Assignments

Assignment Values

Assignment Descriptions

These are intended as overviews of the general goals of each assignment. Longer hand-outs will be provided along with discussion of the assignments during class.

Imitation / Analysis Notebook

Throughout the course, you will be asked to produce short imitation and short analyses of the readings we do for class. Twice in the semester, the notebooks will be collected and graded.

Imitation

For the imitation, you may write about whatever subject matter you choose, though you are required (and will be evaluated on ability to) write imitating the style of the piece we are working with.

Analysis

For the analysis piece, we will have discussed some concept relating to the theory of rhetorical style in the previous lesson. Evaluate the author’s use of that concept, citing specific examples, and discuss how this concept benefits their overall rhetorical purpose in writing.

Totals

Every time the schedule mentions “Analyze” or “Imitate”, you are to produce an imitation or analysis entry in your notebook. For the semester, you will produce:

• 10 Imitations
• 9 Analyses

On the following texts:

1. Shelly or Borges
2. Dyson or Burrington
3. Darwin or More
4. Lovecraft
5. Steffan (only analyze either Lovecraft or Steffan)
6. A.I. Editorial 1
7. A.I. Editorial 2
8. Joy
9. Ellison
10. Russ

Due Dates

• 9/19
• 12/05

Take-home Exam

To test your knowledge of both sentence modification and rhetorical figures, a take-home exam will be distributed at the end of class two days before the due date (listed above). You will be required to return the completed exam to my office by the end of what would be the next class period (there will be no class on the due date). If you are finished with the exam early, you may slip your completed exam under my office door.

This exam is open note and is designed to test your abilities to identify and describe characters and actions, complex sentence modifications, tropes, and schemes.

If you miss class on the day the exam is distributed, a copy will be posted to eCampus, but you are responsible for printing your own copy.

Analysis Paper 1

Pick a text we have not discussed in class. In 4 pages, describe the overall feel of the text. This can be both how you feel about the text but, more importantly, how the author wants you to feel as you read. The challenge of this portion of the assignment is twofold: one, how do we describe a feeling without attempting to reproduce it ourselves? two, how do we use evidence from the text to support our claims about this feeling?

Having described the feeling, explain why that feeling matters by considering the context in which the text was produced. This portion of the assignment will more than likely require outside research into the author’s biography, the political environment in which it was written, and the general culture of the times at which it was produced.

• More Detailed Assignment Sheet
• Working List of Possible Sources
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Analysis Paper 2

Revising and expanding your first paper, you can now more accurately leverage the skills you have acquired in this class to describe the mood of the piece. This paper will be 8 to 10 pages in length and will include additional elements beyond the first.

In addition to the revision of the first argument, spend some time getting into detail about the stylistic devices the writing uses to present it’s point. This detailed discussion is not intended to be a laundry list of tropes, schemes, and sentence structure; rather, I expect you to tie this argument to a larger meditation on the constraints, strategies, motivations, and cultural contexts that shape the writing in question.