{"id":17337,"date":"2024-03-23T18:10:26","date_gmt":"2024-03-23T18:10:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.writemyessays.app\/blog\/questions\/analyze-the-use-of-a-single-word-in-beowulf-making-an-argument-that-deepens-disagrees-with-or-destabilizes-the-way-that-one-modern-editor-has-translated-or-misunderstood-that-word\/"},"modified":"2024-03-23T18:10:26","modified_gmt":"2024-03-23T18:10:26","slug":"analyze-the-use-of-a-single-word-in-beowulf-making-an-argument-that-deepens-disagrees-with-or-destabilizes-the-way-that-one-modern-editor-has-translated-or-misunderstood-that-word","status":"publish","type":"questions","link":"https:\/\/www.writemyessays.app\/blog\/questions\/analyze-the-use-of-a-single-word-in-beowulf-making-an-argument-that-deepens-disagrees-with-or-destabilizes-the-way-that-one-modern-editor-has-translated-or-misunderstood-that-word\/","title":{"rendered":"analyze the use of a single word in Beowulf making an argument that deepens, disagrees with, or destabilizes the way that one modern editor has translated (or misunderstood) that word."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em style=\"font-size: 16.5px; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">,<\/em><span style=\"font-weight: 700; font-size: 16.5px; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\"> <\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16.5px; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">focus on <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 700; font-size: 16.5px; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">any one word&nbsp;<\/span><span style=\"font-size: 16.5px; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">that appears in&nbsp;<\/span><em style=\"font-size: 16.5px; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">Beowulf&nbsp;<\/em><\/p>\n<div style=\"padding: 17px; font-size: 16.5px; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\" data-border-radii=\"{&quot;topLeft&quot;:{&quot;unit&quot;:&quot;px&quot;,&quot;value&quot;:0.0},&quot;topRight&quot;:{&quot;unit&quot;:&quot;px&quot;,&quot;value&quot;:0.0},&quot;bottomLeft&quot;:{&quot;unit&quot;:&quot;px&quot;,&quot;value&quot;:0.0},&quot;bottomRight&quot;:{&quot;unit&quot;:&quot;px&quot;,&quot;value&quot;:0.0}}\" data-block-type=\"69\">\n<div style=\"cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">\n<ul style=\"cursor: auto; color: inherit;\" data-accordion-icon-placement=\"left\" data-accordion-description-placement=\"left\" data-accordion-description-alignment=\"left\" data-accordion-title-alignment=\"left\" data-is-expanded-first-item=\"\" data-is-last-divider-visible=\"true\" data-is-first-divider-visible=\"true\" data-is-divider-enabled=\"true\" data-should-allow-multiple-open-items=\"\">\n<li style=\"cursor: auto; color: inherit;\" data-is-open=\"true\">\n<div style=\"cursor: auto; color: inherit;\" aria-labelledby=\"button-block-yui_3_17_2_1_1647630453127_1680877-0\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0px 0px 30px; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">\n<p style=\"margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-left: 0px; line-height: var(--body-font-line-height); cursor: auto; color: inherit;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 700; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">Choose a word whose meaning, as it is used in the early English text, doesn\u2019t come across fully \u2014 nor, perhaps, even accurately \u2014 because of the way the class edition presents it.  <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 1rem 0px; line-height: var(--body-font-line-height); cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">Your word, for instance, might be glossed by the editor or translator in a way that misses a crucial meaning in, or flattens an ambiguity or complexity in, the early text.  <\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 1rem 0px; line-height: var(--body-font-line-height); cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">Or it might not be glossed by the editor at all, leaving only the present-day English cognate of that word as a guide, and maybe an insufficient one, to its meaning in the early text.  <\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 1rem 0px; line-height: var(--body-font-line-height); cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">Or it might be translated in a way that sacrifices sense for poetic flow, or poetic flow for sense, in a way that might be best understood and unpacked when reconnected to the original wording.   Or it might be something else entirely!  This is an assignment that requires you to think with <a style=\"cursor: auto;\">specificity<\/a>, not generality, in a truly close reading.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 1rem 0px; line-height: var(--body-font-line-height); cursor: auto; color: inherit;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 700; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">Choose your word with this full essay prompt in mind.  <\/span>You\u2019ll likely have to try out a few words before you find the one that works \u2014 leave time; plan ahead.&nbsp; <\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 1rem 0px; line-height: var(--body-font-line-height); cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">Make sure you are dealing with the word <span style=\"font-weight: 700; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">as it appeared in the earliest known version of your text <\/span>(distinguishing between early texts and modern mediations is one of the fundamentals of ENG 202!). <\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 1rem 0px; line-height: var(--body-font-line-height); cursor: auto; color: inherit;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 700; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">If the word you\u2019ve chosen appears more than once in the text<\/span>, you should focus your attention on one usage in particular \u2014 but you\u2019ll have to take its other appearances into account in your understanding of that one usage.  If the word you\u2019ve chosen appears only once, that\u2019s fine too.   <\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 1rem 0px; line-height: var(--body-font-line-height); cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">Look up your word in the relevant scholarly dictionary (we\u2019ll introduce each during our class sessions): the <span style=\"font-weight: 700; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">OED<\/span> for <em style=\"cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">Blazing World<\/em> and later <em style=\"cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">Robin Hood<\/em> texts; the <span style=\"font-weight: 700; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">OED and MED <\/span>for earlier <em style=\"cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">Robin Hood <\/em>texts and the <em style=\"cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">Canterbury Tales<\/em>; the <span style=\"font-weight: 700; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">DOE<\/span> for <em style=\"cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">Beowulf<\/em> (which rules out any word that doesn\u2019t begin with the letters A through I).  <\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 1rem 0px; line-height: var(--body-font-line-height); cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">But remember: <span style=\"font-weight: 700; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">your reader can already look words up in a dictionary<\/span>.  <em style=\"cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">This is not a dictionary report: <\/em>don\u2019t waste space enumerating every possible meaning of your word; rather, hone in on what you want to argue about the word\u2019s meanings as used in this particular case.   <\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 1rem 0px; line-height: var(--body-font-line-height); cursor: auto; color: inherit;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 700; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">Perhaps you may see something that even the dictionary has missed.  <\/span>Consuly <a style=\"cursor: auto;\">my guide to using dictionaries<\/a> if it helps.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 1rem 0px; line-height: var(--body-font-line-height); cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">For this assignment, <span style=\"font-weight: 700; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">you are not required to interact with the early text in its original medium<\/span> (that is, by referring to scans of the original printing, or the original manuscript); the original media will be made available to you in class and <span style=\"font-weight: 700; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">you can certainly try to work with original media if you wish<\/span>, to the degree that your argument depends on something specifically visible in that medium (I\u2019ve had one student who discovered that a key word in a class text had been transcribed incorrectly from the original!)  \u2014 but <em style=\"cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">all you\u2019re required to work with is the transcribed early text that appears in your class edition.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 1rem; margin-right: 0px; margin-left: 0px; line-height: var(--body-font-line-height); cursor: auto; color: inherit;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 700; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">This is not a compare-and-contrast essay<\/span>: you are considering how <em style=\"cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">one<\/em> modern edition or translation handles a particular word.  (You may, however, want to take other editions\/translations into consideration as a way of better understanding the one you\u2019ve focused on).  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"cursor: auto; color: inherit;\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div style=\"padding: 17px; font-size: 16.5px; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\" data-border-radii=\"{&quot;topLeft&quot;:{&quot;unit&quot;:&quot;px&quot;,&quot;value&quot;:0.0},&quot;topRight&quot;:{&quot;unit&quot;:&quot;px&quot;,&quot;value&quot;:0.0},&quot;bottomLeft&quot;:{&quot;unit&quot;:&quot;px&quot;,&quot;value&quot;:0.0},&quot;bottomRight&quot;:{&quot;unit&quot;:&quot;px&quot;,&quot;value&quot;:0.0}}\" data-block-type=\"2\">\n<div style=\"cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">\n<div style=\"cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">\n<p style=\"margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-left: 0px; line-height: var(--body-font-line-height); cursor: auto; color: inherit;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 700; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">Next, use <\/span><a style=\"cursor: auto;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 700; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">logical<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 700; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\"> argumentation to make a <\/span><a style=\"cursor: auto;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 700; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">complex<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 700; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\"> case that <\/span><a style=\"cursor: auto;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 700; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">deepens, disagrees with, or destabilizes<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 700; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\"> the editor\/translator\u2019s handling of the word:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 1rem 0px 1rem 40px; line-height: var(--body-font-line-height); cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">Your argument may or may not involve a <em style=\"cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">correction<\/em> of the editor\u2019s handling of a word \u2014 some of our translators are already making consciously creative choices, so there isn\u2019t much at <a style=\"cursor: auto;\">stake<\/a> in correcting them!  