Office Hours Location shift

Hi everyone,
Tomorrow (friday, the 30th) I will hold my office hours in SLC 201 instead of in my Mendenhall office, so please come see me there if you would like to meet with me. Thanks!

Grading Rubric for In-Class and Homework Assignments

The following is my grading rubric for in-class and take home assignments. Because I assign a good many of these, I use a symbol system to give you feedback (whereas I give much more detailed feedback on your rough drafts and final drafts of papers).

If you have any concerns about your work, or questions about how it is graded, please make an office hours appt. with me. I'm happy to go over your writing with you during my office hours.

Overall score rubric

Check +: Excellent job. You went above and beyond the expectations for the assignment. Your analysis is tight, your thoughts original or complex in some significant way. You put your heart and mind into this.

Check: Good work. You completed the assignment to its specifications. You may not have gone above and beyond, but you really did a fine job.

Check -: The work is somehow incomplete. Either you did not answer the question appropriately, you misunderstood it, or you did not do the pre-work (reading) required to answer it correctly.

Suggestions

AN--AN stands for Analysis. If you see an AN on your paper, that means you need to spend more time analyzing and, most likely, less time summarizing or just re-stating what you read. It's also likely that your analysis is somehow shallow or incomplete--that you aren't digging deep enough.

L--L stands for Logical thinking. There are holes in your logic. You are making connections that are tenuous at best.

D--D stands for  Directions. You did not follow directions for the assignment, or you did not fully follow them. Go back and re-read them (if possible). 

DF--DF stands for Develop Further. A lot of times students hit on a great idea, but they don't develop it fully.  

Hi everyone,
We danced around this topic a bit in class, but I wanted to clarify that a fairy tale is a story that has ancient roots, and has been told hundreds of different ways over time.

Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, Pinnochio, stories like this are fantasy narratives that might be fairy tale like at first glance - and are definitely fun, magical stories - but they are not actual fairy tales, and should not be used for this first assignment.

See you this week!

Thesis Statements

Tips for Writing Your Thesis Statement

1. Determine what kind of paper you are writing:

• An analytical paper breaks down an issue or an idea into its component parts, evaluates the issue or idea, and presents this breakdown and evaluation to the audience.
• An expository (explanatory) paper explains something to the audience.
• An argumentative paper makes a claim about a topic and justifies this claim with specific evidence. The claim could be an opinion, a policy proposal, an evaluation, a cause-and-effect statement, or an interpretation. The goal of the argumentative paper is to convince the audience that the claim is true based on the evidence provided.

If you are writing a text that does not fall under these three categories (e.g., a narrative), a thesis statement somewhere in the first paragraph could still be helpful to your reader.

2. Your thesis statement should be specific—it should cover only what you will discuss in your paper and should be supported with specific evidence. It should be well-qualified, which means it should give limits to what it is talking about. Time frames, specific places and people, and other necessary qualifying adjectives should be added to your thesis statement.
3. The thesis statement usually appears at the end of the first paragraph of a paper. It is usually 1-2 sentences long.
4. Your topic may change as you write, so you may need to revise your thesis statement to reflect exactly what you have discussed in the paper.

Thesis Statement for Essay #1 

Your first fairy tales essay in this class is an analysis paper.  You are analyzing how the differences between two versions of one fairy tale demonstrate a specific cultural shift.

Examples (do not copy these for your paper or you are plagiarizing)

Hans Christian Anderson's The Little Mermaid compared to Disney's version of the 1990s reveals a cultural shift toward upward mobility and the promise of the American Dream. Anderson's mermaid suffers immensely for her new life and still does not get her dream in the end, much as people during that time could not move out of their social station. 

The Brother's Grimms' Little Red Cap is rescued by a man (the huntsman), whereas Angela Carter's Little Red rescues herself, demonstrating a cultural shift in the 1960s and 1970s toward a more feminist, empowered perspective.

Outline Template for Essay #1

Please remember to bring two printed and typed copies of your outline to class for workshop on Tuesday, 9/27. These should be at least one full page single spaced or two pages double spaced. Thank you!

NOTE: YOU MAY WANT TO SUBSTITUTE SOME OF THE QUOTES BELOW FOR PARAPHRASES OR SUMMARIES. NOT EVERYTHING HAS TO BE DIRECTLY QUOTED. 

Outline Template:

First Paragraph Block:

            *Introductory Hook (captures your reader's attention)

*Necessary background info (introduce both versions of your tale & writers/creators, the time periods in which the stories were written, any relevant character & plot details, define key terms)

*Thesis statement (1-2 sentences—must specifically list your points of contrast and how they demonstrate a cultural shift. What is that shift, specifically?)

Second Paragraph Block:

*Topic Sentence (mini-thesis statement for the paragraph; should begin to answer the "why" of your paper)

            *Supporting background information/contextual details from both fairy tales for your Topic

            *Quote #1 from Fairy Tale 1 (set up/contextualize/integrate)

            *Analyze Quote #1 

            *Quote #2

            *Analyze Quote #2 from Fairy Tale 2 (set up/contextualize/integrate)

*Analyze how quotes support your point of comparison/contrast, and how they connect back to your overall thesis for the paper

*Quote #3, from outside critical source, if needed….

