Study and adhere to the following directions for out-of-class essay (abbreviated OCE) assignments.

Generally, for all Out-of-Class Essays

        1a. All out-of-class essays (abbreviated OCE) should run a minimum of two full word-processed pages (with a font size of 10 in Courier New, and one-inch margins all around). Follow the instructions in Prinsky's "Using Microsoft Word" document (Engl. 1101 webpage, Engl. 1102 webpage). 1b. In addition, OCE1 & OCE2 should also have Works Cited pages, following the models in RJ8, as well as NMHH, secs. 24c (including #7 and #16), 24e, and 24f ; or SFHW7, sec. 53c (including #29, selection from a reader or anthology) or SFHW8, secs. 50b (including #3 and #17) and 50c; or WR5/WR6, MLA-4b and MLA5.  1c. Note that the Works Cited entry begins on a new page, so you must use the "forced page break" or "forced page advance" or "insert page break" feature in your word processor, inserting this at the end of your essay body, to make sure that the Works Cited entry will always begin on a new page, no matter what changes or fonts or printers are used. See the third paragraph of this section for further material about the Works Cited page.

        2. All essays should refer to specifics and details from the literary works and supply appropriate parenthetical documentation referring to paragraph numbers (for short stories), speech numbers (for short plays), and line numbers (for poems), AS PER THE SAMPLE ESSAYS IN ROBERTS AND JACOBS. THE BODY OF YOUR ESSAYS SHOULD LOOK LIKE, AND HAVE COMPARABLE CONTENT TO, THE BODIES OF THE SAMPLE ESSAYS IN ROBERTS AND JACOBS. THE ONLY EXCEPTIONS ARE (1) THAT YOU SHOULD USE THE WORD "PARAGRAPH" OR ABBREVIATION "PAR." IN PARENTHETICAL DOCUMENTATION FOR OCE1 OR "LINE(S) XX(-XX)" FOR OCE2, AND NOT BOTHER WITH ALSO SUPPLYING A PAGE NUMBER; (2) THAT YOU SHOULD NOT UNDERLINE YOUR TOPIC SENTENCES, WHICH IS ONLY DONE IN R&J TO SHOW STUDENTS THE IMPORTANCE, PRESENCE, AND POSITION OF THESE SENTENCES; AND (3) THAT YOU SHOULD NOT NUMBER YOUR OWN PARAGRAPHS, WHICH IS ONLY DONE IN R&J TO ALLOW STUDENTS TO MORE EASILY ASSOCIATE THE AUTHORS' COMMENTS WITH PARTICULAR PLACES IN THE SAMPLE ESSAYS.

        3a. Out-of-class essays #1 and #2 should have Works Cited pages; these pages will have just one entry, indicating the particular edition of the literary work that is the focus of the assignment.  See how the Works Cited page appears, as a separate page, in the sample MLA format research paper in the assigned composition handbook(s) for the course.  See the comments in section #1, above, in these Directions. To make a Works Cited page always appear on a new page and in the correct position, the feature from all computer word processing programs -- the forced page break or forced page advance or insert page break -- should be used. In Microsoft Word, double spaced after the end of the body of your essay, select from the upper tool bar "insert," and then "break." In the "Break dialog box" that appears, select "Page break," if the "radio button" isn't already selected; click the "Break dialog" box's "OK" button. (In WordPerfect, double spaced after the end of the body of your essay, simply press and hold the "Ctrl" key and then press the "Enter" or "Return" key.)  From then on, whether anything is added or subtracted to your essay,  the Works Cited page will always begin on a new page and the material on it will retain its proper position. Further model Works Cited pages may be found for every model or demonstrative essay at the end of every chapter of RJ8. 3b. As indicated by your composition handbook, double spacing is continued throughout the MLA formatted paper, no exceptions, from the first page through the Works Cited page. 3c. As indicated by your composition handbook, only the first letters are capitalized in the title "Works Cited" (with no quotation marks). 3d. As indicated by your composition handbook, Works Cited entries are formatted by the "hanging indent" or "hanging paragraph" style. In Microsoft Word, after typing out the complete entry, select (highlight) it, and then, using the "radio buttons" on the menu bars at the top of the screen:  Format > Paragraph > Indents and Spacing > Indentation > Special > Hanging.

