English 101/Sp 151Reber
English 101: Writing About LiteratureThomas Reber
Spring 2015Churchill Tower, Rm. 911
Sec. A, Course No. 45142, MWF 9:00, OM 200Office phone: 888-2629
Sec. R, Course No. 45178, MWF 11:00, OM220E-mail:
Office hours:MW1:30-3:30 p.m.
R9:30-10:30a.m.
and by appt.
PURPOSES OF THE COURSE
The following statement applies to all sections of ENG 101:
Course Description: A course that develops strategies for reading and writing about literature (poetry, drama, fiction, literary essays), with the expectation that students will be able to understand and interpret primary literary texts; develop writing skills; and develop and organize interpretive essays through the use and evaluation of sources.
Goals & Objectives:
Content
Goal: Students will demonstrate the ability to understand and critically analyze college-level literary texts.
Objectives: Students will
- Understand the use of specific literary terms, traditions, or styles
- Interpret the meanings or significance of a literary text
Skills
Goal: Students will demonstrate the ability to construct a coherent, thesis-driven essay on a literary topic.
Objectives: Students will
- Identify and articulate a central thesis around which the essay is to be organize
- Develop a coherent argument that supports a central thesis
- Support argument with evidence from literary texts and/or secondary sources
- Find and evaluate print and electronic sources appropriate for answering a specific research question about a literary text.
- Cite sources according to MLA documentation style and with academic integrity
- Demonstrate appropriate conventions of grammar and style
THEMATIC FOCUS OF OUR PARTICULAR VERSION OF THE COURSE
Our readings will focus on the themes of a) love and relationships between the genders and b) issues surrounding death. Discussion is an important part of the course.
TEXTS
Abcarian, Richard, Marvin Klotz, and Samuel Cohen. Literature: The Human Experience. 11th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2013.
Shakespeare, William. Twelfth Night. Ed. Herschel Baker. New York: Signet Classic/New American Library, 1998.
Hacker, Diana, and Nancy Sommers. A Pocket Style Manual. 6th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2012.
You should also have at hand a good desk dictionary, such as Merriam-Webster's College Dictionary, 11th Edition, which comes with a CD version, or the American Heritage College Dictionary, 4th Edition.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Below are the components of your final course grade:
Description of component% of final grade for course*
Paper #115
Paper #220
Paper #320
Midterm Exam10
Short Assignments10
Class Participation10
Final Exam15
Papers
Papers will be turned in in both draft and final versions. Your classmates and/or your instructor will be reviewing your drafts and giving you feedback on them that you will use to improve the papers for the final versions. Some papers will involve your doing some research using secondary sources. The due dates for the draft and final versions of papers will be announced in the handouts for the papers. You will receive each handout several days before the draft version of the paper is due.
Short Assignments
Short assignments will be of varying types. Most of them will consist of your analysis of or reflections upon course readings or discussion. These assignments will be evaluated primarily on the thoroughness and specificity of your work, and secondarily on such matters as correctness in sentence structure and grammar. Some short assignments, however, may consist entirely of exercises in grammar and style. Some short assignments may be given in class, with no previous announcement.
Individual short assignments will not receive percentage grades but will be given one of the following ratings:
5= Excellent
4= Good
3 = Satisfactory
2= Minimally Satisfactory
1= Unsatisfactory
0= No Credit (Assignment not turned in, off topic, incomplete, or illegible)
At the end of the semester, I will convert these marks to letter grades. A predominance of "5" grades will lead to a grade in the A to A- range, a predominance of "4" grades will lead to a grade in the B+ range; a predominance of "3" grades will lead to a grade in the B or B- range, a predominance of "2" grades will lead to a grade in the C range, " and of "1" to the D or F range. It will be strongly to your advantage to avoid receiving NC grades.
Note well: Late short assignments will receive a grade of No Credit, and I will be under no obligation to read and comment on them.
Midterm and Final Exam
These exams may include objective questions (for example, multiple-choice, true-false, matching, fill-in-the-blank), but writing will be a significant part of each. This writing my consist of an essay or essays, or of roughly paragraph-long answers to identification questions (questions in which you will be asked to identify a particular character, quotation, fact, or event and state its meaning and significance in the literary work in which it appears).
Class Participation
By "class participation," I mean the following: how much one contributes to class discussion, how interesting and insightful one's comments are, how carefully and respectfully one listens to the comments of classmates, how well one cooperates with classmates in group work, how thorough and polished one's work on the various class assignments is. An important aspect of class participation is being prepared for class. You will be expected to come to class having read the assigned material for the day closely. This means bringing your personal copy of the reading, marked or highlighted with your notes, comments, questions. Be an active reader: What questions does this reading raise? What surprises you? Why? What irritates or angers you? Why? What reminds you of something you have already experienced, watched, or read? What don’t you understand?
