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Word Rogues |
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On English and Writing: Leon Lanzbom |
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 instructor: Leon Lanzbom email: lanzbom@yahoo.com Mesa College: English 101 Monday & Wednesday: 84096 Saturday: 83956 Weekly Menu: spring 2008 Life is a romantic business. It is painting a picture, not doing a sum--but you have to make romance. And it will come to the question how much fire you have in your belly. --Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. As you know, this class meets one day per week. That means we fit a week's worth of classes into one class meeting--a lot of work in a short amount of time. So, to stay excited and enthusiastic, we must stress the dynamic. Therefore, the hard syllabus handed out in class, and the syllabus you are about to read will change, depending on how many hazy eyes I notice. Fear not though, any changes will be announced in class.  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. ASSIGNMENT REVIEW  Four essays in response to readings (750 words each).Two in class "cataclysmic shakedown” essay exams (AKA Midterm and Final: 500 words each). One “out-of-class” 8-10 page research paper—please note topic exceptions on your hard-copy handout. Five unannounced, in-class startle-response quizzes (one lowest score dropped). 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 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.* GRADING OF ASSIGNMENTS six essays (drop lowest grade of 1st three): 20.0% (25 pts. each = 100 pts.) two Cataclysmic Shakedowns: 40.0% (100 pts. Each = 200 pts.) one research paper: 20.0% ( = 100 pts.) five Startle-Response quizzes: 10.0% (10 pts. each = 50 pts.) Participation 10.0% (50 pts) (Percentages are approximations): 100.0% = 500 pts. COURSE MATERIALS/TEXTS Dreams and Inward Journeys: Marjorie Ford and Jon Ford Persepolis: Marjane Satrape Scene from the Movie Giant: Tino Villanueva Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art, Scott McCloud A Pocket Style Manual: Diana Hacker 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 class.  The secret of realizing the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment of existence is: to live dangerously! Build your cities on the slopes of Vesuvius! Send your ships out into uncharted seas! Live in conflict with your equals and with yourselves! Be robbers and ravagers as long as you cannot be rulers and owners, you men of knowledge! The time will soon pass when you can be satisfied to live like timorous deer concealed in the forests. Knowledge will finally stretch out her hand for that which belongs to her - she means to rule and possess, and you with her!" --Book IV,Frohliche Wissenschaft , Friedrich Nietzsche Come into class having read all the material listed on the day of our syllabus. For example: Everything on the syllabus listed on 3/25 must be read by 3/25. Capish? Weekly Menu
Week One: Monday (84096) 1.28, Wednesday (84096) 1.30 Saturday (83956) 2.2 Introduction to course, syllabus, and books How to write an essay: finding a thesis; three points (plan of development). Un Chien Andalou This classic film by Luis Bunuel and Salvador Dali, circa 1928, was made to attract the attention of the Avant Garde movement.  These two mad artists wanted to create a film whose "only rule was very simple: no idea or image that might lend itself to rational explanation of any kind would be accepted." Buñuel took stones to the premiere to toss at the critics. But something more bizarre than the film itself happened. The critics and bourgeoisie loved it! Buñuel and Dali were puzzled. Bunuel wrote: "What can I do about the people who adore all that is new, even when it goes against their deepest convictions, or about the insincere, corrupt press, and the inane herd that saw beauty or poetry in something which was basically no more than a desperate impassioned call for murder?" "A movie like this is a tonic. It assaults old and unconscious habits of movie going. It is disturbing, frustrating, maddening. It seems without purpose (and yet how much purpose, really, is there in seeing most of the movies we attend?). There is wry humor in it, and a cheerful willingness to offend." - Roger Ebert To see the entire movie, Un Chein Andalou, click here. _________________________________ First quiz assignment: Due: week 2, Monday, Saturday 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 taped 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. To make your details jump off the page, you should use as many strong verbs and colorful nouns as possible. Keep away from dull, life-robbing "to be" verbs (linking verbs): be, is, am, was, were, been. Good Luck!
