ENGLISH 227

Introduction to Literature and Culture

Fall 2014

Dr. Sheila Liming
sheila.liming@und.edu
701-777-2782
Office: Merrifield 1B

Course Description

Gothic F iction
Office hours:
MWF 2:30-4 PM,
and by appointment

The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, HP Lovecraft asserts, and the oldest and
strongest kind of fear is fear of the unknown. Ghosts, goblins, and other elements of the
supernatural are a convenient repository for other, more amorphous forms of anxiety and
paranoia, and for this reason, they loom large in the history of literature and culture. In this
course, we will survey the Gothic tradition in its many forms, including short stories, novels,
poetry, oral histories, and film. In doing so, we will try to get at the root of our collective cultural
fears: when we indulge in stories of spirits and specters, what kind of anxieties do we, in fact,
reveal? Or, in other words, what are we really afraid of when we seek to be afraid?
Together, we will examine classic examples of gothic fiction, beginning in the mid-nineteenth
century with the works of Edgar Allan Poe, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Washington Irving, and
others. We will chart the development of the gothic mode over time working at first primarily
from short stories, but then also from oral tradition, eyewitness account (both fictional and non),
poetry, longer literary fiction, and film. We will also assess offshoot forms of the gothic
tradition, including the southern gothic and noir genres. All the while, we will concentrate on
drawing contemporary connections from the fiction we read, and our studies of the gothic will
culminate in a multimedia final project linking facets of the gothic tradition to contemporary
culture, custom, rumor, and lore.
This is an Essential Studies course and will count towards your distribution requirement in
Humanities.
Course Objectives

To provide students with an introduction to touchstone literary and fictional works of the
nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

To familiarize students with the genre of gothic fiction, including any pertinent literary
techniques, modes, forms, vocabulary, or stylistic traditions associated with that genre.

To provide students with a more sophisticated understanding of the concept of genre, so that they
may individually learn to recognize, assess, criticize, and respond to generic conventions in a
variety of cultural formats.

To encourage students to reflect upon their own communities and bases of cultural influence by
allowing them to connect the reading of gothic literature to the stories, legends, and lore that are
in themselves the products of those communities.

To encourage students to think multimodally in both the consumption and construction of

narrative, and to hone their skills in both writing and creating digital media artifacts.

To establish standards for academic discourse and participation through in-class discussion, peer
evaluation, and collaborative assignments.

Required Texts
[to be purchased]
Crow, Charles L., ed. American Gothic: From Salem Witchcraft to HP Lovecraft An
Anthology, 2nd ed. New York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2013.
[provided by the instructor]
Atwood, Margaret. Death by Landscape. Wilderness Tips. Toronto: McClelland-Bantam,
1991. 119-146. Print.
---. Hairball. Wilderness Tips. McClelland-Bantam, 1991. 39-60. Print.
Bierce, Ambrose. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge. Project Gutenberg. November 2013,
ProjectGutenberg.org. Web. 23 July 2014.
Doyle, Arthur Conan. The Hydesville Episode. The History of Spiritualism. Vol. I. New York:
George H. Doran Co., 1949. 60-87. Print.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. My Kinsman, Major Molineaux. Selected Tales and Sketches. New
York: Holt and Rhinehart, 1971. 25-46. Print.
James, M.R. The Mezzotint. Collected Ghost Stories. Ware, UK: Wordsworth Editions, 1992.
20-30. Print.
Lovecraft, HP. Supernatural Horror in Literature. HPLovecraft.com, October 2009. Web. 1
August 2014.
---. The Thing on the Doorstep. The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories, ed. del
Toro. New York: Penguin, 2013. Print.
McRobbie, Linda Rodriguez. The Strange and Mysterious History of the Ouija Board. 27
Smithsonian Magazine. 27 October 2013, Smithsonianmag.com. Web. 23 July 2014.
Poe, Edgar Allan. The Black Cat. Tales. New York: Century Co., 1901. 398-416. Print.
Slender Man. Cheezburger Network. KnowYourMeme.com, June 2014. Web. 22 July 2014.
<http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/slender-man>

