Category: Literature

Read and Finish Woman at Point Zero by reading from “Nothing in the world seemed capable . . .,” on or around p. 78, to the end.
As Saadawi tells us in the “Author’s Preface,” this story is based on a real personal experience. Yet, from a literary point of view, this story may depend more on symbols and metaphors than anything else we have read. In order to craft a particular kind of commentary, Saadawi uses extensive descriptive language to elevate various mundane things to very significant, abstract levels of meaning. For example, eyes mean much more than eyes; they symbolize the oppression of women through the constant, objectifying gaze of patriarchal society. What about other symbols in the text? What about the fact that Firdaus is imprisoned? Sure, that element of the plot is related to Saadawi’s personal experience, but Saadawi is a storyteller who can see symbolism in real life. How might we think of Firdaus’s imprisonment as a metaphor for society at large? Finally, what about the character of the psychiatrist? At the very end of the novel, she tells us that, after hearing Firdaus’s story, she got into her car and “rammed” her foot on the accelerator as if she wanted to “run over the world” (136, first edition). Then she hit the brakes and realized that she wasn’t as courageous as Firdaus. What might that symbolize?
Compose
Compose a one-to-two-page (500-800-word) practice essay (using this formatting templateLinks to an external site.) in which you do the following:
Compose an argument that provides an answer to the following question: Is the storyteller using the car metaphor, with its accelerator and brake, to “speed up” social change or show how frightening social change can be?
Be sure that you cite the text in order to defend your argument. Don’t simply meditate on the meaning of the final image, but show how other events in the book, other symbols Saadawi uses, or other patters you have noticed in the novel, support your reading of the final image. Be as specific as possible.
Provide extensive interpretation of the things you cite. Use the skills you have been practicing to show your reader the explicit connection between the evidence you cite and the argument you’re making.

TV streaming services in India are gaining popularity among middle-class audience as well as youth. Based on the episode (S2E5: “The Heart Skipped a Beat”) screened in the class, write a 4-6 page (double-spaced) essay on:
How female filmmakers are able to bring out socio-political issues (Casteism, inter-cast marriage, gender equality, etc.) with their choice of content. (2 pages)
Evaluate how these streaming platforms are able to connect with the vast majority of audiences. (Theme, Characters, Story, Choice of music) (1-2 pages)
Analyze a scene that struck an emotional response in you. Please refer to a specific scene within the episode. You can incorporate 2 elements from
the following – Cinematography, acting, composition, editing, color, directing, sound) (1-2 pages)
You may want to revisit the episode (S2E5 of Made in Heaven) on Amazon Prime: https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B0C9NZMD3Q/ref=atv_dp_season_select_s2Links to an external site.

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Instructions
Students will write a 1-2 page Policy Recommendation for Prevention of one Communicable or Non-Communicable Disease
Step 1: Define the Problem
Choose one communicable or non-communicable disease
What is the issue or the problem? Why is it important? Why now? Who is impacted and who cares? When defining your problem, be specific to your audience and clearly frame the issue.
Step 2: Identify the Target Audience.
The target here is the State’s Director of Health and Human Services. However, students can choose to use several target audiences and stakeholders. Who has the influence to make a change that will address this problem? If the audience is expected to be policymakers (and their staff), community leaders, industry, or nongovernmental organization executives, the problem should be defined in terms relevant to their policy intervention, respectively.
Step 3: State the Policy for Disease Prevention
Identify one specific policy action that will address the problem. Make your case by displaying and describing relevant data using 1–2 figures or tables.
Step 4: Discuss the Impact
Briefly discuss the implications of both action and inaction; analyze estimated pros and cons of the policy action; consider intended and unintended consequences; address opposing arguments. Conclude with a restatement of how this policy specifically addresses this problem.

