Spring 2003 Dr.
Sharon R. Wilson
Eng.123-048 Ross 1170B
Phone and
Messages: 351-2985 Office: T Th
9:50-10:50; W 12:50-1:50, By appt.
E-mail:
ENGLISH 123: The College Research Paper
REQUIRED READING:
Margaret
Atwood. The Handmaid’s Tale. 1986.
Anchor.
Lee Briscoe Thompson.
Scarlet Letters: Margaret Atwood’s
The Handmaid’s Tale. Toronto:
ECW Press, 1997.
John Ramage
and John Bean. Writing
Arguments. 2nd Concise edition. Longman or Pearson.
Diana Hacker. Pocket Style Manual. St. Martins.
Recommended:
Harold Bloom, ed.
Modern Critical Interpretations:
Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s
Tale. Chelsea House. Paper if possible.
Sharon R. Wilson, Thomas Friedman, Shannon Hengen, ed. Approaches to Teaching Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale and Other
Works. Modern Language Assn. Paper.
RESEARCH
TOPICS:
The
research paper needs to be on The Handmaid’s Tale or on a topic generated by it, such as one of these:
1.
Environmental Pollution, e.g. PCPs in the Great Lakes, toxic wastes
2.
Declining birth rate
3.
Does a woman have a right to control the fertility of her own body?
4.
Racism in
5.
Religion and Religious themes: Puritanism, Islam, Christianity, e.g. separation of church and state vs. theocrasy, tolerance, hypocrisy
6.
Privacy, e.g. control of personal information
7.
Torture
8.
Economic issues, e.g. government control of private funds,
9.
Information technology
10.
Political issues:
totalitarianism
11.
Historical precedents
12.
The sociology of Gilead, e.g. classism,
gender roles
13.
Agism in
14.
Actual basis for characters
and setting: Phyllis Schaffley. Tammy Faye and Jimmy
Baker, Pat Robertson of 700 Club; Harvard
15.
Surrogate Motherhood and
Baby M case
16.
The Handmaid’s Tale as opera: Poul Rudders’ Tjenerindens fortaelling
17.
Literary topics:
Characterization, themes, dystopia, parody, satire
Symbolism: flowers, colors
fairy-tale, mythic, and
biblical intertexts
GENERAL EDUCATION STANDARDS:
Writing
Skills and Objectives to be met by every Category 1 General Education Course
1. Students will demonstrate critical and
creative thinking skills (including cognition, comprehension, application,
analysis, synthesis, and evaluation in producing unified, coherent papers.
2. Students will demonstrate their
ability to vary rhetorical strategies in conjunction with varying purposes,
audiences and content.
3. Students will demonstrate their
ability to incorporate source material into their writing.
4. Students will demonstrate their
ability to structure their essays coherently.
5. Students will demonstrate their
knowledge and understanding of Standard English usage with respect to grammar,
punctuation.
REQUIRED
WORK:
1.Short
Papers on novel. If revised, the grade
on the revision will replace the original grade: 20%
Diagnostic
Paper on novel
Interpretative Mini-research Paper on
the course novel. It will use at least
three critical articles from journals and/or books as research, internal
citation, and MLA form.
2. Attendance and Participation in class
discussions, small groups, peer evaluations, and responses to
presentations. Quizzes, Conferences, and
Library, Computer Lab, and Writing Lab Work will also be considered here. If your writing demonstrates many errors, you
will need to do additional assignments in a handbook and get tutorial help in
the Writing Lab.
You must be in class to
discuss readings, participate in small groups, serve as an audience member, and
assist other writers in revision. You
should aim to be helpful to fellow class members concerning their awareness
about the strengths and weaknesses of their writing and their attempts at
revising. If you are likely to miss
repeatedly, you should drop. 15%
3. Persuasive Research Project on the course
novel or a topic generated by it: 15 pages, typed, double-spaced minimum
length, excluding abstract, contents page, works cited, graphs or diagrams. No maximum length. The final draft of the research paper must be
handed in with the rest of the portfolio, including notes or Xeroxes, proposal,
several drafts of the research paper, and all other work related to the writing
of the research paper. 65%
Additional
requirements:
A. A minimum of 12 reputable sources properly
documented within the text (internal citation) and in a "Works Cited"
page in MLA style.
·
At least 3
sources must be from professional journals or collections of essays. Reviews, Cliff’s Notes, and excerpts are not
recommended; three reviews equal one article.
