Language, History, and Geography
Proposal Due: Monday 11/21
Rough Draft Due: Wednesday 11/30 for in class peer review.
Final Draft Due: Monday 12/12
Presentations 12/5-12/12
.
Proposal: Students will write a 500-word proposal for the research project (essay and digital artifact). The proposal should assert a thesis, state key research questions to investigate, discuss why these questions are important, and analyze at least three quotations. Each proposal will also include a description of the digital artifact for the project, including the form it will take, the application it will use, and the role it will have in relation to the project as a whole. These facets can change was the project develops, but the proposal presents an opportunity to begin thinking about them and receive feedback.
See below for more information about the digital artifact.
Essay: In your final essay, you will assert an argument analyzing the role of language, history, geography, or a combination of these elements in one or more of the poems we read by Derek Walcott, W. B. Yeats, Seamus Heaney, or Paul Muldoon, in one or more of Salman Rushdie's stories, in Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable, or in a combination of these texts. You are also welcome to discuss other primary and secondary sources that we read throughout the term, but your focus should be on texts we read during the second half of the term. How are language and geography related? What role does history play in the interpretation of each novel? What passages did you find most compelling and why? If you consider both texts, what is different about their engagement with language? What effect does the sound of words have? What is the impact of the structure of each novel on the story it tells? What do your text or text reflect about postcolonial literature? How do ideas in your text represent concepts present in Said or Bhabha's essays or The Postcolonial Studies Dictionary and why does it matter? It may be useful to begin with a single word as the focus of your essay. As you focus in on a topic, investigate patterns and themes you noticed as you read and throughout the term and draw conclusions based on the text or texts you have selected.
Your essay must be at least 1500 words. You must use the templates in They Say/I Say to assert an argument addressing the text that you will support with your own analysis of at least eight quotations from texts that we read and quotations or points from two primary and three secondary sources you have located. Primary sources can include literary texts we did not read in the course (poems, short stories, prose, novels), photographs, recordings, or interviews. Secondary sources include journal articles or critical books. One source must be a book. You must use parenthetical citations in your essay to acknowledge ideas from sources as you refer to them. Use the templates for incorporating and analyzing quotations in They Say/I Say. You can search the NYIT library's website and their databases for journal articles. You can also search Google Books, Google Scholar, and some books on Amazon. It would also be useful to join and search the databases at the New York Public Library.
Research Guide from the NYIT Library: http://libguides.nyit.edu/c.php?g=560755&p=3999708
Please also use Project Muse, available from the NYIT library until December 15: http://arktos.nyit.edu/login?url=http://muse.jhu.edu
You are welcome to analyze images in your essay. Make sure to cite them appropriately.
Remember to give your essay a title. It will help to frame and focus your project.
You will lose points for incorrect citation format and lack of proofreading. You can consult MLA guidelines here: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
You will also lose points for lack of effort, depth, and careful textual analysis. Build from your experiences this term to demonstrate your analytical skills, creativity, and intellectual risk taking.
You will also lose points for not demonstrating correct integration of quotations. Remember that you need to analyze quotations that you include. Select quotations in which the language is necessary. If you can put a quotation in your own words, you don't need to quote it and you can summarize its contents and cite the page number in parentheses. Make sure to punctuate quotations correctly. This website may also be helpful: https://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/QuoLiterature.html
Submit your rough draft and final drafts on as Word documents in 12 point, Times New Roman font, demonstrating correct use of MLA style, on Blackboard at least thirty minutes before class on the dates indicated above.
Digital Artifact (10% of course grade):
You will create at least one visual artifact that supports your thesis and provides visual evidence for your essay. It will demonstrate part of your research, whether it be analysis of a text or findings from secondary sources. Some examples include an annotated map with Google Maps (like the map of Jean Rhys's Paris in her novel Good Morning Midnight (1938) above), a Google Tour, an Infographic with Piktochart, one or more text visualizations (like the display of Rudyard Kipling's story "Wireless" below using Voyant), a video (like the sample Moovly project below), audio materials, annotated pages, a chart, a graph, a diagram, or images of a possible application, digital resource, digital archive, or long term project you would create if time and tools allowed--such as a sound or temperature archive (you can create these images by hand or using software like Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Photoshop, a Prezi, or a template from Wix or Weebly).