Week Four: Saturday 2.18-2.23 9.28: Remember, last day to petition for credit no credit Louis Erdrich, "Dear John Wayne" 465 Persepolis 54-102 ANNOUNCE FINAL RESEARCH PAPER
Week Five: Saturday 2.25-3.1 Naomi Shihab Nye "Fireflies" (poem) 71 MLA answers sheet: Click HERE Théâtre F105/C121: Movie! Andy Goldsworthy--Rivers and Tides: Working with Time _______________________________ VOLCANO ALERT! Click here for film of Stromboli erupting. According to University of North Dakota's "Volcanoworld" website, Stromboli, an Aeolian island of Italy, has been in continuous eruption for close to 2,000 years! 
Week Six: 3.3-3.8 Observing Nature and Writing Descriptions cont. Essay 3 Compare Contrast due 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
Week Eight: 3.17-3.22 Spring Break Week Nine: 3.24-3.29
Research paper lab: questions and answers, if time allows.
11/5: Withdrawal deadline—No drops accepted after this date Nikki Giovanni, “ego-tripping (there may be a reason why)” (poem). 188
Week 11 Essay 3 Due Film: Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth Click pic to the right to go to Campbell's website Marcelo Gleiser, “The Myths of Science--Creation” (essay). 203 _____________________________________________________________ Week Twelve
Bruno Bettelheim, "Fairy Tales and the Existential Predicament" 215
Week Thirteen Robert Louis Stevenson: "The Strange Case of Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde" 421 Theatré Eng 101: Adaptation
The perfect vehicle to carry us into our "Other" theme for the next two weeks. Charlie Kaufman (Nicholas Cage) needs to adapt Susan Orlean's (Meryl Streep) non-fiction book The Orchid Thief, into a script. We watch Kaufman struggle in wirter's block to transform this non-Hollywood story into a film that will capture the viewer's attention. Kaufman is stuck. Until he calls up the doppelgänger within him, the "other," the man Kaufman hides deep inside himself. This probably did happen on one level or another since Charlie Kaufman is the real life screenwriter of Adaptation. ____________________________________________
Begin Essay 6: Due week fifteen: This essay has a writing and a visual component again. Chose any of this weeks or next weeks readings or perhaps an older reading such as Marquez's work. The goal on the written part is to explainwhat you have read to someone who has never read it. Your thesis should be the question asked of the text: What does the text say? You should then support your thesis with your plan of development (three points). Next, you must do research in the library for a visual text (photos, drawings, images, anything visual) that describes the myth or fairy tale or essay or movie you have chosen and photocopy these images or scan and download them. You could label them with captions, but be brief because this portion of your paper should be more visual than verbal. Now, combine the visual and verbal text anyway you decide. You can use the visual text as illustrations for the verbal or you could weave them together. The whole idea here is to become aware of the differences between the visual and verbal texts. How did you use them differently? Did you use the visual text for description and the verbal text for narration? Go for it and learn how each one works off the other. Doppelgänger Essay 6 AKA Essay 6's evil twin: A doppelgänger is the ghostly double of a living person; "Doppelgänger" has come to refer to any double or look alike of a person—most commonly an "evil twin." In Adaptation we meet Charlie and Donald Kaufman. Explore, analyze, probe, scrutinize, using the movie and some of the "other" material we read this week, these two brothers. Was Donald Kaufman real or Charlie's doppelgänger. Look for clues within the movie to back your argument. Week fourteen
Film: Giant Final paper workshop: bring in rough drafts Click here to listen to a play on "The Yellow Wallpaper." Week fifteen Essay review! Bring your rough or final drafts to class. Tino Villanueva, Scene from the Movie Giant 33-end (52) Annie Dillard, “A Field of Silence” 532 _________________________________________ Week sixteen Essay 6 due (optional) Research Paper due! All papers must be on my desk at the beginning of class. Late papers will not be accepted. Questions, meetings, last words. Review for final ____________________________________ Week Seventeen  Cataclysmic Shakedown time! last day of classes have a great summer
Reference Section From links to grammar, below are the references that you will read or use throughout our class.
