THE NATIONAL AND KAPODISTRIAN UNIVERSITY OF ATHENS
Faculty of English Studies
LITERARY THEORY AND CRITICISM WRITING WORKSHOP
Spring 2009, 4th semester
Tuesdays, 9:00-12:00
Instructor: Dr. Chrysavgi Papagianni
E-mail: crisavgi@yahoo.gr
Office: 703, 7th floor
Office Hours:
Course Description
The course aims at helping students learn how to engage with the practice of advanced
writing in the context of a literature program. Students will learn the fundamentals of critical
writing as well as of critical thinking. Following a first segment where they will be
familiarized with the components of a research paper, i.e. structure, content, proper use of
resources (paper and online), they will be asked to produce four different critical readings of a
short literary text implementing four critical perspectives: a. classical/19th century theory, b.
psychoanalysis, c. feminism, d. postmodernism/postcolonialism. In-class activities will
include discussion, peer reviews, revision workshops, written and oral responses, Question
and Answer sessions. The success of the course depends upon the students’ participation
and contributions, both spoken and written.
Material


A notebook or binder for writing assignments in class.
A sturdy folder in which you keep all the handouts given to you by the instructor plus your
work for the class
 A Re-Writable CD on which you save all your writing.
In the end you will have to hand in to the instructor all the assignments you do during the
semester.
Grading Procedures
Grades for this class will be assigned as follows: each paper will be assigned 7,5 points
maximum (draft and final both), adding up to a total of 30 points out of the total of 100 (a
grade of 10) you can receive for the Theory and Criticism class. The remaining 7 points will
be assigned by the main course instructor. Students who opt not to participate in the workshop
forfeit those points, which cannot be made up by any other venue and cannot be earned later.
A Note on Plagiarism
Plagiarism is using another person's words and ideas as though they were your own. It is a
condemnable practice and will not be tolerated in this class. One can easily avoid
plagiarism: simply put the material you have taken from someone else's writing in quotation
marks and cite the person's name and publication in your paper. A paper which contains
plagiarized material will get no grade and a second occurrence of plagiarism will result
in the forfeiture of the entire workshop grade for that student. (Note: plagiarism is not
restricted to the use of published work; the passing of another student's work as your own is
also a case of plagiarism.)
Schedule
Week 1: Introduction to the course. What a response paper is. How to respond to a literary
text. Freewriting.
Week 2: Paraphrasing, summarizing and quoting. What good academic writing is. Sample
response papers. Preparing the outline for Response Paper 1.
Week 3: Rough Draft 1 due. Thesis Statement, Topic sentences, Introduction, Conclusion.
Peer Review.
Week 4: Response Paper 1 due. Preparing a paragraph for 2nd response paper. Revision
Strategies.
Week 5: Rough Draft 2 due. Style and the mechanics of writing. Most common sentence
level errors. Linking words/phrases. Workshop on Response Paper 1. Peer Review.
Week 6: Response Paper 2 due. The counter-argument paragraph. Critical examples.
Week 7: Rough Draft 3 due. Peer review.
Week 8: Workshop on second response paper. In-text citations. MLA Documentation.
Electronic resources (primary and reproduced).
Week 9: Response Paper 3 due. Writing the outline for Response Paper 4.
Week 10: Rough Draft 4 due. Peer review. Workshop on Response Paper 3.
Week 11: Rough Draft 4 returned. In-class revisions. Problem-solving session.
Week 12: Response Paper 4 due.