ASSIGNMENTS
Participation 20%
Weekly Blog 25%
Midterm Project 25%
Final Project 30% (with proposal)
Extra credit: up to 1%
Participation 20%
This is your class, and your participation is vital to its success. You must attend all class meetings in order to receive full credit for participation Come to class prepared to discuss the text in depth; this means having read the entire text before class. I expect you to speak and listen.
- Your participation grade includes engaging in dialogue in class. This means speaking and listening actively, attentively, and respectfully. (If you have fear of speaking in public, this seminar is a good place to learn to address that fear. Please come see me early in the term to discuss strategies for dealing with this fear).
- Your participation grade includes a meeting with the professor.
Grading Rubric for Classroom Participation
A= attend class regularly, prepared to participate, and participate actively (generously and generatively) in class discussion
B= attend class regularly, prepared to participate
C=attend class regularly
Weekly Blog 25%
You will write (approx. 350-500 words) blog responses to the reading (any text and any idea/section from that text) and each provide a comment on a peer’s blog each week (due before the next week’s class meeting, so before Thursday). The goal of the blog posts is to extend the conversation and coverage of the course by allowing you to 1) express, share, and comment upon interests, questions, and concerns related to the readings and also to 2) enable the professor to address and incorporate these topics in that week’s meeting. It is also a place to draft ideas and text for use in your essays.
—Blog posts are due on Sunday at midnight weekly; late posts will not receive credit.
—Comment on a peer’s blog (due before class meeting on Thursday at 12:30)
–You will be given an overall grade for blog posts, based on completion and content, not a grade for each post. Rubric for grading is available on our website and below.
Grading Rubric for Blog
Your Blog Grade is based on 2-parts: 1) a completion grade, and 2) a content grade
| The completion component of the blog grade requires you to have the following number of posts: | The content component of the blog grade is based on the following grading rubric |
| A= 11-13 posts B= 8-10 posts C= 6-7 posts D= 4-5 posts F= 3 or less | A= Post contains a focused thesis or question and close reading of a passage, B= Post contains a close reading of content but no focused question or thesisC= Post contains no analysis of text (no close reading), just summary and undirected ideasD=Post contains little substantive thinking as content |
MIDTERM PROJECT: Biography of a Book: 25%
Every book has a story: how, where and why it was assembled, who assembled it and whose hands it passed through over the years. In this project, you will explore the physical, intellectual and artifactual elements of the specific copy of a book you viewed in your Special Collections labs to assemble its “biography.”
This project will consist of two parts:
1) a full bibliographic description of the book (wordcount will vary), and
2) a scholarly analysis of its most interesting, significant, or mysterious feature (1000-1500 words). This latter section (#2) requires you to select and make an argument for WHY you are focusing on the particular feature, explaining what it illuminates about the object of study and/or book history, literary studies, etc. In other words, this is where you get to explain the relevance (the So What) of your #1 bibliographic description, or at least one part of that description, and lay the foundation for future, possible research.
—Worksheet and study guide for Biography of a Book assignment
–Examples of previous related assignments (though these are digital projects, so format is not applicable to this course’s assignment): 1) PDF of project and 2) video project
FROM ANNA: Here are some examples of book dealer’s descriptions from the Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America (look at those prices!):
https://www.abaa.org/book/1686307584
https://www.abaa.org/book/1665569574
https://www.abaa.org/book/1694404218
These–especially the first two–should give you a good sense of how to physically describe something. If you’re not sure what a term or an abbreviation means, there’s even a glossary of terms of the trade: https://www.abaa.org/glossary
You don’t need to use these abbreviations, and in fact, you’ll want to write your description in a way that everyone will understand. But it should help you recognize what they’re referring to. Let me know if you need help!
Final Project Proposal—abstract (thesis statement, description of the project, short bibliography) 1%
This assignment helps ensure that you are on the right track for your final essay and enables me to give you feedback that can assist in your development. You will write a 300 word abstract of your final project explaining your argument, purpose, and proposed media format. The abstract should contain a thesis statement, brief explanation of your purpose, a description of the project (including proposed media format and rationale for that design).
For graduate students, your proposal will include an annotated bibliography of 8-10 sources that you plan to use for your project.
FINAL PROJECT: 29%
This 3,000-4,000 word creative-critical analytical essay will serve to implement the learned methodology of media-specific analysis. This final assignment exhibits an understanding of how the technologies involved in shaping, presenting, and accessing literature also affect literary analysis. You will be graded on how well your analytical argument is presented and supported by the media and design; in other words, on how well the form of your essay supports its content. You will propose your own essay topic and format in a formal proposal, but you can (and should certainly consider) building upon your midterm project to do so.
You can write a creative-critical essay that takes the form of a work of a webart, video, bookart, etc… but whatever format your essay takes, it MUST contain the following:
- a thesis statement
- close-reading explication of a text/book object &
- engagement with (not just citation of) at least 2 scholarly sources (they can be from our reading list)
If you make a creative artwork, you must include a short essay 3-4 pages (750-1000 words) that explains, close reads your work in the context of the course and includes the above listed elements: thesis, close reading (of your work), and framing of the art in the context of the course with (at least 2) secondary readings.
- For graduate students: the final essay project should be 10-15 pages and include 3-5 scholarly sources.
**For examples, see our website**
FINAL PROJECT DESIGN WORKSHOP slides (Dr. Pam Lach)
Extra Credit (up to 1%)
These blogs can be written at any point during the semester and are intended to inspire you to read beyond the texts assigned in class and to attend relevant events on campus.
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**NOTE: All assignments are docked 1/3 of a grade for each day they are late (for example, an A becomes an A- if turned in one day late)**