In my “Black Critics, Black Culture” class, a first-year writing course, my students and I discussed Vann Newkirk’s “King’s Death Gave Birth to Hip-Hop” as a compelling example of a cause-and-effect argument. First, we listened to three of the songs which Newkirk references: Outkast’s “Rosa Parks,” Gil Scott-Heron’s “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” and Sam Cooke’s “A Change is Gonna Come.” These three songs index the artistic, political, and cultural shifts from soul to hip-hop from 1968 to 1998. We then looked at how Newkirk supports his major claim–King’s death gave birth to hip-hip–with smaller claims, such as that “What hip-hop understands most viscerally is that it simply isn’t enough to be like King. King was assassinated for being King.” After presenting several pages of evidence, balancing summary, paraphrase, and direct quotation, Newkirk uses a strong transition to remind the reader of his larger argument: “With all these factors in position, black youth born during King’s time essentially saw the world unmade and refashioned in real time.” Finally, we discussed the issue of scope: Newkirk uses several pages of evidence to support his claims. He ends the essay by returning to the anecdote about the law suit between Outkast and Rosa Parks with which he began. Newkirk’s conclusion offers a foretaste of a new argument–that hip-hop is a “base for liberatory political movements and a wellspring of activism energy.” Students benefit from seeing how much evidence is needed to support a claim and how a conclusion can point to a related argument which one doesn’t have the space to convey.
Student Reflections and Conversion Narratives
After reading dozens of student reflections on their final portfolios for various first-year writing courses at Emory University, I noticed that when students don’t know what to say in a reflection, they often resort to the language of a conversion narrative. Students confess their writing sins and declare themselves transformed by their experience in the classroom. If we don’t give students enough practice writing reflections, then they will default to familiar tropes.
Art and Immortality
I’m putting together a 200-level course on death and immortality organized around genre. I want students to read a series of genres–elegy, revenge tragedy, Gothic, slave narrative, science fiction, historical fiction–each of which has its own investments in questions of death and the afterlife. In each unit, a fairly representative example of the given genre will be paired with something that pushes the boundaries of the genre to convey how fluid genres are. Here are some possible pairings:
“The Fall of the House of Usher” / Slade House
Hamlet / Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl / The Underground Railroad
Immortality, Inc. / Wild Seed
The Buried Giant / Lincoln in the Bardo
Memory
At some point, I would like to teach a literature class themed around memory. Some possible texts might include:
Jonathan Safran Foer, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Jorge Luis Borges, “Funes the Memorious”
William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Kazuo Ishiguro, The Buried Giant
Christopher Nolan, Memento
The Spiritual vs. the Corporeal in the American Renaissance
In Nature, Emerson defines Nature as everything but the human mind/spirit: “Strictly speaking, therefore, all that is separate from us, all which Philosophy distinguishes as the NOT ME, that is, both nature and art, all other men and my own body, must be ranked under this name, NATURE.” Emerson includes even his own body as part of Nature. Emerson does not entirely denigrate all things physical, as he sees the natural world as corresponding to the spiritual. Nevertheless, his thought is, broadly speaking, Platonic in privileging the spiritual over the physical.
Similarly, in “Resistance to Civil Government,” Thoreau describes the night he spent in jail for refusing to pay taxes that would, however indirectly, support the Mexican War. Thoreau follows Emerson in defining his body as incidental to his identity: “As they could not reach me, they had resolved to punish my body.”
Melville seems to share Emerson and Thoreau’s feelings toward embodiment in Moby-Dick. Despite dramatic differences between Ahab and Ishmael, both privilege the spiritual over the corporeal. Early in the novel, Ishmael says, “Methinks my body is but the lees of my better being. In fact take my body who will, take it I say, it is not me.” On the second day of the Pequod’s doomed encounter with Moby Dick, Ahab laments that his body’s strength does not match his iron will: “Accursed fate! that the unconquerable captain in the soul should have such a craven mate!” Starbuck thinks Ahab is disparaging him, but he clarifies that the “craven mate” is his body. Ahab depicts his soul as a fearless captain and his body as a cowardly first mate who cannot execute his captains orders.
