Presentation schedule updated

Hi guys,

If you scroll down a few posts, you will see that I updated the presentation schedule. It should be pretty self-explanatory, but let me know if you have questions.

Hope you had a great thanksgiving! See you Monday.

Prof D

Revision Paper

For your final paper assignment, please substantially revise either essay #1 or essay #3.

You may not revise your in class essay.

Your revision should include at least 2 pages of entirely new material. This can come throughout the essay and add up to 2 pages total, or it can come in one chunk somewhere, as long as the paper remains clearly organized overall.

You may want to expand or revise your thesis to include a new element (that still relates to the prior elements) in order to make room for this new material in your essay.

You may want to include more textual examples with strong analysis for your expansion.

Make sure you incorporate any suggestions I made to you when I graded your assignment. For example, if I asked you to clarify your thesis, clarify your thesis. If I said you needed more analysis, provide more analysis.

Lastly, you need to incorporate at least one new outside critical scholarly source into the essay, and at least two quotations from your class notes for the semester. Please cite the class notes appropriately, using MLA formatting. Here are guidelines for how to cite class lectures:

http://www.bibme.org/citation-guide/MLA/lecture

Requirements summary: 2 extra pages, 1 new critical outside source, 2 instances of class notes, any suggestions made by Prof D during grading


Due: Dec 9 by midnight via email only

Extra Credit Option

If you would like extra credit applied directly to your in class essay grade, you can attend the sci fi/horror reading at the campus library tomorrow (Tues, Nov. 19th) night at 7pm. If you do a one page write up of the reading and email it to me, you will receive credit. Enjoy!

Hi guys,

Not sure if you will catch this in time, but if you do, you are welcome to bring laptops to class today as we will devote a portion of class time to working on your presentations.

If you don't have them, that's fine--you can work on good old fashioned paper.

Best,
Prof D

Reminder

Hi guys,

This is a reminder that your final draft is due Monday no later than 1:30 pm via email only--so go ahead and send it to katedurbinteacher@gmail.com when it's ready.

Good luck writing!

Prof D

Presentation Schedule

11/25

Kyle
Gabe
Alex


12/2

Toby
Aidee
Robbie
Jordan

12/4
Skyler
Elizabeth

Workshop

ROUGH DRAFT WORKSHOP GUIDELINES

DIRECTIONS: As always, take time and care in responding, as you will be graded on these handouts. Make sure to write about 3-5 sentences in response to each section; you should be addressing all questions within a given section with specific answers. “The thesis answers the prompt,” or “The essay looks organized to me,” are NOT specific answers—for example, if the essay is that organized, then you should be able to tell me what specifically is so organized about it.

Questions:

1) Does the writer have a strong hook for the introduction? If not, suggest one. Does the writer introduce their topic clearly and succinctly, providing the necessary historical, cultural, and plot background information for both tales so that the reader is not confused about the topic at hand? Give one or two suggestions for improvement in this area (do not skip).

2) Does the essay’s thesis seem to be undeveloped or too broad, or is it just specific enough to argue in an 4-6 page paper? Does it have two sentences, the first addressing one specific critical interpretation or overarching cultural observation? Does the second sentence outline the main topics that will be discussed in the essay? Many any necessary suggestions for clarification and more specificity as well (do not skip). Lastly, please remember that the thesis needs to address the prompt.

It is really important to note that this paper is supposed to compare two fairy tales in order to argue how culture has or has not changed in some way since the time of the original tale. If it is not clear both in the thesis or the entirety of the paper the specific way in which culture has shifted or not shifted, then the paper is incomplete.

3) Please note any places in the essay where further clarifying details could be added. This is something everyone in the class needs to work on. Is the writer clear about which scene(s) they are analyzing? What is happening in those scenes? Who are the characters involved, how are they defined, etc? Make sure historical context information is also provided.

4) Is the writer incorporating research from three extra scholarly sources into the essay (not .com sources or dictionary/encyclopedia sources)? Do the sources seem to be strong and ON TOPIC? Why or why not (do not skip)

5) Does the writer have plenty of strong quotes from the two versions of the fairy tales that they intend to use in the essay? They should! Are those quotes “murder weapon” quotes? Which quote is the strongest and which is the weakest? Suggest an ordering for the quotes that would help the writer work from their strongest point to their weakest (keeping in mind the importance of chronology/topic organization as well)—do not skip! Are the quotes smoothly integrated into the essay and not plopped? 

6) Does the writer have sufficient analysis for their quotations? Remember, analysis is even more important than the quote itself. Make sure the writer is not simply explaining the quote in a summarizing fashion, but connecting it to its larger significance (relationship to their thesis, which is about a cultural shift). Make suggestions for improvement below, and be specific (do not skip).

7) Is the essay organized? Do the body paragraphs seem to build logically upon one another? Give at least one suggestion for improving the organization of the essay (do not skip). Starting at the beginning of the scene and then going forward from there is a good idea.

Presentation Guidelines

Please re-write a fairy tale for the 21st century. You can choose any fairy tale you like, whether it's one we covered in class or not. If you are unsure as to whether or not the tale classifies as a fairy tale, please ask your professor. While you are encouraged to use your imagination and change the tale however suits you, please keep the "tale type" the same. Remember, the tale type is the components of the tale that remain the same throughout every retelling. 

This assignment has three components: a short story component, a visual component, and a critical analysis. The short story should be the fairy tale re-written, in 3-10 pages, double-spaced and typed. You should feel free to alter the title of the story to suit your update, but please indicate somewhere on the paper which fairy tale it is you are updating. 

The analysis should be at least 2 pages, typed and double-spaced. In your analysis, you need to talk about the updates you have made to the tale, and why you have made them. How do your updates serve a 21st century audience? What cultural needs, fears, and desires do they explore? In addition, you can talk about what aspects of the tale you have decided to keep the same. Why did you keep those aspects the same? Do you see them as serving some kind of continuing cultural need? 

Please incorporate your notes from this course on fairy tales into your analysis. You are encouraged to use any of the critical essays in your Norton anthology. 

Lastly, you will be required to present your fairy tale to the class in a 10 minute presentation (no shorter--points will be docked for shorter presentations). When you do so, you need a visual component and a creative presentation. You may not simply read the tale, although that can be part of your presentation. You will need some sort of visual aide to accompany the presentation. It can be a short video that you have made yourself for this specific assignment (do not stream already made youtube videos--you will receive no credit and this will be considered plagarism), a skit, a comic book, an elaborate poster, a costume, etc. You can also do more than one visual aide. Obviously the amount of effort that went into the visual aide will greatly affect your score. Do not use visual aides that someone else made or that were from some other school assignment. The more time you put into this, and the more creative you are, the better!

Good luck and have fun!