Wagner, Charles. Deadlights. Ghosts of the Heartland, ed. McSherry. Nashville: Rutledge
Hill, 1990. 140-148. Print.
Wharton, Edith. Miss Mary Pask. The Ghost Stories of Edith Wharton. New York: Scribners,
1973. 129-144. Print.
Required Films and Television
The Innocents. Dir. Jack Clayton. Twentieth Century Fox, 1961. DVD.
The Jersey Devil. The X-Files. Writ. Chris Carter. Dir. Joe Napolitano. Fox, 1993. DVD.
Night of the Hunter. Dir. Charles Laughton. MGM, 1955. DVD.
The Ring. Dir. Gore Verbinski. Dreamworks, 2002. DVD.
Assignments and Grading
Introductory Essay [20 pts.]
Position Papers [15 pts. each]
These are brief, 1-pg. reading responses, to be completed as homework, which ask you to
state a position about a given reading or text that we have covered that week (including
films). Your main objective in preparing these short essays should be to state a clear
argument about something concrete you have observed in the text. For this reason,
Position Papers should include at least one direct quotation from, or reference to
(citation), the text, and should offer an argumentative response that goes beyond the
simplistic, knee-jerk reaction of I liked it or I hated it. Rather, if you find yourself
leaning towards one of these reactions, try to concentrate in your Position Paper on one
aspect of the text that, in your opinion, contributed to your liking or hating it, and
then assess and analyze that element in particular.
For instance, say you really enjoyed Nathaniel Hawthornes story Young Goodman
Brown. Why did you like it? What made it so enjoyable? Was it Hawthornes use of
language? If thats the case, pick out a particular passage from the text that, in your
opinion, exemplifies Hawthornes writing style, and assess/respond to that passage. If, on
the other hand, you found yourself enjoying Hawthornes story because the narrative
itself was so engaging, then select a particular moment (perhaps a climactic scene), and
begin your analysis in your Position Paper there.
Midterm Assignment [2 parts]
Part 1:
Investigative Narrative Essay [50 pts.]
Part 2:
Response to / Analysis of Peers Investigative Narrative Essay [50 pts.]
Final Project: Digital Narrative Essay [100 pts.]

[See Assignment Sheets, included at the end of this syllabus, for instructions related to the
Midterm and Final assignments/projects.]
Course Participation [approx. 45 pts., or 15% of your total grade]
Course Policies and Procedures
Attendance
Since this is a small discussion class, attendance is mandatory. You are allowed four absences
without penalty following your fifth absence, your grade in the class will begin to drop by a
half-a-letter grade per absence (5% of your total grade). Plan ahead if you think you might miss
class for religious holidays or for other scheduled events. I do not distinguish between excused
and unexcused absences. You are allowed four absences be they excused or unexcused
before your grade begins to decrease, unless other special arrangements have been made with
me ahead of time.
If you have extenuating circumstances significantly affecting your attendance throughout the
semester (such as an illness or a family emergency), it is your responsibility to notify me about
your situation and obtain authoritative documentation to excuse your absences (either from a
Dean or from your advisor). If you miss more than the allotted days due to your situation, we
will discuss whether its prudent for you to continue in the course.
If you miss class, you are responsible to contact your peers for materials and information youve
missed. Do not email me asking whether or not there was a daily assignment. Missing a class is
no excuse for not completing the homework. Likewise, I expect you to have read the assigned
readings and to be ready to discuss them, even if you were absent from class the day before.
Finally, you are responsible for keeping track of your own absences. A sign-in sheet will be used
to record and verify daily attendance. You may check in with me at any time to confirm the
numbers of absences you have accrued in the course.
Late Arrival
Arrive on time. You will not receive an A in this class if you do not arrive on time. Lateness not
only disrupts the class but also demonstrates disrespect for your peers and for your instructor.
For every two days you are late to class, you will be marked for one absence. If you are more
than 15 minutes late to class, you will be marked absent for that day.
Class Participation
Since this is a discussion course, its important that you participate in class. Participation, which
includes both classroom involvement and physically being in class, makes up roughly 15% of
your total grade. While your class participation grade falls to my discretion, there are several
steps you can take to ensure you achieve a satisfactory grade:

