Dr. Yoder
Fall 2008        English 4370.01       Seminar: Milton & Blake
Writing Assignments

All formal essays should be typed, double-spaced, with your name, course name and number, my name and the date on the first page. Number all pages after the first, preferably in the upper right hand corner. Please do not hesitate to call me or to make an appointment to discuss your papers with me. For suggestions on style, see Doc Yoder's Tips for Writers; for Guidelines for Quotations, look here. Now you have no excuses.

Journals: 250 words weekly       Due: Beginning of class on Mondays (preferably by 9am)       Grade Value: 20% Total

Weekly informal journals provide an opportunity for you to reflect on and respond to the readings and discussions, develop ideas for your papers, and continue our classroom conversations after class. The journals also allow me to get to know your writing so that I can provide better advice and feedback on your papers. Finally, your journals are part of the class assessment process, allowing me to assess how well you are learning what I think I am teaching. In some ways the weekly journals will be the most important of the writing assignments. Your weekly journals should be no less than a full typed page (roughly 250 words). In a departure from my usual practice, I will occasionally assign certain topics for the journals as a way of focusing the class on particular issues (see the Reading Schedule for this assignments); when no topic has been assigned, the journals should nevertheless be about the class. Journals that stop only at "I like this; I do not like that" remarks will receive no credit. Instead you should use the journals as way to engage the poets and to try to understand some aspect of their work individually or in relation to each other. The individual journals entries will not be graded, so the best approach is to try to have fun thinking about the work: speculate, venture, invent, try out new ideas, think through problems. These journals should be posted to the course listserve and are due by 9:00am on Monday; journals not received by the start of class on Monday will not be accepted. The individual journal entries will be ungraded, but you will receive a collective grade based on how many journals you actually submit. NO LATE JOURNALS WILL BE ACCEPTED.

Milton Paper (5-7pp.)         Due: Friday, October 17, Noon        Grade Value: 20%

Blake Paper (5-7pp.)       Due: Monday, Nov. 24, In Class       Grade Value: 20%

Comparison Paper (5-7pp.)        Due: Friday, Dec. 12, Noon        Grade Value: 20%

Milton & Blake Syllabus Front Page
Milton & Blake Reading Schedule
Milton & Blake House Rules
Doc Yoder's Home