Introduction to Graduate Studies & Research Methods
Course Guidelines
“‘No;
I haven’t the least sense of the ‘fist’. It’s funny.
With
most men
there’s the instinct to clench the fist and hit.
It’s
not so with me.
I should want a knife or a pistol or something to fight with’” (420).
D. H. Lawrence's Sons and Lovers (1913)
the basics / goals / course overview / path
1 / path 2/ miscellany
THE
BASICS
English 501: Introduction to Graduate Studies & Research Methods
thematic touchstone: ______________
location: _____________
instructor: Dr. Paul Marchbanks
email: pmarchba@calpoly.edu
office: 805-756-2159 / building 47 (the "maze"), hallway 35,
office A / available
hours
home: 805-593-0192 (9 a.m. to 9 p.m.)
COURSE GOALS
- deepen comfort with discussion and debate
- increase familiarity with research materials and methods
- elaborate core knowledge concerning literary forms, periods, and figures
- refine organizational and rhetorical skills necessary to sustain an extended, written argument
- develop readiness to think on your feet, to recall and employ evidence to either defend or attack various positions with minimal preparation time
COURSE OVERVIEW
The physical violence that so radically transformed thousands of lives
in wartime
Britain accompanied—and in many ways shaped—the more productive forms
of violence early twentieth-century writers perpetrated against conventional
literary forms. That greater awareness of war’s horrors produced by a more
powerful and determined media machine prompted a similar commitment to both psychological
and physical realism from the period’s artists. Novelists like Virginia Woolf and James Joyce
worked to capture the chaotic non-linearity of human thought and motivation,
while D. H. Lawrence reproduced the emotional and spiritual violence which sometimes
characterizes relations between the sexes. Poets W. B. Yeats and T. S. Eliot
struggled with expressing the alternating pulses of despair and hope coursing
through their own lives, and Joseph Conrad examined the rising threat represented by anarchist movements in Europe.
PATH 1: In-Class
Discussion and Exams
Materials (purchase
these editions)
- Conrad, Joseph. The
Secret Agent. 1907. New York: Oxford World's Classics, 2008. ISBN: 9780199536351
- Lawrence, D. H. The Rainbow. 1915. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. ISBN: 0199553858
- Joyce, James. Dubliners. 1914. Penguin (Viking
Critical Ed.), 1996. ISBN: 0140247742
- Eliot, T. S. Collected Poems, 1909-1962. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1991. ISBN: 0151189781
- Woolf, Virginia. To the Lighthouse. 1927. New York: Harvest/HBJ, 1989. ISBN: 0156907399
- Yeats, W. B. The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats. New York: Scribner, 1996. ISBN: 0684807319
Assignments
- participation & class
discussion (10%--2 grades of 5% each, awarded at 5 and 10 weeks. Grades will be determined by: 1) frequency and quality of participation during class discussion and group activities, 2) apparent familiarity
with Path 1 assigned readings, 3) attendance
- teaching moment (5%): during most class sessions, a student will direct the group's consideration of two of the relevant "points of reflection" posted on the path one calendar. Students should spend 15-20 minutes total lecturing on both questions; please do not use this time to facilitate class discussion of the prompts. Students should email Dr. Marchbanks by 9 p.m. the night before class to let him know which two questions s/he will be tackling.
