ENL
424: Pop Goes Elitism*: Postmodern Discourses in the U.S.
Patchwork
Girl courtesy of Eastgate Systems Inc.
*
A pithy turn of phrase alas, not my own , but Prof.
T.V. Reed's of Washington State U.
Professor
Rosemary Weatherston
UD Mercy, Winter 2001
M/W/F 11:00-11:50
Briggs 25 |
Office hours: M/W/F 12:00-12:50
Office: Briggs 227
(313) 993-1083
rweatherston@hotmail.com |
Course Objectives:
"The Postmodern
reply to the Modern," novelist and semiotician Umberto Eco
has asserted, "consists of recognizing that the past, since
it cannot really be destroyed, because its destruction leads
to silence, must be revisited: but with irony, not innocently."
He continues,
I think of the postmodern
attitude as that of a man who loves a very cultivated woman and
who knows he cannot say to her, I love you madly, because he
knows that she knows (and she knows that he knows) that these
words have already been written by Barbara Cartland. Still, there
is a solution. He can say, "As Barbara Cartland would put
it, I love you madly." At this point, having avoided false
innocence, having said clearly that it is no longer possible
to speak innocently, he will nevertheless have said what he wants
to say to the woman: that he loves her, but he loves her in an
age of lost innocence. If the woman goes along with this, she
will have received a declaration of love all the same. Neither
of the two speakers will feel innocent, both will have accepted
the challenge of the past, of the already said, which cannot
be eliminated; both will consciously and with pleasure play the
game of irony...But both will have succeeded, once again, in
speaking of love. ("Postscript to The Name of the Rose,
67-8)
Confused? Well,
the whole idea of "postmodernism" can do that to you.
It is filled with complex ideas like ideology, irony, deconstruction,
metafiction, metanarratives, simulacrum, differánce, double-coding,
nihilism, and hyperreality--just to name a few. Moreover, the
term seems to be applied to everything from Marxist analyses
of late-post-capitalistic society to novels, Disneyland and Madonna.
In this class we will be teasing out some of the ideas and processes
that have come to define "the postmodern attitude."
We will accomplish this in two ways: first, we will carefully
read some of the seminal theoretical essays that define and govern
discussions of postmodernism in U.S. academia; second, we will
pair these often "high- falutin" essays with popular
novels, short stories, plays, films and hypertexts that illustrate,
repudiated and/or complicate the theories they embody. While
this course is not intended to be a comprehensive survey of postmodern
American literatures, it will provide an introduction to the
conflicting ideas, processes and cultural products that define
the postmodern American landscape.
Required Texts:
Postmodernism
for Beginners,
James Powell, Joe Lee. Writers and Readers (December 1998)
A Postmodern Reader. Joseph Natoli, Linda Hutcheon, eds.
State Univ of New York Pr (July 1993)
City of Glass (The New York Trilogy, Vol 1). Paul Auster.
Penguin USA; Reprint edition (March 1987)
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Philip K. Dick. Del
Rey; Reissue edition (June 1996)
Neuromancer. William Gibson. Ace books (re-issue edition,
July 2000)
La Mollie and the King of Tears. Arturo Islas. U of New
Mexico Press (July 1996)
Patchwork Girl by Mary Shelley and herself. Shelly Jackson
(hypertext, for Windows/pc). Eastgate Systems, Inc. (http://www.eastgate.com/catalog/Patchwork.html)
A Small Place. Jamaica Kincaid. Farrar Straus & Giroux
(April 2000)
Blade Runner. Dir. Ridley Scott. (1982) (video)
Bamboozled. Dir Damon Wayans. (2000) (video)
(Assorted other handouts and web sites)
Recommended But
Not Required Texts:
Paul Auster's
City of Glass: A Graphic Mystery. Paul Auster, Art Spiegelman, Bob Callahan
(Ed.) (August 1994)
Frankenstein. Mary Shelley, Walter James Miller (Foreword),
Harold Bloom (Afterword). Signet. Reissue edition. (August, 2000)
Postmodern Literature Links
Norton's Postmodern Fiction Time line
Voice of the Shuttle's Guide to Links on
Authors, Works, and Projects of Contemporary American Fiction
Links to Postmodern Authors compiled by Prof. T.V. Reed (reedtv@wsu.edu),
Washington State University
Postmodernism
Is Fiction: A Site Devoted
to Contemporary Writers
Mark/Space Postmodern Library Alphabetical bibliography of many postmodern
authors.
