Lecture Notes

A reminder that my lecture notes are now available online at my SFU filespace.

You can also access them directly via this hotlink >>

Course Student Essay Analysis

The student whose analysis of P.J. O'Rourke's On God was discussed by me in lecture today has made a scan of her first page available online, here.

Study Table

For your Final Examination preparation, download the Study Table, online.

Use of the Rhetoric of Fear

Guest Lecturer Mr. Larry Perras analysed our P.J. O'Rourke essay On God in terms of the technique of using !!FEAR!! to advance one's ideological position-- by scientists, by political zealots, etc.

I had the South Park episode "Two Days Before The Day After Tomorrow in mind at that point in Mr. Perras' lecture. (When you click the hotlink here, slide the time bar ahead to 6:00 in the clip...]

The target for the South Park satire is Al Gore on Global Warming (Mr. Gore has an essay of this type in our Norton Reader.)

Final Exam: Location

The location for our Final Exam on Monday December 8th, 8:30 - 11:30 has been announced: RCB8100, alias Images Theatre.

Woolf's Composition Decisions

As promised in lecture, here is the text from the lecture slide on Virginia Woolf's composition decisions for “In Search of a Room of One’s Own.”

Purpose / Occasion—refutation of Charles Darwin in The Descent of Man, "man is superior to woman”:

• Physically
• Morally
• Intellectually
• Emotionally
• Artistically

Form—Literary (belle lettres)
Genre—Polemic
Type—Manifesto
Method—Irony
Device—oppose science and literature
Style & Content—literary
Technique—restraint, understatement
Specific device—litotes

The shape of the essay—its structure—is subtle, allusive, artistic.
Result: culture not biology determines women’s location.

Virginia Woolf & Servants

"Woolf's Servants get their Due" is the title of an interview, linked from Arts & Letters Daily, with author Alison Light on her new book Mrs. Woolf and the Servants: An Intimate History of Domestic Life in Bloomsbury.

Q. How did you become interested in Woolf's servants?
A. By reading Woolf's diaries, which I love, but which contain appalling references to the servants: Lottie Hope or Nellie Boxall being compared to animals and vermin. Woolf's disgust riveted me. I also wondered why she and Boxall had such rows. Then the fact that my grandmother was in service and my mother's sisters started out in service before the Second World War.

Several additional journals have published articles on what s obviously perceived as a compelling aspect of Virgina Woolf's life & letters.

• New York Times: "A Maid of One's Own"
• The Nation: "The Horror of Dirt: Virginia Woolf and Her Servants"
• The Daily Telegraph: "The Women Behind Mrs. Woolf"

Even More Office Hours

Look down under the course syllabus for the additional office hours that I have just scheduled: effectively seven days a week.

Translation On-Line of Chinese Course Essay

The On-Line Primary Course Essays section of this class blog has the English translation as well as the Chinese original of the short essay in the qi-cheng-zhuan-he form.

We are indebted to Mr. Ian Song from the SFU Library for the translation.

"Note-Taking for University"

"Learn how to listen and you will prosper even from those who talk badly.” Plutarch (AD 46-120) Greek Biographer & Philosopher.

The Student Learning Commons at the W.A.C. Bennett Library has an exceptionally helpful on-line guide to effective note-taking at university lecture. (It is a trifle disconcerting reading for the Lecturers themselves, because it implies--indeed, all-but declares--that many of us are dull, confused, inarticulate, habituated and otherwise deficient in our craft.)

The guide is available online in .pdf format at this hotlink.

The Student Learning Commons additionally has an entire page of links to on-line resources to improve the student's "Listening & Note-Taking" at this hotlink.

For those who are less than 100% confident in their ability to listen and note-take during lecture, I strongly suggest that you allow yourself to profit from the assistance proffered here.

Possible Bonus on Final Exam

I said in lecture today that if the class follows the published e-mail protocol throughout the Term then I will add a bonus 5% "gimmie" question on the Final Exam. You probably will not need to send an e-mail to TA or Lecturer during the Term, but if you do then this is an encouragement to follow protocol.

This Week's Lecture Quiz

My latest exemplification of a rhetorical device detailed in a previous lecture was the presentation of Margaret Atwood's essay "True North."

For the coveted Chocolate Award, name that specific rhetorical device.

