Welcome to Week Eleven!
First up, you need to complete your two postings for Discussion 6 on the effects of one person as witnessed in the film 7 Faces of Dr. Lao. As always, you need to complete two postings: an original post, which must be completed first, and a follow-up post to a classmate’s post. Each posting must be a minimum of four complete sentences. Discussion 6 is due Monday, November 4, 2019 at 8:00 A.M.
This week we will begin the preparation work for our final short essay, Essay 3: Analysis (Literature). You have already read the necessary information from your textbook in preparation for Essay 2: Process since your textbook combines Process and Analysis into one chapter. To begin, go to Unit VII Module: Analysis (of Literature) and retrieve the Essay 3: Analysis handout. As you can see, this will be an essay written about a work of literature, in this case a short story. To that end, you will be reading four short stories, two of which represent the philosophy known as Romanticism and two of which represent the philosophy known as Naturalism. This week, we will work with Romanticism, saving Naturalism for next week’s readings.
You will need to print out the following handouts located in the Unit VII Module: Analysis (of Literature):
“Romanticism”
“The Cask of Amontillado”
“A Rose for Emily”
I teach literature from a philosophical perspective, meaning that the reader needs to understand the writer’s belief system in order to understand his or her literature. Romanticism contains a list of beliefs for a Romantic.
Once you have obtained that handout, you need to listen to the audio lecture on Romanticism. To access the lecture, go to the AUDIO LECTURES folder under COURSE CONTENT.
This lecture will explain what each of the concepts of the concepts of Romanticism is.
Once you have listened to the ROMANTICISM lecture, you need to read the two Romantic short stories: “A Rose for Emily” and “The Cask of Amontillado,” both of which are located in the Unit VII Module: Analysis (of Literature):
As you read, you need to think about the topic for Essay 3: Analysis. You will be asked to discuss EITHER the symbols or the themes from one of the four short stories you will be reading in this unit. As you read each story, begin to look for symbols that the author uses in his or her writing and make a list of those symbols. Symbols are objects that represent more than they appear to represent on the surface. Each symbol has two levels of meaning: the literal level, which is what the object is without any meaning applied, and the hyper-literal level, which is what the object represents beyond the literal meaning. The hyper-literal level is also known as the symbolic level.
For example, on the literal level, the color white is just a color (or the absence of color), but on the hyper-literal level, it represents purity or innocence.
Next, you need to decide what the themes of each work would be. A theme is the meaning the author is attempting to get across to the reader. It is typically a universal truth, but not necessarily a moral lesson.
For example, a Romantic would believe that Good and Evil are co-existing forces in the universe that are in a constant struggle with one another. Note that a theme should be expressed as a complete thought rather than a single word. Some critical works will express themes as a single word, but I would like for you to get in the habit of expressing them as a complete thought written as a complete sentence.
For example, instead of saying that Death is a theme, the write should say Death conquers all is a theme. Death is a concept. To make it a theme, the writer needs to make a statement about Death that is a universal truth, which Death conquers all does.
For Essay 3, you will need to use a total of three sources: one primary source and two secondary sources. The primary source is the work being analyzed, in this case one of the four assigned short stories (two of which you are being assigned this week, and two that you will be assigned next week), and the secondary sources are critical essays written about the primary source. You will use the databases (and perhaps the Internet) to locate the secondary sources. Secondary sources are created to help the reader understand the literature being analyzed.
Note: This is very important.
The Internet should NOT be your primary focus for this type of research and should be used as a last resort. Sites such as Sparknotes.com, Gradesaver.com (ClassicNotes), enotes.com, Directessays.com, 123HelpMe.com, Shmoop, and others of this type are considered non-scholarly and should NEVER be used to write a literary essay. If you are not sure about a site, please ask either me or your virtual librarian. Also, never use Wikipedia for this or any other college-level paper. It is non-scholarly and unreliable.
I will talk more about the secondary sources next week as we complete the readings for this essay. Essay 3: Analysis will be due Tuesday, November 26, 2019 at 8:00 A.M. As you can see, we will be spending more time on this essay than we did on the first two short essays since most students have not written this type of paper before.
That should get you started.
Continue working on your Cause/Effect Research Paper. Discussion 7 will be based on this important project, and you will be sharing your topics with your classmates and me. Discussion 7’s two posts will be due Wednesday, November 13, 2019 at 8:00 A.M.
Have a good week! Enjoy your readings!
Here is a list of upcoming deadlines:
Discussion 6 (two posts): Due Monday, November 4, 2019 at 8:00 A.M.
Discussion 7: Cause Effect Topics Due Wednesday, November 13, 2019 at 8:00 A.M.
Essay 3: Analysis Literature Due Tuesday, November 26, 2019 at 8:00 A.M.
Best,
R
This week we will continue the preparation work for our final short essay, Essay 3: Analysis (Literature). You have already read the necessary information from your textbook in preparation for Essay 2: Process since your textbook combines Process and Analysis into one chapter. To begin, go to your Module for Unit VII: Analysis of Literature and retrieve Document 12: Essay 3: Analysis. As you can see, this will be an essay written about a work of literature, in this case a short story. To that end, you will be reading four short stories, two of which represent the philosophy known as Romanticism and two of which represent the philosophy known as Naturalism. This week, we will work with Naturalism.
