ENGL 270 American Literature: Reading Exercise: Toni Morrison

ENGL 270 American Literature | Gregory Eiselein | Fall 2002

Reading Exercise: Toni Morrison's Sula

This reading exercise encourages you to take detailed notes on what you read, to record your responses, and to reflect on the value of notetaking as a study aid. I also expect that around final exam time, you'll be very glad you took notes on Sula.

The assignment is simple.

--Take notes on each chapter of Sula: Introduction, 1919, 1920, 1921, 1922, 1923, 1927, 1937, 1939, 1940, 1941, and 1965.

--Make a chart that lists and describes each of the major characters.

These notes can be hand-written or typed, on paper or note cards, in prose sentences or in the form of notations or charts or phrases or whatever. They can be factual and formal, or informal and full of your own personal ideas, feeling, responses; or they can be a mixture of both. There's no required length or format.

On Wednesday, November 13th, you'll hand in your notes for a grade. This assignment will be worth a maximum of 20 points, the most important of our smaller assignments this semester. I will evaluate this assignment in terms of the detail of your notes and the care and effort with which you prepare them. Please be sure to include your name on your notes. After I read and return them, you'll want to keep them on hand for the rest of the semester and, especially, for the final exam.

To help you this reading assignment and your reading of literary texts in general, I've compiled a list of reading tips. See my tips on "Improving Reading and Comprehension of American Literary Texts."

Due Date: Wednesday, November 13th.