Objective: As a final activity in this course, you will participate in fishbowl seminars that will allow you to synthesize material we have read in class, connect it to the course themes, as well as demonstrate your skills in seminaring and participating in the learning community.

Process: The class will be divided into four groups (see below) and each group will be assigned a novel to focus on primarily.  As you prepare for seminar, you will want to think about the novel in connection to all of the non-fiction texts we have read in the course.  You will want to make synthesis connections between the novel and the more analytical/theoretical texts.  Note that while you should use this novel as a starting point, you are also encouraged to make connections between and among the other texts as well—so you may make connections between Freire and Johnson or between Collins and Welter, for example.  You may also bring in other pieces of literature—such as the short stories–that we have read and also make connections among the novels.  You will do a 45 minute seminar in which your group will make up the inner circle and the rest of the class will be on the outside.  After 45 minutes, we will open up the discussion so members of the class can comment and ask questions.

Preparation: To prepare for your seminar, look at the course theme and program/learning objectives (knowledge, attitude and skills) listed in the syllabus. Also, read carefully the “Central Guiding Questions” in the syllabus.  Then go back to the texts, noting passages that relate to the course themes, learning objectives and these central questions.  Make notes for yourself about connections you make and/or how the texts help you to answer these questions.  You will also want to make notes about connections you find between and among the texts, beginning with the novel that you are assigned and branching out from there to consider connections among the other texts. It also will be a good idea to go back over the handouts on how to seminar and seminaring roles.  You should also go back through your seminar preparation papers and class notes to prepare.

During your seminar, work together to discuss points of connection among the texts as well as specific ways in which the texts have helped you to think about the course theme and central questions.  You will want to be careful to make clear points and illustrate them by reading aloud passages in the texts.  You will want to also explain how you think the passages help to support the points–(P.I.E.).  Remember the elements of good seminar behavior (see attached sheet).  You will be evaluated on your ability to work with your seminar group to “mine” the texts and make connections.

Group #1: December 7^th (Sula)

Axel                 Jody          Wendy

Eric                  Raquel

Matthew           Clare

Kimberly          Alysssa

Jaison               Jason

Group #2: December 7^th (Hunger)

Kira                 Maija       Payal

Liz                    Vanessa

Paulina             Atsede

Roya                J.J.

Risa                  Garius

Group #3: December 9^th (Solar Storms)

Colin                Sarah               Sherry

Tri                    Kathryn

Xuyen              Linh

Jordan              Jeffrey

Nate                 Becky

Group #4 December 9^th (Under the Feet of)

Tania                Danny

SiSi                  Kalvin

Annabelle         Hiro

Kat                  Amanda

Lucia                Jin

Steps that may help you in isolating a specific, arguable claim are also listed below:

• Step One: Isolate strong supporting examples from the literary source.
• Step Two: Draw out the implications of these examples using logical support and critical thinking.
• Step Three: Make connections with theory or concepts that expand and develop your point.
• Step Four: Arrive at your claim by articulating an argument and its stakes.

Synthesis Analysis Essay

REQUIREMENTS:

Rough Draft: At least 2 pages typed, double-spaced and due on Friday, December 4th.   Remember to bring 3-4 copies of your rough draft on Friday December 4^th to the peer workshop!

Final Draft: 3-5 pages typed, double-spaced and due on Friday, December 11^th.

On the final draft due date, please assemble papers in this order:

1. Assignment sheet with Grading Rubric
2. Final Draft, clearly labeled as “final draft”
3. Rough Draft, clearly labeled as “rough draft”
4. Outline (optional)
5. Working Thesis with List of Quotes (Due on Wednesday, December 2nd)
6. Revision Activity (optional)
7. Peer Evaluations
8. Process Letter (to be done in class)

ASSIGNMENT:

For this essay, apply one or more theoretical concepts from one of the works of theories of the class to a literary analysis of one of the novels of the class.  In other words, synthesize theory with a work of literature in order to analyze literature through the lens of gender/women studies.

