Sinclair
WJU
Giving Examples Exercises
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
ENG 105 - Definition Essay Prompt
Write a 500 word essay attempting to define one of the following terms. You MUST adhere to MLA Conventions (if you do not have a Wadsworth Handbook PLEASE SEE THE OWL MLA GUIDE).
Write an extended definition of one of the following: Honor; Humility; Maturity; Integrity; True Friendship; Success; Self-Respect; Ambition; or Progress. Remember that an effective definition encompasses techniques used in other styles of Composition.
This essay is due Monday January 30th 2012 BEFORE 4:00 p.m.
Write an extended definition of one of the following: Honor; Humility; Maturity; Integrity; True Friendship; Success; Self-Respect; Ambition; or Progress. Remember that an effective definition encompasses techniques used in other styles of Composition.
This essay is due Monday January 30th 2012 BEFORE 4:00 p.m.
Thursday, November 10, 2011
ENG 208 - Poetry (Harlem Renaissance)
ENG 208:
First read Writing About Poetry at the OWL at Purdue's Online Writing Lab. Also see Quoting Poetry within a Paper using MLA Documentation to inform you while writing your essays.
Log on to EBSCOHost and search for "Claude McKay's Harlem Shadows." You will come across an essay of the same name written by Terence Hoagwood of Texas A&M University published in The Explicator. Read this and then answer the following question.
Essay:
William J. Maxwell shows how Claude McKay in particular is able to meet "the need for a medium of expanded radical communication" (qtd. in Hoagwood) through his use of Elizabethan verse forms.
Choose a poet from the assigned Harlem Renaissance poetry who has written in either closed form or blank verse. Consider how the selected poems are able to invoke feelings of fear, loss, oppression, and a yearning for change through the poet's use of language.
Please consider specifically (please research definitions where necessary): whether the poet engages in hypotaxis or parataxis, a poem is monologic or dialogic, the poet uses metonymy or synecdoche. Look at also: the use of meter and whether syllables and words are made of iambs, anapests, dactyls, trochees, or pyrrhics. Look for examples of enjambment, caesura, elision as well as falling meter and iambic feet.
This essay should follow all regular MLA guidelines as described at the OWL at Purdue's MLA Guide. Your sources should include the following as well as whatever academic research you do:
Poet's Lastname, Poet's Firstname. "Poem Title." Literature of the Black Diaspora. Handout. Poems for Study. (Richard Georges.) H. Lavity Stoutt Community College. Nov. 2011. Print.
Hoagwood, Terence. "Claude McKay's HARLEM SHADOWS." Explicator 68.1 (2010): 51-54. Academic Search Premier. Web. 10 Nov. 2011.
The essay is due Tuesday November 22nd 2011 and should be emailed to me and not printed. On that day we shall have a lecture and classroom discussion on the Contemporary poets assigned.
First read Writing About Poetry at the OWL at Purdue's Online Writing Lab. Also see Quoting Poetry within a Paper using MLA Documentation to inform you while writing your essays.
Log on to EBSCOHost and search for "Claude McKay's Harlem Shadows." You will come across an essay of the same name written by Terence Hoagwood of Texas A&M University published in The Explicator. Read this and then answer the following question.
Essay:
William J. Maxwell shows how Claude McKay in particular is able to meet "the need for a medium of expanded radical communication" (qtd. in Hoagwood) through his use of Elizabethan verse forms.
Choose a poet from the assigned Harlem Renaissance poetry who has written in either closed form or blank verse. Consider how the selected poems are able to invoke feelings of fear, loss, oppression, and a yearning for change through the poet's use of language.
Please consider specifically (please research definitions where necessary): whether the poet engages in hypotaxis or parataxis, a poem is monologic or dialogic, the poet uses metonymy or synecdoche. Look at also: the use of meter and whether syllables and words are made of iambs, anapests, dactyls, trochees, or pyrrhics. Look for examples of enjambment, caesura, elision as well as falling meter and iambic feet.
This essay should follow all regular MLA guidelines as described at the OWL at Purdue's MLA Guide. Your sources should include the following as well as whatever academic research you do:
Poet's Lastname, Poet's Firstname. "Poem Title." Literature of the Black Diaspora. Handout. Poems for Study. (Richard Georges.) H. Lavity Stoutt Community College. Nov. 2011. Print.
