Engl 1102C Course Syllabus
Texts: Meyer, The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature, 5th Edition
The Writer's Harbrace Handbook
The American Heritage Dictionary, or a reliable collegiate dictionary
Objectives: To develop students' skills of analysis and logical thinking in writing; to teach students skills of analysis and logical thinking in writing; to teach students to read literature with greater critical understanding and aesthetic appreciation; to develop in students an understanding of literary genres, terms, and techniques, thus providing preparation for subsequent study in sophomore literature courses.
Grading Criteria: Engl 1102 is primarily a writing course. Students will write six essays: each of these essays will have a first version essay and a revision essay. These essays together will constitute 2/3 of the grade. Students will also have three examinations (one of which is scheduled during the final examination period) on literature which will comprise 1/3 of the grade.
The grading scale is as follows: A+=98, A=95, A-=90; B+=88, B=85, B-=80; C+=78, C=75, C=70; D+=68, D=65, D-=60; F=59-0.
Written assignments that receive a check, plus, or minus in lieu of a letter grade will be weighted in the following manner: 21 +'s = A+, 19 +'s = A, 17 +'s = A-, 15 +'s = B+, 13 +'s = B, 11 +'s = B-, 9 +'s = C+, 7 +'s = C, 5 +'s = C-, 3 +'s = D+, 1 + = D, 0 +'s = F
Percentages:
3 group-led discussion minutes and plan; 6 paragraph exercises; 12 worksheets: 10%
3 examinations: 30%
6 essays (both initial version and revision): 60%
Methods of Instruction: Assignments for the course consist of six essay assignments. Each essay has an assigned length 500 words. Deviations from this assigned length will be graded accordingly.
Each of these essay assignments will be written in both an initial (or draft) version and in a second (or revised) version.
Initial Version of Essay Assignment: This essay should be a full-length, totally conceived, mechanically clean essay which develops a main idea and supports it with concrete examples. The initial version will be evaluated in four categories: focus, organization, style, and mechanics.
The Second Version of Essay Assignment: This essay should be a substantial rewriting of the initial version based on class discussion of essays. When you turn in your second version, always turn in your initial version with it.
On the Initial (Draft) Essay Due Date, you will bring in two copies of the draft for the purposes of peer editing. For this peer editing, you will share your writing with other class members so that you can critique-constructively-one another's work. You should view this peer editing as an opportunity to learn from each other by being prepared to apply discussion of someone else's writing to your own.
Attendance and Participation: Attendance and participation are central to a successful class experience. If a student's absences, therefore, exceed 14% of the scheduled classes, I will drop the student from the class with a "WF." A student is allowed a make-up examination or essay only for valid and documented reasons (i. e., sickness). If a student misses an essay or examination without a documented excuse, then the student will receive a grade penalty of "0." Foreseeable problems must be discussed with me before the absence.
As part of class participation (graded with the tests on literature), each student will do a class presentation on a subject allied with the syllabus. The presentation should be 1-2 pages typescript in length. I will distribute a schedule sign-up sheet in the first week of classes. Students who miss the day of their scheduled presentation will be counted as being absent two days.
Tardy students will be counted for one day absent each for three tardies.
Plagiarism: To plagiarize is to use another's words or ideas as if they were the student's own. One must document ideas or material that he/she receives from another source. To avoid problems, students should read the "Research Writing" and "MLA Documentation" sections of the Harbrace College Handbook. The student is also responsible for reading and following the guidelines on plagiarism presented in the NGCSU Student Handbook (see "Student Code of Conduct"). The student who plagiarizes will be given a zero for the assignment and typically an "F" for the course.
The following are minimal standards for passing Engl 1101. Thus, students in Engl 1102 are expected to
1. Organize and develop paragraphs and essays that include an introduction, support, and a conclusion
2. Formulate and support a thesis (or controlling idea)
3. Construct clear, precise, grammatically correct sentences
4. Recognize and use standard Edited American English
5. Understand basic English grammar and avoid grammar errors, including but not limited to the following: fragments, subject-verb and pronoun-antecedent disagreement, comma splices, run-on sentences, misuse of possessives, misspelling, faulty pronoun reference, awkward phrasing
6. Compose freshman level essays which are logical, interesting, and informative
7. Document and cite material taken from other sources
Other Important Rules and Procedures: Each essay and paragraph assignment (except in-class writing) must be typed, double-spaced, with one-inch margins on all sides.
You must keep a hard-copy (carbon, printout, or Xerox) of each paper you hand in, so that if at any time a paper is missing or misplaced, you will have a replacement copy.
All papers must be turned in on time, accompanied by any pre-writing material for the essay. They must be turned in at the beginning of the class during which they are due or by the deadline specified.