Come to class prepared, with a hard (physical) copy of the required reading.
Since laptop use is prohibited in class, it is essential that you print out and bring a
copy of the required reading to class every day (or, in the case of the Crow text,
bring that to class). Failure to do so will result in the loss participation
points; additionally, failure to do so may affect any in-class writing assignments,
quizzes, or exercises that require the text in question.

Be prepared to participate; plan to participate. You should anticipate contributing

to course discussions on a regular basis. This means that you must both be
prepared (having done the required assignment or reading) and must formulate
and offer contributions to the discussion on a regular basis (at least once a
week).

Be courteous toward your peers. When you raise disagreement in class either
with the instructor or with your peers try to do so respectfully. Articulate your
reasons and grounds for disagreement and direct them towards an idea, rather
than a person. Failure to show adequate respect towards your peers or towards
your instructor may result in your being asked to leave the classroom. Such a
request will, in turn, affect my assessment of your class participation, and
possibly your attendance record as well.

Scholastic Honesty, Plagiarism, and Cheating

At the University of North Dakota, we believe in the excellence of our students and in the
integrity of our academic programs. We also believe that your good ideas become better when
you test them against the ideas of others. So for this course, feel free to discuss your ideas about
the major writing assignments with other students. Collaborating on question/answer homework
assignments or open-book quizzes, however, is not acceptable; these types of assignments are
designed for me, your instructor, to monitor how you are handling specific parts of the course
material. Blatantly taking someone elses words, ideas or concepts, and using them without
citing your source is plagiarism. So is using another students essay, or part of his or her essay,
as your own. In the world of writing (academic writing especially), this is a serious crime, and is
treated as such. Anyone who uses non-documented material from another source, including
online sources, will receive a failing grade for the entire course and will be referred to university
administrators for possible further disciplinary action.
These policies are concurrent with the University of North Dakotas policies regarding scholastic
honesty. For more information about these policies, please refer to the Scholastic Honesty
section of the Undergraduate Academic Information materials available online at und.edu.
All final versions of essay assignments will be submitted to Blackboard, which runs digital
comparisons of submitted assignments in order to identify possible cases of plagiarism. For this
reason, you must submit final versions of papers to Blackboard. You may additionally submit
versions of your assignment through other electronic means (via email, for instance), but if you
fail to submit your paper to Blackboard, it will be treated as late, and lateness penalties will
apply.

In this course, we will talk about the differences between plagiarism and the misuse of sources. If
you have any questions regarding the appropriate use of source material (readings, critical
opinions, or supplemental research), please feel free to ask me. In my experience, those students
who plagiarize are also those who feel overwhelmed by the assignment and thus compelled to
use someone elses work as their own. If you get so frustrated with an assignment that you feel
like your only option is to plagiarize, come see me. My role as a teacher is to help students, not
to punish them please use me as a resource to help you write, brainstorm, or work out
assignments and essays.
General Guidelines for Submitting Assignments
All papers submitted in this class including short, type-written homework responses (Position
Papers) must comply with Modern Language Association (MLA) guidelines and citation
rules. This means that you must provide MLA compliant documentation for the use of additional
sources, including:

a Works Cited page, providing correct bibliographic information for each source
cited, quoted, or consulted in your paper

correct in-text citations for each source cited, quoted, or consulted in your paper

If you are unsure of MLA guidelines, I suggest you either consult or purchase a current
MLA Style Guide, or consult the following online source:
The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University
website http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/

In addition to proper citation,

All papers, including short response assignments, must be typed, double-spaced, with 1
margins.

All papers completed as homework including Position Papers must be

digitally submitted via Blackboard, unless otherwise specified.

Include page numbers on all assignments longer than one page.