Personal Narrative assignment
Purpose and Goals:
After reading personal narratives in class, you will write one of your own. You will write about a memory that you find meaningful, beautiful, harrowing, tragic, hilarious, or otherwise interesting. You can write about any experience, whether a childhood memory or something that happened yesterday. As in the pieces by Carver and Sedaris, you will need to use vivid details, plausible dialogue, and rich descriptions. You can choose the extent to which you want to fictionalize this piece: it might be closer to the memoir end of the spectrum, like “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” or it might be closer to the adaptation end of the spectrum, like Flight. It might be realistic or contain fantastical elements. One goal of this assignment is for you to write something very different from typical academic writing, which will allow you to take risks unavailable to you within the constraints of an academic paper. This piece should be about 1,000 words.
Genre Conventions:
- Purpose
- Re-create/fictionalize a memory
- Establish intimacy with the reader by expressing your personal ideas and feelings
- Convey your internal experience of a particular event
- Narrative structure
- What kind of structure best enables you to convey your narrative?
- Strict chronology
- Loose chronology
- Non-linear chronology (i.e. flashbacks)
- Your structure should be purposeful
- Each paragraph should fit into your overall structure
- Clear transitions between paragraphs will help your reader follow your structure
- Style
- What tone best fits your narrative?
- Melancholy? Sardonic? Curious? Wistful? Impassioned? Clinical?
- What kind of diction and syntax are appropriate to your topic?
- Terse, staccato sentences vs. long, flowing sentences
- Monosyllabic, “Germanic” words vs. polysyllabic, “Latinate” language
- How can you use imagery, simile, and metaphor to enhance your narrative?
- What tone best fits your narrative?
- What kind of structure best enables you to convey your narrative?
Grading:
Your second draft will comprise 10% of your total grade for the course. You will be graded on these four areas:
- Purpose—10%
- Structure—40%
- Style—40%
- Grammar and Mechanics—10%
Race, Space, and Claustrophobia
A number of African American novels set in urban spaces focus on the motif of claustrophobia to convey the effects of racism. Richard Wright’s Native Son, for instance, opens with a rat trapped an killed in the apartment of a black family. The trapped rat serves as an allegory for the novel’s protagonist, Bigger Thomas, who is as trapped in the South Side of Chicago as the rat is in his apartment. Bigger frequently laments the feeling of claustrophobia, of having his mobility–both physical and socio-economic–severely restricted by white people. Bigger can only live in certain slums and occupy certain jobs. He is trapped in the ghetto and it enrages him. Similarly, Lutie Johnson, the protagonist of Anne Petry’s somewhat less deterministic novel, The Street, also feels a sense of claustrophobia. She desperately wants to get an apartment on a better street, but she realizes that without substantially more money than she, a single mother, can earn, she will never be able to move to a cleaner, brighter neighborhood. Like Bigger, she also feels trapped, walled-in by inaccessible white people. Interestingly, Helga Crane, the biracial protagonist of Nella Larsen’s Quicksand expresses a sense of claustrophobia toward her fellow African Americans. Helga feels ambivalent toward blackness, both attracted to and repelled by it. Helga feels a sense of claustrophobia, of being trapped as a member of a race with which she feels no kinship.
Personal Narrative Assignment
Purpose and Goals:
You will write about a memory that you find meaningful, beautiful, harrowing, tragic, hilarious, or otherwise worthy of preserving. You can write about any experience, whether a childhood memory or something that happened yesterday. As in the pieces by Carver and Sedaris, you will need to use vivid details, plausible dialogue, and rich descriptions. You can choose the extent to which you want to fictionalize this piece: it might be closer to the memoir end of the spectrum, like “Me Talk Pretty One Day,” or it might be closer to the adaptation end of the spectrum, like Flight. It might be realistic or contain fantastical elements. Your essay should have a purposeful structure, appropriate tone, and vivid details. This piece should be about 1,000 words.
Genre Conventions:
- Intimacy—essays are expressions of your personal ideas and feelings about your topic
- Narrative—essays tell a story with a purposeful structure
- Generalization—essays connect personal experiences with larger ideas and issues
Form and Content:
- Structure
- Your essay should have one overarching idea, which is developed through various subordinate ideas
- What kind of structure best enables you to explore your topic?
- You might structure your essay chronologically or use non-linear chronology (i.e. flashbacks)
- You might discuss a series of anecdotes or examples of a common theme
- You might pose a central question, then explore possible answers
- Your structure should be clear, consistent, and appropriate to your topic
- Each paragraph should fit into your overall structure
- Clear transitions between paragraphs will help your reader follow your structure
- Style
- What tone best fits your topic?
