WEEK 3

Hi Guys, 

First, some reminders: 

1) You have TWO weeks to complete this week's work, so there will be no post on 2/2.

2) Revising your work is part of the course description. Look carefully at my comments. If I'm pointing out something to revise, revise it. 

3) Literary Analysis is a DIFFERENT kind of writing than just about anything we did in HSW1. Don't be discouraged if your list of revision items was long. Those were first drafts. First drafts are supposed to be messy.

4) A refresher on title formatting: BIG items (books, plays, movies, etc.) get italicized. SMALLER items (chapters, short stories, poems, songs, etc.) get "quotes." 

Here's your work for week 3 (you have TWO weeks to complete it)....

1. This first assignment is not really English work, though it will exercise the side of your brain that handles organization. Your task: Make sure your google doc is (and stays) organized...

a. I need all of your essay drafts at the top under the heading ESSAYS, and everything else in another section down lower under the heading MISC. 

b. Keep all drafts of essay assignments grouped together with the latest draft at the top of the group. 

c. Label your misc. work with dates, or "week _."

2. Turn in title/summaries through chapter 30 of WD (Add them DIRECTLY to the 20 you already have done). If you're missing any chapter summaries, do those too! 

3. Revise the Antigone essay, with one minor addition to the original assignment: Use each of the 3 methods of quote incorporation (you might want to re-watch the video from last week or look at this short blog post). So yes, you may need to add quotes. If you have quotes already, make sure they're all incorporated.

No 3rd draft for this one. The next draft will be the final. 

Some of you missed the part of the assignment that says, "500 words maximum." Read the assignments carefully, people. Cut your words if you need to.

*One more reminder for the Antigone essay: for all three characters, the conscience is saying the same thing: obey the gods and bury Polyneices. Your discussion must be about what other things are getting in the way and how these characters finally hear what their conscience has been telling them all along. (Except for Antigone, of course, who hears it clearly from the start.)

A reminder about plot-retelling: don't do it. I know the play well. This is just you and I (but mostly you) discussing the role of conscience. You don't need to introduce the characters or explain the plot. You can jump right in and analyze. I'll mention this a LOT over the next weeks because everything we do is literary analysis. We don't write book reports. 

Example...

Not OK: "Luke found out Darth Vader was his father." (That's plot retelling.)

OK: "When Luke found out Darth Vader was his father, he began a long struggle with his own identity." (That's analysis that uses a plot item, but it's not plot retelling).

See the difference? Keeping reading it until you do.

4. Read this short "bio" on the mythological Greek god Antaeus.

5. Read the short story "Antaeus" by Borden Deal. 

6. Short story theme analysis, first draft: discuss the central character T.J. as a modern-day Antaeus. If this seems like a very open-ended topic, you're right. But that's generally the way you'll approach thematic writing. Themes are general in the way they're stated (you should be able to state a story's theme in a single sentence) but very specific in the way they're developed in a story. Stating the specific development of the theme (using examples and details from the text) will be your job. 

This is a first draft, so I won't be looking too closely at grammar, usage, and mechanics. I'll save that for the final draft. However, I do find with my own writing that if I can catch errors early, I'm more likely to end up with a clean final draft. I've tried waiting until the very end to do all editing, but it just never turns out as well. That's just me. You may NEED to worry about editing last. Find out the method that works best for you.

There is no word count requirement, but in order to prove the thesis you'll have to handle the whole story. You should also be thinking (automatically by now) about supporting details and how you'll quote the text. 

I think you'll enjoy "Antaeus." It's one of my favorites.

7. LBGB... [Here's a link to the book as a google doc if you'd rather read it on a screen. It's an older version so the page #s may not line up exactly the same, but everything you need is there.]