Figures of Irony

The finer-grained figures of irony can be repeated here from lecture today:

• Antiphrasis: Irony of one word, often derisively through patent contradiction.
  (Referring to a hard slapshot: "No power on that shot, eh?" )
• Paralipsis: Stating and drawing attention to something in the very act of pretending to pass it over.
  ("It would be unseemly for me to dwell on Dr. Ogden’s drinking problem, and too many have already sensationalized his gambling habits...")
• Epitrope: Turns things over the hearer, either ironically, or in such a way as to suggest a proof of something without having to state it.
  (“Go ahead: make my day.” “OK: you win the argument but fail the course.”)
• Sarcasmus: Use of mockery or taunts.
• Mycterismus: mockery with an accompanying gesture, such as a scornful look.

There is a delightful use of mycterismus in last weekend's Saturday Night Live opening: indeed, they have a character just to personify that device. (Click the hotlink for the video clip.)

The Prime Minister and the Writer: Polemic

Margaret Atwood, one of our primary course authors, a year or so ago released an essay into the fray of a partisan political exchange over the issue of handouts from the taxpayers to artists. In our Course, we separate ourselves from the partisan issue: our own personal opinion on either side is set apart, and our focus is solely on the rhetorical aspects.

The Prime Minister's remarks are online as reported here. Put dispassionately for our scholarly purposes, the two-part issue seems to be this:

1. How large should the taxpayer's handout to artists be?
2. What degree of oversight should taxpayers have over money that their governmental surrogates handout to artists?

To best appreciate Ms. Atwood's polemic, we need to see it in relation to the specific occasion to which it is a response. As it happens (again, happily for our present study), Atwood's own brilliant polemic is in response to another rhetorical strategy, in turn brilliant in its own right: specifically, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's use of the rhetorical device that has recently been given a controversial formulation under the term "framing."

Now, the tension between governments who administer tax money and artists who receive it is, of course, perennial. An episode of the 1980s British television comedy Yes, Prime Minister," titled "The Patron of the Arts" deals wittily with just this. Here's a sample quotation, taken from the previous hotlink to the episode guide:

Prime Minister Jim Hacker: "So they insult me and then expect me to give them more money?" Sir Humphrey: "Yes, I must say it's a rather undignified posture. But it is what artists always do: crawling towards the government on their knees, shaking their fists." Jim Hacker: "Beating me over the head with their begging bowls." Bernard Woolley: "Oh, I am sorry to be pedantic, Prime Minister, but they can't beat you over the head if they're on their knees. Unless of course they've got very long arms."

The usual formulation in turn from the artists is that the government is (a.) uncultured, (b.) miserly, and, (c.) totalitarian. But in the present, Canadian, case, Mr. Harper has changed the formulation -- has, using the rhetorical concept, re-framed the partisan conflict -- to present the artists as (and here I will use Ms. Atwood's own sub-title to her polemical response) "....a bunch of rich people at galas whining about their grants." Mr. Harper, in other words, has made this an issue of social class: presenting himself on the side of what he calls "ordinary working people" against privileged urban elites.

Rhetoric -- use of language to persuade --is judged by the degree to which it accomplishes its purpose. And, to some degree, by this criterion, Mr. Harper's rhetoric has been extremely successful, judged by the effect that it has produced. Ms. Atwood's polemic being just one of the immediate, vigorous and intense reactions.

A news story on the matter is at this hotlink. Or, better, read Ms. Atwood's essay by clicking either the title of this post or this hotlink. As you read it, note how well she configures her polemic. For one, she appropriates Mr. Harper's position on the side of "ordinary Canadians" as her own: her polemic is effectively structured around a series of claims that "ordinary Canadians" are in fact artists themselves. This is a brilliant inverted use of the rhetorical device known as metastasis (to deny your opponent's charge and to turn it back instead against him or her.)

For another, Ms. Atwood's polemic deftly avoids addressing itself directly to what is the very fact at issue (and obviously Mr. Harper's strongest point)-- to wit, tax money for artists--and uses only oblique reference. In fact, with refinement of excellence, Ms. Atwood's polemic does mention tax money (thereby giving the appearance of engagement with the central matter) but in a different, and thereby deflecting, context. (Specifically, general transfer of federal taxes to Ms. Atwood's home province of Ontario.)


So, if you have the chance, read and appreciate Ms. Atwood's politically relevant, vigourous and extremely well-crafted example of the polemical essay.

[A humourous response to the exchange is online here.]