Carefully edit and proofread all texts to eliminate problems in grammar, spelling, and
punctuation.

Digital copies of all final papers must be cleanly edited and readable. This means that
you must remove all digital comments/suggestions, including highlighted or underlined
text, and including all comment balloons.

Spell-check your documents.

Documents that do not meet these and other assignment-specific requirements will not be
graded. They will be returned to you and, when resubmitted, will be treated as late
submissions.
Deadlines
All written assignments must be submitted on the due date, and missing the class when the
assignment is due doesnt mean your assignment isnt late. Turning in an assignment on time is
part of doing the assignment, and late work will be penalized, regardless of how well its
executed.
Lateness penalties are as follows:
Papers and assignments. For every day that is, every day of the week, and not every
class period that a paper or homework assignment is due, your final draft will lose two
points.

Midterm and final papers/projects. For every day that a midterm or final paper/project is
late, you will lose five points.

Daily assignments. All late assignments may receive a maximum of half-credit (50%),
regardless of how late they are.

Cell Phones, Laptops, etc.

Students are expected to participate and be engaged in class discussion. Therefore, students are
required to silence or turn off cell phones before coming to class (there is, quite obviously, to be
no text messaging during class). All laptops must remain closed unless you have made prior
arrangements with me and have demonstrated that using a laptop is necessary for your learning.
Campus Resources
Learning Disabilities
If you have a learning disability that could impair your progress in this course, please contact
Disability Services. Students are encouraged to register through Disability Services in order to
receive recommendations for learning accommodations.
Disability Services
http://und.edu/disability-services/
McCannel Hall Room 190
We can arrange to accommodate your learning style based on DS recommendations. Please
notify me at the start of the semester if you have specific needs, or if Disability Services has
provided you with a Verification of Needs for Disability Accommodations.
Writing Help
All students are encouraged to take advantage of UNDs Writing Center to receive help in
preparing writing assignments.

To make an appointment or speak with a tutor, visit their website, or the visit the Writing Center
itself.
UND Writing Center
http://und.edu/academics/writing-center/
Merrifield Hall Room 12
Communications
You can reach me via email, office phone, or a note in my mailbox in Merrifield Hall. The best
way to reach me, of course, is through email I check it frequently and, while I cannot guarantee
an immediate reply, it is certainly the fastest way to get in touch.
If you have questions about the policies of this class, review the syllabus first, and then make
an appointment to speak with me.

Course Schedule
I: Classic Gothic Fiction
Wednesday, August 27
Friday, August 29

Course introduction; review syllabus

DUE: Lovecraft, Supernatural Horror in Literature
and Introductory Essay
INSTRUCTIONS: prepare a 1-page paper
responding to Lovecrafts essay. You may choose to
respond to one of the following questions, or you
may choose to select another topic for your
response. In either case, you should refer directly
to the text, whenever possible.
Why, according to Lovecraft, are we so drawn to and
intrigued by tales of the supernatural, or weird, as he
calls them? Do you agree with Lovecrafts reasoning?
Why does fiction of this kind tend to be looked down
upon, or critically dismissed, according to Lovecraft? Do
you think this is still the case today?
What is the difference between weird fiction
(otherwise known as the gothic) and the literature
of the mundanely gruesome, according to
Lovecraft? Do you think it is important to distinguish
between the two?

Monday, September 1

NO CLASS: Enjoy your Labor Day!

Wednesday, September 3

DUE: Poe, The Fall of the House of Usher

Discuss Poe in class, and the beginnings of the
gothic genre

Friday, September 5

DUE: Poe, The Black Cat [BB]

Compare to Usher, and discuss generic conventions of
gothic storytelling

Monday, September 8

DUE: Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown

Discuss Hawthorne, introduce Position Papers

Wednesday, September 10

DUE: Hawthorne, My Kinsman, Major Molineux [BB]

Continue to discuss Hawthorne

Friday, September 12

DUE: Position Papers, Group A

Monday, September 15

DUE: Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Discuss Irving and the appeal of colonial America for
nineteenth-century storytellers

