Sample Definition Paper

The essay which appears below is at the short end of what is an acceptable length for the definition paper I expect from my freshman English students.  It attempts to refine the raw concept of antagonism for my students; students will need to follow the directions for their papers that are provided here in terms of topic; the formatting is adjusted for appearance on a blog.  While it is a five-paragraph essay, each of the five paragraphs is well over one hundred words, and the number of sentences varies.

Many stories depend upon conflict, and a conflict can only be as intense as those involved in it are closely matched.  As such, the opposition to the focal character or characters of a story is every bit as important to that story as those focal characters.  That opposition is labeled as an antagonist, but it is not necessarily true that the opposition is evil or even targeted at the focal character or characters.  Anything that impedes the ability of the focal character or characters to pursue the end goal of a story is an antagonist.  Some examples of antagonists are rabid wolves, muggers on the streets, and overly rigid legal structures.

Wolves often figure as creatures associated with evil; werewolves are classic movie monsters and beasts of folklore, wolves themselves are one of the traditional forms assumed by vampires, and the animals themselves factor in as the villains of such traditional stories as “Little Red Riding Hood.”  More concretely, they do present themselves as problems for those whose livelihoods depend upon livestock; wolves prey upon such creatures as sheep and goats, and those who herd them for their living tend to view their predators as enemies.  When the already-oppositional lupine is infected with a disease that drives it to unusually aggressive behavior, the antagonistic tendencies of the beasts are only enhanced; rather than attacking sheep, they will attack people, and they are even more insidious in that they can prove fatal from even a minor bite, rather than the severe injuries normally required to kill.  The reports of objectionable wolf behavior come from the people who are affected, and as it is a commonplace for the tellers of tales to present themselves as the focal characters or to speak on their behalf, the rabid wolves find themselves as the antagonists of the stories told of them.  This occurs despite the fact that as animals—and as animals whose brains are affected by disease—they lack the capacity for moral judgment that can actually cause evil, so that while opposition is required for antagonism, direct malevolence is not.

Back-alley muggers, however, are directly and deliberately aligned against those whom they oppose.  Attacking victims from ambush and using threats of force or actual force to extract from them what valuables they may have are certainly oppositional to those victims, and since the prevailing social mores maintain that persons have the right to be secure in their own persons, the victims, being wronged, are made the focal characters of the true stories of their being mugged.  Also, attacking another person from ambush requires advanced thought and deliberation to establish a position from which to attack and a route from which to escape from the scene of the attack; intent is thus necessary, and is pursued at length by muggers.  Opposition can therefore be deliberate, so that those who pursue it are made antagonists.

Both rabid wolves and muggers are discrete, identifiable beings.  They can be seen and, potentially, avoided.  It is not necessarily true, however, that opposition comes from a directly identifiable being.  An inflexible legal system can prove oppositional, even to those who intend no wrong and simply try to live their lives well, and there is no specific person or tangible object that presents that opposition.  While it is true that laws are put into place, enforced, and interpreted by individuals, working singly or in concert, the laws themselves are not tangible.  There is no single object that is, in fact, the law; destroying no single document or group of documents will actually unmake the law.  Even so, it can prove oppositional.  Legislation restricting access to certain chemicals—whether used to harm others or by consenting adults in the privacy of their own homes—proves a hindrance to those who would employ them for whatever reason.  Legal decisions restricting what can and cannot, and what must and must not, be taught in classrooms inhibits academic freedom and restricts the ability of pupils to learn freely, both of which are oppositional to the free inquiry upon which an open society theoretically depends; it can hardly be argued that those who are trying to learn are acting ill, and those who are attempting to learn are those from whose perspectives narratives are typically presented, so that those things which oppose them must be called antagonistic.  Again, though, the raw definition of antagonism only provides for that opposition; it does not even necessitate a distinct thing to present that opposition.

Whatever form it takes, however concrete or abstract, that which opposes the focal character or characters is the antagonist.  There are many varieties of antagonist, just as there are many different stories, and it is in the distinctions among them that they become truly interesting.