*[Continue as above]

Third Paragraph Block:

*Topic Sentence (mini-thesis statement for the paragraph)

            *Supporting background information/contextual details from the fairy tales for your Topic

            *Quote #1 from Fairy Tale 1 (set up/contextualize/integrate)

            *Analyze Quote #1

            *Quote #2

            *Analyze Quote #2 from Fairy Tale 2 (set up/contextualize/integrate)

*Analyze how quotes support your point of comparison/contrast, and how they connect back to your overall thesis for the paper

*Quote #3, if needed….

*[Continue as above]

Fourth, Fifth, Etc., Paragraph Blocks (Basically, All Body Paragraphs):

*Same or similar to above. 

Final Paragraph Block

            *Conclusion: Restate your thesis statement in different words. Summarize what has been accomplished in the essay. Close with a compelling hook. Remember not to bring in any new arguments or points of contrast, but to instead focus on reminding your reader of what has already been accomplished, in an interesting way.

Please remember that you will need a Works Cited page with your Essay. Please include a draft of this with your Outline. It should include all five sources (your two fairy tales, and your two outside sources) you intend to use in your essay. Remember, if you include a source on your Works Cited page, you must use it in your essay at least once! 

Essay #1 Guidelines

Please choose one fairy tale and critically compare two of its cultural manifestations.You should choose two versions that have meaningful differences between them, as it is their differences -- and how these differences reflect cultural change -- that will be the main focus of your paper.

One of these manifestations needs to be an older version of the tale--it can be a Greek myth, an indigenous story, a folk version, a Grimms story, a Hans Christian Anderson story, a Perrault story, etc. Your second version should be a contemporary version. It can be Disney, Angela Carter's rewrites, something from a TV show like Once Upon a Time or Grimms, a newer film like Freeway that rewrites the Little Red Riding Hood story, etc. You should feel free to compare fairy tales from any culture(s) around the globe that you are interested in. Please keep in mind, however, that if you do not know much about a given culture that you are writing about, you will have to do a lot of research, and may make things harder for yourself given this is your first paper.

You can also choose a contemporary film that offers a less obvious version of the fairy tale, as long as you explain in your paper why it's an updated telling of the fairy tale (an art film like The Sleeping Beauties is one example). 

During next week's first class session, I will ask you which fairy tale you plan to write about, and which two versions you plan to compare.  Please have both versions written down on a sheet of paper, with summaries of both including the year and culture they are from. Include a sentence or two explaining why you are comparing these two particular stories.

Your thesis should:

1) Look at how the differences between the story tell us something about how culture has shifted or changed with the times. What elements of the story show us the ways in which culture has changed, and what are those specific changes? Make sure to provide clear examples from the story and your research to back up your observations. You will want to research the time period and social context in which the story was written.

2) Additionally, you may choose to examine some of the ways in which the story has remained the same, and to discuss how that reveals certain elements of our culture (or another culture) that have remained present throughout much time. That said, please do not overly focus on this aspect of the paper. I primarily want you to focus on differences between the two versions, in order to look at some of the ways in which culture has in fact shifted with the times. It is too easy to write something about "people's eternal search for hope and belonging" in a vague manner, and I want you to dig deep.

While you may choose one of the stories we read in class, the other version you select should be entirely of your own finding. You can also choose two versions we did not cover in class.

The paper should be 3 or more full pages in length, double-spaced, MLA style. It should have a strong title and a Works Cited page. We will go over all of these criteria in class and we will work on your paper step-by-step, together.

Your paper needs to have at least two critical, scholarly resources in addition to the stories/films you are analyzing (so, two sources total), which should also be cited carefully. Please find these through the library's database. You will likely want to research the fairy tale itself, and in some cases the specific version may also have critical sources on it (such as Disney). You can check the essays in the back of your Norton book to get an idea of some fairy tale critics you might want to look up.

The Brother and the Bird by Alissa Nutting

The Brother and the Bird

Marlene’s mother cleaned constantly, bleary-eyed in multiple hairnets on her vigilant search for the impure; as she walked she so often rolled an antiquated upright vacuum alongside her that it grew to seem like an exterior organ, an intravenous device that performed dialysis or another lifesaving function. Marlene had no memory of Mother’s bare hands, for they were always beneath thick, yellow kitchen gloves and had begun, as the years passed, to seem prosthetic. Fearful that dust might see her coming and scatter, Mother crept from one chore to another, hunched over, skulking around on the tips of her toes and raising each knee skywards with every step. What horrible shadows this cast upon the wall! Young Marlene would often shiver in bed and watch a ghastly outline bend steadily larger as Mother advanced down the hallway, the rubber gloves taking on the shape of oversized claws. Marlene’s fright and anticipation usually became so intense that she’d let out an audible gasp when Mother finally appeared in front of the bedroom door. Mother would stop, sniff. “Good girls are asleep by now,” she’d whisper, quiet enough to make Marlene wonder whether Mother even meant for this to be heard.

Father was friendlier, bear-like and aloof. When Marlene and Brother were little, they had delighted in running their fingers through the thick black curls on

Father’s chest and back and riding him like an animal. He’d obligingly take to all fours and crawl around the yard, giving in to their wishes for a spirit of manufactured danger. “I’m going to eat you!” he’d eventually growl, and their cheeks would glow pink as pigs.

But Father had always stopped their play if they got too close to the juniper tree, their yard’s curious landmark. Halfway up, its trunk divided into two distinct sections that grew away from one another towards separate futures. Being children,

Marlene and her brother always tested the limit—what was the closest they could

get to the tree before Father excused himself and cited fatigue, or claimed to be growing old?

