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Word Rogues |
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On English and Writing: Leon Lanzbom |
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 Mesa College: fall 2008 ENGLISH 101 (86774) Reading and Composition 8/25/08-12/17/08 instructor: Leon Lanzbom email: lanzbom@yahoo.com office hours: TBA class: S 9:00 am-12:10 pm G109  website: lanzbom.org "Genius might be the ability to say a profound thing in a simple way." -- Charles Bukowski COURSE MATERIALS/TEXTS: Dreams and Inward Journeys, 6th edition. Marjorie Ford and Jon Ford A Pocket Style Manual, Diana Hacker Persepolis Marjane Satrapi A paperback dictionary. You are responsible for bringing the appropriate textbooks to every class meeting; bring paper and pens to every class meeting. Coming to class without the appropriate materials or without having completed assigned readings is equivalent to being absent for that day. You must have our main text book by our second class. No excuses will be accepted. I also reserve the right to ask you to leave class if you do not have your book by the second class.
Startle-response quizzes and missing class: There will be 5 in-class Startle-Response quizzes, otherwise known as "check that you did the reading carefully and on time quizzes." You can expect these quizzes from time to time, and they will come unannounced throughout the semester. The quizzes will primarily focus on the reading assignments, providing me with a chance to see how well you are doing with the readings and documentation technique, though any area of the course may provide material for quizzes. The whole point of these quizzes is to help us work together, to keep everyone on the same page, to convert what might be a boring classroom into a chaotic, unpredictable and exciting intellectual laboratory. *You must submit all essays, exams, and the research paper in order to pass this course.*
English 101: fall 2008: Daily Menu  As you might have guessed by our first meeting, my goal is to keep you excited and enthusiastic about our work. And since my classes rely on dynamics, our syllabus is subject to change--to add or to subtract material---depending on how many hazy eyes I notice. Any changes will not only be announced in class, but will also be placed on our website. Disclaimer: You may find the language, or the sexual or violent content of some of the material submitted or assigned in this class offensive. I generally do not censor class reading material. Please see me if you feel offended. I will offer alternatives for any assignment. Important: To get the most out of this class, we deeply depend on social dynamics and preparation. So, you must come into class having read and being ready to discuss the readings assigned for that day. What is listed on 2.11 should be read by 2.11. If you are not ready to discuss our readings, please do not show up to class. Yes, it's that important! Journals: The journal should be about 50 pages by semester's end. It can be plain paper, a spotted notebook, or a cool journal found in a bookstore. As a matter of fact, Border's has some nice very inexpensive writing journals that you can  make yours. You will use
this as your class diary. I want you to comment on every reading you
do. You must use the Puppet Strings toolbox that I have on our website as your guide to writing in
your journal. (Scroll down to day one. You will find it there.) I want you to answer a few of the questions that are in the book at the end of each reading. How many is up to you. The more you answer the more familiar you will be with the readings. You need only write the answers in your journals not the questions. I want you to freewrite and work on your topics and ideas for your papers in it. You might want to do your listings to discover the strongest points of support for your thesis. You can draw pictures. You can write poetry. It doesn't matter as long as you make it yours. I want your personality all over the damned thing! So let's review: Reader's Response to short stories and books,using puppet strings Questions freewriting and listing for your papers diary of the class anything else you may want to put in your journals, all up to you. Week One S 8.30 Introduction to course, syllabus, and books How to write an essay: finding a thesis; three points (plan of development). Film: Un Chien Andalou For your journals you will use the following Puppet Strings handout.  Download your PUPPET STRINGS handout HERE First assignment: Due: week 2  Take home quiz Draw what you view to be the most memorable or confusing image from Dali and Bunuel's UN CHIEN ANDALOU. If you can't draw, consider pictures or illustrations to represent your image. On another piece of paper(s) attached to that drawing, write a 250-500 word essay that describes your rationale and/or speculates upon the complexities of the particular image you selected, offering three points of observation and a thesis. As you write, you're going to describe your selection, telling the reader what the two artists were trying to say or perhaps not trying to say. Think in Metaphor. Why would dali and Bunuel offer the "eye" scene in the very beginning of their film rather than the end. To make your ideas jump off the page, you should use strong verbs and colorful nouns. Keep away from dull, life-robbing "to be" verbs (linking verbs): be, is, am, was, were, been. You will be graded for your form more than conten, so please make sure you set up your MLA form. Here is a great download that will teach you how to create every essay this class requires: ss