Teaching Postmodern Fiction Without Being
Sure: That the Genre Exists
by Michael Berube
Postmodern Literary Genres
UC Berkeley's Post WWII American Literature
and Culture Database Home page
"Orchestrating Reception: The Hierarchy
of Readers in Post-modern American Fiction" by John Unsworth
Contemporary American Literature This web page contains links to web sites
for the time period encompassing the late twentieth century in
American Literature.The page is divided into two sections: General
Resources and Authors and their Works. Within the category of
authors and their works, you will find an alphabetical listing
of the authors; listed under the authors' names you will find
web pages devoted to the individual authors (author pages), online
texts, and criticism and reviews when available.
The Fiction of Postmodern America: Multicultural
& Intercultural Perspectives
This site is associated with "English/American Studies 514:
Seminar in American Literature" at Washington State University,
taught by professor T.V. Reed (reedtv@wsu.edu)
Mark/Space
Postmodern Library - Alphabetical bibliography of many postmodern
authors. With extended information about Hakim Bey, Guy Debord,
Frederic Jameson and Jean-François Lyotard.
Cyberspace
and/or Science Fiction Links
The Visual Structuring of Hypertext Narratives
by Raine Koskimaa
Postmodern Theory and Culture Links
A Dictionary of Postmodern Terms A growing dictionary of terms useful in
reading postmodern works. The dictionary is maintained for a
listserv for Postmodern Therapies
Central ideas/ terminology of Postmodernism
Panic
Encyclopedia - The online
edition of a book by Arthur Kroker, Marilouise Kroker, and David
Cook. Postmodern ideas in alphabetical order.
Postmodernism,
by Prof. Mary Klages, U of Colorado
Towards a Moderate Postmodernism - A sincere and thorough attempt to reshape
postmodernism.
Defining Postmodernism
- Postmodernism seen as the reversal of modernist individuality,
by James Morley.
Post Modernism or post-Post Modernism? A very cool site with lots o' links by
Jon Mattox
Advertising and the Invention of Postmodernity" America isn't a postmodern society. It
just plays one on television. This essay takes a kind of Marxist
slant on the forms of alienation inherent in an image-based society.
Prof. George P.
Landow's (of Brown University) extensive Hypertext,
Cyberspace and Critical Theory site. Besides being very cool, it contains
extensive links on hypertext theory, the
body, cyberspace,
cyborgs,
digital
art, anime, etc. A
collection of more than 7,000 interlinked materials.
Disney and the Imagineering of Histories by Scott Schaffer
"American
Theme Parks and the Landscapes of Mass Culture" by Steve Mills
"Nostalgia's
Knocking at the New Urbanist Door: Disney and Celebration" by D.K. Peterson
"Treatise on Disney" Wickedly funny Pomo Poem
Mounds o' Disney Articles available online
Transparency
-- "A site that tries to make things clear." Very smart
stuff on popular culture, postmodern criticism and analyses,
as well as a site
on Simulation and Postmodern Society from which the following
Disney essays are taken:
"Disney's
Distorted Mirror" This is a recent and detailed pair
of essays showing how artificial landscapes manipulate visitors.
"Kilimanjaro
Safaris as a Journey Into the Self" This essay provides
a more detailed description of the elements of story-based simulations
in an examination of one of the main attractions at Disney's
Animal Kingdom
"Disney
World: Cities of Simulation as Postmodern Utopias" Like
much of popular culture, Disney promises to let us escape the
limits of everyday life into a fictional realm of endless happiness
in which time and space no longer constrain us. It lets us do
now, in simulated form, what we hope to eventually be able to
do in reality, with technology. In so doing, it provides a kind
of showcase for "postmodernism." But the promise of
freedom and happiness it offers is mere illusion.
"Narcissus
and Necessity: Why Are We Creating Virtual Realities?"
Virtual realities are a place where our narcissism meets metaphysics,
a place where we design fictional worlds modeled after ourselves.
But, as we do so, we are beginning to fear that the boundary
between the world of fact and fiction is breaking down.
