Pages
Guidelines for Essays
- Submission, grading, and format: you will submit your essays and receive comments and grades back from me in electronic form. Please double-space your essays and format them in Courier New 12. Send them as .doc or .docx files (not as pdfs). (I know Courier is ugly, but its size makes it easier to work with than some of the alternatives.) I work in MS Word and will use the Track Changes and Insert Comment functions.
- Lateness and extensions: Essays turned in late without prior approval will receive an F. I am happy to grant brief extensions, but you must contact me in advance of the due date to request one.
- First page: Your essay doesn’t need a cover sheet, but at the top of the first page it should give your name, the class, and which topic you have chosen. It should also feature a good title and a pledge stating that the paper is entirely your own work.
- Please number your pages.
- Quotation: You will need to quote a good deal from the text(s) you are discussing. When you quote, follow your quotation with a parenthetical citation giving the work’s name (the first time; after that, if you’re quoting only one work, it’s not necessary to keep repeating it) and the page number. You don’t need footnotes or endnotes, or a “Works Cited” list or bibliography. Quotations of longer than 5 lines should be set in on both sides and should be double-spaced. They do NOT need quotation marks around them (the setting-in indicates that it’s a quotation). They don’t need an extra blank line before and after them. Quotations from poetry should reflect the line breaks in the quoted poem.
- Revision: You will have the opportunity to revise your first essay. If you decide to revise, notify me as soon as possible after receiving the graded essay back from me. We will set up a meeting to discuss the revision. Bring the graded essay with you to the meeting and be prepared with specific questions and suggestions about how the essay might be improved. We will agree upon a due date for the revision. The grade on the revised version will replace the original grade.
Assessment of Writing
I expect written work of the same caliber as the work required in your other MIT subjects. This means carefully composed and proof-read (no sloppy errors), thorough, well thought-out, sufficiently supplied with supporting material quoted or paraphrased from the text(s).
In reading your work, I do not distinguish between “content” and “style” or “quality of writing.” How you decide to state something, how you assemble an argument, how you construct each and every sentence – these things constitute your argument and are indistinguishable from its “content.”
Advice on Writing
On the Use of External Sources
You should have no need to consult any outside sources when you write your essays for this class. The essays are opportunities for you to solidify and demonstrate your grasp of the material we have covered in class. You will draw upon our class discussions, your notes, your imagination and memory.
Topics for Essay 1
Review the sections “Guidelines for Essays,” “Assessment of Writing,” and “Advice on Writing”. Choose one of the following and write an essay of about 2000–2500 words. Make generous use of passages from the text to support your argument.
- “Nothing can be done. Things are they are, and will be brought to their destined issue” (Jude the Obscure, 328). Jude quotes these words from Aeschylus’s ancient Greek tragedy Agamemnon. Write about how Hardy attempts in Jude to update the genre of tragedy for modern times. What forces work to give the novel an air of fatefulness or predestination?
- “Done because we are too meny” (Jude the Obscure, 325). Write about the function of Little Father Time in Jude. How does his perspective resemble that of the novel’s narrator? What kind of perspective could have led him to do what he does? How does his perspective relate to the discourse of Political Economy?
- In Conrad’s Lord Jim, why is it so important to Marlow to tell the story of Jim? What does he seek to accomplish by doing so? What has this got to do with the repeated assertion that Jim was “one of us”?
- In Lord Jim, what does Stein mean by “in the destructive element immerse” (154)? Has Jim done that throughout the novel?
Topics for Essay 2
Review the sections “Guidelines for Essays,” “Assessment of Writing,” and “Advice on Writing.” Choose one of the following:
- In Kipling’s Kim, the title character’s ability to mix unnoticed among various types of Indians makes him valuable to the British Secret Service. In what ways does Kim’s identity seem fluid and in what ways does it seem fixed? Make sure to write about Kim’s training with Lurgan.
- In Ford’s The Good Soldier, is Dowell stupid? Or willfully blind? If the former, in what ways? If the latter, why?
- In Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, how does Stephen learn to associate physical defilement and powerlessness with more abstract conditions of being under the power of others? Give plenty of examples of these conditions.
- Describe the stages of Stephen Dedalus’s progress from childhood to departure from Ireland. Write about Stephen’s tendency to expect a once-and-for-all transformation from some pivotal experience. What becomes of such expectations? Does he finally achieve transformation to a condition a maturity and independence? What evidence from Chapters 4 and 5 best help you answer this last question?
At the beginning of the term I will circulate a list of topics suitable for reports of no more than 7 minutes in length; each student will choose one topic for the first of your two reports. Your job will be to inform your classmates as clearly and concisely as possible about various historical, literary, and cultural matters that can aid understanding of the works we’re covering. You should be able to find all the information you need by means of a brief Internet search or by consulting reference materials in a humanities library.
I will grade you both on the accuracy and usefulness of the information you present as well as on your presentation style, which should not be too slangy and informal. I will be looking to see if you have prioritized the information you found so as to present what is most pertinent to our concerns in the class.
Suggest topics for oral reports:
- Britain’s Divorce Act of 1857
- Rajah James Brooke of Sarawak
- The “Great Game”; the Afghan Wars of the 19th century
- Lohengrin, the Chevalier Bayard, and El Cid
- Charles Stewart Parnell and Michael Davitt
- Greek myths of Daedalus and Icarus (from Ovid); St. Stephen
- Irish Republican Brotherhood; “Fenians”
- Irish Literary Revival (or Renaissance); the Gaelic League
- Tennyson’s poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade” and the occasion for which it was written
Final Report
Final report: 10 minutes
For your final report, present alternative endings for the novels we have read this term (as many of them as you choose; if you choose fewer, you should go into greater detail in developing your alternative endings) and give some comments justifying your choices.