            “It’s the cremated human remains,” Brother explained. He referred to his birthmother, Father’s deceased first wife, whose urn was buried in the yard under the tree. Marlene had occasionally spied Mother watering its roots with bleach and kicking the tree, stomping atop the first wife’s grave in a peculiar dance. And sometimes Mother picked up the large axe in the basement and spoke kindly to it, as though it were a baby, cradling it in her gloved hands and staring back at her reflection in the blade’s clean mirror.

But Mother hated her husband’s son even more than she did the tree. She beat him often and cleverly, across the body but never the face, with her heavy Bible and household objects made of wood. “I will clean the sin right out of you,” Mother remarked, sweating. “You are not of my loins, wicked thing.” Her own fictive brand of religion had curious rules; she’d stopped attending mass long ago, remarking that the purification of one’s household was tantamount to prayer.

            Marlene wished for a life away from Mother where she and Brother had the home all to themselves. And Father could float in and out as he pleased, a furry satellite.

As the years passed, Marlene fell deeply in love with Brother. By the time she was twelve and he sixteen, simply thinking about him made her feel as full and sleepy as eating a large meal.

Marlene often snuck into Brother’s room after Mother was asleep, and they would lie on his bed and listen to records. During each song he’d pick out a single line to sing, and Marlene liked to predict which one he was going to choose—when she was right she felt very good at loving. She’d watch Brother’s mouth and could almost see his voice spinning into the air like invisible string. Bird fly high by the light of the moon. To keep track of time she thought of the record as an hourglass and the needle as sand, and when she heard its empty scratch she’d rise gently from the bed, take up the needle, and sneak quietly back to her room.

But one night Marlene and Brother drifted off to sleep. They woke to Mother standing overtop them with her large Bible. A broken blood vessel had stained the white of her left eye a deep red.

Brother sleepily lifted his neck. “Mother,” he said, startled. “You look very angry.”

            “A dirty thing,” Mother insisted, pointing at the two of them with a shaking rubber finger. The spongy pink curlers beneath her hairnet looked like an inflated brain.

            Marlene tried to curl her body against Brother’s, but she was quickly flung from the bed as Mother’s Bible thrashed down upon Brother. This beating went on longer than Marlene thought possible, and just when Mother seemed to be done, a new wave of fury overtook her like a spell; she lifted her great weight upon

Brother’s chest, placed a pillow overtop his face, and pushed the heavy Bible down atop it. “A dirty, dirty thing,” she hissed. Brother’s feet kicked in high convulsions that lifted the sheets, but Mother did not dismount until his legs went still. Then she eased up and turned her smile towards the window and the sun.

            “Remove your socks as well,” Mother said.

Mother herself was naked, wearing nothing but an apron. She ordered

Marlene to fully undress, then fitted her nude daughter into a smock and a matching pair of yellow kitchen gloves. Marlene sobbed; Mother was gazing upon Brother’s corpse with grateful eyes, as though he was a gift basket of fruit. “Grab his feet,” Mother directed. Together they hauled his body down into the basement. Marlene’s stomach lurched when they neared the furnace, but Mother led them on further, over to the laundry sink in the basement’s left corner. 

As Marlene held open the garbage bag, her hands began to shake. “Hail Mary,” Mother started. A rosary dangled from the ax’s handle like a beaded tail.

The blade hit into the corpse with a great thwack and Marlene saw Mother’s flat buttocks clench tightly. This image placed Marlene into a catatonic state; she stopped blinking and errant blood began to dot the whites of her eyes.

They divided Brother’s pieces into twelve bags of different shapes and sizes, then scattered him throughout the basement’s deep freeze. Mother told Marlene to go take a long shower, and as Marlene climbed the stairs she spied a piece of

Brother’s flesh still lying beside the sink. Twice she stopped and stared, thinking that she’d seen it move; she cried each time she realized she was mistaken.

Father came home to a large sauerbraten flavored with dried juniper berries and a sauce crisped with gingersnap and honey-cake crumbs. He ate heartily, large tufts of hair spilling from his collar and shirt cuffs, their ends curling up from the dinner’s steam. It wasn’t until his plate was almost empty that he asked where

Brother had gone off to.

Marlene’s eyes moved to the Bible sitting in the living room. Mother had hidden its bloodstains beneath a quilted cover that bore an appliqué of a stitched cat face. The feline’s whiskers were long strokes of thread; lace bordered its edges. Due to its size, the Bible now resembled a pillow.

            “He’s visiting a friend for a bit,” Mother smiled. Her grin was fixed and still; she looked like a wicked doll that should never have come to life.

             “Did he say when he’d be back?” Father asked. Marlene began to weep as

Mother shook her head and adjusted her hairnet. Her yellow gloved hand moved a spoonful of gravy very slowly towards her husband’s mouth, teasing.

The weeks that followed were a parade of heavy soups, sweetbreads, and full stews. Disgusted, Marlene resolved to rescue what was left of Brother’s remains at any cost. Only nine bags were left in the freezer. One of these had been torn open, and when she peeked inside she saw butcher-like excisions on a shank of Brother’s torso. 

“I’ll bury you with your mother under the tree,” Marlene promised, “and no more of you will ever be eaten!”

            It took Marlene several trips to get all the bags outside; she could only carry a few at a time. On each return to the basement she carefully checked to see if Mother was hiding beneath the stairs, if the ax was still hanging on the wall.