Hoagwood, Terence. "Claude McKay's HARLEM SHADOWS." Explicator 68.1 (2010): 51-54. Academic Search Premier. Web. 10 Nov. 2011.
The essay is due Tuesday November 22nd 2011 and should be emailed to me and not printed. On that day we shall have a lecture and classroom discussion on the Contemporary poets assigned.
Monday, October 17, 2011
ENG 200 - The Metaphysical Poets (John Donne)
Answer one of the following. The regular considerations apply.
Refer to 'The Ecstasy' and discuss the poem as an example of Donne's presentation of love. Support your response with specific reference to other poems.
OR
Select two or three of Donne's poems in order to work out a comparison between his love poems and his divine poems.
Pay particular attention to Donne's use of language and imagery as well as the characteristics of his thought and feeling.
This essay is due Wednesday October 26th 2011. NO EXCEPTIONS.
Refer to 'The Ecstasy' and discuss the poem as an example of Donne's presentation of love. Support your response with specific reference to other poems.
OR
Select two or three of Donne's poems in order to work out a comparison between his love poems and his divine poems.
Pay particular attention to Donne's use of language and imagery as well as the characteristics of his thought and feeling.
This essay is due Wednesday October 26th 2011. NO EXCEPTIONS.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
ENG 105 - Invented Rogerian Argument
Your second Rogerian assignment is pulled from today's news on a popular local online news center. Choose one of the following on which to base a Rogerian Argument.
Long Awaited Works On Manse Road Start Today
Cabinet Backs Strengthening Interest In UK
Dumping Of Human Waste In BVI Waters Will Be A Thing of The Past - Vows Candidate
Ruling Party Announces Disney Cruise Line to Extend Cruise Pier; 7-Point Plan Unveiled
Seaweed invading VI shorelines & beaches
FIFA begins Caribbean bribery cases!
After researching these issues to establish your Background and Exigence, use Invention and Hegelian Logic to construct an argument based in the BVI. Be sure to cite sources for support.
This essay is due on October 19. The essay will follow MLA standards (see the links to the MLA guide on this blog): MLA formatting, including a Works Cited page, and in-text citations. This essay is expected to be at least 1,000 words. Outlines must be submitted with the final essay.
Long Awaited Works On Manse Road Start Today
Cabinet Backs Strengthening Interest In UK
Dumping Of Human Waste In BVI Waters Will Be A Thing of The Past - Vows Candidate
Ruling Party Announces Disney Cruise Line to Extend Cruise Pier; 7-Point Plan Unveiled
Seaweed invading VI shorelines & beaches
FIFA begins Caribbean bribery cases!
After researching these issues to establish your Background and Exigence, use Invention and Hegelian Logic to construct an argument based in the BVI. Be sure to cite sources for support.
This essay is due on October 19. The essay will follow MLA standards (see the links to the MLA guide on this blog): MLA formatting, including a Works Cited page, and in-text citations. This essay is expected to be at least 1,000 words. Outlines must be submitted with the final essay.
Monday, September 26, 2011
ENG 200 - Caribbean History 1930-1949 Essay Questions
Answer the following:
Using Alison Donnell's 'Contradictory (W)omens?' essay as your foundation, explore Una Marson's poetry in this anthology both as departures from the 'British models and [their] lack of experimentation and authenticity', and declarations of identity for Jamaican women.
In addition to your response to your selected question (at least 5 pages), it is expected that you will provide at least two sources. Start your research on all facets of your chosen question as soon as possible. If you have questions or concerns, do not hesitate to contact me.
Essay to be in Arial or Times 12pt font and double spaced. Be sure to cite in accordance with MLA guidelines.
This essay is DUE Monday, October 3, 2011
NO EXCEPTIONS
Based on the following essay readings, what are the major concerns of West Indian writers 1930-1949? Avoid summarizing, attempt to engage the suggestions and comments of the writers. Examine where they are at variance with each other. What topics and ideas seem to persist?
Essays
Discovering Literature in Trinidad: The Ninteen Thirties - CLR James
Through a Maze of Colour - Albert Gomes
The Beacon Editorials
The Challenge of Our Time - JEC McFarlane
The Cultural Revolution in Jamaica after 1938 - VS Reid
Where the Roots Lie - Roger Mais
We Want Books - But Do We Encourage Our Writers? - Una Marson
Contradictory (W)omens? Gender Consciousness in the Poetery of Una Marson - Alison Donnell
On Reading Louise Bennett, Seriously - Mervyn Morris
Images of Men and Women in 1930s Calypsoes - Gordon Rohlehr
Your response to the question must be at least 3 pages.
