On Writing Assignments

Essays must be carefully thought-out. What you put on paper expresses how you think. Take the time to rewrite your papers; do not expect to automatically be granted a rewrite. Experience has taught me that those who do not draft several times before handing in papers do not get the grades they want. Please take time to rewrite. If I ask you to revise an essay, hand in both the graded draft and the revised draft together. Feel free to talk with me at any time about choosing topics or about your writing in general.

Essay Guidelines

*Do not use a separate title page: put your name, the course, and the date of the current draft in single-spaced lines at the top of the first page. Number all your pages, starting on page 2.

*Papers should be typed and double-spaced, with one inch margins on all sides and 12 point type with Times or Times New Roman font.

*Give your paper a title that is interesting and that encodes your thesis. Do not simply use the writer's work and name: it's your paper, so indicate what your thesis is about.

*Introduce the paper. Options are to provide a catchy opening by citing an anecdote or a quotation that relates to your topic and thesis; supply important contextual information about the writer's society and culture or about the writer's body of work; or raise a question that you address in your paper.

*The thesis should be a strong statement that provides a blueprint for the paper's organization. It should summarize your main points, which you can reiterate or restate in your topic sentences. For your thesis, make one clear statement that ties it all together.

*Use topic sentences to develop or lay out the argument. Topic sentences work best when they carry or echo key words from the thesis and previous topic sentences.

*Write well-developed, unified, and coherent paragraphs. Vary paragraph length, but do not be afraid to write longer paragraphs. When each sentence clearly relates to the topic sentence you get unity; when each sentence relates to the one before and after, you get coherence. Strive for maximum unity and coherence. Use transition words.

*Check that each sentence is complete. Look for fragments, comma splices, and fused sentences. Look to combine sentences by using subordination, helping you avoid choppiness also. Make sure subjects and verbs agree--singular and plural. Get rid of weak verbs ("to be" verbs is, are, was, were, or "to have" verbs has, have, had, etc) as well as mindless beginnings ("There are, There is").

*Write in the present tense and active voice about literature. Literature lives.

*Quote sparingly but accurately. Introduce and comment on quotes. Quotes should fit into the syntax or grammar of the sentence or be separated by a colon. To indicate a poem's line breaks within your sentence, use a slash/after the final word or punctuation of the line. If over 3 lines, separate the quote from the body of the text.

*Proofread, edit, revise. The key to good writing (and good grades) is rewriting. I suggest writing at least three drafts for a decent grade. More for an A or high B.

Assignments

First Short Essay (due 2/15)

Write a two-page essay discussing any poem or set of poems from Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience. Focus on the various literary and/or pictorial elements that Blake employs to convey his ideas or themes: elements such as speakers, verbal and visual imagery, versification, points-of-view, allusions to the Bible, irony, and the like.

In general, explore what Blake means by the "contrary states" of innocence and experience, drawing on your own well as Blake's understanding, but in particular seek to show how Blake conveys his thinking about any theme or combination of the themes we've explored: childhood, protection, suffering, creation, divine humanity, sexuality, spirituality, encroachment, slavery, social inequality, solidarity, authority, Christianity. You may also develop your own theme but, again, focus on how literary and/or pictorial elements support your claims.

Longer Essay on Blake (due 3/8)

1. Again, you have options. You can expand your shorter paper, developing your discussion of the themes and literary elements in the poem or poems you selected: add a poem from the other volume (either Innocence or Experience) or another set of poems; for example, if you analyzed the "Chimney Sweeper" poems, then add the two "Holy Thursday" poems. There are many combinations to explore, but think about why Blake wrote in pairs or sets: do the poems from either set critique or satirize the other set, or do they reinforce and clarify what is lacking in the other?

2. You may also explore Blake's development of the concepts of innocence and experience, or the movement of the "contrary states" from the Songs to The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Define your concepts, noting how they translate into poetic imagery and pictorial design. Does the Marriage provide a different viewpoint than the Songs on the issue of contraries?

3. Analyze the drama of contraries in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. How does the contrary structure serve as a formative principle of the text? Choose a few plates for explicit treatment. How do they carry the movement of the contraries? Does the movement result in a synthesis or do the contraries remain polarized? Pay attention to voices and positions when you explicate.