Author / Text Links
Paul Auster (b. 1947)
Kenneth Kreutzer's
Biography of Auster
Part 1: The Apprentice Years (1947-1974)
Part
2: The Poetry Years (1974-1980)
Part
3: The Prose Years (1980-1990)
Part
4: The Film Years (1990-present)
October 21, 1996
Stephen
Capen interview with Paul Auster, on The Futurist Radio Hour in
San Francisco
American Literature on the Web's collection of Auster links:
General Resources
Paul
Auster and the Crisis of the Individual (Carl-Carsten Springer,
Univ. of Hamburg)
A
List of Interviews with Paul Auster (Carl-Carsten Springer, Univ.
of Hamburg)
Paul
Auster: A Brief Biography (Kenneth Kreutzer)
THE OTHER PAUL AUSTER
An
Interview with Paul Auster (October 21, 1996)
Paul
Auster on RealAudio (SUNY, Buffalo)
News and Reviews From the Archives
of The New York Times
Reviews
of Paul Auster's Earlier Books
Articles About Paul
Auster
Jim
Shepard Reviews 'Timbuktu' (June 20, 1999)
First
Chapter: 'Timbuktu'
(Audio) Paul
Auster Interviewed by Bill Goldstein (May 5, 1999)
REVIEWS OF PAUL AUSTER'S
EARLIER BOOKS:
'The
Invention of Solitude,' reviewed by W. S. Merwin (1983)
'The
Random House Book of Twentieth-Century French Poetry,' edited
by Paul Auster. reviewed by Peter Brooks (1983)
'City
of Glass: The New York Trilogy. Volume One' (1985)
'Ghosts:
The New York Trilogy. Volume Two.' (1986)
'The
Locked Room: The New York Trilogy. Volume Three.' (1987)
'In
the Country of Last Things,' reviewed by Padgett Powell (1987)
'Moon
Palace' (1989)
'The
Music of Chance' (1990)
'Leviathan'
(1992)
'Mr.
Vertigo' (1994)
ARTICLES ABOUT PAUL
AUSTER:
Case
of the Brooklyn Symbolist (August
30, 1992)
Janet
Maslin Reviews 'Smoke' (June
9, 1995)
Chance
of a Lifetime (October
5, 1995)
Where
There's Smoke: a Semi-Spontaneous Semi-Sequel (October 8, 1995)
Janet
Maslin Reviews 'Blue in the Face' (October 13, 1995)
Phillip K. Dick (1928 to 1982)
Phillikdick.com
FBI's
Philip K. Dick File
Articles,
Interviews, Reviews, Essays and Fiction - A collection of
writings related to Philip K. Dick.
Interviews
with PKD
"Humanity in Dick's Do Androids Dream
of Electric Sheep?"
by Michael A. Czikk
Blade
Runner Movie Info (Internet Movie Database)
Official
On-line Blade Runner Magazine
Directory
of Images from the Movie
2019: Off World Page (About Blade Runner)
Blade Runner
Movie Script
William Gibson (b. 1948)
Image of Gibson courtesy
of PoMo SF
Hundreds o' Resources on William Gibson
(sites, bibiliographies, interviews, essays) compiled by librarian
Jim Hobbs
Downsizing
the Future: Beyond Blade Runner with Mike Davis
Neuromancer
Study Guide by Professor Paul Brians, Washington State University
Storming
the Reality Studio Useful site on cyberpunk and pomo SF.
Cybergrrl Webstation
Hypertext,
Cyberspace and Critical Theory site. Besides being very cool, it contains
extensive links on hypertext theory, the
body, cyberspace,
cyborgs,
digital
art, anime, etc. A
collection of more than 7,000 interlinked materials.
Martin
Irvin's PoMo SF: a compilation of Gibson/Neuromancer sites:
Overview of Gibson's Novels
Gibson
Bibliography / Mediagraphy
Work
by Gibson on the Web, including interviews
Interview
with William Gibson(after a reading of his last novel, Virtual
Light)
Interview with Gibson in Addicted to
Noise (Oct. 96)
Info on the movie Johnny Mnemonic (Internet Movie Database)
William Gibson's narrative poem,
Agrippa: a book of the dead
William
Gibson's Website (William Gibson's Yardshow)
Arturo Islas (1939-1991)
Photograph
of Arturo Islas
courtesy of the Dictionary of LIterary Biography
Voice
of the Shuttle's Guide to Online Resources for Chicano, Latino,
and Hispanic Literatures
Voice
of the Shuttle's Guide to Online Resources for Chicano, Latino,
and Hispanic Cultures
Speak
Out!'s collection
of links re: Latino/a - Chicano/a speakers and artists
Latina/Latino
Experience:
Art, Film, Literature
Chicana/Latina
Feminism
bibliography, links on subject
UCLA's
Chicana Studies
website
Making
Face, Making Soul
Chicana Feminist website
LANIC - Huge, huge collection
of links to informative, web-based resources on U.S. Latinos.
