Bottoms, David. Vagrant Grace. Port Townsend, WA: Copper Canyon, 1999. (Finish reading by Wednesday, September 20, 2 p.m.)

Gould, Stephen Jay. Dinosaur in a Haystack. New York: Harmony, 1995. ISBN0-517-88824-6. (Finish reading by Wednesday, September 6, 2 p.m.)

Hill, Jane B. "To Own My Father's Name: Not Hiding the Masculine in the Poems of David Bottoms." Forthcoming in Studies in the Literary Imagination. (Finish reading by Monday, October 2, 2 p.m.)

Hult, Christine A., and Thomas N. Huckin. The New Century Handbook : Interactive Edition. New York: Allyn, 1999. ISBN: 0205297110.

Ramphele, Mamphela. Across Boundaries: The Journey of a South African Woman Leader. Fwd. Johnnetta B. Cole. The Women Writing Africa Series. New York: Feminist, 1996. ISBN 155861166-5. (Finish reading by Wednesday, Oct. 11, 2 p.m.)

Ross, Lillian. "After the Pageant." New Yorker 9 Oct. 2000: 42-48.

Essay #1 due at 3:15 p.m., Monday, September 25, with cumulative Works Consulted.

Essay #2 due at 3:15 p.m., Monday, October 9, with cumulative Works Consulted.

Essay #3 due at 3:15 p.m., Monday, October 30, with cumulative Works Consulted.

See http://ksumail.kennesaw.edu/~rhill/1101egs.htm for writing samples drawn from your papers, with teacherly comments: Be sure to check with me if there's something you don't understand about these: October 27, 2000.

Response writings, mostly online with http://bbs.kennesaw.edu and e-mail.

NO CLASS ON WEDNESDAY, Nov. 8:
When we return to class in Hu241 on Monday, Nov. 13, we will begin working on Essay.5 (that is, your fourth official essay for the portfolio). Be ready on that day to (1) name your topic, (2) construct your thesis, and (3) present at the end of class at least two closely related, sequential paragraphs (500 words or more) and your aggregated Works Consulted (which you should prepare out of class and bring with you, for time's sake).

You should conceive this essay as a formal academic essay, with meaningful reliance upon at least four of the works (books or film) that you've used in your first three essays. Beyond that textual requirement, the topic is yours to choose, but you must clear with me before Monday--I repeat, before Monday's class.

Contact me by e-mail or telephone, but definitely clear with me. Don't just take this week off. Spend time seriously thinking and re-reading before you offer your topic for my approval.

Work in three groups to examine your definitions and practices in writing theses, as seen in your essays to date and your online entries on BBS.
The results of your work are posted at the following URLs as of the early morning hours of September 19, 2000:
http://ksumail.kennesaw.edu/~rhill/thesisa.htm
http://ksumail.kennesaw.edu/~rhill/thesisb.htm
http://ksumail.kennesaw.edu/~rhill/thesisc.htm

 Let's keep it simple, given our temporary disruption this week, for which I apologize to you all.

You each are writing a 1000-1500-word essay based on two of Stephen Gould's essays. Your emphasis is supposed to be on how he writes, with what he writes about being secondary--not inconsequential, but secondary.

You have thoroughly examined (I'm supremely confident) Gould's introductions, conclusions, and transitions. The task now (or trick, one might say) is to compose a unified, coherent essay of your own, with a good introduction, sensible conclusion, and irresistible transitions throughout.

Bring to class tomorrow your best possible essay draft, with a carefully constructed thesis. And a thesis is what? Let's call it a sentence that gives impetus and direction to your whole essay. Let's say that it should establish some sort of intellectual/emotional tension within your own argument, or commentary, about Gould's writing practices.

Such tension might come from so faint a discrimination as "Although the title of Dinosaur in a Haystack might repulse readers who are bored with dinosaurs, Stephen Jay Gould's odd twist on the common saying about a lost needle might raise a few curious eyebrows." Not a great thesis--I know that, but perhaps it makes my point. The "although" factor in a thesis introduces an element of searching, of questioning, of potential discovery as your writing goes forward.

Let's also say that the thesis of any essay still in process is actually the hypothesis, subject to revision as the essay attempts and struggles itself into existence.

See you tomorrow.--RWH, 9/12/00