Dr Ellen Moody. My homepage address: http://www.jimandellen.org/ellen/emhome.htm; for Course Materials, go to http://www.jimandellen.org/gmuhom e/emcourse.htm. My preferred email address is: Ellen2@JimandEllen.org.

Advanced Writing: On the Humanities

This is an advanced writing course. In some ways it may remind you of the introductory college freshmen writing course you took a few semesters ago. We will talk about how to write plainly and clearly, about the ways of constructing arguments, about how to synthesize materials to compose a research paper, about punctuation, documentation -- about, in short, everything we can think of having to do with writing essays; and we will read and discuss full- length books, stories, and essays.

The course will, however, differ from the introductory course in that you will be asked to use these skills to write about imaginative literature and film in such a way as to cover all the aspects of the arts in our culture: words, music, pictures, landscape, architectural spaces. We will delve into how artists transform their experiences into art and how readers and viewers respond. We will deal with "high" and serious art and pop culture. We are looking to see how our memories of books, films, music, pictures, buildings and landscapes to have helped to make us what we are today. Since there is no specific art prerequisite for this course, our perspective and discussions cannot be specialized or narrowly-focused on any art form: you do not have to have taken a film study course to do well here. The background knowledge assumed is that of the typical generally-educated reader who has attained Junior status in a senior college.

Required Texts (in the order we will read them)

• Trimble, John. Writing with Style: Conversations on the art of writing. NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1999. Second edition. ISBN 0-13-025713-3.
• Carr, J. L. A Month in the Country. NY: New York Review of Books edition, 2000. ISBN 09403224
• Corrigan, Timothy. A Short Guide to Writing about Film. NY: Longmans, 2003-6. Fourth, fifth, or sixth edition. It doesn't matter which. ISBN (for fifth edition): 0321096657.
• Patchett, Ann. Bel Canto. NY: Harper Perennial, 2005. ISBN 0060838728
• Swift, Graham. Last Orders. NY: Vintage, 1997. ISBN 0679766626.
• Mason, Bobbie Ann. The Girl Sleuth: On the trail of Nancy Drew, Judy Bolton, and Cherry Ames. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1995. ISBN 082031739X
• Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice, ed. Margaret Drabble. NY: Signet, 2008. ISBN 0451530780. (Alternative Pride and Prejudice, ed. Tony Tanner NY:Penguin, 1972. ISBN 0140430725)
• James, Henry. Daisy Miller. NY: Modern Library, 2002. ISBN 0375759662
• Nafisi, Azar. Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books. NY: Random, 2004. ISBN 081297106X

Required Films:

• A Month in the Country. 1987 Channel Four/Orion Film. Produced by Kenneth Trodd. Director, Pat O'Conner; screenplay, J. L. Carr and Simon Gray; starring Colin Firth, Kenneth Branagh, Natasha Richardson, Patrick Malahide, Richard Vernon, Jim Carter, Vicki Arundale, Martin O'Neile, Tim Barker, Eileen O'Brien, Barbara Marten, Kenneth Kitsen, Elizabeth Anson. Original Music: Howard Blake. 96 minutes.
• Last Orders. 2001 Columbia Tristar Picture. Executive Producer: Ed Atkinson. Directed by Fred Schepisi; screenplay Fred Schepisi and Graham Swift; starring Helen Mirren, Bob Hoskins, Michael Caine, Tom Courteney, David Hemmings, Ray. Winston, J. J. Field. Original Music: Paul Grabowsky. 109 minutes.
• Daisy Miller. 1974 Paramount film, produced and directed by Peter Bogdanovich, from screenplay by Frederick Raphael, adapted from story by Henry James, starring Cybill Shepherd as Daisy Miller, Barry Brown as Frederick Winterbourne, Chloris Leachman as Mrs Ezrar Miller. 91 minutes
• We will see selections from a few film adaptations of Pride and Prejudice, to wit, the 1995 BBC/A&E Pride and Prejudice, produced by Sue Birtwistle, directed by Simon Langton, written by Andrew Davies, starring Jennifer Ehle, Colin Firth, Benjamin Whitrow, Alison Steadman, David Bamber, Adrian Lukis, Suzannah Harker; 1998 Warner You've Got Mail, produced by Nora Ephron and Lauren Shuler Donner, directed by written by Nora Ephron (based on Samson Raphaelson's Shop Around the Corrner, itself an update and adaptation of Nikolaus Laszlo's Shop Around the Corner), starring Tom Hanks, Meg Ryan; 2001 Miramax Columbia Tristar Bridget Jones's Diary, directed by Sharon Macguire, written by Helen Fielding and Andrew Davies, starring Renee Zellweger, Hugh Grant, Colin Firth, Gemma Jones, Jim Broadbent; 2004 Pathe Bride and Prejudice, produced & directed by Gurinder Chadha, written by Paul Mayeda Berges, starring Aishwarya Rai, Martin Henderson.

