English 3336 Restoration and Eighteenth Century Poetry and Prose
Prompt # 44
1 Foreveruary 2012
Sharpening the focus
Considering today's reports
I don't know about anybody else, but I think the reports on the forum by noon today are wonderful. Almost universally thoughtful and firmly rooted in scholarship. We have lots to go on; if you haven't read all of them attentively, that's really the next thing you should do.
A discussion
I propose that everyone think back over your reading of these reports and see if you can come up with one recommendation of a work different from the one or two you recommended yourself that you found yourself being persuaded by. I'll ask everybody to propose one, and say in a sentence or phrase what they found important or persuasive, and we'll put the reports up on the screen one at at time and consider them.
So, first, if you can, write down one recommendation -- what work was recommended, and who recommended it -- on a card. We'll take the first part of the class for this, so that if you don't remember you can go back through the page and reconstruct it. I'll make the computer at the front available, and we usually have a laptop or two around; or you can go to the lab if you need to, and can do it quickly.
What we'll probably do
My expectation is that there are going to be some works that some people read and write descriptive reflections on, which the rest of us read, and some works that we'll all read. Further, I expect that between now and Monday we'll be sending people off to do exploratory readings and report back. So be thinking about that as we discuss the works and why they're worth reading.
I'll immortalize whatever decisions we come to by posting them, later today, in the next prompt.
For next time
There will be a reading and posting assignment, obviously; it'll be outlined in the prompt. But most immediately, I'll give the cards back and ask you to post the substance of what you said on your card as a reply to the posting you chose as persuasive. That way we'll have a record. Do this before this evening.