Assignments

«back | Test #1 | Test #2 | Critical Contexts Essay | Final Analytical Essay

Test #1

timed exam (1 hour 30 minutes) to be completed on 9/28 (B); 9/23 (D)

The first test is CLOSED book and notes and will include the following:

  • Part I: Short answer/fill in the blank exercises for definitions from Unit 1: Plot, Summary, Character, and Point of View (review the This Week Archive)
  • Part II: Short analysis questions based on the poems covered in Unit 1:
     
    "Mid-Term Break" by Seamus Heaney (604)
    "On Her Loving Two Equally " by Aphra Behn (612-3)
    "Aunt Jennifer's Tigers" by Adrienne Rich (628)
    "The Ruined Maid" by Thomas Hardy (639)
    "A Certain Lady" by Dorothy Parker (647)
    "She Dwelt among the Untrodden Ways" by William Wordsworth (649)
    "To His Coy Mistress" by Andrew Marvell, (671-2)
    "One Perfect Rose" by Dorothy Parker, (722-3)
    "Ballad of Birmingham" by Dudley Randall (824)
    "My Last Duchess" by Robert Browning (827-8)
     
  • Part III: Short essay question based on the short stories and drama covered in Unit 1:
     
    "A Pair of Tickets" Amy Tan (204-17)
    "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne (232-41)
    "Janus" by Ann Beattie (248-51)
    "Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin, (449-51)
    "Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman (513-24)
    A Doll House by Henrik Ibsen (1508-56)

This is a timed exam not to exceed 1 hour and 30 minutes. Misspelling and minor grammar errors will not count against you, but you may lose points in essays for severe errors that detract from the sense of your answer.

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Test #2

timed exam (2 hours 30 minutes) to be completed 10/19 (B); 10/14 (D)

Parts I and II of this test are CLOSED book and notes. Part III is OPEN book, CLOSED notes. The second test will include the following:

  • Part I: Short answer/fill in the blank exercises for definitions from Unit II: Theme, Tone, and Figurative Language (review the This Week Archive
  • Part II: Short analysis questions of figurative language/formal features in the poems covered in Unit 2:
     
    "The Tally Stick" by Jarold Ramsey (596)
    "love poem" by Linda Pastan (597)
    "To the Ladies" by Mary, Lady Chudleigh (613)
    "London" by William Blake (625)
    "Those Winter Sundays" by Robert Hayden (633)
    [When our two souls stand up] by Elizabeth Barrett Browning (786)
    "In the Park" by Gwen Harwood (788)
    [My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun] by William Shakespeare (788)
    "Harlem" by Langston Hughes (820)
    "Dulce et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen (823)
    "What's That Smell in the Kitchen" by Marge Piercy (830)
    [Because I could not stop for death] by Emily Dickinson (980)

     
  • Part III: Short essay question based on the fiction works covered in Unit 2. This portion of the exam will be open book:
     
    "Roman Fever" by Edith Wharton (110-19)
    "Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allen Poe (123-28)
    "Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" by Ambrose Bierce (507-13)
    "Scarlet Ibis" by Margaret Atwood (553-63)

This is a timed exam not to exceed the class period. Misspelling and minor grammar errors will not count against you, but you may lose points in essays for severe errors that detract from the sense of your answer.

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Critical Contexts Essay

Due: 11/16 (B); 11/11 (D)

Format instructions: papers should be in MLA format, except that the Works Cited page may be included on the same page of the last page of text if there is room (be sure to remember your Works Cited page and to check the format examples on the website). Minimum length: 500 words.

Assignment: Both Ellen Dowling's "The Derailment of a Streetcar Named Desire" and Lisbeth Lipari's "Fearful of the Written Word: White Fear, Black Writing, and Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun" discuss the issue of censorship in relation to the film adaptation of a dramatic work. Describe the type of censorship that each of these critics discuss and how that censorship related to the production of the film version of each play. Be sure to include at least one specific example from each play that demonstrates how censorship functioned in that case. Then, analyze how the forms of censorship discussed were similar to and different from each other. In your conclusion, discuss what you learned about how censorship functions in relation to literature from these critical articles.

Be sure to

  • use quotations from the texts to support your claims
  • discuss at least one important example of censorship from each article
  • discuss the consequences of this censorship (given in your example) to the overall meaning of the play/screenplay/film
  • discuss the mechanisms of censorship in each case (who? how? why?)
  • include a concluding discussion as described above

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Final Essay

Due: Monday 12/7 by 8pm (B); Wednesday 12/9 by 4:30pm (D)

Format Instructions: MLA format, 5-7 pages (double spaced).

Assignment: For the final paper, you will choose at least THREE primary texts of two different genres (fiction, poetry, drama) we have studied in Units 1 and 2 and the dramas in Unit 3 and place them into a an analytical context with each other. Identify a specific theme that links your works and relate this theme to some element(s) of literature we have studied (setting, character, point of view, etc.), then craft an analytical thesis to describe this connective logic. Support your thesis by performing close readings of the texts, and in your conclusion, address the differences in the way your thesis works in these texts as well as similarities.

You may make any analytical argument you wish, but the topic must be approved by the instructor during the topic workshop in the first week of Unit 4. You will also need to bring as complete a draft as possible to the individual meeting with the instructor the following week. Having a draft prepared for this meeting will be a part of your participation grade for the course.

Be sure to use quotations from the texts to support your claims, to cite paraphrases and quotations properly, and to include a Works Cited section.

Turning in the Final Essay: You may turn in the final essay using one of these options:

1. Drop off your paper at the Welcome Center before the due date/time listed above. The Welcome Center staff will time stamp your paper.

2. Submit your paper electronically through the Sakai course website. Log on using your Lourdes email ID and password (https://elearning.lourdes.edu/portal), then click on the ENG 200 tab. Click on the "Assignments" section and upload your final paper using the link provided. You will see a confirmation message when your paper has been successfully uploaded. If you use the electronic submission option, be sure to send your paper in Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) or in Rich Text Format (.rtf). I cannot open Works (.wps) or Word Perfect (.wpd) files.

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© 2009 Susan Shelangoskie, Ph.D.