Clay Steinman                                                                      

Office: HU 301                                                                                                

Email: steinman@macalester.edu                                                       

HMCS 110

Texts and Power: Foundations of Cultural Studies

Spring 2009

TTh 10:10-11:40 a.m. OLRI 270

W 7:00 - 10:00 p.m. OLRI 270

 

            Catalog Description: This course introduces students to the intellectual roots and contemporary applications of cultural studies, including critical media studies, focusing on the theoretical bases for analyses of power and meaning in production, texts, and reception. It includes primary readings in anti-racist, feminist, modern, postmodern, and queer cultural and social theory, and compares them to traditional approaches to the humanities. Designed as preparation for intermediate and advanced work grounded in cultural studies, the course is writing intensive, with special emphasis on developing skills in critical thinking and scholarly argumentation and documentation. Completion of or enrollment in HMCS 110 is the prerequisite for majoring in Humanities and Media and Cultural Studies. Every semester. (4 credits)

 

            Consumer Alert:

• This course has no prerequisites, and I am careful to assume in my assignments and in class lectures and discussions no prior knowledge in the area. (Indeed, I will cut off discussion of readings not assigned and of texts not familiar to the whole class.) The course should be accessible to anyone with an interest in contemporary cultural theory and its roots in critical race theory, feminism, Marxism, psychoanalysis, semiotics (the study of signs and meanings), poststructuralism (the study of human subjectivities as constructions of social forces), and queer theory. It is indeed a course in theory, and not a course in cultural analysis, although we will use examples from the culture at large. The course also should serve as preparation for many of the cultural studies courses offered across campus.
• As a foundations course, it covers what I imagine to will be mostly new ground for many of you. For that reason, I take it as my main job to help you develop an introductory understanding of the readings. That means most of the time will be spent explaining or discussing questions about the reading. How much time we will have to discuss the reading (as in, "What do you think about it?"), in groups or in the class as a whole, will depend on the volume and complexity of questions. I hope you'll talk about what you think--with your classmates, your friends, and with me in my office or in other meetings we might arrange--but providing an occasion for such reflection in class unfortunately cannot be a priority. This is especially true in a class of this size. Indeed, because I give first priority to answering questions, we may discuss some readings quite briefly.
• The class has no particular political line, and indeed covers a number of theorists with contradictory ideas--except that it is a course in critical cultural theory, so we will concentrate on generally unfamiliar arguments critical of the way things are. Some of you may well end up working inside the culture industry (I did, as a journalist for several years), and if you do I hope you will find what we learn to have been helpful. However, all of us live within the cultures of our world, and so the course is taught from perspectives of consumers and other residents of the planet, rather than those of industry executives or stockholders. That said, I hope this course (including Moodle; see below) will provide a space in which you will feel free to articulate your own ideas about and critiques of the reading, culture, and the world, as long as they are relevant to the topic under discussion and grounded in the assignments. I also welcome your comments and suggestions for change.

 

            Disability Accommodations: Reasonable accommodations will be provided for students with cognitive, learning, physical, psychological, or sensory disabilities. Please contact the MAX Center, which works with the Dean of Students Office to make academic accommodations for students at Macalester in line with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

           