Craft a response (at least 300 words) to the following prompt and post it as a reply to the conversation I have started. You won’t be able to see any posts by your classmates until you have posted your reply, and you won’t be able to edit your reply after you’ve posted it.
Make sure you post your response to the prompt and two thoughtful and substantive responses to classmates by this week’s due date. Please give your response a unique title.
Prompt:
Hawthorne’s stories are often more complicated than they seem at first. There’s a tension between Romantic notions of the power of nature and the importance of the individual and more traditional ideas about the importance of social order and the individual’s responsibility to their society.
In this forum post, make a claim about Hawthorne’s take on this tension between Nature/The Individual and Society in “The May-Pole of Merry Mount.” Provide evidence from the story to support your claim.
Please respond thoughtfully to two classmates.

Essay length: 1,000–1,200 words
Analyze the rhetorical strategies the writer uses to persuade readers.
1 Read the article “How Much of the Internet Is Fake? Turns Out, a Lot of It, Actually ” by Max Read
From : https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2018/12/how-much-of-the-internet-is-fake.html
students do best when they follow the logos/ethos/pathos pattern, and when they omit commentary on the success of the argument. The biggest risk for my students in this assignment is that they will write summary, and not analysis. So, as long as you are careful in that regard, you should be fine.
1 As you read, identify the thesis, and think about who the intended audience might be.
2 Research the author to learn about their background. You do not need to include biographical information about the author in your rhetorical analysis essay, but if you do choose to include such information, be sure to cite your source(s) appropriately.
3 Learn more about the magazine, website, journal, or other venue in which the article was originally published. This might also tell you something about who the intended audience is. Again, you do not need to include this information in your own essay, but if it is relevant or interesting, you may include it; if you do so, be sure to cite your source(s) appropriately.
4 Investigate how the writer gets their message across. Think analytically about the article, and take notes about the rhetorical style or techniques that the author employs. Specifically, take note of anything that really stands out—and is repeated. Identify several big things the writer does to get the message to the reader. For an essay of this length, we suggest that you find at least two big things and no more than three.

1 Create an outline for your essay and plan what you will discuss in each section. Your essay must include the following sections:
◦ An introductory paragraph that names the article’s author and title and provides any background information you think is necessary. For instance, you might find it important to name the publication (magazine, website, etc.) in which the essay was published and the target audience of that publication, or to mention biographical information about the author. Include a brief summary (synopsis) of the article, and then transition into a re-statement of the article’s thesis. End the paragraph with your own thesis statement, which will express how you think the author conveys their thesis and what you will examine in your rhetorical analysis. Remember, if you include biographical information about the author or information about the publication, you will need to properly cite the source where you found that information.



◦ Body paragraphs, each of which will explain one of the author’s primary writing techniques. Each body paragraph should be straightforward, with a topic sentence identifying the technique to be discussed, followed by sentences that provide examples of that technique in the context of the essay. If necessary, the paragraph can conclude with a sentence or two describing the overall effect of this technique within the essay. Begin the next body paragraph with a transition sentence.
◦ A concluding paragraph that speaks to the overall impact of the article. What does the article leave readers thinking about? What is its impact? Do not simply repeat things you mentioned in your introduction and body paragraphs.
Cite every source that you quote, summarize, or paraphrase. This means including proper parenthetical citations as well as a bibliography page that lists every source you cited in your essay. (In MLA style, this page is titled “Works Cited,” while in APA style it is titled “References.”) Take this task seriously. We expect you to pay very close attention to detail and follow samples for each entry. We recommend the Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL)  for all citation matters.
Checklist for Rhetorical Analysis Essay
• Did you use MLA or APA guidelines to format your essay? Did you check your formatting against examples on the Purdue OWL?
• Did you introduce the reading by identifying the author, the title, and the subject matter? Did you put the title of the essay in quotation marks?
• Following that sentence of introduction, did you briefly summarize the article’s thesis and main points?
• Is your thesis the last sentence of the first paragraph?
• Did you include an essay map/preview statement with your thesis sentence?
• Have you used third-person point of view throughout? Make sure you have not shifted into first-person or second-person point of view.
• Does each body paragraph begin with a topic sentence? Does each body paragraph contain at least two supporting points, and then end with a closing sentence?
• Did you use a transitional word, phrase, or sentence at the beginning of each body paragraph? Did you use transitional words and phrases as necessary to connect sentences within the paragraphs?
• Did you include quotations from the article? As you did so, did you follow the required steps?
• Did you check each quotation to determine whether you integrated it?
• Did you make sure that no paragraph (excepting the conclusion) ends with a quotation?
• Does the concluding paragraph speak to the overall impact of the article, to what the article leaves readers thinking about?
• Is the Works Cited page or References list formatted correctly?
• Did you revise very carefully for grammar and mechanics?