More Possible Subjects for Your Final Paper
Links
 Mechanics and Grammar ReviewArticles: a, an, the These three little words are all the articles in the English Language. Articles are like little adjectives that point to nouns. ________________________________ Nouns: common and proper The chihuahua is yappy. Is here tells you something about the subject, the "chihuahua." The subject is your key to finding the verb. Find out what the sentence says about the subject, and you'll find the verb. Can you put I, you, he, she, it, or they, in front of the potential verb? If you can, you have your verb.
Contractions, interrogatives, adjectives, adverbs, and modification: Contractions Two parts of speech in one word. Contractions are built out of pronouns and linking verbs. You + are = you’re She + will = she’ll Interrogative Sentences An interrogative sentence asks a question. A sentence that asks a question separates the helping verb from the main verb. Did Crandall run into the shack? Did = helping verb Run = main verb Adjectives Many adjectives have antonyms: Big/small Tall/short Happy/sad Adjectives will make sense between articles and nouns that are places, persons, or objects. The tiny lake The happy boy A red thermos Many adjectives are found to the left of nouns. This is not always the case because they can also be found to the right of linking verbs. Memorize this: Adjectives will answer one or more of the following questions. Which_____________? What kind of_____________? How many______________?
Adverbs often deal with time. Adverbs can be moved to another place in the sentence. Adverbs often end in –ly Memorize this: Adverbs will answer the following questions: When? How? Where? To what extent? Why? Won’t is a contraction of will not. Not is an adverb for will. It answers “how” or "to what extent" you will do something in the contraction “won’t.” Modification Adjectives modify nouns or pronouns. Adverbs modify or describe verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs.
Simple Sentences  A simple sentence is built of a single subject-verb unit.Ron runs. The chicken flew the coop. The unicycle has been riden by several sad circus clowns. Yet, a simple sentence can have more than one subject or verb. multiple subjects: Ron and Aryeh run. The chicken and the rooster flew the coop. The unicycle and the ostrich have been riden by several sad circus clowns. multiple verbs: Ron runs and trips. The chicken flew and buzzed the coop. The unicycle has been stolen and riden by several sad circus clowns. We can even have multiple subjects and verbs: The unicycle and the pogo stick and the Schwinn Airdyne had been stolen, ridden, and returned by several sad circus clowns. Compound Sentences A compound sentence is built out of two or more simple sentences. These are two complete sentences with a subject and verb hooked up together, and they are usually connected by a comma plus a word to join the two sentences. The joining words are called coordinating conjunctions because they coordinate the two sentences.  the coordinating conjuncions:and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet. Carl opened the door, and the ants made their break to freedom. Lois loves to go shopping at Sacks, but Superman can never find anything to match his costume there. Billy loved his asparagus garden, for he was not your average boy. You see? Each of the above can be separated into two sentences, but the coordinating conjunction coordinates them together. Consider the coordinating conjunction as the camp councilor of the word world. The words and, but, for, nor, or, so, and yet, are always trying to hook their sentence campers together. There will usually be something in common between the first sentence and the second sentence. In other words, the ideas of both sentences should be related. Complex sentences: A complex sentence is made up of a sentence with a complete thought and a statement of an incomplete thought (one that begins with a dependent word).  We are talking about an dependent clause and an independent clause hooked up together. Remember: an independent clause tells a complete thought; a dependent clause tells an incomplete thought. Here's an example of a dependent clause: When I get those P.F. Flyers... Do you feel the tension in the above dependent clause. It's incomplete. It needs more, more, MORE! When I get those P.F. Flyers, I'll be the most popular kid in school. A dependent clause begins with a dependent word. Let's look at a few. Dependent words:
