This file is not applicable to your class (Spring 2003). If you have any questions, please ask me.


Description of Online Discussion

The online discussion of assigned writers consists of two kinds of material, the required lessons for Friday classes and the supplemental readings for Monday and Wednesday classes. The discussion of each author begins with an overview of the author, contains links to Websites related to that author, and then analyzes the text(s) assigned for each day.

Required Online Lessons (Friday)

These lessons, which are the equivalent of Friday classes, cover a text thoroughly. If a poem is not too long, all of it is reproduced. The presentation of texts may vary, depending on the nature and complexity of a particular poem, novel, or play.

Supplemental Study Guides (Monday and Wednesday)

The readings, which supplement the Monday and Wednesday classes held in the classroom, cover the main points of a class.

Accessing Online Discussion

To access the online discussion of authors and readings, go the the Core Studies 6 page. There you have two choices. (1) The online Syllabus lists the Friday lessons and the Monday-Wednesday supplemental readings for each day. (2) You may go to the section called Lessons and Supplemental Readings and click on the assigned author.
      Or you may type the URL from the syllabus I handed out on the first day of class.
      Finally, at the end of the introduction to each author is a list, by date, of lessons for Friday classes and supplemental readings for Monday-Wednesday classes for that author. The only exception to this is Shakespeare.

Lessons and Study Guides for Keats and Dickinson

     The lessons and study guides on shorter poems define selected words, some of which may be unfamiliar to you, and explain allusions (a figure of speech in which a brief refrence is made to a person, place, event, etc.). To the extent that you do not know precisely what one or more words mean or what one or more allusions refer to, your understanding of the poem will be vague and your interpretation flawed.
     Next comes a close reading of the poem, which involves looking at the connotative meanings of words and phrases, the effect of allusions, the theme, the image clusters, and other poetic devices which together express the poet's meaning(s) effectively. I do not mean to suggest that these elements always make a poem successsful; rather, the poems you will be reading in this course have been chosen because they are successful poems, poems which are generally regarded as great. Therefore we will be looking at some of the elements that make the poem great.

Exploring Websites

Go to the Core Studies 6 page and click on CS6 Websites. These are Web pages that have some connection to this course. They differ in their approaches and in the material included. Browse among the listings to see what's there; hopefully at least some of them will be of interest. The Websites for authors are listed both in the CS6 Websites on the CS6 Page and on the introduction to authors in the lessons and study guides.

Maneuvering on the Web

At the end of each page, like this one, I provide links to other pages in my Website. You may click on one of these to go to a particular page.
      If the page you want is not listed at the bottom of my page, you may use the bar that goes across the top of your screen which has right and left pointing arrows. Clicking on the "Back" button will move you to previous screens; clicking on the "Forward" button will move you forward. This is the technique you will have to use if you use click on a word for its definition and go to the "Glossary of Literary Terms." Of course, ultimately you arrive back at the first screen or go forward to the last screen you visited and so can't go any further.
      Finally, you may type in the URL for the page or Website. In Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer, type the URL in the text box at the top of the screen which follows Location in Netscape or Address in Explorer.


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