Academic Writing
MA Program in English. Fall 2009, Monday 1:40-4:30, LC302
Dr. Joseph Murphy, Office: SF229, Email: 041845@mail.fju.edu.tw
Overview
This course trains students in the fundamentals of academic writing about literature.
Each two-week segment will focus on a significant work of English or American
literature. One week students will write an essay on the literary work, and the
following week they will write a review of a published critical essay on that work. In
this way, students will have intensive practice in close reading a variety of literary
texts from different historical periods and in summarizing and evaluating a range of
professional criticism. The course will emphasize the elements of literature, correct
literary terminology, and proper paraphrasing, quoting, and citing according to MLA
style. Class time will be spent discussing the literary and critical works themselves,
and in critiquing and revising students’ written work. Students will also have several
individual conferences with the teacher to discuss their writing.
Text
MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7th ed. New York: MLA, 2009.
Writing assignments
--Short Critical Essays (about 600 words). Make a focused argument about a literary
work. Include some direct quotations, properly cited according to MLA style. A
rewrite is always due the following week. Always attach first draft to rewrite with a
paper clip.
--Reviews of Criticism (about 600 words). Summarize and evaluate the argument of a
critical essay. Include some direct quotations, properly cited according to MLA style.
A rewrite is always due the following week. Always attach first draft to rewrite with a
paper clip.
Students must email their essays (first drafts, but not rewrites) to all class members,
including the teacher, by Sunday at 10 p.m. Students must read all these essays prior
to Monday’s class.
Class participation. Students should come to class prepared to discuss: 1) the literary
or critical reading for that day; 2) their own written work; 2) the written work of other
class members.
Grading
Written work
Class participation
70%
30%
Schedule
Date
9/14
Reading
Introduction
Writing
2
9/21
9/28
10/05
10/12
10/19
10/26
11/02
Twentieth Century
Ernest Hemingway, “Soldier’s Home”
No class
Criticism on “Soldier’s Home”
Essay 1
W. H. Auden, “Musee des Beaux Arts”; William
Carlos Williams,“Landscape with the Fall of Icarus”
Criticism on these poems
Flannery O’Connor, “Everything That Rises Must
Converge”
Criticism on “Everything That Rises Must Converge”
Essay 2
Review 1 rewrite
11/09
Nineteenth Century
Emily Dickinson, selected poem
Criticism on Dickinson poem
11/16
William Wordsworth, “Michael”
11/23
Criticism on “Michael”
11/30
Eighteenth Century
Jonathan Swift, “A Modest Proposal”
Criticism on “A Modest Proposal”
12/07
12/14
12/21
12/28
1/04
1/11
1/18
No class
Renaissance
William Shakespeare, sonnets
Criticism on Shakespeare’s sonnets
Essay 1 rewrite
Review 1
Essay 3
Essay 2 rewrite
Review 2
Essay 3 rewrite
Essay 4
Review 2 rewrite
Review 3
Essay 4 rewrite
Essay 5
Review 3 rewrite
Review 4
Essay 5 rewrite
Essay 6
Review 4 rewrite
Review 5
Essay 6 rewrite
Review 5 rewrite
Essay 7
Review 6
Essay 7 rewrite
Medieval/Old English
Essay 8
“The Dream of the Rood”
Review 6 rewrite
Criticism on “The Dream of the Rood”
Review 7
Essay 8 rewrite
Submit Final Portfolio of all semester writing (first drafts and rewrites,
including Review 7 rewrite)