- exams
(35%)
- 20-30 minute objective exam (10%) on Wed., Jan. 19: multiple choice, true/false, and short answer questions
- 75-minute essay exam (10%) on Wed., Feb. 9: students will each respond to one of three essay prompts
- 90-minute essay exam (15%) on Mon., Feb. 28: students will complete an objective section (15-20 minutes) and then respond to one of three essay prompts (70-75 minutes)
PATH 2: Outside
Research and Writing
Materials
- Group
4: Narrative Poetry & The Woman Question
- Alfred Tennyson’s “The Princess” online
- E. B. Browning’s Aurora Leigh (1856). Norton, 1995. ISBN: 0393962987
- A. Tennyson’s Idylls of the King (1859-74). Penguin, 1989. ISBN: 0140422535
- Group 5: Art & Truth
- Thomas Carlyle’s Sartor Resartus (1833-34), Oxford, 2008. ISBN: 0199540372
- Robert Browning’s The Ring and the Book (1868-69). Broadview, 2001. ISBN: 1551113722
- Group 1: Know Thyself
- Conrad, Joseph. Heart of Darkness. 1899. Norton Critical Edition. 2005. ISBN: 039392636
- Woolf, Virginia. Night and Day. 1919. New York: Oxford World's Classics, 1999. ISBN: 9780199555604
- Woolf, Virginia. Mrs Dalloway. 1925. New York: Harvest/HBJ, 1990. ISBN: 0151009988
- Group 2: The Spectre of Colonialism
- Conrad, Joseph. Almayer's Folly. 1895. Dover Thrift, 2003. ISBN: 0486426777
- Conrad, Joseph. Lord Jim. (1899-1900). Norton Critical Edition. 1996. ISBN: 0393963357
- Conrad, Joseph. Nostromo (1904). Penguin, 2007. ISBN: 9780141441634
- Group
3: Sexual Awakenings
- Woolf, Virginia. The Voyage Out. 1915. New York: Harvest/HBJ, 2003. ISBN: 0156028050
- Lawrence. D. H. Sons and Lovers. 1913. New York: Penguin, 2006. ISBN: 0141441443
- Group 4: The Künstlerroman
- Joyce, James. A
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916). Penguin (Viking
Critical Ed.), 1977. ISBN: 0140155031
- Woolf, Virginia. Orlando: A Biography. 1928. New York: Harvest, 1956. ISBN: 015670160
- Beckett, Samuel. Murphy. 1938. Grove Press. 1994. ISBN: 080215037
Assignments
- short
essay responses (10% of grade, 5% each): each student will belong
to a group of 3-4 individuals assigned to a list of weekly Path 2 readings.
Students in a given group will engage their touchstone text(s) and related secondary materials through short essays of 500-600 words. Multiple
prompts will be provided each of the first nine weeks, and students
will respond by creating a total of two essays. These compact
essays should be creative, focused, highly structured, and supported
by appropriately detailed evidence. Essay responses are due on Blackboard by 11:59
p.m. the Saturday after an essay prompt has been assigned. Students must complete their first
essay during Wk 1 or Wk 2. A second essay will be completed during Wks 5-6, or Wks 7-9. You must respond to a prompt corresponding to the reading for the week in which you create your essay. Please turn in essays the day they are due: late essays will lose 1 pt/day. IMPORTANT NOTES: 1) you may not complete a Path 2 short essay within the same two-week period in which your group meets with me (see below), 2) you must engage every assigned path 2 novel either through essay or discussion, even if the path 2 calendar relegates only one week (e.g. Heart of Darkness) or two weeks (e.g. Almayer's Folly) to that text.
- small
group
office
visits (10%
of grade, 5% each): each student will participate in two half-hour,
small group sessions during my office hours, one during Wks 3-4, and a second during Wks 5-6 or Wks 7-9. Each such session will be attended by all members of your Path 2 group. Please go here to
choose a block of time which works, then email me with your selection. You should be prepared to answer prompts corresponding to the path 2 readings up through the week in which you meet with me. Please bring your text filled with helpful marginalia so that you can back up your claims with textual evidence. IMPORTANT NOTES: 1) you may not meet with me twithin the same two-week period in which your group's members are writing an essay (see above), 2) you must engage every assigned path 2 novel either through essay or discussion, even if the path 2 calendar relegates only one week (e.g. Heart of Darkness) or two weeks (e.g. Almayer's Folly) to that text.
- term paper conference (5%): students will submit a detailed, 2-4 page outline to a Wk 9 forum on Blackboard, and attend a joint paper conference with Dr. Marchbanks and the other members of their group (1-hr session) to discuss their ideas. These paper conferences can be scheduled at each Path 2 group's convenience, sometime late in Week 9 or early in Week 10, either in my office or at my home. Please go here to
choose a block of time which works for your group.
- term paper (25%): students will construct a 14-16 page argument that follows the plan mapped out during their paper conference. Due Friday, 18 March, at midnight. Send a Word file to Dr. Marchbanks via email.
MISCELLANY
Contact
Take advantage of my office hours. Go here to find an open slot, then email me to reserve that time for an office visit. The fastest way to contact
me if you have a quick question is via email. You can also reach me in my office at 805-756-2159, or in the evening (before 9 p.m.) at 593-0192.
Plagiarism and the Honor Code
I encourage you to improve your writing with the help of peers, instructors,
and myself. Remember, however, that all work
you
submit must be your own. Any paper containing borrowed but undocumented thoughts
or words will receive a failing grade, and I am obligated to
report all instances of plagiarism to the Vice President
of Student Affairs. Let
me know if you have further questions concerning this important issue.
"Weeping Nude" (1913)
Edvard Munch
Dr. Paul Marchbanks
pmarchba@calpoly.edu