Wednesday, September 17

In-class: screen The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (1949)

Friday, September 19

DUE: Positions Papers, Group B

Compare the film and text versions of Sleepy Hollow

Monday, September 22

DUE: James, The Turn of the Screw, sections I X

Discuss James in comparison to Irving

Wednesday, September 24

DUE: James, The Turn of the Screw, sections XI XXII

Continue discussion of James

Thursday, September 25

SCREEN: The Innocents (1961)

4-6 PM: Merrifield 114

Friday, September 26

DUE: Position Papers, Group A

In class, compare The Innocents to The Turn of the Screw

Monday, September 29

DUE: Wharton, Miss Mary Pask [BB]

Discuss big house narratives in Wharton and James

Wednesday, October 1

DUE: Gilman, The Yellow Wall-Paper

Discuss Gilmans take on the haunted house convention

Friday, October 3

DUE: Position Papers, Group B

UNIT II: Legend, Lore, and Local Rumor

Monday, October 6
DUE: Doyle, The Hydesville Incident [BB]
Review the history of the Fox sisters, Lily Dale
Wednesday, October 8

DUE: Wagner, Deadlights [BB]

Introduce midterm assignment

Friday, October 10

In-class: screen The Jersey Devil

Monday, October 13

Discuss the role of legend and local superstition in

the gothic imagination

Wednesday, October 15

DUE: Midterm Assignment, Part 1 [Investigative Narrative

Essay] submit papers to Blackboard AND bring hard
copies with you to class

Share/discuss narrative essays and assign peer

response partners
Friday, October 17

DUE: Midterm Assignment, Part 2 [Peer Response Essay]

-- submit papers to Blackboard AND bring hard copies
with you to class
Meet with partners to discuss response essays, feedback,
etc.
Introduce final project, and revisions to Personal Narrative
Essays

UNIT III: The Modern Gothic: Technology, Dissemination, and Variation

Monday, October 20
DUE: James, The Mezzotint [BB]
Discuss the role of technology in modern gothic narratives
Wednesday, October 22

DUE: Lovecraft, The Thing on the Doorstep [BB]

Discuss the influence of science fiction on modern gothic

Friday, October 24

DUE: Position Papers, Group A

Monday, October 27

DUE: Dunbar, The Lynching of Jube Benson

Discuss gothic conventions in African American literature

Wednesday, October 29

DUE: Chesnutt, The Dumb Witness

Friday, October 31
Halloween

DUE: Position Papers, Group B

Discuss the gothic conventions and traditions surrounding
Halloween

Monday, November 3

DUE: Bierce, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge [BB]

Wednesday, November 5

DUE: Faulkner, A Rose for Emily [BB]

Thursday, November 6

SCREEN: The Night of the Hunter (1955)

4-6 PM: Merrifield 114

Friday, November 7

CLASS CANCELED

Monday, November 10

NO CLASS Veterans Day

Wednesday, November 12

Discuss Night of the Hunter and southern gothic style

in film

Friday, November 14

Discuss requirements for Final Project; review timeline for

lab time and working on webpages; discuss the role of
media in disseminating gothic stories and legends

Monday, November 17

DUE: McRobbie, The Strange and Mysterious History

of the Ouija Board [BB]

Tuesday, November 19

SCREEN: The Ring (2002)

4-6 PM: Merrifield 113

Wednesday, November 20

Discuss The Ring and fears of reproducibility

Friday, November 22

DUE: Slender Man entry (KnowYourMeme.com)

Read through the entirety of the Slender Man entry,
and feel free to follow links, skim through user comments,
or watch some of the video content associated with this
entry
In class, well discuss the ins and outs of the Slender Man
phenomenon, and compare it contemporary fears of
reproducibility

Monday, November 24

In-class (lab) time to work on webpages

November 26/28

NO CLASS enjoy your Thanksgiving!