        4a. The literary analysis essay should always contain four items of information in the title: the author, title, and genre of the literary work(s) being analyzed, and a clear indication of the assigned topic (with, perhaps, your general idea or ideas about the assigned topic).  4b. The first paragraph of the literary analysis essay should always contain the same four items of information as the essay title, plus a clear indication of your general idea or ideas about the assigned topic.  4c. In addition, the topic or first sentence of every paragraph after paragraph 1, page 1, of the literary analysis essay should point to some major subject or theme of the assigned literary work (not simply one action in the plot). 4d. In comparison and contrast papers, such as OCE#1 (first topic), below, the topic or first sentence of every paragraph after paragraph 1, page, 1, should combine a reference to some major subject or theme of the assigned literary work plus comparison or contrast (or both) to the equivalent in your analysis of your autobiographical material.
 

OCE-1 Assignment on Amy Tan's Short Story "Two Kinds" (Ch. 4 of RJ8)

        1. Discuss and organize (without letting the paper lapse into a series of disconnected analyses and paragraphs) the positive and negative personality traits and motivations revealed by both the major and the minor characters of Amy Tan's short story "Two Kinds": Jing-Mei's mother; Jing-Mei; Mr. Chong; Auntie Lindo (Jong); Waverly (Jong); Jing-Mei's father.  Be sure not to neglect both the positive and negative personality traits and motivations of each character; each character has both positive and negative personality traits and motivations. Try to find ways to group characters or personality traits or motivations in the same paragraph, so that the paper doesn't become a series of disconnected analyses and paragraphs.

        2. Be careful not to confuse "Amy Tan" with "narrator," or the narrator's mother with "Amy Tan's mother." The characters in the short story, though possibly based on real life, are not Amy Tan and Amy Tan's mother. (A similar problem will occur in the poetry unit of this course when referring to the speaker of a poem, rather than referring to the author's name -- e.g., "the speaker of  the poem 'Bright Star' says" rather than "Keats in the poem 'Bright Star' says.")

        3. Be careful to avoid overgeneralization about parents; some parents -- as continually reported by newspapers, magazines, and television -- do things like locking children up in closets for years, or even dumping living infants in trash cans.

        4. Be sure to download, study, and apply (while writing, and afterwards, in editing and revising) the grading template posted for OCE1 on the Prinsky Engl. 1102 webpage. Likewise, double check Ch. 5 of Prinsky's Engl. 1102 Pamphlet, as well as Ch. 1 of RJ8, for both general and specific pointers about writing literary analysis essays.
 

OCE-2. An Analysis of  Marge Piercy's Poem "Wellfleet Sabbath"

        1. Be sure to study in the section about out-of-class papers in my "English 1102 Pamphlet" the section 7 about giving credit to outside sources (e.g., to Roberts and Jacobs, for their help about the poem). In your analysis only consider the components brought up in R&J,  Chs. 13-17 and 23 (make a list for yourself of what these components are).

        2a. Do not organize your essay line by line of the poem, or by literary components. Neither of these strategies represents organization by ideas, main points, or main topics. (Study the section on approaching literary works in my "English 1102 Pamphlet," section 5. Use the model in section 5 (particularly my outline of how the paper should be organized about Tennyson's poem "The Eagle"), and also the demonstrative student essay in Roberts & Jacobs Ch. 13,  and the sample essay in Ch. 23.) 2b. Do not neglect to point out and give a sense of the poem's overall organization or structure, as well as its coherence (how various parts, as well as various images and figures of speech, interconnect). 2c. All essays about poems, including OCE-2, the documented paper/research paper about a poem, and the final exam essay, should include in the first paragraph not only identification of author, title, genre, and main subjects or themes of the literary work, but also a clear indication in one sentence of what the main thought-content parts of the poem are, and what each part contains. (In a poem of three or more stanzas, almost certainly the poem will not have as many parts as stanzas -- that is, a poem of five stanzas -- like Marge Piercy's "Wellfleet Sabbath" -- will almost certainly not have five main thought-content parts. Study the material in these OCE-2 directions for a strong hint about how the poem divides into two main parts.)  Remember that besides the four items that belong in the title and first paragraph of all literary analysis essays, a fifth item that belongs in any analysis of a poem is a one-sentence indication of what the main parts of the poem are and the thought-content of each part.

