ENGLISH LIT 344 / COMEDY & SATIRE

GUIDELINES

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Sending Emails
Naming Files
Assignment Format		    

Taking A Position
Making Assumptions
Writing Style		    

Researching the Topic
Don't Use I or YOU
First Names

NAMING FILE
This may be the most critical guideline of all. Since I will be receiving many papers from different students, it's important that each file be unique. (If everyone submitted the first assignment in a file named PAPER-1.DOC, I would only get one person's paper, the last one to submit it, since the computer will record each newly submitted document OVER the old one, thereby erasing it.) Therefore, it's important that you follow these directions.

The name for the file for each paper should consist of three parts:

  1. Your last name
  2. The assignment number
  3. Whether it's NEW or a REVISION

Each part should be separated by a hyphen: -

For example, if Julie Doe is submitting the third assignment, the WORD file would be named:

DOE-3-NEW.DOC

When I return the paper I will add an "R" to the end of the file name, like so:

DOE-3-NEW-R.DOC

If Julie is submitting a revision of the third assignment, the WORD file would be named:

DOE-3-REVISION.DOC

And when I return that paper I will, once again, add an "R" to the end of the file name, like so:

DOE-3-REVISION-R.DOC

This way, there will never be two papers that have exactly the same file name. And though it shouldn't make a difference, I prefer that file names be in UPPER CASE.

IMPORTANT NOTES: The above refers to the name you give to your WORD file when you save it. It's the one you select when you use the 'Browse' function to upload the paper; it's not the name you type in the field labeled "Name" (See image below).

And make sure you use Send File , NOT Add File when sending the file.

Assignment Format
Papers should be submitted as a Microsoft WORD or Rich Text Format file. (In other words, the extension on the file name should be DOC or RTF.)

  • Type your name, the course number, and the paper number at the top of each assignment (before the title ). Don't put quotation marks around the title. (The only proper place for quotation marks is around the names of other authors' works.) Here's an example of how your heading should look:

      Julie Doe
      Literature 344
      Assignment 1: A Modest Proposal

      The Satire of Swift

  • Do not type your essay into the body of an email or on the Discussion Board.

  • Please make certain all your essays are at least the required minimum length before you submit them. The minimum is the least acceptable number of words; anything less will receive an 'F'. So you can assume that if your assignment is right around 300 words, the best grade you can expect for it is a 'C'.

    SENDING E-MAILS

  • Please send all emails through the SNHU system to me at g.wilkerson@snhu.edu.edu. I will answer all of your messages and grade your essays as quickly as possible--usually within 48 hours.

    All messages and assignments are important to me and I try to respond to them in a timely fashion. But marking messages and assignments as “high priority” does not speed up the process. Save that for emergency messages when you absolutely must have an immediate response.

  • Use only one email address throughout the entire semester. In an emergency (i.e. you cannot access the computer you usually use) make sure to put your name in the subject line of the email and address a copy of the message to yourself at your regular email address. This gives you a copy for your records and it enables me to send my reply to your regular email address. That saves time and enables me to respond to your message quicker.

  • Do not send the same email more than once unless you are sure that it didn't get through the first time. (If that happens you will usually receive a message from the server.) After a reasonable amount of time (at least 48 hours), if you are not certain I received an email, you can call me (518.346.6414) to ask about it.

  • If you change your email address during the semester, immediately send me an email from the new address and put something like this in the SUBJECT line: Email Address Change for Julie Doe. If your email address changes after you have already sent me an assignment and you haven't received an acceptance notice, send the assignment again from your new email address. It's better that I receive it twice than not at all.

    WRITING STYLE
    This is a college level writing course. You're paper should be written at that level. Conversational language is not appropriate. For example, a student wrote the following: "Honestly, I would never want to send my loved one off to war ever." You might say this when speaking to someone, a friend or relative, but it's not very scholarly. The student should have said something like: "Sending a loved one off to war is never a joyful event." (Notice that the first person [I] was removed.) And conversational words and phrases like "nowadays" or " should not be used.(More on this shortly.)
          The other side of the coin here is the tendency to become overly formal. Some students, in an effort to "sound" academic introduce unnecessary verbiage that does nothing but confuse matters. (For example, saying "with regard to" instead of "about.")

