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ENG 255 Writing Assignments

Explication, interpretation, and critical essay must cover 4 different stories. See links below for details.

10% Story Interpretation: submit to the appropriate conference by 9:00 a.m. on the assigned date.

        What's expected:

• In the opening lesson, briefly introduce yourself to classmates. (Send me your interpretation choices and attachment via email). This lesson is required but not graded.

• In completing all lessons (except the opening, the exam, and the critical essay), submit your own response to the stories which shows a thoughtful interpretation of the work and that you’ve read your classmates' responses. When appropriate, respond to your classmates' posts.

• Your lesson responses should be about 200-300 words; additional responses to classmates may be much shorter. You may choose to write more than the required posts on the stories and you may write a single longer response in the form of a reply to a classmate. The reply should be expanding or adding to, not repeating, what your classmate has written.

• In evaluating your work I look for the point you are making about the story, the support you've given (usually with text references), and evidence that you have read other students’ posts so you don't repeat what's already been said.

• By the end of the course, each student has responded to every lesson and posted the interpretation assignment to the appropriate discussion and the critical essay topic to the lesson 10 discussion.

Follow these guidelines:

• Be sure to complete the topic with words that describe the main point your commentary, i.e. "Désirée's Baby--setting"
• Use your own words  (see academic honesty statement).
• Consider explaining your reactions to the story--your feelings and your thoughts about the story's problems, ideas, characters, setting.
• Do not attempt to answer all the questions in the lesson, but use them to help you think about the story and develop a meaningful response. You may use one or two questions to focus your commentary or pose your own questions, especially when anything is confusing or ambiguous.
• When there are two stories in a lesson, you must respond to both to earn an A for the discussion.
• Read your classmate's responses before posting your own so you can ADD to or EXPAND what's been written rather than repeating.
• Except in some replies to another post, you need to support your response with text references or quotations. Write page numbers in parentheses (following MLA format).
  MLA format would be (Hawthorne 50) for a reference to page 50 of Hawthorne's "The Birth-mark."
• You may also compare various characters, themes, and other story elements. One helpful response is noting a particular sentence or passage and explaining its significance to character or theme.

C. You may choose to reply to other students' commentary in the Lesson conferences by 9:00 a.m.--on the day following the closing date of the lesson. This response should show that you have carefully read other students' interpretations. Avoid repeating what another student wrote except when necessary to clarify.