For Friday

Hello all,

Today we thought about our performance in life which connected to our discussion about writing and revising our drafts.

We started the class by thinking about how and why we use resources in our text. We shared our ideas in a workshop format, and we discussed some methods for successful integration of ideas. Brenna, Bret, Baalika, and Clare shared some successful strategies for using sources.

Remember two good tips:

1. Use a works cited and a bibliography
2. Contact the professor for specifics about assignments parameters (you may even want to google them to see their writing style in use).

We discussed three methods for integrating sources.
1. Using transitions to guide your reader
2. Using sentences (compound and complex) to connect you thoughts
3. Using paraphrase to explain and to frame the material used.

We shifted to reading about Engfish. Remember, we do not want to do this. I thought you might get a kick out of own of my engfishy paragraphs of the past.

The field of literary criticism begins with the advent and concretization of what is called a text and the effects of this text on a population. Beginning with the Greek Philosopher Plato who discusses the merits of literature, in particular, poetry in the tenth book of his series The Republic, the field and study of literature and literary criticism emerges and expresses its first inchoate expressions and opinions. Within in Plato’s text, there is the dismissal of poetry and literature for a society. Plato continues to keen his focus on the devaluation of a culture due to poetry and literature. In fact from Plato’s perspective, poetry and as such literature has no place in proper society. Writers and critics who follow Plato continue to examine the value of texts and textual criticisms in direct focus of the beliefs of Plato found in his Republic X. As such, literary criticism is often perceived as reactionary to Plato’s foundationalist belief structure. Plato believed that an entity like literature, religion, etc. is only good for a society if it offers a civic and moral code to the people. Plato is concerned with societal obligations and structures; although his philosophy is often concerned with the ideal or the aesthetic, his view of poetry remains located from the perspective of civic and citizen duty. If all literary critics who follow Plato are writing a quasi-dialogic response to Plato and his views then what are the advantages and disadvantages of commencing and creating literary criticism as such? A chronological examination of literary criticism using Plato’s views in dialogue with the following critics allows for a better understanding of how a conceptualization of literary criticism operates and functions based on its origins with Plato’s Republic.

OH MY GOODNESS! (That second sentence is crazy!).

Remember, your drafts are due on Friday for Peer Review--so bring them in hard copy to class.

Take care, and thanks again,

Kat