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EN115—Fall 2006
Final Essay Topics
Write a 7-8 pp. typed, double-spaced essay on one of the following topics. In addition to the paragraphing,
sentence, and diction skills we’ve practiced throughout the semester, your essay must:
1.
2.
Use at least three different research sources aside from McWhorter.
Cite sources with basic correctness using the MLA format we’ve practiced.
Essays are due Monday, May 15, 12:00 noon, my office. Note: papers must be handed in as hard copy
(department policy). If you like, you can send me the essay as an attachment as backup at
<dbsuchof@Colby.edu>.
1. Define a problem or issue of language or language use we’ve studied this semester, identify it
clearly in a two-paragraph thesis, and come up with an argument about two different works that
explore the issue; make sure one work you analyze is not one we’ve studied in detail. If you write
about a work we’ve studied, you’re expected to analyze new and different aspects of that text,
building on what you’ve done (for instance, writing on other stanzas of “Song of Myself” from the
complete version). Issues to consider include:
A) the conflict between dialect/vernacular and standard language in a work, or the way dialect is or
isn’t accepted as, or transformed into, the standard speech.
B) fear of the vernacular, or changing attitudes towards it forms on the part of a canonical or eloquent
speaker.
C) The advantages and disadvantages of formal grammar and high language for representatives of a
high cultural or national voice, or of poetry
D) The role of or attitudes to foreign words, boundary-crossing forms, or the spoken voice in fixed
forms of written expression.
E) The “social valuations” of dialect and the vernacular as McWhorter explores them.
Some works you might want to write about in conjunction with another work are Wallace Stevens
“The Man With the Blue Guitar,” in Wallace Stevens: Collected Poetry and Prose (on reserve,
Miller Library), or Adrienne Rich, “Cartographies of Silence,” in Rich, Dream of a Common
Language (on reserve, Miller Library). You might come up with a language-related thesis about
one of these poems alone, and argue it fully, comparing it with a shorter discussion of another
work: Wordsworth’s “I Wandered Lonely As a Cloud” is a good example, but there are others.
2. Examine the description of different levels of language as symbolized in two other stories from
James Joyce’s Dubliners (on reserve in Miller Library). Two that connect with issues you’re
familiar with are “Eveline” and “The Boarding House.” In coming up with a thesis, you may want
to apply a problem of written or formal language that McWhorter raises to Joyce. Reading about
Joyce’s relation to the English language as an Irishman speaking and writing an imposed, and
sometimes idealized form tongue will help. Then come up with an argument about how the stories
you choose symbolize and develop that problem. Feel free to write about one of the other stories
in the Dubliners collection.
3. Use Gary Soto’s “Teaching English from an Old Composition Book” to define the problem
exposed when formal English is taught to new or foreign speakers. What dynamic of language life,
change, or fixity is exposed when established forms of English come in contact with different
spoken forms? You may want to use McWhorter to establish the terms of your discussion.
In a second thesis paragraph, come up with an argument that explores your idea in two other Soto
poems; two possibilities are Soto, “Look For My Brother at the Computer Factory,” or Soto,
“Anti-Hero,” both in Soto, Natural Man (on reserve, Miller Library). How is written, standard, or
formal English symbolized in these poems? How is the Mexican-American voice portrayed, and
what are the developing connections between the two?
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Several other books of poetry by Soto are on reserve there; pick the poems that inspire you to
define a good thesis, and argue it imaginatively and connectedly in effective paragraphs that cite
the texts.
4. Write an essay on the difference between the language of “discretion” and the language of
“nature” in Hamlet. In your thesis, define the problem with overly ornate and ideal “courtier”
language, and the problem with the contrasting forms of overly crude or material speech or
insights in the play. Then, come up with an argument about the different kinds of characters that
this language model helps you identify. What characters believe most in elegant language? Why?
Which ones are more aware of the difference between elegant speaking and crude behavior? How
does that awareness change? Does the play suggest a middle perspective anywhere? For whom
and where?
5. Write a 7-8 pp. essay on attitudes toward dialect and the vernacular in Whitman’s “Song of
Myself,” and two Wordsworth poems you find either in Literature and its Writers or The Norton
Anthology of English Literature (on reserve). What negative perspectives qualities do Whitman
and Wordsworth’s poem share toward dialect, the vernacular voice, or the speech of common
people? What is positive about the vernacular for each? How do dialect or slang effect the high or
more eloquent language that each poet writes? Which is more friendly to the common voice?
Why, and to what effect?