English 116– AMERICAN FICTION –Spring 2008


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COMMENTARIES and QUESTIONS
For each session, you will be expected to come to class with either a 1p. typed commentary or a 1p. list of questions on the readings, as assigned. You will rotate, a commentary one session, and the next session, a list of questions. You will be expected to keep an ongoing portfolio of your questions and commentaries on the readings. Your portfolio will be due at the end of the term. Only the completed portfolio, not the individual commentaries or lists of questions, will be given a letter grade.

Usually, focusing commentaries and questions on problems that mystify, trouble, and intrigue you in your reading of the assigned texts will promote the most valuable discussions. Take your immediate subjective reactions -- "I like this," "I hate that," "I don't get it" -- and develop them into critical observations and questions. (Example of a critical question that might arise from a kneejerk "I hate this" reaction: Why does Faulkner develop such a long-winded, convoluted writing style? What kind of audience or reader was he imagining on the other end of his pen? What do you think his style of writing has to do with what he's trying to make us see and feel?)

Directions for commentaries: Remember that the point of the commentaries and the questions is to stimulate thought, to make us grapple more closely with the texts, and to generate meaningful discussion. Choose a passage, a scene, an image or set of images, or some other specific aspect of the work (or works) that you find especially remarkable, odd, enigmatic, or confusing. You may want to look back at the course description and see if you can connect your concerns to the themes of the course. Type up your thoughts into a coherent commentary. Read your commentary aloud and revise it until it is clear and concise.

Directions for questions: Questions need to be well focused and substantive. They shouldn't be fact-based kinds of questions that are easily answered. Nor should they simply be questions about the plot. Effective questions open up a text and stimulate further thought. You may want to look back at the course description and see if you can connect your questions to the themes of the course. Number your questions, and think of which ones you most want to ask the group. Read them aloud and revise them until they are clear and precise.

––––––> GUIDELINES FOR MIDTERM AUDIT REPORTS <–––

– From The Literature Workshop, by Sheridan Blau, Heinemann '03: 166-67 (with some emendations)

Your audit report on your portfolio will include two major sections: your own analytic and reflective account (approximately three TYPED pages in length) of what you find in your portfolio, plus three representative entries from it (which also must be typed). In composing and putting together your report, make sure you address the kinds of questions listed under each heading below:

1. Analysis. Answer questions such as the following: What do you usually write about in your entries? What aspects of the texts do you tend to comment on or have questions about? How have your entries changed (if they have) since the term began? What changes do you notice in topics, language, level of involvement, and so on? What might account for differences in the content or quality of your entries? What else do you notice about your entries? Refer to specific entries as examples. Quote from them, if you need to.

2. Reflection. What do your entries amount to? Do you find any worthwhile writing in your portfolio? What value do you place on it or on some of its entries? If you were teaching this course, would you ask your students to keep a portfolio? Why or why not? What do your representative entries you have included show your reader about your portfolio?

3. Representative Entries. Choose three entries (commentaries, lists of questions, or both) that help to support your responses to the questions above. Make sure it is clear why you have chosen these particular entries, rather than others. Place these selected entries on top of your portfolio and your audit report on top of these selected entries. Turn in the entire portfolio with the audit report on top and the selected entries directly beneath the audit report.

The midterm audit report and final retrospective entry will be graded. The portfolios will be graded at the end of the term. Individual entries, except for the final 'retro' entry, are not graded. Portfolios should in folders (the simpler, the better) and entries should not be stapled or paper clipped together. Entries should be in chronological order, except those you have selected to append to your midterm audit and to your retrospective entry.

––––> GUIDELINES FOR FINAL RETROSPECTIVE ENTRY <–––

If possible, please keep your commentaries and questions in a simple folder. Please don't staple or paper clip the entries together.  For the final retrospective entry (approximately 3 typed pp., i.e., 750-900 words), you will need to review your commentaries and questions for the entire term and reflect on the following:

(1) how your writing in your portfolio may have changed in the course of the semester;

(2) how your entries may have helped you to explore particular themes for the course and attain some of its objectives (as stated on the syllabus); and

(3) which two or three of your entries now interest you most, and why.

Pull your selected entries and place them immediately after your retrospective entry, which should be the FIRST entry in your portfolio.  (The selected entries do NOT count toward the 3 pp. retrospective entry.)  After the final retrospective and the selected entries, include your midterm audit report and the entries you selected for it. The rest of your entries for the term should follow (and should be in chronological order).