You will need to print out the following handouts from the Unit VII (Analysis of Literature) Module:
Handout 16 “Naturalism, Industrialism, and the Civil War”
Handout 17 “The Necklace”
Handout 18 “The Lottery”
I teach literature from a philosophical perspective, meaning that the reader needs to understand the writer’s belief system in order to understand his or her literature. Handout #16 contains a list of beliefs for a Naturalist and discusses the negative effects of the Industrial Revolution on the country and, ultimately, the philosophy of some of its writers. Once you have obtained that handout, Once you have obtained that handout, you need to listen to the audio lecture on Romanticism. To access the lecture, go to the AUDIO LECTURES folder under COURSE CONTENT.
This lecture will explain what each of the concepts on Handout 16 is.
Once you have listened to the NATURALISM, INDUSTRIALISM, AND THE CIVIL WAR lecture, you need to read the two Naturalistic short stories: “The Necklace” (Handout 17) and “The Lottery” (Handout 18). As you read, you need to think about the topic for Essay 3: Analysis. You will be asked to discuss EITHER the symbols or the themes from one of the four short stories you will be reading in this unit. As you read each story, begin to look for symbols that the author uses in his or her writing and make a list of those symbols. Symbols are objects that represent more than they appear to represent on the surface. Each symbol has two levels of meaning: the literal level, which is what the object is without any meaning applied, and the hyper-literal level, which is what the object represents beyond the literal meaning. The hyper-literal level is also known as the symbolic level.
For example, on the literal level, the color white is just a color (or the absence of color), but on the hyper-literal level, it represents purity or innocence.
Next, you need to decide what the themes of each work would be. A theme is the meaning the author is attempting to get across to the reader. It is typically a universal truth, but not necessarily a moral lesson.
For example, a Naturalist would believe that people are pre-determined by one of five pre-determining factors that dooms him or her to life of misery and suffering. Remember that a theme should be expressed as a complete thought rather than a single word. Some critical works will express themes as a single word, but I would like for you to get in the habit of expressing them as a complete thought written as a complete sentence.
For example, instead saying that Death is a theme, the write should say Death conquers all is a theme. Death is a concept. To make it a theme, the writer needs to make a statement about Death that is a universal truth, which Death conquers all does.
For Essay 3, you will need to use a total of three sources: one primary source and two secondary sources. The primary source is the work being analyzed, in this case one of the four assigned short stories, and the secondary sources are critical essays written about the primary source. You will use the databases (and perhaps the Internet) to locate the secondary sources. Secondary sources are created to help the reader understand the literature being analyzed.
Note: This is very important.
The Internet should NOT be your primary focus for this type of research and should be used as a last resort. Sites such as Sparknotes.com, Gradesaver.com (ClassicNotes), enotes.com, Directessays.com, 123HelpMe.com, Shmoop, and others of this type are considered non-scholarly and should NEVER be used to write a literary essay. If you are not sure about a site, please ask either me or your virtual librarian. Also, never use Wikipedia for this or any other college-level paper. It is non-scholarly and unreliable.
Next, you need to take a virtual (or real-time) trip to the library. We have several virtual librarians in this course, (you can find them via the email listing of names), and you can ask for assistance via email, the Virtual Library Discussion Board, or Live Chat via the library’s home page.
First, go to the following link:
This will take you to the library’s home page. On the center of the page, you will see a section with the heading “Go Straight to the Good Stuff,” which has a black magnifying glass next to it.
Click on GVRL LITERATURE EBOOKS within the drop-down menu.
If you are accessing the page from off campus, you will need to sign in with your COM student ID number and your last name. If you have trouble signing in, contact your Virtual Librarian using one of the methods listed earlier.
The database I would like for you to start with is called Short Stories for Students. I believe that you will find this database very helpful whenever you are asked to work with literature. The . . . for Students series also includes databases for poetry, epics, novels, and non-fiction as well as thematic databases such as Arab Women Writers, Beat Poets, and Gay and Lesbian Themes, among many other topics.
If you go back to the library’s home page, you can use the same portal to go to other literary databases. You will see a tab that says BROWSE LIBGUIDES. Click on it. Under LIBGUIDES BY SUBJECT, click on LITERATURE. Now click on HOW TO USE LITERATURE DATABASES. It will list some of the other available literature databases.
Note: In the Short Stories for Students database articles, multiple essays are provided. There is an essay provided by the editor, which contains items such as plot summary, themes, and symbols, and there are literary essays written by a number of different literary critics. Each of these essays is a separate source. In other words, if you research carefully, you can find your two secondary sources (the works written about the primary source, the short story) within the same database article, saving you time and energy on research. Each of these separate essays will have its own internal and works cited citations. What’s good is that most (not all) databases will have a citation link that shows you how to do the citation. You will probably have to manipulate these citations since they are typically single-spaced and not indented (everything in MLA format is double spaced, and each works cited citation’s lines after the first line are indented five spaces from the left margin.). If you are not sure about the citations, you can ask me either during my office hours or by email; visit the Tutoring Center, or contact your Virtual Librarian.
Essay 3: Analysis will be due Tuesday, November 26, 2019 at 8:00 A.M. As you can see, we will be spending more time on this essay than we did on the first two short essays since most students have not written this type of paper before.
That should get you started. Remember to continue working on your Cause/Effect Research Paper. Discussion 7 will be based on this important project. It will be due Wednesday, November 13, 2019 at 8:00 A.M.
Have a good week, and enjoy your readings!
This Week’s Deadlines:
Wednesday, November 13, 2019 at 8:00 A.M. Discussion 7 (2 posts) Due.
