The assignment from Dr. Logan:
The following activities will comprise your Research Portfolio, which comprises 15% of your grade for this course. (Your conference-length paper and presentation of it in the final class meeting will count as an additional 25%.) Please make sure that you complete the work as best you can; please keep honing and improving the individual components so that your portfolio is top-notch.
- Consult list of texts below, which includes dates of first publication. Evans’ Digital database (Early American Imprints, First Series, to 1800), Shaw-Shoemaker print bibliography, American Periodicals Series 1, and American Prose Fiction microfilm collection (1774-1850), select the text on which you’d like to work. Note: If your selected text was published serially in a magazine, use American Periodicals Series (APS) database to browse the text; if the text was published in or after 1801, use Shaw-Shoemaker (print only). Note all publication details and history; if the text was published serially in a magazine, note materials printed next to your selected text, by the same printer, etc. Note all known published editions of the text. A separate and specific handout is available under the Research Project button in Webcourses.
- Obtain a copy of your text, either by saving it as a PDF, ordering the microfilm, or locating a facsimile of the text. If there are multiple editions, note which edition you save and why—usually it is best to save the first edition. If you are using a text not available online or in PDF, explain how you will obtain the text, which edition you will be using, and why you have chosen that edition. Use MLA documentation style at all times.
- Secure and retain all front and back matter for your text (title pages, dedications, prefaces, lists of subscribers, frontispieces, etc.). Using Adobe Reader, make a SINGLE PDF from all of the pieces of your text from the digital database
By 9/3/10 11:59 p.m. submit your Artifact Inventory Sheet (assignment listed on separate handout) to me.
Name the file “Yourlast nameInventory.doc” and send it as a Word file. For example, my file would be LoganInventory.doc.
Food for thought/discussion: What kinds of information can you infer about representations of women in early American literature from the publication history and front matter (including illustrations, type, prefaces and dedications, subscriber lists, etc.)? What do you expect to find in this text?
Step 2. Get your hands dirty: Living with what you find
- Using MLA database at UCF Library, search for articles about your selected text. Compile a preliminary bibliography.
- Read your selected text.
- Ensure that you like your selected text enough to continue working with it. If not, start over.
- Make your blog space your own. If your chosen text were a room, how would it be decorated? If it were a blog, how would it present itself? Make rhetorical choices about your blog and how you will present your text (and your academic self) to others.
9/7/10. Logan posts list of texts selected by LIT 6216 scholars in Webcourses. Browse list to determine if others are working texts that raise issues similar to yours. www.Blogger.com.
By 9/10/10, create and name your blog, and invite me as an author. Please do not name your blog “research blog.” If you would like everyone in the class to access your blog, the easiest thing to do is to make it public. However, some people like to protect their work from public eyes. In that case, please follow the privacy instructions at Blogger so that your blog is limited to selected readers and/or authors, whom you will have to invite. It would be best if everyone in the class could follow each other’s blogs. Send your link to me, and I will create links in the Web Links portion of Webcourses for all.
Food for thought/discussion: How and why did you make decisions about your blog appearance? What ambitions do you have for it? What reservations? What is at stake in fashioning oneself as a public intellectual in this way? What possible connections can we make between the study of early American literature and contemporary culture? Check out Cathy Davidson’s blog (and what she has to say about public intellectuals, literature, and the information age) at:
http://trinity3.aas.duke.edu/blogs/cathy-davidson/syllabus-traditional-american-literature-course-21st-century
Scholarly women talk about blogging at:
Step 3. Site excavation: Reading and Researching
- Using your reading so far, course notes, and other materials as appropriate, list key issues raised by your selected text that are relevant to the study of representations of unruly women in early American literature. These issues could include genre, sub-genre (i.e. novel, short story, memoir; gothic, seduction tale, biography, etc.), subject matter (character, education, religion, crime, history, curiosity, etc.), and apparent readership.
- Make a list of “keywords” for MLA and other database searches. Make your list as specific as possible, noting page numbers and specific language, metaphors, patterns, etc. (It might be helpful to consult the National Union Catalog Subject Heading list at the UCF Library reference desk.)
9/17/10 Using the format listed on the “Rhetorical Analysis” handout (under Research Projects), post your Rhetorical Analysis and list of “key issues” to Blogger and send a copy to me (in “doc” file for feedback).
Food for thought/discussion: How has your reading and/or research changed and/or deepened your view of the text? About what are you most excited (or somewhat interested in)? How do your analyses and hunches mesh with those of your colleagues? What critical theories will best inform your understanding of the text? What historical or cultural information do you need to know? What aspects of the text are still opaque?
