• President Obama’s Nobel lecture
• President Obama’s Address to the Nation on the Way Forward in Afghanistan and Pakistan
• Candidate Romney’s speech at the Clinton Global Initiative (note the “bounce” joke at the opening! What’s he doing there?)

[Couldn’t find transcript, so here’s video of President Obama’s speech.]

I’ve mentioned some of this in previous posts, but I thought I’d bring it all together. The following is an annotated version of the rubric I used to grade your midterms and will be using to grade your final essays.

Communication—Do you have a point?

• Clear thesis statement that presents a cogent argument

Your thesis statement should connect Shelley’s novel to the Romantic movement in a way that illuminates the novel’s themes, other works written at the time, and/or elements of the movement itself.

Credit—Do you back it up?

• Proper Works Cited entries, format

As we discussed in class, this will be an “all or nothing” grade. I provided sample citations for most of the works passed out in class. For more information about properly formatting this page, see the OWL at Purdue.

• Proper in-text citations

The general rule for in-text citations: use the first word of the Works Cited entry. See OWL at Purdue, above, or your notes for examples.

• Clear integration of quotations, evidence

This is a skill that can take some practice to master, but many of you have greatly progressed in this from the beginning of the year. The goal with integrated quotations is to remove the unnecessary or redundant information from either your writing or the quotation in order to create a seamless flow of information to your readers. Here is an example of what not to do followed by a smoother one:

During the Enlightenment, philosophers saw nature as something that can be logically understood. “Nature can be understood. Nature is rational. Man is part of Nature, therefore, man can be understood” (Lecture 9).

The student simply paraphrases the beginning of the quotation, so that bit can be removed. The sentences can be combined to create a clear flow between the two:

Enlightenment philosophers believed that “Nature can be understood. Nature is rational. Man is part of Nature, therefore, man can be understood” (Lecture 9).

Block quotations are rarely necessary. If you find yourself wanting to pull a large passage, highlight the parts you need in order to support your point, and cut the rest. Instead of all this:

He strove to shelter her, as a fair exotic is sheltered by the gardener . . . to surround her with all that could tend to excite pleasurable emotion in her soft and benevolent mind (23).

…try this:

With her mother’s philosophy in mind, then, it is odd to find Victor describing Elizabeth as a “fair exotic” with a “soft and benevolent mind” (23), but this underscores Victor’s….

And a fantastic example that puts it all together, including the use of square brackets—[ ]—to indicate changes in tense to keep the quotation grammatically correct within the sentence:

Rousseau said “[humans] are undone if [they] once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to… all, and the earth itself to nobody” (Discourse on inequality).  It is the pride in claiming territory or “[trusting] to have equaled the most high” (Milton 40) that corrupts the goodness humans are born with. They will go to great lengths to achieve what they believe is important.  When people are getting their fame the ones  “next himself in power” are often the ones who find themselves “next in crime” (Milton 79).

Cogency—Does it make sense?

• Topic sentences that support the thesis and create a logical flow

Your topic sentences should elaborate on the points you make in your thesis.

• Paragraph sentences that thoroughly support the topic sentences

The rest of the paragraph should support the topic sentence. In this way you are able to provide a logical progression of ideas supported by the source text(s).

• Adequate support for points

Each point regarding the source text(s) should be supported by paraphrased or quoted material. This provides credibility and clarification.

• Coherent flow and logical organization

The work as a whole should represent a clear line of thought from thesis statement through elaboration in the paragraphs to a concluding statement that reflects thesis in light of what your audience has learned.

In addition, transitional sentences should connect paragraphs in a way that prevents abrupt changes in focus, tone, or subject. A good rule is “old then new”—begin a sentence with the information your audience has just learned, and within the same sentence bring up the topic to follow. This connection will smooth any transition.

Clarity—Does it look right?

• Proper headers, margin

Information on this section is available at the OWL at Purdue (link above), or in your notes.

• Proper spacing, paragraph
• Proper text size, font
• Proper grammatical structure
• Proper punctuation used

We set up Google Documents in class on Monday for the writing process. Keeping the information online rather than on our individual computers will make collaboration and communication more efficient (I think; this is the first time I’ve had an entire class do it this way), and if nothing else, will prevent the mishaps that occur with incompatible files and missing email. If you have not set up a document yet, click through the link above, hit “create an account” if you don’t have a GMail account, and get writing. Please share the document with me at my school email. If you have questions, send me a message or ask in class.

We will keep to the same schedule as the midterm this time around. The days are moved a bit, but you will have the same amount of time. (With that in mind, it would be good to think back to snags you encountered with the midterm and plan this time accordingly.)

Just came across this cool site that offers information about our author’s life. A few of you were asking about contemporary reactions–a few can be found here.

The site is part of Romantic Circles, “a refereed scholarly Website devoted to the study of Romantic-period literature and culture . . . published by the University of Maryland.” ((Read: goldmine of credible information about the history of the work and the culture it was a part of. Worth looking through.)) If you find anything interesting, post a link below or bring it to class.

A quick reminder for those re-working their midterms: your final drafts are due Friday. I will not accept them after that date. If you will be absent then, please email a copy before 3 pm on the 15th or bring it tomorrow.

Romanticism information (actually, there is plenty on the French Revolution and such here, too; dig around.)

Paradise Lost

A previous post on the gothic and sublime (we’ll talk about this tomorrow).

Share below any other cool things you find.