Compiled by the Institute of Latin American Studies at the University
of Texas at Austin
Gay
& Lesbian Themes in Hispanic Literatures & Cultures
Voice
of the Shuttle's Guide to Online Resources for Gay, Lesbian,
and Queer Studies
People
with a History an
Online Guide to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Trans History
Shelly Jackson
Image
of Jackson courtesy of Eastgate Inc.
Eastgate Inc.'s bio on Shelly Jackson
"Stitching
together Narrative, Sexuality, Self: Shelley Jackson's 'Patchwork
Girl'" George P. Landow
Shelley
Jackson's Patchwork Girl and Angela Carter's The Passion of New
Eve: A Comparative Reading By Maria Aline Salgueiro Seabra
Ferreira
Stitch
Bitch: the patchwork girl by Shelley Jackson
Stitch
Bitch: The Hypertext Author As Cyborg-Femme Narrator an interview
with Shelley Jackson, including links to her more recent work
Shelley
Jackson Forum in Hot Wired (12 March 1996)
Teaching Patchwork Girl
An extensive collection
of links on Jackson/ Patchwork Girl compiled by Dr.
Kathleen L. Nichols from Pittsburg State University for her course
on The
Monstrous Feminine in Literature and Art:
Brief biography of Jackson
Patchwork Girl by
Mary Shelley and herself--comments
on the hypertext and where/how to get access to it.
Review
of Patchwork Girl--criticizes its shortcomings; another Review
of Patchwork Girl--praises its virtues
Sewing in Circles: The Patchwork Girl of Oz--Frank Baum story
(extext, summary and related material)
Flickering Connectivities
in Shelley Jackson's Patchwork Girl--scholarly essay from
Postmodern Culture (an excellent analysis of Patchwork Girl follows
the long theoretical opening.)
'my body'--a Wunderkammer
& (Shelley Jackson)--another hypertext
Jamaica Kincaid (b. 1949)
Image courtesy of
G. Landow
Carribean Lit site
George P. Landow's extensive site
on Jamaica Kincaid (bio, bibliography, works, poco, etc.
etc.) DoubleTake:
Garden of Envy - short piece by Kincaid, accompanied by a
photographic essay. Interview with Jamaica Kincaid
Jamaica Kincaid
Biography
Jamaica
Kincaid Hates Happy Endings - interview from Mother Jones.
Jamaica
Kincaid Interview - from Salon.
Round Table
of Caribbean Writers - from the archives of NPR's Talk
of the Nation. Authors Jamaica Kincaid, Edwidge Danticat,
and Enrique Fernandez discuss their work and how it is influenced
by their cultural heritage.
Assignments
for ENL 424: Pop Goes Elitism: Postmodern Discourses in the U.S.
Requirements for
this course include in-class participation, one oral, point-of-view
presentation, daily reading responses, one essay and a final
project
A. In-class Participation
(100 points/10% of grade)
This course is designed
to be discussion and student-driven; it is not a lecture course.
Therefore, your individual participation in the class is directly
linked to the value you will get out of the class. Baseline ("C"
level) participation requirements include coming on time to each
class session having completed the day's reading. Contributing
interesting and thoughtful comments during most classes will
raise your participation grade to a "B." Consistent
contribution of interesting and thoughtful comments and providing
leadership in class discussions will raise your participation
grade to an "A." For every two absences, your final
grade will drop one step (A to an A-). Exceptions will be granted
for documented illnesses or family emergencies.
Because I expect
a great deal of participation from you as a student, you may
expect a great deal of participation from me as a teacher. This
includes holding regularly scheduled office hours and being available
outside those office hours for additional appointments, providing
extended office hours for discussion of your papers, and access
to me via email. I very much welcome the opportunity to get to
know and to work with you on an individual basis.
