Work / Assessment

"Tintern Abbey" website production: A work in progress

Aim: to produce some writing each week that may be placed on the web site. Examples of:

• annotation of a line or two of the poem
• provision of some historical background (British politics; Wordsworth's biography, etc.)
• comparison of "Tintern" to other texts (loco-descriptive / picturesque / other Wordsworth / later writers, etc.)
• critical abstract of journal article, chapter
• online edition of a related poem or other text
• illustrated interpretation of Wordsworth's French Revolution
• short history of the picturesque
• discussion of psychology / philosophy / metaphysics of "Tintern"
• Wordsworth and the sciences of "nature"

Possible working method:

1. Singly or in pairs: agree topic, divide up reading, exchange ideas by meeting or emailing during week; one student agree to produce web-formatted text or Powerpoint slides.
2. Documents presented informally during next class; after class modify in light of discussion; pass documents to DSM for course site (I may edit slightly); meanwhile pursue further issues / switch topic.
3. Students to announce rough area of topic each week, to avoid duplication of work.
4. Size of document: equivalent to 1/2 to 2-3 pages, depending on contents, aim, kind of discussion envisaged (e.g., could be materials for class seminar).
5. Pairs (if paired) to reform after three or four weeks. We evaluate effectiveness or otherwise of this method.
6. Revisions later during term are in order, either by original authors or by others; as are incorporation of links to additional pages.
7. By end of term: each student to nominate 3-4 of documents they worked on, write explanatory comment of around 1000 words, submit for final grade in course. Comment: include substantive learning achieved (thesis, argument, etc.), plus evaluation of methods of self/course as a whole.
8. Assumptions about grades (discuss).
9. Documents signed?

Example web sites out there (although none is close to how our project might work out):

• Victorian Web
• A Dictionary of Sensibility
• "Frost at Midnight": study guide (Miall)
• Pride and Prejudice: Hypertext edition of Austen novel
• The Electronic Labyrinth
• E-Literacies (hypertext essay by Nancy Kaplan)

Design. Build around poem? Around the most salient topics? How hierarchical? Web formats: tables; frames; hypertext?

return to Tintern course

Document prepared September 9th 2001 / revised August 20th 2007