English R1B

Other Readings and Media

"R.L. Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway

William Faulkner, As I Lay Dying

Toni Morrison, Beloved

Faye Ng, Bone



Recommended Texts:

Diana Hacker, Rules for Writers 5th ed. "

Description

"The texts we will read in this course will challenge us to think about how a story is constructed. We will enter the mind of a child who believes his dead mother is a fish, and a mentally unstable woman who sees another woman hiding in a wallpaper. We will be confronted by scattered pieces of narrative that will require the work of our hands and our minds to piece together. The skill of close reading will help us to see the pieces more clearly and how they might fit together; moreover, the way we think about a text will also help us to think about how we write.



I want us to think about writing as an ongoing discussion we have with ourselves and the ideas that others have had on the text. Our job is to understand how we can incorporate the research that we conduct with the ideas we have found through close reading. You will be asked to write two essays for the class. The first will be a critical essay of seven pages in length consisting of evidence you have gathered from the assigned readings. The second will be nine pages in length and consist of evidence you have gathered from outside sources. The practice of writing will be mediated by peer editing and one-on-one meetings with me. "