            Marlene dropped to her knees beneath the tree and opened the bags, reaching her arm inside to search their contents for Brother’s head. He looked quite different, now. His cheeks and mouth had been pushed up against the freezer’s wall and had frozen at an upward angle. Brother’s iced flesh was as white blonde as his hair, and its heavy cold burned at her skin. When Marlene kissed him her wet lips stuck painfully to his; she tasted a bit of blood after she pulled herself free.

            For what seemed like hours, Marlene dutifully struggled with the hard earth and the shovel. She feared that when the sun came up the hole would still be no bigger than a shoebox and she’d have no place to hide Brother’s thawed parts. When the fluttering sound began, she dismissed it at first; it was buzzing and internal, like an insect too close to her ears. Then all the berries fell from the juniper tree at once.

Marlene’s breath left her lungs as she eyed the now-covered ground around her—a blanket of berries inches thick. “I’ll be caught for sure,” she panicked, and her panic only grew as the berries began to shake and toss on the ground like roasting coffee beans, then cleared to reveal a soft grey circle in their center. Curious,

Marlene reached overtop the berries and placed her hand onto its surface. “Ash,” she gasped, but wouldn’t say aloud what she was thinking: cremated human remains.

The fluttering sound loudened and the berries began to organize themselves like ants. They surrounded the pile of garbage bags, lifting them onto their backs and rolling them into the ash like an assembly line, the bags sinking down into its powder with the ease of rocks into a lake. When all the bags were gone, the berries formed a single line. They drained down into the ash like marbles. Finally a bird dove down from the tree and soundlessly followed the last berry into the ash.

Marlene was very tempted to jump inside and escape as well. But as she approached the grey surface she cried out in disappointment; the ground had set like a thick pudding, hardened into soil before her very eyes.

The next morning Marlene awoke to the horrible sensation of being watched. A thin stream of urine began to warm under her bottom.

“No one would ever have found him in the basement, frozen and quiet in little pieces,” Mother whispered. She was seated on the edge of Marlene’s bed, inching closer to her daughter’s face. “But where is he now?” The grayish-black pockets beneath her eyes seemed full of tiny dark stones.

            Her hands gripped against Marlene’s cheeks, their fingernails digging into Marlene’s skin even through the rubber of the gloves. For a moment Mother stared into her eyes, searching, then she gave a full smile and left. Marlene watched the indention Mother had left on the bed raise up and fill, but she did not move until she heard the faraway wail of the vacuum begin to heave in heavy sucks.

In tears, Marlene ran into Brother’s room. When she looked at his shirts hanging up in the closet, she felt the same affection for their cloth as for his skin. She buried her face in them, ran to his bed and ruffled his sheets, begged him to appear, appear. She did notice his guitar was missing. Had Mother cut it up as well?

Winter came and Father seemed to retreat into his woolly skin. He never pressed for further answers about where Brother was staying, but he often wished aloud for his son’s return.

After dinner, as Mother and Marlene sat by the fire, it became common for

Father to excuse himself and take his pipe outdoors. All the while he would stare at the juniper tree, whose branches were growing new berries despite the cold.

Mother peeked out the curtains and watched his every move. “How I think I’ll take the ax to that tree,” she’d remark, “so that Father might stay with us by the fire.” Whenever she passed a window that looked out upon the tree, Mother made an upside-down cross with her gloved fingers and extended it towards the glass. 

One night, right before she fell asleep, Marlene rolled over to find a feather on her pillow. The moment she touched it a deep dream began.

At first she saw nothing, and when she was able to see she realized the eyes were not her own but the eyes of a bird. She looked through them like two holes of a mask, the bird’s long beak jutting up into her line of vision.

Underground, in a hollow space made of earth, she and the bird were pecking Brother’s parts back together. The beak came down in small strikes that were a form of stitching. Occasionally it would stop and grab berries from a stockpile, using them to fill in holes where Mother had taken away meat. Pieces of pecked-through garbage bags were scattered everywhere like tissue paper. When finished, the bird cried out until Brother’s body started moving.

 The bird jumped ahead, leading Brother through a tunnel up into the juniper tree. Marlene watched as its trunk cracked open like an egg filled with light.

She and the bird flew up while Brother crawled out, and the tree closed up behind them.

Marlene then saw the sky and the roof of their home, and occasionally caught glimpses of Brother, naked far below, his flesh white and cloudy like a ridge of ice. Even from the air, she could make out the violet grafts on his arms where berries had patched his skin. When Brother walked into the house, the bird flew to Brother’s bedroom window and waited.

Brother appeared in his room minutes later, gaunt and confused. He dressed in the dark, lifted his guitar, and left.

The bird flew very high until Brother became a silver-blonde dot on the road below. A truck stopped and he entered it; the bird flew for quite a distance to follow him. There was the familiar sound of fluttering, the sound Marlene heard on the night she buried him, and there were long stretches of darkness that told of passing time. When the bird’s eyes went black, Marlene heard a flapping noise, like musical paper, as the sound of wings sped up into an echo.

Finally the bird perched above a small tavern. Marlene could hear music and see Brother inside, a blanched shape performing a song on his guitar. She saw flashes of him in many towns, on many stages, and could feel his confusion as he wandered; his memory had been reduced to a vague longing, and this came and went spontaneously like strange desire. Just before she woke she saw him standing at a sidewalk storefront, eyeing a pair of red shoes that resembled the ones she wore everyday.

