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LITR 4370 Tragedy |
LITR
4370 Tragedy
Spring 2015 Model answers
Pt 1.
Complete genre definition |
(This webpage constitutes the assignment for our course's final exam, updated until last class meeting, 27 April, when paper copies will be distributed.)
Three parts: For all three, revise and update earlier drafts from Midterm1 & Midterm 2, unified with extensions for final exam. Each essay will be read and graded as a complete essay.
Part 1.
Finish genre
definition and example(s) from Midterms 1 & 2:
Using
Introduction to
Genres page, improve your earlier drafts of a "working definition"
for
your selected genre in every genre-classification (Subject / Audience, Formal, Narrative) and use
these categories to
describe and analyze
two or more text-examples of
your genre, integrating
4 research sources from course website or beyond.
(total length: 6-8
paragraphs, 3+ double-spaced page equivalent)
Part 2. Complete
"Learning about
Tragedy" Essay: Revise essay
begun in Midterms 1 & 2 on learning experience
with tragedy, extending to include Hippolytos, Phaedra, and
Desire Under the Elms plus themes of
Tragedy Modernized with
Romance (
Comedy). (Revise / improve midterm2 draft & add at least 5 paragraphs
for 12+ paragraph total.)
Part 3. Complete Research Report: Write at least
8-10 substantial paragraphs with six sources to complete
your Research Report on selected
special topic.
Value:
app. 40% of final grade;
Email exams due to
whitec@uhcl.edu by midnight Friday,
5 May. "Submission window" is 28 April-5 May.
No class meeting on
4 May; classroom available for students who want to write exam in-class;
instructor keeps office hours 1-5pm, Bayou 2529;
281 283 3380.
5-10 days after submission, students receive
individual emails with final grade report incl.
notes and grades for final exam and course.
Special requirements: Title essays.
Refer at least once to a previous final exam or one of this semester's midterms (besides your own) from Model Assignments.
Refer at least once to Aristotle's Poetics and once to Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy somewhere in exam. (Additional references are impressive.)
Part 1.
Finish genre
definition and example(s) from Midterms 1 & 2:
Using
Introduction to
Genres page, improve your earlier drafts of a "working definition"
for
your selected genre in every genre-classification (Subject / Audience, Formal, Narrative)
and use
these categories to
describe and analyze
two or more text-examples of
your genre, integrating
4 research sources from course website or beyond.
Length: 6-8 paragraphs total ( 3+ double-spaced page equivalent)
Contents:
"Working
Definition" =
use
Introduction to
Genres to define "genre," distinguish Subject / Audience genre,
Formal genre, and Narrative genre, and apply to text-examples of your selected
genre. Your "working
definition" can be questioned, varied, or expanded as you work with
your text-examples.
Continue illustrating and analyzing your selected genre and text-examples:
If you have a main example—e.g., When Harry Met Sally for "Romantic
Comedy"—introduce it early in your essay and use it to illustrate and explain
all three categories of genre.
Use critical-thinking pattern of definition-example-analysis,
where you apply and test your working definition against your text-examples,
then explain your learning based on how the example proves, disproves, or varies
the definition.
If you introduced enough examples on the midterm drafts, simply improve your explanations of those examples. If you didn't introduce enough examples or have thought of some new ones that help, add 1 or 2 more.
Your research sources must include the Introduction to Genres page and may include term-page from our course website or terms index.
General revision advice based on Midterm1 & Midterm2 submissions: Introduce your main text-example(s) as early as possible, and use them to illustrate and explain the three genre categories. For instance, if your genre is "horror" and your main example is The Shining, introduce The Shining in your opening paragraph(s) and use it to illustrate subject/audience, formal, and narrative genre.
Part 2. Complete
"Learning about
Tragedy" Essay: Revise essay
begun in Midterms 1 & 2 on learning experience
with tragedy, extending to include Hippolytos, Phaedra, and
Desire Under the Elms plus themes of
Tragedy Modernized with
Romance (
Comedy).
