NOTE:
Marking abbreviations used to note grammatical or stylistic errors on all assignments can be found at a web page maintained by the University of Victoria Department of English. The list is "hyperlinked" with explanations of the errors, as well as definitions of parts of speech, etc. The site can be accessed at:

http://web.uvic.ca/wguide/Pages/MarkingToc.html

Essay Guidelines and Criteria are now available in PDF format, and can be accessed at:

Guidelines for Writing of Essays

Assignment #1
Assigned: Tutorial 3
Due Date: Throughout and at the Conclusion of the Course
Weight: 5%

This assignments requires each student to create and maintain a "commonplace" blog (probably on Wordpress, a free and open blogging site available online). Students will use this blog as a kind of "commonplace book," a place to record particularly interesting, worthwhile, or important information gleaned from readings, lecture, and tutorial, as well as a few salient lines, phrases, or passages that you think might be useful to remember.

Students are expected to produce one blog entry every two weeks of the course, beginning the week of September 24 - September 28. For practical purposes, you will be writing at least 11 blog entries. You may, of course, write more if you wish. Each entry should be a minimum of 100 words, excluding quotes from texts. The blog posts need not be written in an "academic" style -- blog writing is generally fairly informal -- but they should at least be grammatically correct, and they should relate to a text we have recently read and discussed.

There are two main functions to these blogs:

1) To help the student identify salient, interesting, or important information discussed in the course.

2) To provide a handy "study guide" for the first term test and final exam.

In addition, students will be encouraged -- and would be well advised -- to "follow" the blogs of other students in your tutorial section, and even comment on them. You can learn a great deal from this kind of online "discussion." Note, however, that the usual sanctions against plagiarism count: do not merely copy the blogs of others, although you may link to them..

On occasion, I will be visiting your blogs and commenting on them where useful.

You may create a blog using any online blogging application that you like, but I recommend WordPress, which is both free and relatively easy to use.

WordPress.com

A brief primer on creating a WordPress blog has been created by Miriam Posner (University of California at Los Angeles), and can be downloaded here:

Starting a WordPress Site

You'll find some guidelines on writing your blog, and a "sample" blog entry, at my class blog:

My English1020E Blog

When you have created your blog, please e-mail the web address to your Teaching Assistant and myself.

Assignment #2
Assigned: Tutorial 4
Due Date: Tutorial 9
Weight: 5%

Thesis Draft and Outline

This assignment consists of two parts, of equal worth. Choosing one of the essay topics listed for Assignment 3, below (the work you produce for this assignment should, ideally, serve also as the topic for your first term essay), produce a brief thesis statement, and a point-form outline of your proposed argument.

1) Thesis Statement

In between 100-200 words, write in proper English, a draft "thesis" statement for your proposed essay in paragraph form. This should outline a) your subject (i.e., what aspect of your chosen text you are planning to write about, and b) what you intend to prove about this in your argument.

For guidance on what constitutes a good thesis, see the course web site at:

http://instruct.uwo.ca/english/020e-002/site/resources.html#thesis

In addition, Tutorial 6 will be devoted to further discussion on designing a thesis.

2) Outline of your proposed argument

In point form, provide, in 100-200 words, a brief outline of the direction you think your argument will proceed, with some indication of some of the evidence you plan to use. The outline should be arranged in the sequence of topics as you intend to follow then in the essay. Be sure to be clear in your outline: remember that it is to be read by someone (your tutorial leader) who will need sufficient information about your points to evaluate whether they are likely to be fruitful or not.

A portion of Tutorial 7 will be devoted to this subject.

Note: While this exercise is intended to assist you in preparing your first term essay, you are not obliged to use the thesis, argument, or even essay question you employ here for that essay. Indeed, one of the points of this exercise is to provide feedback from your tutorial leader so that you can adjust your thesis or argument to produce a better final essay.

Assignment #3
Assigned: Tutorial 4
Due Date: Tutorial 13
Weight: 15%

First Term Essay
(Length: 1200-1500 words)

Choose a topic from those listed below, and write a short essay. This need not be a research essay. Please remember that the penalty for lateness is 1% per business day. All papers not handed in during class should be left in one of the essay drop-off boxes in front of the main English office, University College. For essay format, consult "Guidelines for Essays," at the Eng 1020E Web Site, http://instruct.uwo.ca/english/020e-002/site/resources.html#essay or "MLA Tips" on the Dept. of English Web Site, http://www.uwo.ca/english/undergrad/MLAstyletips.html. A sample essay is available at: http://instruct.uwo.ca/english/020e-002/site/smplessy/smplessyHm.html

Topics

• Discuss the nature and function of the religious imagery in Donne's “The Flea.” How does he use it, and why? What is its “meaning” and impact in the context of a poem about sexuality?
  
  
• Explore the structure of Jonathan Swift's A Modest Proposal , focusing particularly on the way in which the persona's argument unfolds, and how we are forced to reinterpret earlier portions of his analysis in the context of later developments. Why is the argument structured this way?
  
  
• With a particular focus upon the “character” and voice of Marlow, discuss how the framing narrative(s) within Conrad's Heart of Darkness may – or may not – impact or complicate the novella's treatment of imperialism and race.
  
  
• Perform a close reading of Walcott's “Out of Africa,” focusing upon such things as metre, form, rhyme, and word choice. How do these contribute to the meaning(s) of the poem?
  
  
• Apply Sidney's defence of literature to any one of the works we are studying this term. Do his characterizations of the function and nature of poetry (and literature) apply? How do they apply? Is that work vulnerable to a Platonic critique, and if so, how?
  