Since you will be integrating the modes of thinking from two different disciplines, gender and women studies and literary analysis, you will need to demonstrate both an understanding of the theory/theories (make sure you take into account the overall context/integrity of their ideas) as well as an analysis of literary element(s) such as symbolism, narrative structure, irony, etc.

For the theory, you may choose among readings by Freire, Johnson, Welter, Hill Collins, Espiritu, and Gunn Allen (the “Introduction” to Spider Woman’s Granddaughters), as well as the articles we read in Toxic Struggles. For literature you may choose either Helena Maria Viramontes’ Under the Feet of Jesus, Lan Samantha Chang’s Hunger, Toni Morrison’s Sula, or Linda Hogan’s Solar Storms.  HOWEVER, you must analyze a novel that you did not use for Essay #2. For example, if you wrote your literary analysis on Sula, then that novel cannot be one of your choices for this synthesis analysis essay.

One good way to approach this assignment is to ask a question about how a theory or an aspect of a theory applies to the literature.  For example:

1. How does Yen Le Espiritu’s theory of the double bind of race and gender for Asian American women OR the idea that Asian Americans confront the racist notion of being “permanent houseguests in the U.S.” apply to the challenges faced by the characters in Lan Samantha Chang’s Hunger?
2. How does Patricia Hill Collins’ theory that literature by Black women is crucial in “Challenging […] controlling images” (Collins 67) of Black women apply to Toni Morrison’s novel Sula?
3. How does Paula Gunn Allen’s theory that “the Indian ethos is neither individualistic nor conflict-centered”(Gunn Allen 6) apply to Linda Hogan’s Solar Storms?  How might this theory apply to Viramontes’ Under the Feet of Jesus?
4. How does Gloria Anzaldua’s theory about borderlands consciousness and/or her discussion of the history of Chicano(a)s help us to understand the characters and conditions in Viramontes’ Under the Feet of Jesus?
5. How does Barbara Welter’s theory about the cult of True Womanhood be applied to the ways in which Morrison, Viramontes or Hogan challenges ideologies of “piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity” (Welter 115) of  “true” women through the novel?
6. How do Freire’s ideas about naming as a way to counter the objectification and dehumanization of oppression play out in the Viramontes’ novel Under the Feet of Jesus?  How do you find the controlling images as defined by Patricia 6. Hill Collins and used by Espiritu (see handout on definition of controlling images) challenged by any of the novels we have read?
7. How do the theories discussed in Toxic Struggles about the ways in which racism is tied to environmental injustice apply to Solar Storms and Under the Feet of Jesus?
8. How do the feminist theories about eco-feminism and dialectical thinking with respect to binaries such as nature/culture apply to Hogan’s and/or Viramontes’ novels?

These are not the only questions.  Feel free to come up with your own questions about how theory applies to literature or, if one of these speaks to you, go ahead and use one of these sample questions as a way to come up with your thesis.  In other words, your thesis should be a concise 1-2 sentence answer to a question such as one of the sample ones.

HELPFUL HINTS:

Introduction and Thesis: Your introduction should set up the work(s) of theory you are going to use as well as the novel you have chosen.  This introduction should then lead into your thesis (at the end of your introduction) which should make an arguable claim about how the theory applies to the novel. In other words, do not simply state that the novel is an example of the theory, but instead make a specific claim of how the theory applies to what specific aspect/specific characters of the novel.

Body Paragraphs: Your body paragraphs should then support your thesis with clear topic sentences which support your thesis.  Remember PIE!

Conclusion: Your conclusion should wrap up your points, paraphrase your thesis if necessary, and draw a larger conclusion.

