Off Book with Dr. Echols

In this conversation, a few of your classmates and I reflect on what we've learned in the class, skills we might carry forward, and texts that were meaningful to us. I also offer an overview and study strategies for the final exam. Thanks for joining us! 

Now that many of you have finished your Annotated Bibliographies, you will be spending this week drafting your papers. Here are some practical tips for completing your first draft, while making sure you are grounded in the text: 

1. Figure out your thesis. Remember, it needs to be an interpretive, literary claim. If you're not talking about what a specific text and/or author is doing or showing in your argument, you are off-track. It also needs to make an argument, not just an observation. See the (Hypo)thesis lecture to refresh your memory on what I mean here. 

2. Assemble your best quotes from the text(s) you're writing about. Think of at least 4 or 5 moments in the text that help demonstrate your thesis.  

3. Now, assemble your quotes from your secondary sources. These could be claims that support your own; that highlight a concept or example you find important; that demonstrate a connection between your argument and an existing conversation or topic; or they could be pieces of biographical or historical information that help the reader understand something necessary about your text. Paste them separately. 

4. Now, using your method of choice, create an outline for your argument. You can physically print and cut out both pages and move them around, or you can cut/paste in your word processor. The point is, you want to begin by thinking about how the text itself can help prove your argument, and how you want to present that argument. Then, it's just a matter of filling in the missing pieces: the topic sentences, the transitions connecting your ideas, etc. 

This week, I discuss using databases and quality sources to begin developing your thesis into a longer project, and offer some tips and advice for completing the upcoming Annotated Bibliography assignment.

In this lecture, we talk about taking an observation about a literary text and turning it into a claim: moving from the "what" of a text (plot, context, etc.) to the "so what?" (meaning, significance, interventions) of a text.

This week, we’re going to practice reading a story alongside what literary scholars have to say about it—we’ll be reading texts with the experts, and working to become experts ourselves.

This week, we're starting to think about reading texts not only based on what's inside them (close reading) or what's outside them (context), but also on what other people have to say about them. We're going to start by looking at what the texts' author may have to say, and we'll move on to what other folks—critics and scholars, or other expert—have to say next week.

Last week, we touched on some of the practical uses of reading: building your vocabulary, appreciating beauty, learning to notice things and remark upon them critically. This week, we'll be digging in to some of the things that literature has to teach us: the kinds of social, historical, political, ethical, and personal knowledge it can unlock for us.

This episode discusses close reading strategies, including 4 easy steps: Paraphrase, Describe, Contextualize, and Analyze. Really, it's all about looking, listening, and collecting your thoughts and observations before jumping to conclusions. Think of it as practicing good manners with the text. Remember: Always read out loud (if you can), and always read it twice.