ENGL 273: THE ESSAY JESSICA JACOBS

SECOND PROGRESSION: RECKONING

This progression consists of five (or so) writing exercises and two drafts before the final essay is
due. It asks you to return to some of the skills and exercises you practiced in the first
progression, while also extending them in a more academic (but not formulaic) direction. If your
previous essay asked you to develop an idea of your own out of your reading of another authors
experience, this essay asks you to engage more explicitly in a conversation that weighs the merits
of an authors idea and her presentation of it to engage not !ust with an idea borrowed from a
text but with the virtues and deficits of the text itself.
Together, well be working on the following skills and techni"ues#
$naly%ing a texts rhetoric (how a text expresses its content)
&eveloping an assessment of a texts persuasiveness
$naly%ing a texts strategies in light of other, thematically related texts
&eveloping a written conversation among a group of thematically related written texts
'racticing the art of incorporation# placing a range of written texts within the context of
an overarching and unifying idea
(nderstanding how to bring a variety of texts together to substantiate and clarify an idea
while respecting and acknowledging (through the writing itself) the constraints of an
essays form
)riting an essay that focuses on a text*+while also branching off from it+*and assesses
the texts value in an interesting, creative way that does not !ust rehearse the texts points
in order of their presentation. That assessment and that text provide the foundation for a
more sweeping essay about an idea that grows out of and moves beyond the foundational,
or chosen text.
,
Lesson Date Sube!t Ass"#n$ents
,- T ./0- The 1unction of 2riticism 3e+read 4oulish, 52riticism6 (778)
*Please dont assume you remember the Goulish essay. You
need to be prepared to discuss it in detail.
9lbow on 2haucers &ialectic (2)
:anham (2)
,, Th ,-/; 3eading < =uestioning Due: Re!%on"n# E&' ()D"a*e!t"!s
Tokamitsu, 5In the >ame of :ove6 (2)
?all, 5:ife )ork6 (@A7)
1riedman, 5The )orld is 1lat6 (@@0)
2lausen, 5$gainst )ork6 (@8;)
,; T ,-/8 Tracing Textual &etails#
$ 1orm of 3eading
Due: Re!%on"n# E&' 2)E&+"*a,at"on
3eread your chosen essay
,0 Th ,-/. 2onnecting Boments#
$nother 1orm of 3eading

Due: Re!%on"n# E&' 3)Ent-"n"n#
3e+read your chosen essay
Ccudder, 5:ook at Dour 1ish6 (,--)
Terkel, 5)orking6 (@A;)
,A T ,-/,A 4rounding < 3ounding Due: Re!%on"n# E&' .) S!ene
3ead your chosen essay again
*Your success in the progression depends upon it.
5)hen Tom Cees Eerry6 (2)
Cchedule a conference between :essons ,@+,F
*Please come prepared with specific questions
and/or topics to discuss.
Th ,-/,@ No C*ass /a** B,ea%
,7 T ,-/;, 9pistolary )ork Due: Re!%on"n# E&' 0)Lette,
5Gn 1ire6 (2)
5Ceventh 4rade6 (2)
'eer/4roup discussion
,@
,8
,F
Th ,-/;0
T ,-/;F
Th ,-/0-
Eudgments < Ideas
Ctudent 3eadings
Due: /",st D,a1t Essa2 2
5:ooking6 (2)
'eer/4roup discussion.
Sub$"t: Se!on3 D,a1t Essa2 2
'eer/4roup discussion
Due: /"na* D,a1t Essa2
3eadings TH&
;
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