Spring 2009

Syllabuses

Reading and Writing about Texts: Gothics, Realism and Other Worlds:
English 201.73 (Thurs, 4:30-7:10, Robinson A210)

Advanced Composition on the Natural Sciences and Applied Technology:
English 302N15 (Tues, 7:20-10:00, Enterprize 174)

Short Talk Schedules

Short Talks for English 201.73: Reading and Writing About Texts

Short Talks for English 302N15: Advanced Composition in the Natural Sciences and Technology

Bibliography and Notes Formats for All Students

• MLA Style (Modern Language Association): a list of entries with explanations (from Writers' Workshop).
• CBE Style (Council of Biology Editors): Chapter 6 of The CBE Manual for Authors, Editors, and Publishers.
• APA Style (American Psychological Association): the Fifth Edition of the APA Publication Manual (from Writers' Workshop).

For English 201.73

The Format Students Must Follow to Write Essays

The Essay with Guidelines

Student Models for English 201.73

For Short Talk
• Two Short Talks on Last Orders, Novel and Film: "Shifting Points of View versus Ensemble Cast and Flashbacks"
• One Student Talk on Chrtien de Troyes's Erec and Enide
Student Models for Essays with Guidelines:
• An Essay Following Guidelines on Three Anonymous Anglo-Saxon Poems
• An Essay Following Guidelines on Thomas Middleton's Jacobean play, Women Beware Women
  
• An Essay Following Guidelines comparing the treatment of passion in Ann Radcliffe's Romance of the Forest with Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility
  
• An Essay Following Guidelines comparing Robert Louis Stevenson's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde to Valerie Martin's Mary Reilly
• An Essay Following Guidelines on the use of gothic landscape and romance in Anthony Trollope's Anglo-Irish novel, An Eye for an Eye
• An Essay Following Guidelines on illusions and ghosts in Three Ghost Stories
  
Student Models for Comparisons of Novel and Films:
• On A Month in the Country, Novel and Film: The Power of Mise-en-scne versus Landscape and Dialogue: Opening Scenes.
• On Last Orders, Novel and Film: "Mise-en-scne versus Verbal Imagery: What Human Beings Treasure Most.
Student Model Film Review
• Stephen Frears's Mary Reilly: Social Stratification and Class Consciousness in 19th Century England

