Dr. Yoder
Fall 2009        English 4150/4250.01       Bob Dylan: Lyric Poetry
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: No later than 6:00am on Tuesdays.       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), and they should be about some aspect of 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 a way to engage the writers and to try to understand some aspect of their work individually or in relation to each other. The individual journal 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 6:00am on Tuesday, so that everyone has a chance to read them before class; journals not received by the start of class on Tuesday will not be accepted. Your "journal" grade will be based on the percentage of the total number that you actually submit. NO LATE JOURNALS WILL BE ACCEPTED.

Album Review: 1000-1250 words (4-5pp.)       Due: the week we discuss your album; on the listserve by Monday 6:00am; hard copy due in class on Tuesday       Grade Value: 20%
For this assignment you will write about the album you have chosen for the course. You should not discuss why you love this album. Rather, you should discuss the album as an organized work. Are any themes, techniques or images developed in the songs? You might also consider where the album fits into Dylan's development as an artist or public figure. Doc Yoder's Dylan Discography is here.

One song / poem: 1000-1250 words (4-5pp.)       Due: Oct. 6 in class       Grade Value: 20%
For this assignment you should analyze ONE song as you would a poem, considering primarily its structure and imagery. NO REVISION. BUT I WILL BE HAPPY TO DISCUSS A ROUGH DRAFT IN ADVANCE.

Thematic Dylan: 1000-1500 words (4-6pp.)       Due: Dec. 3 in class       Grade Value: 20%
For this assignment you should choose one of the topics listed below as the topic for your discussion of at least THREE songs / poems. Ideally you should choose songs from three periods or phases of Dylan's career to consider whether his attitude and/or usage changes over time.

Topics:

Narrative Surrealism Gender Tradition Religion Race Metaphor / Metonymy Biography / Autobiography Some other theme of interest (to be cleared with me by mid-term)

Bob Dylan: Lyric Poetry Syllabus Front Page
Bob Dylan: Lyric Poetry Reading Schedule
Bob Dylan: Lyric Poetry House Rules
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