            Grades/Tests/Papers: Most of your final grade will be based on your performance on one paper of 500 words (10 percent each), a rewrite of the first paper (10 percent), two one-hour in-class essay exams (15 percent each), and a term paper of 2,000-2,500 words, or 3,000-3,500 words if you choose to work with an other student (50 percent). The short paper is primarily designed for you to demonstrate your talents at paper organization and your knowledge of academic policies regarding documentation, discussed in the “Guidelines for Papers” below, as well as of the details of the Modern Language Association system used in this and subsequent courses. An excellent, detailed discussion of issues involving sources (when and how to use and credit them) can be found at http://www.dartmouth.edu/~sources/index.html. The MLA system is described in depth in Gibaldi but treated adequately in any comprehensive college writing handbook and on a number if Web sites, such as http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc. (I think it is easier to learn the style from a book than from a Web site, but this might be a generational preference.) The essay tests each will have one question of a general nature asking you to compare or apply and evaluate readings in the course. Makeup examinations will be given only in cases of documented medical or other emergency. The term paper will use the peer review system developed by the MAX Center (described in a handout distributed in October). All written assignments must be completed to pass the course. A late paper will be penalized one letter grade for each class day or portion thereof late (for example, a “B” paper submitted one class late would receive a “C”). I urge you to call on me for help with your papers and to work with other students, as long as you do not plagiarize their ideas. Plagiarism will be handled according to the Macalester policy on academic integrity at http://www.macalester.edu/deanofstudents/deanofstudents/handbook/handbook05.pdf. Also see Booth, Colomb, and Williams, 201-204 and http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_plagiar.html. For help with quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing, see http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/print/research/r_quotprsum.html. See the “Guidelines for Papers” below for grading standards and other writing requirements. Additional help is available at the MAX Center. From the MAX Center:

 

An excellent resource is the center’s Writing at Macalester College: A Handbook for First Year Students, which can be found at http://www.macalester.edu/max/writinghandbook/index.html. As the introductory course for Humanities and Media and Cultural Studies, this course is responsible for preparing you to write in subsequent courses at the high level and with the knowledge of appropriate forms we expect of our graduates.

            Class Participation: Because of the size of this class, individual opportunities for participation unfortunately must be limited, and everyone needs to help by refraining from taking more than their share of time. I expect you to attend every class meeting, to be on time, and to participate when appropriate. No one will evaluate the positions you take in class, but interrupting and speaking off-topic or without having done the reading are not welcome. Feel free to ask questions and to disagree, but please remember that it is vital that our classroom be a safe and supportive space for participation and listening, especially when we talk about issues that affect people personally, such as gender, race, and sexualities. Extraordinarily helpful class participation will be rewarded as will exemplary participation on Moodle (see “Marginal Notes” below). Unprepared participation, more than three unexcused absences, unexcused late arrivals (they count similarly), or repeated failure to bring annotated readings with you (see “Marginal Notes” below) may affect your grade by up to a full letter.

            Marginal Notes: Instead of using reading reports, this semester we use what John C. Bean calls the “marginal notes approach” in Engaging Ideas: The Professor’s Guide to Integrating Writing, Critical Thinking, and Active Learning in the Classroom (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2001, 143-144). Here’s how it works:

·       You are required to bring a copy of every reading to class with your own marginal notes, which I may ask to see. If you are using a borrowed book or do not want to make marginal notes on a book you plan to resell, you can use notebook paper.

·       Bean: “Every time you feel the urge to highlight or underline something write out why you wanted to underline it in the margins. Why is that passage important? Is it a major new point in the argument? A significant piece of support? A summary of the opposition? A particularly strong or particularly weak point?” (143)

·       Bean: “Use the margins to summarize the text, ask questions, give assent, protest vehemently.” (143)

·       As Bean recommends, I will “occasionally start class discussions by asking a student to read . . . marginal notations next to a certain passage.” (143-144)

·       Your notes should help you with the paper and the open-book essay exams as well as with class participation.

Learning new social and cultural theory resembles learning a new language; you have to practice thinking and talking and writing about the ideas to become fluent in them—and I will grade your writing based on its fluency. I recommend that you form reading groups of 2-4 people to discuss the assignments; I would be happy to meet with you by invitation. I am particularly interested in participating in discussions of readings in Leitch not assigned. If, at the end of a discussion of an assigned reading, you still have a question about it, use Moodle (works best with Firefox), which can serve as a discussion forum for the class: the URL is http://moodle.macalester.edu. You can be confident that if you have a lingering question, others in the class probably will as well. Contributions to our Moodle forum can only help your grade. I will also use Moodle/email for announcements about the course and revisions of the syllabus. I check my email daily during the term, and I expect you will as well.