Interviews may be used. Use the
Source and The MLA Bibliography on-line; MLA and The
Essay and General Literature Index are also in the Reference area. The Book Review Digest, Contemporary
Authors, and Contemporary Literature are NOT recommended.
·
At least 1 source
must be a book.
·
No more than 25%
of your total sources can originate from the Internet, and these must be
scholarly sites.
·
No encyclopedia
or dictionary citations will be counted as sources;
B. 2-3 page Proposal presenting your proposed thesis
and explaining your topic, the reasons you wish to research it, and the way it
will be organized. Include a tentative outline
or other method of depicting organization and a beginning Works Cited.
You will be required to revise this until I approve it. (3 %)
C.
First Draft incorporating all or most of the research, to be read by
small group and revised several times before submitting the final draft. (15%)
D.
Two Oral Presentations showing awareness of audience . The first (due near the beginning of the
semester) is an overview of your research project: 10 minutes with about 5
minutes of questions from your small group and the class. The final presentation (due near the end) is
a condensation of the research project.
After writing a first draft of the paper, but while you are still
immersed in ongoing revision, you will present a shortened form before the
class. You may present the paper in any manner you wish, as a lecture, a film
of your making, with media assistance (for which you must reserve and pick-up
the equipment), or another mode of presentation. The second oral is limited to 20 minutes,
followed by a question/answer session as time permits and written comments from
the class, and should not be shorter than 15 minutes. (15 %)
F. Final Draft.
This must be free of errors. In addition, it will be evaluated for overall
quality, including perceptiveness, organization, thoroughness of research,
accuracy and use of sources, logic, and style. (30 %)
G.
Abstract: As you near the final draft of the paper, you are required to
write a focused, summary abstract in one tightly-written paragraph preceding
the paper. (2 %)
Points will
be automatically deducted from the final paper grade for every instance where
you fail to complete this work. Your
grade is based partly on process as well as product: no one can receive a
"C" or better in the course without doing ALL required work ON TIME. Because each stage of the process is
important, I do not accept research papers without the rest of the
portfolio.
LATENESS
POLICY:
In order
for the paper to be evaluated by small groups and finished on time, each stage
of the writing process must be completed on time. Assignment grades will be lowered one letter
grade for each late day. In case of
illness, notify me BEFORE CLASS by email or telephone. Extensions are normally for one day. If repeated lateness or absence is likely,
you should drop the class.
PLAGIARISM
is the act of stealing others' words or ideas.
If you plagiarize in this course, you may fail. Material from sources, courses, Cliff Notes,
and the Internet must be cited; not doing so is plagiarism.
NOTES:
Paper
Format: all materials submitted, unless specified otherwise, must be typed,
double-spaced with standard 1" margins, and must follow MLA style guides,
as will be discussed in the course.
Class
will sometimes be canceled for research, lab work, or conferences.
Students
with disabilities who believe they may need accommodations in this class are
encouraged to contact the Disability Access Center, (970) 351-2289, as soon as
possible to better ensure that accommodations are implemented in a timely
fashion.
Some
readings will explore gender, sexual (including lesbian or gay), and racial
issues. Students who are not open to this subject matter or whose feelings will
interfere with learning are advised to drop.
Extra-Credit: The Handmaid’s Tale and another novel,
including Atwood’s The Edible Woman, Life
Before Man
RECOMMENDED
FILMS:
The Handmaid’s Tale.
Margaret Atwood: Once in August.
Margaret Atwood Interview. Hermione
Lee.
ISSUES
RAISED BY READINGS RELEVANT FOR RESEARCH PAPERS:
I
recommend that the research paper be based on the assigned novel; however, some
aspect of subjects raised in the novel may also be researched.
GENRES
AND TECHNIQUES USED IN READING:
Metafiction,
dystopia, antifiction,
epistolary fiction, satire, parody, magical realism, unreliable narrators, self-conscious narrator
GENERAL EDUCATION
STANDARDS:
Writing
Skills and Objectives to be met by every Category 1 General Education Course
1. Students will demonstrate critical and
creative thinking skills (including cognition, comprehension, application,
analysis, synthesis, and evaluation in producing unified, coherent papers.
2. Students will demonstrate their
ability to vary rhetorical strategies in conjunction with varying purposes,
audiences and content.
3. Students will demonstrate their ability
to incorporate source material into their writing.
4. Students will demonstrate their
ability to structure their essays coherently.
5. Students will demonstrate their
knowledge and understanding of Standard English usage with respect to grammar,
punctuation.