Texts:

The Norton Anthology of English Literature, 8th ed., Volumes D, E, and F (sold in bundle).

Virginia Woolf, Mrs. Dalloway, Harcourt, Inc., 2005.

Roddy Doyle, The Barrytown Trilogy, Penguin Books , 1995.

Leaving Kansas, DuckNuts Inc., 2007.

Aims:

• To gain familiarity with a wide sampling of diverse works and authors from about 1785 to the present. 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 Romantic-to-Postmodern canon. This includes the Romantic, Victorian, Modern, and Postmodern periods in the United Kingdom and its colonies.
• 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:

90-100 = A
79-89 = B
68-78 = C
57-67 = D

Critical Essay: 40 pts., 40%

Three Brief Oral Performances of Our Readings: 10 pts., 10% (#1 = 2 pts.; #2 and #3 = 4 pts. each)

Three Imitative Creative Works: 10 pts., 10% (#1 = 2pts.; #2 and #3 = 4 pts. each)

Midterm and Final Exam: 40 pts., 40%

Ungraded Daily Work and Attendance/Participation: check-plus, check, check-minus, minus.

Daily work includes quizzes, student-lead discussion, minute papers, Blackboard Discussion Forum sessions, very brief research projects, and assorted other activities. Attendance/participation checks record your presence in each session, with plusses or minusses acruing for late arrivals or departures, weak or strong participation, and preparedness.

Checked daily work provides a picture of your overall performance in the class, and will be factored subjectively into your final grade. A weak or strong record of daily work, along with my overall sense of your contributions to and involvement in the class, may result in a loss or gain of points from your semester score. In serious cases, the difference may be a full semester grade or more. If you ever have concerns or questions about your standing in the course, don't hesitate to contact me (preferrably by email or after class).

Course Policies:

I hate creating and enforcing policies. I hate saying "No," dishing out penalties, and in general acting like a rule-monger. But I have found, in 20+ years of teaching, that the alternative is worse. That is,without these policies, my life is made considerably harder. I have to explain things multiple times, invent tedious make-up assignments, divert attention away from current and already overwhelming needs, and in general struggle to accomodate your possible irresponsibility or weak committment to my insane and over-packed worklife.

So, please, forgive and HEED the following:

Missing Deadlines

Make-up assignments for any and all late or missed coursework must be accompanied by 1) documented evidence of hardship and 2) a note explaining what the assignment is and when it was originally due. I won't accept the work otherwise. You should see me in a timely manner for make-up assignments, and be aware that those assignments will tend to be more difficult than the originals. No work of any kind will be accepted after 5 pm, June 9th.

Missing or Arriving Late to Class

Attendance and participation are crucial in this class. If you MUST miss a class, FIRST contact at least two classmates for full notes and instructions. Then contact me if you have any specific questions.

Please arrive on time. Late arrivals are very intrusive and inconsiderate. Attendance is taken and importance announcements are made in the first 5-10 minutes of class. Arriving late means that you will miss those announcements and may recieve a zero for attendance that day. Attendance, punctuality, and preparedness are also factored subjectively into your semester graded (see above). If you MUST arrive late, be sure to get full notes and instructions from a classmate after class for the time you missed.

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.

 

A Word 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.

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 introduce 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 information for the final exam and 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.
  

Why do we watch an occasional film in this class?

• to help you to apply what you've been learning about literature, in this case to other media;
• to reinforce what you'll be learning about the work we'll be studying;
• to help you see how ideas important to the literary periods we're studying are in fact still relevant to most facets of contemporary life and popular culture;
• to allow time for your essay writing and catch-up reading (watching films in class usually doesn't require much pre-class homework);
• the films we're watching are based on relevant literary works, and are written-directed by established British writers themselves (ex.: Harold Pinter wrote the screenplay for The French Lieutenant's Woman);
• films can themselves be considered a form of "literature"—just as plays are;
• films can be used in interesting and time-saving ways for testing knowledge;
• to allow for discussion of filmic INTERPRETATIONS of literature.
  

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.

Code of Conduct

All work in this course must be completed in a manner consistent with NDSU University Senate Policy, Section 335: Code of Academic Responsibility and Conduct. Click here for full details.

Any instances of deliberate plagiarism in this section of English 271 will result in an F for the course.

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.

"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