ENGL 150 Daily Assignments

ENGL 150: Writing and Research (honors)

Daily Assignments and Class Participation

(Fall 2005)

This page will be updated throughout the semester. Some of these assignments will be handed in, some will not, but all of them should be written down. If the daily assignment involves responses to questions about readings, or some sort of research, it probably won't be handed in, but make sure you come to class prepared with written or typed notes you can use as a point of reference during class discussions.

On some days, different students will have different assignments. Find your name in the list of groups below to find out what your assignment is on these days. If the assignment is a writing assignment or a research assignment, do not collaborate with other students in your group unless you are told to do so.

Group A: Lia Carroll-Hackett, Heather Chapman, Christopher Critzer, J. Crowell.

Group B: Nicole Gonder, Lauren Hartman, Krystal Lane, Kelly Poorbaugh.

Group C: Elizabeth Poyner, Rachel Price, Abigail Treanor, Whitney Tripp.

Group D: John Walker, Becky West, Jenny Wysong.

30 August	Course introduction--no assignment. (But read Strunk and White Rule 13 if you view this page before class.)
1 September	Read Plato's Symposium, Introductory Dialogue and the Speech of Phaedrus (pp. 1-12). Group A: Using only books in the library, come to class prepared to explain who Plato and Socrates are, and why they are important. Synthesize and paraphrase the information you find. Do not simply copy information and recite it to the class--this is plagiarism. If you find a really good quotation you want to share with the class you can do so, but make sure you indicate your source clearly and present it as a quotation. Group B: Using only Internet resources, come to class prepared to explain who Plato and Socrates are, and why they are important. Synthesize and paraphrase the information you find. Do not simply copy information and recite it to the class--this is plagiarism. If you find a really good quotation you want to share with the class you can do so, but make sure you indicate your source clearly and present it as a quotation. Group C: Come to class prepared to summarize the Introductory Dialogue. Group D: Come to class prepared to summarize the Speech of Phaedrus.
6 September	In Great Writing, read the introduction to Description (pp. 10-17), Virginia Woolf's "The Death of the Moth," and Keats's "Ode to Autumn" (pp. 52-53). Be prepared to respond to these questions in class: How do Woolf and Keats use personification? How do Woolf and Keats appeal to the five senses? How do Woolf and Keats use imagery? Choose one word by Woolf and one by Keats that you find particularly effective, and be prepared to explain why. Suggestions: sombre, hybrid, specimen, benignant, downs, romantic, garnished, circumspection (Woolf), and granary, winnowing, furrow, hook, swath, barred, sallow, bleat, bourn, twitter (Keats). You might find the Oxford English Dictionary to be a useful guide for exploring these words.
8 September	Read Plato's Symposium, the speeches of Pausanias and Eryxamachus (pp. 13-24). In class, be prepared to summarize both speeches. Use at least one library source and one Internet source to find some information on attitudes toward homosexuality in ancient Greece.
13 September	Description writing assignment due. In Great Writing, read the introduction to Exemplification (pp. 144-151) and William Zinsser's "Clutter" (pp. 190-194). Find 3-5 examples of "clutter" in a newspaper, magazine, or other written source. Be prepared to discuss your examples.
15 September	Read Plato's Symposium, the speech of Aristophanes (pp. 25-31). (NB: bring notes to class--it helps!). Group A: Be prepared to summarize Aristophanes's speech. Group B: Be prepared to provide a verbal description of the kind of creature Aristophanes describes in his speech. Group C: Be prepared to argue that Aristophanes's speech is simply a work of comedy that has no serious meaning. Group D: Be prepared to argue that Aristophanes's speech, though funny, is intended to convey a serious idea.
20 September	Exemplification writing assignment due. In Great Writing, read the introduction to Process Anaylsis (pp. 196-204) and Jessica Mitford's "Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain (pp. 216-223). (1) Be prepared to summarize Mitford's argument in no more than three sentences (write this down--I'll have people read their summaries out loud in class). (2) Be prepared to explain why Mitford's argument is successful--and be prepared to be as specific as possible in doing so.
22 September	Read Plato's Symposium, the speech of Agathon and Socrates's questions to Agathon (pp. 32-44). After you read the speech of Agathon, but before you read the response of Socrates, write a brief argument that refutes Agathon's claims on at least two or three points. Then read Socrates's response. Are there questions you feel Socrates should ask Agathon that he does not? Do you agree with Socrates's questions, or are some of them unwarranted?
27 September	Process Analysis writing assignment due. In Great Writing, read the introduction to Comparison and Contrast (pp. 278-286), Shakespeare's Sonnet 130 (pp. 328-329), and Bruce Catton's "Grant and Lee" (pp. 332-335). Please also read George Carlin's "Comparison of Football and Baseball." Paraphrase Shakespeare's Sonnet 130 in two or three sentences. Be prepared to describe at least one thing that the poem does that is difficult to paraphrase. What, according to Catton, do Grant and Lee have in common? In what ways are they different? Be prepared to discuss the ways in which George Carlin uses language to distinguish baseball from football.
29 September	Read Plato's Symposium, Diotima's questions to Socrates and the speech of Diotima (pp. 45-60). Enumerate at least three ways in which Diotima's ideas about love are different from those presented by the other interlocutors in the Symposium. Please provide as much detail as possible, and be prepared to compare and contrast specific ideas.
4 October	Comparison and contrast assignment due. In Great Writing, read the introduction to Causal Analysis (pp. 404-410) and Jack London's "To Build a Fire" (pp. 432-444). Be prepared to explain the main cause-and-effect relationship in the story, as well as at least five smaller relationships. You should also be prepared to analyze one of these relationships in a way that does not simply paraphrase the relationship.
6 October	TBA
11 October	Causal Analysis writing assignment due. In Great Writing, read the introduction to Definition (pp. 464-472) and Stephen Carter's "The Insufficiency of Honesty" (pp. 507-512). (1) What distinction does Carter make between honesty and integrity? (2) Can you identify places where Carter uses some of the writing strategies we've talked about this semester: description, exemplification, process analysis, causal analysis, and comparison and contrast?
13 October	Read Plato's Symposium, Alcibiades's entrance, the speech of Alcibiades, and the final dialogue (pp. 61-78). Identify two or three ways in which the events after Alicbiades's entrance are related to the events and speeches that took place earlier in the evening.
20 October
25 October
27 October	Spring Break
1 November
3 November
8 November
10 November	Go here for research paper assignments.
15 November	Go here for research paper assignments.
17 November	Go here for research paper assignments.
22 November	Go here for research paper assignments.
29 November	Go here for research paper assignments.
1 December	Go here for research paper assignments.
6 December	Research Presentations
8 December	Research Presentations
15 December (Thursday), 3-5:30 pm	FINAL EXAM (Final papers due today.)

[Source: Many of these assignments are based on assignments in Wiener and Eisenberg, Great Writing, 3rd ed. (McGraw Hill)]