 

            Readings: Except where noted, readings have been ordered for 2-hour library reserve (the 2-hour reserve is designed for copying, not for reading) or have been placed on e-reserve (noted in the syllabus). You can save money by copying materials on reserve, and save even more by sharing copies. In that sense, although many books will be used in this course, none is a required purchase. You are responsible for knowing the meaning of all words in the readings, looking them up when appropriate (a pocket dictionary and sometimes a college dictionary may not be adequate; see a reference librarian for help locating other sources), and for being able to identify the authors of the concepts in the reading. Let me know if you find any of the readings or class discussions unclear—or if you cannot find definitions for terms in the reading. Except where noted, the following have been ordered for sale at the textbook center in Lampert. In general, pages not assigned in books below are recommended.

 

Abbas, Akbar, and John Nguyet Erni. Internationalizing Cultural Studies: An Anthology. Malden,

            MA: Blackwell, 2005. Two essays assigned; not ordered for sale.

Balkin, J. M. Cultural Software: A Theory of Ideology. New Haven: Yale UP, 1998. With the

permission the publisher, available for free download under a Creative Commons Noncommercial Sharealike license from Yale University Press, at http://www.balkin.com/.

Bennett, Tony, et al. New Keywords: A Revised Vocabulary of Culture and Society. Malden, MA:

Blackwell, 2005. About half of this book will be assigned; entire book useful in college cultural studies courses.

Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams. The Craft of Research. Chicago

Gudies to Writing, Editing, and Publishing. 2^nd ed. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2003. Useful throughout college; not on reserve. As the book recommends, you should skim this early in the term and then use it as helpful when reading/writing. We will go over a few sections in class, but these are by no means the only valuable ones.

DuBois, W. E. B. The Souls of Black Folk [1903]. Dover Thrift Editions. New York: Dover, 1994.

            About half of the book assigned; not on reserve. Also available as an E-book.

During, Simon. The Cultural Studies Reader. 2^nd ed. London: Routledge, 1999. Articles assigned. Useful in cultural studies courses; not ordered for sale.

Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6^th ed. New York: Modern

Language Association, 2003. A reference book useful in college humanities courses; not on reserve but at the library reference desk.

Hall, Stuart, David Held, Don Hubert, and Kenneth Thompson, eds. Modernity: An Introduction to Modern Societies. Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1996. Two chapters assigned; not ordered for sale.

hooks, bell. Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics. Cambridge, MA: South End, 2000. Entire book assigned; not on reserve.

Leitch, Vincent, ed. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. New York: Norton, 2001. This will be our primary reader, although we will read about a sixth of this 2,600+-page book. Many of the remaining essays should be useful in other classes. I would be happy to do for-credit tutorials with students covering more of this book in subsequent semesters.

Lemert, Charles, ed. Social Theory: The Multicultural and Classic Readings. 3^rd ed. Boulder: Westview, 2004. Two selections assigned; not ordered for sale.

Seidman, Steven, and Jeffrey C. Alexander, eds. The New Social Theory Reader: Contemporary Debates. London: Routledge, 2001. One selection assigned; not ordered for sale.

Troutt, David Dante. After the Storm: Black Intellectuals Explore the Meaning of Hurricane Katrina. New York: New, 2006. Three selections assigned; not ordered for sale.

 

I expect that on average this four-credit course will require about twelve hours a week of work in and out of class, but weeks inevitably vary in their demands. You might want to read ahead or complete projects early to even out the course requirements, balance out your other classes, or explore areas of interest. Please let me know if a reserve reading is missing or an E-reserve copy is incomplete.

 

SCHEDULE

 

W        9/6       Upperclass validations.

                        Work due for Spring and Summer 2006 incompletes.

Th       9/7       Introductions.

                        For current background on Katrina, please read Katherine Stapp, “The Strongest

                                    Survivors,” at http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=34511, Inter Press

Service News Agency, 30 Aug. 2006, 4 Sept. 2006. (Sent via email. This is just one brief account to make sure everyone has a similar foundation; you are welcome to read and recommend other sources.)

                        Cheryl I. Harris and Devon W. Carbado, “Loot or Find: Fact or Frame?” and

Katheryn Russell-Brown, “While Visions of Deviance Danced in Their Heads,” Troutt, 87-123 (handouts).