_______________________________________________ 9.1 no school 9.5 Last day to withdraw without receiving a W 9.5 Last day to add a class 9.8 drop with a refund _______________________________________________ Week Two: 9.6 Discovering ourselves through writing and reading Un Chien quiz-essay: due on my desk at the beginning of class. *MLA exercise handout (due week 5): bring Hacker to class A Process View of Writing and Reading 2-12 (just skim through this). Denise Levertov, "The Secret" 15 Stephen King, "The Symbolic Language of Dreams" 17 Fredrick Douglas: "Learning to Read and Write" 40 Amy Tan, "Mother Tongue" 34
 Week Three: 9.13What We See When We Write Steven Holtzman, "Don't Look Back" 44 Ursual K. Le Guin "A Matter of Trust" 24 Virginia Woolf, "Professions for Women" 28 Persepolis. Read up to page 54 Hacker: look at MLA section (or study Hacker online) Workshop for essay 2: *Bring in rough draft or first paragraph of essay #2 Download your MLA worksheet HERE due next week Week Four: 9.20 Hermeneutics and more Hermeneutics Louis Erdrich, "Dear John Wayne" 465 Sigmund Freud, "Erotic Wishes and Dreams" 332 Maxine Hong Kingston, "No Name Woman" 336 Persepolis 54-102 9.25: credit no credit deadline _______________________________________________ Week Five: 9.27 Observing Nature Essay 1 due Naomi Shihab Nye "Fireflies" (poem) 71 Diane Ackerman, "Deep Play" 75 Donovan Webster, "Inside the Volcano" 82 Persepolis, to end. ANNOUNCE FINAL RESEARCH PAPER
Also on 9.27: Theatre F105/C121: Movie! Andy Goldsworthy--Rivers and Tides: Working with Time  Director Tho mas Riedelsheimer. Producer Annedore V. Donop. Music: Fred Frith. This film is the perfect vehicle for understanding this week's "The Other" theme: "The underlying tension of a lot of my art is to try and look through the surface appearance of things," Goldsworthy says. "Inevitably, one way of getting beneath the surface is to introduce a hole, a window into what lies below." (from Susan Stone interview)  Week Six: 10.4Observing Nature cont. Come into class having read all assignments listed in our syllabus up to this point plus the following: Jon Krakauer, "The Khumbu Icefall" (essay) 89 Jane Goodall, "In the Forests of Gombe" 536 film: Liquid Stage: The Lure of Surfing __________________________________________ Week Seven: 10.11 Narration, Memory, and Self-Awareness cont. Catch up on all work not covered. Please make sure you read everything on our syllabus up to and including today's readings. Mark Strand, "Where Are the Waters of Childhood" (poem). 128 Maya Angelou, "The Angel of the Candy Counter" (essay) 145 Patricia Hample, "Memory and Imagination," 129 Sairah Shah, "The Storyteller's Daughter," 139 _______________________________________________ Week Eight: 10.18 The shadow and the self  Nikki Giovanni, "ego-tripping (there may be a reason why)" (poem). 188 Judith Ortiz Cofer, "Silent Dancing" (essay) 151 Stephen Jay Gould, "Muller Bros. Moving & Storage" (essay) 163 Gabriel Garcia Marquez, "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World." 198 Review Midterms Possible Film to be announced ______________________________________________ Week Nine: 10/25 Cause and Effect essay due. Finally! It's here. The Cataclysmic Shakedown Number one! Expect fill in the blank, multiple choice, True and False, and short answer, and a 750 word in-class ____________________________________________________________________________ Réné Magritte, Ceçi n'est pas une pipe (1926) is it art?  Magritte's painting of a pipe, combined with the painted words "This is not a pipe," calls into question visual representation itself. What is painted on canvas is not actually a pipe, but a depiction of a pipe. The words, which is as much a part of the painting as the pipe, serve to point up the differences between a real pipe and the image of a real pipe. Magritte’s painting speaks to our preconceived notions of art and words: What is art? What is illustration? What do words mean? Can words be art? Important here is the distinction between reality and the representation. In saying that an image resembles reality, one assumes the ontological superiority of the latter. The philosopher, Foucault, writes that with the painted representation of the pipe, the original pipe, which the painting is based upon, is transformed into something else; the original and the proxy are "like one another without any of them being able to claim the privileged status of model for the rest."  For your next essay, you are going to compare OR contrast Magritte's painting, This Is Not a Pipe, to another piece of art or literature that is similar or different. (Or, you are going to compare or contrast two of our readings. This will be your choice. But you must let me know.) We have dual images here, one words, one a pipe, each representing other notions. Both are a facade or doorway that takes us to new perceptions, presumptions, and understandings. In one frame, we are working with two different mediums of communication that reach far beyond the pen and the pallet. Do not freak out! What is the difference between a car and a truck. They are both used for transportation and have many similarities, but they are two forms of transportation. Apply similar thinking to this painting, but THINK! When we compare, we show our readers a subject's similarities. When we contrast, we show our readers a subject's differences. Compare and Contrast essays are learning-process essays. You learn about your subject as you gather and organize information. This type of essay takes a bit of organization, and it's this organizational process, this gathering of facts that helps you learn as you go. You must offer at least two direct quotes or references from outside sources, using MLA citings for this paper Download your essay outline HERE in pdf form Download your essay outline HERE in .doc form ______________________________________________ 10.31: Deadline to withdraw. No drops accepted after this date. _______________________________________________ Week Ten: 11.1  And on the first day. . .Film: Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth Click here for class notes on creation myths Please walk into class having read the following: Marcelo Gleiser, “The Myths of Science--Creation” (essay). 