PowerPoint Presentation
8 – 10 slides
Substantive content on each slide (4-5 bullet points)
Presentation should have a singular focus (like a research essay) – not a collection of random thoughts.
Graphics/images should be carefully chosen – no cheap “clip art” type graphics – use high quality graphics that serve the theme of the Presentation
Choose or create a theme that is tasteful and reflects the weight of the chosen topic – do not have gaudy images or color schemes
Provide embedded audio for each slide – narrate the presentation
There’s the possibility that your presentation might be too large to be accepted by Moodle. If that’s the case, then upload a version without audio to Moodle and then upload a version with audio to YouTube or Vimeo. Include a link to the video version at the end of your version without audio.
For your final project for our course, you are required to produce a project of some kind (either a creative project or a more traditional research paper) where you present on one or more of either the required works for this class or any work in The Seagull Book of Literature. So, for example, if you wanted to write on a Shakespeare play, you could choose either King Lear (which we read for this class) or on Hamlet, which is included in The Seagull Book of Literature. If you wanted to write on a short story writer, you could choose Flannery O’Connor or Eudora Welty (who are required) or on, say, John Updike or Kate Chopin (who are not). Or you could choose one writer included in the course (say, Emily Dickinson) and one who is not (William Blake, for example). Any writer included in the course or in The Seagull Book of Literature is fair game (so, sorry, no J. K. Rowling or Stephen King).
This could be in the form of a website, a narrated video screencast (like the videos for this class), a PowerPoint, or Prezi. You could also write a group of poems (3 – 5), a short story, or an original song (performed, with lyrics and lead sheet provided). And although a creative project is welcome, you are also more than welcome to write a more traditional research-based paper (with no penalty or shame attached in doing so). The paper’s thesis would need to be approved by your professor, with the final product being 4 – 5 pages in length, following MLA or APA format for both design and documentation.
If you choose the paper option, you would also need to make sure you have a strong persuasive thesis, not merely informative. You would need to have some main point that you wish to prove – no “book reports” or summaries. You would also be expected to do outside research for the paper, with 3 – 5 peer reviewed sources in addition to the primary texts (in other words, no web pages – use the CU library to find sources to help support your argument).
Depending upon what you choose to present, you could focus on a specific work, offering a precise, significant point (a thesis) where you explore something we did not focus on during the course (though relating it, in some way to Augustine is encouraged, unless, of course, it is on Augustine itself). You could also engage in a comparative project of some kind (e.g., comparing Augustine’s journey to faith with, say, Orual’s journey to self-realization in Till We Have Faces).
Ultimately, you would want to produce a project that aligns with both your interests and strengths. While you are encouraged to take some chances, if you can’t sing in tune and barely know two guitar chords, likely best not to choose the original song choice. If you’ve never read, studied, or written poetry, that might not be the best option either. All that said, it’s best to consult with your instructor if you have questions or concerns.
One caution from the outset – don’t think that you can open up PowerPoint, select a pre-made template, throw on a few bullet points, and submit that with no consequences. This is a significant project worth 20% of your final grade, so you’ll need to put in some time working on it. Expect to put in 10 – 15 hours on this project over the course of the term. So please, do not wait until the last minute.
During Week 5, you will be asked to submit a brief discussion of your ideas for the final project in detail.
A good thesis proposal would be around 2 -3 sentences, summarizing your argument and how you wish to go about proving that argument.