                        Adolph Reed and Stephen Steinberg, "Liberal Bad Faith in the Wake of Hurricane

Katrina," at http://www.blackcommentator.com/182/182_cover_liberals_katrina.html, 4 May 2006.        

                        Genevieve Lloyd, “Reason,” Bennett, 298-300 (handout).

T         9/12     Bennett et al., “Introduction” and “Abbreviations,” xviii-xxvi, xv-xvi.

                        Deductive/Inductive Arguments.

                        Michael Bérubé, “Empirical,” Bennett, 104-105.

                        Steven Shapin, “Science,” Bennett, 317-319.

                        Steven Rose, “Behavior,” Bennett, 11-13.                

                        Lloyd, “Knowledge,” Bennett, 195-197.

                        John Frow, “Theory,” Bennett, 347-349.

                        Administrative/Critical Research.

Th       9/14     Humanities/Cultural Studies I.

                        Maureen McNeil, “Human,” Bennett, 164-167.                    

                        Bennett, “Culture,” 63-69.

                        Balkin, “Bricolage and the Construction of Cultural Software,” 23-41, 297-299.

                        Bhikhu Parekh, “Individual,” Bennett, 183-184.

F          9/15     Last day to register or validate.

T         9/19     Humanities/Cultural Studies II

                        Gregor McLennan, “Power,” Bennett, 274-278.

                        David Morley, “Mass,” Bennett, 207-209.

                        Instrumental//Emancipatory/Intersubjective Knowledge.

                        Ann Freadman, “Sign,” Bennett, 321-324.

                        W. J. T. Mitchell, “Aesthetics,” Bennett, 1-3.

                        Mitchell, “Art,” Bennett, 6-8.

                        Guy Hawkins, “Taste,” Bennett, 340-342.

                        Terry Threadgold, “Text,” Bennett, 345-347.

                        Mitchell, “Canon,” Bennett, 20-22.

                        Morley, “Audience,” Bennett, 8-10.  

Th       9/21     Humanities/Cultural Studies III

                        Leitch, “Introduction to Theory and Criticism,” 1-28.                                  

                        Miller, “What It Is and What It Isn’t: Introducing Cultural Studies,” 1-19 (e-

                                    reserve).

F          9/22     Last day to add a class, drop a class (no notation), and designate grading options.

T         9/26     Leitch, “Plato,” and Plato, from The Republic, Book VII and Book X [ca. 375

                                    B.C.E.], Leitch, 33-37, 64-80.           

                        J. K. Gibson-Graham, “Economy,” Bennett, 94-97.

                        John Clarke, “Market,” Bennett, 205-207.

                        Meaghan Morris and Naoki Sakai, “Modern,” Bennett, 219-224.

                        John Storey, “Postmodernism,” Bennett, 269-272.

                        Paper 1 assigned.

Th       9/28     Peter Hamilton, “The Enlightenment and the Birth of Social Science,” Hall, Held,

                                    Hubert, and Thompson, 19-54 (e-reserve).

                        Booth, Colomb, and Williams, “Prologue: Starting a Research Project,” 3-8. You

are responsible for beginning to read and gradually completing Booth, Colomb, and Williams on your own by 10/15, discussing questions with me via email, Moodle, or in office hours or by appointment.

T         10/3     Paper 1 draft due.

                        Discussion of documentation and the MLA Style and your draft. Come prepared by

                                    having studied Gibaldi or another style manual that you bring with you.

                        Clarke, “Capitalism,” Bennett, 22-26.

                        Clarke, “Class,” Bennett, 39-42.

                        Mitchell Dean, “Society,” Bennett, 326-329.

                        Bill Schwarz, “Conservatism,” Bennett, 54-57.

                        Parekh, “Liberalism,” Bennett, 198-200.                  

                        Richard Johnson, “Socialism,” Bennett, 324-326.

Th       10/5     Paper 1 due.

                        Bérubé, “Materialism,” 209-211.

                        Vivienne Brown, “The Emergence of the Economy,” Hall, Held, Hubert, and

                                    Thompson, 90-121 (e-reserve).