Course Support Material

A number of books are set aside on Course Reserve at the W.A.C. Bennett Library to act as research support for your assignments. In addition to this, I have a small library in my own office of textbooks and guidebooks for writing English, which are available for you to borrow at any time through the Term by stopping by in person.

However, the Library is full of books, and the library home page is a rich resource for helpful material. I advise all of you to take advantage of the Librarians at the Reference Desk in finding precise material for your particular assignment design. The Library Research hotlink is the title to this very post.

Lecture Quiz

During the section of the last lecture dedicated to the Holt essay, I, in giving the lecture, used a specific rhetorical stance, in addition to the accurate detailed analysis given of its form qua essay.
For the second chocolate prize of the Term, what was the rhetorical stance that I adopted in giving the lecture? (Recall that rhetoric applies equally to oral and written delivery.)

Paid Note Taking!

Paid Note-taker Position Available

The Centre for Students with Disabilities (CSD) is seeking an applicant to provide note-taking services for a student with a disability in this course.

Applicants interested in this opportunity must:

• Be registered in this class
• Attend class regularly
• Take comprehensive notes
• Scan and upload their notes into an online e-note system (use of a scanner provided by the CSD)

In the case of more than one applicant, GPA and legibility of notes will determine who is chosen for the position. An honorarium of $100 is available to the successful applicant.
For more information please go to: www.students.sfu.ca/disabilityaccess/notetaking/index.html

To apply to be a note-taker for Burnaby Campus courses please come to:
Centre for Students with Disabilties
1250 Maggie Benston Centre
Simon Fraser University, Burnaby Campus
To apply to be a note-taker for Surrey or Harbour Centre Campus courses please email us at: csdo@sfu.ca

Creative Assignments & Proposal Structure

Proposals for Creative and Group Assignments can be helpfully constructed as failure standards. Failure standards are a real-world use of the falsification concept from experimental science, where a theory becomes ranked as scientific only when it is capable of being falsified in a replicable experiment.

So, for your assignment proposals, you would list (in either essay or point form) the full set of criteria by which your project can be gauged to have failed. for example "Our project will have failed if:"

• the project does not advance an academic thesis.
• the project does not have [some measurable degree of] quality
• the project does not identifiably incorporate material from relevent scholarship
• the project fails to relate directly to some number of the primary course texts
• the project fails to represent and demonstrate advanced understanding of the central ideas of the course
• &c, &c.

This effectively prevents creativity from being substituted by open license.

Additionally, proposals are accompanied by a concise justification of the academic validity of the project being proposed.

An effective proposal describes (nb. look up the etymology of this word in the OED) three components of a project:

1. Area:
2. Range
3. Structure

The Area is the specific subject of your project: e-mail writing, for instance. Range delimits the specific aspect of your subject: courtesy and professional manner in e-mail, say. And Structure outlines the manner in which the project will formed.

Two pages is a reasonable length for a proposal of this type, four pages at most.

A Tutorial Room Change

Students in tutorial section D1.11 Thursdays 11:30-12:20 with Alison McDonald now have a new and superior seminar room: AQ5050.

By the bye, this is my view during lecture....

Another Student Comment

From a classfellow who identifies himself in his e-mail by only his given name (initial "K"), this plausible interpretation:

Is there any relationship between a stack of brick and a group of people that involve to Dr. Johnson's idea of moralism? If Great Wall of China and the Pyramid composed the element of many bricks, then could we compare it to the idea that the society that make up of many people? And can we further conclude that within the same society, we have ethical (the goods) and unethical (the bads) people in comparing to some bricks that were built fore defense while others were built for individualdesire?

Student comment

From classfellow H.P.

In lecture today we discussed Meditation XVII by John Donne. While focusing on the third paragraph you stated that the line "never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee." embodies the idea that death is imminent. However, in reading the essay I interpreted the line to focus on interconnectedness. Because we are all connected, one is affected by another's death. Therefore, in sorrow and in cause, a part of thestill-living person also dies. My interpretation was largely influenced bythe earlier statement that "any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind..."

This is exactly right, except there is no opposition here. The essay's purpose (defined by its occasion as a sermon) is to encourage the sense of charity, that we are 'all members of the one body" to use Donne's biblical metaphor. The essay's method is to awaken the a sense of mortality in the readers ("....send not to ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee.")