Step 4. Dig deeper. Develop a preliminary bibliography.
- Using the MLA International Bibliography and America: History and Life databases at the UCF Library, develop a preliminary bibliography of secondary scholarly sources in the discipline of literature (with contextual sources from historians). Use MLA documentation style.
- Include keywords and searches used to develop this bibliography. Consult a reference librarian if you encounter difficulties.
9/24: Submit your preliminary bibliography to me as a “doc” file.
Food for thought/discussion: How has this step in the process changed and/or deepened your sense of where you want to take this project? What strategies worked and/or failed? For what aspects of this process will you need help, and about what are you most confident?
Step 5. Study the evidence.
- From your preliminary bibliography, read and take careful notes on two scholarly sources (1 article or 1 chapter in a book = 1 source). I prefer the Cornell method of note-taking, and CalTech lists several methods:
http://sas.calpoly.edu/asc/ssl/notetaking.systems.tml
- Write an abstract of one of the articles you read. Follow the instructions for writing abstracts at the abstracts assignment sheet in Webcourses (under Research Project button).
- Don’t stop at two articles. Immerse yourself! Become an expert on your text! (Keep notes on all articles you read for your Annotated Bibliography.)
By 10/15/10: Submit your abstract to me (Word doc).
Post your abstract at your blog and tag colleagues in our class who may find this article relevant to their projects.
Food for thought/discussion: How did the scholars you read “hail” the ongoing conversation in the discipline about the topic? What strategies will you use to demonstrate your knowledge of the scholarship when you bring your topic to the table? What did you learn about making arguments from this essay? about scholarly writing in the discipline? about your own reading practices?
- Write your proposal. People are wondering what you’ve been doing down there in that hole, where all of their taxpayer dollars are going, why your work doesn’t seem to be what “normal” people do, etc. It’s time to announce your hypothesis. Write a brief (250-500 word) description of the paper you will present at our final conference. Your paper proposal (also sometimes called an abstract) should convey your credibility, offer original insight, and gesture toward the larger conference theme.
10/22/10: Submit your proposal to me in a “doc” file.
Food for thought/discussion: The following brainstorming questions may unleash inspiration.
My paper/project is about the following topic:
- The aspects of the text and this course I find most compelling are ____.
- Some critics who have talked about this issue (or a similar one) are:
- These critics discuss the following aspects of my topic:
- My essay will argue that ____.
- The critics I’ve read will be important to my thesis because_____.
- However, my work is different from theirs in that I ___.
- The weirdest/coolest/most confusing thing about this novel is _____.
- In order to prove my thesis I will have to explain/prove _____.
- Other people will want to hear about my project because _____.
- I have no idea how I’m going to solve ________.
Post your proposal at your blog; read and comment on others' proposals. Begin thinking about what papers fit together for smaller panels.
Step 7. Test your hypothesis. Dig, study the evidence, dig, study, dig.
- Assemble your argument: primary source evidence, secondary source evidence.
- As you assemble your argument, blog about your process. Look at your colleagues’ blogs about their processes. Talk about your argument, assumptions, and evidence. Argue with each other as necessary. Point out holes in arguments. Ask questions. Use this collaboration to make your own work stronger.
- Decide on contextual documents and information. You may be aware of a series published by Broadview and Bedford that offer historical and critical contexts and information in addition to the primary text.
Logan will return proposals during the week of 10/25/10.
- Use your proposal to outline your draft.
- Use my comments on your proposal to rethink your argument and research as needed.
By 11/5/10 submit a list of contextual documents and information to me with explanations or rationale (See separate sheet). Post links or documents to your blog. Think about this assignment as creating an online space for understanding your text fully and as preparation for your Undergraduate Study Guide.
Watch the following YouTube videos for inspiration:
Step 8. Enough digging. Go back to the computer and draft.
- Write a rough draft, and post it to your blog.
- Read the rough drafts of all group members and comment on them. Use the Reader’s Report sheet at the “Research Project” button in Webcourses.
Post completed draft to your blog 11/19/10, 11:59 p.m. and to your manuscript circle.
Send a copy to me as a Word doc.
Using Manuscript Circles Discussion Topic in Webcourses, complete Reader’s Reports by; send copy of Reader’s Reports to individual authors by 11/30/10.
Food for Thought: What did you learn about writing by reading these papers? What will you incorporate into your own work as a result? What questions do you have about your own writing?
Step 9. Revise and revisit.
