English 1301 and 1302, Week 1, 14-28 January 2013

Please know that at the time of posting BlackBoard was no available. 
English 1302 notes follow English 1301 notes.

Week 1, 14-18 2013, English 1301, Monday night

 

Administrivia, including syllabus, grading rubrics, long-term reading assignments in the Bedford Handbook, business letter format, MLA essay format, research paper assignment with time lines and due-dates, and a lesson in proper research techniques, esp. in the matter of sorting out accurate information from the masses of drivel.  Remember to check angryverbs.blogspot.com once a week or so.

 

The reading assignments, including the syllabus and other handouts, and the textbook, are not suggestions.  If you work seriously for only 15-30 minutes a night, you will accomplish much understanding.  If you wait until the night before the next class, you won’t succeed.  This isn’t high school.

 

English 1302, Tuesday and Thursday mornings

 

Tuesday: Administrivia as above, but of course your syllabus is specific to your class.  Also read your handout re Anglo-Saxon literature and Beowulf, and review the four-beat line, caesura, alliteration, and kenning.

 

Reading a catalogue or magazine in class is ineffective in learning and in the matter of reference letters for scholarships and college admission.  So is having one’s head down and eyes closed, however briefly.

 

Thursday:

 

1.    Journal entry – a paragraph or two in personal reaction to a Daily Mail (UK) article stereotyping college freshmen as suffering an unwarranted sense of entitlement.  You will not receive a grade unless you do not make a clear, serious effort.

 

And I have journals for you; Office Depot featured a sale on composition books, though of course you are welcome to use any blank book you wish.

 

2.    Intro. To Beowulf from the Politically Incorrect Guide to English and American Literature.  Do not accept this as, in local usage, “a teaching”; you are not required to agree with any commentator, only to understand the essay and understand why you agree or disagree with the writer, and on what points.  This is about thinking out a conclusion, not leaping to an ill-considered, absolutist opinion.

 

3.    Beowulf – selections from the Burton Raffel translation.  We’ll read.  We’ll talk.

 

4.    Study your syllabus, work on your research paper, and read your current topics.  15-30 minutes of good study time a day should be all you need for success, but modify for your success as you think best.