            When Marlene woke again she was in her room; the feather was floating in the air just inches above her pillow. Her hand reached out, but at the slightest touch it turned to ash in her fingers.

The dream caused Marlene to feel weary and flu-like. Even the next night, she was still shaky when she sat down to dinner with Mother and Father. Light organ music played on the radio, and Father was cutting his meal into tinier and tinier bits. “Can’t you make the sauerbraten again?” he asked Mother, looking down at his plate with distant eyes.

Just then, the music on the radio abruptly stopped. Marlene’s hand froze around her fork; a fluttering noise poured through the speakers. After a brief minute of static, a very peculiar song came on. My mother, she killed me, the voice sang. My father, he ate me. My sister, she saved my bones, tweet, tweet…         

Mother crept over and turned down the radio’s knob with her rubber fingers.

“Some quiet,” she snipped. She then scowled at the radio and began to examine it carefully, as if it might be something more than it seemed.

The very next night Mother did indeed make sauerbraten, but this time it was not to Father’s liking. He excused himself to go outside and smoke, and Marlene turned on the radio as Mother made a fire. They sat and listened to an organ’s cheery song as flames seared the logs a deep white.

Just as Father came back inside the house, the radio’s song turned to static. This slowly gave way to the sound of wings, then music.

Mother killed her little son; what a beautiful bird am I. Father ate ‘til meat was gone; what a beautiful bird am I. Sister saved my bones; now I sing and fly…

            Mother’s eyes stared straight forward, wide with terror. “Looking at this fire,” she remarked in a flat and breathy voice, “I feel like I am burning up.”

Marlene awoke the next morning to a loud and constant wailing. Neither

Mother nor Father seemed able to hear it; Father went away to work as usual and

Mother spent her day on the patio killing bugs. Marlene desperately searched for the source of the noise, but she couldn’t tell where it stopped or started. Was it

Brother’s room? The juniper tree? The basement?

The sound grew so loud that Marlene began to see small grey dots; occasionally it seemed as if birds were flying just beyond the corners of her vision. 

For most of the afternoon, she lay in Brother’s room listening to records and getting sick into a bag.

When her parents insisted she come down for dinner that evening, Marlene did not think she’d be able to accept the smell of food. But as she sat down, the deafening static leapt from the inside of her head onto the radio. My mother forced me quick to die. Brother’s voice rang out inside the kitchen. My father ate me in a pie.          Mother leapt up and started her bony fingers towards the dial. “Some quiet,” she said, but Father interrupted.

“Some music might be nice tonight.”

“Perhaps a different tune, then,” Mother suggested. But as she flipped the knob, she found that the song was on every station. Only my sister began to cry.

Father stood up and squinted his eyes towards the window.

“Is someone walking towards the house?” Grabbing his pipe, he excused himself from the table to have a better look. Mother slowly backed away from the radio, her eyes fixed upon the fireplace, her hands twisting. “When I look at the fire,” she stammered, “I feel as if I’m being burned alive.” Her smile grew lopsided; she began to unbutton her dress.

“But there isn’t any fire, Mother.”

Mother’s gloved hands grabbed the radio and threw it to the floor. It split into as many pieces as Brother, but the song kept playing. Her gloves started ripping at her clothes; she buried her head beneath the faucet of the sink and began to shriek.

Panicked, Marlene ran outside to Father. But when she saw the pale figure coming down the path, her heart leapt. “Is it Brother?” she cried aloud. Hopeful Father began to wave a hairy hand, and Mother burst from the house topless with soaked hair. Marlene’s eyes flew to the ax Mother clutched in one yellow, gloved hand and the large Bible she held in the other. “I’ll chop them all down,” Mother screamed, her torn dress blowing off her body. “The tree and our visitor as well!”

But as Mother arrived beneath the tree, all its new berries rained down upon her and she halted in shock. The berries shook and spun on the ground, and as they cleared a hole around Mother, she and her ax dropped down right through the earth. Father and Marlene ran over just in time to see the white line of Mother’s scalp disappear into a thick powder of ash, to see the ash harden back to soil, to see Mother’s Bible fall to the ground. Its pages flew open and fluttered, then turned into white birds that sailed away. The berries lifted from the ground like a swarm of bees.

Their mass moved towards Brother as if to attack him; they landed everywhere upon his body and face and guitar until he was fully covered. Then, as if giving him juice to use as blood, the berries deflated and fell from his skin, one by one like dried scabs, flatter than onionskin. Marlene ran to him, breathless. “Look Father,” she cried, “Brother is pink and new!”

But Father loomed quiet beneath the tree. He was bent over, running his fingers along the ground, searching for some trace of either wife below.

Taking Class Notes: Tips and Tricks

TAKING LECTURE NOTES

I. There  are many reasons for taking lecture notes.

A. Making yourself take notes forces you to listen carefully and test your understanding of the material.

B. When you are reviewing, notes provide a gauge to what is important in the text.

C. Personal notes are usually easier to remember than the text.

D. The writing down of important points helps you to remember then even before you have studied the material formally.

II. Instructors usually give clues to what is important to take down.  Some of the more common clues are:

A. Material written on the blackboard.

B. Repetition

C. Emphasis

1. Emphasis can be judged by tone of voice and gesture.

2. Emphasis can be judged by the amount of time the instructor spends on points and the number of examples he or she uses.