Monday, December 1

DUE: Atwood, Hairball [BB]

Wednesday, December 3

DUE: Atwood, Death by Landscape [BB]

Friday, December 5

In-class (lab) time to work on webpages

Monday, December 8

In-class (lab) time to work on webpages and discuss

tagging, comment procedures

Wednesday, December 10

Last day of class: evaluations and semester review

Friday, December 12

NO CLASS Reading Day

Monday, December 15

DUE: Final Assignment

Webpages / Omeka exhibits should be polished, finalized,
and saved, and all steps of the final project listed on the
assignment page, and including Step 6 (Adding Tags)
should be completed by 5 PM

Assignment Instructions: Midterm Essay Assignment

In Unit II of this class, Legend, Lore, and Local Rumor, we will be examining the ways in
which gothic narratives are disseminated through informal channels of social communication
(like gossip, oral tradition, rumor, and campfire stories).This assignment asks you to carry out
some independent research into a local ghost story, or ghostly encounter, that you have heard
about.
PART 1:

Investigative Narrative Essay [50 pts.]

Prepare a 2-4 pp. essay that relates the story of a rumored ghostly encounter. This
encounter might be your own, or it might be a story you heard from a friend or a relative,
or from a member of your community. Interview people who may know something about
the story, and try to include their impressions. In your essay, you should both try to tell
the story that is, to communicate the facts of the case, or the main narrative and you
should also assess, reflect upon, and respond to the story.
Consider, for instance, Arthur Conan Doyles account of The Hydesville Incident,
which we read in class. Doyle himself was not present to witness the Fox sisters
supposed conjuring of dead spirits, but he works from signed documents, interviews, and
local rumor to piece together the larger story. You should aim to do the same in this
essay, and should strive to combine multiple peoples perspectives in order to present a
balanced view of the case.
Finally, you should also consider doing some Internet research in relation to your story.
Many websites track local superstition and record ghostly encounters, and sometimes
include pictures of haunted places, etc. See what you can find out about the truth of
your story, and about its range of dissemination.
Dont forget to include direct quotations, in-text citations, and a Works Cited page.

PART 2:

Peer Response Essay [50 pts.]

After you complete Part 1 of this assignment, you will be assigned a partner with whom
you will trade Investigative Narrative Essays. Read through your partners essay, and
craft a 1-2 pp. response to it.
Your response should respond to some of the following questions:
Have you heard of similar stories, or similar versions of this story? Are their
overlaps between this and other local legends or stories youve heard about?
How does your partners story compare to some of the literature weve read this
semester? Are there similar themes, ideas, etc.?
What kinds of fears are represented by your partners story? What kind of
communal anxieties does it speak to?
Are there parts of your partners story that depend upon spatial or local
specificities (particular places, landscape, geography, weather, etc.)?

Assignment Instructions: Final Project

[100 pts]

For your final assignment in this class, you will be transferring your written account of a local
legend or ghost story (your Investigative Narrative Essay / midterm assignment) to the web. This
will require you to revise and reshape your narrative somewhat, and will also require you to
construct and design an Omeka page/exhibit for its display. Your individual webpage will then
become part of a larger online exhibit featuring all of our classs writings.
There are a number of required in order to make this happen.
Step 1

Revise your Investigative Narrative Essay, based on your partners feedback from
the midterm assignment. Keep in mind that your audience is no longer limited to
your instructor or your peer, but now includes the larger, digital public. Reshape
your essay accordingly.

Step 2

Locate imagery that represents, or connects to, the story you are telling in your
Investigative Narrative Essay. Is there a particular place involved in it? A town, a
highway, a local landmark, a house? Find a picture or image that fits with the
story. You can do this in one of two ways: 1) you can take the picture yourself
(visit the location, or have someone else do it, and take a picture), or 2) you can
find a picture someone else has posted on the Internet. If you choose option (2),
you must account for the source material properly: be sure to record any
information about who took the picture, when, where it was posted on the
Internet, the url, date, etc. so that you may properly cite and attribute it later.

Step 3

Store your revised Narrative Essay and your image electronically either in an
email account, or a USB drive.