- Review readers’ reports and make changes.
- Proofread more than once to catch errors.
Submit completed essay as a Word doc to me for grading by 12/7/10 at 11:59 p.m.
Post your completed essay in Webcourses under the Discussion Topic for your panel.
Compile your annotated bibliography and submit by 12/7/10.
Prepare to present your work at conference on 12/7/10 from 7-9:50 p.m. using Conference Guidelines at the Research Project link in Webcourses.
- Read essays by conference presenters and prepare questions and responses.
- Assist with the organization of conference panels and preparation of program.
Appendix
Helpful links
University of Pennsylvania Call for Papers website:
http://cfp.english.upenn.edu/
http://cfp.english.upenn.edu/cfp.html
Society of Early Americanists:
http://www.societyofearlyamericanists.org/
SHARP (Society for the History of Authorship, Reading and Publishing): http://www.sharpweb.org/
Common-place (American history and culture):
http://www.common-place.org/
SSAWW (Society for the Study of American Women Authors):
http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/ssaww/index.html
The Library Company of Philadelphia:
www.librarycompany.org
American Antiquarian Society:
www.americanantiquarian.org
Project Gutenberg:
www.gutenberg.org
Legacy: A Journal of American Women Writers:
http://legacy.ucsd.edu/
Cathy N. Davidson, Revolution and the Word: The Rise of the Novel in America. Expanded edition. New York: Oxford UP, 2004.
On Women Writers
Carla Mulford et al., ed. American Women Prose Writers to 1820 (DLB 200) (Excellent introduction, available via Gale Literature Resource Center database)
- Jane Fenn Hoskens, The Life and Spiritual Sufferings of that Faithful Servant of Christ, Jane Hoskens, &c. (1771)
- Phillis Wheatley, Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773)
- Martha Ballard’s Diary (1785-1812) (unpublished diary of a midwife now available online)
- The Declaration & Confession of Esther Rodgers (1701); A Faithful Narrative of Elizabeth Wilson (1786); Life, Last Words, and Dying Confession of Rachel Wall (1789)
- Milcah Martha Moore’s Book (unpublished commonplace book now in a modern edition edited by Karin Wulf and Catherine Blecki)
- Herman Mann, The Female Review (1797)
- Tabitha Tenney, Female Quixotism (1801)
- Sally Sayward Barrell Keating Wood, Dorval; or the Speculator. A Novel, Founded on Recent Facts (1801)
- John Davis, Captain Smith and Princess Pocahontas (1805)
- Leonora Sansay, Laura (1809)
- Mrs. P.D. Manvill, Lucinda; or, the Mountain Mourner (1810)
- Rebecca Rush, Kelroy (1812)
- [Lucy Brewer], The Female Marine (1815)
- Nathaniel Coverly Jr., The Surprising Adventures of Almira Paul (1816)
- John Neal, Rachel Dyer (1828)
- Lydia Maria Child, Hobomok (1824)
- Mary Prince/Susanna Strickland, The History of Mary Prince: A West Indian Slave (1831)
- Rebecca Reed, Six Months in a Convent (1835)
- Maria Monk, Awful Disclosures of the Hotel Dieu Nunnery (1836)
- Eliza Buckminster, Naomi; or, Boston 200 Years Ago (1848)
- Lydia Maria Child, “Hilda Silfverling” (1845); “Elizabeth Wilson” (1845); “Rosenglory” (1846) (Each of these stories is based on an historical “fallen woman”; “Rosenglory” treats the 1844 case of Amelia Norman, and one could also use newspaper accounts, editorials, and trial transcripts as primary texts for the project.)
Shaw-Shoemaker = American bibliography, a preliminary checklist, 1801 to 1819 : Ralph R. Shaw and Richard H. Shoemaker : printers, publishers, and booksellers index, geographical index compiled by Frances P. Newton. Metuchen, N.J. : Scarecrow Press, 1983. Compiled by Ralph R. Shaw and Richard H. Shoemaker. New York : Scarecrow Press, 1958-1966.
The UCF Library has two copies in the reference section: Main Library Reference -- Z1215.S482.
“By default, your blog is completely public, and can be read by anyone on the internet. However, if you want to keep it private, you can do that, too. The setting for this is on the Settings | Permissions tab. Under the Blog Readers heading, you'll probably see ‘Anybody’ selected as the default. When you change this to ‘Only readers I choose,’ you'll get an Add Readers button. Click the Add Readers button and then enter the email address of a person to whom you want to grant access to your blog. To add multiple people, separate their addresses with commas. For each address entered, the Google Account associated with that address will be given access to view your blog. If an address is not associated with an account, that person will be sent an invitation email with a link allowing them do one of three things:
- Sign in to an existing account.