You do not need to make these materials public and can share them by sending an invitation to the instructor. We will discuss examples and approaches to these tools over the course of the term. Your visual artifact must be thorough and engage the language of the text you are analyzing. It will provide an example that you analyze in your research paper.
At least a paragraph of your essay will be devoted to analyzing your artifact and its significance to your overall argument.
You are welcome to include more images or different kinds of digital artifacts in your essay, depending on your project. Your project and its focus may change once you begin making digital artifacts and you can pursue new directions, analyzing passages from the text and investigating new topics.
If your digital artifact is too large to embed in your essay, you can include a screenshot with a link or share the file with the instructor from a website or Google Drive.
Digital Artifacts can be built in groups, but each student will receive his or her own grade.
Presentation (15% of course grade):
During the final weeks of the term, each student will deliver a 5-7-minute presentation introducing the argument of her research project and its significance. Remember that presentations do not need to summarize texts we have read. Instead, teach the class why your findings matter.
The presentations must also analyze at least two quotations from at least one text we read. Your presentation must also introduce your digital artifact and its role in your project.
Student presentations must engage the class. Practice ahead so that you will be relaxed and poised, able to discuss your fascinating research in clear and lively manner. Do not read from a prepared script. Instead, compose notes that you can refer to as you present. Some strategies for involving your audience include asking questions and posing topics for discussion. As you practice, time your presentation and do not go over seven minutes. Stick to five minutes and then you can be more at ease as you present, knowing you have two additional minutes if you need them.
Remember to be an attentive listener and active participant as your classmates present. Students will be completing evaluations of each other's presentations during class.
Proposal Due: Monday 11/21
Rough Draft Due: Wednesday 11/30 for in class peer review.
Final Draft Due: Monday 12/12
Presentations 12/5-12/12
.
Proposal: Students will write a 500-word proposal for the research project (essay and digital artifact). The proposal should assert a thesis, state key research questions to investigate, discuss why these questions are important, and analyze at least three quotations. Each proposal will also include a description of the digital artifact for the project, including the form it will take, the application it will use, and the role it will have in relation to the project as a whole. These facets can change was the project develops, but the proposal presents an opportunity to begin thinking about them and receive feedback.
See below for more information about the digital artifact.
Essay: In your final essay, you will assert an argument analyzing the role of language, history, geography, or a combination of these elements in one or more of the poems we read by Derek Walcott, W. B. Yeats, Seamus Heaney, or Paul Muldoon, in one or more of Salman Rushdie's stories, in Mulk Raj Anand’s Untouchable, or in a combination of these texts. You are also welcome to discuss other primary and secondary sources that we read throughout the term, but your focus should be on texts we read during the second half of the term. How are language and geography related? What role does history play in the interpretation of each novel? What passages did you find most compelling and why? If you consider both texts, what is different about their engagement with language? What effect does the sound of words have? What is the impact of the structure of each novel on the story it tells? What do your text or text reflect about postcolonial literature? How do ideas in your text represent concepts present in Said or Bhabha's essays or The Postcolonial Studies Dictionary and why does it matter? It may be useful to begin with a single word as the focus of your essay. As you focus in on a topic, investigate patterns and themes you noticed as you read and throughout the term and draw conclusions based on the text or texts you have selected.