        3. In literary analysis papers on poems, cite line numbers of the poem in parenthetical documentation, as shown in the sample essays in Roberts & Jacobs. Do not cite page number or author's name. The page number is taken care of on the Works Cited page, required for all out-of-class essays, except for the optional OCE3. Study in Roberts-Jacobs, your composition handbook, and pep2 (section 5), conventions of how to quote more than one line of verse (when to run the quotation on into your own sentence, when to offset the quotation, when to use the virgule or slash mark).

        4. As suggested by its placement in Ch. 14 of Roberts-Jacobs, Marge Piercy's "Wellfleet Sabbath" is about the interrelation of character and setting; as implied by the title, the poem is about, describes, and explores, in particular, how the Sabbath affects or is manifested in the exterior and interior described. What feelings or emotions are conveyed about the outside and inside (cf. the first study question in Roberts- Jacobs)? What ideas are implied about God, nature, and humanity, separately and in interrelation? According to the etymology of the word Sabbath in your collegiate dictionary, what does the Hebrew word mean, and how does this meaning apply to the content of the poem?

        5a. Give early in your paper, and indicate throughout, a sense of the poem's overall organization and coherence. Paragraph 1, page 1, of the literary analysis essay about poetry should, like the model essay in Roberts&Jacobs, Ch. 16, indicate what the overall parts of the poem are (how many lines or stanzas per part, contents of the part), worked into one of the sentences in the very first paragraph of your literary analysis essay. What are the main parts, and how are various lines and images interconnected? Be sure to study section 5, my sample note-gathering, outline, and opening of an essay on Tennyson's poem "The Eagle." Study how the sample essay in Ch. 16 of Roberts & Jacobs gives a sense of how the poem  is organized and how its parts connect. Organize your essay by focusing on the main subject of the poem: what ideas about God, Nature, and humanity, separately and in combination, are conveyed by the poem.   (5b) In Piercy's poem, how do stanzas 1-3 and 5 constitute a unit, in comparison and contrast to stanza 4? Why the progression or sequence of 1-3, 4, and then 5 as subunits? How is does the poem have a looping or circular structure, and what ideas about God, nature, or humanity (separately or in combination) might be implied by this pattern? (5c) What ideas about God, nature, and humanity (separately and in combination) might be conveyed by the prevalence of the figure of speech personification in the poem? (5d) What ideas about God, nature, and humanity (separately and in combination) might be conveyed by the reiterated bird imagery and figurative language in the poem? What allusions to the Bible might there be in the avian imagery and figurative language? (You might consult a concordance and a dictionary of the Bible on this point.) 5e. Organize your literary analysis paper --- as in the model essays of pep2 / Ch.5 (how I would organize my essay about Tennyson's poem "The Eagle," paying particular attention to my outline); Ch. 13 (second illustrative student essay) of R&J; and Ch. 23 --- by main subjects or ideas or themes, not by literary components or line by line, or stanza by stanza. Technical terminology and components should be used as part of the supporting explanatory material within each paragraph, and should usually be drawn from several chapters of R&J, not just a component from a single chapter of Roberts & Jacobs.  That is, usually a combination of diction, imagery, figurative language, symbolism, and allusion is at work to help generate ideas about a particular general subject or idea that is the focus of each paragraph.

        6. When considering any item of denotation-connotation, imagery, or rhetorical figure of speech, ask yourself (and discuss) why this one to describe or define or designate what it does? How does it with especially aptness describe, define, or designate what it does? What ideas or themes does it help convey; how is it connected to the poem's ideas or themes? For instance, with reference to denotation and connotation, what is conveyed or described or suggested about God, nature, humanity, the mood of the time and place, when the speaker says that the tide "trickles out"(line 4), as opposed to a reference to the tide as "going out," "running out," "washing out," "retreating," or some similar synonym? With reference to figurative language, why is the sun said to have an "eye" that "slowly shuts"(line 1)? Why not an ear gradually going deaf? And why the eye of a hawk, rather than some other creature, human or (other) animal?