- Create a new account.
- View your blog as a guest (no account required).
In the first two cases, the reader will be given permission to view your blog whenever they are logged in to their Google Account. As a guest, they'll be able to continue viewing your blog through the link in the invitation email, but this will expire after two weeks. After that, they'll need a new invitation.
If you want to revoke someone's access to your blog, simply click the remove link next to his or her name in the Blog Readers list. You can also toggle back to the ‘Anybody’ option any time you decide to make the blog completely public again.
Note: If you publish your blog via FTP to your own server, the Blog Readers option will not be available. This is because Blogger has no control over who can access web pages on your server. However, you can contact your hosting provider to find out about any support they may offer for restricting access to your site.”
http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=42673&topic=12448
Your abstract should summarize and explain the scholar’s argument, including key points, in one page (single-spaced, 12 pt. font). Read the article carefully, at least twice. Write as concisely and yet as meaningfully as possible. List complete bibliographical citation at the top of your page.
Remembering the Levels of Analysis with which we work (see Levels of Analysis in Webcourses at “Assignments” button), use the following questions to guide your abstract:
What is the critic's project? (thesis, type of approach, major points and their larger implications); What does the critic notice or do? (How are arguments framed within an ongoing scholarly conversation? What counts as evidence? What issues are attended to and/or overlooked by such an approach?).
Your response: (Choose just one or two of these to guide your response. ) How has the essay added to your thinking? Which one or two points are most compelling and why? Characterize your view of the argument—is it successful, confusing, inadequate, illuminating? How useful an approach is this for your research project or for this course? For what other projects might this article be useful?
Paper proposals have a few jobs to do:
- establish the credibility of the writer and the project
- delineate the focus and scope of the project
- explain the method or approach and organization of the project
- suggest the importance of the project to a larger scholarly dialogue
- accomplish all of the above in 250-500 words
A map of a paper proposal
Title: Your title should invoke the theme of the conference and give a clear and exact sense of the scope of the paper. It should be concise, interesting, and mark the writer as a compelling thinker.
Paragraph 1:
Introduce the subject by contextualizing it in a broader scholarly dialogue, i.e. “While feminist theorists agree that the movement needs to include perspectives from a wide range of women from diverse social, economic, ethnic, and geographic backgrounds, they disagree about how such inclusion should proceed. For example, some critics, such as Trinh T. Minh-ha, emphasize the importance of identity politics to eradicating hierarchies within feminist practice, while others, such as Catherine McKinnon, argue that identity politics is splintering the movement into specialized “interest” groups that are ineffectual at fighting the root problem of women’s oppression across cultures.”
Explain exactly how your project intervenes in or adds to the scholarly dialogue. You have presented the problem or the terrain of the arguments and thinking, and now you must state where your project falls in relation to it. That is, the next sentence in might could read, “Both theoretical positions would be strengthened were they to consider identity not as a stable entity but as a fluid phenomenon that occurs along a continuum. In this paper, I will…”
Notice that this paragraph establishes you as a credible and interesting writer because you know the subject matter and have devised a new way of talking about it that asks new questions or puts different ideas on the table that people may not have thought of before.
Notice that this paragraph contains a purpose or thesis statement; it states explicitly what your project sets out to prove/demonstrate.
Paragraph 2 (and possibly 3):
Now that you have established what your project is and how it fits into a larger conversation (Imagine walking into a party where the discussion is already taking place, and you decide to add to the conversation.), you will explain how you will make your case. What kinds of evidence will you consider and in what order? What is the movement of your argument from Point A to B to C, etc.? What do you hope to accomplish and how? Be as concrete as possible about what data you will consider, what paradigms will be most useful, and give your readers a map of your completed project. (Imagine that the party is at your house, and you must give directions for the guests. In this instance, the party is your argument, and the directions signal the movement of it, guiding readers to our destination—understanding and concurring with your excellent thesis.)
Paragraph last:
Now that you have summarized your project, you must remind us of why it is so vital that we have no choice but to read your work and include it in our conference or anthology. What is at stake in thinking about your thesis in this way? So what? Why should we care? At this point, you’ll want to contextualize your argument in some larger issue facing your audience (in this case, feminist theorists). Is there a way that it affects each of us personally? Is it an important blueprint for change? Does it force us to rethink something that we might not think about? This is where you go out on a limb.
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