Romancing the Words(worth)
Week 5, Spring 2026
Hello! Just like I warned y’all, I’ve been out of pocket since last Wednesday after class, on a PNW ski trip that I didn’t ski on (don’t tell Greg). But now I’m re-situated, caught up with grading, and ready to start our week of drafting. And by week, I mean our one class together.
This is our 5th week of the course, and 3/5 of those weeks have only consisted of one day :/
Our First First Draft
On Friday, the first drafts of your Collaborative Research Essay is due. In preparation, please read Section 7 of the Research Post.
And please please please, don’t start your essay with a rhetorical question. I’ll drone on about this more in class, but bottom line: a question is not an appropriate way to begin a college level academic essay. It’s far better to have a boring hook/1st line than a question. I will be assessing this in the development of ideas section of your rubric.
Your 1st draft needs to be a minimum of 750 words1
I will use a rubric to assess the essay on the following 5 criteria:
Your thesis statement
Structure
Development of Ideas
Each of the links above send you to another post that explains in detail the expectations. Everyone who participated in the Thesis Workshop is walking into this with a strong a polished thesis statement. As long as the rest of the essay connects to the thesis, that particular rubric category should be a slam dunk.
The First Book Club Meeting
This is scheduled for next Monday (2/23/26). Of course, you’ll need to have read to the assigned page and annotated your physical copy of the book with words, sentences, and paragraphs that caught your attention. You’ll also each need to have submitted your Book Club Prep assignments before the meeting.
Although you are of course discussing your books in groups, each of you will be graded individually. Here are the components I’ll be assessing you for:
Do you have your novel?
Is your novel appropriately annotated up to the assigned page?
Is your Book Club Prep document completed before the Book Club Meeting? Is it thoughtful and insightful?
During the meeting itself, do you participate? Do you speak, listen, and successfully attempt to engage your groupmates with questions that encourage discussion? Are you respectful of opinions that differ from yours?
You can use this as a checklist as you prepare.
Heads up: Book Club Meetings can not be made up. If an student with an excused absence has successfully completed the first three bullet points, that student will be eligible to do an alternative 500 word essay assignment.
This novel and these book club meetings represent a 1/4 of the content for the class, including your final.
the lakes
As promised, our texts this week take us to the Romantic Era by way of Taylor Swift.
I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud
And, another link by the British Library to help illuminate Romanticism.
Your 2nd draft will be a minimum of 1,000 words.