Your essay must be at least 1500 words. You must use the templates in They Say/I Say to assert an argument addressing the text that you will support with your own analysis of at least eight quotations from texts that we read and quotations or points from two primary and three secondary sources you have located. Primary sources can include literary texts we did not read in the course (poems, short stories, prose, novels), photographs, recordings, or interviews. Secondary sources include journal articles or critical books. One source must be a book. You must use parenthetical citations in your essay to acknowledge ideas from sources as you refer to them. Use the templates for incorporating and analyzing quotations in They Say/I Say. You can search the NYIT library's website and their databases for journal articles. You can also search Google Books, Google Scholar, and some books on Amazon. It would also be useful to join and search the databases at the New York Public Library.
Research Guide from the NYIT Library: http://libguides.nyit.edu/c.php?g=560755&p=3999708
Please also use Project Muse, available from the NYIT library until December 15: http://arktos.nyit.edu/login?url=http://muse.jhu.edu
You are welcome to analyze images in your essay. Make sure to cite them appropriately.
Remember to give your essay a title. It will help to frame and focus your project.
You will lose points for incorrect citation format and lack of proofreading. You can consult MLA guidelines here: https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/
You will also lose points for lack of effort, depth, and careful textual analysis. Build from your experiences this term to demonstrate your analytical skills, creativity, and intellectual risk taking.
You will also lose points for not demonstrating correct integration of quotations. Remember that you need to analyze quotations that you include. Select quotations in which the language is necessary. If you can put a quotation in your own words, you don't need to quote it and you can summarize its contents and cite the page number in parentheses. Make sure to punctuate quotations correctly. This website may also be helpful: https://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/QuoLiterature.html
Submit your rough draft and final drafts on as Word documents in 12 point, Times New Roman font, demonstrating correct use of MLA style, on Blackboard at least thirty minutes before class on the dates indicated above.
Digital Artifact (10% of course grade):
You will create at least one visual artifact that supports your thesis and provides visual evidence for your essay. It will demonstrate part of your research, whether it be analysis of a text or findings from secondary sources. Some examples include an annotated map with Google Maps (like the map of Jean Rhys's Paris in her novel Good Morning Midnight (1938) above), a Google Tour, an Infographic with Piktochart, one or more text visualizations (like the display of Rudyard Kipling's story "Wireless" below using Voyant), a video (like the sample Moovly project below), audio materials, annotated pages, a chart, a graph, a diagram, or images of a possible application, digital resource, digital archive, or long term project you would create if time and tools allowed--such as a sound or temperature archive (you can create these images by hand or using software like Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Photoshop, a Prezi, or a template from Wix or Weebly).
You do not need to make these materials public and can share them by sending an invitation to the instructor. We will discuss examples and approaches to these tools over the course of the term. Your visual artifact must be thorough and engage the language of the text you are analyzing. It will provide an example that you analyze in your research paper.
At least a paragraph of your essay will be devoted to analyzing your artifact and its significance to your overall argument.
You are welcome to include more images or different kinds of digital artifacts in your essay, depending on your project. Your project and its focus may change once you begin making digital artifacts and you can pursue new directions, analyzing passages from the text and investigating new topics.
If your digital artifact is too large to embed in your essay, you can include a screenshot with a link or share the file with the instructor from a website or Google Drive.
Digital Artifacts can be built in groups, but each student will receive his or her own grade.
Presentation (15% of course grade):
During the final weeks of the term, each student will deliver a 5-7-minute presentation introducing the argument of her research project and its significance. Remember that presentations do not need to summarize texts we have read. Instead, teach the class why your findings matter.
The presentations must also analyze at least two quotations from at least one text we read. Your presentation must also introduce your digital artifact and its role in your project.
Student presentations must engage the class. Practice ahead so that you will be relaxed and poised, able to discuss your fascinating research in clear and lively manner. Do not read from a prepared script. Instead, compose notes that you can refer to as you present. Some strategies for involving your audience include asking questions and posing topics for discussion. As you practice, time your presentation and do not go over seven minutes. Stick to five minutes and then you can be more at ease as you present, knowing you have two additional minutes if you need them.
Remember to be an attentive listener and active participant as your classmates present. Students will be completing evaluations of each other's presentations during class.