  
• Is Samuel Johnson's treatment of the novel in Rambler 4 more concerned with the role of the author, or of the reader? How does these two relate? Why does Johnson chooses to focus upon one, rather than other?
  
  
• Use Coleridge's characterization of the imagination and the nature of literature in The Aeolian Harp to his own poem. Does the poem exemplify his own understanding of poetry, and if so, how?
  
  
• Auden's Musee des Beaux Artes is a poem about painting. What are the similarities between these two artistic forms that are implied by the poem? What is Auden saying about poetry when he talks about painting, and is there a reason for his choice to approach his subject in this indirect way?
  
  
• Discuss Woolf's understanding, as articulated in A Room of One's Own , of the importance of gender to writing. Do women write differently than men? How is this important? And is this a “good” thing?
  
  
• Discuss the social and literary satire that Beaumont is undertaking through his characterization of the Citizen and his wife in The Knight of the Burning Pestle. Is this satire complicated at all by the other “plays” going on within this play?
  
  
• Compare Larkin's “This Be the Verse” to his “High Windows.” What similarities in theme or treatment are there in these two poems? What generalizations can we make about Larkin's poetry and his poetic interests on the basis of these two poems?

You should consult the Essay Criteria sheet for both an understanding of how these will be marked, as well as a useful series of tips to help you construct your essay.

Assignment #4
Assigned: Tutorial 16
Due date: Tutorial 23
Weight: 20%

Second Term Essay
(Length: About 2000 words)

This essay should be between about 2000 words in length. Please remember that this should be a research essay. You should consult at least one book and two articles relevant to your text and topic. See your tutorial leader if you require help. Remember also that a research essay does not merely regurgitate the arguments of its secondary sources, but uses them to support an independent thesis. It is strongly recommended that you devise your thesis before consulting any secondary sources.

The penalty for lateness is 1% per business day. All papers not handed in during class should be left in one of the essay drop-off boxes in front of the main English office, University College. For essay format, consult "Guidelines for Essays," at the course Web Site, http://instruct.uwo.ca/english/020e-002/site/resources.html#essay or "MLA Tips" on the Dept. of English Web Site, http://www.uwo.ca/english/site/undrgrd/mlatips/index.html . A sample essay is available at: http://instruct.uwo.ca/english/020e-002/site/smplessy/smplessyHm.html

Topics

• Aphra Behn's "The Disappointment" was written in the form of a "pastoral" ballad, and employs character names, motifs, and a setting that are characteristic of that genre. Yet, the subject matter – sexual dysfunction – seems in this context strangely incongruous. Discuss the poem's use of pastoral. Why does Behn choose to present her poem this way?
  
  
• "Fantomina" begins at a playhouse, and is centred upon a young woman who is described as, and proves herself to be, a consummate "actress" of a sort. Discuss Eliza Haywood's novella from the perspective of performance and play-acting.
  
  
• Andrew Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress" is often viewed as the classic "Carpe Diem" poem, but it is also a carefully structured discussion of the relationship of human experience to time and space. Explore the poem with relation to these two themes.
  
  
• "The Lover: A Ballad" is, in some ways, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu's answer to the "seduction" poem. Write a comparative essay that explores both this poem, and Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress," with a focus upon the importance of the gendered perspective in each.
  
  
• Discuss the more conventional reading of Christina Rossetti's "Goblin Market" as a poem for children. How does it teach the young, and what is it teaching them? (You need not address the Queer Theory reading of the poem at any length, but you may want to at least address briefly the problematic reading that it gives to the poem.)
  
  
• Choose one long(ish) speech by Satan in Paradise Lost, and examine it in detail, analyzing the language, use of metre, imagery, and any other features that seem important. Be careful to explain it within the context of the themes of the epic as a whole. What do the features of the speech say about Satan's character, and how do they relate to the attempt to "justify the ways of God to man"?
  
  
• Consider the ways in which the three "communities" that are featured in Paradise Lost – Heaven, Hell, and Eden – mirror, parody, or comment upon each other. How does this mirroring impact upon the themes of the poem?
  
  
• Discuss Dryden's Macflecknoe as a narrative poem. How does the unfolding of the "story" in this poem assist Dryden's aim of producing a mock heroic poem, and attacking Shadwell?
  
  
• Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock is, of course, a satire on a particular event and its participants, but its satiric commentary can also be said to extend beyond the immediate circle of Belinda and the Baron, to English society and politics as a whole. Discuss the broader satire of this poem, and how the particular social satire relates to English culture.
  
  
• Tom Stoppard's The Real Inspector Hound is a "murder mystery" or "detective" story. What is the real mystery at operation in this play? In what sense is it a "mystery" story?
  
  
• Thomas Gray's "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" is often seen as a sympathetic critique of class in 18 th -century England, in that it celebrates and "gives voice" to those whom society has silenced. To what degree, however, is this also a conservative poem? Whom does it neglect to recognize? Is there any sense in which its perspective actually encourages complacency, rather than change?
  
  
• Explore the role and treatment of class in relation to language inTony Harrison's poem V.
  
  
• Consider T.S. Eliot's The Wasteland in the context of his essay, "Tradition and the Individual Talent" ( Norton 2: 2639). To what degree does the poem reflect the ideas articulated in that essay, and to what effect?
  
  
• Explore the uses of the inset narratives within Jeanette Winterson's Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit. What is the function of these miniature fables and stories, and how do they relate to the larger themes of the novel as a whole?
  
  
• Consider the relationship between literature and history in Satrapi's Persepolis. How does the use of narrative and image assist in the preservation of historical memory, and what does it do to our understanding of the historical events that she is documenting?

You should consult the Essay Criteria sheet for both an understanding of how these will be marked, as well as a useful series of tips to help you construct your essay.