B. Oral Point-of
View Presentations: (50 points / 5% of grade, 5 to 8 minutes
in length)
At the beginning
of the semester, each student will sign up to present during
one class period. These presentations are designed for you to
express your points-of-view on the texts and issues at hand.
These are not research presentations. Think of them as an opportunity
for you to determine the agenda of the class period. Your presentation
should explain the following: 1) what part of the reading interests
you, 2) what questions you want to pose for discussion regarding
it, 3) how you think we should approach your questions, and 4)
why you believe these questions represent a fruitful way in which
to approach the day's reading
C. Summaries
of Theoretical Essays (100 points / 10% of grade)
At the beginning
of those class periods in which we are discussing a theoretical
essay, you will turn in a summary of the main ideas of the essay.
This can be in outline or paragraph form, and should hit all
the major points of the essay (which means that the length of
your summary will vary according to the length and complexity
of the theoretical essay due that day). Included in your summary
should be a list of new key terms and their definitions.
D. Daily Reading
Responses (150 points / 15% of grade)
At the beginning
of each class period in which we are not discussing a theoretical
essay, you will turn in a 1 to 2 page (typed, double-spaced)
response to the literary, filmic or hyper text due that class
period. Like your oral presentations, they should reflect your
personal responses to the reading--questions, thoughts the reading
provoked, explorations of the themes of the reading, etc.
E. One essay
(250 points / 25% of grade)
For this assignment you will be
doing a twin text critique: using one text to interrogate another.
You are to select any two texts we have read and/or seen in the
course--one theoretical, one fictional (film, drama, novel, etc.).
You will choose either text as the base text, and use the other
as the basis of your answer to the following question:
DOES YOU INTERROGATING TEXT PRIMARILY SUPPORT, SUBVERT, OR COMPLICATE
THE BASE TEXT?
"Support" means you interrogating text (IT) primarily
reinforces the basic ideas of your base text (BT); "Subvert"
means your IT primarily undermines and/or contradicts the basic
ideas of you BT; "Complicate" means your IT introduces
ideas that do not necessarily support or subvert the ideas of
your BT, but that bring up issues and considerations not addressed
in the BT.
For example, you could select Jameson's
essay, "Excerpts from Postmodernism, or the Logic of Late
Capitalism," as your base text, and use Fusco/Bustamante's
STUFF as your interrogating text to make the argument that STUFF
complicates Jameson's ideas by introducing issues of gender into
his assertions about transglobal capitalism.
You do not need to cover every single
idea in either text, your focus may be on just one or two main
ideas. Your essay should be 1600-2000 words (usually 6-8 double
spaced pages using a 10 to 12 pt font), should include at least
3 outside sources we have not read in class, and should use MLA
guidelines when quoting and paraphrasing from primary and secondary
sources. Your essay must meet minimum length requirements to
pass. On Monday, March 19th you must turn in a 200 word prospectus
of the essay (see the syllabus for what this will entail). We
will be having rough draft conferences the week of March 26-30.
You have an in-class peer critique of your full rough draft scheduled
for Friday, March 30th. Attendance at that peer critique is mandatory.
The final essay is due at the beginning of class Monday, April
2nd.
For excellent, excellent
advice about writing an academic essay on literature, see Professor
George Williams of the University of Maryland's "Writing
Advice Handout" See also William's "Thesis
Statement Handout"
Prospectus
A prospectus is
simply a brief description of your forth coming essay. Your prospectus
must include the following information:
1. Works to be included.
What novel/s will you be analyzing? What (if any) critical sources
will you be using? Other materials?
2. Subject. What theme or subject will your paper address? Will
you discuss characters? plots? themes? settings?
3. Thesis. What argument are you making in this paper? Remember,
a thesis must be 1) limited to a single subject 2) make an argument
and not just an observation of fact or opinion; and 3) able to
be developed fully in the number of pages required.
4. A brief outline of the order in which you want to discuss
your ideas
F. Final Project
(350 points / 35% of grade)
Your final project
will consist of two parts:
A) First, you are
to create a "postmodern artifact." This artifact may
take any form--textual, aural, visual, performative, virtual,
sculptural--whatever your creative heart desires. Unless you
are performing it, I have to be able to take it home in my car,
so it should be transportable (if this cramps your style, see
me and we will discuss it). If you are performing it, you must
make viewing arrangements before the day of our final is due.