Sample Summary

The following derives from another blog I maintain.

On April 23, 2011, Charles McGrath's "Why the King James Bible Endures" appeared in the online New York Times.  In the article, McGrath argues that a major cause of the text's endurance is specifically in its removal from everyday language.  He comments that the language chosen by the fifty-four member group that initially produced it chose wording that was deliberately archaic--though accessible to the readership of the time--so that even on its first printing, the text would have been different from the presumed common speech of the readership.  McGrath also voices annoyance at the tendency of more recent English transliterations of the Bible to assume a conversational tone, commenting that "Not everyone prefers a God who talks like a pal or a guidance counselor."  The article effectively articulates and provides support for one view of why the KJV endures, although more could be done to support its assertions and there is certainly room for debate.

Definition
Archaic /âr*kā'ĭk/ (adj.)- after an older pattern, style, or model no longer in common use, often several decades or more out of common use

About the Summer Theme

I tend to teach my composition and reading classes to a theme.  I find that doing so gives shape and guidance to my lectures, which helps me.  I find also that it allows students to develop a knowledge base and to work from it, which helps them.  It allows them to deal with information that they have already learned, so that they can focus on the application of the knowledge rather than trying to acquire an entirely new set of knowledge every few weeks.  Also, it gives them confidence in their own ability to gain and exhibit expertise in a given subject.

Selecting a theme is always a difficult thing for me.  Since I will be spending fourteen or fifteen weeks dealing with it, the theme needs to be one that will not bore me.  Since I am doing a lot of other work, it has to be something that I either already know or am working with in my own research.  And it does, in fact, have to be one that I can have some certainty is accessible to the students--I tried one a semester or two ago that did not work well at all, largely because it called for my students to stretch too far.*

In the spring term, I used genres of music.  While there was some initial difficulty, I did get a number of the students on board, and I was able to get in some pretty good papers.  It was also fun putting up examples; I think I did a little bit of decent writing, and it is useful to stretch myself a little outside what I normally do.

For the summer, I am returning to my own literary work (though not exclusively, as should become evident).  It is a truism that a hero cannot be any better than the opposition that hero faces.  Antagonists, then, drive the plots of stories--whether in writing, on stage, on screen (big or small), in games, or whatever.  And it is the antagonist, in any of a number of forms, that is the theme for my composition courses in the summer term.

*I tend to adhere to Vygotsky's concept of the "zone of proximal development," which is that level of difficulty just beyond what a student can do unaided.  It provides a comfortable stretch for the students' abilities, challenging them to improve without being so far ahead of where they are as to promote disengagement because "there's just no way I can do it."  Sometimes, though, I do miss.

A Beginning Recommended Reading List

At one point during this semester, I discussed with one of my classes a set of readings that I consider vital to understand English-language literary (and broader artistic) culture*; in brief, I asserted at least part of my own canon.  Not long ago, one of the students in that class asked if I would kindly post the list so that it could be referenced.  Hence, the following (which may or may not line up with what I noted in class):

• The Holy Bible (particularly the King James Version for English literature, though a good English version of the Catholic canon will also be of help)
• Homer, The Iliad and The Odyssey
• Virgil, The Æneid
• Beowulf
• Dante, Divine Comedy
• Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
• Machiavelli, The Prince
• Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur
• Castiglione, The Book of the Courtier
• Spenser, The Faerie Queene
• Elizabeth I, "Speech to the Troops at Tilbury" and "The Golden Speech"
• Shakespeare (all of it, really, but notably Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, King Lear, Julius Cæsar, Romeo and Juliet {I hate the play but it gets referenced frequently}, Midsummer Night's Dream, Much Ado about Nothing, and the sonnets)
• Marlowe, Doctor Faustus
• Bacon (aside from having a cool name), Essays
• More, Utopia
• Sidney, A Defence of Poesy
• Donne, "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning," "The Flea," Elegy 8, Meditation 17 from Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, and the Holy Sonnets
• Jonson, Volpone
• Milton, "Areopagitica" and Paradise Lost
• Behn, Oroonoko
• Butler, Hudibras
• Hamilton, Mythology (not an original source but a good introduction)

The list is only partial, but it provides a solid start.  I may revisit it at some point in the future.