When do we use complex sentences?  When we want to emphasize one idea over another. Before I left the house, I fed my pet cockatiel. What we want to emphasize here is this guy fed Cessna. I fed my pet cockatiel is a complete thought. Before I left the house is subordinated to the complete thought. This technique of giving one thought more emphasis than another is called subordination. With subordination, the part of the sentence starting with the dependent word or the subordinator will always be the less emphasized part of the sentence. But if you want to emphasize leaving the house you would write: After I fed my pet Cockatiel, I left the house. Do you see how the use of the the word after causes the first half of the sentence to emphasize I left the house? Read it again. This is important stuff and will give your writing a tremendous boost. It depends on what you’re trying to express. If you want I left the house as the emphasis of the sentence, you would leave that clause independent. But, like all the grammar we've learned in this class, it depends on context. Check out the context in the following sentence: After I fed my pet cockatiel, I left the house. But when I got to my office, I realized I had forgotten my keys for the third time this week. And in this one: Before I left the house, I fed my pet cockatiel. Cockatiels are very picky eaters, and if Cessna does not find a piece of mango in her birdseed, she gets into a huff. Can you feel the difference between the above two sentences? One emphasizes the forgetting of the keys; the other emphasizes the feeding of Cessna, the cockatiel A very important point to remember is to make the last part of your sentence the emphatic part. Emphasize your main thought at end of your sentence and pick up that thought in the beginning of your next sentence. ___________________________________________________ Comma Splices and Run-Ons:  The Comma Splice: When one independent clause (a complete sentence) is followed by another independent clause, never use a comma between them, use a period or a semicolon or a comma followed by a joining word. Not this: Yosef has diverse taste in magazines, he reads All About Beer, Chevy Truck World, and Redbook. But this: Yosef has diverse taste in magazines; he reads All About Beer, Chevy Truck World, and Redbook. Or this: Yosef has diverse taste in magazines. He reads All About Beer, Chevy Truck World, and Redbook. Of course, you can join two independent clauses with a comma followed by a coordinating conjunction (and, but, for, nor, or, so, yet). Yosef has diverse taste in magazines, for he reads All About Beer, Chevy Truck World, and Redbook. But, if the second clause is preceded by an adverb, such as however, moreover, therefore, or thus, a semicolon should be used. Yosef has diverse taste in magazines; therefore, he reads All About Beer, Chevy Truck World, and Redbook. Important style point: If the clauses are short, a comma can be used: Yosef reads magazines, magazines read Yosef. _____________________________________ On Subjects and Verbs  Words that come between subjects and verbs should be handled with care. Take this sentence for example: The pie for the guests is not as tasty as I thought. The subject pie is singular, so the verb must be singular as well. We must use the verb is for the verb and subject to agree. The words,for the guests, which come between the subject and the verb, do not affect agreement. Don't be fooled by the object of a preposition--learn what a prepositional phrase is. By identifying the prepositional phrase, you can avoid subject-verb agreement problems. Remember this rule: the subject will never be found in a prepositional phrase. ___________________________________________ A Little Bit about Prepositions Let's see if we can make some sense out of this prepositional phrase business. Look at the following sentence: The hamburger with the double order of french fries (is/are) not as tasty as I thought. The subject hamburger is singular, so the verb must be singular as well. We must use the verb is for the verb and subject to agree even though it feels wrong. The prepsositional phrase, with the double order of french fries, which comes between the subject and the verb, does not affect agreement.  Prepositional phrases are real trouble makers. Don't be fooled by the object of a preposition--learn what a prepositional phrase is. By identifying the prepositional phrase, you can avoid subject-verb agreement problems. The hamburger with the double order of french fries is not as tasty as I thought. A preposition is usually a word that will show position or time. Imagine a bird flying toward a tree. Anything that bird can do to the tree will be a preposition: in the tree, the tree, around the tree, through the tree, over the tree, under the tree, at the tree, along the tree, from the tree, onto the tree, etc. As far as time goes: at noon, during the siesta, in the fall, until tomorrow etc. There are other prepositions that do not fit in these catagories: the words for, of, or like are examples. So watch out for these guys, especially the word of. You might try placing parentheses around the prepositional phrase, reading the sentence without the phrase. This way, you'll be sure of the subject. The taste of peaches has/have always attracted me. The taste (of peaches) has always attracted me. A prepositional phrase is a prepostion and the noun that follows it plus any modifiers that might find their way in between. The noun that follows the preposition is called the "object" of the pr | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Compare and Contrast essays are learning-process essays. You learn about your subject as you gather and organize information.
3.29: Cataclysmic Shakedown 
Comparing and Contrasting continued
Adverbs