D. Word signals (e.g. "There are two points of view on . . . " "The third reason is . . . " " In conclusion . . . ")

E. Summaries given at the end of class.

F. Reviews given at the beginning of class. 

III. Each student should develop his or her own method of taking notes, but most students find the following suggestions helpful:

A. Make your notes brief.

1. Never use a sentence where you can use a phrase.  Never use a phrase where you can use a word.

2. Use abbreviations and symbols, but be consistent.

B. Put most notes in your own words.  However, the following should be noted exactly:

1. Formulas

2. Definitions

3. Specific facts

C. Use outline form and/or a numbering system.  Indention helps you distinguish major from minor points.

D. If you miss a statement, write key words, skip a few spaces, and get the information later.

E. Don't try to use every space on the page.  Leave room for coordinating your notes with the text after the lecture.   (You may want to list key terms in the margin or make a summary of the contents of the page.)

F. Date your notes.  Perhaps number the pages.

SAVING TIME ON NOTETAKING

Here are some hints regarding taking notes on classroom lectures that can save time for almost any student.  Some students say that they plan to rewrite or type their notes later.  To do so is to use a double amount of time; once to take the original notes and a second to rewrite them.  The advice is simple: DO IT RIGHT THE FIRST TIME!

Second, there are some students who attempt to take notes in shorthand.  Though shorthand is a valuable tool for a secretary, it is almost worthless for a student doing academic work.  Here's why.  Notes in shorthand cannot be studied in that form.  They must first be transcribed.  The act of transcribing notes takes an inordinate amount of time and energy but does not significantly contribute to their mastery.  It is far better to have taken the notes originally in regular writing and then spend the time after that in direct study and recitation of the notes.

Third, unless you have a disability that requires recording, do not record the lesson on a recording device.  The lecture on tape precludes flexibility.  This statement can be better understood when seen in the light of a person who has taken his/her/their notes in regular writing.  Immediately after taking the notes this person can study them in five minutes before the next class as they walk toward the next building, as they drink their coffee, or whatever.  Furthermore, this student, in looking over their notes, may decide that the notes contain only four worthwhile ideas which they can highlight, relegating the rest of the lecture to obscurity.  Whereas the lecture on tape has to be listened to in its entirety including the worthwhile points as well as the "garbage," handwritten notes may be studied selectively.  A student who takes the easy way out - recording the lecture on tape as he or she sits back doing nothing - will box themselves into inflexibility.

NOTE MAKING

Learning to make notes effectively will help you to improve your study and work habits and to remember important information.  Often, students are deceived into thinking that because they understand everything that is said in class they will therefore remember it.  This is dead wrong!  Write it down.

As you make notes, you will develop skill in selecting important material and in discarding unimportant material.  The secret to developing this skill is practice.  Check your results constantly.  Strive to improve.  Notes enable you to retain important facts and data and to develop an accurate means of arranging necessary information.

Here are some hints on note making.

1.  Don't write down everything that you read or hear.  Be alert and attentive to the main points.  Concentrate on the "meat" of the subject and forget the trimmings.

2.  Notes should consist of key words or very short sentences.  If a speaker gets sidetracked it is often possible to go back and add further information.

3.  Take accurate notes.  You should usually use your own words, but try not to change the meaning.  If you quote directly from an author, quote correctly.

4.  Think a minute about your material before you start making notes.  Don't take notes just to be taking notes!  Take notes that will be of real value to you when you look over them at a later date.

5.  Have a uniform system of punctuation and abbreviation that will make sense to you.  Use a skeleton outline and show importance by indenting.  Leave lots of white space for later additions.

6.  Omit descriptions and full explanations.  Keep your notes short and to the point.  Condense your material so you can grasp it rapidly.

7.  Don't worry about missing a point.

8.  Don't keep notes on oddly shaped pieces of paper.  Keep notes in order and in one place.

9.  Shortly after making your notes, go back and rework (not redo) your notes by adding extra points and spelling out unclear items.  Remember, we forget rapidly.  Budget time for this vital step just as you do for the class itself.

10.  Review your notes regularly.  This is the only way to achieve lasting memory.

©Academic Skills Center, Dartmouth College 2001

Syllabus

I N T D   1 0 0:

MONSTERS AND FAIRY TALES

Fall 2016                                                                                                     

Professor: Kate Durbin

Email: katedurbinteacher@gmail.com or kdurbin@whittier.edu
Office Hours: Wednesday and Friday from 1:30-2:30 PM in Mendenhall top floor; T/Th afternoons by appt. (please email me in advance and we will set up a time) 

“A nightmarish figure dwelling somewhere between genuine terror and high camp, a morbid repository for the psychic projections of diverse cultures, an endless recyclable mass-media icon, the vampire is an enduring object of fascination, fear, ridicule, and reverence.”

-back cover of The Vampire Lectures by Laurence Rickels

“Monsters…serve as the ultimate incorporation of our anxieties—about history, about identity, about our very humanity. As they always will.”–Jeffrey Jerome Cohen, Monster Theory

"Fairy tales are not unique one-offs....to the contrary, these stories circulate in multiple versions, reconfigured by each telling to form kaleidoscopic variations with distinctly different effects."

-Angela Carter

Course Objectives

This course is designed to help you become a successful critical thinker and writer, equipped for the rigors of academic discourse. You will achieve these goals by cultivating active reading skills, developing effective writing habits, and learning to understand and use the many rhetorical techniques available to writers. By the end of the semester, you should be able to:

-       Read texts critically, noting how a text’s style, structure, and context contribute to its meanings and implications.