Read chapter 2 and do the following: 

a) Read the outlined BOX on page 27. What are Mr. Beals' thoughts on pronouns? I bring this up here because I use a pronoun this way on page 26. Find the reference (there are actually a few) and write the sentence out.

b) Read "Active and Passive Voice" on pages 34-37. What are the two advantages to active voice? What are the three appropriate times to use the passive voice?

c)  Write correct sentences using each of these (you may model my examples):

i. less

ii. fewer

iii. amount

iv. rise

v. raise

vi. sit

vii. set

viii. lie

ix. lay 

Have a great two weeks! 

WEEK 2

Good morning!

I hope you all had a great weekend with lots of rest on the Lord's Day.



Now it's time to work. Let's look at Antigone.

In a way, this is a very simple story. You have one static character (static means fixed, not changing) surrounded by several dynamic (changing, developing) characters. What's a little strange in this story is that the static character is also the main character. The Antigone we meet at the beginning of the play is the same Antigone we get at the end. I don't think that detracts from the story--it's just unusual. The other characters run up against her (her conviction, her stubbornness, her unwavering conscience) and are then challenged to change. 

But in another way, this play has a lot going on that we might not see. Aristotle considered the tragedies by Sophocles, as well as those of other Greek playwrights, and made a set of observations about the tragic character. He noticed that the typical tragic character had these qualifications:

1. He is neither entirely good nor bad. He is like any one of us.

2. He must come from a place of elevation (an honored family, a high social status, often royalty). 

3. The hero's fall is (partly, at least) due to a moral failing or weakness (usually pride). We should also note that the gods are in some sense responsible.  

4. The consequences of the moral failing or weakness must seem to be beyond what is strictly just. (In other words, the punishment seems too much for the crime.) 

5. The hero must recognize his own error and take responsibility for it (or at least attempt to).


These five characteristics, together, are what make a tragedy Aristotelian.

Your work for the week (due at the usual time):

1. 

A. Read my comments on your character paragraphs from last week. You may need to revise, one or more of them. This is not optional. If I gave you less than 100/100, then revise them according to my comments (probably something about discussing the Greek idea of conscience in the 4 paragraphs). 

B. Write a short essay* (500 max for this one too) that discusses the role of conscience on the characters of Antigone. [REMEMBER that all characters are hearing the same message: OBEY THE GODS. Your discussion, for most characters, needs to focus on what gets in the way of that message.] Discuss Antigone, Ismene, and Creon. There's just not enough going on with Haemon to add him to the discussion. This is also literary analysis, so you can assume the basics: stick to analysis (no plot retelling), use quotes, and organize it well. Organization for this one is straight-forward: intro, 3 body paragraphs, conclusion. You might want to review this VIDEO from last term on incorporating quotes.


2. Read through chapter 20 of Watership Down. For each chapter (yes, you'll need to go back and look those first 8 chapters from last week again) provide a short explanation of the chapter's title. A couple of sentences should do it. Eventually you'll have the whole book at a glance when we're ready to write about it. 

3. LBGB work. Our work in LBGB for this course will involve 1) Review: we'll review the big ideas, but I won't make you re-read entire chapters; and 2) practicing the definitions and Style & Usage items that we skipped in HSW1. This week we'll look at chapter 1. Here's your work:

A. Conjunctions: define the three types and write an original sentence for each. 

B. Define conjunctive adverb. Write three sentences (note the punctuation pattern in my examples!) using three different CAs. Here are a few to choose from: 

in addition, accordingly, furthermore, moreover, on the other hand, similarly, also, hence, namely, still, anyway, however, nevertheless, then, in fact, besides, incidentally, next, thereafter, certainly, indeed, nonetheless, therefore, consequently, instead, now, thus, finally, likewise, otherwise, undoubtedly, further, meanwhile

Make sure the word you're using is WORKING as a conjunctive adverb. Many of the words in this list can be used as other parts of speech.