B) Second, you are
to write a 6 to 8 page scholarly essay arguing why, indeed, your
artifact should be considered "postmodern." This essay
must draw on 5 outside sources (you may use, but are not limited
to, the theoretical essays we discuss as outside sources) . It
must exhibit knowledge about the medium in which you choose to
create and about the theories and complexities of U.S. postmodernism/s
that we discuss over the semester. You may approach this essay
as a definition
paper, if
you so desire.
G. Extra Credit:
Students can submit
annotated online resource links which they feel would be useful
for the class to know about. Each link accepted (not just submitted)
and added to our class site is worth one extra point, up to 20
extra credit points total. ("Annotated" means "with
notes." An annotated link includes a one or two sentence
description of the site).
H. Late Papers
Policy: Papers drop one
grade step (e.g., B to B-) for every day they are late. If you
are having difficulty with an assignment, please contact me BEFORE
the due date to receive assistance.
I. Plagiarism
Policy: Plagiarism is the
unacknowledged and inappropriate use of the ideas or wording
of another writer. Acts of plagiarism include: 1) The submission
of material authored by another person but represented as the
student's own work, whether that material is paraphrased or copied
in verbatim or near verbatim form; and 2) The improper acknowledgment
of sources used in essays or papers. Any student caught plagiarizing
material in this class will receive an automatic "F"
for the course and his or her case will be referred to the appropriate
dean. If you have any questions about what constitutes the proper
or improper use of outside sources, please see me for clarification.
J. Grading Standards:**
In order to explain both the strengths
of your papers as well as what you may do to improve your writing,
it is helpful to have a concise set of analytical or descriptive
terms that can be used to discuss important dimensions of a text.
These terms describe important characteristics of all university-level
writing.
COGENCY (The insight and vitality
of the concepts underlying the paper's argument or analysis)
Strong: Paper's
argument or analysis is insightful, vigorous, and potentially
compelling.
Acceptable: Paper's
argument or analysis is plausible, clear, and consistent.
Weak: Paper's argument
or analysis is implausible, unclear, incomplete, or inconsistent.
SUPPORT (The extent to which the
paper's assertions are supported with examples, evidence, or
reasoning which are appropriate for the intended audience)
Strong: The paper's
argument or analysis receives full and convincing support.
Acceptable: The
argument or analysis receives credible support.
Weak: The argument
or analysis receives inadequate, unconvincing, or irrelevant
support.
CONTROL (The organizational qualify
of the paper, both in terms of its overall structure and of its
individual paragraphs)
Strong: The paper
is well-structured; its form at all levels contributes to its
purpose.
Acceptable: The
paper is generally well-structured, with few flaws in its overall
organization or its paragraphing,
Weak: The paper
is poorly structured; organizational flaws undermine its effectiveness.
ADDRESSING THE
ISSUE(S) (The
extent to which the paper explores the issue(s) set forth in
the assignment and addresses all aspects of the writing task)
Strong: The paper
addresses the assignment in depth, thoroughly exploring the complexities
of the issue(s).
Acceptable: The
paper addresses the assignment and recognizes the complexities
of the issue(s).
Weak: The paper
treats the assignment in a superficial, simplistic, or disjointed
manner.
STYLE (The effectiveness of the
paper's sentence-structure, word choice, fluency, and tone in
terms of its purpose and intended audience)
Strong: The sentence-structure,
word-choice, fluency, and tone of the paper enhance its effectiveness
and reinforce its purpose.
Acceptable: The
sentence-structure, word-choice, fluency, and tone of the paper
contribute to its effectiveness and adequately support its purpose.
Weak: The sentence-structure,
word-choice, fluency, and tone of the paper detract from its
effectiveness or are inappropriate to its purpose.
GRAMMAR &
MECHANICS (The
quality of the paper at the surface-level: syntax, grammar, spelling,
punctuation, and format)
Strong: The paper
is nearly impeccable in its syntax, grammar, spelling, punctuation,
and format.
Acceptable: Sentence-level
errors do not seriously detract from the paper's effectiveness.
Weak: Sentence-level
errors are so frequent and disruptive as to detract from the
paper's effectiveness.
