half grade—from 91/A- to 87/B+). This levels the playing field for your classmates who submit work on assigned dates.

Additional Tips and Evaluative Criteria

Please note:
- You should have an original title for your essay

- These are prompts, designed to prompt you into thinking about your own writing. You should revise and specify the exact kinds of questions your essay will be addressing.

- Please avoid plot summary. Focus, instead, on specific motifs (symbols, repetitions, allegories) and narrative techniques (position of narrator, genre conventions) and clearly articulate their interpretation/meaning.

- If you are struggling to find the significance for a thesis (a.k.a. the ‘so what?’ of any good controlling idea), consider the purpose of literature; what purpose does it serve, how does it critique society, and how might it teach life lessons?

- Cite information according to MLA parenthetical citation method (author #) and include a Works Cited. Cite web resources.

- Struggling for vocabulary? Take a look at this page about Vocabulary for Literature and Writing.

• Please simply staple, number, and label each page with your last name (no cover pages or booklets). Include a title. 
  
• Late papers will be penalized.
• Please carefully proofread your paper; grammatically sloppy papers will have points deducted.
• In order to avoid plagiarism and to guide your readers in following your sources, please cite texts according to MLA standards. You may use outside sources but are not required to do so. If you do use outside sources, please be sure to cite them properly.
  

• Academic Honesty and Plagiarism: Definition of Plagiarism (from Student Handbook)

  "Plagiarism means the use of another's words as if they were your own, and the unacknowledged incorporation of those words in one's own work offered for credit.  The following guidelines for written work will assist the student in avoiding plagiarism:

              a) General indebtedness for background information and data is acknowledged by inclusion of a bibliography of all works consulted.

              b) Specific indebtedness for a particular idea, or for a quotation of four or more words from another text, is acknowledged by footnote reference to the actual source.  Quotations of 4 -5 words or more from a text are indicated by the use of quotation marks."

  Honesty is expected of you.  It is expected that the work you hand in will always be your own, and that you will never copy sentences, phrases, paragraphs or whole essays from any other person's work, for that is plagiarism.  Plagiarism is dishonest, and against both University policy and my own.  If you are ever unclear about how to cite another person or author's ideas, come see me or consult the staff in the Writing Center.  We can help you do this correctly.  It's important to understand that plagiarism is a big deal in this university and in my class.  Don't make this mistake.  Students who are caught plagiarizing will fail the course and be referred to the Dean of Student's office for disciplinary sanctions.

  
  
• This paper will be evaluated according to the strength and clarity of its argument, validity of its support, and originality of its conclusions. In addition, evidence of each student's ability to communicate these ideas in writing weighs considerably on the final evaluation. Therefore, you are encouraged to engage in peer-review and extensive proofreading.
  

• Students are encouraged to make use of the University Writing Center, located in Dickson Hall 285 (655-7442); students are benefited most by making an appointment, but drop-in hours are also available. I am more than willing to provide extra help and extra office hours! Please come to my regular office hours in Dickson Hall 324 or email me at nielsenw@mail.montclair.edu for an appointment.