ENGLISH+1102

**__ENGLISH 1102: COMPOSITION II __** = =

Fall 2012 MW: Fall 2012 TR:
 * ==__**SYLLABUSES**__==


 * ==__**BIBLIOGRAPHIC ESSAY/RESEARCH PAPER TOPICS LIST**__==

[|Diana Hacker's Online Guide to MLA Citations]
 * ==__**REFERENCE GUIDES**__==

__**BIBLIOGRAPHIC ESSAY INFORMATION AND EXAMPLES:**__

 * Bibliographic Essay Assignment Description and Guidelines: [[file:biblio essay assignment.rtf]]
 * [|Dr. Bill Williamson's Explanation of the Basics of a Bibliographic Essay]
 * [|Cornell University Library's Guide to Analyzing Sources>]
 * Student Bibliographic Essay Example from Fall Semester 2008 (paper that got an 'A'): [[file:Biblio Essay Example - Bell Witch.docx]]
 * Student Bibliographic Essay Example #2, Spring '09 (another paper that got an 'A'): [[file:eating disorders bib ess ex.rtf]]

__RESPONSE AND RESEARCH PAPER EXAMPLES:__

 * Response Paper Example (from Spring 2009): [[file:Short Response Promise Example.rtf]]
 * Response Paper Example 2 (from Summer 2010): [[file:example 1102 office space.rtf]]
 * Response Paper Example (Schindler's List, from May 2009): [[file:Engl 1102 Response Example Schindler.rtf]]
 * Three-Page Research Paper on Teen Suicide: [[file:Teen Suicide Rsrch Ex Sum 09.rtf]]
 * Three-Page Research Paper on Tattoos: [[file:ENGL 1102 Tat Rsrch Ppr Ex.rtf]]
 * Four-Page Research Paper on Plagiarism: [[file:ENGL plagiarism rsrch example.rtf]]

**__ Response Exam Topics __** 1: __INNOCENCE AND EDUCATION__: Texts such as Lawrence's "The Rocking-Horse Winner," Frost's "The Road Not Taken," and Joyce's "Araby" deal with the images of innocence and childhood, and the processes of education and identity formation that leads from that state to one of maturity and adulthood. Think about what kinds of lessons are being learned and identies are being formed in these works, as well as the various aspects of those processes, and the obstacles and complexities that come with education. Select one of these texts and discuss what it depicts about innocence, education, and maturity, considering issues such as what sets that process in motion, if the education is complete or left unfinished, and what the features and functions of education are. **[500 words]**

2: __FAMILY SYSTEMS__: Works like "Popular Mechanics" "Letter to My Future Child," //Tender Offer//, and "Letters from a Father" deal with parents, children, and familial relationships. Select one of these poems or stories and discuss the family relationship that is being presented in it. Consider the individual characters in the family, their interactions with one another, and how the family unit works (or doesn't work) as a whole. **[500 words]**

3: __GENDER AND SEXUALITY__: Texts such as "Hills Like White Elephants," "Homage to My Hips," "Metaphors," and "1994" all foreground the issue of gender and the ways that it is constructed and experienced. Select one of these texts and discuss the particular gender experience that it depicts, considering issues such as if the experience is particular to a certain gender, if the experience is positive or negative, and what larger point the writer may be making about gender and its meanings. **[500 words]**

4: __COMBAT AND VIOLENCE__: We've examined a number of texts that deal with the experience of combat: the "Omaha Beach" section of Saving Private Ryan, "The Things They Carried," "The Performance," "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner," "Facing It," and "We Never Know” are just a few. Select one of these texts and discuss the various emotions and reactions to combat that it depicts (reactions such as fear, bravery, sorrow, shock, confusion, or others) and what combat means overall in the particular text. **[500 words]**

5: __WORK, LABOR, AND VOCATION__: //Office Space//, "A & P," "Hay for the Horses," "the trash men," and "Escaped Housewife Prefers the Term Cosmetologist" all depict specific kinds of labor and work experiences. Select one of these texts and analyze the work experience that it depicts. Consider issues such as part-time job versus career, youth versus experience, sense of personal satisfaction with the work experience, and physical versus non-physical/intellectual labor. **[500 words]**

6: __PLAY__: In "Be Drunk" Baudelaire contends that to truly be alive a person must always feel intoxicated, and that there are several main ways to attain this state: "wine," "poetry," and "virtue." We've looked at several texts that expand on ideas of play and intoxication; select one of them and discuss the ways of becoming and staying intoxicated that it describes, as well as if, in the text, that state is positive or negative. **[500 words]**