Your first essay is due Tuesday, November 21. You must submit the essay via Blackboard as an attachment, an MS Word file or the equivalent, by 11:00 at the latest, but you can submit it earlier if you like. The grading for late submissions will begin at 75, and PDFs will not be accepted.
The representation of a place is one that is constructed. That is, places are not “objective” realities but spaces already shaped by a particular understanding of the world. Moreover, as Tabish Khair notes, in Other Routes, any account of a place “also entails defining, consciously or unconsciously, the writer’s relationship to a geographical area” (4).
In view of that, for the essay, you will discuss how the “East” is represented or described in either a single account or two accounts. You can choose one of the following topics:
1) Discuss how India and China are represented in Ibn Battuta’s Travels
2) Compare Ibn Battuta’s account of India with the Wonders of India
3) Compare Ibn Battuta’s account of China with Marco Polo’s
4) Discuss how Siam is represented in Muhammad Rabi’s Ship of Sulaiman 5) Compare Muhammad Rabi’s account with the Abbé’s
* Or you can choose your own topic, but you must get my approval first.
In addressing the issue of representation, please consider the following questions: What sites and sights are recorded and emphasized? Is there a pattern to the way in which they are presented? And how relevant is the motive for travel to the overall tone of the account?
The paper this time should be 5-6 pages in length (or 1250-1500 words), double-spaced, and in 12-point font. Emphasis in grading will be placed on the clearness and conciseness of your discussion or comparison, with the appropriate textual support. So please do not just summarize, or give an itinerary of sites visited. If you do so, it will affect your grade negatively. There is also no need for you to refer to secondary readings not assigned for class. If you do intend to refer to additional works, this applies as well to Internet sources, please cite using the MLA Style guide. If it is obvious to me that you used outside sources without citation, your grading will begin at 65. The paper is worth 100 points total and constitutes 25 percent of your overall grade. If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to speak with me.

Write an essay that explores how and why key elements such as character or symbols from the drama POOF! relate to the literary themes of platonic love and alienation. Consider the dialogue, setting, plot, cultural text, and time period the drama was written in. Use at least one quote or paraphrase from the Feminist source that is uploaded. The drama “POOF!” will be uploaded as well. Include an in-text parenthetical citation for the sources as well as a bibliographic citation in MLA format for the Works Cited page

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Instructions
Students will write a 1-2 page Policy Recommendation for Prevention of one Communicable or Non-Communicable Disease
Step 1: Define the Problem
Choose one communicable or non-communicable disease
What is the issue or the problem? Why is it important? Why now? Who is impacted and who cares? When defining your problem, be specific to your audience and clearly frame the issue.
Step 2: Identify the Target Audience.
The target here is the State’s Director of Health and Human Services. However, students can choose to use several target audiences and stakeholders. Who has the influence to make a change that will address this problem? If the audience is expected to be policymakers (and their staff), community leaders, industry, or nongovernmental organization executives, the problem should be defined in terms relevant to their policy intervention, respectively.
Step 3: State the Policy for Disease Prevention
Identify one specific policy action that will address the problem. Make your case by displaying and describing relevant data using 1–2 figures or tables.
Step 4: Discuss the Impact
Briefly discuss the implications of both action and inaction; analyze estimated pros and cons of the policy action; consider intended and unintended consequences; address opposing arguments. Conclude with a restatement of how this policy specifically addresses this problem.

Craft a response (at least 300 words) to the following prompt and post it as a reply to the conversation I have started. You won’t be able to see any posts by your classmates until you have posted your reply, and you won’t be able to edit your reply after you’ve posted it.
Make sure you post your response to the prompt and two thoughtful and substantive responses to classmates by this week’s due date. Please give your response a unique title.
Prompt:
Hawthorne’s stories are often more complicated than they seem at first. There’s a tension between Romantic notions of the power of nature and the importance of the individual and more traditional ideas about the importance of social order and the individual’s responsibility to their society.
In this forum post, make a claim about Hawthorne’s take on this tension between Nature/The Individual and Society in “The May-Pole of Merry Mount.” Provide evidence from the story to support your claim.
Please respond thoughtfully to two classmates.