*I am aware that the list I provide is largely Anglo-normative.  I do not mean by this to disenfranchise other languages and literatures, but the list was compiled in response to a specific question by a student, and so it is relatively narrow in its scope.  Also, it reflects my own readings, which have, admittedly, been Anglo-normative and largely defined by the traditional patriarchal literary canon.

Summer 2011 Schedule Preview

As posted on the portal site for the college where I teach, in the Summer 2011 term, I shall teach the following classes:

ENG 099: Basic Communictaion (one section)
ENG 101: Freshman Composition 1 (one section)
ENG 202: Technical Writing and Presentation (two sections)
HUM 110: Speech (three sections)

If the schedule holds as is, my usual Tuesday student conference time will be suspended.  Thursday afternoons, though, will be pretty good meeting times.

Sample Longer Paper

Students, below appears an example of how to expand your own shorter papers into the six- to eight-page longer paper that the course requires.  In this example, which is the bare minimum allowable length for your own papers, I work from my earlier comparison/contrast paper.  The material that I bring straight over from it appears in white.  The added counter-argument appears in red.  The rebuttal is in green.  New material supporting my thesis is in blue.  Sources for each are in the Works Cited according to the color of what they support (the source for the counter-argument is red, for example).

Please note that in your own papers, you are not to color-code; I do so in the example as a teaching device, showing you how the parts fit together.

Progressive rock is a genre of music typified by songs significantly longer than the usual length for rock, intellectualized lyrics, orchestra- or older-style instrumentation, and unusual-for-rock rhythmic constructions.  Both Boston's "Foreplay / Long Time" and Kansas's "The Pinnacle" fall firmly under the heading of progressive rock.  Of the two, though, "The Pinnacle" is the better example of the genre.

The superiority of "The Pinnacle" as an example of progressive rock depends largely upon the definition of the genre, and there is not necessarily agreement on that point.  For example, Allan F. Moore, while writing for Grove Music Online, notes that progressive rock is a largely British thing, one "predicated on an achieved maturity of UK rock, divorced from American precursors."  Under such a definition, the works of neither Kansas nor Boston can qualify as progressive rock, as both bands are wholly American in composition.  Additionally, the initial releases of their respective "The Pinnacle" and "Foreplay / Long Time" are in 1975 and 1976, well after the 1967 beginning of the genre Moore cites.  He additionally remarks that progressive rock was an attempt to legitimize rock, and by the time Kansas and Boston are playing, rock is as legitimate as it is going to be; accordingly, neither can be in search of legitimization, and cumulatively, neither can be progressive rock as defined by Moore.

It is not necessarily the case, however, that such restrictive definitions as Moore's are correct.  Moore's own examples of the UK-centric nature of the genre, such as Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven" and King Crimson's "21st-Century Schizoid Man," partake in the very American influences Moore derides.  Susan Fast, also writing for Grove Music Online, notes the heavy influence of blues, an American musical genre, on Led Zeppelin.  Also, by Moore's own admission, King Crimson employs jazz technique, and jazz is often called the only truly American art form.  Moore's definition, then, falters in its particulars, even as its socially-exclusionary aspects seem to work against it in a more general sense; strident nationalism evokes closed-mindedness, which is hardly conducive to scholarship.  A more open definition is called for, one which does not suffer from ethno-centric tendencies that the very music being classified as progressive rock seems to deny, as Fast notes of Led Zeppelin and as is evidenced in a number of other artists' songs in the genre.  A more open definition, one more concerned with structural features and less prone to the generic fallacy, thus more authentic and appropriate, appears above.