"A"
WRITING:
The author responds
to the assigned topic in a consistently forceful manner that
is not only thoughtful but original and thought-provoking. The
author addresses the issue(s) raised in the assignment in a provocative,
controlled manner. The author fully responds to the writing task,
demonstrating a mature knowledge about the subject and a astute
sense of its impact on the reader. The argument receives full
(and fully convincing) support. When the author employs sources,
he or she is critical and confident concerning their use, and
employs them to further his or her own authority and point of
view. All sources are documented properly. He or she employs
a style that reinforces the paper's effectiveness and advances
its purpose within the context of the academic discourse community.
Surface errors do not exist; the reader is left free to enjoy
the author's ideas and the intellectual force of the writing.
"B"
WRITING:
The author responds
to the assigned topic in a thoughtful and direct manner; the
paper demonstrates a strong and consistent point of view. The
paper fully responds to the writing task and explores the complexities
of the issue(s) raised. The author demonstrates reliable knowledge
about the subject and good sense about its impact on the reader.
The argument or analysis receives relevant support; the author
includes enough well-chosen materials or details to convincingly
support what he or she is trying to do. If sources are used,
the author incorporates them to further his or her own authority
and point of view. All sources are documented properly. The author
demonstrates a good sense of organizational control: the paper's
form directly contributes to its purpose; transitions are purposeful.
The author directs the reader's attention through the unfolding
work. He or she employs a style that is appropriate and furthers
the purpose of the paper. Surface errors are infrequent and inconsequential:
the reader is left free to consider global matters, hardly ever
distracted by surface matters. The author's meaning is always
clear.
"C"
WRITING:
Offers a competent
if occasionally limited argument/analysis in a direct response
to the assignment topic. The argument or analysis is plausible,
clear, and generally consistent. The paper responds to the writing
task and recognizes the complexities of the issue(s) raised in
the assignment.The author does not just go through the motions,
but cares about his or her subject and its impact on the reader.
The argument or analysis receives credible support; the author
includes enough material or detail to support what he or she
is trying to do. When used, sources are reasonably well-subordinated
to the author's purpose and usually documented properly. The
author displays competence in overall organization, paragraph
development, and logical transition, even if it occasionally
exhibits organizational or argumentative/analytical weaknesses.
The author demonstrates structural control (the readers know
where they're being taken and why). The language used supports
the author's purpose and is appropriate within the academic community.
Occasional surface errors don't seriously detract from the paper's
purpose or significantly interfere with the reader's comprehension
of the essay.
"D"
(No PASS) WRITING
Will offer a limited
argument/analysis in response to the assignment, marked by several
of the following weaknesses: The paper lacks the cogency and
purpose necessary for competent college-level writing; it has
an implausible, unclear, incomplete, or inconsistent argument
or analysis and fails to exhibit careful thinking. The paper
treats the issue(s) simplistically; the argument/analysis generally
overlooks the complexity of the issue(s) raised. The author doesn't
care enough about the subject or the reader's expectations, and
may fail to respond to all aspects of the writing task. The paper
has inadequate, unconvincing, irrelevant, or derivative support--it
accumulates (often paragraph by paragraph) derivative and/or
anecdotal examples without integrating them into a focused argument/analysis.
The author relies on inappropriate or weak examples or reasoning
to support the overall discussion. The author pieces together
writing from secondary sources without using it in the service
of his or her own argument or point of view. Alternatively, the
author may not include enough material or detail to support the
purpose of the paper. The paper lacks structural fluency: organizational
flaws cause a lack of overall coherence, undermining the paper's
purpose. The reader is often puzzled by the course the paper
takes, or the paper relies too exclusively on formulaic organization,
thereby becoming stilted and predictable. The essay exhibits
an inappropriate style or tone that detract from the purpose
and are inappropriate in terms of the academic discourse community.
Mechanical errors detract from the paper's purpose or interfere
with the reader's comprehension. Significant problems in wording
or syntax make the writing unclear or confusing.
"F"
WRITING:
Compounds the weaknesses
of D writing, to the point that the paper seems beyond the scope
of the normal revision process: an author who has otherwise demonstrated
some capability would do well to reconsider the whole enterprise
from scratch. Specifically, F writing will: Fail to recognize
or adequately respond to the writing task; be far too general
or present a careless, simplistic discussion of the issue/s;
rely on remarkably weak or inappropriate examples; have little
controlling organization or logical coherence; and have serious
and extensive flows in syntax, grammar, or usage.
**Adapted from the
University of Southern California Writing Program's grading rubric