4. Choose one of the "Proverbs of Hell" and argue for its aptness as a key to The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. The proverbs are aphoristic in style: how does such condensed thinking expand in the work as a whole? You may want to argue that the work does not cohere into a "whole." Either way, substantiate your claims with ample references to the text itself.

______________________________________________________________________________

[Under Construction]

English 458
Spring 1999
Essay Due: April 8

Write a 5-7 page essay on one of the following:

1. Analyze the dialogue between "William" and "Matthew" in Wordsworth's "Expostulation and Reply" and "The Tables Turned"? Distinguishing the poet from his characters, comment on the relative value of each position and specify what you mean by "nature." You may want to contrast these poems with others in the volume, such as "Goody Blake and Harry Gill" and "We are Seven" or "Tintern Abbey."

2. Analyze the relation of "nature" to the supernatural in "Goody Blake and Harry Gill" and "We Are Seven." "Nature" can be defined through imagery, the speech of characters, and the speaker's view or stance. Draw on a definition of the "ballad" to indicate what these poems are trying to accomplish in terms of style and meaning.

3. Analyze Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey." Use this statement by Stephen Gill as a guide: "Wordsworth presents his whole life as a series of distinct phases, characterized by different responses to nature." Be sure to specify what you mean by "nature," especially in terms of the speaker's sense of history and personal development.

What intrigues him about the spot that he revisits? What is the relation between "nature and the language of the sense"?

4. Analyze the role of the speaker's "Sister" in "Tintern Abbey." What is her function in terms of the poem's structure? What is her importance to the speaker's personal growth? What is her relation to "nature"? You may want to broaden your focus to include biographical comments on the importance of Dorothy Wordsworth to her brother's poetic life.

5. Examine Dorothy Wordsworth's Journals and develop a sense of her writing style and imagery. How would you describe her as a writer? What are her major concerns and observations? Do you see connections between her Journals and Wordsworth's "Tintern Abbey"? If so, be sure to comment on the different kinds of expression involved in journal writing and formal poetry.

6. Compare and contrast "Tintern Abbey" and "Resolution and Independence." Clearly set up the basis of your comparison: why are you comparing and contrasting these poems? Then provide a thesis that spells out what characteristics you will use to focus your analysis: language and imagery, speaker and characters, or themes (such as personal history, the nature of poetic creation, the idea of "nature" and so forth).

English Romantic Poets
Length: 7 pages
Due: October 30

For this assignment, you are asked to define what POETRY means to one of three writers: Wordsworth, Coleridge, or Shelley. These poets share certain assumptions about poetry, especially about the role of imagination in creating poetry, and you may reflect on them. The bulk of the essay, however, should focus on the meaning of poetry for one of these writers.

The source for your definition should come from one of the following prose works: Wordsworth's Preface to Lyrical Ballads , Coleridge's Biographia Literaria , or Shelley's Defence of Poetry .

While these writers' poetic practice certainly bears on their theory, that practice is often at odds with their definitions and cannot be used as an infallible guide. In short, focus on the prose, although if you want to point out discrepancies between theory and practice, go right ahead.

The point, however, is to construct a coherent, well organized definition. Make sure your thesis statement is clear and flexible enough to cover all the points you develop in the body of the paper. Pay close attention to topic sentences, or to how you shift from idea to idea; try to connect each idea with the next and build a case for your definition. If you find yourself disagreeing with the poet of your choice, work a critique into your analysis, but not at the expense of the definition.

I will be around for consultation should anyone want it.

English 320/557
Final Paper

Choose one of the following and write a five page essay on it, presenting an explicit and substantial thesis, clear transitions between paragraphs, minimal but accurate quotations, and error-free sentences.

1. Choose one or more women Romantic poets and analyze several poems: focus on language, structure, and theme but open your analysis to consider in what ways the women writers alter your definition of Romanticism.

2. What is the relation between language, especially poetic or figurative language, and what Percy Shelley calls "Power" in his poetry? You may want to compare "Mont Blanc" and "Hymn to Intellectual Beauty" or analyze a single poem.

