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You'll need to have your copy of Inferno next week. Buy this translation only.
Monday, February 22 (2) - Iliad, Books 23-24
Tuesday, February 23 (3) - Iliad, Book 24
Wednesday, February 24 (4) - NO CLASS - RECONCILIATION - MEET IN LAHART CHAPEL
Thursday, February 25 (5) - Writing instruction - Pilot essay advice and reminders - Sample AP 1, Sample AP 2
Friday, February 26 (6) - Vocabulary Quiz, units 19-20; Time to conference about pilot essays
Copyright 2011 Ryan Flynn
Monday, February 29 (1) - Set Research Assignment, Act 2; Tonight, read Inferno, Canto 1; Who is this speaker? Where does he find himself? Why is he not where he wants to be? It's fine to be confused when you begin the poem; you're in good company. I hope to clarify as much as I can tomorrow when I outline the premise of the poem and its place within La Commedia.
Tuesday, March 1 (2) - Introduction to Dante and The Divine Comedy; Inferno, Canto 1
Wednesday, March 2 (3) - Set Inferno presentation assignment and schedule; Inferno, Canto 2; Tonight you are reading Canto 3. Pay close attention to the inscription on the gates of Hell. Here we meet the neutral angels -- those "hateful to God and to His enemies" -- in the region of Hell known as the Ante-Inferno. Think about the contrapasso of this realm. What are these sinners guilty of, and how is their punishment appropriate? What are the souls compared to near the end of the Canto?
Thursday, March 3 (4) - Inferno, Canto 3
Friday, March 4 (5) - Inferno, Canto 4
Tuesday, March 8 (3) - Inferno, Cantos 5 and 6 (Dias, Kubus; Medrano, Montalvo; Henning, Sander)
Wednesday, March 9 (4) - Inferno, Canto 7 (Medina; Britton; Leach)
Thursday, March 10 (5) - Inferno, Cantos 8 and 9 (Kubus, Kubus; Erwin, Chinedo; Lauinger, Finley)
Monday, March 21 (1) - Inferno, Cantos 10 and 11 (Restrepo, Kubus; Fennessy, Longwell; Sullivan, Sullivan); Now is the time to schedule a 200-point research conference. By Friday, April 8 you must have a 30-minute meeting. During the meeting we will go through your pilot essay and you'll present your research findings, making the case for your project. This means coming to the meeting with print-outs and photocopies of all articles prepared to make a ten-minute pitch. How do you plan to use your research? How has your thesis from the pilot essay evolved based on your research findings?
Before you begin crafting a new thesis, synthesize your research. Previously, I suggested imagining your sources around a table and listening to them converse. Now you want to transcribe and organize that conversation. You need to know just what each source offers, how it shapes your thinking, and how it connects to your other sources, including, of course, your primary source. I want you to know how you intend to use your secondary and primary sources in your essay. Knowing that depends on you already having great clarity about your thesis.
You might create a document or table that lists the sources and summarizes or bullet-points their key insights. Or you might bubble map key topic/issues and arrange your secondary sources around those topics/issues. That’s probably the way to go. Remember the sample on the previous document? It forces you to think about what topics/issues your essay will develop and arranges your sources in a very usable way. It will take time. But it’s time well spent. Without command of your sources and your own thinking, you’re sure to get lost writing the essay, to badly use your sources, and to create a muddle.
Once you’ve synthesized and organized your sources, thinking through them and how they guide your own views, you’re ready to craft a thesis. Since this is the fount of all else in your essay, you’ve got to get it right, to know with certainty what you think and why, and how your sources inform that thinking.
With your thesis in mind, ask this simple question: What does my thesis demand that I prove and explore in my argument? What are the necessary developing topics/issues? Think not inside a known structure like the 5-¶ essay. Think in terms of ideas/concepts/topics/issues. And use good common sense and simple logic. Think in units. Once you’ve defined the first topic, move to the next necessary and logical topic. Doing this is harder than it sounds. To do it well you need command of your thinking, your argument and its topics/issues, and your sources.