-       Write well organized, clearly written argumentative essays that are supported by strong evidence and clear explanation, and which employ a rhetoric and tone appropriate to the broader academic audience.

-       Research—and integrate—credible and relevant sources that support the thesis of your essays.

-       Apply effective drafting and revision techniques to your essays, including improved proofreading skills.

-       Format your papers according to Modern Language Association (MLA) guidelines.

The class readings will act as prompts for critical thinking about and engagement with others’ writing. As a key part of a community of writers, you will actively critique your peers’ work. Lively and regular engagement in the classroom is also necessary to your success in INTD 100. This class, which emphasizes the process of writing, will require a considerable workload, and moves at a rapid pace, so you must be prepared to commit a substantial amount of time to each assignment.

Why Monsters? Why Fairy Tales?

Monsters have been with us since the dawn of civilization, as well as the dawn of literature. From the chupacabra of Latin America to Dracula of Eastern and then Western Europe to the boogeyman of suburban childhood to the globalized threat of the zombies of 28 Days Later to the sexy North American vampires of the Twilight series, monsters have long provided us with clues to better understanding the various cultures from which they spawned—in particular, to understanding cultural fears, taboos, fantasies, and hidden desires. Three persistent cultural fears and desires monsters persistently remind us of—and of which we will talk about at length in this class—are long-standing human feelings toward difference (the Other), sex, and death.

Monsters have stalked us throughout the centuries, mutating with the times and yet still remaining stubbornly socially unacceptable and often undead. In this course, we will explore how the monster’s trajectory through culture, time and space reflects our own. 

Fairy tales are rife with monsters--from the big bad wolf to the witch in Sleeping Beauty. Our exploration of these culture-shaping myths will follow the same vein as our study of horror narratives, but in addition to studying the cultural fears and desires the monsters in fairy tales represent, we will also examine the ways in which the narratives of fairy tales have shaped various social norms and taboos for centuries. We will look at the ways in which these archetypal narratives still pop up in our world today, even where we least expect it. We will also look for the ways in which some of these narratives have shifted with the times to reveal cultural shifts and values. 

Required Texts and Supplies

A Writer's Reference 8th edition updated MLA edition

ISBN 9781319087074

Dracula by Bram Stoker *very important that it is the Enriched Classic Edition! 

ISBN 0-7434-7736-7

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley *very important that it is the Bedford/St. Martin's edition 

ISBN 0-312-19126-X

Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice 
ISBN 9780345337665

The Norton Critical Fairy Tales edited by Maria Tatar

Note: Always, always bring the book you were assigned to read and A Writer’s Reference to every class meeting unless informed otherwise by your Professor. Please note that even if we do not use A Writer’s Reference in class for several weeks, you are still required to have it on hand. Points will be taken off for failure to purchase and utilize this book.

Note: All books are available in the Whittier College Bookstore, and also can be purchased at Amazon.com (please choose 2-day delivery if you order online, and order immediately).

Note: Make sure you get the same editions of the books your teacher has and the bookstore has. You cannot use different editions, as they do not have the required supplemental texts. You will lose points for having the wrong editions.

NOTE: THE BOOKSTORE RETURNS ALL UNBOUGHT BOOKS AFTER SEVERAL WEEKS INTO THE SEMESTER! DO NOT WAIT TO BUY ANY OF YOUR BOOKS.

Note: Points will be taken off for those who fail to have their books on time. All of the books you are to buy for this class are relatively cheap, and plentiful—I would strongly recommend ordering them new and having them shipped as quickly as possible.

Course Requirements

Students will write four essays, one of which is an in-class essay. The course will also include in-class quizzes, writing process work, Peer Reviews, and other group work. Students will compose first drafts of all their essays, in addition to other pre-writing activities such as outlining and brainstorming. They may also receive the opportunity to share some of their writing aloud with the entire class, as well as with one another in Peer Reviews. Any work done in class cannot be made up if missed. Homework will include reading comprehension questions, and writing process work.

Note: To insure participation and on-time attendance, there will often be a daily reading question at the beginning of class which functions both as a critical writing assignment and a reading/participation quiz.  These quizzes are absolutely unrepeatable and impossible to make up. You must do your reading regularly. Anyone who does not regularly do well on reading quizzes will not pass the course.

Written Assignment Standards

Any writing done outside of class must be typed and follow the conventions of MLA style (see A Writer’s Reference 354-412). All outside assignments should be in twelve point Times New Roman or Garamond fonts, with one-inch margins, and black ink only. Do not use title pages or report covers; follow the MLA guidelines for formatting. All copies must be submitted on time. In addition, please think ahead when it comes to printing out, stapling essays, etc. Never turn in faded printing or unstapled documents.  Never turn in any assignment without your name, my name, the date, and the class time, typed in the far left corner. Points will be taken off for failure to follow these basic instructions. I do not provide staples in class, and I do take points off for late work—even if it’s just ten or fifteen minutes late. 

Very Important Note: While you will be turning in hard copies of your rough drafts and a few other assignments, you will be required to turn in your final drafts via Moodle only. The same formatting and MLA guidelines apply to these Moodle assignments, as does the fact that they are due at the beginning of class. All of your Moodle assignments will receive notes and scores electronically only, which is very convenient, organized, and helpful for both you and me. 