Required Writing:

You are required to write three essays; to pass an open-book midterm exam and open-book final exam (which will take the form of writing essays in class on the books and films and answering short answer questions outside), and to give one short talk.

First Essay (#1)

Writing About Art. You asked to go to a museum and describe a painting, sculpture or other artefact defined as art or craft that you see there. A list of museums in DC and the surrounding area will be handed out. You can also describe a building if it's one that has been made by an architect with aesthetic values in mind or if it's a historically preserved building. See online models.

Second Essay (#2)

Writing about Music. You can asked to write an essay in which you describe a piece of music. We will discuss how to go about this and use the online models.

Third Essay (#3)

In Search of Lost Time

• Our last two books, Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Teheran and Bobbie Ann Mason's The Girl Sleuth are about what reading can mean to people personally. I will ask you (about a third of the way through the semester) to find, and then (for the research essay of the semester) read and write about a favorite book of your own choice from your early adolescence or teenage years.

  You are asked to try to remember what you were when you first read this book and the circumstances of your life; then to try to remember why you liked it. When you reread your book, try hard to call to mind how your present reading may differ from the first one. Write an essay about the experience of this rereading. Another way to put this is: write about how the book seems to you now as opposed to the way you now remember it seemed to you when you first read it.

  Our short talks will in fact be "little talking practices" of how to analyze literary texts and art. You are (in effect) asked to take what we have learned in class and apply it to your favorite book from later childhood. We will be discussing how reading affects our lives during the time the class covers Reading Lolita in Teheran and The Girl Sleuth.

• I do not rule out books from earlier childhood, but experience has shown me that a book which relies as much upon words as pictures leads to a more successful essay; it is also easier to remember our later childhood than our very early years. The earliest memories may be vivid, but they are fragmentary and unclear. The idea is to use memory and literary analysis. So Dr Seuss and the Madeleine books are good for this assignment, but very early childhood books, such as Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are will probably not provide you with the material you need to write.

  I am aware that many students may have a favorite film but would strongly prefer that you choose a book for this assignment. The idea is to analyze a text and discuss the techniques of literary analysis apart from the techniques of film analysis (which will be covered by the essays in class for the midterm and final). I will permit a favorite film if it is an adaptation of a book; then you are asked to find the original book, read it and and compare it to the film. You can use fairy and folk tales too. Here is a list of typical books to show you the kind and level of book that is most feasible.

• The aim is to search into your memory and self, to enact a group of beliefs; to wit, that people primarily read literature for pleasure, that they take away from it what they bring to it, and that, its value to them is individual. I would like you to chose a book which meant or still means something to you. If you begin with a genuine interest, the labor of analysis and research and all the rest of it may (I hope) be felt as a labor of love and the process be valuable to you in ways beyond learning how to write about books.

Length: 3-5 double-spaced typed pages. For this one you can go well over the limit if you want to (say 7 pages).

This is to be a researched essay and may be regarded as "the term project." I ask you to find four sources beyond your chosen book. Bobbie Ann Mason's The Girl Sleuth, about popular series books for girls, is the sort of book you might read for research into syndicated series and girls' books.

Here is a full bibliography of books on children's literature to help you.

The essay will include:

An Annotated Bibliography: As part of the researched essay, you will be asked to hand in an annotated bibliography. An annotated bibliography provides short summaries and evaluations of the books and essays used in a research paper. The skill of synopsis will be reviewed. Models will be provided.