Rhetorical Device in USA Presidential Campaign

As I mentioned in lecture today, knowledge of classical rhetorical devices is as effective now as in ancient Rome, and I said I would blog an essay in proof of that.

From the centre-left online journal Slate.com, this is that essay:

The Hottest Rhetorical Device of Campaign '08. Ask not what antimetabole can do for you—ask what you can do for antimetabole.

Politicians eager to keep up with the latest fad need more than a flag pin this election season; the hottest accessory of the 2008 campaign is the reversible raincoat. That's the nickname speechwriters have given to the rhetorical device in which words are repeated in transposed order, as with Churchill's famous line: "Let us preach what we practice—let us practice what we preach." The fancy Greek name for the trick is antimetabole, and it's been cropping up in speeches by Democrats and Republicans alike. >>>More

Twittering

From today's Toronto Globe and Mail, an occasional essay on political twittering.

Exemplification in Lecture

Today in lecture I exemplified the rhetorical device of auxesis--amplification by disproportionate repetition --using tardiness. I believe that you can now see how it works....

I also exemplified another rhetorical device during my lecture, this time by saying "a TA who tells you, is a bad TA."

Question: what did I emplify there?

First Course Readings

The readings for the first two weeks of our course are six from among the writers who founded and perfected the essay in the English language. These classic short prose pieces show how absolute masters of the language apply their craft, and provide us with models of what can be done with skill, practice and command. The modern essays which then follow on the reading list will be better understood in light of these classics.

When you the assigned essays for the first time, assume that they are meant to be enjoyed and appreciated, not analysed and quizzed. The study will come later, in light of what is presented in lecture.

Grading

The assignment grading criteria used by the SFU English Department are available online here.
The relationship between the letter grades and the percentages is as follows:

A+ 96-100
A 90-95
A- 85-89
B+ 80-84
B 75-79
B- 70-74
C+ 65-69
C 60-64
C- 55-59
D 50-54
F 0-49
N Incomplete
DE Deferred

Course Syllabus

Course Approach
The course is a study of non-fiction prose using superlative published prose on a balance of manifold topics, with special attention to essays from life occasions. The majority are modern, supplemented by selections from the peerless classic essayists.
The Course is designed on the principle that information and means of analysis are provided in lecture, and which are then discussed and practiced in small breakout tutorials. Accordingly, 100% of the Final Exam will be based 100% on what is said and what is meant in Lecture, and Lecture only. If it is not in the Lecture, it will not be on the Final Exam. If it is given in lecture, then there is a reasonable chance that it will be on the Final Exam, with no tricks or twists

The Final Exam is designed so that it will be hard to Fail for a student who comes to lecture on time and attentively. Conversely, the Final Exam is explicitly designed such that it will be extremely hard to Pass for a student absent or inattentive or tardy in lecture.

Tutorials are your best opportunity to ensure that you understand and have made clear, through questioning and discussion, what is presented in lecture, and thereby to succeed on the Final Exam. It is the student's responsibility to engage during seminar time to make perfectly clear the material given in lecture, and to solicit direction and help from your Course TA.

Schedule of Readings
Note that this is not a schedule of lecture, but a schedule of course reading, that, if followed, will ensure that you are always on top of material. Lecture will proceed organically and responsively to an inevitably tidy and effective conclusion.
Readings with hotlinks are online essays. Our course text, The Norton Reader, contains all the rest of the readings for our course.
Regarding the Norton Reader, you need only read the essays listed in this reading list. You are free -- encouraged, in fact -- to utterly ignore the introductions, notations, commentaries, and the rest of the bumph cluttering up the the book, absolutely none of which will be any part of the course. Naturally, should you feel a need to give your time to these textual impedimentia then be my guest! But the essays themselves, as listed here, are all that are important.