                        Norma Schulman, “Conditions of their Own Making: An Intellectual History of the

Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies at the University of Birmingham,” Canadian Journal of Communications 18.1 (1993): 51-73. Online as: http://info.wlu.ca/~wwwpress/jrls/cjc/BackIssues/18.1/schulman.html. 4 Sept. 2006.     

T         10/10   Leitch, “Immanuel Kant,” and Kant, from The Critique of Judgment [1790], Leitch,

                                    499-519.                     

                        Leitch, “Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel,” and Hegel, from Phenomenology of Spirit [1807], and from Lectures on Fine Art [1835-38], Leitch, 626-644.

                        Leitch, “Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels” and Marx, from Economic and Philosophic

                                    Manuscripts of 1844, Leitch, 759-767.

                        Avery F. Gordon, “Utopia,” Bennett, 362-364.

Th       10/12   Marx and Engels, from The German Ideology [1845-46] and from The Communist

Manifesto [1848], Leitch, 767-773.

                        Marx, From Grundrisse [1857-58], from the Preface to A Contribution to the

                                    Critique of Political Economy [1859], from Capital, Vol. 1 [1867], Leitch,                                                773-787.

                        Engels, Letter from Friedrich Engels to Joseph Bloch [1890], Leitch, 787-788.    

                        Frow, “Commodity,” Bennett, 45-47.

                        Mitchell, “Value,” Bennett, 365-367.

                        Studying for and writing essay exams.

T         10/17   Test 1 (on material through 10/12).

                        Leitch, “Matthew Arnold,” and Arnold, “The Function of Criticism at the Present

                                    Time” [1864] and from Culture and Anarchy [1867, 1882], Leitch, 802-

                                    832.

Th       10/19   Leitch, “Pierre Bourdieu,” and Bourdieu, from Distinction [1979], Leitch, 1806-

                                    1814.

                        Lemert, “Max Weber,” and Weber, “The Spirit of Capitalism and the Iron Cage”

                                    [1905], “The Bureaucratic Machine” [1909-1920], “What is Politics?”

[1918], and “The Types of Legitimate Domination” [1909-1920], 99-115 (e-reserve).     

                        Leitch, “Antonio Gramsci,” and Gramsci, “The Formation of Intellectuals” (1929-

                                    33), Leitch, 1135-1143.

                        Booth, Colomb, and Williams, “From Topics to Questions,” “From Questions to

                                    Problems,” “From Problems to Sources,” and “Making Good Arguments,”

                                    43-49, 68-71, 76-85, 114-119.

T         10/24   Lawrence Grossberg, “Ideology,” Bennett, 175-178.

                        Leitch, “Ferdinand de Saussure,” and Saussure, from Course in General Linguistics

                                    [1906-1913], Leitch, 956-977.

                        Karim Murji, “Ethnicity,” Bennett, 112-114.

                        Murji, “Race,” Bennett, 290-296.

                        Ann Curthoys, “Gender,” Bennett, 140-142.

                        Jeffrey Weeks, “Sexuality,” Bennett, 319-321.

                        Kevin Robins, “Identity,” Bennett, 172-175.

W        10/25   Mid-term grades due.

Th       10/26-Su 10/29 Fall break.

Week of 10/30-11/3 Evening pizza showing and discussion of Ethnic Notions TBA (1986, USA,

                                    Marlon Riggs).

T         10/31   Booth, Colomb, and Williams, “The Pitfall to Avoid at All Costs: Plagiarism,”

                                    201-204.

                        Leitch, “Stuart Hall,” 1895-1898.

                        Morley, “Communication,” Bennett, 47-50.

                        George Yúdice, “Community,” Bennett, 51-54.

                        Stuart Hall, “Encoding/Decoding” [1980], During, 507-517 (e-reserve).

                        Hall, “Cultural Studies and Its Theoretical Legacies” [1990/1992], Leitch, 1898-

                                    1910.

Th       11/2     Leitch, “Sigmund Freud,” and Freud, From The Interpretation of Dreams [1900,

                                    1929] and “The Uncanny” [1919], Leitch, 913-952.