An Abstract: You will also be asked to hand in an abstract of your own essay. We will in class learn to and practice the art of writing abstracts, of summarising, paraphrasing, and writing synopses.

The Short Talk

Talk is primary and writing secondary. I believe everyone can learn to write more clearly and enjoy writing more if he or she would only learn to talk on paper, to use the real language he or she might use in the classroom or any other natural situation which demands a certain coherence. Much of the advice you will find in John Trimble's Writing With Style is based on this belief. A good writer must learn to think of his material as something he is really communicating to someone else. The success of a communication in whatever media is measured not only by how the reader or listener receives it, but by whether the reader or listener truly understands and can apply to themselves what the artist has to say.

Thus, each student will be asked to prepare a coherent ten minute talk for classroom presentation on the readings from one of our books which is due the day he or she is scheduled to talk upon. The talks will begin the third week of the semester. Fundamentally what you must do is invent a clear instrumental thesis-statement and develop it coherently and concretely.

The whole class will listen and try to respond; their response will tell the student whether he or she has made him or herself clear; the ensuing dialogue and the student's own later thoughts about either what happened when he or she or another student talked will (it is hoped) teach everyone something about the basis of writing -- again, clear thinking in clear language which comes naturally to the speaker-writer.

Each student is asked to hand in an outline or cards (hand-written or typed) which he or she used to talk from, and I will return this material with the grade for the talk in the following session.

Open Book In-Class Writing

For the midterm, you will be asked to write about the texts and films we've covered up to that point: A Month in the Country,Bel Canto, and Last Orders. I will hand out a sheet of 20 short answer questions for you to type the answer to at home on Trimble, Writing with Style, and these three books. For the final you will be asked to write about the texts and films we've covered after the midterm: The Girl Sleuth, Daisy Miller, Pride and Prejudice, and Reading Lolita in Teheran. I will again hand out a sheet of 20 short answer questions for you to type the answers to at home on all four books.

There is a specific format for writing reviews of books and films which we will learn about. You will have the choice of writing one of the in-class essays in the review format or of following the literary essay with guidelines format. The writing in the course is generally intended to provide practice on how to select, elaborate upon and judge books, films, essays and all research sources. They are also intended to make you think about what is the best way to express analytical, evaluative, and appreciate ideas about art. Such essays usually include some or all of the following points:

1. the book's context and intended audience;
2. its thesis or theses;
3. your evaluative statement about this thesis and the book's content;
4. a synopsis or summary of its contents;
5. an analysis of the book to reveal how the author's background or biases help or hinder the author and the quality of the evidence.

We will discuss how a film review usually includes some or all of the following points:

1. the film's producer, director, intended audience, and (if applicable) screenplay;
2. its perspective (or "message");
3. your evaluative statement about this perspective;
4. a synopsis or summary of the story or literal content of the film;
5. an analysis of the film's techniques (presentation of characters, use and juxtaposition of scenes, use of music), dialogue, use of real actors, and particular ending to discuss how well or poorly the film conveyed its perspective.We will discuss the various approaches taken towards literary works and how a good literary or filmic review usually includes some or all of the following points:

Obviously the midterm and final will test whether you have read all the assigned books with care, watched all the assigned films with sophisticated criteria in mind, and to reward those who attended class and listened to the short talks. But they are not "jump-through the hoop" exercises in which I try to catch you in literal mistakes. They are intended to provide opportunities for learning about more kinds of writing in the arts.

Reading and Class Attendance:

Assumptions behind this course : I think that 1) something is to be gained by coming to class, and that we all can learn a great deal from one another; 2) good writing can be discussed in simple words, and exemplified, learned, practiced, and improved through imitation of models; 3) people who write well are often people who read a lot; and 4) the only way to improve one's writing is by much practice over a long period of time; so:

1. Classwork : I want everyone to attend class faithfully, to read all the books, and to participate in class discussions. I ask that you limit your unexcused absences to a minimum; I regard weeks of absence as one basis for a failing grade.
2. Writing Assignments: I have allowed ample time for 1) writing and revision of each essay; for 2) discussion of student models to help you see what is expected and give you ideas on how to go about a particular task; and for 3) the class as a single group to listen to, analyse and comment on one or more of the essays someone in the class has written. I will try my best to write comments on your essays which can help you how better to organize your thoughts, correct your grammar, and write lucidly and engagingly.

