Instructor: Sarah Terry
E-mail: snterry@u.washington.edu

Office: Padelford B5D
Office Hours: Tu/Th 8:30-9:20

March 5 2008, 9:11 AM

Week 10 Reminders

It is very important that you stay on top of these deadlines as we finish out the quarter:

• Monday, 3/10: Reading Response 5 is due, along with Reading Responses 1-4.  You will not pass this class if you do not turn in all five responses together as a set for a grade.
• M-Th, 3/10-13: Class performances of The Importance of Being Earnest.  See the schedule I e-mailed the class.  Each group has 15 minutes.
• Friday, 3/14: Revised Paper due, in my office, by noon.

February 20 2008, 10:42 AM

Extended Office Hours Friday, 2/22

I will be holding extended office hours in the HUB on Friday from 11am to 3pm, so please drop by! I'm open to chatting about anything you want -- midterm/final papers, specific poems, literature in general... No need for an appointment, just stop by. I'll be in "Bageltown," formerly known as the Atrium. On this map, it's still labeled the "Atrium."

February 12 2008, 9:54 PM

Annotated Bibliography Assignment

1. Your Annotated Bibliography must contain at least 3 critical sources. If you are unsure what that means, please ask me to check your sources.
2. Of those three sources, at least one must be a book chapter, and at least one must be an article from an academic journal.
3. If you use any web-based sources, you must send me a copy of the link so I can approve the source before you include it in your annotations.
4. Each of your three annotations must be 1/2 - 1 page, single-spaced. Please click here to see a sample Annotated Bibliography in MLA format.

February 11 2008, 8:17 AM

Optional Revised Paper: Requirements

Now that you've gotten back your Midterm Papers, I thought I would outline my policy for turning in the optional revised paper. In order for me to accept a revised paper, you must do the following:

1. Read all of my comments, and write a first draft of your revised paper that takes into consideration both the grading rubric (see link to the right), and any changes I suggested.
2. Take a copy of your revised paper draft to a writing center (see links to the left). While at the writing center, you must have the tutor work with you on your paper and then sign the draft of your paper.
3. When you turn in your final draft of the revised paper to me, you must also turn in your initial paper with my comments and grade, along with the first draft of the revised version, with the writing tutor's signature.

You must follow all of these steps in order to receive a grade replacement based on your revised paper.

February 5 2008, 8:54 AM

Reminders and Calendar Revision

• The due date for the (optional) revised paper is now the last day of classes: Friday, March 14, by 5pm. You have the option of revising either your Midterm Paper or Final Paper, but not both.

• I have posted a link to my paper grading rubric under "Important Documents." You can use this to help understand my feedback on your Midterm Papers when I return them next week.

• Today in class I handed out a sample critical article about Blake's poem "London." If you feel you need the practice engaging with a critical source, you may use this article in your Reading Response 3, which is due Thursday. The article was taken from Norton LitWeb, so feel free to look for other articles if this one doesn't strike your fancy.

• As we begin our poetry unit, please begin to think about which poet or poem(s) you might like to write about in your Final Paper. Again, there are a number of good ideas for paper topics on Norton LitWeb, so explore! Remember, you will need to use at least 2 of the 3 sources from your Annotated Bibliography, which will be due one week before your Final Paper.

January 22 2008, 8:47 AM

Tip: Online Writing Guide

As you begin working on your midterm paper, please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the Norton LitWeb guide, "Writing About Literature" (accessible by the link at left). It's an extremely useful guide to the writing process, and you can use it at any stage in your paper writing. A good place to start if you are having trouble choosing a text and formulating an argument is the following page:

http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/litweb05/writing/34-1.asp#34_1_2

Do take a few minutes to explore the rest of the online handbook -- it's the writing guide that is included in the (bigger, more expensive) Norton Introduction to Literature, but you can read these chapters on writing for free online. So take advantage!

Also, please e-mail your paper idea/topic/argument to me by tomorrow night (Wednesday, 1/23) so I can put you in appropriate discussion groups on Thursday.

January 16 2008, 11:35 AM

Due Date Change: Midterm Paper

The Midterm Paper will now be due on Thursday, January 31, in class.

October 10 2007, 8:40 AM

Course Description

The overall goal of this course is to equip you with techniques for and practice in reading and responding critically to a variety of forms of literature. We will read a wide variety of literary texts, ranging from poetry to prose to drama, and from the 18^th to the 20^th century. With each text we read, the focus will be on developing close-reading practices that help us engage in and hopefully enjoy the reading process. We will begin in perhaps more familiar territory with the short story, reading short fiction by Hawthorne, Poe, Chopin, Joyce, Kafka, and O'Connor (x2). From fiction we will move to a selection of poetry by Coleridge, Keats, Dickinson, Blake, Yeats, Eliot, Pound, Auden, and Hughes, among others. We will finish the quarter with a play by Wilde, looking for commonalities between the three genres under investigation as they converge at this moment at the turn of the century. In all the literature we read together, we will focus on the social, political, and philosophical implications of each genre, considering the possibilities of literature as representative of human experience. Along the way, we will read accompanying works of literary criticism in order to better situate our critical responses within existing critical conversations – how do claims other readers of literature have made compare to our own findings and interests?

Course requirements include a demanding reading schedule, short reading responses, active in-class participation, an annotated bibliography of critical sources, a midterm paper, and a final paper.

Texts: Kelly, ed. The Seagull Reader: Literature, 1^st ed.