Reading Response 3 prompts

Reading Response 3 - A Doll House (1349)

Due: Tuesday, February 3

Please provide specific evidence from the play to support your response. Choose one of the following…

1. In what ways does Nora change in each of the three acts? In what aspects does she remain constant? How is the Nora at the close of the play a better or worse person than the Nora at the start?

2. Krogstad seems to be the main antagonist of the play. Is he simply a villain? In what ways does Ibsen get us to feel sympathy for Krogstad?

3. Why do you think Dr. Rank is happier after he confesses his love for Nora? How might this relate to situations the other characters are in?

4. Compare Torvald’s character with that of Dr. Rank and Krogstad. What insights do these comparisons reveal? What do you see about Torvald’s character in comparison to the other men?

5. Contrast the final dialogue between Mrs. Linde and Krogstad with the final one between Torvald and Nora. What differences do you see? Why are these significant?

EWRT1B sections 18 and 62 Essay 2 prompts

Winter 2015 EWRT1B- Essay 2- Comparison of drama

In this paper, you will explore the relationship between one of the plays, A Doll House or Death of a Salesman, and at least one other text in our class (the other play or one of the short stories). This will be a comparison; so you will be looking for similarities between the texts. Please focus on a specific element or elements of drama to base your comparison on. Look at plot, characterization, dialogue, staging, and/or theme. Use one of the prompts below to help guide you analysis.

1. In both plays, we have characters who believe narratives about their own self importance. In other words, they are guilty of pride. As the saying goes, “pride goeth before a fall.” For the characters in the stories you wish to analyze, how does pride contribute to the conflicts in their lives? Try to find a similar pattern in the characters you discuss.
2. As we have discussed, almost all our stories show us characters who believe a narrative about another character and who are unwilling to let go of that narrative. Why are these characters so unwilling to let go of their stories about the other character? Look for common reasons in all the characters you analyze.
3. In both plays, characters come to new insights about themselves. They realize that their old narratives are wrong and that they will need new ones to correspond to their growing understanding of who they are. What causes this reassessment, this realization that their old narratives are wrong? Try to find a common type of cause (or causes) in the works you analyze.
4. Both plays concern characters who lie, so dishonesty is a theme in both works. What causes the characters to lie? What makes lying seem necessary, or even beneficial, to them? Find similar reasons for the characters you discuss.

Advice about your thesis statement. Watch out for a thesis statement that is too simplistic and vague: “the plots of both plays are very similar.” A thesis statement like this not only doesn’t say much, but it will be boring for you to write. Use the elements of drama to make a specific statement.

The only evidence that is required is from the pieces of literature themselves. However, if you would like to use some of the commentary in the book, such as the George Bernard Shaw’s analysis of A Doll House (1403) or Arthur Miller’s discussion of his play (1499), that is fine. Just be sure to cite the commentary correctly.

See more about how to write a comparison and contrast literature paper on page 1647 of Literature and Its Writers. And be sure to look at the common problems and guidelines listed on pages 1637-1641, as well as the questions about drama listed on pages 1104-1105.

Requirements: The paper should be 3-5 pages in length, typed, double-spaced, and in MLA format. Don’t forget a works cited page. See pages 1669-1674 in Literature and Its Writers. You also must submit your paper to Turnitin and have an originality score below 20%. Failure to meet the requirements means failure to receive credit for the assignment.

Due Thursday, February 12

De Anza Winter 2015 Skills Classes posted

The Academic Skills Center at De Anza offers a variety of classes for students. You can see this quarter's schedule though the link. Some of the classes being offered are: "Creating Dynamic Thesis Statements," "Effective Body Paragraphs," "Subject-Verb Agreement," and "The Writing Process: Editing & Revision."

Essay 1 due Tuesday

The prompts have been buried by other posts, but they're still here.

Remember, bring a hard copy to class on Tuesday, but before that submit a copy to Turnitin.