Further Online Materials for English 201.73: Gothics, Realism, and Other Worlds

• For Edith Wharton's "Afterward"
  • On her Supernatural Fiction
  • Karen Jacobsen's""Economic hauntings: wealth and class in EdithWharton's ghost stories", College Literature, 35 (2008):100-28.
  • Life, work, and writing
• For Mary Shelley and Frankenstein:
  • William Walling's ""Frankenstein," Chapter 2 of Mary Shelley (1972; rpt.Boston: Twayne, 1999)
  • Life, works, writing
• For Robert Louis Stevenson and Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde:
  • Irving Saposnik's ""The Anatomy of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde," Chapter 6 pf Robert Louis Stevenson (1974: rpt. Boston: Twayne, 1999).
  • Life, work,and writing
• For Valerie Martin and Mary Reilly
  • J. R. McClure's Smith's Valerie Martin's Re-visionary Gothic: the example of "Sea Lovers," Studies in Contemporary Fiction, 34:3 (1993):171-82
  • Rob Smith's "An interview with Valerie Martin," Contemporary Fiction, 34:1 (1993):1-18
  • Brainard Dulcy's "Valerie Martin; after years when her career seemed stalled, her new novel has excited wide interest", , 237:6 (1990):41-2.
  • Life, work, and writing
• For Tsitsi Dangarembga's Nervous Conditions
  • Literature Resource Center
  • GMU text and community website
• For Colm Toibin and Blackwater Lightship:
  • Martyn Beford's "Going Gently," New Statesman, 128:4458 (11 October 1999): 57-8.
  • Judy Lightfoot's "Blackwater Lightship: Rich and Vital,", Seattle Times, August 27, 2000. Online.
  • Life, work, and writing (1), Life, work, and writing (2)
• For Jhumpa Lahiri and The Namesake
  • Text of Gogol's Overcoat
  • Life, works and writing of Gogol
  • Overview of "The Overcoat"
  • "The Overcoat" as a ghost story.
  • Mandira Sen's "Names and Nicknames," review in Women's Review of Books, 21:6 (2004):9-10.
  • Michiko Kakutani's "From Calcutta to Suburbia: A Family's Perplexing Journey," New York Times, September 2, 2003.
  • Sarah Kerr's "Displaced Passions," New York Review of Books, 55:8 (May 8, 2009)
  • Life, work, and writing
• For Ian McEwan's Atonement
  • Brian Finney's "Briony's stand against Oblivion" in Ian McEwan's Atonement, Journal of Modern Literature, 27:3 (2004 Winter), pp. 68-82.
  • Hildago Pilar's "Memory and Story-Telling in Ian McEwan's Atonement, Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, 46:2 (2005 Winter), pp. 82-91.
  • Hermione Lee's review of Atonement, "If your memories serve you well ...", The Spectator, 23 September 2001
  • Life, work and writing (early horror fiction), Life, work and writing (goes into later fiction, e.g., Child of Time.
• For Suzy McKee Charnas's Vampire Tapestry
  • A summary of the story of Puccini's Tosca, with links to illustrations from a specific performance.
  • Kathy Davis's 'Beauty in the Beast: The 'Feminization' of Weyland in The Vampire Tapestry", Extrapolation: A Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy, 43:1 (2002 Spring), pp. 62-79.
  • Vrydolak's review of Vampire Tapestry, BC [Blogs critics] Books, January 7, 2009
  • Linda Suzane's Interview with Suzy McKee Charnas, May 27, 2005
  • Life, work, and writing
• For Michel Faber and Under the Skin:
  • Ron Hogan An Interview with Michel Faber.
  • Paul Kane's Review of Under the Skin, SFReader.com
  • Joseph Dewey's Review of Under the Skin, Review of Contemporary Fiction, 20:3 (Fall 2000)153-154.
  • Life, works, and writing
• For the movies we see Afterward, Mary Shelleys' Frankenstein, Mary Reilly, The Namesake Atonement

For English 302N15

For Use in Class

Learning to Write an Abstract for 302BN2

• Instructions
  
• Practice I
  
• Practice II

Student Models

• On "Richard Feynman's Definition of a Good Experiment"
• "Time and Space in the 17th Century:" on Dava Sobel's Longitude

• Proposal for Essay #1 on a musical instrument
• Proposal for Essay #2 memories of gardening and weeding
• Proposal for Essay #3 on financial models for hospitals

• "The Great American Scream Machine" and "The Golden Gate Bridge"
  
• The Moving Scala"
• "The Eiffel Tower"
• "A Tool of Instant Artwork"
  
• "From Dictaphone to Disc: The Beginnings of the In-Home Concert"
  

• "The Scientific Method: A Review of Darwin's The Voyage of the Beagle and Mark Ridley's Darwin Reader"
  
• "Feynman's Assessment of the Bureacratic Culture at NASA"
  
• "Living Life to the Fullest"
• "A Half Composed Puzzle"
  
• "Racism must go"
  
• "The Difficult Profession of Medicine"
  

• "Some Observations on the Orangutans," "The White-Tailed Deer"
  
• "The Hard Working Life of Cows: Making Diary Farms Make Money"
  
• "Night Life"
  
• "Observation of Colorful Trees in Autumn"
• "Still a Mystery: Ball Lightning"
  
• "The California Sea- Lion"
  
• "Deserts, Wind and Water"
  

• "Improving Life with Arthritis"
  
• The Uses of Leeches in Modern Medicine
  
• "The Promise of Regenerative Stem Cell Research"
  
• "Organ Trafficking"
  
• Mutilating Women for Life"
  
