Canonball Project Foss 335B F11

Return to ENGL 335B, British Romantic Literature.

Canonball Project
This project represents your own shot at contributing to the on-going process of canon formation. It is the centerpiece of the course, your opportunity to participate in the selection of our reading assignments and, potentially, to add a lasting legacy to the course. Remember, every single student from the last version of this course now has at least one Canonball text as part of your calendar this time around.

This project has two components (an oral presentation and a short essay). The first thing you need to do, however, is to select an appropriate text or texts for approval. There are a couple of criteria your textual canonball must meet to be deemed acceptable: (1) it is found within the covers of our slim Mellor and Matlak anthology; (2) it was not assigned by yours truly as part of the calendar of readings; (3) if prose, it is not more than 3 pages, unless granted special permission by yours truly; and (4) if poetry, it is not more than 75 lines, unless granted special permission by yours truly.

All cannonball proposals must be submitted to me via me email on or before Tuesday, March 15, or you will not be allowed to present your canonball to the class. All of you will be assigned, by yours truly, to one of the four class periods currently listed as student presentation days on the calendar. That period will be the day you are required to orally present your argument for the placement of your text(s) within our BRL canon. I will be posting the Canonball calendar of readings to the wiki by Thursday, March 17 (if not before), and you should all check for your assigned presentation day as soon as possible just in case you end up being assigned to present on the first day, Thursday, March 24.

You will need to post a first draft of what eventually will be your Canonball paper to the wiki by 11:00 a. m. the day of your presentation. You should present this same draft to us in class, so do not plan on revising between this deadline and the class meeting. You will have 7-9 minutes to read your draft to us; there likely will be questions for you after all the presenters have gone. I will assess both the quality of your ideas and your delivery of the material in determining your grade. Where the former is concerned, please remember that this should be a thesis-driven argument about your text’s significance. Where the latter is concerned, please remember that you want to establish frequent eye contact with your audience; pace and pitch also will impact your grade for the presentation. For further information on what I will be looking for, please see the Oral Presentation Rubric handout I will use to assess your performance.

For helpful hints on writing critical essays, remember to consult Some information about essay writing from your beloved professor of BRL. The final version (750-1250 words, double-spaced, and following MLA formatting guidelines) will be due in class one week after your presentation meeting. Be sure to pledge this paper, and to include your word count for me.

You also need to post your final version to the wiki by this same deadline; you either can just replace your draft version with the final, or have both up (just make sure they are labeled clearly if both are there).

Ready! Aim!! Fire!!!

some sample drafts