                        Freud, “Fetishism” [1927], Leitch, 952-956.

                        Feminist critiques of Freud.     

                        Weeks, “Fetish,” Bennett, 130-132.

                        Jacqueline Rose, “Unconscious,” Bennett, 359-362.

                        Elspeth Probyn, “Desire,” Bennett, 76-78.

                        Term Paper discussed.

F          11/3     Last day to withdraw from a class.

T         11/7     Leitch, “Jacques Lacan,” 1278-1285.             

                        Lacan, “The Mirror Stage as Formative of the Function of the I as Revealed in

                                    Psychoanalytic Experience” [1949], Leitch, 1285-1290.      

                        Leitch, “Michel Foucault,” 1615-1622.

Th       11/9     Booth, Colomb, and Williams, “Claims,” “Acknowledgements and Responses,”

                                    and “Planning and Drafting,” 129-134, 152-159, 196-200.

                        Bennett, “Discourse,” 91-93.

                        Foucault, from The History of Sexuality, Vol. 1, An Introduction: Part Two: “The

                                    Repressive Hypothesis” [1976], Leitch, 1648-1666.

                        Maureen McNeil, “Body,” Bennett, 15-17.Candace Ward, Note, DuBois, iii.

                        DuBois, “The Forethought,” v-vi.

M         11/13-F 12/1 Spring 2007 registration.

T         11/14   One paragraph term paper summary due in class.

                        DuBois, “Of Our Spiritual Strivings,” “Of the Dawn of Freedom,” and “Of the

                                    Meaning of Progress,” 1-24, 37-45.

                        Michael Omi and Howard Winant, “Racial Formation” [1994], Seidman and

                                    Alexander, 371-382 (e-reserve).

Th       11/16   Curthoys, “Feminism,” Bennett, 128-130.

                        Leitch, “bell hooks,” 2475-2477.

                        hooks.

T         11/21   Leitch, “Dick Hebdige,” and Hebdige, from Subculture:The Meaning of Style

                                    [1979], Leitch, 2445-2457.

                        Joanne Finkelstein, “Fashion,” Bennett, 126-128.

                        Johnson, “Radical,” Bennett, 296-297.

                        Nicholas Dirks, “Colonialism,” Bennett, 42-45.

                        Dirks, “Postcolonialism,” Bennett, 267-269.

                        Leitch, “Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak,” and Spivak, from A Critique of Postcolonial

                                    Reason: “Can the Subaltern Speak?” [1983], Leitch, 2197-2208.

Th       11/23-Su 11/26 Thanksgiving break.   

T         11/28 Term paper draft due in class.

                        Sign-ups for MAX Center writing peer review groups and appointments.

                        Booth, Colomb, and Williams, “Revising Your Organization and Argument,” 208-

                                    218.

                        Leitch, “Jacques Derrida,” and Derrida, from Of Grammatology [1967], 1815-1830.                              Foucault, “What Is an Author?” [1969], Leitch, 1622-1636.

                        Leitch, “Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari,” 1593-1697.

Th       11/30   Deleuze and Guattari, excerpts from Kafka: Toward a Minor Literature [1975] and A

                                    Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia [1980], Leitch, 1598-

                                    1609.

                        Weeks, “Gay and Lesbian,” Bennett, 138-140.

                        Probyn, “Queer,” Bennett, 287-289.

                        Leitch, “Judith Butler,” 2485-2488.   

F          12/1     January independent/internship registrations due.

T         12/5     Test 2 (on material through 11/30).

                        Elspeth Probyn, “Desire,” Bennett, 76-78.

                        Morley, “Media,” Bennett, 211-214.

Th       12/7     Butler, from Gender Trouble [1990], Leitch, 2488-2501.

                        Leitch, “Laura Mulvey,” and Mulvey, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”

                                    [1973], Leitch, 2179-2192.               

                        Analysis of a clip from a recent Hollywood film.

T         12/12   Nicholas Garnham, “Political Economy and Cultural Studies” [1995], During, 492-

                                    503.

