STUDY QUESTIONS

Each week groups of students will formulate a question on the course readings for the week. Such a question might be, for instance, "How is symbolism a central artistic principle in Sir Gawain and the Green Knight and what are some of the symbols to be found there?" Answering these questions is also important, and each group will, weekly, have to answer questions posed by other groups. The answers to the weekly study questions need not be more than two or three sentences in length per question (but longer is better). Your answers, and all your submitted writing in this course, including your participation in class discussions, must be in complete sentences and must, to the best of your ability, contain correct spelling and grammar (as explained further below). These weekly assignments must be submitted electronically but not as attachments, in the appropriate bulletin board discussion space (accessible from the course Moodle homepage). Thus, for instance, if your group is to devise a question regarding the Lais of Marie de France, then someone in the group would post that question in the discussions sector or discussion space  marked "Marie de France" (all group members who have participated substantially in creating these questions are to have their names attached to the questions posted by one of the members, along with the group name--for example, "Group 2"). Likewise, if another group has posted a question about, say, Chaucer's narrative verse poem Troilus and Criseyde in the discussions sector marked "Chaucer," then your group would post, as a group, with all the group members' names attached to the group's answer to the question (i.e., only the names of active participants who worked substantially to answer the question), an answer to the question in that same discussions sector by first clicking on "Reply" for the posted questions (the idea is to generate a threaded discussion). Under no circumstances should any group post answers if the answers are not preceded by their respective questions--otherwise confusion will ensue (but if you click reply to the question--rather than, let's say, to some other group's answer, then that will be sufficient--you must make sure not to reply to another group's answer).

N.B.: All assignments implicitly demand that each member of a team read ALL of the assigned readings.

In order to carry out the above process successfully, you must read "Help for Group Work," which can be accessed by clicking on the "Help for Group Work" icon to be found on the course homepage.

Helpful links for learning how to analyze literature so that you can pose and also answer a question such as the above are:

Literary Terms and Their Definitions: http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/lit_terms/

Literary Elements: http://www.orangeusd.k12.ca.us/yorba/literary_elements.htm

Elements of Literature: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/elements-of-literature.html

Elements of Literature II: http://languagearts.pppst.com/elements.html

Elements of Literature III:http://www.rscc.cc.tn.us/owl&writingcenter/OWL/ElementsLit.html

Literary Analysis: http://www.nvcc.edu/home/ataormina/eng256/support/analyzelit.htm

Literary Analysis Guide: http://www.goshen.edu/english/litanalysis.html;

The Literary Analysis Essay: http://www.english.wayne.edu/~peterson/Fiction/litessay.html;

A Handbook for Discussing Poetry: http://www.cc.emory.edu/ENGLISH/classes/Handbook/Handbook.html;

A Glossary of Literary Terms and A Handbook of Rhetorical Devices:
http://www.uky.edu/ArtsSciences/Classics/Harris/rhetform.html;

Pathfinder: Literary Criticism: http://www.ipl.org/ref/QUE/PF/litcrit.html#terms.

Prof. Kimmelman's Literary Links:  http://eies.njit.edu/~kimmelma/litsources.html

    
See also other links on the course website or via the icon "Help for Group Work" on the course homepage.

 

PAPERS

Term Paper Project:

A major component of this course is your individualized research project, which will involve two papers as described below. For both, it is STRONGLY recommended that research begin with the MLA Bibliography (locally to be found at the Rutgers-Newark library, and at other university libraries and at the main branch of the Newark Public Library). Each paper must utilize at least three secondary sources (explained below), and one of these, as a minimum, must be hard copy (i.e., you will probably need to visit a library to accomplish your research project, and in any case you would be wise to do so, since doing so will help you to imagine your project and find sources for it--and speaking with a research librarian at our own Van Houten library, or at another library, such as the one on the Rutgers-Newark campus, can be of great benefit). The two papers comprising your total research project are to be crafted according to a polemical argument you are going to advance (if you don't know what polemical means then look it up); your term paper must not be a mere report. The final stage of this project will be an argumentative essay that sets out to prove something, something that is narrowly focused. Again, it is not to be a report. It is to be an informed opinion that has been clearly and otherwise systematically explained and championed. The topic of the paper must fall within the purview of this course and the paper must contain at least some literary analysis (keep in mind, for example, that this is not a history course but rather a literature course). Model term papers have been provided at our course Moodle homepage.

