Essay #2 sign-up sheet for conferences with David

Here are the times you signed up to meet with David this coming Wednesday (July 8) and Thursday (July 9):

Wednesday, July 8

• 7:00 pm – Athavi
• 7:25 – Erica
• 7:50 – Lauren
• 8:15 – René
• 8:40 – Kia
• 9:05 – Eric
• 9:30 – Jay

Thursday, July 9

• 7:00 pm – Alec
• 7:25 – Kham Thee
• 7:50 – Jessica
• 8:15 – Kristen
• 8:40 – Roberto
• 9:05 – Dan
• 9:30 – Samuel

Email from Larry: Meeting your Writing Fellows to discuss Essay 2 (7/6)

Your Writing Fellows will be available tonight on a first-come, first-serve basis. You’ll find them in the Rose Taylor Room in Kronshage.

(An earlier post: How to make the most of your Writing Fellow.)

How to cite a dictionary definition à la MLA

Hat tip to Mariana for the question!

Again the caveat: do not spend time formatting your essay according to MLA arcana when you could spend that time working over your analysis and argument. Analysis and argument are 90% of your essay grade; MLA formatting is 0%.

Parenthetical citation:

Jane’s image of Georgiana as “the cynosure of a ball-room” has a mocking undertone (Brontë 280). Brontë compares Georgiana’s intent to marry into money to the meaning of “cynosure” introduced into English in 1596 by Sir Francis Drake: the Pole-star and, figuratively, “Something that serves for guidance or direction” (“Cynosure,” defs. 1 and 2a).

Entry under Works Cited:

“Cynosure.” Defs. 1 and 2a. OED Online. Oxford University Press. 6 July 2008 <http://dictionary.oed.com&gt;.

(That, by the way, is the simplified format; perfectionists may turn to this PDF from SUNY to learn more rigorous formatting rules.)

Three quick usage rules:

1. Incorporate a definition into your essay only when that definition is unusual and interesting—as a general rule, give definitions only for meanings that are uncommon (example: the theological sense of disgrace) or that have gone out of use since Shakespeare’s time.
2. Use the definition to further your argument. If you take the space to spell out an unusual meaning of disgrace but don’t explain how that unusual definition betters our understanding of the sonnet, that space will be wasted.
3. Don’t begin an essay with a definition. Although this might give you a way to break the blank page, your reader is more interested in the argument of your essay than in the OED definition of “love.”

What is literary analysis?

The second essay asks you to develop a comparative analysis of two sonnets. What does that mean?

Analysis can be one of two things:

• Applying a general theory to a specific text (example: the feminist analysis of “Hills Like White Elephants” Larry discussed on Monday)
• Deriving a general theory from a specific text (example: Larry’s list of attitudes toward homosexuality in “The Bridegroom” helps uncover that the story also critiques American attitudes toward the same)

In the words of this week’s vocab quiz, analysis can be a priori or a posteriori. Your first essay was a priori—you applied Brooks’s rhetorical theory to a new text; your second essay must be a posteriori.

This means your essay should work like Larry’s list of details from “The Bridegroom.” Since you are not writing about a story, the details shouldn’t be about plot; instead, write two lists—one per sonnet—of the kinds of textual details we found in Sonnet 29:

• Metaphors (generally 2 per sonnet, sometimes 3; examples: money and salvation)
• Symbols (example: lark → Christ)
• Puns: words with double meanings (look for multiple meanings in the Oxford English Dictionary)

So, now you have two lists—one for each sonnet. What general theory should you derive from it?

(This is the hard part of Essay 2: make sure you are completely alone when you get to this stage, with no noise or other distractions.)

Ask yourself: what do these two sonnets have in common with each other that they don’t have in common with the other 152 sonnets?

They are likeliest to share one of these qualities:

• A theme (examples: love as salvation [Sonnet 29]; poetry as immortality [18]; clichés as lies [130])
• A plot (example: I’m depressed when I think about my life, then I think about you and perk right up)
• A word or image (examples: eyes, death, Will)

You know what these sonnets have in common; you have a list describing how these two sonnets approach this common idea in different ways.

