Critical/Analytical Writing

Dale Larson
Grays Harbor College

The Course

English 201 refines and extends skills introduced in English 101. It aims at strengthening your grasp of literature in English and at mastering academic discourse. Its main focus is literary criticism. With research writing as a goal, the form of the critical essay is central, based on the work of writing about one's reading. Essay subjects are drawn from self-selected readings in fiction and poetry, as well as from scholarship in and beyond the discipline of English. The protocols of academic scholarship define the work, including the formation of interpretive communities, the evolution of discursive strategies within them, and the mastery of formal techniques defining them. Especially covered are stylistic matters like topicalization, attribution, contextualization, integration and citation, and substantive matters like subject/object, topic/problem, and claim/warrant definition.

Goals

With the aim of succeeding in the course, you should plan

to read critically and analytically,

to write carefully and reasonably,

and to speak openly, independently, and passionately.

Beyond that, you should plan

to enlarge and enrich your vocabulary,

to appreciate the main forms of imaginative literature,

to master the basics of extended critical writing,

and to profit by another's criticism of your work, revising for clarity and grace.

Texts

Texts are four: James Pickering and Jeffrey Hoeper's Literature (Fifth Edition); Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness (from St. Martin's Case Studies in Contemporary Criticism, Second Edition); Joseph Gibaldi and Walter Achtert's MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (Fourth Edition); and Wayne Booth, Gregory Columb, and Joseph Williams’s The Craft of Research. Handouts and several movies provide added interest.

Expectations

You can expect a regular mix of discussions and lectures. Office conferences are scheduled as needed. Since attendance counts, and since discussion presupposes thoughtful presence, regular appearance is important. If you skip, courtesy demands prior notification or later apology. The aim is to engage our texts by engaging each other, becoming an interpretive community of our own.

Essays

Just two critical essays are required, one on fiction, one on poetry. Each essay is due on a separate Tuesday of your choice — one by week seven (2/20), one by week ten (3/13). Each essay is revisable once within a week of return. Essay guidelines follow:

Exclusive of notes, acknowledgments, and addenda, your essays must be four to five pages in length — typed, double-spaced.
They must also employ a distinct rhetorical/logical purpose.
The first must have an analytical purpose — you must critique a short fictional text offering a key point for thematic or technical analysis (no library research).
The second must have a contextual purpose — you must critique a short poetic text deserving interpretation from the wider context of its author's life, work, and reputation (much library research).

Lectures and discussions will address both of these aims in detail. Shared and self-chosen readings offer added precepts and examples.

Research Essay

One eight-page research essay (exclusive of notes, acknowledgments, and addenda) is required by week ten (3/7). This essay must address a closely-defined subject and topic of long-term intellectual or vocational concern. Its academic purposes are three:

interest

To examine an issue apt to a some specific research community's developed scholarly approach to it.

To explore an idea broadly central to Western cultural history.

To that end, your essays must employ a common title form: " _________________, _______________, and the Idea of ______________." Blank spaces are to be filled in with equal regard to individual choice, common form, and logical rigor. Office conferences will help in shaping the task. We will discuss particular guidelines and options. Your essays will demand early commitment, thorough research, and, above all, careful, thoughtful writing.

Exams

There are two exams, a midterm and final. Our midterm includes objective and short-answer questions on class readings as well as on all class lectures, presentations, and handouts. Officially scheduled at quarter's end, our final covers work done only since the midterm. In addition to objective and short-answer questions, it includes an extended in-class essay on acquired critical-analytical skills. Careful study throughout the term generally offers you the best preparation.