Essay to be in Arial or Times 12pt font and double spaced. Be sure to cite in accordance with MLA guidelines.
This essay is DUE Wednesday, October 5, 2011
NO EXCEPTIONS
Using Alison Donnell's 'Contradictory (W)omens?' essay as your foundation, explore Una Marson's poetry in this anthology both as departures from the 'British models and [their] lack of experimentation and authenticity', and declarations of identity for Jamaican women.
In addition to your response to your selected question (at least 5 pages), it is expected that you will provide at least two sources. Start your research on all facets of your chosen question as soon as possible. If you have questions or concerns, do not hesitate to contact me.
Essay to be in Arial or Times 12pt font and double spaced. Be sure to cite in accordance with MLA guidelines.
This essay is DUE Monday, October 3, 2011
NO EXCEPTIONS
Based on the following essay readings, what are the major concerns of West Indian writers 1930-1949? Avoid summarizing, attempt to engage the suggestions and comments of the writers. Examine where they are at variance with each other. What topics and ideas seem to persist?
Essays
Discovering Literature in Trinidad: The Ninteen Thirties - CLR James
Through a Maze of Colour - Albert Gomes
The Beacon Editorials
The Challenge of Our Time - JEC McFarlane
The Cultural Revolution in Jamaica after 1938 - VS Reid
Where the Roots Lie - Roger Mais
We Want Books - But Do We Encourage Our Writers? - Una Marson
Contradictory (W)omens? Gender Consciousness in the Poetery of Una Marson - Alison Donnell
On Reading Louise Bennett, Seriously - Mervyn Morris
Images of Men and Women in 1930s Calypsoes - Gordon Rohlehr
Your response to the question must be at least 3 pages.
Essay to be in Arial or Times 12pt font and double spaced. Be sure to cite in accordance with MLA guidelines.
This essay is DUE Wednesday, October 5, 2011
NO EXCEPTIONS
Thursday, September 22, 2011
ENG 222 - "Postmodern Epistemology"
Read this excerpt by D.A. Carson. The full essay can be found here. While Carson is primarily concerend with Postmodern implications for Christianity, his summarizing thoughts on Postmodern ideas is useful for us.
Postmodern Epistemology
So what about postmodern epistemology? Of course, history is messy. The transition from one historical movement to another is not abrupt. Invariably, some forces prepare the way for a shift and others retard it. And even when there is a new paradigm, not everyone adopts it. Even today many modernists argue for their corner and many other thinkers have mixed epistemological pedigrees.
Even during the reign of modern epistemology, there were many anticipations that all was not well. Yet for convenience we may accept the common assessment that postmodern epistemology came to prominence in much of the Western world about 1970. It is usefully analyzed with reference to its rejection or modification of all six of the elements of modern epistemology.
1. Postmodern epistemology continues to fasten on the finite "I"-or, more corporately, on the finite group, the "we." But it draws very different inferences from this axiom than modern epistemology did. Because all human knowers-or groups of knowers-are finite, they think and reason out of a specific and limited cultural framework, some specific "interpretive community." I am a white, middle-aged, European Canadian, with a reasonable amount of Western education behind me, and a white-collar job. Surely it is not surprising if I look at things differently than, say, a sub-Saharan African scholar or a twelve-year-old illiterate street prostitute in Bangkok.
2. Reflect deeply on the first point, postmodernism insists, and absolute certainty will no longer be assumed to be possible. To be frank, it is mere illusion, the product of disreputable arrogance. Moreover, absolute certainty is not even desirable. It engenders a narrow outlook and cascading self-righteousness. Surely it is better, postmoderns tell us, to encourage insights that flow from many different perspectives, including different religions and diverse moral codes.
3. Because the "foundations" that we erect are produced by finite human thought, we should abandon the comfortable illusion that they are secure. Postmodernism is profoundly anti-foundationalist.
4. Similarly, as finite human beings we invent our methods, which are themselves shaped by particular languages and cultures and social groupings. Consequently, no method has any deeper significance than the preference or convenience of some particular group. To hold, as modernists did, that to build on a firm foundation with rigorous methods would enable us to uncover truth was self-delusion, for neither our foundations nor our methods transcend our limitations.
