THE ENGLISH ESSAY
English 130
Fall 2012
Tues-Thurs 10:30-11:50
285 Court Street
Alice Hadler
Office: Allbritton 214
Phone: x2832
203-772-1746 (home)
Office hours: daily by appointment and
MW 10:30-11:30; Tu 2-3
Readings:
The following books are available at Broad Street Books, 45 Broad St.; purchase is strongly
recommended. One copy of each book will be on reserve at Olin Library.
Zinsser: On Writing Well
le thi diem thuy: The Gangster We are All Looking For
Kingston: Woman Warrior
Rushdie: Haroun and the Sea of Stories
Writing with Sources
Two recommended reference books (also at Broad Street):
Little, Brown Compact Handbook (if you want something more extensive than Writing with
Sources)
Any "college" dictionary (Random House, Webster's, etc.)
All other readings are photocopies and will either be distributed in class or contained in a course
packet which you must order from the Wesleyan print shop. Instructions will be distributed in
class. There’s quite a lot of reading for Thursday, so please order your packet asap.
Please be prepared to discuss the readings on the days indicated below unless I announce
otherwise (the schedule is subject to change). Attendance at all class meetings is mandatory
(please call or see me if you have an unavoidable conflict).
Reader's Journals:
You are expected to keep a reader's journal, either handwritten or typed, whichever you prefer.
Journal entries will not be graded, but I will respond to them and evaluate them as a whole at
the end of the semester - keeping a journal is mandatory. Details will be discussed at the first
class meeting.
Papers:
Due dates for papers are indicated below. The dates are for first drafts, which must be turned in
on the day indicated. They will be discussed in class workshops to be held on the due dates.
Papers (all drafts, including the first, peer-reviewed one) must be typed, double spaced. More
exact instructions for papers will be distributed separately.
Hadler p. 2
Evaluation:
The main basis for evaluation will be your papers. Only the final draft will be graded, but a
failure to bring a first draft for a workshop will be very heavily penalized. Papers will be graded
mainly on the quality and effectiveness of your argument, but also on how thoughtfully and
successfully you rethink and rework your drafts. Developing editing skill is one of the central
tenets of this course. In general, the next draft of a paper will be due approximately one week
after you get a reviewed draft back.
Also considered will be the quality of your peer reviews in essay workshops, and the overall
timeliness and quality of your reader’s journals. I expect active engagement and daily
participation in class discussions.
Hadler, p. 3
Tentative Schedule:
Getting Started
Tuesday, September 4: Organizational meeting
Sep 6: Telling the story: On narrative in the arts and sciences/How do we know what we
know?
Kingsolver: “Small Wonder”
Lopez: "Landscape and Narrative"
Rose: "Observing and Intervening"
Giamatti: excerpt from: A Free and Ordered Space: The Real World of the University,
“The Academic Mission”
11: Language and power, Language in the mind
Lakoff and Johnson: Metaphors We Live By, excerpts
Lakoff: “Metaphor and War”
R. Lakoff: “The Power of Words in Wartime”
Hitt: “Words on Trial: Can Linguists Solve Crimes that Stump the Police?”
Orwell: "Politics and the English Language"
13: Language in use
Zinsser: On Writing Well, Intro, Chapter 1-8, The Lead and the Ending
Rodriguez: “Aria”
Tan: "Mother Tongue"
Steinbach: “The Miss Dennis School of Writing”
Naylor: “The Meanings of a Word”
18: Essay workshop: first analytical essay
About Place
Sep 20: Zinsser: "Writing about Places"
Travel writing: Eco, Manguel, MFK Fisher
The sense of place: Kingsolver’s “Knowing our Place”
25: Variations on the Place Theme:
Momaday: "The Way to Rainy Mountain"; Abbey: “Desert Solitaire”
Shipler: “Beauty for Ashes,” Johnson: “The Boat”
Thinking Fan’s Guide to the World Cup: Argentina/Cote d’Ivoire/
Sep 27 : Essay workshop: writing about a place/travel
The Personal Essay
Oct 2: Baldwin: "Sonny's Blues" (short story)
West & Marsalis: "Jazz, Hope, and Democracy" (background for “Sonny’s
Blues”)
Zinsser, "Writing about Yourself - the Memoir"
Oct 4: White: "Once More to the Lake"
Walker: "Beauty: When the Other Dancer Is the Self"
Erdrich: "The Names of Women”
Hadler, p 4
Oct 9: le: The Gangster We Are All Looking For
Focusing on Narrative/Memoir/Imagination
Oct 11: Kingston: The Woman Warrior, chapters one and two
~~ no class Oct 16, “fall break” ~~
18: finish Woman Warrior, chapters 3-5
(also read Silko: “Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit”)
Oct 23: Essay workshop: personal essay
Oct 25:
Film: Raise the Red Lantern
Role of the Narrator – Recounting interviews
Nov 1 : Hevesi: "Running Away"
Wilkerson: “First Born, Fast Grown: The Manful Life of Nicholas, 10”
Zinsser: "The Interview"
Nov 3: Essay workshop: analytical essay on The Woman Warrior
Interviews (continued)
Nov 8: Tuchman: "'This Is the End of the World': The Black Death"
Terkel: excerpts from Working
Kramer: “Josephine Guezou”
Gladwell: “The Talent Myth”
Argument
Nov 10 : Pullum: "Here Come the Linguistic Fascists"
Singer: “The Singer Solution to World Poverty”
Kingsolver: “A Fist in the Eye of God”
Thomas: "The Art of Teaching Science"
Nov 15: debate preparation - in class
Nov 17: Essay workshop: interview/report
Nov 22/29: debates (write-up/op-ed due by semester's end)
~ Thanksgiving break: no class Thursday November 24 ~
In Conclusion: Salman Rushdie
Dec 1/Dec 6: Rushdie: excerpts from Step Across this Line
Miller: “A Good Book Should Make You Cry”
Rushdie: Haroun and the Sea of Stories
Dec
8: Last class: In-class essay exercise