Corrective or not, your essay must use thorough research, close reading, and critical thinking to <em style=\"cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">deepen, disagree with, or destabilize<\/em> the current edition<em style=\"cursor: auto; color: inherit;\"> in a way that will enrich and deepen your reader\u2019s understanding of the early text that contains it<\/em>.    <\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 1rem 0px 1rem 40px; line-height: var(--body-font-line-height); cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">Develop <span style=\"font-weight: 700; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">a<\/span>&nbsp;<span style=\"font-weight: 700; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">close analytical reading of your word, analyzing how it functions and carries forth meaning in the text, and determining how the modern edition or translation misses some crucial part of that meaning<\/span>.   Your reading should be <span style=\"font-weight: 700; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">ambitious, risky, <\/span><a style=\"cursor: auto;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 700; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">complex<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 700; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">, <\/span><a style=\"cursor: auto;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 700; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">in-depth<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 700; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">, and non-obvious enough that a roughly 1250-word scholarly argument is required to fully explain and defend it<\/span>.&nbsp;&nbsp;You may likely need to <a style=\"cursor: auto;\">find and include research<\/a> from any previously published studies (if there are any that are relevant to the particular usage you\u2019re studying), as well as close readings from elsewhere in the text,&nbsp;<em style=\"cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">as far as these are necessary for your argument<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 1rem 0px 1rem 80px; line-height: var(--body-font-line-height); cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">Remember: <span style=\"font-weight: 700; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">literature\u2019s artistry usually makes use of words\u2019 ambiguity<\/span>.  Do not aim to settle or solve verbal ambiguity; aim to reveal its complexity.  <\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 1rem 0px; line-height: var(--body-font-line-height); cursor: auto; color: inherit;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 700; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">As you develop your argument, start writing!:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"margin: 1rem 0px 1rem 40px; line-height: var(--body-font-line-height); cursor: auto; color: inherit;\"><a style=\"cursor: auto;\">By the deadline<\/a>, you must compose <span style=\"font-weight: 700; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">a roughly 1250-word essay <\/span>(<a style=\"cursor: auto;\">it does not have to be exactly 1250 words!<\/a>) <span style=\"font-weight: 700; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">in which,&nbsp;through the close analytical study of a single word in one of our class texts, in relation to its presentation in a class edition, you execute&nbsp;a logically organized and rigorously focused thesis&nbsp;that enriches future readers\u2019 understanding of some part of that text\/edition.<\/span>&nbsp; <em style=\"cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">Your job is to dig more deeply into your word of choice than anyone has before<\/em>: a successful paper will genuinely show your TA something useful that they did not already see or know, in a way that will change (even in a minor way) how they read and teach the text in the future.&nbsp; Cite secondary sources clearly, <span style=\"font-weight: 700; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">using signal phrases to show where your <\/span><a style=\"cursor: auto;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 700; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\">innovative<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 700; cursor: auto; color: inherit;\"> reading is departing from what has already been said<\/span>.  Include in your bibliography any texts you consulted.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>, focus on any one word&nbsp;that appears in&nbsp;Beowulf&nbsp; Choose a word whose meaning, as it is used in the early English text, doesn\u2019t come across fully \u2014 nor, perhaps, even accurately \u2014 because of the way the class edition presents it. Your word, for instance, might be glossed by the editor or translator in a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"disciplines":[14],"paper_types":[],"tagged":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.writemyessays.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/questions\/17337"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.writemyessays.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/questions"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.writemyessays.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/questions"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writemyessays.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writemyessays.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.writemyessays.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/questions\/17337\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.writemyessays.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"disciplines","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writemyessays.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/disciplines?post=17337"},{"taxonomy":"paper_types","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writemyessays.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/paper_types?post=17337"},{"taxonomy":"tagged","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.writemyessays.app\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tagged?post=17337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}