As that definition notes, progressive rock largely relies on songs that play for significantly longer than is typical of rock music.  Most rock songs play for three to four minutes.  Boston's "Foreplay / Long Time" runs for just less than eight minutes, or twice the length of the common rock song. It clearly exhibits the length expected of progressive rock.  Kansas's "The Pinnacle," however, runs for just shy of ten minutes, close to three times as long as a more mainstream rock song.  As such, its length is well in excess of Boston's song, and so it more fully fits the expected length of progressive rock.

Intellectualized lyrics typify the genre.  That is to say, the lyrics of progressive rock songs exhibit some of the features traditionally associated with "high art," such as references to literary canons and historical events, complicated poetic forms, and epic-style storytelling, which reflects concerns of large-scale importance.  Boston's lyrics open with a simple stanza of ababcdcd rhyme, but the chorus moves to a convoluted abcbadd pattern, and the song takes on an even more complicated rhyme scheme in later verses.  Additionally, the metrical line-length shifts from an unusual trimeter to a common tetrameter and thence into an oscillating, irregular pattern that complicates scansion and suggests, with the subtlety associated with fine poetry, unease, rather than openly stating it; the complications of the matter being discussed are hinted at rather than thrust into the audience's perception.  Thus, even though the lyrical content itself is simple, largely discussing the departure of a person from another, as after an evening's assignation, it is couched in a complicated metrical and rhyme structure that partakes of the most critically analyzed verse, thus demonstrating the intellectualism of its lyrics.

Kansas's lyrics, however, display greater variety of metrical construction and rhyme.  In addition, they make explicit reference to the prevailing canon of Western literary tradition and closely correspond to the traditionally-highest poetic form: the epic.  Metrically, the lines open in iambic hexameter (six instances of a stressed syllable following an unstressed), which is an uncommon line-length in English prosody; far more common are the lines of iambic pentameter familiar from Shakespeare.  Occasionally, one or two lines of an even more unusual heptameter are inserted, such as when the singer snarls "Lying at my feet I see the offering you bring / The Mark of Cain is on our faces, borne of suffering," and a similar structure of a tetrameter line followed by a trimeter is used to punctuate the lyrics.  The metrical structure is unusual, typically found only in the most demanding reading--and that reading is almost invariably associated with higher intellectual pursuits.

In terms of rhyme, the lyrics of "The Pinnacle" open with couplets, though after a pair of couplets, the lyrics shift to displaying a pair of lines which do not rhyme together but do rhyme internally, a complicated structure that, since the internal rhymes accompany the tetrameter/trimeter construction, reinforces the punctuation of the lyrics.  The unusual rhyming construction, because more difficult to put together, is taken as being a hallmark of "higher" levels of poetic form than simple couplets, which are all too often associated with doggerel verses and therefore not uncommonly held in disdain.  Also, the aforementioned "Mark of Cain" referenced in the lyrics is an explicit reference to the book of Genesis and the consequences of the second human sin, which is a firm link to the prevailing Western intellectual tradition; reference to the Bible is a commonplace of the major works of the Western canon.  In addition, the subject matter of the song is a conqueror expressing regret over the degeneration of a group of people and of (presumably) his own actions.  Accordingly, the material of the song focuses on the actions of a single person which are then made significant to the group as a whole; that kind of material is a necessary feature--indeed, one of the defining features--of the epic.  Epic poetry is often regarded as the highest literary art form in the Western world, so that when "The Pinnacle" invokes epic tropes, it alludes to the major examples of Western word-art.  In making those references, as well as in utilizing complicated metrical and rhyme structures, "The Pinnacle" fits the requirements of progressive rock.  As it does, it exceeds Boston's song's demonstration of the same features, and in exhibiting a greater degree of intellectualism than "Foreplay / Long Time," Kansas's song marks itself as a more prominent example of progressive rock.