Questions about essay organization came up in section 62. So here's a graphic of the two common approaches to comparison essays:

Any questions, ask them. But you need to ask them before class on Tuesday. 

Reading response prompts for "The Things They Carried"

Here are the prompts for last of the four reading responses. Again, you need to have done two of these four to meet the minimum requirements.

Reading Response for Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” (468)

Due: Thursday, January 22

Choose one of the prompts as the focus of your response. Use specific evidence from the story to demonstrate your opinion.

1. Why does Lieutenant Cross burn the letters at the end? How does this relate to the new identity he is forming and the old one he is abandoning?

2. What stories do the men tell themselves about the war and their place in it to keep themselves going? Are these stories based on truth or necessity? Or both?

3. What kinds of personal items do the men carry? Why do they carry these things? What do they represent? Don’t just talk about each one separately; find a common pattern.

4. What kinds of things do the men do together that help them keep moving? How do these actions help them?

5. Choose your own focus for analysis.

Life is like a box of chocolates… sometimes it gives you free college tuition

This link is making the rounds. Did you know Tom Hanks went to community college?

Reading response for "The Yellow Wallpaper"

If you haven't done a reading response that means you must do one on the "The Yellow Wallpaper" and one on "The Things They Carried." Again, you need to complete a total of two reading responses by Thursday, January 22nd.

Reading Response for Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” (226)

Due: Tuesday, January 20

For this reading response, I want you to do something a little different; I want you to do a close reading. Choose a short passage from the story, anywhere from a paragraph to a half page. The passage you write about is up to you; follow your own instincts. Read the passage carefully; go through all the words and look up any you don’t know. Then think of the major themes of the story and choose one that the passage best demonstrates. Look carefully at all the words in the passage that relate to this theme and circle them. Be sure to consider connotation. Also, look for anything in the style, such as symbols, that relate to the theme. Look also at the actions of the characters and the way the narrator says (or doesn’t say) things. Your reading response should be a write up of your findings. State what passage you chose and what theme you think it reveals. Then demonstrate how it does so with the evidence you discovered above.

Reading response prompts for "Two Kinds"

There is still some confusion about the reading responses, so let me see if I can clarify a bit. The guidelines for reading responses, such as how long they should be, can be found in our syllabus. During these two weeks (week 2 and week 3), you need to complete two reading responses. So if you do one about "Two Kinds," then you will have finished one of those two. For each reading response, I will post a series of prompts. Choose one of these to base your response on. When you respond in writing to one of the prompts about a given story, then you have completed one reading response. You need to hand that in on the same day that the reading is due. For example, you need to read "Two Kinds" for January 15th, so if you chose of do a reading response about "Two Kinds," you need to turn it in on the 15th. If you look, I have also put the due date above the prompts for each reading response.

So here are the set of prompts for "Two Kinds."

Reading Response for Amy Tan’s “Two Kinds” (590) 

Due: Thursday, January 15

Choose one of the prompts as the focus of your response. Use specific evidence from the story to demonstrate your opinion.

1. What factors might explain the mother’s motivation to push her daughter? Consider the mother’s own history as well as the narratives she believes.

2. What contributes to the narrator’s desire to resist her mother’s wishes? In other words, what are the motivating factors for the narrator’s rebellion? Consider setting as well as character.

3. Explain the significance of the final paragraph. How does it act as a resolution to the story?

4. Choose your own focus for analysis.

Reading response prompts for "Sonny's Blues"

First off, I have put a copy of our text, Literature and Its Writers 6th edition, on two hour reserve at the library. Also, the bookstore across the street from De Anza (I forget its name now) has our text and has a rental option.

So below are the prompts for the reading response for "Sonny's Blues." I will post reading response prompts for all the stories we will be reading these next two weeks. Again, you only need to complete two reading responses during this time. Please print out your reading responses and bring them to class on the same day the reading is due. Also, this is a different assignment than the essay. The instructions for reading responses are in the syllabus. The idea is that these should help prepare you for the essay, and for class as well. Again, the prompts for the first essay were posted earlier. If you have any questions about all this, contact me.