                        Go to the “Resources” section of www.freepress.net and download materials relevant

                                    to political economy of media there or at linked sites and bring them to class.

                        Hall, “Cultural Studies and Its Theoretical Legacies” [1990], Leitch, 1898-1910.

                        Leitch, “Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno,” and Horkheimer and Adorno,

                                    from Dialectic of Enlightenment: “The Culture Industry as Mass Deception,”

            [1947], Leitch, 1220-1240.

Th       12/14   Abbas and Erni, “General Introduction,” 1-13 (e-reserve).

                        Robert Stam and Ella Shohat, “De-Eurocentricizing Cultural Studies: Some

                                    Proposals,” Abbas and Erni, 481-498 (e-reserve).

                        Anthony Paul Farley, “The Station,” Troutt, 147-159 (e-reserve).

                        Conclusions/Evaluations.

W        12/20   Term paper due in Clay’s box in HU 301 by 4:30 p.m.

 

 

GUIDELINES FOR PAPERS

 

Papers must be double-spaced, stapled, punctuated in standard U.S. English, responsive to all aspects of the assignment, including word limits (please put a word count on the front page), and prepared according to MLA style in Gibaldi, using the MLA option of placing only one space after a period. Make sure that you document every reference, whether quotation or paraphrase, including page numbers whenever possible. Feel free to write in the first person. Support claims not common knowledge with evidence and conclusions with argument. Avoid hyperbolic words like “extremely.” In general, paraphrase rather than quote, unless the language to which you are referring is particularly distinctive; this gives you more control over the flow of the argument. Avoid internal ellipses (use paraphrases instead); these make the writing more difficult to read. Do not use dictionaries as sources unless they are scholarly or unless you are analyzing the dictionary itself. Take time to plan your papers, and to revise them. A major writing problem of Macalester students is wordiness; comb your paper for possibilities for cuts and condensations. Never submit a paper unless at least two other people (any two you choose) have read and have commented upon it and have signed the front page. You are responsible for saving a copy of your work file. Define all terms whose definitions are controversial or obscure. Unless a paper assignment tells you otherwise, you can assume your reader is an advanced Macalester student who has not taken this course. When discussing reception, avoid claiming without evidence how audiences have responded to any text, or that there is a universal spectator called “we” or “the viewer.” A paper may combine characteristics of different levels of work. In that case the grade will depend on the paper’s overall demonstration of knowledge of the material and of college writing skills. Rewritten papers will be evaluated in part on how well they improve in response to comments offered on the original, which must be attached. Please see me if you have questions about my comments, my standards, or any of your grades. Here are my grading standards:

            --An “NC” paper demonstrates that the writer has little, if any, understanding of the concepts of the course. Because of the writer’s lack of skill or concern, the work includes gross errors as well as a conspicuous lack of content. Documentation is negligible. The paper may also fail to address parts of the assignment.

            --A “D” paper demonstrates that the writer has only minimal understanding of the concepts of the course. Significant gaps in the writer’s comprehension indicate the need for more study. The paper shows the writer’s basic compositional skills are below satisfactory for college work. Documentation is unsatisfactory.

            --A “C” paper demonstrates that the writer has understood most of the concepts of the course, but needs to pay more attention to detail in reading or writing. Documentation is erratic.

            --A “B” paper demonstrates that the writer has understood the concepts of the course, has a sense of their complexity, and has applied them with some originality. The paper shows the writer can organize a coherent essay with few mechanical errors. The thesis statement is clear and is responsive to the assigned topic, and it is supported with strong, logical argumentation and use of evidence. The paper for the most part includes adequate documentation.

         --An “A” paper demonstrates that the writer has not only mastered the concepts of the course, but has applied them in an imaginative and incisive way. The paper shows a command of the language that allows the writer to express worthwhile ideas or perceptions clearly, effectively, in detail, and with virtually no mechanical errors. There is grace to the sentence structure, which is clear and varied throughout. Documentation is consistent. The “A” grade is reserved for exceptional papers; “A-” papers tend to be exceptional in part but marred by one or two problems.