• "The Real Aftereffects of Abortion"
• "Caesarean Childbirth: The Real Cons as well as Pros"
  

  Alternative (Biographical Portrait Sketch) "Unravelling the Mystery"

• Peter Jones and David R. Axelrod's Lost at Sea: A spellbinding and entertaining story.
• Fernando Meirelles' The Constant Gardener: A brutally educational and moving story.
• Fernando Meirelles' The Constant Gardener: A visually stunning and excellent movie
• John LeCarre's novel, The Constant Gardener compared with Meirelles, Simon-Channing and Caine's film, The Constant Gardener: the presentation of the characters
  
• John LeCarre's novel, The Constant Gardener compared with Meirelles, Simon-Channing and Caine's film, The Constant Gardener: Africa
  
• Mike Nichols' Wit: On the borders of decency
• Mike Nicols' Wit: A poignant film

Professional Online Materials: Advanced Composition on the Natural Sciences and Applied Technology

• For Richard Feynman
  • A short list of books by and on Richard Feynman
    
  • Michael Swaine, Four Feynman Books, "Programmer's Bookshelf", Electronic Review of Books
    
  • Peter Weiss, "Dr Feynman's Doodles: How one scientist's simple sketches transformed physics", first published in Science News, 168:3 [July 16, 2005]:40-42, 44.
  • William Deresiewicz, "Who profits from scientific research,", The Nation, March 16, 2009, pp. 23-28.
• For Dava Sobel
  • Reviews of Dava Sobel's book, Longitude upon which the film, Lost at Sea: The Search for Longitude is based.
  • A NOVA Transcript: Lost at Sea: The Search for Longitude as aired by PBS.
  • A Review of Charles Sturridge's Longitude by Roy Schreiber, from The American Historical Review, 105:4 (2000):1438-1439.
  • Dava Sobel's beautiful and informative website
• For John McPhee
  • John McPhee's Home Page
  • Stephen Jay Gould on John McPhee as a geologist: a review of Basin and Range, New York Review of Books, 28:8 (1981):
  • Pioneer of Creative Non-Fiction: Wikipedia article.
  • Further reviews and links on and to McPhee's writing.
• For the book and film, The Constant Gardener
  • John LeCarre, "Congo Journey", The Nation (October 2, 2006): 16-20.
  • Marcia Angell "The Body Hunters", New York Review of Books, 52:15, October 16, 2005. A review of book and film and researched essay on politics and the pharmaceutical industry.
  • Marcia Angel "Drug Companies and Doctors: A Story of Corruption", New York Review of Books, 56:1(January 15, 2009)
  • Marcia Angell, "Your Dangerous Drugstore", New York Review of Books, 53:10 (June 8, 2006).
  • Bok, Derek. "Academic Values and the Lure of Profit", Chronicle of Higher Education, 49:30 (4 April 2003): B7-9
  • Todd Hoffman, "The Constant Writer: LeCarre Spies a New Villain", Queen's Quarterly, Spring 2001
  • Bibliography for LeCarre
• For Atul Gawande's Complications: A Surgeon's Notes on an Imperfect Science:
  • Atul Gawande, The Bell Curve: What happens when patients find out how good their doctors really are?", The New Yorker, December 6, 2004.
    Atul Gawande, "Piecework: Medicine's Money Problem", The New Yorker, April 4, 2005.
    
  • Atul Gawande, "The Score: How childbirth went industrial", The New Yorker, October 9, 2006, 59-67.
    
  • Atul Gawande, "The Way We Age Now", The New Yorker, April 30, 2007
  • Atul Gawande, "Sick and Twisted", The New Yorker, July 23, 2007. A review of Michael Moore's documenary, Sicko
  • Atul Gawande, "Getting There from Here: How should Obama reform health care (alternate title: "How health-care reform really happens"), The New Yorker, January 26, 2009.
  • Atul Gawande, "Hellhole", an essay on medical and human rights about the torture of solitary confinement, The New Yorker, March 30, 2009
• A short list of books and essays on the science of medicine.