Grades:

By the end of the term there should be seven grades for each student on my roster. These I will average together to form the final grade. I should have three grades for the three essays, one for the short talk, one for the midterm and one for the final, one for the short talk. All shorter assignments (the proposals I ask for, any in-class writing) will be averaged together to form a seventh grade. If you hand your essay in late, the grade will be pulled down one element for every session, it is late. You must give your talk on the day cited on the short talk schedule so as to ensure only one person will talk on a given day. If you do not give your talk, you must take an F and that will be factored into your final grade.

For the final grade for the course I take into account 1) your attendance record; 2) your participation in class; and 3) if you came for help if you needed it in planning the essay, thinking up a perspective; organizing and revising it. A teacher can tell when an essay or short talks is done with care, is something really thought about, something for which a genuine self-educational effort was made. I respect serious hard work and reward it when I see it. I will also reward someone whose work improves.

The Problem of Plagiarism:

DO NOT PLAGIARIZE. Plagiarism is defined by the GMU English Department as follows:

'"Plagiarism means using words, opinions, or factual information from another person without giving that person credit. Writers give credit through accepted documentation styles, such as parenthetical citation, footnotes, or end notes; a simple listing of books and articles consulted is not sufficient."

If I discover that you have plagiarized, I will follow the guidelines of the English department which require that I fail or report you to the Chair of my Department. I am serious about this.

How to contact me outside class:

Without an appointment:

Write to me by e-mail. My strongly preferred address is Ellen2@JimandEllen.org Please do not write to me at emoody@osf1.gmu.edu. I rarely look at that address and cannot take attachments through it. You can write me 24 hours a day at Ellen2@JimandEllen.org; I look at my mail at least twice a day, and I write back. Be sure to type the e-mail address to which you wish me to send my reply at the end of your message. Please feel free to write me. I will provide thorough commentary on any drafts of essays that you send me through my e-mail addresses.

You can call the phone in the office I use (993-1176) or leave a message in my box in the English Office, which is in Robinson Hall on the fourth floor. I have no voice mail, and there is no way you can fax me. However, remember that I am on campus only on Tuesdays and Thursdays; the secretaries will not call me and simply put notes in my box. Also, leaving essays in my box is a chancy business because materials get lost this way: no-one stands guard over the boxes. If you send an essay through an attachment, it doesn't always come through. The securest speediest way to get a late essay to me is still to bring it to the next class and give it to me warm hand to warm hand.

With an appointment Private conferences are available by appointment on Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:20 - 11:30, Robinson A455. Sign up on the stenography pad which will be placed on the corner of my desk every time the class meets.

Other Help Outside Class

The College of Arts and Sciences runs a University Writing Center where you will find tutors to help you with writing. Their phone number is 703-993-1200. Here is a description of the place and its services:

"The George Mason University Writing Center is a writing resource open to the entire university community, offering free tutoring in a comfortable, supportive atmosphere. During face-to-face and online sessions, trained graduate and undergraduate tutors form a variety of disciplines assist writers at all stage of the writing process. Tutors emphasize positive attitudes and stratgies that help writers at any level learn to evaluate and revise their work in order to be more confident and effective writers."

To find out more and to start to use the services offered, go to http://writingcenter.gmu.edu.

Calendar

Tues/Thurs, Aug 26th/28th

• In Class: Course introduction: brief explanation of syllabus and overview of course. Brief explanation of short talks. Watch the first half of A Month in the Country on Tuesday, and the second half on Thursday.
• Outside Class: For next week, read Trimble, Writing with Style, Chs 1-8 and E. L. Carr's A Month in the Country. Be prepared to be assigned one talk for the term from one of the seven novels and memoirs (see Short Talk schedules for choices and dates).

Tues/Thurs, Sept 2nd/4th

• In Class: Short Talks Given Out. Review Trimble; how to write about art; begin discussion of E. L Carr's A Month in the Country and O'Connor, Gray and Carr's film. In class writing.
• Outside Class: For Tuesday, 9/9: Read the rest of Trimble, Chs 9-12 (skim Chs 13-15), read, print out and bring to class the students models on art: "Bernini's Apollo and Daphne"; "The Red Fox Inn: Middleburg, Virginia"; and Marco Werlang's "Opening Scenes in A Month in the Country".