        7. For denotation and connotation, be sure to study your composition handbook about the typographical conventions involved in citing words as words, in an essay. Study the material on quotation marks and italics (underlining) in your composition handbook.

(first stanza) (a) What ideas about nature do the two combination metaphors and personifications in the first stanza (technically, a quatrain) suggest about the landscape (or seascape), the feeling it conveys (including the feelings evoked by the time of day), and the speaker's mood? How? (b) Likewise, for the simile in this quatrain. (c) How does the rhetorical figure in lines 3-4 aptly describe the appearance of the sky while also indicating something about theme and mood? Why describe the sky in terms of the sea? What might be implied about parts of nature, under God?

(second stanza) (a) How do the two metaphors help describe aspects of, as well as suggest ideas about, the time and place? (b) Why doors, exactly? What building is an appropriate setting for worship? How does this figure of speech connect this stanza to the fourth stanza? How does what the doors are doing contrast with what the hawk's eye is doing (line 1)? (c) Why a balloon (note the spelling) to describe what it does? Why a copper balloon, given the time and place? How is a copper balloon a sort of paradox, and what might be suggested about God's power through this paradox? (c) Consider the denotation and connotation of loosing, floating, vast, and sailing. How might there be a pun on sailing, describing not only a balloon but something else appropriate to the setting? (d) In connection with syntax (Roberts-Jacobs, Ch. 16), what is the effect of all the -ing words? What are these called, grammatically?

(third stanza) (a) Consider the denotation and connotation of slides. Why not skims, glides, grazes, etc.? (b) How are the two personifications appropriate in describing what they do, and what ideas might they help convey about God, nature, and humanity, separately or in combination or interrelation? (c) How is the animal implied in the last two lines of the stanza an comparison to what it describes and to the themes and mood of the poem?

(fourth stanza) (a) What two kinds of imagery are evoked in the first line? What three kinds of imagery are evoked in the second through fourth lines? How do these kinds of imagery contribute to the theme and mood of the poem, something implied about the time and place? (b) How does the personification in the first two lines suggest something positive about time and place, the Sabbath? (c) Part of the Sabbath (called Shabbat) ceremony in the Jewish faith involves initial blessings over the candles (and then lighting them) and wine (and then sipping from it; called the Kiddush and Kiddush cup, which you may look up in your collegiate dictionary). The Jewish Sabbath is observed from sundown on Friday to sundown on Saturday (the ancient reckoning of days from sundown to sundown is what accounts for the peculiar phrasing in Genesis in the Bible: "and there was evening, and there was morning--the [first, second, etc.] day" (1:5, 1:8, 1:13, 1:19, 1:23, 1:31). In what sense or senses may wine become a lantern? How are light and vision or perception (what lanterns are used for) important concepts in the poem Why a red lantern? How is the rhetorical figure connected to the poem's themes or description of time and place? How is the rhetorical figure describing the wine related in imagery to the rhetorical figure describing the sun (line 1)?

(fifth stanza) (a) Look up Shekinah in your collegiate dictionary; according to the etymology, what is the actual meaning of the Hebrew word, and how does this meaning connect to the themes and descriptions of the poem? (b) What imageries are evoked by piney(line 17), and what do they contribute to theme and description of time and place? (c) What ideas are contributed by the bird image? Why this particular kind of bird? (d) What pun may there be on raising(line 19), in contrast to what the song does relative to the "fresh clean night"(lines 19-20)? (e) What kinds of imagery are evoked in the last three lines, and how do they help describe the time and place, and help express the poem's ideas or themes? Why end the poem with a reference to song?

OCE #3. Optional personal experience paper on attending the play produced by the Augusta State University drama department (not available in summer term)

        The topic is what kind of time (good, bad, or probably, both) the experience was. Use plenty of specific details, but always relate them to how they contributed to making the experience pleasant, unpleasant, or both. Do not simply tell a story; do not simply write a pure narrative.

