SHERLOCK HOLMES
ENG 3080J
Writing and Rhetoric II
TBD
Instructor: M. Renee Benham
INVESTIGATIONS
CASE OF THE MUTILATED MIDDLEMARCH
​This project gives you a chance to practice your skills of observation and deduction. A classic Victorian text, Middlemarch by George Eliot, has been found mutilated on the second floor of the library. The librarians have requested our assistance in helping them solve this case. There are six suspects - some of whom were the last to see the book alive and well - and others who clearly had a grudge against this book. Students will interview the suspects, verify the suspect's claims through independent research, and then collaboratively make a report stating why their suspect is or is not the villain.
In the second portion of this project, students will write a creative story - The Case of the Mutilated Middlemarch - in their own creative way, describing the crime and its solution using evidence from research gathered in the first half of the project.
MONOGRAPHS
Just as Sherlock Holmes writes monographs regarding areas of study that he has examined, students will write monographs exploring specific aspects of the stories and novel that we are reading in class. These monographs, sometimes known as analysis essays, will require students to further develop their abilities not only in observation, but in deduction - being able to make a clear arguable thesis statement based upon their observations of the text. Students will write Monograph 1 and 2 with only their deductions and observations.
The Extended Monograph will require students to do a bit more research and determine if their topic of interest has been deduced by other investigators. If it has, then the student must determine how he/she can incorporate other investigators' findings and voices into their own Monograph, deciphering the information clearly and, ideally, adding something new and original to the topic.
FINAL PROJECT
For the Final Project, students may write an additional Extended Monograph, or they may create their own project that incorporates the skills we have learned in this class with Sherlock Holmes material that was not discussed in class. For example, students may write about an essay or an episode that was not read or viewed within the class. Students may also explore aligning Sherlock Holmes with their specific major in a unique project. For example, a theatre design major might create costumes for a story we read in class, using research from the first project as well as any additional research required to complete the project. A journalism student might analyze the newspaper reports from several stories and compare them to cotemporary journalism practices.
All projects will need to be proposed and approved in advance.