Length: Add at least 5 paragraphs to Midterm2 draft for 12+ paragraph total.
Assignment: Improve and extend your Learning Essay from Midterms 1 & 2. Review instructor's feedback. Rethink ideas and extend examples with more analysis and citations of texts and instructional pages.
Required references to texts: As examples and illustrations for
your learning experience in Tragedy since Midterm2, you must refer to passages in
Euripides's
Hippolytos, Racine's
Phaedra, and
O'Neill's Desire Under the Elms, especially regarding their
Modernization
of Tragedy with
Romance (
Comedy).
Instructional sites for Essay 2 (see also Handouts / Essential Sites at top of course homepage):
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Tragedy modernizes and expands appeal by incorporating other narrative genres (comedy and romance) and by managing spectacle. |
Oedipal Conflict, Electra Complex. Aristotle's Poetics 13c, 14c. Tragedy involves families who simultaneously love and hate each other as their fates are bound together. |
Part 3. Complete Research Report: Write at least
8-10 substantial paragraphs with six sources to complete
your Research Report on selected
special topic.
Summarize your research and learning on your special topic and describe how what you've learned relates to our course on Tragedy (or to your teaching of tragedy or genres).
Research requirements: For the final exam, six research sources providing information on your topic are required. These sources may be from our course website or from beyond. You should try to feature at least one or more source from beyond our website.
Especially consider using "essential instructional page(s)" provided for each special topic. Research sources may also come from Model Assignments provided with your special topic.
The best responses to this assignment typically find more advanced sources beyond our course website. Other recommended research sources include reference books (encyclopedias, handbooks), MLA searches, and interviews with former teachers or professors.
You don't have to agree with your research sources; you can treat them as material to differ with or to provide contrary information; but you have to refer to them. Avoid writing what you could have written without taking our course.
Assignment description: Write a complete report describing your research and learning concerning your Special Topic.
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Organize the information you found and review how you may use it, either in your knowledge of literature, college career, teaching, or personal development.
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The emphasis is on information, not opinion and analysis, though some summary, analysis, and evaluation is welcome and expected. It's a report foremost, not an opinionated essay.
Default organization:
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What did you want to learn? Why?
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What did you find out or learn? How?
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Where has this knowledge taken you? How has your view of your topic changed or developed?
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What would you like to learn next? (that follows from what you have learned so far)
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How does this knowledge apply to our course or your possible development of its topics?
Works Cited / Bibliography: Include a list of your major research sources (at least four total for Final Exam).
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MLA style is preferred, but other standard forms are acceptable. Don't spend too much time fussing over forms when you should be organizing your research so that it explains your learning to your reader.
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My test for documentation: Would I be able to track it down using the information provided?
Possible sources for research:
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interview with an expert, including former teachers (phone interviews are fine) or faculty here at UHCL
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reference works in library or on web—the more specialized the better (e. g., use "handbooks to literature" for definitions rather than "Webster's dictionary")
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no need for primary research or reading. For instance, if you wanted to do your report on Eugene O'Neill or another author of tragedy, you don't need to read more of their plays. You only need to read about the author.
Evaluation standards: Readability, content, thematic organization.
Readability & surface competence:
Your reader must be able to
process what you're explaining. Given the pressures of a timed writing exercise,
some rough edges are acceptable, but chronic errors or elementary style can hurt.
Content quality:
Fulfillment of assignment; comprehension of subject, demonstration of learning,
use of course resources including instructional webpages + interest & significance: Make your reader *want* to
process your report. Make the information meaningful; make it
matter
to our study of literature and culture. Reproduce course materials accurately
but refresh with your own insights, examples, and experiences.
Thematic Unity and Organization:
Unify materials along a line of thought that a reader can follow from start
to finish. (Consider "path of learning": what you started with, what you
encountered, where you arrived.) Consult instruction sites on
Unity / Continuity / Transition
& Transitions.
