READINGS AND ACTIVITIES - as of December 4, 2006 (Subject to change with notice)

Week 1: Aug 22-28

Study: Course Syllabus, Schedule, Weekly Assignments and Browse the myASU Course web site

Study: "Writing about Literature" pp. 1415 - 24

Study: "Writing about a Story" pp. 1425 - 40

Take: Online Learning Readiness Quiz (Web site)

Study: 7 Tips for Success Online and Online Tutorials for Using myASU Blackboard (Web sites)

Due: Getting to Know You Class Forum, Post by Fri, Aug 25, noon; Replies by Mon, Aug 28, noon

Due: Student Homepage, Mon, Aug 28, noon

Week 2: Aug 29

Study: "Plot" and "The Short Story" pp. 12 - 15

Study: "A & P" pp. 17 - 20; "John Updike on Writing," pp. 20 - 22

Study: "The Story of an Hour" pp. 322 - 24

Study: "The House on Mango Street" pp. 324 - 25

Study: "Girl" pp. 379 - 80

Due: Forum 1 - Post by Fri, Sep 1, noon; Replies by Tue, Sep 5, noon (Notice: Replies will usually be due on Mondays at noon, but I'm allowing an extra day to account for the Labor Day Holiday).

Due: Quiz 1 - Course Syllabus, Plot, Short Story, Writing about a Story, by Fri, Sep 1, midnight

Week 3: Sep 5

Study: "Point of View" pp. 23-28 and "Character" pp. 81, 112-115

Study: "A Rose for Emily" pp. 29-36

Study: "Sonny's Blues" pp. 53-76 and "James Baldwin on Writing" pp. 77 - 80

Study: MLA Style

Study: Fiction Paper assignment and begin brainstorming topics

Due: Forum 2 - Post by Fri, Sep 8, noon; Replies by Mon, Sep 11, noon

Due: Quiz 2 - Point of View, Character, MLA Style by Fri, Sep 8, midnight

Week 4: Sep 12

Study: "Setting" pp. 116 - 18, "Tone and Style" pp. 150 - 54, "Irony" pp. 172-73

Study: "Greasy Lake" pp. 124 - 32

Study: "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" pp. 154- 58 and "Ernest Hemingway on Writing" pp. 182 - 84

Study: "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" pp. 253 - 65 and section beginning "Flannery O'Connor on Flannery O'Connor" pp. 281 - 97

Due: Forum 3 - Post by Fri, Sep 15, noon; Replies by Mon, Sep 18, noon

Due: Quiz 3 - Setting, Tone, Style, Irony by Fri, Sep 15, midnight

Week 5: Sep 19

Study: "Theme" pp. 185 - 87, 198 - 99 and "Symbol" pp. 200 - 202; 228-32

Study: "The Lottery" pp. 211 - 18

Study: "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" pp. 221- 26 and "Ursula K. Le Guin on Writing" pp. 227 - 28

Study: Mystery and Manners: "Writing Short Stories" pp. 87-106 by Flannery O'Connor; NOT to be found in our text. Instead, I will provide the chapter as a .pdf file through our myASU Blackboard course web site.

Study: "Symptoms and Cures for Writer's Block" from The OWL at Purdue
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/567/01/

Due: Draft 1 - Fiction Paper (freewrite) as soon as possible but by Fri, Sep 22, midnight
Peer Writing Teammates reply by Mon, Sep 25, noon
** Also consider taking this draft for an in-person writing conference at the writing center or schedule an online writing conference **

Due: Forum 4 - Post by Fri, Sep 22, noon; Replies by Mon, Sep 25, noon

Due: Quiz 4 - Theme, Symbol, Point of View (again) by Fri, Sep 22, midnight

Week 6: Sep 26

Study: "A Pair of Tickets" pp. 132 - 47 and "Amy Tan on Writing" pp. 147 - 49

Study: "Tips and Strategies for Writing a Thesis Statement" from The OWL at Purdue
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/545/01/

Study: "Developing Strong [Debateable] Thesis Statements" from The OWL at Purdue
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/588/01/

Study: "Sentence Clarity" from the OWL at Purdue
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/600/01/

Due: Draft 2 - Fiction Paper uploaded for my comments by Fri, Sep 29, midnight
** Also consider taking this draft for an in-person writing conference at the writing center or schedule an online writing conference **

Due: Quiz 5 - A Pair of Tickets and Amy Tan on Writing by Fri, Sep 29, midnight

Week 7: Oct 3

Study: "The Man to Send Rain Clouds" pp. 423 - 27

Study: "Critical Approaches to Literature" pp. 1497 - 1530

Due: Forum 5 - Post by Fri, Oct 6, noon; Replies by Mon, Oct 9, noon

Due: Quiz 6 - Critical Approaches by Fri, Oct 6, midnight

Week 8: Oct 10

Study: "Words" pp. 477- 79, 481 - 89, and "How Much Difference Does a Word Make"? pp. 499 - 500; Concentrate on poems: "This is Just to Say" p. 478, "Silence" p, 479, "Anyone Lived in a Pretty How Town" p. 492, and "Jabberwocky" p. 496

Study: "Saying and Suggesting" pp. 501-03 and "The Ways a Poem Suggests" pp. 511 - 12; Concentrate on poems: "The Independent Man" p. 506 and "Fire and Ice" p. 508

Study: "Imagery" pp. 513 - 15, "Ezra Pound on Writing" p. 525 and "Analyzing Images" pp. 526 - 31 Concentrate on poems: "In a Station of the Metro" p. 513, "The Fish" p. 516, and "Not Waving But Drowning" p. 524

