Dr. Yoder
Spring 2009        English 4341.01       English Romantics
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 noon 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 noon on Tuesday; 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.

Short Critical Summary (1 page each); Due: No later than Feb. 3, Mar. 10, Apr. 21; Grade Value: 5% each
All you need to do is read and summarize an article or book chapter on any aspect of the Songs, Lyrical Ballads and Frankenstein. You should identify the thesis and the strengths and weaknesses of each item.

Thesis Papers       Grade Value Total: 45%; 15% each for the three paper option; 15% and 30% for the two paper option.
Due Dates: 3-paper: Feb. 16, Mar. 31, May 7; 2-paper: Feb. 16, May 7

Undergraduates may choose to write three short essays (5-6pp. each) or one short (5-6pp.) and one longer essay (10-12pp.). If you choose the three paper option, you must write on each of the three books we are covering in class on a topic of your choice (obviously you need not discuss the entire book); research is not required for any of the papers for this option (although you may choose to include some). If you choose the two paper option, you have more flexibility; your first paper must be on the Songs, but the second paper can be on any of the texts for the course. The longer paper should also include a research component. I will be happy to discuss paper topics with you, and I welcome rough drafts in advance of the due date.

Graduate students should plan for the two paper option, with the longer paper being 15pp.

English Romantics Syllabus Front Page
English Romantics Reading Schedule
English Romantics House Rules
Doc Yoder's Home