Final Portfolio Assignment

Components: Your final portfolio will consist of three revised assignments, including your academic prose assignment. You can choose which two other pieces you want to include, but one of them must be a parody or satire. In addition to the three revised assignments, your portfolio must include a reflective argument, in which you demonstrate how you have met the course goals drawing on specific examples form your work as evidence. You may wish to include process materials, such as brainstorming/prewriting, first drafts, or comments you received during peer-reviews.

Grading:

Your portfolio will account for 40% of your final grade in the course. You will be graded in these three areas:

  • Reflective letter—40%
    • Your reflective letter is an argument
    • It will be graded based on how well you use specific evidence from your portfolio to demonstrate that you have met the course goals
    • Your reflective letter should be 1,000-1,250 words long
  • Final drafts—30%
    • Each of your three final drafts will receive a grade based on how well it meets the criteria from the original assignment
  • Revision—30%
    • Each of your three final drafts will receive a grade based on how significantly it was revised
    • Even if your first draft received a good grade, you should put serious effort into revising it
    • Revision entails addressing higher-order concerns, like structure, not just lower-order concerns, like grammar
    • Use this as an opportunity to re-imagine the piece

You will submit your portfolio as a single PDF document with the following components:

  1. Reflective argument cover letter
  2. Appendix 1A—final draft of your academic prose assignment
  3. Appendix 1B—process materials for your academic prose assignment
  4. Appendix 2A—final draft of your second submission
  5. Appendix 2B—process materials for your second submission
  6. Appendix 3A—final draft of your third submission
  7. Appendix 3B—process materials for your third submission

Academic Prose Assignment

Purpose and Goals:

To practice writing academic prose, you will write a researched argument. 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”). The goal of this assignment is to help you practice the conventions of academic writing, which you will use in research papers throughout your time as an undergraduate. Your argument should be about 1,500 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
      • “Argument” sources are those whose claims you engage
      • “Method” sources are those from which you derive a governing concept
    • Argument sources are “They Say” sources—things other people have said about your topic
    • Exhibit sources are texts or artifacts which you interpret—evidence for your “I Say”
    • 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
  • 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 5% of your total grade for the course. You will be graded on:

  • Sources and evidence—30%
  • Structure—30%
  • Style—30%
  • Grammar and Mechanics—10%

Against Civilization

A major theme of much 19th century American literature is the rejection of “civilization,” usually construed as the norms adopted by the wider community. This stance is epitomized by Huck Finn’s decision to “light out for the territories,” as well as his dislike of sleeping indoors, wearing uncomfortable clothes, and attending Sunday school. Similarly, Thoreau’s rejection of conformity throughout Walden reflects a desire to redefine civilization in radical different terms from those understood by his Concord neighbors. Thoreau has no patience for commercial success. He has an ascetic tendency that rejects the desire for fine food, excess clothing, and elaborate shelter. He lives at the edge of town, at Walden Pond, much as Huck seeks the frontier. According to Stephen Railton, we might also include James Fenimore Cooper’s Natty Bumppo, Melville’s Bartleby, Kate Chopin’s Edna, and Faulkner’s Ike McCaslin in this category of protagonists.

Re-Writing Dostoyevsky

Several African American writers were deeply influenced by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man, for instance, draws on Dostoyevsky’s Notes from Underground. Like the Underground Man, the Invisible Man has retreated from society to his underground refuge. Both figures respond to statements or objections  by their imagined interlocutors. While Dostoyevsky’s protagonist is bitter, resentful, and self-sabotaging, Ellison’s reveals a deeper love for humanity, even if he has his share of bitterness at his racist society.

Richard Wright’s Native Son re-writes Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment. In Crime and Punishment Raskolnikov kills the old pawn broker to test if he is a super-man, to see if he can take the life of a “worthless” woman and feel no compunction. He is obsessed with this idea that great men, like Napoleon, could kill with impunity because it would enable them to do good later. Raskolnikov becomes consumed with guilt, despite his desire to suppress it. In Native Son, a young black man, Bigger, kills the white daughter of his employer, Mary, by accident. Yet, after he has killed her, he embraces his identity as a murderer. In the racist and segregated landscape of Chicago, murder is the only act which gives Bigger’s life any meaning; violence is the only way for him to exercise agency. Although he kills Mary by accident, he subsequently wishes that he had planned it on purpose. He covers up his crime by burning her body with the same meticulousness as Raskolnikov takes. Like Raskolnikov, Bigger is afflicted by guilt which he often suppresses. While Raskolnikov never feels indifferent to the murder of the old pawnbroker, as he hoped he would, even though he can intellectually justify the act to himself, Bigger does feel empowered by his murder of Mary. Moreover, both characters commit a second murder that follows directly from the first. Raskolnikov’s planned murder of the pawn broker leads him to kill her sister when she witnesses him committing the crime. Similarly, Bigger kills he lover Bessie because he fears that she will give him away. Bigger feels that his crime is justified because of the racist actions of white people against him. Wright, thus, re-writes the plot of Dostoevysky’s novel in an American racial context.

