CLST 389-01W / CATH 300-01W / HIST 300B-01W / MSTU 398-01W Classical Backgrounds: Augustine - Writing Intensive Spring Semester 2012 Dr. Jacqueline Long MWF 10:25am-11:15am Mundelein 308

Writing Exercise 2

Goals

• To assess documentary texts as historical sources relating to Augustine's work as a bishop in fifth-century Africa: practice skills of critical thinking in historical analysis
• To identify the most important contributions specific source-documents can make to understanding of Augustine's job and how he performed it: relevant evidence in the text, connections with other sources, problems and questions surrounding use of the evidence
• To provide a clear overview of your analysis to the class and lead discussion
• To practice skills of organization and exposition by writing up an outline for your presentation, to hand in

The approach:

1. Groups covering each of the reading assignments for Wednesday 2/8, Friday 2/10, Monday 2/13, Wednesday 2/15, and Friday 2/17 will be established in class Monday 2/6. All students remain responsible for all assigned reading, as always, but the group for the day will prepare that day's texts so as to lead discussion and submit the associated Leader's Outline as Writing Assignment 2.
2. Each group should deterimine how responsibilities will be fairly apportioned. I recommend that each individual group member work on at least one whole letter, and that more than one person team up on each letter assigned to the group, uniting and building jointly on individual efforts.
3. Each group is responsible for planning class time so that each letter assigned to the group receives a full discussion by the class. I recommend dividing the 50-minute class period between the number of letters assigned that day and subtracting a small margin to allow discussion some flexibility to wrap up loose ends a little earlier or later, without dead time.
4. Each group or sub-group presenting each letter should determine how best to organize the presentation of each letter in the available time, but each presentation and each outline should include:
   • identification of the items of understanding of Augustine's work that can be drawn from the letter
   • concise but clear summary of the information the letter provides on each point of understanding
   • identification of problems or questions surrounding the letter's evidence when it is not transparently factual and accurate, together with methods of solving these problems: perspectives to explore, connections with other evidence, etc.
5. Each student is responsible for handing in at least one Leader's Outline for at least one complete letter, although it is expected that analysis and planning reflected in the outline will be the product of collaborative work.
6. Aim for approximately 1 full page of outline. Items within the outline don't need to connect to one another with transition-sentences or detailed explanation, as they would if you were writing a full-blown essay, but do use grammatically correct, complete, proofread sentences. Show the structure of your argument by the organization of headings in the outline. Identify items of information in the letter by the letter-number, numbered section, and paragraph within that section, adapting the system we used for passage-references in Sermon 360C. For ease of legibility, word-process the outline in double-spaced, 12-point Times Roman.
7. Doublecheck Strunk and White and make sure you are writing clearly and correctly.
8. Proofread.
9. Come to class on the day your letters are assigned, with your outline(s) in hand, ready to lead collaborative discussion by the class as a whole. The outlines will be collected in class.

Revised 5 February 2012 by jlong1@luc.edu
http://www.luc.edu/classicalstudies/