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Recommending college classes
By Lawrence | April 14, 2008
English Literature: Obviously, this discipline can’t get a negative recommendation from me. I could wax poetical on the virtues to be gleaned from living for a time in the universes of the Great Books, and drawing your friendships, ideas and solace therein (well, golly, I guess I did just wax) But enough sappiness, we’re not making pancakes. We are talking about the practical, real world uses of college courses.
Practicality can come in many forms. A class can benefit a student because it fulfills a requirement for a major or minor, or because it satisfies an elective demand of an arbitrarily insistent university. There is always that. A class can be also be a benefit by being really easy, or being somewhat challenging.
A really easy class can be good because it lets you bring up your GPA without, in many instances, having to even attend the lecture all that often. Introductory classes in every discipline are often conducted from a commanding lecture podium and overhead projector in a very large, stadium shaped room. Obviously, if you are fairly intelligent, you can coast off the book and just show up for the midterm and final. If you use this strategy, however, I do advise that you attend at least some of the TA sessions, where much of the nuts and bolts work of comprehending material comes in. You may not even need a supplement to the course text to know what’s going on, but TA sessions are also often where they hand out the assignments. If your knowledge of the subject has any weak spots, be sure to ask your TA for help as he/she will appreciate explaining something that is basic for them. TA’s are also often nervous in front of these classes, as many of them are just dedicated graduate students that are not cut out for the flair of public speaking. You can help set their mind at ease by moving the session along with a good question or two.
But we were talking about English Lit. What I advise, even if you cannot sit for hours on end and thoroughly digest the book you are assigned to read, is to make a determined proxy effort via Cliff Notes. Many people will rant and rave about how AWESOME it is to sit down in a cafe, or on the beach, and just read a book. To put yourself in the intricately painted scenarios, to stand side by side with a character as the writer’s world congeals and whips around him/her, to cherish every word of a genius, world class author…
But not everyone is cut out for long reading sessions that require absolute focus, concentration and sitting still (at least in body). So the natural reaction is to reject and resent the advice to really ‘feel’ the book and let it sink in- this is what gives the liberal arts the fairy rap that it has. Well, I am telling you that those feelings are REAL and that you can get much the same feeling for the text by reading cliff notes.
Your feeling and sense of the text is what will allow you to come up with a good paper topic. Your thesis should be somewhat creative, but not off the wall crazy, and should be logical and well ordered. But your inspiration to write a good thesis has to come from the feelings you distill over the reading of a long text.
Take the ‘Old Man and the Sea’, for example. Hemingway’s brief treatise on an old man determinedly hanging on to the catch of his life while sharks mercilessly whittle away his gains is sad and triumphant all at the same time. Even though the Old Man came back to shore with only a gigantic skeleton, and relentless sea vultures had stolen away every tangible (edible) bit of sustenance from his journey, the Old Man was left with a great story and a whopper of a trophy. And the reader is invariably left with a profound moment of reflection on human perseverance, while at the same time poignantly cognizant of the evanescence of all achievement.
But, of course, you would not know that if you didn’t read the book.
Or would you? Actually, if you give the Cliff Notes version a serious and heartfelt rendition in your brain, you might get enough of a sense of it to pull an A.
Cliff Notes are great because they are written by dedicated scholars and phD’s who are deeply in love with their subject. They know the Great Book inside and out, and it may have even changed their lives or added some valued bit of perspective to them as people. Thus, they are seriously relating every important bit of plot development while relating what it all means to the society at the time, the writer’s other works, etc. You can draw from this knowledge (in your own words, don’t copy their words or their ideas!) You can use their ideas, throw in a little here and there to your own argument, but do not make a straight linear transition of their doctoral thesis to your paper. That will not sound right to your professor.
Instead, just sit back with the Cliff Notes, and pretend you are reading a novel. A really fast moving novel that gets right to the point, and doesn’t waste any time on setting the scene as great writers are wont to do. If there is something important about the setting or time period that is vital to the larger work as a whole, or perhaps symbolic of something, you can be sure the Cliff Notes will not hesitate to tell you! They love that stuff, really.
So if your are in an English class but you are limited in time/energy, go get the Cliff Notes and give them the serious, tender loving attention you would give to the book if you were a wealthy aristocrat with a huge library and infinite leisure at your disposal. There is no shame in it. The glaring yellow savior is NOT a hack or slacker’s tool, if it is truly used with respect and discretion. The WRONG WAY to use Cliff notes is to read them as fast as possible and try to throw their ideas into a random mishmash of hackneyed prose. You still have to make a thoughtful outline for your paper, and you still have to know what you are talking about.
Just please, before you begin on the yellow and black booklet, say a prayer to the Lords of the Great books and let them know that you do perceive their truth and beauty. Just mention as an act of contrition that like the great poet John Keats, you are really pressed for time.
Topics: Term Papers and Essays, Uncategorized |
April 14th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
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