Other Hints:

• In essence, we are asking you to synthesize the theories you have learned from the field of Gender and Women Studies with literature. With this in mind you should note that any of the lectures that might apply can be used to supplement the readings (you can informally cite them simply by making an in-text note of who gave the lecture—for example: According to Karen’s lecture on the politics of location,….).  Films such as The Color of Fear, Ethnic Notions, Slaying the Dragon, In the White Man’s Image, Killing Us Softly, and Tough Guise can also be used to supplement the readings.
• In addition to being works of theory that can be used in this essay, the readings by Yen Le Espiritu, Patricia Hill Collins, and Paula Gunn Allen can also be used as models for synthesis analysis.  Note how Espiritu uses theories by Frank Chin, et. al. and Lisa Lowe to analyze the intersection of race and gender in Kingston’s The Woman Warrior.  Patricia Hill Collins and Paula Gunn Allen are also models of this type of synthesis in that they also apply theories found in Gender and Women Studies to their analysis of literature.
• Keep in mind that your seminar preparations, especially the one on Solar Storms, are also a good model for this process.

• Note that now you are synthesizing two or more works, so you will need to include the author’s last name in your parenthetical citation.  Look at how the quotes integrated in the sample questions are cited.

Bastyr University Advising Appointments: Appointments are still available! Call 527-3658 or drop by to make an appointment to meet with a Bastyr U advisor.

Wednesday, Dec 2nd

UW Bothell Advising Appointments

Wednesday, Dec 2nd @ 12-1:30pm (Green Room Espresso Lounge) -

Write a Winning Personal Statement Workshop: Your personal statement is one of the most important parts of your college application! Join Loft director, Daniel Tarker, to learn general strategies for translating college application descriptions into a personal statement, and for planning and composing your essay

Continue reading Hogan’s novel carefully and actively, taking notes on various themes you find in the novel, and continuing to be aware of the ways in which the structure of the novel, its themes, its characters, setting, and plot might be an example of Native American literature as Paula Gunn Allen discusses it in the introduction to Spider Woman’s Granddaughters. You might also want to think about how other theoretical works we have read by Freire, Johnson,  Hill Collins, Espiritu, Welter, or the articles in Toxic Struggles can be applied to themes in the novel.  What connections can you make between the ideas and concepts we have studied and the themes, narrative structure, characters, etc. of the novel?

Writing: This seminar assignment will consist of one claim and two paragraphs, each written using the PIE format to practice developing a claim by integrating quotations into your writing.

1. First, identify one theoretical concept (key point of discovery) you have been able to find from either Gunn Allen’s introduction or another text that contains theoretical ideas.  Some examples of concepts are: American Indian and Western aesthetics, controlling images, privilege, praxis, false generosity, path of least resistance, borderlands consciousness.  As you choose this concept, make sure that you can recognize how it might apply to Hogan’s novel.  In your notes for yourself, write your concept in a sentence or two and cite a page number and the author’s name from the text in which the concept/point is discussed.  (You don’t need to include this in your seminar paper unless it is helpful for you to do so.)
2. Once you have identified a theoretical concept, write a claim of no more than 1-2 sentences that clearly states how Solar Storms provides an example of the theoretical concept.  In other words your claim should answer the question:  How does this theoretical concept apply to the novel Solar Storms?
3. Then find two passages from the novel that provide clear examples in support of your claim.

For each passage write a PIE paragraph (total of 2) in which you:

• Introduce a point about the claim that states in a sentence or two how the passage from the novel exemplifies or supports your claim.
• Introduce a quotation that illustrates the point by setting up the context and making clear who is speaking and about what.  Be sure to integrate the quote effectively using one of the types of integration of quotes referred to in the ”Writing about Literature” handout.
• Write the quotation word for word and cite its page number using the MLA format.
• Finally, explain how the quotation helps the reader to understand the point.  Be explicit in saying how the quotation supports the point about this novel and the larger claim about how a specific theoretical concept applies to the novel.