Tues/Thurs, Sept 9th/11th

• In Class: Proposal for Essay #1 is due. Short talk 1: The medieval history of bigotry & possible suicide uncovered by restoring the painting in A Month in the Country, book and film; Short Talk 2: The hidden history of private pain uncovered in the stories of Tom Birkin, Alice Keach and James Moon in A Month in the Country, book and film. Short Talk 3: How religion functions to make the modern community and exclude people in the present in A Month in the Country, book and film.
• Outside class: Read half way through Bel Canto; Chapters 1-3 of Corrigan's Short Guide to Writing about Film and two student models on writing about music: Plainsong; and Melissa Etheride's "Royal Station 4/16; Read and bring to class the guidelines for analyzing a literary work: How to write a literary essay; also Bart Hart's Social Stratification and Class Consciousness in 19th Century England as depicted in Stephen Frears's Mary Reilly, Jennifer Klopsis, "The Class System in the Two Novels"

Tues/Thurs, Sept 16th/18th

• In Class: Essay #1 due during Thursday session. The classes are devoted to talking about how to write about film, how to write about music and introduction of Bel Canto
• Outside Class: Finish reading Bel Canto.

Tues/Thurs, Sept 23rd/25th

• In Class: Return and discussion of Essay #1. Short talk 4: Turning a Newstory into a Novel in Bel Canto; Short Talk 5: How does Patchett make us identify with the "terrorists" as strongly as we do with the hostages in Bel Canto. Short Talk 6: How does music function to bring people together in Bel Canto?
• Outside Class: Proposal for Essay #2 is due. Read Corrigan, Chapter 4; read half-way through Last Orders.

Tues/Thurs, Sept 30th/Oct 2nd

• In class: Proposal for Essay $2 is due for the Tuesday session. The class watches all of Last Orders. We discuss six different approaches to film. Begin discussion of Last Orders.
• Outside class: Finish Last Orders.

Tues/Thurs, Oct 7th/9th

• In Class: We discuss Swift's book, Schepisi's film: Last Orders Short talk 6: How myths of successful masculinity (you must have children, they must be successful, you must make a lot of money, you should be handsome &c&c) shaped the mens' lives in Last Orders. Short talk 7: The limited options fo women's lives in Last Orders: Amy, Mandy and Susie. Short Talk 8: The function of the stop-off places in the journey to the Margate in Last Orders.
• Outside class: Write or finish Essay #2. Read student models and bring to class an announced selection: Virginia Emery's "What Human Beings Treasure Most". Mariam Popal's A comparison of Ann Radcliffe's Romance of the Forest with Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility; "Gothic Landscape in Trollope's An Eye for an Eye". We will discuss the coming midterm. You will be asked to write two essays in class: the first on the function of art and music in A Month in the Country and Bel Canto; the second on journeys in Last Orders.

Thurs/Tues, Oct 16th/21st

• In Class: Essay #2 is due. Handout of questions for the midterm. Discussion of how to write a book review; of how to write a film review. Return and discussion of Essay #2.
• Outside Class: Prepare for midterm on Thurs; read Mason's The Girl Sleuth, Chs 1-3 for the following Tuesday. Browse both the bibliography for children's literature and list of children's books. Name of book and 2 sources for it for Essay #3 due Thurs, Oct. 30th.

Thurs/Tues, Oct 23rd/28th

• In Class: Open-book in class midterm, Oct 23rd. The importance of children's books and films. Short Talk 9: Racism and Male and Female Stereotypes in Children's Books (Chapters 1-3 in The Girl Sleuth).
• Outside Class: Read Mason's The Girl Sleuth, Chs 4-6 for Thursday; read the student models for Essay #3 and bring to class announced selection: "On Rereading The Wind in the Willows", "Go Ask Alice: A Believable Diary About Drug Use", "A Rediscovery of the Velveteen Rabbit", "E. B. White and Charlotte's Web, "A Memory to Live By: Where the Red Fern Grows", and the Instructions for how to write an abstract. For following Tuesday, read Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Teheran, Part One.