Reading Response for James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues” (99)

Due: Tuesday, January 13

Choose one of the prompts as the focus of your response. Use specific evidence from the story to demonstrate your interpretation.

1. In the beginning, what is the narrator’s story about who Sonny is? What is the narrator’s story about his relationship to Sonny? How do these narratives contribute to the conflict between them?

2. When the narrator and Sonny get back together, Sonny is trying to create a new life for himself, a new narrative. What are his obstacles to doing this?

3. Look for places where music appears in the story before the final scene when Sonny plays. What do these scenes have in common? What function does music seem to serve for people in the story?

4. In the end, the narrator sees Sonny’s music as telling a story. What story is it telling? How does this help the characters?

5. Choose your own focus for analysis.

these may be good times for community college students

There seems to be so much bad news about education that I wanted to share these two new stories that concern community colleges.

• Governor Jerry Brown has released the new California budget and education is getting a $7.8 billion increase in funding.

• And President Obama has suggested making community colleges free. Apparently, this is already happening in Tennessee.

Research Groups secondary texts

Here is the list of secondary sources for the research groups with hypertext links added for the on-line readings. If you have a problem with any of the on-line readings (sometimes pages disappear) be sure to let me know. The ones that have page numbers are in our book.

Tu, Jan 13, “Sonny’s Blues” 

James Baldwin, “Autobiographical Notes” (121)

Pancho Savery, "Baldwin, Bebop, and 'Sonny's Blues'"

Th, Jan 15, “Two Kinds”

“Amy Tan: Overview”

Amy Tan, “In the Canon, For All the Wrong Reasons”

Tu, Jan 20,“The Yellow Wallpaper” 

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “Undergoing the Cure for Nervous Prostration” (238) 

Sandra M. Gilbert & Susan Gubar, “A Feminist Reading of Gilman's 'The Yellow Wallpaper'” (239)

Th, Jan 22, “Things They Carried” 

Bobbie Ann Mason, “On Tim O’Brien’s 'The Things They Carried'” (481)

D.J.R. Bruckner, “A Storyteller For the War That Won't End”

Th, Jan 29, for A Doll House, Act 1

Bjorn Hemmer, “The Dramatist: Henrik Ibsen”

Joan Templeton, “Is A Doll House a Feminist Text” (1405)

Tu, Feb 3, for A Doll House, Acts 2 and 3

George Bernard Shaw, “On A Doll House” (1403)

Liv Ullmann, “On Performing Nora in Ibsen's A Doll House” (1407)

Th, Feb 5,  for Death of A Salesman, Act 1

New York Times Arthur Miller obituary

Helge Normann Nilsen, “Marxism and the Early Plays of Arthur Miller” (1502)

Tu, Feb 10 for Death of A Salesman, Act 2 

Arthur Miller, “On Death of a Salesman as an American Tragedy” (1499)

NEH Arthur Miller interview

EWRT1B sections 18 and 62: Essay 1 prompts

Here are the prompts for Essay 1. A pdf of this can also be found on the class site through MyPortal.

Winter 2015 Essay 1- Themes of narrative and identity in short fiction

We tell ourselves stories about who we are and how we should behave. Often we get these narratives from family members, friends, and culture. Sometimes these narratives give us strength. Yet other times these narratives create conflict. These connections between narrative and identity are what we are exploring in the stories for this class and are the concern of the first essay. Numbered below are a series of prompts that state different relationships between narrative and identity. Choose one of these and analyze this theme in at least two of our stories. I am looking for a logically structured, well-argued essay that has a clear thesis statement that names a strong connection between the stories you analyze. The evidence in your paper should come directly from the stories. Keep in mind that the prompt is just to get you started; feel free to sharpen your focus.