Introductions

• An introduction has two main purposes – to catch the reader’s interest and to indicate the subject of the paper. It needs to perform both of these purposed smoothly, as an awkward introduction will only confuse your reader. Be sure to engage your reader as quickly as possible and to orient them to your attitude toward your subject. Your introduction should draw your readers into your paper and convince them to continue reading it.
• Your introduction should also, of course, include your claim, as well as set out a “roadmap” for your reader. Your thesis statement, usually the last sentence or two of the introduction, should be a clearly articulated statement outlining the specific argument that the rest of your paper will develop.  By the time your reader finishes reading your introduction, they should know what you are going to argue and should have an understanding of how you are going to prove your argument.
• Do not think of your introduction as an “umbrella” paragraph under which all other points of your essay must fall. Rather, think of your introduction as a “doorway” to the more involved analysis and evidence you provide in the rest of your paper. Make sure that the points that you raise in your introduction relate directly to the subject of your paper. This is not the place to make broad generalizations about society, the world, human beings, etc
• If you find writing your introduction difficult, try writing it last – sometimes it is easier to write your introduction after you have written the body of your paper. Often, an effective introduction will be easier to write after you have developed your ideas during the course of writing the paper itself.

Conclusions

• If your conclusion says almost the same thing as your introduction, it may indicate that you have not done enough critical thinking during the course of writing your essay (since you ended up right where you started). By the end of your essay, you should have worked through your ideas enough so that your reader understands what you have argued and is ready to hear the larger point (i.e., the “so what?”) you want to make about your topic. Your conclusion should create a sense of development or movement to a more complex understanding of the subject of the paper.
• It is fine to introduce new information or quotations in your conclusion, as long as the new points grow from your argument. New points might be more general, answering the “so what” question; they might be quite specific. Just avoid making new claims that need lots of additional support.
• Vivid, concrete language is as important in a conclusion as it is elsewhere—perhaps more essential, since the conclusion determines the reader’s final impression of your essay. Do not leave them with the impression that your argument was vague or unsure.

In-Class Exercise:

Read the sample introduction below, then review the five different conclusions that grow from the same introduction.

We all know that textbooks dry history out completely, dehydrating the gripping stories and critical conflicts of the past to a dusty piece of history leather — tough and hard to digest. As I reviewed three conflicts of expansion in the western United States, I found some signs of life in the desert; compared to the texts I reviewed for our last adoption, the new textbooks offered more complete accounts and stronger analysis of the interactions between settlers and Native Americans, race and gender dynamics in the west, and the role of the federal government in all phases of western settlement. We have a much more palatable assortment of facts for our students to chew on, but is it any more substantial? Here, I question which of these texts will allow us to teach not just the facts, but the skills — reading, writing, questioning, and thinking critically — which we as a committee have decided should take precedence in our classes.

CONCLUSION STYLES

How has the author maintained continuity and/or developed the argument from the introduction? How has the author developed a focus over the course of the essay? What impression does each conclusion leave you with as a reader?

QUESTION

Which of these texts is best? The colorful pictures and graphics, the clear prose, the primary documents all have their appeal. But these tasty morsels distract us from asking the real questions—what are we teaching for? If we want our students to think like historians, then Land of the Free’s liberal use of primary documents, the very same documents historians use to construct the past, makes it our best choice. These letters, journals, newspapers and photographs can help us achieve our teaching goals, for they allow us and our students some freedom from textbook’s “facts” and a chance to listen directly to the voices from our past.

QUOTATION

To inspire critical thinking, we need materials that can help us move beyond the textbook and engage our students’ creativity. Of the three texts I reviewed, only Oh Say Can You See included a variety of supplementary materials to spice up our classes, from primary documents and historical film clips art slides and CD-ROMs. More importantly, the publishing company has a resource person available to help us integrate these materials into our lessons. On short, the variety of extra resources makes this textbook our best option, for it allows us the potential to revise John F. Kennedy’s famous plea, “Ask not what your textbook can do for you, but what you can do for your textbook.”

