No particular textbook for this Commonwealth Course or
Litonline exists, but all of the works mentioned are part of the Litonline
web or readily available online (e.g. Oedipus Rex and Antigone), on video/DVD (e.g. Hamlet),
or in libraries and bookstores (e.g. "A Rose for Emily" or A Farewell to
Arms).
TEXTBOOK for JSRCC's ENG 112s:
Stanford, Judith. Responding to Literature: Stories, Poems, Plays,
and Essays. 4th edition. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2003. Cost < $60.
In
the early 1980s, I worked with two authors of English textbooks as their
"consulting editor" on behalf of the publisher for which I was under
contract. One of those authors was Judith Stanford, who has since gone on
to write this fine textbook and nurture it through four editions. From our
experience working with publishers, we both learned the importance of
revising and getting the opinions of the intended audience about the
writing.
In this book, the first four
chapters comprise an introduction to studying literature (see the "guides"
in chapter 3) and writing about a literary work (see the six kinds of
essays--with student samples--in chapter 4 to see how much quotation they
use and how they balance topic sentences and supporting ideas and
information).
The combined English Departments of
J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College chose to begin using this textbook in
Spring, 2003, because of its diverse literary selections, the variety of
suggested writing assignments, the examples of student responses to literary
works (including 13 student-written essays), the directness and readability
of the parts written by Prof. Stanford, as well as the use of photographs
and paintings that suggest moods related to the selected readings.
In a Dec. 4, 2002, workshop hosted
at JSRCC by McGraw-Hill, the English faculty met with Prof. Stanford and
considered several of her ideas about teaching composition, especially with
this textbook. At that workshop, Judith Stanford noted that the painting on
the cover had been commissioned by the publisher specifically for this
textbook. Discussion centered on the open door, the leap to the rough seas
and the seemingly endangered boat, and to some extent the typewriter. What
do you think these images suggest? What about the other symbols on the
cover? (There's no "answer key" for these questions because what's
important is the responses you make to these images.)
