SIX TEXT ANALYSES (ENG 100): Assignments and Due Dates
Based on Conversations by Selzer and Carpine, Fall 2007
For exact deadlines dates, see your Schedule
For each of the assigned Text Analyses, select one essay from Part A for your Summary. Then write
your Reflection or Interpretation about the assigned essay in Part B. For details and a sample, see
the “Text Analysis: Guidelines & Sample” handout. For deadlines, see your Schedule.
Text Analysis #1, due Week 4 (and rework it until you are satisfied):
Part A: Choose one of the following essays for your summary: Sojourner Truth, “Ain’t I a Woman?” (33637); Frederick Douglass, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (excerpt) (171-76); and Bill
Nelson, “The Right to Privacy” (691-94)., Jonathan Swift, “Gulliver’s Travels, Book Three, Chapter Two
(satire)” (800-07).
Part B: Use this essay for your reflection/interpretation: Mahatma Gandhi, “Letter to Lord Irwin” (646-50).
Text Analysis #2:
Part A: Choose one of the following essays for your summary: E. B. White, “Education” (27-29); Alice
Walker, “Everyday Use” (120-27).
Part B: “Martin Luther King Jr., “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (654-68).
Text Analysis #3:
Part A: Choose one of the following essays for your summary: Larry Cuban, “Making Public Schools
Business-like . . . Again” (73-81); J. Reeves, “College isn’t for Everyone” (128-33).
Part B: Ellen Condliffe Lagemann, “The Challenge of Liberty” (135-45).
MIDTERM, Week 8: Submit the best version of your first three TEXT ANALYSES, together with the
first set of your CLASS NOTES (Weeks 3-7), in your class-colored portfolio for your mid-term grade.
Text Analysis #4:
Part A: Choose one of the following essays for your summary: Benjamin Franklin, The Autobiography of
Benjamin Franklin (excerpt) (167-70); Paul Gorski “Understanding the Digital Divide from a Multi-Cultural
Education Framework” (189-95).
Part B: Henry David Thoreau, “Civil Disobedience” (631-45).
Text Analysis #5:
Part A: Choose one of the following essays for your summary: Barbara Findlen, “Is Marriage the
Answer?” (583-89); and Adam Tenney, “Whose Family Values?” (576-580); Scott Russell Sanders, “The
Men We Carry in Our Minds” (337-41); Deborah Tannen, “CrossTalk” (390-94); and Ronnie Dugger,
“Corporate Takeover of the Media” (225-228).
Part B: Ellen Goodman, “Showing us the Power of Marriage” (580-82).
Text Analysis #6:
Part A: Choose one of the following essays for your summary: Jack Selzer and Dominic Delli Carpini,
“Media Matters” (197-201); Robert W. McChesney and Eric Alternam, “Waging the Media Battle” (202210); and Shere Hite, “Bringing Democracy Home” (486-93).
Part B: Sherryl Kleinman, “Why Sexist Language Matters” (395-400).
FINAL EXAM, WEEK 15:
Submit the best version of your last three TEXT ANALYSES, together with the CLASS NOTES from
Weeks 8 through 14 (in your class-colored portfolio) as part of your final grade.
(updated: 2007-10-09)