5. From these first four points we must infer that whatever "truth" we discover cannot possibly enjoy "ahistorical universality." It will be true for one culture, but not another; it will be true in one language, but not in another; it will be true for this social grouping, but not for that one. Even in the scientific domain, it is argued, we are learning that large theories are not infrequently overthrown by later theories, that Western medicine has its triumphs and failures while Chinese medicine can make similar claims, and so on. Any claim to have achieved "ahistorical universality" is just one more form of modernist hubris.
6. Many postmodern voices still speak out of the assumptions of philosophical naturalism that are common among late modernist thinkers. Yet substantial numbers of postmoderns are now convinced that there are many, many ways to "knowledge" and "truth"-i.e., to "knowledge" and "truth" that are helpful to you or your "interpretive community." They will happily applaud traditional science, while anticipating the breakthroughs that will come by "feeling" rather than thinking ("Feel, Luke, feel!"). They accept both astrology and religious claims because they do not take them to be different in kind. Anecdotal evidence is as persuasive to such people as controlled, double-blind scientific experiments. Consequently, many postmoderns think of themselves as more "spiritual" and less "naturalistic" than their modernist forebears.
Postmodern Epistemology
So what about postmodern epistemology? Of course, history is messy. The transition from one historical movement to another is not abrupt. Invariably, some forces prepare the way for a shift and others retard it. And even when there is a new paradigm, not everyone adopts it. Even today many modernists argue for their corner and many other thinkers have mixed epistemological pedigrees.
Even during the reign of modern epistemology, there were many anticipations that all was not well. Yet for convenience we may accept the common assessment that postmodern epistemology came to prominence in much of the Western world about 1970. It is usefully analyzed with reference to its rejection or modification of all six of the elements of modern epistemology.
1. Postmodern epistemology continues to fasten on the finite "I"-or, more corporately, on the finite group, the "we." But it draws very different inferences from this axiom than modern epistemology did. Because all human knowers-or groups of knowers-are finite, they think and reason out of a specific and limited cultural framework, some specific "interpretive community." I am a white, middle-aged, European Canadian, with a reasonable amount of Western education behind me, and a white-collar job. Surely it is not surprising if I look at things differently than, say, a sub-Saharan African scholar or a twelve-year-old illiterate street prostitute in Bangkok.
2. Reflect deeply on the first point, postmodernism insists, and absolute certainty will no longer be assumed to be possible. To be frank, it is mere illusion, the product of disreputable arrogance. Moreover, absolute certainty is not even desirable. It engenders a narrow outlook and cascading self-righteousness. Surely it is better, postmoderns tell us, to encourage insights that flow from many different perspectives, including different religions and diverse moral codes.
3. Because the "foundations" that we erect are produced by finite human thought, we should abandon the comfortable illusion that they are secure. Postmodernism is profoundly anti-foundationalist.
4. Similarly, as finite human beings we invent our methods, which are themselves shaped by particular languages and cultures and social groupings. Consequently, no method has any deeper significance than the preference or convenience of some particular group. To hold, as modernists did, that to build on a firm foundation with rigorous methods would enable us to uncover truth was self-delusion, for neither our foundations nor our methods transcend our limitations.
5. From these first four points we must infer that whatever "truth" we discover cannot possibly enjoy "ahistorical universality." It will be true for one culture, but not another; it will be true in one language, but not in another; it will be true for this social grouping, but not for that one. Even in the scientific domain, it is argued, we are learning that large theories are not infrequently overthrown by later theories, that Western medicine has its triumphs and failures while Chinese medicine can make similar claims, and so on. Any claim to have achieved "ahistorical universality" is just one more form of modernist hubris.
6. Many postmodern voices still speak out of the assumptions of philosophical naturalism that are common among late modernist thinkers. Yet substantial numbers of postmoderns are now convinced that there are many, many ways to "knowledge" and "truth"-i.e., to "knowledge" and "truth" that are helpful to you or your "interpretive community." They will happily applaud traditional science, while anticipating the breakthroughs that will come by "feeling" rather than thinking ("Feel, Luke, feel!"). They accept both astrology and religious claims because they do not take them to be different in kind. Anecdotal evidence is as persuasive to such people as controlled, double-blind scientific experiments. Consequently, many postmoderns think of themselves as more "spiritual" and less "naturalistic" than their modernist forebears.
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