Your general theory might look like this:

By associating A (the shared theme, plot, or image) with B and C (metaphors, puns, or symbols differentiating the sonnets) in Sonnets P and Q, Shakespeare slightly changes the meaning of A. This allows Shakespeare to attack cliché X, or to suggest Y about the role of poetry, or to comment Z about his cultural context.

(Please don’t use those actual words, but allow that framework to guide your thesis.)

How to quote and cite Shakespeare’s sonnets

These are not details that are important to your essay grade, with the possible exception of #7—please, please do not spend time fixing the way you quote Shakes when you could spend that time enriching the textual analysis in your essay.

So, 7 quick rules:

1. Use numerals to indicate sonnet numbers

I can’t read a sentence beginning “In Shakespeare’s sonnets numbered one hundred and thirty-five and one hundred and thirty-six…” without thinking that you’ve just wasted a line of text you could have used to identify the themes or images central to those sonnets.

Hence:

In Sonnets 1 through 18, the speaker uses rhetorical and dramatic techniques to try to persuade the fair youth to procreate.

2. Only capitalize sonnet when referring to a specific one

Such as: 

Scholars have suggested that Sonnets 71 and 72 best encapsulate the death and poetry theme that runs throughout Shakespeare’s sonnet sequence.

3. Replace line breaks with slashes (/)

Example:

In apparent opposition to the poetry-as-immortality theme, the speaker equates his name with his body: “My name be buried where my body is, / And live no more to shame nor me nor you” (72.11-12).

4. Preserve punctuation and capitalization

Exception 1: remove the punctuation mark from the end of your quotation so that you can fit it more neatly into your own sentence.

Exception 2: diacritical marks indicating enunciation (e.g. “believèd,” 141.12).

Exemplum:

The speaker suggests that earlier love poetry tended to praise people in parts: “in the blazon of sweet beauty’s best, / Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of brow”; the speaker distinguishes this praise from the more holistic beauty of his lover (106.5-7).

(By the way, the punctuation we see in our edition is not Shakespeare’s. Like spelling, punctuation in the 16th and 17th centuries was erratic. Compare Sonnet 129 as it appeared in 1609—page 133—with the version that appears in our book and note how modern editors have made free with commas, colons, and semicolons.)

5. Cite line numbers after quotations

See points 3, 4, and 6 for examples.

Observe:

• The citation is part of the sentence to which it refers, and is hence not separated from that sentence by a period: “…of his lover (106.5-7).”
• As the citation is the last item in the sentence, it is followed by a period. The period is exterior to the end parenthesis.
• Exception: if you quote 4 or more lines, format your citation as described in point 6 below. (The citation is not part of the sentence in that case.)
• When the sonnet number is not indicated by context, which is the case in points 3 and 4, that number goes before the line number thus: (106.5-7). 
• If the sonnet number had been indicated by context it would not have to be given, e.g. “Sonnet 106 ends with the phrase ‘tongues to praise’ (14).”
• You don’t have to write “line” or anything—when I see a number in parentheses after a verse quotation I assume that number refers to a line.

6. Quoting 4 lines or more? Don’t.

In a short essay you need all the space you can get.

Still, here’s the rule: quotations 4 lines or longer should be left-indented an inch; the right margin does not change, nor does the spacing. (That’s right: double-space block quotations.) E.g.:

Shakespeare exhibits his death fetish at the beginning of sonnet 71:

No longer mourn for me when I am dead

Than you shall hear the surly sullen bell

Give warning to the world that I am fled

From this vile world, with vilest worms to dwell. (1-4.)

7. Quote Shakespeare correctly

Because this essay asks you to look closely at the language of the sonnets, correct spelling and punctuation count enormously.

The characters in Shakespeare’s sonnets

• Call the narrator of the poem “the speaker” or “the lover.” The speaker is always male.
• Call the love object “the fair youth” (#1 through #126), “the dark lady” (#127 and after), or “the beloved” (all sonnets).
• In a few poems another poet appears. Call him “the rival poet.”

The challenges of Essay 2

Essay 2 might be the hardest in the class.

You will get your draft back from me, with comments, on Thursday. However, you might begin thinking about your revision right away.