Thurs/Tues, Oct 30th/Nov 4th

• In Class: Return and discussion of midterms. How literature functions politically and personally for adults. Name of book and 2 sources due 11/4. Short Talk 10: Pseudo-power, classism, and glamor in Nancy Drew (as described and analyzed by Mason, Ch 4). Short Talk 11: Alternate Sleuths: country and rich girls, nurse, flight attendants, advertising agents (as described and analyzed by Mason,Chs 5-6). I will provide some background about the Iran/Iraq war, Iraqi revolution, and four different authors in Reading Lolita in Teheran. Short talk 12: How the group of young women and Nafisi formed their secret class, Chs 1-11 in Part One (Reading Lolita).
• Outside Class: Read Azar Nafisi's Reading Lolita, Part Two. Find or obtain a copy of your chosen book for #3. Do Practice I for learning to write an abstract.

Thurs/Tues, Nov 6th/11th

• In Class: Hand in name of book and 2 sources for #3 (second chance). How to write an abstract, how to write an annotated bibliography; how to compose an abstract. Short Talk 13: Nafisi's personal experience of returning to Iran after the first revolution, Chapters 1-11 of Part Two (Reading Lolita). Short Talk 14: Lolita as a book about male tyranny and fantasy and Great Gatsby as a book about aspiration: do you agree or disagree: Chs 12-15, Part One, and 17-19, Part Two (Reading Lolita). We watch all of Daisy Miller in class.
• Outside Class: Read Part Three of Reading Lolita and Henry James's Daisy Miller. Do Practice 2 for learning to write an abstract. You should be working on Proposal for Essay #3 is due.

Thurs/Tues, Nov 13th/18th

• In Class: Proposal for Essay #3 is due 11/13. Short talk 15: The hostile attitude towards young women's independence and sexuality in Daisy Miller, book and film. Short Talk 16: Nafisi's experience of the 1980 revolution, Chapters 1-11 of Part Three of Reading Lolita. Short Talk 17: The nobility and danger of ignoring or defying social mores in the fiction of Henry James, Nafisi's classroom, and in the lives of her young women students, Chapters 12-35 of Part Three of Reading Lolita. The class will go over Practice II. Introducing Jane Austen and Pride and Prejudice
• Outside Class: Read half-way through Austen's Pride and Prejudice (or as far as you can).

Thurs/Tues, Nov 20th/25th

• In Class: About half this week's time will be devoted to seeing excerpts from several films of Pride and Prejudice. Short talk 18: Why was Pride and Prejudice originally titled First Impressions? Short talk 19: Mortification and Love in P&P. Short talk 20: Money, class, and marriage in P&P. We will watch parts of different film adaptations of Pride and Prejudice.
• Outside Class: Finish P&P; read Part Four of Nafisi's Reading Lolita. Finish Essay #3. Prepare to give 2-3 minute presentation on the progress of your research paper.

Tues/Thurs, Dec 2nd/4th

• In Class: Dec 4th: Essay #3 (with abstract and annotated bibliography) is due. Short Talk 21: Parallels between Austen's novels and Nafisi's girls in Part Four (Reading Lolita). Short Talk 22: Family barbarity, state terrorism and books in people's lives, Part Four (Reading Lolita) 2-3 minute presentations of progress of research papers. Review for final. Twenty short answer questions handed out.
• Outside class: Prepare for final.

Thurs/Tues, Dec 11th/16th:

• Last session: Section 302.H06: Thurs, Dec 11th, 7:30-10:15 am, Fine Arts Building B112; Section 302.H07: Tues, Dec 16th, 7:30-10:15 am, Robinson A109. In class writing of essay part of final. This will be two in-class open book essays, to which you will add your answers (typed at home) to a sheet of 20 short answer questions handed out the last day of class. you will be asked to write two essays; one on the relationship of Daisy Miller and Pride and Prejudice to a central concern of Reading Lolita in Teheran: the right of all human beings to be allowed to chose and work for their destiny free from imposed brutality and fear; the other a comparison of one of the films we've seen this term with its eponymous novel: you may write comparing the film A Month in the Country with J.L. Carr's novella, or the film Last Orders with Graham Swift's novel, or the film, Daisy Miller, with Henry James's novella.