The genre is also noted for its use of orchestra-style instrumentation.  Boston, in "Foreplay / Long Time," largely relies upon the traditional rock trifecta of guitar, bass, and drums, but it does utilize organ, as well as what sounds like a low-end piano line, extensively; the former is particularly notable in the soft, gentle transition from the first section of the song to the second.  As such, the piece does qualify as progressive rock in its instrumentation, though it cannot do so to the extent that Kansas does.  Violin is integral to the sound of Kansas's "The Pinnacle," with the violin entering with the first note of the song and playing continuously for the first thirty seconds before engaging in trade-offs with other instruments and, eventually, taking a somewhat rubato melodic line in the long opening instrumental passage.  The violin also provides a shimmering ornament to the vocal lines frequently in the song, as well as popping up with the melodic line during other instrumental passages.  The manifestation of orchestral instrumentation in Kansas is therefore beyond doubt.  Also, a number of rock bands employ piano and organs of various types, so that Boston's use of it is hardly exceptional for "regular" rock.  Even accepting the validity of organ as a solidly orchestral instrument, however, highlights the superiority of "The Pinnacle" as a piece of progressive rock; Kansas uses a variety of organs to Boston's one or two, in addition to piano, thereby exceeding Boston's entry into more Classical-style instrumentation in that regard.  That it adds violin, and thus another orchestra-style instrument, means that it uses more of the orchestra than does Boston, and so its song is a better example of progressive rock in that respect.

Progressive rock is marked by its use of unusual rhythmic constructions.  Rock, and much other Western music, relies on a four-beat rhythm that divides in pairs.  Boston's "Foreplay / Long Time" has that fundamental pattern of four.  It overlays that fundamental beat with triplet patterns in an oscillating rhythm that occludes the four-beat pattern, complicating it more than is easily done in the pair-patterns typical of rock music.  Also, the song divides neatly into two movements bridged by an arrhythmic organ passage.  The first is an extended, multilayered instrumental passage, one which iterates an initial theme and the proceeds to offer variations upon it, a maneuver unusual for mainstream but well within the parameters of progressive rock.  The second movement is fairly standard rock, but even so, since it is led into by a soft organ interlude reminiscent of the rubato indulged by Classical soloists from an overture-like passage (indeed, "Foreplay" can be read as a pun on "prelude," which, in such forms as opera, is often an overture), it serves to provide a contrast to the more unusual constructions which precede it, according them importance and thereby increasing the degree to which they are marked.  This, in turn, increases the degree to which Boston's "Foreplay / Long Time" is marked as a piece of progressive rock.

Kansas's song also employs triplets extensively.  Throughout the song, there are triplets in the rhythm section juxtaposed over beats three and four in the vocal and melodic lines.  Also, the violin often adds triplet flourishes to the melodic and ornamental lines it carries in snippets throughout the song.  In addition, as with many of Kansas's songs, the fundamental rhythm changes repeatedly in the introductory instrumental passage of the song, beginning in four and diving through a number of far less common meters such as seven, before settling into four for the ease of the singers.  The many changes in fundamental measure structure serve to complicate the rhythmical content of the song in a way rarely paralleled even in the most complex progressive rock; it is difficult to find music in any genre that plays with beat-pattern quite so freely as does "The Pinnacle," making its rhythmic construction extraordinarily unusual.

Even when the song is in four, lyrical lines do not necessarily begin, as is common for rock, on the first beat or as a pick-up into that first beat.  A number begin on beat three, such as the lines "The answer is that sweet refrain / Unheard, it always will remain / Beyond our reach, beyond our gain," and "Trapped in life's parade."  The following line, "A king without a crown," actually begins on a pick-up to beat three, which staggers the sung lines over the played, creating an intriguingly confused rhythmic effect far different from the usual easily-danced patterns of rock.  An instrumental interlude separates the principal sung sections, with rhythmic changes not unlike those in the beginning section, and a symphonic finale (with a marked diminution of volume in the long-held final chord, which proceeds to crescendo in a stereotypically symphonic fashion) ends the piece, forming a coda entirely uncommon to most rock but which pervades progressive rock.  Even though the song does not divide into movements like Boston's, "The Pinnacle" does display greater rhythmic complexity than "Foreplay / Long Time," and so more fully exemplifies that part of the definition of progressive rock.