C. Explain the difference between these pairs and use each correctly in a sentence: 

    all together / altogether

    ___ and I  / ___ and me. 

4. Did you catch that this week's essay is 500 words MAXIMUM? Just thought I'd point that out again. 

* As with all of our writing, you will probably be revising every first draft. And maybe the second...maybe even the third...


HAVE A GREAT WEEK!

WEEK 1

Hi guys!

Read this first (even if you think you know it already; there's new info here):

GOOGLE DOCS REVIEW...

There are three parts to your doc: the spreadsheet at the top, a section to keep essay drafts, and a section for other work. Let's look at each one:

SPREADSHEET. This where I'll put your grade for essays and weekly work. Keep an eye on this. I update it every week. And read my comments! 

ESSAYS. This section is for essays only. Paragraphs are not essays. Keep the essay assignments together (if you have three drafts on the Helmet Law essay, they should all be next to each other with the latest one on top). LABEL the essay with title and draft #, like this: "Helmet Law draft 2". Keep the most recent assignment at the top of the section.

MISC. WORK. Anything that's not a full essay goes here. Labels are even more important for this section, so include the week and a title, like this: "WEEK 3, Watership Down c10-15 questions". Keep the most recent assignments at the top of the section.  

LATE WORK...

If you need more time, you can ask for an extension by Wednesday midnight. After that I'll grade it at half credit. I'll let you do that TWICE. We'll have two "catch-up" weeks, so that should help you stay on top of things. 

In this course we'll pick up where we left off in HSW1.

We covered a number of essay types last term, but they all worked toward the overall objective, which was to beat into your heads these two ideas: 1) that an essay needs to have a point and 2) that good organization helps you make it. 

Over these next ten weeks we'll apply those same ideas to literary analysis as you read and write about various pieces in various literature forms.

Literary Analysis.

In college (especially if you go the liberal arts route) you will need to be able to speak and write intelligently about what you're reading. You'll recall the essay you wrote on the short story themes from "The Necklace." That was literary analysis. You were analyzing something literary, in this case the theme. 

Of course, literature is a wide field: novels, plays, poems, short stories, and essays are all forms of literature. And analysis is even wider: you could analyze theme, motif, plot, subplot, character, setting, historical context, and those are just the big-category, obvious ones. You could write a doctoral dissertation (i.e., a really long literary analysis) on Shakespeare's use of cross-dressing in his comedies. Seriously. 

So we'll be working with lots of literature, including a novel, a Greek tragic play, short stories, poems (long and short), and a film. Some of the analysis will be prescribed by me. Some will be chosen by you.

This week's work...

1. Get a copy of Watership Down by Richard Adams and read the first 8 chapters (they're short). We won't be writing about this text until mid-way through the course, but next Monday I'll assign a few comprehension questions to keep you on track (and accountable).

2.  Read this bio on Sophocles.

3. Read the first part of this summary of the Oedipus story. Don't read "The Aftermath" or anything beyond that, because there are spoilers. The play we'll be reading this week involves the children of Oedipus, so it's important we have this background knowledge.

4. Read the play Antigone by Sophocles. (If the link doesn't work, just search "Antigone full text" and pick a readable translation.) Our first literary analysis will be focus on this play, but more on that next week. 

5. For each of the 7 sections of the play (Prologue, 5 scenes, and the Exodus), write a short summary. A few sentences for each is plenty. 

6. For each of these characters -- Antigone, Ismene, Creon, and Haimon -- write one paragraph (50-75 words) that discusses the role that conscience plays for that particular character. Be sure to have clear topic sentences. Keep this in mind: the Greeks believed that the conscience of all people carried one message: obey the gods! Assuming that was true for these characters, think about (you don't have to write anything; just think) how well they followed their consciences by obeying or not obeying the gods? One more time: the consciences of these characters DON'T CHANGE. It's the same message for all of them, but other stuff gets in the way of their hearing it. That's what we'll be writing about next week.

*TURN IT IN BY FRIDAY, MIDNIGHT.  

Have a great week!