It would not be a bad idea to structure Essay 2 in this way (each number refers to a paragraph):

1. What do the two sonnets you chose have in common? Why are they worth contrasting? (This is your introduction)
2. Close reading of Sonnet #1. What is its key metaphor? What is its key word? What are the double meanings of that word? (Think what we did with “disgrace” on Tuesday.) How do the metaphor, word, and multiple meanings convey the point of the sonnet?
3. Close reading of Sonnet #2. Same as previous.
4. What is the key difference to come out of your close readings? Why is that difference important to our reading of these two sonnets? Why is that difference important to our reading of all the sonnets? (This is your conclusion.)

That structure is not obligatory; however, using it will help many of you more fruitfully analyze the texts and argue for the value of comparing them.

Central to that structure is close reading. Your essay should focus on subtleties from these sonnets, such as:

• theme (reproduction as a way of preserving beauty; the disagreement of the eye and the heart; poetry as a balm to death)
• metaphor (finance, religion, art)
• structure (paradox → explication → turn [often signaled by “but” or “yet” in line 9] → resolution)
• language (shared keywords: not “eyes” or “heart,” but something rarer and more abstract, like “disgrace”)

The assignment asks you to look words up in Webster’s or in the OED Online. Look for words with unexpected or double meanings: what is Shakespeare hiding from you in his language?

How to make the most of your Writing Fellow

Writing Fellows are upper-level students from all majors who have written oodles of essays and have been extensively trained in academic writing and revision. I’ve met and worked with Fellows a bunch of times, and have been consistently awestruck by their insight and thoughtfulness. Read more about them and their awesomeness here.

Remember, always, that the onus for writerly excellence lies on you: no matter how awe-inspiring, your Fellow isn’t the one pushing you forward—s/he is only helping you learn how to push yourself.

Be prepared when you meet your Fellow. Super prepared.

1. Think about your writing beforehand. Reread your first draft and my comments. Reread the Brooks article. Reread the speech you are analyzing. Outline a possible second draft.
2. Take your writing and the material you are writing on. Draft 1 with my notes, your outline of your second draft, the Brooks piece, the Bush speech, your notes from yesterday’s discussion, maybe a printout of blog posts on the topic.
3. Concentrate on analysis and argument. Grammar is only 10% of your essay grade, after all, and Larry’s two books spell out the rules and expectations for grammar.
4. Ask to focus on two or three issues. Look at my notes at the end of your draft. What do I say are the big things you should look at? Focus on those. Suggestion: thesis. Ask your Fellow, “How can I make an argument that says something new—that isn’t just a cookie cutter repetition of what Brooks writes?” Another suggestion: analysis. Ask your Fellow, “How can I make my analysis in this paper deeper, more precise, more nuanced?”
5. Listen. These Fellows have been around the block: when they suggest there is a better way to approach a problem or phrase an idea, listen to them. Take notes.

What a strong essay looks like (part 1)

Jack and Adam suggested, quite wonderfully, that having an example of a strong essay to look at might help focus the revision process. I’m hoping to secure permission to share an essay written by one of my former ILS 121 students, but for now I can link to an extraordinary essay written by a student I taught in 2005.

This essay, “Creating Identity: Rosamond and the Looking Glass,” develops a focused bit of literary analysis. You don’t need to know anything about the novel Middlemarch, but follow the way the essayist first identifies a symbol—a symbol that reappears in an equally significant way early in Jane Eyre, as it happens— and then develops a discussion of this symbol into a sequence of increasingly nuanced insights into the text. (We did something similar, yesterday, in our analysis of the esplanade, the lorgnette, and the pet dog in the Chekhov story.)

The essayist’s focused analysis of textual evidence—symbol and language—is exactly like the work I would like you to do as you draft your second essay this weekend, but the essay has just as much to offer you as you revise your first essays: look, for example, at how the essay moves between quotation from the text and analysis of that text.

How to access the Oxford English Dictionary Online

The Oxford English Dictionary Online is a subscription service that the University pays for. If you are in one of the computer labs on campus, you can access the dictionary just by going to oed.com.

No matter where you are, you can log in via this link, which goes through the UW–Madison library proxy server; you will need your UserID and password to sign in. (I’ve added this link to the Resources on the sidebar to the right.)

Remember that the OED won’t really help you with word definitions for the vocabulary quizzes; it will be more useful to you if you want to do in-depth word analysis for—for example—your essay comparing two of Shakespeare’s sonnets.