Kansas's "The Pinnacle," then, is a better example of progressive rock than Boston's "Foreplay / Long Time."  As a more esoteric piece, it is one preferable for the usual audience of progressive rock; conversely, Boston's piece is more useful as a means to introduce new listeners to the genre.  Both are well worth time and attention, and both reward repeated listening.

Works Cited
Boston. "Foreplay / Long Time." Boston. Epic, 2006. CD.
Fast, Susan. "Led Zeppelin." Grove Music Online. N. pag. Oxford Music Online. Web. 20 March 2011.
Kansas. "The Pinnacle." Masque. Epic, 2001. CD.
Moore, Allan F. "Progressive Rock." Grove Music Online. N.pag. Oxford Music Online. Web. 20 March 2011.

Sample Summary

David Brooks's "The Modesty Manifesto" appeared in the online New York Times on March 10, 2011.  In the article, Brooks asserts that the people of the United States are arrogant in comparison to their predecessors, and he posits that it is that increased self-satisfaction that has led to the escalation of a number of economic, political, and social ills.  He employs anecdotal and seeming statistical evidence to support his point, although he does not provide much context for his "more scientific" information.  Even so, he does an admirable job of connecting what he evidently perceives as poor behavior to larger social tendencies that can easily be taken as problematic.

Sample Comparison/Contrast Paper

Students, please find below a sample comparison/contrast paper, of the kind discussed in class.  As with the earlier sample definition paper, keep in mind that it is a draft and not a finished work.  Note also that the genre, progressive rock, remains unavailable to you, and that, again, my prewriting has come from some thought and classroom examples.
Regarding length, this essay is at the high end of what is expected for class.

Progressive rock is a genre of music typified by songs longer than the usual length for rock, intellectualized lyrics, orchestral instrumentation, and unusual-for-rock rhythmic constructions.  Both Boston's "Foreplay / Long Time" and Kansas's "The Pinnacle" fall firmly under the heading of progressive rock.  Of the two, though, "The Pinnacle" is the better example of the genre.

Progressive rock largely relies on songs that play for longer than is typical of rock music.  Most rock songs play for three to four minutes.  Boston's "Foreplay / Long Time" runs for just less than eight minutes, or twice the length of the common rock song; it clearly fits the length expected of progressive rock.  Kansas's "The Pinnacle," however, runs for just shy of ten minutes, close to three times as long as a more mainstream rock song.  As such, its length is well in excess of Boston's song, and so it more fully fits the expected length of progressive rock.

Intellectualized lyrics typify the genre.  That is to say that the lyrics of progressive rock songs exhibit some of the features traditionally associated with "high art," such as references to literary canons and historical events, complicated poetic forms, and epic storytelling.  Boston's lyrics open with a simple stanza of ababcdcd rhyme, but the chorus moves to a convoluted abcbadd pattern, and the song takes on an even more complicated rhyme scheme in later verses.  Additionally, the metrical line-length shifts from an unusual trimeter to a common tetrameter and thence into an oscillating, irregular pattern.  Thus, even though the lyrical content itself is simple, it is couched in a complicated metrical and rhyme structure that partakes of the most critically analyzed verse, thus demonstrating the intellectualism of its lyrics.

Kansas's lyrics, however, display greater variety of metrical construction and rhyme.  In addition, they make explicit reference to the prevailing canon of Western literary tradition.  Metrically, the lines open in iambic hexameter, which is an uncommon line-length in English prosody.  Occasionally, one or two lines of septameter are inserted, such as when the singer snarls "Lying at my feet I see the offering you bring / The Mark of Cain is on our faces, borne of suffering," and a similar structure of a tetrameter line followed by a trimeter is used to punctuate the lyrics.  In terms of rhyme, the lyrics open with couplets, though after a pair of couplets, the lyrics shift to displaying a pair of lines which do not rhyme together but do rhyme internally, a complicated structure that, since the internal rhymes accompany the tetrameter/trimeter construction reinforce the punctuation of the lyrics.  Also, the aforementioned "Mark of Cain" referenced in the lyrics is an explicit reference to the book of Genesis and the consequences of the second human sin.  In making that reference, as well as in utilizing complicated metrical and rhyme structures, "The Pinnacle" fits the requirements of progressive rock; in exhibiting a greater degree of intellectualism than "Foreplay / Long Time," Kansas's song marks itself as a more prominent example of progressive rock.