Frequent absences from class will lower my estimation of your class participation. However, attendance is only the most minimal participation. If you merely come to class regularly and are generally cooperative but do not distinguish yourself in any of the ways listed above, your class participation will simply be a wash; that is, you will receive a class participation grade that does not change your course grade as determined by the other components of that grade. On the other hand, if youperform significantlyabove or below the standards for class participation, your grade for participation could raise or lower your overall course grade.
Important: The above remarks about being prepared for class should imply to you that if you are absent from a particular class, you should obtain any reading materials distributed during that class and complete any assignments related to them before you come to the next class.
In order to pass the course, you must complete all papers and exams. A messy or illegible draft or final version of any assignment will result in a lower grade for that assignment.
COURSE POLICIES
Attendance
Your regular and prompt attendance is important for your satisfactory progress in the course. For this reason, if you miss more than two classes, your grade may be adversely affected, and if you miss more than six classes, you will be given a grade of "FX" unless you withdraw from the course.
Some other important things to know about attendance:
• Absences during the first week of class count just as much as any others.
• Arriving late for class can be very distracting both to other students and to your instructor. It also makes it difficult for us to use our class periods efficiently. To avoid causing such distraction and to help keep our class productive, please make every effort to arrive for class on time. If you enter the classroom after I have called the roll, you will remain marked absent for that day.
• You are responsible for any assignments made or material covered while you are absent. It is a good idea, therefore, for you to get the phone numbers or e-mail addresses of two or three other students in the class so that if you must be absent you can contact them to find out what was covered or assigned in class during your absence.
Due Dates and Late Work
Papers
Papers are due at the beginning of class on the due date. If either a draft or a final version of a paper is late, your grade for that paper will be lowered by one letter grade (10 percentage points) for each class period the draft or final version is late. Papers turned in even 10 minutes late will be deemed already one class period late. Note well: if you turn in both the draft and the final version of a paper late, penalties will be assessed for both. Thus, if you turn in a draft of an assignment two class periods late and the final version one class period late, your grade for that assignment will be lowered by 30 points.
While turning in work on time is extremely important, sometimes students cannot avoid turning in a paper or assignment late because of special circumstances. If you find that you must turn in work late because of such circumstances (an emergency, your illness, a death in your family), please let me know before the deadline for the work involved. Notify me by calling my office; if I am not there, leave a message on the phone-mail system. You can leave your message at any time of the day or night.
Early notice to me of any problem you encounter in completing your work on time allows both you and me greater flexibility in dealing with it. Delayed notice makes the situation much more complicated.
Short Assignments
As stated above, late short assignments will be recorded as "No Credit," and I will not be obliged to read them.
How to Make Sure That I Receive All of Your Written Work
It is your responsibility to make sure that I receive a copy of every written assignment. A few caveats:
1. Do not leave any assignment in my college mailbox in the Faculty Lounge. Items occasionally disappear from that mailbox, and I accept no responsibility for work left there. If you cannot turn in an assignment in class, put it in my English Dept. mailbox (in Churchill Tower 916) or under my office door (Churchill Tower 911).
2. Do keep a copy of every written assignment you complete just in case something happens to the original. Keep this copy until after you have received your final grade for the course.
3. If you prepare your assignments on a computer, I strongly recommend that you keep your work in two different places--the original hard drive, for instance, and a backup flash drive --just in case something goes wrong with the original storage device. It may seem inconvenient to take a minute to back up your work, but it is really painful to take many hours to reconstruct a paper that has disappeared or has become garbled as the result of an unfortunate computer glitch.
Format and Legibility of Written Work
Unless you are instructed otherwise, type all papers. Double-space the text, and set margins of at least one inch on the top, bottom, and sides of the page. (Margins of one-and-one-quarter inch on the left and right sides are preferred.) Indent one inch all quotations of more than four lines. Make sure that the text is dark and easily legible.
A title and page numbers are required for all papers. Any paper lacking either item will receive a penalty when it is graded.
Documentation of Sources Used for Papers
When you cite a particular passage from a text, include the author and the page number(s) of the passage in parentheses in the body of your paper and list the source in a properly formatted "Works Cited" (bibliography) page at the end of your document, according to MLA (Modern Language Association) conventions. See your A Pocket Style Manual for details.
Scholastic Honesty
The penalty for any form of scholastic dishonesty will be a grade of "F" for the course. Read and understand the "Code of Academic Integrity “on pp. 29 and following in the 2013-15 Canisius Undergraduate Course Catalog, available on line at Pay special attention to the section on “Proscriptions” (Sec. II. B of the "Code," pp. 30 and following). If you have any questions about what constitutes cheating or plagiarism, please ask me.
Use of Papers in Class
I shall assume that all of the documents written in this course are public, and that consequently I may 1)ask you to exchange papers with your classmates for peer review, 2) read passages from papers that I think are especially interesting, and 3) use papers to instruct the class in how to improve their writing.
