Commonplace Book - CLAS 199 - S24
Commonplace Book
Assignment Overview
Over the course of this semester, you will be required to keep a commonplace book. A commonplace book is a type of journal where individuals make note of and compile passages from their reading that they find to be interesting and/or meaningful. The practice of keeping a commonplace book rose to prominence during the 17th and 18th century, as they provided a way for readers to save and recall passages that struck a chord with them before computers and the cloud. Moreover, an essential part of keeping a commonplace book was that its owner expected to look back through their old annotations and reflect on their importance in light new things that they had read.
Purpose of this Assignment
My hope is that keeping a commonplace book in this class will help you to work towards two of our course goals. First, the process of selecting a short passage (usually just a sentence or two) and reflecting on it will help you to become a more attentive and mindful reader. Second, your commonplace book will help you make connections between different readings and discussions I have had in the class and, subsequently, help you to develop ideas for your creative projects and for your final oral exam. Finally, I am also hopeful that the passages that you discuss will serve as fruitful jumping off points for in-class discussion.
Assignment Details
Instead of a physical book, you will share your commonplace book entries with me in a Google Doc. Generally, you will have the option of turning in one commonplace entry per week, with a grand total of 10. Each entry should be roughly four paragraphs (300 - 400 words) long.
For each entry, you will begin by selecting a passage (one or two sentences) related to the question of race that stood out to you from the readings of the prior week. Your entry should lay out the context of the passage you chose, analyze how racialized thinking figures in the passage, relate to a different text/reading we have encountered in the class, and explain what made this passage stand in particular for you. Please note that it is essential to cite passages from our texts (both primary and secondary) to offer a convincing analysis.
A brief note on citations. If you are citing an ancient world, you should provide the name of the author and text, followed by the chapter and verse (if applicable) in which it appears. If you are citing a piece of secondary scholarship, you must provide the author’s last name, the date of publication, and the page number(s) on which the observation was found. For example,
“This passage reminds me of Herodotus’ comment on blood as a metaphor for race (Herodotus, Histories 8.144.3), which in turns ties into American conceptions of a similar phenomenon in the 19th century (Fields and Fields 2012, 28).”
Assessment Criteria
A satisfactory commonplace book entry should:
- Be roughly 300-400 words in length
- Shared with me as a Google Doc by class time on the day that it is due
- Start by quoting a sentence or couple of sentences (primary or secondary) that struck you from a reading that was assigned in the previous week
- Provide the context (i.e. what is happening in the passage, who is speaking, where it fits within the larger reading) for the sentence(s) you chose
- Analyze how race figures in the sentence(s) that you chose, drawing one key ideas that we have discussed in class
- Connect the sentence(s) to a different text or reading that we have encountered in the course
- Reflect on why the sentence(s) you chose were particularly meaningful for you
- Correctly cite primary and secondary sources that you refer to in your entries