English 3336 Restoration and Eighteenth Century Literature
Prompt # 1
12 September 2011
 

Getting a grip

This is an unusual course in many ways. Because of that, we're going to spend an unusual amount of time introducing how it's going to work, mainly by reading and discussing the document that will be distributed with this, an introduction to English 3336. In my experience, people need some time to digest a document like this -- and to think about whether it's a course they want to continue with. This isn't a perfunctory or trivial question: if you're going to be unhappy because of the way this course is conducted, or find it difficult to learn because this isn't how you learn best, it's far better for you to be in another course, and it's not too late to change.

We'll begin that process of finding out what you're in for this afternoon, and we'll spend some additional time on it Wednesday. I want to avoid, if I can, someone saying in November, or February, that if they'd only known . . . .

As with other activities in this course, especially early on, I'll provide some structure. Today it'll work like this. First, I'm going to ask you to write something.

Then I'll take ten or fifteen minutes to offer a sort of basic outline and deal with some administrative matters. I'll hand out copies of the course introduction, and invite you to take them away and read them. (If you've taken a course with me before, you will probably have read similar documents; but, in my experience, it will be useful to spend some time with this one, because things change every year and with every course.) Read it carefully, marking things you'd like to know more about, putting question marks in the margin, etc.

Beginning a discussion

Between now and Wednesday we'll begin a discussion of the document. A good way to read closely is to annotate a copy of it. The printed copy I'll distribute has been formatted with wide margins at the right, to give you space for questions, comments, reflections, reminders, expressions of enthusiastic agreement or skeptical hostility. Read with a pen in your hand, and a highlighter nearby. Record your reactions as they occur.

What we're going to to with these in class Wednesday is read each other's annotations (I'll set up some groups to do this, so you don't wind up trying to read all of them) and decide on some that are especially immediate. We'll discuss them. So, as you read, think of what you're doing as beginning, with your pen, a discussion of what this course will be like -- a discussion focused not only on you, but on others in the class. If much of this is familiar to you (because you've had a course organized as a collaborative investigation, for example), think about what others may misunderstand, or not notice, and make notes of that.

Spend what time you need for it, but don't skim through it and say "it all seems pretty clear." You should be able to find quite a lot that might profit from elaboration or clarification. Bring your annotated copy with you to class on Wednesday afternoon.

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