Closing Reading and Argument
Unit 1. Close Reading and Argument
Essay I Schedule Bloggy 1 (1 double-spaced page or 300 words or less, not counting the quotation of your passage) due Wednesday, 19 September, 8 PM
Rough draft due at class time, Monday, 24 September (3 pages minimum). Save in .doc format. Please upload this as an attachment to the course blog. Label the file clearly with name and assignment, like this: jsmithroughdraft1.doc.
Conferences Monday, 24 September and Monday, 1 October
Revision Club Monday, 1 October
Final draft due at 5:30 PM, Tuesday, 9 October (3-5 pages). Please save in .doc format and upload to the course blog: jsmithfinaldraft1.doc.
“I was hated,” George Orwell tells us in “Shooting an Elephant,” “by large numbers of people” (302). What kind of hatred does he write of? In this essay, Orwell makes a connection between his personal life and the social and cultural forces of imperialism, which are strikingly impersonal. In his essay, this connection rides the back of an elephant. Jonathan Swift, writing in 1729, addresses a social problem by offering to “humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection” (410). His proposal is a mean one, though, that rides on the backs of society’s most innocent. Why write in this manner? The Declaration of Independence, written primarily by Thomas Jefferson, is among the most famous documents critical of social and political conditions. It offers an elaborate and detailed logic for a new, independent state. Our textbook gives us the Declaration in both rough and final versions, and the changes between these two versions are fascinating to consider. Maxine Hong Kingston, in writing a story her mother instructs her not to tell anyone, notes that “Those of us in the first American generations have had to figure out how the invisible world the emigrants built around our childhoods fit in solid America” (240). Though these four texts are quite
Essay I Schedule Bloggy 1 (1 double-spaced page or 300 words or less, not counting the quotation of your passage) due Wednesday, 19 September, 8 PM
Rough draft due at class time, Monday, 24 September (3 pages minimum). Save in .doc format. Please upload this as an attachment to the course blog. Label the file clearly with name and assignment, like this: jsmithroughdraft1.doc.
Conferences Monday, 24 September and Monday, 1 October
Revision Club Monday, 1 October
Final draft due at 5:30 PM, Tuesday, 9 October (3-5 pages). Please save in .doc format and upload to the course blog: jsmithfinaldraft1.doc.
“I was hated,” George Orwell tells us in “Shooting an Elephant,” “by large numbers of people” (302). What kind of hatred does he write of? In this essay, Orwell makes a connection between his personal life and the social and cultural forces of imperialism, which are strikingly impersonal. In his essay, this connection rides the back of an elephant. Jonathan Swift, writing in 1729, addresses a social problem by offering to “humbly propose my own thoughts, which I hope will not be liable to the least objection” (410). His proposal is a mean one, though, that rides on the backs of society’s most innocent. Why write in this manner? The Declaration of Independence, written primarily by Thomas Jefferson, is among the most famous documents critical of social and political conditions. It offers an elaborate and detailed logic for a new, independent state. Our textbook gives us the Declaration in both rough and final versions, and the changes between these two versions are fascinating to consider. Maxine Hong Kingston, in writing a story her mother instructs her not to tell anyone, notes that “Those of us in the first American generations have had to figure out how the invisible world the emigrants built around our childhoods fit in solid America” (240). Though these four texts are quite
Bibliography: Include a bibliography, or what in MLA style is titled as a “Works Cited” section. To save paper, you needn’t put the “Works Cited” on a new sheet of paper (which is the formal requirement, of which you should be aware), but, if it fits, simply on the last page. Electronic Paper Saving and Submission Save your work to disc frequently as you write it so that you always have a copy. Make backup copies. You will submit your bloggy and rough and final drafts to the course blog (see full instructions on the course syllabus on how to post to the blog) so that we can publish our work and share it with everyone.