Advice on Oral Reports
- Have a prepared outline or text to speak from, but …
- Don’t just read out a text; make eye contact with your audience and talk to it.
- Rehearse and time your presentation in advance.
- Convey your information to the other students, not just to me.
- Prepare PowerPoint slides or provide handouts showing unfamiliar names or terms, maps, etc.
- If you use PowerPoint, don’t just read out to the audience the exact same words that appear on the slides. We can read! The slides should provide the skeleton of your report, not the entire substance.
And for the audience:
Since everyone will be presenting and it will thus be your turn eventually, be respectful to the student reporting, pay attention, take notes, and show some appreciation for the effort that has gone into the presentation.
The following schedule is meant to suggest the pace at which you should divide up your reading. In class, we will go slowly over some parts and quickly over others; we will also move readings up or push them back as seems necessary.
[Hardy] = Hardy, Thomas. Jude the Obscure (Oxford World’s Classics). Oxford University Press, 2009. ISBN: 9780199537020. (download a version from Project Gutenberg)
[Conrad] = Conrad, Joseph. Lord Jim (Penguin Classics). Penguin Books, 2007. ISBN: 9780141441610. (download a version from Project Gutenberg)
[Kipling] = Kipling, Rudyard. Kim (Oxford World’s Classics). Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780199536467. [Preview with Google Books] (download a version from Project Gutenberg)
[Ford] = Ford, Ford Madox. The Good Soldier (Penguin Classics). Penguin Classics, 2007. ISBN: 9780141441849. (download a version from Project Gutenberg)
[Joyce] = Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: Text, Criticism, and Notes (The Viking Critical Library). Penguin Books, 1977. ISBN: 9780140155037. (download a version from Project Gutenberg)
[Forster] = Forster, E. M. A Passage to India. Mariner Books, 1965. ISBN: 9780156711425.
[Woolf] = Woolf, Virginia. To the Lighthouse (Everyman’s Library). Everyman’s Library, 1992. ISBN: 9780679405375.
SES # | TOPICS |
---|---|
1 | Introduction |
2 | [Hardy] |
3 | [Hardy] |
4 | [Hardy] |
5 | [Hardy]; [Conrad] |
6 | [Conrad] |
7 | [Conrad] |
8 | [Conrad] |
9 | [Kipling] |
10 | [Kipling] |
11 | [Kipling] |
First Essay due | |
12 | [Ford] |
13 | [Ford] |
14 | [Joyce] |
15 | [Joyce] |
16 | [Joyce] |
17 | [Joyce] |
18 | [Forster] |
19 | [Forster] |
20 | [Forster] |
21 | [Woolf]; quiz |
22 | [Woolf]; quiz |
23 | [Woolf]; quiz |
Second Essay due | |
24 | [Woolf] |
Student Presentations |
Course Meeting Times
Lectures: 2 sessions / week, 1.5 hours / session
Required Texts
You should use the editions specified here.
Books on order (in order in which they will be used):
Hardy, Thomas. Jude the Obscure (Oxford World’s Classics). Oxford University Press, 2009. ISBN: 9780199537020.
Conrad, Joseph. Lord Jim (Penguin Classics). Penguin Books, 2007. ISBN: 9780141441610.
Kipling, Rudyard. Kim (Oxford World’s Classics). Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780199536467. [Preview with Google Books]
Ford, Ford Madox. The Good Soldier (Penguin Classics). Penguin Classics, 2007. ISBN: 9780141441849.
Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man: Text, Criticism, and Notes (The Viking Critical Library). Penguin Books, 1977. ISBN: 9780140155037.
Forster, E. M. A Passage to India. Mariner Books, 1965. ISBN: 9780156711425.
Woolf, Virginia. To the Lighthouse (Everyman’s Library). Everyman’s Library, 1992. ISBN: 9780679405375.
Class Rules
- Your attendance in this class is mandatory. You are allowed a maximum of two unexcused absences. Beyond that, you will fail the class. If you are sick or have to be away for another legitimate reason, email me to say so in a timely fashion, if at all possible before you miss class.
- Class begins at five minutes past the posted starting time. You are expected to come to class on time having done the appropriate reading for each day and with the appropriate text(s). I may charge you an unexcused absence if you frequently arrive late or without your book. I will give unannounced quizzes on the readings at my discretion.
Student Work
- Two analytical essays
- 3 short quizzes on Woolf’s To the Lighthouse
- Two oral reports
Grading Policy
ACTIVITIES | PERCENTAGES |
---|---|
Your written work (including any quizzes) | 75% |
Your oral reports, your participation in class discussion, your preparedness, and your overall good citizenship. | 25% |
Literature Faculty Policy on Plagiarism
The Literature Section has formulated this statement and policy for all plagiarism cases:
Plagiarism—the use of another’s intellectual work without acknowledgement—is a serious offense. It is the policy of the Literature Faculty that students who plagiarize will receive an F in the subject, and that the instructor will forward the case to the Committee on Discipline. Full acknowledgement for all information obtained from sources outside the classroom must be clearly stated in all written work submitted and in all oral presentations, including images or texts in other media and for materials collected online. All ideas, arguments, and direct phrasings taken from someone else’s work must be identified and properly footnoted. Quotations from other sources must be clearly marked as distinct from the student’s own work. For further guidance on the proper forms of attribution, consult the style guides available in the Writing and Communication Center, review their Link, and review MIT’s online Academic Integrity Handbook.