Step 4

Build your webpage using the Omeka platform. This will take some time, so
please plan ahead, making sure you complete all of the following steps:

You can
click on
Add Item
(green box
on the righthand side) at
any time,
and can
return to the
item to save
changes/edit

Login: you will receive an email from me assigning you a user name for the
Omeka site. Got to www.sheilaliming.com/gothic/admin/users and login
with your assigned user name, or follow the link provided in your email. You will
be prompted to create a password do so, and make sure to store and/or
remember your password and user name.
Create a new item: go to Items (left-hand toolbar) and select Add an Item
Establish Author Information: Select the Dublin Core template from the
center-top menu: it will give you several fill-in fields. Add information to the
following fields:
Title (of story/essay)
Creator (thats you put your name here)
Date (month and year of digital publication, i.e. December 2014)

Dont forget
to save!
Save
Click
Changes
after you
have
added your
item in order
to save your
progress.

Contributor (names of anyone you interviewed or spoke to, or of anyone who

contributed information to your story/essay)
Add Text: Select Item Type Metadata from the center-top menu (right next to
Dublin Core. You will see a drop-down menu, and you should select Oral
History from the drop-down menu options.
You will then see a new template containing, again, several fill-in fields. Add
information / text to the following fields:
Text (import the text of your revised narrative essay/story)
Location (add information about the place where the story takes place i.e.
Grand Forks, ND)
Interviewer (thats you: add your name)
Interviewees (add the names of anyone who you interviewed, or who
contributed information to the story, just like before)
Bibliography (add CORRECT, MLA FORMATTED CITATIONS for any
direct references, quotations, images, etc.)
If you need help formatting your citations correctly, visit Purdues Online
Writing Lab / MLA webpage for help:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/05/
Use the left-hand toolbar to locate the exact type of citation you need
(book, film, website, etc.)
DO NOT rely on websites like EasyBib.com, Bibme.com, or
Citationmachine.com they will generate incorrect citations and you will
lose points for submitting false information about your sources
Add Photo/Image: Select the Files template option from the top-center menu
(right next to Item Type Metadata). Click Browse to browse applicable files
on your computer and add them to the exhibit item.
NOTE: The file must already be stored on the computer you are using. If you
emailed the file/image to yourself, you must open your email and download the
file first. If you are using a flashdrive, remove the image from the flashdrive and
store it on the desktop of the computer you are using.
Finalize, Save, and Publish: First, you must check the Public box (located in
the white square on the right-hand side of your screen). Then, click Add an Item
(or, if youve already added/created the item, Save Changes) to save and
finalize your page.

Step 6

Add Tags: remember your partner from the midsemester essay assignment, the
one whose narrative essay you read and commented on? Youre going to help
categorize the information contained in their essay by adding tags to their
Omeka exhibit page.

In order to do so, youll need to login in to the Omeka site (just like youve done
before), and go to the Items page (left-hand toolbar). You should see a list of all
the items contained in our classs digital exhibit, including creators names. Find
your partners item/exhibit: it may be a work in progress still, and thats okay,
because youre already familiar with the text of your partners story. Click Edit
and then, once the exhibit template opens, click on the Tags page on the centertop menu. You should add a minimum of 6 tags to your partners essay.
Tags are keywords identifying textual content, and should be arranged as a list,
separated by commas.
So, for example, say your partner wrote an essay detailing a rumored local
haunting in his/her hometown of Fergus Falls, Minnesota. According to the
narrative essay, several people in Fergus Falls report having heard a womans
voice or singing in the local cemetery, especially on or in connection with
Halloween.
Your tags might look like this:
Minnesota, Fergus Falls, ghost, female ghost, St. Jeromes Cemetery, cemetery,
Halloween, woman, singing
In this example, you use both the tags St. Jeromes Cemetery and cemetery;
the first indicates a specific place (St. Jeromes cemetery in Fergus Falls); the
second indicates that the action in the story takes place at a cemetery in general,
and will therefore link it to other stories tagged with the word cemetery.