Class Citizenship, Behavior, and Attire
You are expected not only to attend class regularly but to participate actively and responsibly in class discussion and small-group work. Please do not sleep, read the newspaper, do your homework for other courses, or eat meals in class. If you do so, you will be asked to leave the room and will be considered absent for the day. Also, do not wear ball caps or hats during class. These tend to hide your face from both your instructor and your fellow students, inhibiting communication.
Finally, it is expected that, except for urgent needs or emergencies, you will remain in the classroom for the entire class period. Answering a cell-phone call is not an urgent need. Class members who leave the room without urgent need will be counted as absent for the day and may as a result receive a lower course grade.
Cell Phones and Other Portable Technologies
Please leave your cell phone at home or turn it off before you come to class. Ringing cell phones during class are distracting and interfere with our work. Do all of your talking on cell phones, text-messaging of friends, and listening to music players outside class. If you bring a laptop to class, it should be used only for class-related work, not for checking personal e-mail or for instant-messaging. Students who violate this policy on portable technologies will receive a lower course grade.
Accessibility Issues
Accessibility Support (716-888-2170), which is located in the Griff Center for Academic Engagement (OM 013), is responsible for arranging appropriate academic accommodations for students with documented disabilities. If you fall into this category, please contact Accessibility Support so that an appropriate course of action may be determined.
DEFINITIONS OF LETTER GRADES
For the meaning of letter grades, see the Canisius College Academic Catalog. Essentially, you will find that an "A" range grade denotes "superior" performance; a "B" range grade denotes "good" performance; a "C" range grade, "adequate"; "D," "poor"; and "F," "failing."
GRADING SCALES
When I calculate your course grade, I will convert the letter grades on individual assignments to number grades according to the following scale:
A+ = 98B+ = 88C+ = 78D+ = 68F = 55 (or lower)
A = 95B = 85C = 75D = 65NC = zero ("No Credit")
A- = 92B- = 82C- = 72D- = 62
I will then average these numbers on individual assignments to obtain your final course grade. That grade will fall into one of the ranges below:
A = 93-100B+ = 88-89C+ = 78-79D+ = 68-69F = 0-59
A- = 90-92B = 83-87C = 73-77D = 63-67
B- = 80-82C- = 70-72D- = 60-62
In the computation of the final grade, numbers with decimals of .5 and above will be rounded to the next higher whole number; thus, 89.5 will be a 90 ("A-"), while 89.4 will be an 89 ("B+").
COURSE SCHEDULE
Page numbers refer to Literature: The Human Experienceunless otherwise noted. Additional readings (if needed) and short assignments will be announced in class.
Week 1: Jan. 12-16
Introduction to course
"Reading Fiction,"pp. 6-11 (to “Reading Poetry”)
Edgar Allan Poe, "The Cask of Amontillado," pp. 1108-1113
Week 2: Jan. 19-23
19 MNO CLASS—MARTIN LUTHER KING'S BIRTHDAY
Joyce Carol Oates, "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?," pp. 860-73
Week 3: Jan. 26-30
Nathaniel Hawthorne, "Young Goodman Brown," pp.79-89
Flannery O'Connor, "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," pp. 138-50
Week 4: Feb. 2-6
"A Good Man Is Hard to Find"
Selected commentaries on "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," pp. 150-75
4WPAPER #1 DRAFT DUE
Week 5: Feb. 9-13
"Reading Poetry," pp. 11-17
Gwendolyn Brooks, "We Real Cool," p. 446
Joan Murray, "We Old Dudes" (photocopy)
Elizabeth Bishop, "The Fish," pp. 1261-63
Week 6: Feb. 16-20
16MNO CLASS—PRESIDENTS’ DAY
Work on Paper #1 Final
Robert Browning, "My Last Duchess," pp. 179-81
20FPAPER #1 FINAL DUE
Week 7: Feb. 23-27
Helane Levine Keating, "My Last Duke" (photocopy)
Donna White, "My Last Roommate" (photocopy)
The Carpe Diem Theme: Robert Herrick, "To the Virgins, To Make Much of Time," p. 905
Week 8: Mar. 2-6
Andrew Marvell, "To His Coy Mistress," pp. 944-45
4WPAPER #2 DRAFT DUE
Anne Finch, "Coy Mistress," pp. 945-46
Week 9: Mar. 9-13
James Dickey, "Cherrylog Road" (photocopy)
Twelfth Night
13FMIDTERM EXAM
Week 10: Mar. 16-20: NO CLASS—SPRING RECESS
Week 11: Mar. 23-27
25WPAPER #2 FINAL DUE
Twelfth Night
Week 12: Mar. 30-Apr. 3
Twelfth Night
3FNO CLASS––EASTER RECESS
Week 13: Apr. 6-10
6MNO CLASS—EASTER RECESS
Twelfth Night
Week 14: Apr. 13-17
13MPAPER #3 DRAFT DUE
Sam Shepard, True West (photocopy)
Week 15: Apr. 20-24
True West
Week 16: Apr. 27-May 1
29WPAPER #3 FINAL DUE
True West
Student evaluations of course
A final exam will be given at a time and place scheduled by the registrar’s office.