Study: "Proofreading Your Writing" from The OWL at Purdue
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/561/01/

Due: Draft 3 - Fiction Paper (final version) uploaded for grading by Fri, Oct 13, midnight

Week 9: Oct 17

Study: "Figures of Speech" pp. 532 - 50, "Robert Frost on Writing" and "How Metaphors Enlarge a Poem's Meaning" pp. 548 - 50; Concentrate on poems: "Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer's Day?" p. 533 and p. 534, "My Life Had Stood — a Loaded Gun" p. 536, "Metaphors" p. 538, "You Fit into me" p. 543, "the Silken Tent" p. 545, and "the Secret Sits" p. 546

Study: "Closed Form" pp. 608-09; Concentrate on poems: "What Lips My Lips. . . " p. 615, "Acquainted with the Night" p. 616, and "Prayer" p. 618 Study "Open Form" pp. 626 - 30 and "Lining Up for Free Verse" pp. 640; Concentrate on poems: "Buffalo Bill's" p. 630, "Cavalry Crossing a Ford" p. 631, "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" p. 632, "In Just—" p. 637, "Homage to My Hips" and "I Shall Paint My Nails Red" p. 638

Study: Poetry Paper assignment and begin brainstorming topics

Due: Forum 6 - Post by Fri, Oct 20, noon; Replies by Mon, Oct 23, noon

Due: Quiz 7 - Figures of Speech, Closed and Open Form by Fri, Oct 20, midnight

Week 10: Oct 24

Study: "Sound" pp. 572-88" and be sure to study " Is It Possible to Write about Sound?" pp. 588 - 89; Concentrate on poems: "God's Grandeur," p. 583, "I Heard a Fly Buzz" p. 740 and "The Bustle in a House" p. 741

Study: "Rhythm" pp. 590- 605 and "Freeze-Framing the Sound" pp. 606 - 07: Concentrate on any poems by Langston Hughes pp. 752 - 58, but especially "Theme for English B" p. 757

Due: Quiz 8 - Sound and Rhythm by Fri, Oct 27, midnight

Due: Forum 7 - Post by Fri, Oct 27, noon; Replies by Mon, Oct 30, noon

Due: Draft 1 - Poetry Paper (freewrite) as soon as possible but by Fri, Oct 27, midnight
Peer Writing Teammates reply by Mon, Oct 30, noon
** Also consider taking this draft for an in-person writing conference at the writing center or schedule an online writing conference **

Week 11: Oct 31

Study: "Poetry and Personal Identity" pp. 672 - 90

Study: "Sentence Variety" from The OWL at Purdue
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/573/01/

Due: Class Forum on "Poetry and Personal Identity" - Post by Sat, Nov 4, midnight; replies encouraged but not required.

Due: Draft 2 - Poetry Paper uploaded for my comments by Fri, Nov 3, midnight
** Also consider taking this draft for an in-person writing conference at the writing center or schedule an online writing conference **

Week 12: Nov 7

Study: "Drama" pp. 866 and "Reading a Play" pp. 869-71, 883-87

Study: "Evaluating a Play" pp. 1189-91

Study: "Trifles" pp. 871 - 883 and "Susan Glaspell on Drama" pp. 895-902

Optional: view film production of the play available as "A Jury of Her Peers" in the ASU Law Library in VHS format 30 min.  PN1997|.bH42 1980 VIDEO

Due: Quiz 9 - Drama and "Trifles" by Mon, Nov 13, midnight

Week 13: Nov 14

Study: "Writing about a Play" pp. 1461 - 68

Study: "Death of a Salesman" pp. 1194 - 1266 and "Arthur Miller on Drama"

Optional: View the film production of the play with Dustin Hoffman and John Malkovich

NOTE: By Thursday afternoon, Nov 16, the Dustin Hoffman version of "Death of a Salesman should be available On Reserve at Hayden Library. It will NO LONGER be available at ASU West. There will also be a DVD version of "Death of a Salesman" available on reserve at the ASU Polytechnic campus.

PN1997 .D4138x 1998 VIDEO  (used to be at ASU West; by Thu, Nov 16, will be on reserve at Hayden

PN1997 .D41382 2002 DVD ASU Polytechnic

*Consider Netflix as a possible resource for DVD versions of these film productions.

Due: Forum 8 - Post by Fri, Nov, 17, noon; Replies by Mon, Nov 20, noon

Due: Draft 3 - Poetry Paper (final version) uploaded for grading by Fri, Nov 17, midnight

Week 14: Nov 21

Study: "The Glass Menagerie" pp. 1269- 1319 and "Tennessee Williams on Drama" pp. 1320 - 22;

Optional: View the film production of the play with Karen Allen, Joanne Woodward, and John Malkovich; directed by Paul Newman Rent or see versions of the play available On Reserve at ASU Hayden Library PN1997 .G549 1988 VIDEO 134 min or at Polytechnic  PN1997 .G5492 2002 DVD  in a DVD version with Katherine Hepburn - 105 min.

Week 15: Nov 28

Due: Draft 1 - Drama Paper (freewrite) as soon as possible but by Fri, Dec 1 , midnight
Peer Writing Teammates reply by Mon, Dec 4, noon
** Also consider taking this draft for an in-person writing conference at the writing center or schedule an online writing conference **

Due: Quiz 10 - Critical Reading and Writing about Literature by Fri, Dec 1, midnight

Week 16: Dec 5

DUE: Discussion Forum Evaluation as soon as possible but by Sat, Dec 9, noon

Due: Draft 2 - Drama Paper uploaded for grading as soon as possible but by Sat, Dec 9, noon