Modernism and Nihilism

The following passages from modernist writers William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway bear interesting similarities. Each passage takes Christian language and re-casts it in nihilistic terms. Faulkner and Hemingway both suggest the insufficiency of religious faith in the face of modernity. They also uphold the power of art over the power of belief, or, perhaps, position art as a replacement for faith.

In The Sound and the Fury Quentin Compson ponders his father’s fatalistic philosophy: “Father was teaching us that all men are just accumulations dolls stuffed with sawdust swept up from the trash heaps where all previous dolls had been thrown away the sawdust flowing from what wound in what side that not for me died not.” The image of people as sawdust dolls could hardly be more pessimistic or dismissive of human possibility. The final phrase evokes the wound in Christ’s side. After Jesus was crucified, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear to see if he was dead. According to John 19:34, “But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water.” In Christian tradition, this blood and water represents the sacraments of baptism and the Eucharist. The image of the wound in Christ’s side is a synecdoche for the entire Christian view of atonement through Christ’s sacrificial death. Mr. Compson’s view reduces Christ’s sacrifice to meaninglessness. Quentin’s formulation–“the sawdust flowing from what wound in what side that not for me died not”–negates the salvific nature of Jesus’ crucifixion. Jesus’ blood might as well have been sawdust, since it had no more power than anyone else’s blood.

Hemingway ends “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” with a nihilistic re-casting of the Lord’s Prayer. The original Lord’s Prayer reads: “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed by thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Hemingway’s version replaces virtually every noun with “nada” the Spanish word for “nothing”: “Our nada who art in nada, nada be thy name thy kingdom nada thy will be nada in nada as it is in nada. Give us this nada our daily nada and nada us our nada as we nada our nadas and nada us not into nada but deliver us from nada; pues nada.” The repetitions of “nada” make the mock prayer sound like nonsense. Hemingway’s nihilistic creed ends with a similar adaptation of the opening of the Ave Maria. Instead of “Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee,” Hemingway has “Hail nothing full of nothing, nothing is with thee.” “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place” serves as an allegory of Hemingway’s theory of art. The old man’s beloved cafe is a place of refuge from the chaotic world. It is clean and well-lit. It is orderly, just as Hemingway believed art should be. It is art, not faith, that offers meaning.

Women and Nerves

Early twentieth century literature often portrays women as being nervous, sensitive, and vulnerable to hostile environments. Such characterizations reflect a residue of the Victorian concept of female hysteria and apply to black and white women alike.

In section two of T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land, “A Game of Chess,” an unnamed female speaker says, “My nerves are bad to-night. Yes, bad.” The stress and commotion of urban life threatens to overwhelm her. She babbles disjointedly while her male companion ignores her.

Similarly, the protagonist of Nella Larsen’s Quicksand, Helga Crane, is frequently described in terms of her ever-shifting emotional states. She is sensitive and impulsive and subject to “frayed nerves.” Helga stumbles into a storefront church. Because “Her nerves were so torn, so aching, her body so wet, so cold” she is hypnotized by the charismatic service.

Newland Archer vs Jay Gatsby

Newland Archer and Jay Gatsby seem to have little in common. Archer is the product of rigidly conventional upper-class New York society, whereas Gatsby manufactures a persona out of his own imagination. Newland chafes against, but, ultimately, adheres to his family’s expectations, while Gatsby attempts to erase his past and replace it with a myth of luxury. Yet, Newland and Gatsby share an important trait: they both live within their own imaginations. Newland never acts decisively because “thinking over a pleasure to come often gave him a subtler satisfaction that its realization.” He does not run off with Ellen not only because he lacks the self-knowledge to discern his love for her or because it would defy convention, but also because he enjoys imagining the thing to the thing itself. Similarly, Gatsby spends five years contemplating his reunion with Daisy, believing that she has remained in love with him the whole time. When Gatsby finally does reunite with Daisy, he fails to make her conform to how he imagined her–she is unwilling to leave Tom despite her feelings for Gatsby.