Please note that the only assignments I accept via Moodle are final drafts. This is to ensure I keep my inbox organized.

Also, please note that for every half hour a paper is late, your score goes down one whole letter grade.

Point Breakdown

Quizzes, Reading, Homework, Class Participation and Activities: 200

Essay #1—200

Essay #2—200

Essay #3—200

Essay #4—200

Total: 1000

Attendance Policies

As your success depends on regular attendance and active  participation, regular attendance is required.  Work done in class—quizzes, group work, Peer Reviews, etc.—cannot be made up and you will not be allowed to make up work completed after you arrive. You will also not receive participation credit if you are not in class to participate! Participation credit is primarily given for sharing your thoughts aloud during class discussions--so please speak up. 

If you have to be absent and a hard copy is due, please make arrangements with a classmate to turn it in for you, or turn in your work to my office before the start of class (I will pick it up before class begins).  No excuses, barring written, professional proof of illness or extreme emergency, will be accepted without prior notice. 

Please note that workshops are important days, so you do not want to miss them. 

Also, please remember that final drafts are due via Moodle only.We will run a test the second week so you can figure out how to upload there. No excuses for not uploading properly. Let me know in advance if you're having problems and we'll get you set up.

Note: The Professor reserves the right to lower the final grade of any student with more than two unexcused absences or three unexcused tardies. Please do not be tardy. It is very disruptive to the class and to myself, and this class meets for a very short time frame. However, if you do end up arriving late for whatever reason, enter the room quietly. All tardies, whether I appear to notice your late entrance or not, are duly noted. In addition, if you are more than 20 minutes late to class, I will consider you absent.

Lastly, please do not arrive on time and then ask to be excused to the restroom or to get a drink of water. Do these things before class, or you will be considered tardy.

If you have a medical condition, let me know or have Disabilities services contact me and we can make proper arrangements.

All homework assignments and essays are due at the beginning of class. Late papers will not be accepted under any but the most extreme circumstances, and written proof will always be required (notes from parents do not count).  Computer, flash drive or printer problems, procrastination, and the complications of your academic and social lives are not extreme circumstances. This class has a heavy workload, and if I accept your late assignments, not only do you create more work for me, but you hinder yourself as well.  If you know you will be gone, hand in or have a peer turn in your work for you. If it is a Moodle assignment, obviously you should simply upload it early.

Workshop Notes

Please note that workshop/peer review days are vital days to be in class. If you miss these days, it will only mar your success in the course. On workshop days, you will review each other's writing, giving help to your peers and  gaining valuable insights into your own writing processes. 

Do not miss peer review days. Do not half-ass them either. You will bring two hard copies of your papers on these days, and they need to be done to my instructions. If I say 3 pages, typed and double-spaced, don't bring in 1 and a half pages. 

Please note that in order to ensure that everyone during the workshop gets a fair and helpful exchange, that anyone who does not have a paper with them on workshop day that is to the required specifications, and anyone who does not physically print out their work, will be asked to leave and take an absence for the day.   

Class Conduct

Cell phones should be quiet and out of sight for the entire duration of class.  Absolutely no texting and no taking phone calls during class (including stepping out of the room to take a phone call). If I see you looking at your phone once class has started (even just pulling it out of your pocket), it will be mine until the end of class. Please be respectful and do not talk while others are sharing. Raise your hand before speaking. As mentioned prior, be on time, and if you are late, enter the room  quietly. Stay in the room during class unless absolutely necessary. Please use the restroom and get water before class begins, not right after it does. You are welcome to bring food and drinks into class provided they don’t become a distraction. Our goal here is to create a calm, focused space in which we can learn most productively.

Note: If you prefer to take notes on a laptop or iPad please discuss this with me. In general, I prefer for you to take notes on paper, so as not to disrupt the focus of our attentions in class, but I am willing to make exceptions with good reason.

Email Etiquette

If you have any questions about homework or other classroom related things, please first check the syllabus and class blog. If the syllabus does not answer your question, then ask a classroom friend and/or a peer mentor. If they do not sufficiently answer your question (or you doubt their response), email me. Do not be afraid to email me, but also don't email me if you can get your question answered otherwise. I have over 60 Whittier writing students this fall, and I need to focus my time on preparing for our class sessions and on grading your work. 

Please note that I do not respond to emails after 7 pm. When you email me, you can expect a response within 24 hours, often sooner. 

Title IX 

Whittier College is dedicated to providing a safe and equitable learning environment for all students. Sexual misconduct, including sexual assault, sexual harassment, stalking, dating violence and domestic violence, is prohibited by the College. You are encouraged to report any incidents to the Title IX Coordinator, Cynthia Joseph, at 562-907-4830 or cjoseph@whittier.edu. For more information about reporting and prohibited conduct, please see the Sexual Misconduct Policy at www.whittier.edu/smap.

Final Thoughts

A composition class requires hard work and is time consuming.  Double check your schedule to be sure you have allotted enough time for this class.  The rule of thumb is to expect to work two hours out of class for every hour in class. 

This will be one of the most important classes you take—one that will affect how you do in your other classes as well as your job performance after graduation.  Work hard.  Do well.  Your hard work will pay rich dividends beyond your academic career.

*A syllabus is a contract. Your continued attendance in this class means that you have read, understand, and agree to all of the expectations, policies and guidelines in this syllabus. I strongly recommend reviewing the syllabus several times throughout the semester, paying close attention to the attendance and class work policies.