Group Projects

As you know, you have to form a small group (4 people per group, please) and generate and present a comparative argument about some aspect of Melville's and Silko's writings--either in the form of an oral presentation or in a group-researched/-authored web site--which is worth 15% of your final course grade. See below for more details.

Group-Researched Oral Presentation

Due: in December; specific dates to be scheduled by groups.

Format: you must either present your argument about the significance of a specific connection/contrast between Melville and Silko in the form of a 10-to-20-minute lecture or have it emerge out of a focused half-hour group activity (small group work, for instance, on specific questions that lead to your larger claim); after your oral presentation, each member must write a brief email to me in which they explain how he/she contributed to the project and his/her assessment of how the group worked together and how the presentation went.

Process: as soon as possible, you must get together in a group of four people and brainstorm possible avenues for comparing Melville's and Silko's works (it is recommended that you find ways of relating some aspect of Melville's writing to Silko's Almanac of the Dead, as that is what we'll be discussing in class then); you should choose a mode of comparison that allows you to build on work that literary critics before you have done on Melville and Silko individually and the relations between their writings; you must divide up research duties and report back to each other before Thanksgiving break (for instance, 2 people might research how critics have argued Melville deals with a particular topic, while the other 2 might research what arguments are out there about how Silko has dealt with that topic); the week after Thanksgiving Break (the last week of November), your group must meet first among itself and then with me to plan out your presentation; then you must give your presentation and within a week of it, send me the email described above.

Group-Researched/-Authored Web Site

Due: no later than 5 pm on Friday, December 15, 2000, your web site must either be accessible through the world wide web or turned in on disk to my mailbox in the English department office (Fenton 277)

Format: your web site should present your comparative research on some aspect of Melville's and Silko's works; rather than simply providing biographical information and links, your site should present a specific argument about how Melville's and Silko's writings relate; hence, the format of your web site will be what your group deems the most effective means of presenting an argument on the web

Process: as soon as possible, you must get together in a group of four people and brainstorm possible avenues for comparing Melville's and Silko's works; you should choose a mode of comparison that allows you to build on work that literary critics before you have done on Melville and Silko individually and the relations between their writings; you must divide up research duties and report back to each other before Thanksgiving break (for instance, 2 people might research how critics have argued Melville deals with a particular topic, while the other 2 might research what arguments are out there about how Silko has dealt with that topic); the week after Thanksgiving Break (the last week of November), your group must meet first among itself and then with me to plan out your web site; it must be finished by the date and time given above.

EN 426-01: Major American Writers, Fall 2000
Created: 10/24/00, 4:32 pm
Last modified: 10/24/00, 4:32 pm