EN211: The Age of Chaucer
Portfolio of Response Papers and Summative Essay

At the exam on Friday, December 21st, the portfolio of response papers and summative essay are also due.

For the portfolio, collect all of the response papers that you have written this semester and arrange them in chronological order. Print them out in hard copy. Then, read through the papers and respond to them in one of the following ways:

Option 1: In a 2-3 page essay, describe how your views of late-medieval England and its literature have evolved over the course of the semester. Document this evolution with specific examples from at least three of the response papers, explaining as precisely as possible what the examples reveal about your views and thought processes. Feel free to elaborate your perceptions and opinions as they stand now, and how you think they might continue to evolve.

Option 2: In a 2-3 page essay, describe how your writing style, your approach to composing written work, or your analytical thought process has evolved over the course of the semester. Document this evolution with at leas three specific examples taken from different response papers. These examples might represent things that you think you could have done better, or things that you think show improvement or valuable qualities that you hope to incorporate into your writing more often. Feel free to consider any elements of style or analysis, and to refer to your graded essays as well.

Option 3: In a 2-3 page essay, consider the literture we have read and discussed this term in relation to English literature of other periods or material you have studies in any other classes. With several distinct examples, discuss your perceptions of the similarities and differences.

Option 4: Write your own "estates satire." It can be of any length, and does not have to be in verse. Characterize the ideals of failures of representative members of a society, in the manner of Gower, Langland, or Chaucer's General Prologue. You could make your approach explicitly political, or you could depict society in general, or some segment of society (a university campus, perhaps?)

Option 5: There are some members of the Canterbury pilgrimage that Chaucer never got around to writing a tale for: the Knight's Yeoman; the Haberdasher; the Carpenter; the Weaver; the Dyer; the Tapister; the Plowman. Write a tale for one of them. Again, it can be of any length, and does not have to be in verse (but can be, if you wish.) It does not have to be directly related to the pilgrim (but it could be.) It may be on any topic, but you might take this opportunity to "quite" one of the other tales.