The genre is also noted for its use of orchestra-style instrumentation.  Boston, in "Foreplay / Long Time," largely relies upon the traditional rock trifecta of guitar, bass, and drums, but it does utilize organ, as well as what sounds like a low-end piano line, extensively; the former is particularly notable in the soft, gentle transition from he first section of the song to the second.  As such, the piece does qualify as progressive rock in its instrumentation, though it cannot do so to the extent that Kansas does.  Violin is integral to the sound of Kansas's "The Pinnacle," so that the manifestation of orchestral instrumentation in Kansas is beyond doubt.  Also, a number of rock bands employ organs of various types, so that Boston's use of it is hardly exceptional; Kansas, for instance, uses a variety of organs.  That it adds violin, and thus another orchestra-style instrument, means that it uses more of the orchestra than does Boston, and so its song is a better example of progressive rock in that respect.

Progressive rock is marked by its use of unusual rhythmic constructions.  Rock, and much other Western music, relies on a four-beat rhythm that divides in pairs.  Boston's "Foreplay / Long Time" does have a fundamental pattern of four, but overlays that fundamental beat with triplet patterns in an oscillating rhythm that occludes the four-beat pattern.  Also, the song divides neatly into two movements bridged by an arrhythmic organ passage, a maneuver unusual for mainstream but well within the parameters of progressive rock.

Kansas's song also employs triplets extensively.  In addition, as with many of Kansas's songs, the fundamental rhythm changes repeatedly in the introductory instrumental passage of the song, beginning in four and diving through a number of far less common meters such as seven, before settling into four for the ease of the singers.  Even then, though, lyrical lines do not begin, as is common, on the first beat or as a pick-up into that first beat; a number begin on beat three, which staggers sung lines over the played, creating an intriguingly confused rhythmic effect far different from the usual easily-danced patterns of rock.  An instrumental interlude separates sung sections, with rhythmic changes not unlike those in the beginning section, and a symphonic finale ends the piece, forming a coda entirely uncommon to most rock but which pervades progressive rock.  Even though the song does not divide into movements like Boston's, "The Pinnacle" does display greater rhythmic complexity, and so more fully exemplifies that part of the definition of progressive rock.

Kansas's "The Pinnacle," then, is a better example of progressive rock than Boston's "Foreplay / Long Time."  As a more esoteric piece, it is one preferable for the usual audience of progressive rock; conversely, Boston's piece is more useful as a means to introduce new listeners to the genre.  Both are well worth time and attention, and reward repeated listenings.

Works Cited
Boston. "Foreplay / Long Time." Boston. Epic, 2006. CD.
Kansas. "The Pinnacle." Masque. Epic, 2001. CD.

Sample Summary

The summary below is one of the same article students in my Spring 2011 ENG 099 class were asked to summarize as part of their midterm exam.  This is the kind of thing I look for when I grade.

On February 28, 2011, the online New York Times published Richard Parker’s “The Lone Star State Turns South.”  The article briefly outlines the position of Texas as it aligned itself with the Confederacy, noting the fervor with which the Confederate cause was embraced by Texans and the material support that Texas offered to the Confederacy.  It also comments in greater detail on the effects of secession on Samuel Houston and Gen. David Twiggs.  The former was ousted from the governor’s office for refusing to swear a loyalty oath to the Confederacy.  The latter was forced to surrender all Union bases and lead Union troops out of the state, for which he was stripped of his rank in the Union army.  Later, Twiggs was awarded a generalship with the Confederacy.  The article draws attention to the conflicted nature of Texas’s alignment with the Confederacy, effectively adding more nuance to and thereby increasing understanding of the event.