3. What is the relation of Shelley's political poetry to "Ode to the West Wind"? You may want to compare and contrast Shelley's view of "Power" in his 1816 poems, move to consider "Sonnet: England in 1819" and "Song to the Men of England," and conclude with the "Ode."

4. Compare and contrast Shelley's "Mont Blanc" with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein , especially those chapters that deal directly with the vale of Chamonix, the Arve river, and Mont Blanc.

5. Analyze the nature of Romanticism in Frankenstein . Does Mary Shelley's novel constitute a critique of Romanticism? Does the novel offer different views of Romanticism that allow you as reader to evaluate one against the other? Clerval will be important here.

6. What role do women play in Frankenstein ? How is the gender theme treated in the novel and what does it have to do with Victor's "fatal impulse"? You may also want to include Walton's relationship to his sister Margaret Saville, commenting particularly on Walton's grappling with his own "feminine fosterage."

7. Who or what is the monster? Recognizing that you are dealing with a metaphoric being, analyze the role of the monster in the novel, concentrating either on its relation to Victor, its own "independent" existence and development, or its structural and thematic function.

8. Analyze the doppleganger (the "double") theme in Frankenstein . Is the monster a psychic aspect of Victor? Are they one character or two? Does the monster even "exist"? Is he human? What is his role in the novel?

9. Examine the role of Walton's framing narrative: what role or function do Walton's letters serve? Compare and ultimately contrast Walton and Victor as narrators and characters.

10. What is the function of natural philosophy in the novel? Why is it important? What is its relation to Victor's dilemma?

Frankenstein
Essay Questions

1. Frankenstein is narrated by three different narrators: choose one and discuss his tale, concentrating on his role in the telling of his own story. What is his background? The tone and character of his narration? How does he regard or treat others? Provide an argument for your overall viewpoint.

2. What key events in Victor's upbringing turn him toward his "fatal impulse" to create "a human being"? Describe his family background. How do alchemy and natural philosophy affect the development of his "fatal impulse"? How does M. Waldman influence him? What are Victor's feelings during his creation of the monster. What is the “fatal impulse”?

3. Characterize Victor's relationship to the Monster. It begins before the creature awakens and continues throughout Victor's life: as the creature says, they are “bound by ties only dissoluble by the annihilation of one of us.” What is the nature of their relationship? What factors contribute to your description?

4. Who or what is the Monster? Trace the course of his development, choosing an “origin” that you think best accounts for the growth of his identity. What role does his relationship with his “father” play and how does he distinguish himself from Victor? What is his psychological relation to his creator?

5. Examine the creature's story through the De Lacey family. Why does the monster tell this tale within a tale? How do the cottagers affect him? What does he learn from the Felix-Safie relationship? How does his reading contribute to his understanding of the cottagers, and why ultimately does he fail with them?

6. Analyze the role of women in the novel. You may focus on one or another character, but provide an argument about gender and its treatment by the narrators. How do masculine and feminine interact in their narratives, particularly in their language? What is Mary Shelley's view on the woman question?

7. Define Clerval's relationship to Victor. Consider their trip through northern Europe and England, culminating in the Lake District. Compare and contrast their responses to the Lake District. Provide an argument and supporting reasons for your view of Clerval. Remain alert to Victor's perspective.

8. Discuss the presence of Wordsworth in Frankenstein. He appears in relation to Clerval and Elizabeth quotes him. How does Victor's own struggle with “nature” involve a Wordsworthian aspect or theme?

9. How does Walton respond to Victor's tale? What new issue arises for Walton and how does he respond? How do the sailors respond? Examine Walton's account of Victor's final speech and his final exchange with the creature. Summarize the affect of Victor's tale on Walton and the novel as a whole.

10. Examine the manifold meanings of “creation” in the novel: natural, scientific, divine, artistic. What do you think Shelley is trying to communicate about this important theme? Provide reasons for your view.

11. What is Mary Shelley's message in Frankenstein? Why does she use the genre of Gothic fiction to present her message? How does the interaction of realism and symbolism affect her presentation of the novel's message?

Top