- Melancholy? Sardonic? Curious? Wistful? Impassioned? Clinical?
- The tone of your essay should not shift abruptly, unless it does so deliberately
- What kind of diction and syntax are appropriate to your topic?
- Terse, staccato sentences vs. long, flowing sentences
- Monosyllabic, “Germanic” words vs. polysyllabic, “Latinate” language
- How can you use imagery, simile, and metaphor to develop your theme?
- What tone best fits your topic?
Grading:
This assignment will comprise 10% of your total grade for the course. You will be graded on these four areas:
- Topic—10%
- Structure—40%
- Style—40%
- Grammar and Mechanics—10%
Literary Criticism Assignment
Purpose and Goals:
To practice writing academic prose, you will write a researched argument about the role of time in one of the texts we have read in class. Although your argument should be grounded in the primary text on which you choose to focus, you will need to incorporate some secondary sources. You should interact with arguments of other scholars, both those whose position supports your own and those with whom you disagree. If you choose to write on one of the longer works of prose—Flight, Kindred, Brave New World—you should focus on that text. You may write about more than one poem, but you will have to clearly explain why you chose to put them in dialogue. Your argument should include both close readings of important passages and broader analysis about the role of time in the whole work. You will need to support your argument with various kinds of evidence. You will position your claim (“I Say”) in relation to the claims of other scholars (“They Say”). Your argument should be about 2,000 words.
Genre Conventions:
- Sources and Evidence
- Bizup’s B.E.A.M.
- “Background” sources provide general information or factual evidence
- “Exhibit” sources are those which you analyze or interpret (evidence)
- “Argument” sources are those whose claims you engage (“They Say”)
- “Method” sources are those from which you derive a governing concept
- You will need to briefly summarize arguments opposed to your own and refute them by showing that your argument is better
- All sources should be properly cited using MLA format
- Bizup’s B.E.A.M.
- Structure
- A thesis statement toward the end of your introduction should convey the crux of your argument
- Each paragraph should begin with a topic sentence which encapsulates the main point of that paragraph and reflects one element of your overall thesis
- Each paragraph should end with a transition that connects it to the next paragraph
- Your conclusion should state the implications of your argument, rather than repeat your thesis
- Use meta-commentary to help the reader follow your argument
- Style
- You can combine formal and colloquial language, but do not use informal language alone
- Use an authoritative tone when making claims
- Use language that is as precise as possible, including appropriate jargon
- Use qualified language when necessary to soften or nuance your claims
Grading:
This assignment will comprise 20% of your total grade for the course. You will be graded on:
- Sources and evidence—30%
- Structure—30%
- Style—30%
- Grammar and Mechanics—10%
Analyzing Academic Prose Assignment
Purpose and Goals:
To help you practice identifying the conventions of academic prose, you will analyze Marilyn R. Farwell’s article “Virginia Woolf and Androgyny.” You will locate specific examples of the conventions of academic prose and explain their importance within the article. How does following these conventions enable Farwell to convey her argument? This is not a summary assignment; you do not have to write a synopsis of the entire article. For each example of an academic convention, provide a specific quotation along with the page number on which it is found.
Conventions of Academic Prose:
- Originality
- Identify what is original, according to Farwell, about her argument (10 points)
- Argument-based
- Identify Farwell’s main claim or thesis statement (10 points)
- Identify two pieces of evidence which Farwell uses to support her thesis (10 points)
- Identify a place where Farwell anticipates a possible counter-argument and refutes it (10 points)
- Written for a narrow audience, mainly other scholars
- Identify a place where Farwell incorporates a quotation from another scholar to bolster her argument (10 points)
- Identify a place where Farwell incorporates a quotation from another scholar to oppose that scholar’s argument (10 points)
- Identify two places where Farwell uses technical, academic jargon (10 points)
- Structure
- Identify one particularly strong topic sentence and one particularly good transition (10 points)
- Tone
- Identify one example of authoritative tone (10 points)
- Identify two places where Farwell uses qualified language to soften or nuance a claim (10 points)
Grading:
This assignment will comprise 5% of your total grade for the course. You will be graded on how well you
- Locate conventions of academic prose in the assigned article
- Explain the significance of those conventions
Partial credit will be given if you locate conventions of academic prose without explaining their significance.