Term Paper Bibliography (which makes up a part of the Term Paper Announcement--see below):
 

While eventually you may want to make use of more than three secondary sources (to say nothing of primary sources), for this assignment you will have to list at least three secondary sources, and one of them must be hard copy (N.B.: certain databases accessible via NJIT's or Rutgers' library allow you to download the complete text of previously published scholarly articles--such articles will be considered to be "hard copy"). If you don't know what a secondary source is then read about it here: http://custompapers.com/writing-tutorial/primary-secondary-sources. Your entries must be alphabetized and in hanging indents. Also, your bibliography must be in MLA format (see Documentation Guides Links - http://web.njit.edu/~kimmelma/documentation.html). Since databases at our library or at another library may lead you to a source that is in digital format but which was once a hard-copy source, such a digital source will be deemed as being hard copy (such a source should be fully detailed in your bibliography to show both its hard-copy and digital states). Again, you may make use of textbooks, encyclopedias and dictionaries (use of textbooks, encyclopedias and dictionaries are acceptable if you wish to consult them, and eventually they must be listed in your bibliography, along with your primary sources, which will be a part of your later assignments), but you must also make active use of three other secondary sources such as a scholarly article to be found in a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal . An example of a primary source is the verse story (though we read it as prose translation) Ywain by Chrétien de Troyes; an example of a secondary source is a book of essays about Chrétien de Troyes's work. (Cf. detailed instructions regarding your term paper at the course website: http://web.njit.edu/~kimmelma/hss403romanceDL.html and below as well.)

Term Paper Announcement:

Consists of 1) a descriptive paper title (including a subtitle to indicate focus and detail), 2) a one-sentence thesis statement (this can be a very long sentence consisting of many clauses) that includes the point of your polemical argument, the breadth of that argument, and the argument’s significant concepts and details, 3) one or more paragraphs of detailed description of the writing strategy to be employed in your paper (this is to be a detailed description of how you are going to prove your argument--for instance: "First I'll make the point that blah-blah-blah, and then I'll mention my three supporting ideas, which are that blah-blah relates to blah-blah, and that blah-blah existed before blah-blah, and then I'll point out out that blah-blah has caused blah-blah to blah-blah-blah" etc.--this paragraph(s) should describe how you will prove your thesis statement and should not necessarily be a summary or abstract of what you project to be your future paper), 4) a bibliography in MLA format and alphabetized (it should not be an annotated bibliography but it must include all the sources you've consulted to date, both primary and secondary); as before, for the purposes of this assignment, use must be made of at least three secondary research sources (including at least one non-Internet source, i.e., at least one hard-copy source) excluding textbooks, encyclopedias and dictionaries. An example of a primary source is the verse story (though we read it as prose translation) Ywain by Chrétien de Troyes; an example of a secondary source is a book of essays about Chrétien de Troyes's work. (Cf. detailed instructions at the course website: http://web.njit.edu/~kimmelma/hss403romanceDL.html.) See above for further details as regards the bibliography.

Model term paper announcements have been provided at our course Moodle homepage.

 

Term Paper:

Consists of: 1) a descriptive paper title (including a subtitle that can be very helpful by indicating your narrow focus), 2) a full-length, fully documented essay, 3) a bibliography in MLA format and alphabetized. For the purposes of this assignment, use must be made of at least three secondary research sources (including at least one non-Internet source) excluding textbooks, encyclopedias and dictionaries.  See the above comments regarding your bibliography. (Cf. detailed instructions at the course website: http://web.njit.edu/~kimmelma/hss403romanceDL.html.)

Model term papers have been provided at our course Moodle homepage.

N.B.:
All papers are to be submitted before their respective deadlines as attachments posted in the appropriate assignment area only (located in the fourth and bottom sector of the course Moodle homepage). Do not send attachments to the instructor's NJIT e-mail address (this eddress is reserved for emergencies only). The papers are to be in Word for Windows (this is necessary so that the instructor can use the available Word function for making editorial and other comments within a submitted paper); Word 2003 is preferable. Papers not meeting their minimal requirements will not be read and will not receive credit (see above and below). If your Term Paper Announcement is read, graded and returned to you, and if the grade for the paper is less than "A," then you have the opportunity to revise your paper and in so doing possibly to raise the paper's grade (though if you have received a grade other than F then you have been awarded credit for the assignment and need not submit a revision).

All submitted work (other than weekly assignments) must be word processed. All written work must be spell checked, and to the best of one's ability grammar checked. Moreover, if on occasion use is made of the ideas or words of someone else in one's writing, then the source(s) of those ideas and/or words must be cited; that is, when appropriate, papers must be fully documented in MLA format (you must cite sources--using footnotes, endnotes, or parenthetical documentation, which include specific page numbers keyed to particular passages in one's text, and complete bibliographical information). (If you are not sure about documentation principles and/or procedures, you should consult a freshman English textbook such as The Beacon Handbook or better yet The MLA Handbook (and/or see http://eies.njit.edu/~kimmelma/documentation.html ). PAPERS NOT MEETING ALL OF THESE REQUIREMENTS WILL NOT BE READ AND WILL NOT RECEIVE CREDIT. Papers not adequately cited may be liable to be judged as plagiarized. Plagiarism will result in course failure at a minimum.

Both Writing and Documentation help can also be found at the instructor's website (http://eies.njit.edu/~kimmelma/) by clicking on Rhetoric and Composition (Writing Help):

"Writing Guides" (http://eies.njit.edu/~kimmelma/writing.html )
        and/or
"Documentation Guides" (http://eies.njit.edu/~kimmelma/documentation.html )