Literature and Its Writers has a lot of good advice about writing about literature. Pages 1623-1636 go into detail about how to generate ideas and the process of writing. Quick guidelines can be found on pages 1640-1641. If you want more explanation of what an analytical literature paper is, look on page 1644, and comparison and contrast is talked about on pages 1647-1651. Lastly, be sure to check out the common problems listed on pages 1637-1639.

For clarity, here is a list of the stories you can write about: “The Story of an Hour,” “A Rose for Emily,” “Sonny’s Blues,” “Two Kinds,” “The Yellow Wallpaper,” and “The Things They Carried.”

1. Many of our stories show characters who are unwilling to give up an old narrative, who refuse to change their stories about themselves and the world. How does this unwillingness  to change create conflict for the characters? Demonstrate this in at least two stories.
2. In many of the stories conflict arises when a character’s culture imposes an unwanted narrative upon the character, usually expressed by another character, such as a parent or spouse. How does this cultural narrative create conflict in the stories? Try to find a cultural narrative that is the same in the two stories you analyze.
3. Some of our stories concern a character who is struggling to create a new narrative and a new identity from that narrative. Why is this struggle difficult? What gets in the way of the character? Find a common answer in at least two of our stories.
4. A few of our stories show how people work together to create a narrative that helps them in some way. Why do the characters need to work together and how does having a common narrative help them? Demonstrate your answer in at least two stories.

Requirements: The paper should be 3-5 pages, typed, double-spaced, and in MLA style. See pages 1669-1674 in our book. You also must submit your paper to Turnitin and have an originality score below 20%. Failure to meet the requirements means failure to receive credit for the assignment.

Turnitin: This quarter, we will be using Turnitin to check papers for originality. I will set up accounts for each of you and when I do, you should receive an e-mail from Turnitin. Before the paper is due, submit an electronic copy to Turnitin. Be sure to also bring a hard copy to class. On the Turnitin site, if your paper receives an originality score of above 20%, then you need to go back through your paper and make sure you cited everything correctly. Then submit the paper again. The originality score must be below 20% for the paper to receive credit.

Due Tuesday, January 27th

Office hours, "A Rose for Emily," and literature analysis questions

• Office hours. As it says on the syllabus, I will be holding office hours on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2:45 to 3:45 in the Part-Time Faculty Offices in the Baldwin Winery Building. I've been given space 22 and the phone extension you need to enter on the keypad to ring the phone in that space is 8285. But as I said, I will probably just see you at the door and let you in.

• "A Rose for Emily." I know a few of you won't be able to get our book before Thursday. Faulkner's short story is fairly famous, so you can find copies of it floating around. Here's one link.

• Literature Analysis. As I said, having questions in your mind before you start reading is important. Our book has a good list on pages 19-20. And here is the list I had in the slideshow I presented in class:

• Does the organization of the plot hide certain details? To what effect?

• What elements contribute to the conflict?

• Where is the climax? What creates the climax?

• Is there a resolution? If so, what is it? How is it achieved?

• What motivates the characters/why do they do what they do?

• Are the characters conscious of their own desires?

• How does the setting relate to the conflict of the story?

• How does the setting explain/complicate the actions of the characters?

• How does the point of view of the story affect our understanding of the plot?

• How does the point of view of the story affect our understanding of the characters?

• What characterizes the style of the story? How does this style affect our understanding?

• What themes are developed in the story?

Welcome to EWRT 1B sections 18 and 62, Winter 2015

Hello and welcome to the class.

This is the blog for the class where I will be posting the prompts for out-of-class writing assignments and additional information to help you with the class. Keep in mind that there is also a class page through Course Studio. If you click on the course title when you access your classes in MyPortal, you will be taken to it. I will post files there. For instance, right now you can view a pdf of the class syllabus.

First, click on "files."

Then click on the file name of the file you want. In this case, I labeled the syllabus "EWRT1B1862-syllabus.pdf."

Please e-mail me if you have any problems or questions. My e-mail address can be found through MyPortal as well (I don't want to post it here in order to avoid spambots). Also, you can post comments to any of the posts on this blog.

See you Tuesday!