Sample Classification Paper, Option 2

Students, please find below a draft of a classification paper that follows Option 2, as discussed during class.  As with the earlier sample definition paper, keep in mind that it is a draft and not a finished work.  Note also that the genre, progressive rock, remains unavailable to you, and that, again, my prewriting has come from some thought and classroom examples.

As with the Option 1 example, this paper is the bare minimum allowable length for your assignment.

Progressive rock is a genre of music typified by songs longer than the usual length for rock, intellectualized lyrics, orchestral instrumentation, and unusual-for-rock rhythmic constructions.  Kansas is recognized as one of the major bands to work in the genre, and so the band's "Point of Know Return" is often thought of as belonging to the genre.  Such a thought is incorrect.

"Point of Know Return" is not long enough a song to truly qualify as progressive rock.  Most progressive rock songs run between six and ten minutes.  "Point of Know Return" is just over three minutes in length, solidly within the range of most rock music but far, far short of that common for progressive rock.

Intellectually, the song also falls short of the mark established by progressive rock.  Most of the lines in the lyrics function as tetrameter, generally iambic.  Iambic tetrameter is traditionally employed in light verse or in works of ridicule.  In neither case is it closely associated with higher intellectual faculties; rather the opposite is true, as evidenced by the traditional "Thirty days hath September."  Additionally, the lyrics contain a persistent usage error.  The dominant American English of the time the song was released calls for the use of "who" or "whom" when referencing a person of uncertain identity.  The lyrics repeatedly ask "Was it you that said" [emphasis mine], using the pronoun appropriate for an inanimate object or non-human animal rather than that fitting for human application.  That it does so not just once but thrice marks the mistake as more than simply an incidental error, representing a distinctly anti-intellectual attitude far removed from that for which progressive rock calls.

Only in instrumentation does "Point of Know Return" meaningfully approach progressive rock.  As with many of Kansas' songs, the sibilant strains of a violin playing are presented in the song.  The violin is also featured in a brief solo between the second and third verses.  It also sings forth in arpeggiated flourishes surrounding the repeated refrain "How long to the point of know return?"  In those flourishes, though, the violin is accompanied by and blends fluidly with electric organ, an instrument not seldom employed in the rock music of the 1970s.  Thus, even in presenting an orchestral instrument, the song integrates it with mainstream rock, frustrating the identification of "Point of Know Return" as progressive rock.

The rhythmic construction of the song also inhibits the classification of "Point of Know Return" as progressive rock.  Typically, progressive rock songs will shift meter, with the shifts occurring frequently and among unusual time signatures.  Measures in five, seven, and eleven are not uncommon.  While it is true that "Point of Know Return" shifts meter, it only does so between the common-to-rock four and the not uncommon three.  Additionally, the shits occur only in predictable places at the end of the second and fourth lines of verses 1, 2, and 4--the third verse serves as a sort of refrain, which is hardly unusual of rock music.  Even during the violin solo, during which time shifts in time signature would be easily negotiated, the meter remains in four.  As such, "Point of Know Return" is remarkably consistent to the common-to-rock four-beat measure, and so scarcely meets the rhythmic qualifications to be progressive rock.

To call "Point of Know Return" progressive rock is to misidentify it entirely.  This is not to say that Kansas is a bad band.  There is nothing wrong with the song itself, and Kansas has released many fine works.  Instead, the problem is with the way in which "Point of Know Return" is classified.  Because Kansas has done so much progressive rock so very well, almost every song the band has released is regarded as being progressive rock.  This fosters (and possibly results from) paying insufficient attention to each song individually, which precludes judging each on its individual merits.  As such, it is lazy listening, and, like all laziness, is to be avoided.

Work Cited
Kansas. "Point of Know Return." Point of Know Return. Epic, 2002. CD.