…probably enough of the Franken[portmanteaux], yes?

Just a quick overview of our process from start to finish:

1. Read and journal
2. Find patterns and group quotations underneath
3. Make meaning of these patterns
4. Find how these patterns connect with one another
5. Compose thesis
6. Polish outline, ensuring that each point (from thesis to the most basic) is an argument and all arguments are supported with quotations or paraphrasing
7. Begin rough draft

Here’s a diagram of our process showing how each step contributes to the bottom-up creation of your paper:

We’ve set tentative deadlines as follows:

• Outlines should be wrapped by Tuesday/Wednesday of this week
• Final drafts on Monday of next

If you can, please compose your outline and paper in Google Docs, as you can share the live document with me for questions/editing.

Excellent discussions over the past few days! Glad to see we’re back in the swing of things. Below is a short overview of our goals this week and how they tie into the ultimate goal: writing the final paper. If you have questions, post them below, send me an email, stop me in the hall, or ask in class. This is confusing because it is new; don’t be ashamed if you feel like you aren’t getting it. That’s a sign that you’re learning. Keep asking questions until it clicks.

The assignment, as mentioned previously, is to write an essay answering the following question: In what ways is  Frankenstein a Romantic work?

In other courses the teacher may lecture over the Romantic Era and ask you to apply your notes to the novel. ((FYI, this is an example of a deductive exploration/explanation. The teacher gives you a definition, you assert whether or not an example (the novel) matches that definition.)) This is all well and good, but you guys need a challenge. Rather than providing you with a definition of Romanticism, I am asking you to note the themes of a number of Romantic works (the “Frankensources” packet) and use those to come up with a working explanation of the Romantic ethos. ((This is informal inductive reasoning; those who have played with the scientific method before will recognize the pattern.)) You will then use those to support your claims about Frankenstein‘s romanticism.

Today we began with very basic patterns—assertions of mankind’s apparent greatness, the importance of creativity, light-as-knowledge imagery, etc.—and played with how we could tie them together. It is important to realize that there aren’t any “wrong” answers here, just poorly supported ones. You can check the validity of your pattern by finding it elsewhere in the packet, or by finding other symbols arguing something similar. If all signs are pointing to the importance of a person’s humility and you find arguments in favor of man’s godlike nature, go back through your notes to see if you missed something. Or ask during class. Asking is always good.