7: __MORTALITY AND THE GOTHIC__: Texts such as "We Real Cool," "wax job," "Providence," "The Lottery," "The Lifeguard," and Traveling Through the Dark" suggest the fragility of life, and the difficulties and possibilities of dealing with that fragility. Along with that fragility, many of them also use traditional gothic themes and images such as suspense, mystery, extreme emotional states like horror and terror, death and decay, ghosts, madness, and dark secrets. Select one of these texts and consider how the characters deal with mortality and how some of these gothic elements affect the characters and the story. **[500 words]**

8: __PERCEPTION AND INTERPRETATION__: Hannah's "Water Liars," Wright's "Lying in a Hammock...," and Kooser's "In the Basement of the Goodwill Store" seem to be texts about how people perceive (and misperceive) themselves and the world around them. For this topic, select one of these texts and examine the perceptions, and misperceptions of the characters, and how these (mis)perceptions affect their behavior. You might consider a character's view of him/herself, views on other characters, and perceptions of life, setting, and/or action. **[500 words]**

9: __PLACE, SPACE, AND SETTING__: Setting involves more than just simple place—it can refer to times of day and year and life, people, animals, objects, and spacial structure, just to name a few aspects. More specifically, natural settings are important in a number of the poems that we’ve read: “Shooting Rats at the Bibb County Dump,” "The Deer Lay Down Their Bones," "Woodchucks," “Possum Crossing,” and "Spunk," and just to name a few. Select one of these texts and consider what setting means and how it is used in the text. What kind of space does the author create? What kinds of people, objects, and/or animals are in this space, and how do they interact with it? How do all of these aspects work together to create an overall effect or meaning? **[500 words]**

10: __INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS__: Chekhov’s “The Lady with the Little Dog,” Carver's "Why Don't You Dance?" Olds’s “The Promise,” Gilbert’s “Failing and Flying,” Dickey’s “Cherrylog Road,” Duhamel's "Buying Stock," and Kinnell’s “After Making Love We Hear Footsteps” all deal with intimate personal relationships, and the complexities and possibilities associated with those relationships. Select one of these texts and analyze the kind of relationship that is being depicted, the characters involved, and the interactions and complexities of that relationship. **[500 words]**

11: __MORALITY AND RELIGION__: Flannery O’Connor’s stories “A Good Man is Hard to Find," Marquez's "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" and the "Human Sacrifice" sequence from //Fight Club// are all concerned with what it means to be "good," and with what constitutes proper behavior for people as they interact and engage with the world. Select one of these texts and explain what "good" and proper means in it, how those notions are defined, and what characters display or define these meanings. **[500 words]**

12a: //__Schindler's List__//: Near the middle of Schindler’s List, a young woman visits Schindler and asks him if he will bring her parents to work in his factory because it is a “haven” where Jews have a better chance of survival. This scene speaks very clearly to the kinds of meanings that particular sites and spaces acquire in this film. We have discussed a number of these spaces and their various meanings, based on particular incidents and moments in the film. For this topic, select two or three of these spaces and discuss their meanings in the film and how and why they acquire these meanings. You might consider if these meanings change or remain the same over the course of the movie, and if a space has different meanings for different people or groups. **[600 words]** [or] 12b: __//Schindler's List//__: Oskar Schindler and Amon Goth are the two dominant characters in Schindler's List. Select one of them and analyze his character in the film. Consider issues such as if that character changes over the course of the film (static or dynamic character), the specific interactions that character has with the Krakow Jews, the most significant event/events in which that character is involved in the film, and the fate of that character at the end of the film. You are free to make a value judgment about the character you choose (good person/bad person/hero/villain), but you must support that judgment with clear evidence, actions, and incidents from the film. **[600 words]**


 * __Tradition versus Progress__: As we discussed in class, Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" is often read as a dealing thematically and symbolically with tensions between Tradition and Progress or, to put it more simply, the Past and the Future. Discuss the ways that Emily (and the things and people associated with her) represents the past in the story, as well as the ways in which she tries to hold on to the past and resist change and progress. (You might also consider the effects and consequences of her efforts, as well as the objects and characters that represent progress and change, though that's not absolutely necessary.)** [500 words; N/A FOR FALL 2012]


 * __Confinement/Imprisonment__: //American History X//, //Cool Hand Luke//, James Baldwin’s story “Sonny’s Blues,” Etheridge Knight’s poem “The Idea of Ancestry,” and Nazim Hikmet’s poem “Some Advice to Those Who Will Serve Time in Prison” all deal with the experience of being imprisoned and/or oppressed, and the effects that this experience has on those who are imprisoned. Select one of these works and analyze the ways that it explores this experience and its causes and effects. **[500 words; N/A FOR FALL 2012]**

