Texts
The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 8th ed., Volumes A, B, C (sold in bundle).
William Shakespeare, Hamlet, eds. Bate and Rasmussen, The Modern Library, NY, 2008.
Leaving Kansas, DuckNuts Inc., 2007.
Aims:
- To gain familiarity with a wide sampling of diverse works and authors from about 700 to 1750. We'll skim-read many for their general flavor; others we'll read and discuss very closely.
- To gain an introductory understanding of the history of ideas as represented in the Anglo-Saxon to Restoration canon.
- To gain an introductory understanding of ongoing arguments about the canon itself.
- To gain practice applying a variety of literary critical lenses.
- To challenge your critical thinking and intellectual growth.
- To build on your understanding and enjoyment of literature generally.
Grades and Required Coursework
Final grades are based on a simple tally of points earned for completed semester assignments. Each assignment includes its own criteria. The final point scale looks like this:
88-100 pts. = A
75-87 pts. = B
62-74 pts. = C
49-61 pts. = D
Your goal is to get as close to 100 as possible.
Major Essay: 25 pts., 25%
Late in the term you will write a 4-5 page essay on a subject of your choice. Instructions are forthcoming.
Blackboard Thursday: 45 pts., 45%
Each student will start their own thread in the Blackboard Thursday Forum. This is where you'll post work completed on Thursdays, when we do not meet face-to-face. Blackboard Thursday work will typically be contemplative and exploratory. It is intended to help you grapple with, become absorbed in, and retain course readings through micro essays, worksheets, exercises, Norton Literature Online quizzes, freewriting, brief research, creative writing, reverse-ekphrasis, and/or any number of looney but legal lollapaloozi. Some collaborative group work may be included.
Each week's posting is usually worth a maximum of 5 pts. and is due by midnight on each Monday before class. Late postings will receive a check only (no points). When I tally your final semester score, and especially in borderline cases, I'll take into account the number of checks for any week's work you may have been late to complete.
I'll try to provide some feedback in the form of thread replies at intervals throughout the term.
Learning Log: 30 pts., 30% (aprx. 2 pts. per each Tuesday's entries)
You will compile, over the course of the semester, a "log" of class notes for each Tuesday class session. For the first 5-15 minutes of each class, you'll write "sign-in notes," and for the final 5-15 minutes, you'll write "sign-out notes," based on specific instructions for any given session. You'll keep these compiled religiously in a hardcopy or electronic folder.
Sign-in notes will typically include the following:
a) a summary of key points and activities from the previous week's class; and
b) some form of report and reflection on the current day's reading assignment.
Sign-out notes will typically include:
a) some form of reflection and report on that day's lecture and discussion (e.g., what was clearest, what is still fuzzy, questions you may have, ideas you are mulling, etc.); and
b) tasks you will set yourself for the coming week.
The learning log will help you to reflect on, retain, and otherwise digest class lecture and discussion from week to week. It will also provide a record of your attendance and committment to reading assignments.
You'll hand in your whole log 2-3 times during the semester for scoring.
If you miss a class meeting, you should contact a couple classmates as soon as possible for full class notes as well as learning log instructions for that day. You're then free to complete your learning log entries outside of class. Be sure, however, to strictly use your own words in your log and to credit any help.
Everyone is free to improve upon their entries any time prior to a scoring session.
Note: it's important that you keep these sign-in/sign-out notes neatly compiled and dated throughout the term, either electronically or in a hardcopy folder.
Course Policies.
Learning Log, Blackboard Thursday, and Essay Deadlines
Please refer to the Log, BB Thurs., and Essay assignments themselves for information on late penalties.
Missing or Arriving Late to Class
Attendance and participation are crucial in this class. If you miss a class meeting, the first thing you must do is check the online schedule as well as Blackboard (Power Point Presentations and Discussion Board in particular). When you've informed yourself by reading those documents, next CONTACT SEVERAL CLASSMATES for full notes and learning log assignments. Then contact me if you have any specific questions.
Please arrive on time. Late arrivals are very intrusive and inconsiderate. Importance announcements are made in the first 5-10 minutes of class, and instructions for your sign-in notes will be given during that period. The sign-in period will not be extended for late arrivals.
Departmental Attendance Policy:
In compliance with NDSU University Senate Policy, Section 333: Class Attendance and Policy and Procedure, located at <http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/policy/333.htm>, the English Department has established the following attendance policy. All English Department courses require active learning. Students are expected to speak, listen, and contribute. Therefore, prompt, regular attendance is required. Students who miss more than four weeks of class during the standard academic semester (e.g. twelve 50 minute classes, eight 75 minute classes, or their equivalent) will not pass the course. Moreover, each student is accountable for all work missed because of absence, and instructors have no obligation to make special arrangements for missed work. Additional attendance requirements may be implemented at the discretion of the individual instructor. |
Special Needs
Students with disabilities or special needs: please speak with me ASAP so that I can assist you.
Reading and Study Habits
- Though poetry assignments may seem short in number of pages, you are unlikely to understand and fully appreciate any poem until you have read it at least three times. An apparently short poetry assignment of three pages may actually take you longer to read fully than a longer prose assignment. Read with your pen in hand; take notes, underline and look up unfamiliar words, and note questions and ideas you want to bring up later in class. If you have trouble understanding something, mark the point at which you first became confused.
- Take notes in class, bring a recorder, or immediately summarize the content of the period after class. (This last strategy is really effective, though students virtually never do it!) All or any of these activities will help you to digest course material, to integrate it into your course writings, and to recall for future life. Writing is thinking.