Tuesday, March 22 (2) - Inferno, Cantos 12 and 13 (Mulligan, Kubus; Okeke, Kubus; Neiers, Kubus)
Wednesday, March 23 (3) - Inferno, Canto 14 (Dizon; Mangin; Frazier)
Thursday, March 24 (4) - Inferno, Canto 15 (Cano; Duffner; Lucas)
Tuesday, March 29 (5) - Inferno, Cantos 16 and 17 (West, Kubus; Baizan, Nwachukwu; Glynn, Oyolu)
Wednesday, March 30 (6) - Inferno, Canto 18 (Kubus; Dotson; Reid)
Thursday, March 31 (1) - RESEARCH DAY - MEET IN ROOM 825
Friday, April 1 (2) - RESEARCH DAY - MEET IN ROOM 825; Over the weekend, read "The Coddling of the American Mind," an article published last September in The Atlantic, addressing how "microaggressions" and "trigger warnings" are actually hurting mental health on college campuses. As you read pay particular attention to the authors' use of secondary material. Notice how they use sources as concisely as possible, so their own thinking isn’t crowded out by their presentation of other people’s thinking. Notice also that you're never left in doubt as to when the authors are speaking and when they're using materials from a source. Lastly, notice how the essay thinks. Like we did in the fall with "Money Talks," mark topic breaks and ¶ functions beside each ¶. We'll begin with this essay on Monday to kick start a week and a half on incorporating secondary material into your own writing. To this end bring a printed copy of the essay to class, marked up and ready to go... for a quiz grade.
Monday, April 4 (3) - Set Research Essay, Act 3; Lukianoff and Haidt, "The Coddling of the American Mind"
Tuesday, April 5 (4) - Incorporating secondary material into your own writing
Wednesday, April 6 (5) - Incorporating secondary material into your own writing
Thursday, April 7 (6) - MLA Day 1
Friday, April 8 (1) - MLA Day 2
Monday, April 11 (2) - MLA Quiz; Sample professional essays
Tuesday, April 12 (3) - Sample professional essays
Wednesday, April 13 (4) - Sample student essays
Thursday, April 14 (5) - Sample student essays
Friday, April 15 (6) - Kubus out (No class)
Monday, April 18 (1) - Classes canceled due to weather
Tuesday, April 19 (2) - Classes canceled due to weather
Wednesday, April 20 (3) - Cantos 19-20 (Kubus, Goetz; Bastian, Boyer; Villarreal, Sotis)
Thursday, April 21 (4) - Cantos 21-22 (Alston, Moore; Borland, Graff; Barloon, Cashiola)
Friday, April 22 (5) - Meet in room 826 - Bring all research materials
Monday, April 25 (6) - Cantos 23-24 (Baratta, Kubus; Granberry, Watson; Rice, Voyles)
Tuesday, April 26 (1) - Cantos 25-26 (Brill, Kubus; Weinheimer, Kubus; Viancos, Kubus)
Wednesday, April 27 (2) - Canto 26, Part 2
Thursday, April 28 (3) - Cantos 27-28 (Lilly, Harrison; Taylor, Duff; Nino, Hebert)
Friday, April 29 (4) - Cantos 29-30 (Longino, Markley; McStravick, Montes; Ona, Dorman)
Monday, May 2 (5) - Canto 31 (Koehler; Parsley; Kenneally)
Tuesday, May 3 (6) - Bonus Vocabulary Quiz
Wednesday, May 4 (1) - Canto 32
Thursday, May 5 (2) - Canto 33
Friday, May 6 (3) - Canto 34 and Course Wrap-up
What's Due?
Monday, February 22 - Book check 2
Monday, February 29 - Pilot essay
Monday, April 11 - Annotated Bibliography
Monday, April 25 - Final Research Essay
Inferno study links
Botticelli's Portrait of Dante, 1495. Click the image to read a short biography of Dante.
The Digital Dante Project at Columbia
Helpful Research Links
Research and Documentation Online
Registering on JSTOR
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Genealogy of the English Alphabet
“In reading exam papers written by misled students, of both sexes, about this or that author, I have often come across such phrases — probably recollections from more tender years of schooling — as ‘his style is simple’ or ‘his style is clear and simple’ or ‘his style is beautiful and simple’ or ‘his style is quite beautiful and simple.’ But remember that ‘simplicity’ is buncombe. No major writer is simple. The Saturday Evening Post is simple. Journalese is simple. Upton Lewis is simple. Mom is simple. Digests are simple. Damnation is simple. But Tolstoys and Melvilles are not simple... This story is Tolstoy’s most artistic, most perfect, and most sophisticated achievement... Tolstoy’s style is a marvelously complicated, ponderous achievement.”