__**--> ONLINE TEXTS, LINKS, AND INFORMATION (alphabetical)**__

 * [|"1994," Lucille Clifton]
 * [|"Adding It Up, Philip Booth]
 * [|"After Making Love We Hear Footsteps," Galway Kinnell]
 * [|"Autopsy in the Form of An Elegy," John Stone]
 * [|"Bar Napkin Sonnett #11," Moira Egan]
 * [|"Be Drunk," Charles Baudelaire]
 * [|"The Blue Bowl," Jane Kenyon]
 * [|"Buying Stock," Denise Duhamel]
 * [|"Cartoon Physics, part 1," Nick Flynn]
 * [|"Charles McCartney ('Goat Man')," Susan Copeland]
 * [|"Cherrylog Road," James Dickey]
 * [|"The Deer Lay Down Their Bones," Robinson Jeffers]
 * [|"The Desk," David Bottoms]
 * [|"Did I Miss Anything?" Tom Wayman]
 * [|"Domestic Work, 1937," Natasha Trethewey]
 * [|"Escaped Housewife Prefers the Term Cosmetologist," Karen Craigo]
 * [|"Failing and Flying," Jack Gilbert]
 * [|"First Coca Cola," Rodney Jones]
 * [|"Grief Calls Us to the Things of This World," Sherman Alexie]
 * [|"Hanging Fire," Audre Lorde]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|"Hay for the Horses," Gary Snyder]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|Snyder Reads "Hay..."]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 121%;">[|"Helen of Troy Does Countertop Dancing," Margaret Atwood]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 121%;">[|"here rests," Lucille Clifton]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 121%;">[|"The Idea of Ancestry," Etheridge Knight]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 121%;">[|"Indian Education": Sherman Alexie Talks About His Autobiographical Stories]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 121%;">[|"In the Basement of the Goodwill Store," Ted Kooser]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 101%;">"Letter to the Editor of the //Oxford Eagle//, William Faulkner: [[file:Faulkner Letter.rtf]]
 * [|"Letter to My Future Child," Megan Amram]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|"Letters from a Father," Mona Van Duyn]
 * [|"The Life You Save May Be Your Own," Flannery O'Connor]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|"The Lifeguard," James Dickey]
 * [|"Litany," Billy Collins]
 * [|"Love Poem with Toast," Miller Williams]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|"Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy's Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota," James Wright]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|"A Mad Fight Song for William S. Carpenter, 1966," James Wright]
 * [|"Maybe Dats Your Pwoblem Too," James W. Hall]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|"Morning," Billy Collins]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|"The Mother," Gwendolyn Brooks]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|"My Daughter at the Gymnastics Party," David Bottoms]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|"My Father on His Shield," Walt McDonald]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|"Neighbors, Throwing Knives," David Bottoms]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|"On Living," Nazim Hikmet]
 * [|"Once in a While I Gave Up," Sharon Olds]
 * [|"Painting a Room," Katia Kapovich]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|"The Performance," James Dickey]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|"Popular Mechanics," Raymond Carver]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|"Possum Crossing," Nikki Giovanni]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|"The Promise," Sharon Olds]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|"Providence," Natasha Trethewey]
 * [|"Questions About Angels," Billy Collins]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|"The Real Oskar Schindler," Herbert Steinhouse]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|"Scrambled Eggs and Whiskey," Hayden Carruth]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|"Separation," W.S. Merwin]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|"Shooting Rats at the Bibb County Dump," David Bottoms]
 * [|"Sign for My Father, Who Stressed the Bunt," David Bottoms]
 * [|"Slam, Dunk, & Hook," Yusef Komunyakaa]
 * [|"Snow," David Berman]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|"Some Advice to Those Who Will Serve Time in Prison," Nazim Hikmet]
 * [|"The Summer I was Sixteen," Geraldine Connolly]
 * [|"Thanking My Mother for Piano Lessons," Diane Wakowski]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|"the trash men," Charles Bukowski]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|"the vacant lot," Gwendolyn Brooks]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|"Water Liars," Barry Hannah]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|"wax job," Charles Bukowski]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|"We Never Know," Yusef Komunyakaa]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|"The Wedding Vow," Sharon Olds]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|What Lips My Lips Have Kissed, and Where, And Why," Edna St. Vincent Millay]
 * [|"What the Living Do," Marie Howe]
 * [|"Wheels," Jim Daniels]
 * [|"Why Don't You Dance?" Raymond Carver]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|"who in the hell is Tom Jones?" Charles Bukowski]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|"Woodchucks," Maxine Kumin]
 * <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">[|"Working Late," Louis Simpson]