Schedule (NOTE: This schedule is open to change without notice; the chapters refer to those in the Bedford reader; all the reading material is in the Bedford reader):
Aug. 20 Introduction
Aug. 22 Chapter 1; Chopin's "Story of an Hour." In Class Writing (due at end of class)
Aug. 24 Chapter 2; Protagonist/Antagonist/Witness, pattern. Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily." Paragraph #1 Due
Aug. 27 Chapter 3; Story/plot/discourse, narrator, focalization. Overhead discussion of paragraphs. Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown"
Aug. 29 Chapter 4; Ellison's "Battle Royal"
Aug. 31 Chapter 5; O'Connor's "Revelation"
Sept. 3 NO CLASS
Sept 5 Essay #1 Due (1st version; bring two copies). Workshop in 1st version. Essay assignment: Compare the protagonists of "Story of an Hour" and Katherine Mansfield's "Miss Brill" OR Hawthorne's "The Birthmark" and Colette's "The Hand"
Sept. 7 2nd Version of Essay #1 Due. Functions of Character. Poe's "The Purloined Letter"
Sept. 10 Reading for the Plot. Paragraph #2 Due. Critical Case Study of Faulkner's "Barn Burning"
Sept. 12 Narrative as rhetoric. Overhead discussion of paragraphs
Sept. 14 NO CLASS. BUT meet in groups to prepare presentations on "Barn Burning" for Sept. 17
Sept. 17 Due: "minutes" showing the discussion your group had; also, notes, showing the plan for the presentation. Bring an extra copy of this material so that you can hand it in, whether or not there is time for your group to present. Group led discussions of "Barn Burning"
Sept 19 Finish group led discussions of "Barn Burning"
Sept. 21 Essay #2 Due (1st version; bring two copies). Workshop on 1st version. Essay assignment: Analyze the rhetorical devices in "Battle Royal," "A Rose for Emily," OR "Revelation"
Sept. 24 2nd Version of Essay #2 Due. Review
Sept. 26 Examination #1
Sept. 28 Chapter 14. Like and Unlike Sounds. Donne's "The Sun Rising," Thomas's "Do Not Go Gently Into That Good Night"
Oct. 1 Chapter 15. Diction and Register. Jarrell's "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner," e.e.cummings's "she being brand"
Oct. 3 Chapter 16. Accent and Duration. Paragraph #3 Due. Herrick's "To the Virgins," Marvell's "To His Coy Mistress"
Oct. 5 Chapter 17. Syntax and Line; close reading of a sentence. Overhead discussion of paragraphs. Keats's "Ode on a Grecian Urn," Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est"
Oct. 8 Chapter 18 Form and Poetic Argument. Diagram of one of the sonnets. The sonnet form. The "turn" in a sonnet. Diction: the idea of "register." Shakespeare's sonnets (pp. 709-714)
Oct. 10 Essay #3 Due (1st version; bring two copies). Workshop on 1st version. Essay assignment: compare the tone of two poems by Donne, Blake, Jonson, Wordsworth, OR Keats.
Oct. 12 NO CLASS. BUT meet in groups to prepare presentations on assigned sonnets for Oct. 15
Oct. 15 Group led discussions of Shakespeare sonnets. Due: "Minutes" showing the discussion you had; also, notes showing the plan for your presentation. Bring an extra copy of these materials so that you can hand it in, whether or not there is time for your group to present
Oct. 17 Finish group led discussions of Shakespeare sonnets. Paragraph #4 due.
Oct. 19 Chapter 19. Metaphor as a basis for thought. Overhead discussion of paragraphs. Arnold's "Dover Beach," Donne's "A Valediction Forbidding Mourning"
Oct. 22 Essay #4 Due (1st version; bring two copies). Workshop on 1st version. Essay assignment: Analyze metaphor, register, and/or paradox in Eliot's "The Love-Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" OR Yeats's "Sailing to Byzantium"
Oct. 24 Examination #2
Oct. 26 2nd Version of Essay #4 Due. Chapter 28; Glasspell's Trifles
Oct. 29 Chapter 29; Sophocles's Oedipus the King.
Oct. 31 Oedipus continued
Nov. 1 Kim Hall, Things of Darkness: Economics of Race and Gender in Early Modern England: "Introduction" (xerox); Shakespeare's "Sonnet #127" with S. Booth's annotations (xerox); Herbert's "A Negress Courts Cestus, a Man of a Different Color" (xerox). Chapter 31. Shakespeare's Othello Act 1
Nov. 5 Othello Act 2. Paragraph #5 due
Nov. 7 Othello Act 3. The First Folio (xerox); editing Shakespeare (xerox). Overhead discussion of paragraphs
Nov. 9 Othello Act 4. Karen Newnan's "And Was the Ethiop White?: Femininity and the Monstrous in Othello" (xerox)
Nov. 12 Essay #5 Due (1st version; bring two copies). Workshop on 1st version. Essay assignment: Find an article on Othello and refute at least part of the author's argument.
Nov. 14 2nd Version of Essay #5 Due. Othello Act 5
Nov. 16 Chapter 32; Ibsen's A Doll House Act 1. Paragraph #6 due
Nov. 19 A Doll House Act 2
Nov. 21 NO CLASS
Nov. 23 NO CLASS
Nov. 28 A Doll House Act 3
Nov. 30 Essay #6 Due (1st Version; bring two copies). Workshop on 1st version. Essay assignment: analyze a scene in relation to the whole work from which it came from any of the plays we've read
Dec. 3 NO CLASS. BUT meet in groups to prepare presentations on dramatic heroes/heroines for Dec. 5
Dec. 5 2nd Version of Essay #6 Due. Group led discussion on dramatic heroes/heroines. Due: "Minutes" showing the discussion you had; also, notes showing the plan for your presentation. Bring an extra copy of this material so that you can hand it in, whether or not there is time for your group to present
Dec. 7 Finish group led discussion. Conclusion
Dec. 13 10 a. m. to 12 p. m. Examination #3