| 
  • If you are citizen of an European Union member nation, you may not use this service unless you are at least 16 years old.

  • You already know Dokkio is an AI-powered assistant to organize & manage your digital files & messages. Very soon, Dokkio will support Outlook as well as One Drive. Check it out today!

View
 

EN200: Explication Project

Page history last edited by Tonya Howe 14 years, 1 month ago

While reading literature does require imagination and creativity, it also requires an attention to the nuances of the text and a sense of how its parts relate to the whole. So, literary interpretation isn't really based on "opinion" but on deliberate, accurate, and close observation of the literary text. We must be clear-sighted, objective readers of texts, and not let our preconceptions, our expectations, or our emotions run away with our rational minds; thus, our first project focuses on the act of explication. Explication refers to the act of unfolding a text through the techniques of close reading. While an explication does not have an original, analytical thesis, it is governed by a broad logic, often a statement of the text's overall theme.

 

This explication project consists of three parts:

 

  1. Marking up your text on the page itself. The goal of this portion of the assignment is to model and encourage active engagement with the text, the kind of reading that we'll be drawing on throughout the term--and the central methodology of literary analysis. Once you've marked up your text, it will become the basis for your hypertext explication. Scan your marked up poem into a file that can be emailed (see below)--either a PDF or a JPG.
  2. Transforming that page into a "hypertext" version of your poem. This portion of the assignment draws on your markup but moves beyond it by asking you to transform relatively incohate observations into clearly articulated statements that unfold the meaning of individual aspects of the text. This portion of the assignment also requires you to pay close attention to the text as you transcribe it into an electronic form. In well-formed sentences, and paying attention to the conventions of literary quotation and citation, each student will make at least 15 complete annotations linked to specific portions of the text in Microsoft Word. Finally, this portion of the project will further familiarize you with the more complex aspects of your word processing software, a skill which will be very important in all your coursework. View a sample document I've prepared with four representative annotations here.
  3. Composing a 4 page explication essay drawing on your preliminary markup work. The final portion of this assignment draws on your close reading and your preliminary explications but moves to the next level by organizing them into a single essay structured according to a guiding principle, usually a statement of theme--see this sample here. The explication deepens your familiarity and ease with the conventions of literary vocabulary, quotation, and citation, preparing you for future work by emphasizing paragraph structure and transitions. An explication, remember, is not an argument! Your job is to "unfold" or to "lay out" the meaning of a text--its content, its style, its imagery, its thematic development, and so on. I'm looking for accurate explication, organized under a guiding rubric and developed in well-articulated language. Complete and accurate MLA formatting is a must! This essay may use no outside sources, unless you have previously conferenced with me on the matter and I have given my approval.

 

On the due dates, please submit in hard copy and as an electronic attachment via email.

 

Archived Explication Projects

 

 

Comments (0)

You don't have permission to comment on this page.