 

Satirical Essay Assignment

Purpose and Goals:

The goal of this assignment is for you to gain a deeper understanding of how the conventions of the essay can be exploited for satirical purposes. The ultimate purpose of satire is usually to improve society. Instead of stating his or her views directly, however, the satirist adopts the opposite position to the one he or she actually holds. A satirical essay that proposes that recycling be made illegal, for instance, forces readers to recognize the importance of recycling. An essay praising corporate greed could force readers to confront the downsides of capitalism.

Genre Conventions:

  • Topic and Strategy
    • Your topic should reflect an idea, belief, tradition, issue, or practice about which you are passionate
    • What kind of strategy best fits the message at the heart of your satire?
      • You might invert a widely held system of values
      • You might make what appears to be a serious defense of something absurd
      • You might exaggerate a political or philosophical position to its most extreme form
      • You might propose an unnecessarily complex solution to a simple problem
      • It is possible to employ multiple strategies throughout your essay, but one should predominant
    • Structure
      • What kind of structure best enables you to execute your strategy?
        • You might structure your essay chronologically
        • You might disrupt linear chronology using 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
    • Style
      • What kind of voice is most appropriate to your topic?
        • First-person: Are you an eye-witness?
        • Second-person: Do you want to implicate the reader directly?
        • Third-person: Is your topic somewhat abstract? Or do you want to maintain distance from it?
      • What tone best fits your topic?
        • Playful, gently mocking, “Horatian”?
        • Biting, acerbic, “Juvenalian”?
        • The tone of your essay should not shift abruptly, unless it does so deliberately

Grading:

This assignment will comprise 5% of your total grade for the course. You will be graded on these four areas:

  • Topic and Strategy—30%
  • Structure—30%
  • Style—30%
  • Grammar and Mechanics—10%

Essay Assignment

Purpose and Goals:

The French word from which “essay” is derived means “to try”—not to have the last word on, but to investigate, explore, or wander. Essays are not, however, random musings, but rather follow a particular line of thought. As our class readings suggest, essays combine narrative, generalization, and intimacy. Choose an idea, belief, tradition, or practice about which you are passionate as the topic for your essay. Your essay might draw some philosophical conclusions from an anecdote. Or it might take the form of a meditation on a single idea. It might consider various angles on an important issue. Whatever form your essay takes, it should have a purposeful structure, appropriate tone, and vivid details.

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:

  • Topic
    • Almost anything can serve as the subject for an essay; however, your topic should be broad enough for sustained exploration, yet narrow enough to pose specific questions and make concrete observations
  • 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?

Grading:

This assignment will comprise 5% 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%

News Article Parody Assignment

Purpose and Goals:

After writing your own news article you will write a parody of a news article. The goal of this assignment is to subvert, exaggerate, or otherwise humorously exploit the conventions of journalistic prose. For your parody to be successful it is important to strike a balance between adhering to and defying genre conventions. In other words, your parody must be recognizable as a news article, so you should follow some of the conventions while subverting others. Most news article parodies retain the proper style and format, but for content that would not appear in most newspapers.

Strategies:

  • Exaggeration—depicting a real issue in the most extreme terms
  • Inversion—reversing a commonly held value system
  • Trivialization—depicting a real issue, but changing the details to make it seem absurd

Audience and Conventions:

  • Content
    • Topic might not be “news worthy”: your article might cover an event with little political, economic, or social significance or focus on something commonly known
    • Your article might include seemingly unimportant minutiae
  • Style
    • You might write for an overly narrow audience
    • Open with a summary of the event and its significance
    • Present the most important information first
    • You might incorporate quotations from “experts” or whose expertise is lacking or irrelevant
    • Paragraphs should be relatively short
    • You might use unnecessarily elaborate language
    • You might use a “subjective” tone or emotionally-charged language
  • Format
    • Provocative headline
    • Byline: your name and the date should be immediately below the headline; identify the newspaper, which can be fictitious, in which your article appears
    • Arrange text in columns
    • Text should be in 12 point font, left-justified, and single-spaced with one space between paragraphs
    • Any images should be incorporated smoothly into the text
    • 750 words
    • Prose should be free of grammatical and mechanical errors

Grading:

This assignment will comprise 5% of your total grade for the course. You will be graded on these three areas:

  • Content—30%
  • Style—50%
  • Format—20%

To receive full credit in each of these areas you must skillfully use all of the relevant conventions. Partial credit will be awarded for using some of the conventions well and others poorly. Little or no credit will be given where few or none of the conventions are observed.

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