September 2nd & 4th:
- Francis Bacon: Of Youth & Age.
- John Donne: Meditation 17.
- Samuel Johnson: The Pyramids.
September 9th & 11th:
- Elizabeth Gaskell: The Last Generation in England.
- Joseph Addison: On the Essay Form.
- Richard Steele: Love Letters.
- Jennifer Britz: The Dean's Daughter Gets Thin Envelope.
- David Brooks: The Gender Gap at School.
- John Holt: How Teachers Make Children Hate Reading.
- Caroline Bird: College is a Waste of Time & Money.
September 16th & 18th:
- George Orwell: Shooting an Elephant.
- Margaret Atwood: True North.
- Jonathan Swift: A Modest Proposal.
September 23rd & 25th:
- Niccolo Machiavelli: The Morals of the Prince.
- Martin Luther Kind Jr.: Letter from Birmingham Jail.
September 30th & October 2nd:
- David Guterson: Enclosed. Encyclopedic. Endured: The Mall of America.
- Anthony Burgess: Is America Falling Apart?
- Jessica Mitford: Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain.
- Maxine Hong Kingston: Tongue-Tied.
- [Online Essay]: qi-cheng-zhuan-he.
October 7th & 9th:
- George Orwell: Politics & the English Language.
- Chief Seattle: Letter to President Pierce, 1855.
- Edward O. Wilson: Intelligent Evolution.
October 14th & 16th:
- G.K. Chesterton: On the Creature Called Man.
- Neil Postman: Virtual Students, Digital Classroom.
October 21st & 23rd:
- Virginia Woolf: In Search of a Room of One's Own.
- Scott McLoud: Understanding Comics.
October 28th & 30th:
- Virginia Woolf: The Death of the Moth.
- Plato: The Allegory of the Cave.
- Zen Parables: Muddy Road, A Parable. Learning to be Silent.
November 4th & 6th:
- Jean-Paul Sartre: Existentialism.
- P.J. O'Rourke: On God.
November 11th & 13th:
- Francis Fukuyama: The End of History?
November 18th & 20th:
- Samuel Huntingdon: The Clash of Civilizations.
November 25th & 27th:
- Recapitulation.

Assignment Details

Five Short Occasional Essays
500 words each, worth 5% of total course grade, for a total assignment grade of 25%. Each essay will be a reflection upon some occasion -- vital or ephemeral -- in your life, constructed according to models given in lecture. The deadlines for these essays will be set in tutorial.

Individual Essay Presentation
A revision assignment, worth 10% of the total course grade, comprising a 500 word essay, modelled after one of the Assigned Readings, accompanied by an additional 500 words that justify the manner of the writing of the essay according to principles of prose writing from lecture. You will present this in written form to your TA on a due date set in tutorial.

Your TA will analyse and critique your justification section and return the written presentation, ungraded, for your revision. You will then revise the essay section according to the TA's comments. Hand in a revised 500-word essay, along with both the original, unrevised essay, and the justification section including the TA's comments, for grading on a date scheduled in tutorial.

Your final grade will be based on the quality of the revision according to the specific comments that the TA made on your original justification. Note that if the original unrevised essay and TA's comments are not handed in with the revision, the assignment will receive a grade no higher than a "D" at 50%.

Group Writing Project
A creative research assignment on techniques for improved writing, worth 20% of the total course grade.

• In groups of five tutorial members, create a project on the general subject of "How to Write Well," using research from Library Reserved texts, or discussions with SLC staff, Library books, or web-based research from the Library home page, or equivalent
• The project will grade quality over quantity, and encourages engagement with topics such as "How to Write E-Mail Well," or "How to Write a Final Exam Essay-Answer Well," "How to Write a Grovelling apology," or "How to Write A Newspaper Article Better Than Do Those God-Forsaken Free Tabloids like 24 or Metro or The Georgia Straight."
• The form of the project can be a pamphlet, a blog, a journal, or any acceptable form of writing.
• The amount of effort required for the project (not the volume of the project) is assumed to be 20% of the course per member: 2000 words or creative equivalent.
• Creative criteria are online at this hotlink which also includes information on writing assignment proposals. Your TA will discuss the benefits of assignment proposals in tutorial.
• The project is due course week eleven, November 13th, in lecture.

Final Examination
Monday December 8th, 8:30 - 11:30, Final Examination, location TBA.

Late Assignments.
There is a five percent per day late penalty for all assignments. An assignment is late if it is not handed in in class on the due date.

The late penalty may be waived only in cases of documented bereavement or illness and incapacity, and only by written appeal to the Course Instructor. TAs can not waive lateness penalties.

Documentation for a bereavement exemption requires a published notification and verifiable proof of relation. To document a claim for medical exemption, provide a formal letter on a Physician's or Surgeon's letterhead in which he or she declares his or her medical judgement that illness or injury prevented work on the assignment. The letter must cover the entire period over which the assignment was scheduled, and may be verified by telephone.

Class Absences.
10% of the course grade is for "productive participation" in tutorial. Productive participation assumes full attendance and full punctuality.

