English 208: Survey of World Literature Before 1700, Spring 2008

Dr. Leslie Bickford

Bancroft 207

Office Phone: 323-4564

E-mail: bickfordl@winthrop.edu

Web: http://faculty.winthrop.edu/bickfordl

Office Hours: TR 1-3, and by appointment

 

Texts:

  1. The Norton Anthology of World Literature, Second Edition, Vols. A, B, & C.

 

Course Goals:

  1. To evaluate the impact of historical periods and various cultures on literary works
  2. To recognize the relationships among these varied works
  3. To develop your skills of literary analysis and literary appreciation
  4. To write thoughtful, well-organized, and stylistically mature essays conforming to standards of grammar, mechanics, and usage generally accepted in the academic community
  5. To identify the major periods in the history of world literature in terms of cultural contexts, styles, dominant genres, language, and subject matter

 

See a complete listing of course goals for the Department of English at http://www.winthrop.edu/english/goals.htm. This course meets goals 1.1-1.8 & 3.1-4.3.  Specific goals for teacher certification majors, including a link to NCATE and NCTE, are listed at http://www.winthrop.edu/english/goals.htm#englished. 

 

Course Requirements:

Exams—50%:  You will have two in-class exams, each of which will count 15% toward your final grade.  The final (given during finals week) will be cumulative and will count 20% toward your final grade.  All exams will require term identification, short passage identification, and at least one essay.

 

Paper—20%:  Around midterm, I will be distributing paper assignments asking for thematic interpretation of the works with which we have dealt at that time.  Thus, paper assignments will grow largely out of our in-class discussions; you should strive to go beyond rather than reiterate what we’ve said in those discussions.  Your paper will be five to seven pages (typed, 10 to 12 point font), turned in to me electronically through Turnitin.com as well as in hard copy on the date marked on your reading calendar.  NO LATE PAPERS WILL BE ACCEPTED.  A paper turned in electronically by the beginning of class on the due date will not be counted late.  You may meet with me in my office to discuss the paper, and you may also wish to visit the English department home page, located at http://www.winthrop.edu/english.   From there you can find links to MLA to see how to cite materials correctly and to the English/core page  (http://www.winthrop.edu/english/core.htm ), which has helpful hints for writing papers.

 

In Class Essays—15%:  To practice your cognitive and analytical skills, you will be asked to respond to in-class prompts twice during the semester.  These will be questions about the reading for a certain day, the themes we’ve been discussing about that reading, and/or your ideas on how the historical/cultural perspective is made manifest in a reading.

 

Participation—15%:  I will be calling on each of you to participate in class discussions; your preparedness and participation in class is worth nearly two letter grades.  This includes demonstrating understanding of the assigned readings, asking thoughtful questions, making critical comments, listening carefully to others, and being on time.  You will help me tally this grade for you by reporting the ways in which you have contributed to class discussion for each class period on an index card.  Contributions should focus on the ideas brought up by the readings and/or their historical context, not merely on summaries of the readings.  I reserve the right to administer pop quizzes on the readings, which will also count towards participation.

 

Grading Standards:

A description of letter grades for writing assignments can be found at  http://www.winthrop.edu/english/WritingProgram/rubric.htm.  We will thoroughly discuss what is expected of you before each assignment is due.

 

Grading Equivalencies:

As you know, the University has adopted the plus/minus system.  Your written work will receive a numeric grade; for the purposes of tallying your final grade in the class, you should know I use the following scale:

                       C+        77-79        C        74-76        C-        70-73      

and so on, with respect to all other letter grades.

 

Plagiarism Policy:

Please review the English Department’s policy on the Correct Use of Borrowed Information at http://www.winthrop.edu/english/plagiarism.htm.  You are responsible for reviewing the Code of Student Conduct in your Student Handbook and the description of plagiarism in The Prentice-Hall Reference Guide to Grammar and Usage and handling source materials correctly. In this course, unintentional plagiarism will receive the grade of zero with a chance to rewrite.  Intentional plagiarism will result in an “F” for the course.  We will discuss the difference and the Correct Use of Borrowed Information before your paper is due.

 

Attendance Policy:

Anyone missing five classes will have their final grade lowered by 10%.  Anyone missing seven or more classes will fail the course.  ONLY those absences you’ve contacted me about AHEAD OF TIME will warrant making up work.  In addition, quizzes will be unannounced.  Frequent absences will therefore be reflected in your final quiz grade, as will frequent tardiness.  Anyone entering the classroom after the quiz has been given or participation cards have been handed out will forfeit participation points for that day.

 

Email Accounts & the 208 Listserv:

IT has set up a listserv for this class and automatically enrolled you, using your Winthrop POBox email address.  I will be emailing you during the semester through the listserv.  If you do not regularly check your POBox email account, please either forward your campus mail to the account you do check or manually subscribe to the class listserv from your preferred mailing address at http://www.winthrop.edu/acc/imailsrv.asp.    

 

Students with Disabilities:

Winthrop University is dedicated to providing access to education.  If you have a disability and need classroom accommodations, please contact Gena Smith, Coordinator, Services for Students with Disabilities, at 323-3290, as soon as possible.  Once you have your Professor Notification Form, please tell me so that I am aware of your accommodations well before the first assignment.