    ASSUMPTIONS
    Papers should be written with the assumption that the reader is not familiar with the subject or the assignment. If it's about a reading, the title and author of the piece should be given at the very beginning of your paper, along with a summary of what the reading is about. For example:


    And notice that the title of the essay is in quotes. All titles should be identified one of three ways: (1) place them in quotes, (2) underline them, or (3) put them in italics.

    TAKE A POSITION
    Followng the basic information about the reading, state your position on the topic (but DO NOT say "I think...," "It seems to me...", "I believe..." or any other phrase of that sort. Since you are the author of your essay, it's clear to the reader that any comments are yours. For example, say this:

    And not this:
      Jonathan Swift's essay "A Modest Proposal" presents a drastic solution to the problems of hunger and poverty in sixteenth century Ireland. I thought that Swift's proposal was anything but modest. He proposes that children be cooked and eaten and the first time I read it I thought it was a strange and bizarre idea, but then I realized that Swift had his tongue firmly planted in his cheek and didn't mean to be taken seriously.

    RESEARCH WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW
    Some research is likely to be necessary for most of the assignments; your position and comments are a lot stronger when you back them up with support from outside sources. Therefore, broad claims and assertions will not be accepted without some kind of support behind them. For example, you should avoid saying things like:

    Instead, remarks like these should be supported (or not made at all), like so:
      "Fowler's History of the Irish Famine states that when Swift's essay was first published many people were outraged at the idea. Very few thought his proposal was funny."

    In the first example, you are making an unsubstantiated claim. In the second example you are documenting a fact.

    SUBMISSION POLICIES
    You may submit only one assignment at a time unless I specifically tell you otherwise. Any essay returned for revising or rewriting must be resubmitted and accepted before you submit the next assignment. BUT, just as soon you finish one assignment, there's no reason you shouldn't begin researching the next one.

  • If a reasonable amount of time has passed (at least 48 hours) and you haven't had your assignment reviewed and returned to you, you may e-mail me to inquire about it. Do not post the same essay more than once.

    AVOID "I", "ME", AND "YOU"
    Remember that the topic of your assignment is the subject.

    When you use 'I', YOU become the subject. The focus moves away from the topic and onto you. Sentences like this are not appropriate:

    This tells us nothing about the topic, only that the person writing about it was sick and in disbelief.

    Likewise, you should not say:

      "This essay will make you glad you live in a time and in a country where you don't have to worry about famine and poverty."
    This shifts the focus to the reader. There's an involuntary, unconscious response; the reader thinks "Who? Me?" In this version, the important thing is not 'the essay' but the fact that the reader is going to be glad he or she lives in the U.S.

    So what's the right way to do this? There are a couple of options. You can put it in terms of readers:

      "This essay will make readers grateful that they live in a country where they don't have to worry about famine and poverty."

    Or you can use the more formal sounding "one."

      "This story will make one grateful to be living in a country where they don't have to worry about famine and poverty."
    But that's not my favorite solution. Ultimately, if you have this dilemma, you should reconsider what you're trying to say and put it in a way that maintains the focus where it belongs--on the thing being written about:
      "After reading the proposal presented in this essay, we can be grateful to be living in a country where they don't have to worry about famine and poverty."
    And notice how the use of "we" creates an inclusiveness. The writer (that's you) and the reader are brought together as participants in the experience.

    DON'T REFER TO PEOPLE BY THEIR FIRST NAMES
    Unless you know someone personally, you should not refer to him or her by their first name. If you're writing about Shakespeare's Hamlet, you don't say

    Likewise, if you're writing about Tom Cruise's performance in Mission Impossible you wouldn't say
      "Most critics panned Tom's performance in this film."
    The most commonly accepted way to reference a writer is by his or her last name:
      "In this play, Shakespeare raises the question of the ethics of suicide."
      or
      "Most critics panned Cruise's performance in this film."