Do not e-mail your TA or the Course Instructor to explain or announce absences. The attendance requirement may be waived only in cases of documented bereavement or illness and incapacity, and only by written appeal to the Course Instructor.

Documentation for a bereavement exemption for attendance requires a published notification and verifiable proof of relation. To document a claim for medical exemption, provide a formal letter on a Physician's or Surgeon's letterhead in which he or she declares his or her medical judgement that illness or injury prevented attendance. The letter must cover the entire period over which the assignment was scheduled, and may be verified by telephone.

Support material available on Library Reserve.

Nb: Participation requires both attendance and punctuality.


Instructor Contact:
Office: AQ 6094, 778-782-5820, e-mail address is ogden@sfu.ca. Casual, drop-in chat: look for me at Renaissance Coffee at the AQ Concourse (3rd floor) Level, North-East corner, Monday to Thursday, two thirty to three o'clock. Regular Office Hours on Monday two-thirty to four-thirty, Wednesday ten o'clock to noon, and Friday nine thirty to eleven o'clock. Also, on Tuesday & Thursday I am available from ten-thirty to three o'clock by appointment.

On-Line Primary Course Essays

This is the repository of the primary course essays which are not in the Norton Reader but are available, free and in the public realm, online. The schedule of readings, with duplicates of these hotlinks, is at the Course Syllabus.

• John Donne: Meditation 17.
• Elizabeth Gaskell: The Last Generation in England.
• Joseph Addison: On the Essay Form.
• Richard Steele: Love Letters.
• [Online Essay: Chinese]: qi-cheng-zhuan-he.
• [Online Essay: English Translation]: qi-cheng-zhuan-he
• G.K. Chesterton: On the Creature Called Man.
• P.J. O'Rourke: On God.
• Francis Fukuyama: The End of History?
• Samuel Huntingdon: The Clash of Civilizations.
  

Course E-mail Netiquette

Here are the points of e-mail protocol for our course :

1. E-mail (indeed, all communication) between Lecturer and student, and TA and student, is a formal and professional exchange. Accordingly, proper salutation and closing is essential.
2. Business e-mail is courteous but, of professional necessity, concise and direct. It rejects roundabout or ornate language, informal diction, and any appearance of what is termed in the vernacular, 'chat.'
3. Customary response time for student e-mail to the Course Lecturer or TAs is two to three office days. E-mail on weekends will ordinarily be read the Monday following.
4. Use only your SFU account for e-mail to the course Lecturer. All other e-mail is blocked by whitelist.

In general, Course e-mail is for matters of Course administration solely. It is not an alternative to, nor substitute for, Office Hours or Tutorial. All questions about understanding of lecture material, course reading, assignment criteria, and deadlines are reserved for Tutorial and Office Hours.

Missed classes and deadlines are not to be reported by e-mail: if a medical or bereavement exception is being claimed, the supporting documentation is handed in, along with the completed assignment, either in person or to the Instructor's mailbox outside the Department Office.

Course Outline

ENGLISH 104W INTRODUCTION TO PROSE GENRES

Instructor: S. OGDEN FALL 2008
Occasional Prose: Non-fiction of the Moment Everlasting .

Writing Intensive

Not everyone - alas, some say - reads fiction or poetry or drama uncompelled. But there is all-but universal enjoyment in reading non-fiction prose that captivates, provokes, or informs: writing that is whimsical, or witty, or sobering or activating. In this course we will read and study a collection of occasional prose - writing inspired by specific moments - by essayists of an ability which has reached the literary, and thus present the moments that inspire them in their eternal aspect. We will begin with historical greats that effectively defined the essay, such as Bacon, Donne, and Johnson, and learn the classical form and qualities of the prose genre. We will then be ready to appreciate and learn the power and effectiveness of modern prose essays from a very wide range of authors on topics and occasions as diverse as life, and use them as models and inspiration for our own writing. By the end of the course, with practical written and revised work on essays occasioned by our own individual experiences, we will, it can confidently be said, have improved, just for a start, the literary quality of our discursive e-mail.

REQUIREDTEXTS:
Peterson, et al, eds. The Norton Reader, Shorter 12th ed.
Norton

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

10% -- Productive participation

10% -- Individual essay presentation
20% -- Group writing project
25% -- Five short occasional essays (500 words each)
35% -- Final examination