VIVID IMAGE

I remember what made history matter to me; as a high school student, I found the diary my grandmother kept during the depression. I carried that little leather-bound book with me everywhere, poring over its contents, seeking connections between my family’s past, my country’s past, and myself. From there it was a short step to a history major in college and a career dedicated to sharing my interest in the past and present with my students. If we want to inspire our students to move from memorizing facts to developing an interest in history, I recommend A More Perfect Union as our choice. This text’s attention to emotionally touching photographs and personal storied of the west offers us the best hope of enabling our students to make a personal connection with the past.

CALL TO ACTION!

Clearly, all three of the textbooks currently up for adoption have major flaws—but is it our responsibility to take these foundlings in and spend hours of quality time working with them? No! Instead of squandering our economic clout on these sub-standard texts, we can protest. Let’s delay the adoption until next year and lobby the textbooks companies to give us what we want—textbooks that give us history colored in all of its complexity, conflict, and compromise. We need books that will not deaden our minds, but which will rekindle the passion for knowledge that brought us to our field in the first place. In this way, perhaps, we can inspire our students as well.

WARNING

Any of these textbooks would be an adequate choice; certainly any of them is an improvement on the books we currently use. But merely adequate should not be enough. Only Land That I Love, with its blend of optimism and skepticism, models the kind of critical approach we expect our students to take in our classes. If we settle for another text, we face the prospect of another seven years of bored, passive students who simply expect to regurgitate the dry facts of the leather we currently pass off as history.

Transitions Between Paragraphs

When linking two paragraphs, the writer must explain how the two paragraphs are connected logically. Transitional words or phrases sometimes will be precisely what you need to underscore for your readers the intellectual relationship between paragraphs—to help them navigate your essay. Very often, such transitions:

• Address an essential similarity or dissimilarity (“likewise,” “in contrast”, “despite,” etc)
• Suggest a meaningful ordering, often temporal (“first,” “in addition”) or causal (“thus,” “therefore”)
• In a longer paper, remind the reader of what has earlier been argued (“in short,” “as has been said,” “on the whole”).

Tips for Transitioning

Since clarity and effectiveness of your transitions will depend greatly on how well you have organized your paper, you may want to evaluate your paper’s organization before you work on transitions. In the margins of your draft, summarize in a word or two what each paragraph is about or how it fits into your analysis as a whole. This exercise should help you to see the order and connection between your ideas more clearly.

If after doing this exercise you find that you still have difficulty linking your ideas together in a coherent fashion, your problem may not be with transitions but with organization. Perhaps something crucial is missing between this paragraph and it neighbors—most likely an idea or a piece of evidence or both. Maybe the paragraph is misplaced, and logically belongs elsewhere.

Common Transitional Words and Phrases:

·       Addition and Sequence: after, afterward, and, again, also, and then, besides, consequently, equally important, finally, following this, further, furthermore, nor, too, next, lastly, what’s more, moreover, in addition, first (second, etc.), now, subsequently, previously, simultaneously, concurrently, thus, therefore, hence

·       Cause and Effect: accordingly, as a result, because, consequently, for, for this reason, hence, so, then, therefore, thus

·       Compare and Contrast: whereas, but, yet, on the other hand, however, nevertheless, on the other hand, on the contrary, by comparison, where, compared to, up against, balanced against, vis a vis, but, although, conversely, meanwhile, after all, in contrast, although this may be true, similarly, likewise

·       Exception: yet, still, however, nevertheless, in spite of, despite, of course, once in a while, sometimes

·       Example: for example, for instance, in this case, in another case, on this occasion, in this situation, specifically, take the case of, to demonstrate, to illustrate, as an illustration, to illustrate

·       Summarize or Conclude: as has been noted, in brief, on the whole, summing up, to conclude, in conclusion, as I have shown, as I have said, hence, therefore, accordingly, thus, as a result, consequently, on the whole