- For every hour you spend in class, you're expected to do 2-3 hours work, reading, and preparation outside of class to meet course expectations. These numbers are considered average at the university level. If you are to receive an excellent or above average grade in this course, this at-home work is critical.
Department and University Policies
Special Needs: In keeping with the Americans with Disabilities Act, I would encourage students with disabilities who need accommodations in this course to contact me as soon as possible so that the appropriate arrangements can be made to accommodate particular needs. This syllabus can be made available in alternative formats upon request.
Deadlines: for every day a finished project is late, 1 pt. will be deducted from your semester score, counting weekends. This deduction is only waived with documented evidence of hardship or illness. Your learning log and portfolio are due by midnight on Monday, May 10th. Late logs and portfolios will only be accepted, again, with documented evidence of serious hardship or illness.
English Department Attendance Policy: In compliance with NDSU University Senate Policy, Section 333: Class Attendance and Policy and Procedure, located at <http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/policy/333.htm>, the English Department has established the following attendance policy. All English Department courses require active learning. Students are expected to speak, listen, and contribute. Therefore, prompt, regular attendance is required. Students who miss more than four weeks of class during the standard academic semester (e.g. twelve 50 minute classes, eight 75 minute classes, or their equivalent) will not pass the course. Moreover, each student is accountable for all work missed because of absence, and instructors have no obligation to make special arrangements for missed work.
Academic Dishonesty/Plagiarism: Work submitted for this course must adhere to the Code of Academic Responsibility and Conduct as cited in the Handbook of Student Policies: “The academic community is operated on the basis of honesty, integrity, and fair play. Occasionally, this trust is violated when cheating occurs, either inadvertently or deliberately. This code will serve as the guideline for cases where cheating, plagiarism, or other academic improprieties have occurred. . . . Faculty members may fail the student for the particular assignment, test, or course involved, or they may recommend that the student drop the course in question, or these penalties may be varied with the gravity of the offense and the circumstances of the particular case” (65). See also: http://www.ndsu.nodak.edu/policy/335.htm.
Academic Honesty Defined: All written and oral presentations must “respect the intellectual rights of others. Statements lifted verbatim from publications must be cited as quotations. Ideas, summaries or paraphrased material, and other information taken from the literature must be properly referenced” (Guidelines for the Presentation of Disquisitions, NDSU Graduate School , 4). In other words, if it is not your work or words, give proper credit to the author.
English Department Policy on Plagiarism. Instructors in the English department try to distinguish between inadvertent and deliberate plagiarism. Initial instances of inadvertent plagiarism will be pointed out and revision will be expected; deliberate plagiarism may result in zero for an assignment, possible F for the course. Plagiarism isn’t worth it. You all have your own great ideas; why not share them?
Code of Student Behavior: All interactions in this course will be civil and show respect for others. Student conduct at NDSU is governed by the Code of Student Behavior: http://www.ndsu.edu/ndsu/vpsa/code/
University's Emergency Action Guide: http://www.ndsu.edu/police_safety/safety/Forms/EmergencyActionGuidePosterNew09.pdf . We are told that it's always good to review this info.
A Note to English Majors
During their senior year, English majors generally enroll in the English Capstone course (Engl 467), during which they assemble a portfolio containing representative written work from NDSU English courses. The English Department evaluates these portfolios to assess its undergraduate programs, analyzing how student work meets departmental outcomes. In order to facilitate the preparation of senior portfolios, English majors are encouraged to save copies of their written work (in electronic and hard copy) each semester.
English Liberal Arts Major Outcomes
- Outcome 1: English majors will be able to write and speak effectively for a variety of purposes and audiences in a variety of genres and media.
- Outcome 2: English majors will be able to read (analyze, interpret, critique, evaluate) written and visual texts.
- Outcome 3: English majors will be able to conduct research effectively using a variety of research strategies and sources and documenting their sources according to standard guidelines.
- Outcome 4: English majors will be able to manage sophisticated writing and research projects, planning, documenting, completing, and assessing work on-time and within the constraints of the project.
- Outcome 5: English majors will be familiar with a variety of theoretical lenses, learning to recognize them at the 200-level and learning to use them by the 400-level.
- Outcome 6. English majors will be familiar with literatures as culturally and historically embedded practices. This outcome includes goals such as familiarity with major writers, genres, and periods, and technologies of writing.
- Outcome 7: English majors will develop professionalism exhibited in such qualities as self-direction, cooperation, civility, reliability, and care in editing and presenting the final product.
 Disclaimer! I believe in the creative as well as practical value of spontaneity. I also believe that disorder is always there, lurking in any plan or scheme no matter how carefully devised— especially my own! I therefore reserve the right, if the occasion warrants it, and with ample notice to you, of course, to alter some of the details on this page as the semester progresses. Fundamental aims and requirements will remain unchanged.
Paper-Writing Resources (Grammar, Style, Manuscript Formatting, Documentation)
"No iron can pierce the heart with such force as a period put just at the right place" (Isaac Babel, qtd. by Carver, "In Writing").
Bedford St. Martin's Research and Documentation Online (click on "Humanities," and then select from the drop-down box what you'd like to read, such as "MLA Manuscript Format" or "MLA In-Text Citation." Explore around--everything you need to know about finding and documenting sources is here, as well as paper conventions.)
Peer Critique Form for Critical Essay Drafts
Owl Online Writing Lab
Guide to Grammar and Writing Online
The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing
A Classic Guide to Style
Other Resources
Basic Conventions for Writing Essays About Literature
Bedford-St.Martin's Elements of Fiction
Bedford-St.Martin's Elements of Poetry
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