        In your playgoing essay, include all the 5 w's and h (which day, what time, with whom you went, how you got there, what parking was like, what climatic conditions were like both outside and inside the theater, how crowded the theater was, what the crowd makeup was [young, old, mixture, students, adults from the community], how the crowd was dressed [perhaps in comparison or contrast to how you were dressed, and the feelings, + or -, this gave you), how the crowd seemed to respond to the play during the performance and afterwards, whether this response was comparable or contrasting with your own, whom you may have recognized, whom you talked with [before, during, after the play, in the theater or lobby], how you liked the play, how you liked the actors, your mood leaving the theater, walking to the parking lot, leaving the parking lot). Remember to relate these details to how they contributed to the + or - quality of the experience for you.

        The essay should have a solid topic sentence in its beginning that indicates the dominant impression(s) of your overall experience (e.g., +/- and which predominated), and connection of all material to this; each paragraph after the first should have a binary topic sentence (indicating +/-, covering the rest of the paragraph). Use 5 w's and h (who, what, when, where, why, how) throughout. Basically this assignment is what I call a "binary topic" and can be managed accordingly (cf. my remarks in the section on comparison and contrast in Pep2); do not just narrate a story: the paper should be expository, not just simple narrative or narration. Every paragraph should begin with a strong topic sentence indicating +/- (and which predominated), as well as covering all material in the rest of the paragraph. (Note that the sentence "We arrived at the Grover C. Maxwell Performing Arts Theater at 7:00 p.m." is a poor topic sentence. It will not cover the rest of the material of the paragraph and does not indicate + or - or both +/-, with one predominating.)

        Study the material on binary topics in my sections on dealing with impromptu essays and with comparison and contrast in my English 1102 pamphlet (Chapters  6 and 11-C2b). Also, study the material on organization, drafting, revision, transitions, topic sentences, introductions, conclusions, and paragraphs in your composition handbook.

        This essay is not to be either purely narrative (first you did this, then this, then this, etc.) or a review. Rather, it should focus on what kind of time you had, both good and bad (with one probably predominating, but both probably present).

        For such a purely personal experience essay or paper as this, do not bother with a Works Cited page. Personal experience papers are due no later than one week after the event experienced.
 

OCE #4: Optional paper analyzing lyrics along with accompanying audiotape or music CD of one of your favorite popular up-tempo (fast) songs

        At this point in the course (the last weeks of the course), you have now had some experience of how one goes about analyzing the lyrics of a popular song (in my case, Rock, though you might like Country, Rap, R & B, or another popular musical genre), via class discussion of Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues, the Beatles' Paperback Writer, Joni Mitchell's "Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire" (quotation marks, since this song appeared on her album For the Roses), the Manfred Mann Earth Band's version of Bruce Springsteen's Blinded By the Light, and various poems from R & J.

        For an optional out-of-class essay (which automatically means typed or wordprocessed) you may analyze the ideas and themes of a favorite popular up-tempo song (with a good beat!), indicating in detail how these ideas and themes are conveyed by the various literary components of specific lyrics, using all appropriate concepts and terms discussed in Chs. 13-21 and 23 of R J8. For example, about Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues it could be stated in an essay that the oppression of corrupt and greedy adult authority is suggested by the song's opening description of the appearance to the youth Johnny of a "man in the trenchcoat/ badge out, laid off/ Says he's got a bad cough/ wants to get paid off" (lines 5-8), "man" indicating age group, the display of the badge symbolizing authority, and the demand for payment suggesting corrupt and greedy extortion.

        Early in your essay, as with any paper analyzing poetry, give a sense of the overall organization of the song lyrics, as well as the thesis sentence for all literary analysis essays. Also, in an appendix (a page, or pages, at the end of your document, like a Works Cited page, but titled "Appendix" -- without the quotation marks, and with page numbering continued from your header), give the complete lyrics of your song. Finally, include an audiotape or CD so that I can hear the music that goes with the lyrics.

        Study in R & J as well as your composition handbooks what special procedures are required in quoting lines of poetry. Remember, also, to study your class notes and your composition handbook about how you should treat the typography of song titles (singles, records or CD's, etc.). There are, of course, several fine short sample essays about poetry in R & J.

        As with your other out-of-class essays, feel free to consult with me for help in your literary analysis.