203 Portfolio of Creation Myths: “Genesis 2:4-23” (Old Testament of the Hebrew Bible). 208 "How the Sun Was Made" (Australian Aboriginal) 209 “The Pelasgian Creation Myth” (Ancient Greek) 210 “The Chameleon Finds” (Yao-Bantu, African). 211 “Spider Woman Creates the Humans” (Hopi, Native American). 212 “The Beginning of the World” (Japanese). 213 __________________________________________________ Week Eleven: 11.8 Fairy Tales Can Come True. . .  Please walk into class ready to discuss the following: Bruno Bettelheim, "Fairy Tales and the Existential Predicament" 215 Four Versions of Cinderella. The Brothers Grimm, "Aschenputtel" (fairy tale). 229 "The Algonquin Cinderella" (adapted by Idries Shah) (fairy tale). 240 "Tam and Cam: A Vietnamese Cinderella Story" (fairy tale). 242 Charles Perrault, "Cinderellon" 23 ___________________________________________________ Week Twelve: 11.15  Film Alert! Adaptation 
"What a bewilderingly brilliant and entertaining movie this is. "  Week Thirteen: 11.22 Tino Villanueva: Scene from the Movie Giant 11-33 Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper” 276 Ann Lamott: “Hunger” 298 Final paper workshop: must bring in rough drafts to each class  Final Essay Assignment! Due one week before finals Word Rogues’ Galley of Essays:  Elegant, eclectic and clever, Gore Vidal reminds young writers that a peek into the fabulous history of the word essay, an etymological poke into the labyrinth of essays past, yields another word you might not have expected to run across: attempt. You see most people think of an essay as a finished product--a dull, lifeless, inert textual body with a static introduction, an "ABCD" body, and a clear let’s-tie-up-all-the-pieces conclusion. You will not write this kind of essay. Don’t get me wrong. I am S TILL asking with no little nostalgia to return to the origins of the essay we’ve been working on. Yet I want you to make a sincere attempt to produce a truly unique set of ordered reflections with RESEARCH, a group of carefully arranged tasty words which respond in some way to the essays, films, short critical treatments and lectures you have worked through and will continue to work through in the coming weeks. Are you writing for Lanzbom? --in a way, of course you are. That means no curse words, no “hip” jargon, lots of research, and staying within MLA form. But beyond that, and in order to do well on this assignment, you must write for another audience. Who are they? Well, they are readers like you. They are impatient and easily bored. They like specific details; they love direct, succinct quotes woven carefully into the fabric of an essay, and most of all they like you to take chances, take risks, make assumptions, open a few new doors. If you are going to write about an image, they want to see a reproduction of that image. They hate misspellings and passive verbs (is, am, are, was, were, been, being). They like tangy language, which is fresh and not filled with stupid clichés. Specifications: 5-7 pages MINIMUM, cleverly titled, double-spaced, 1-inch margins top and sides (MLA format), proofread, chock-full of active verbs and more research than basic instructions ask for. In other words, I am asking for a minimum of 3 library sources—books or journals—but this minimum is for a “C” grade. All A-level critical speculations will integrate five or more carefully selected direct quotations from primary texts. One last bit of advice, do NOT plagiarize ANY material from the internet; unCITED material = PLAGIARISM; also, if you are going to "quote" a passage from an illustrated text, go to the bother of Xeroxing the image and incorporating it INTO your essay. Late papers will not be accepted. Please download your list of final Essays HERE English 101 final essay packet HERE  Week 14: 11.29 No Class: Thanksgiving ______________________________ Week Fifteen: 12.6 Final Essay Due on my desk Emily Dickinson “This World is Not Conclusion” 530 Annie Dillard, “A Field of Silence” 532 Review for final ______________________________ Week Sixteen: 12. 13 Final Cataclysmic Grilling FIN  THIS QUIET DUSTEmily Dickinson This quiet dust was gentlemen and ladies And lads and girls; Was laughter and ability and sighing, And frocks and curls; This passive place a summer's nimble mansion, Where bloom and bees Fulfilled their oriental circuit, Then ceased like these.  Anecdote of the JarWallace Stevens I placed a jar in Tennessee, And round it was, upon a hill. It made the slovenly wilderness Surround that hill. The wilderness rose up to it, And sprawled around, no longer wild. The jar was round upon the ground And tall and of a port in air. It took dominion every where.
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For
this, your first piece of word art, your first essay in English 101,
you will describe your favorite meal. You will then write a 750 word
essay, with at least one works cited, that describes the image of this
food, offering three points of observation and a thesis. But here, you
are going to use your five senses to paint the most wonderful specific
details in words, sight, smell, taste, and touch. To make your words
as vivid as possible, use strong verbs and colorful nouns--the kinds of
words that appeal to the reader's senses. Keep away from the "to be"
verbs (be, is, are, was, were, been, being). 
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