ENGLISH 201 Fall 2002 Dr

ENGLISH 201 Fall 2004
Dr. Jo Koster
Bancroft 228
Phone: 323-4557; Fax: 323-4837 Office Hours: TBA
E-mail: kosterj@winthrop.edu
Internet: http://faculty.winthrop.edu/kosterj/engl201.htm

Major British Writers Before 1800

Texts:

Damrosch et al, The Longman Anthology of British Literature, vol. 1, 2^nd edition
Available as volumes 1A (ISBN 0-321-10667-9), 1B (ISBN 0-321-10578-8), and 1C (ISBN 0-321-10668-7) or complete in one volume (ISBN 0-321-09388-7 or 0-321-12881-8)
Jane Austen, Pride & Prejudice, the Longman Cultural Edition (ISBN 0-321-10507-9)

Harmon & Holman, A Handbook to Literature, 9^th Edition (required for all ENGL courses above ENGL 200, so don’t sell it back if you will be taking other ENGL courses)

Documentation and presentation is described in the Prentice Hall Reference Guide used in first-year writing courses. If you didn’t keep this book, make sure you can borrow one if needed.

Goals:

To gain an appreciation of the variety of literatures and literary forms created throughout the early history of British literature;

To understand what makes these works typical of their chronological literary periods;

To understand how writers across literary chronology have treated similar themes;

To develop your skills of literary analysis and literary appreciation;

To develop your skills at presenting information in written and oral form.

Grading and Course Requirements:

Two midterms (15% each) 30%
Final exam 20%
Reflection Paper (minimum 6 pages excl. biblio.) † 35%
Active participation, quizzes, online discussion, etc. 15%

† Teacher education candidates are invited to discuss the possibility of substituting a set of well-developed lesson plans for the critical paper. If you are interested in doing so, you must discuss your plans with me before Fall Break.

Attendance /Tardy Policy:

Attendance is expected. According to University Policy, if you miss 25% of the classes in a course (in a TR class, 7 classes), you cannot receive credit. If you are more than 10 minutes late for class, you will be counted absent. Your final grade will be lowered if you miss 4 or more classes, excused or unexcused; my usual policy is to deduct 3 points from your final grade for each absence beginning with the fourth. If some crisis arises that will require you to miss class, please contact me immediately so that we can discuss alternate arrangements. Cell phones and pagers must be turned off while class is in progress.

Course Policies:

1.                  All papers must be documented following the MLA parenthetical documentation style. This is explained in the Prentice Hall Reference Guide ch. 60 and in many other handbooks. You are responsible for following it. Any material taken from a source (your textbook, something from the library, something from the Internet, etc.) must be documented. There is a new edition of the MLA Handbook (5^th edition) that covers Internet documentation; you can access these special forms at http://www.mla.org or through the Writing Center home page (http://www.winthrop.edu/wcenter ). We will use www.turnitin.com for papers in this class; I will provide instructions about it later in the semester. Our class ID # is 1168509 and our class password is chaucer.

2.                  Format your papers using the guidelines on pages 341 ff. of the Prentice Hall Reference Guide; no need for a separate cover page. "Typed" (that is, computer_produced rather than handwritten) papers are expected. Use 12-point standard (not italic) fonts and MLA margins.

3.                  Plagiarism is the use of someone else’s thoughts, words, ideas, or lines of argument in your own work without appropriate documentation (a parenthetical citation at the end and a listing in “Works Cited”)–whether you use that material in a quote, paraphrase, or summary. It is a theft of intellectual property and will not be tolerated, whether intentional or not. Plagiarized work will receive a grade of zero in this class. It also violates the Student Conduct Code (http://www.winthrop.edu/studentaffairs/Judicial/judcode.htm). The English Department has prepared The Correct Use of Borrowed Information to explain plagiarism (see www.winthrop.edu/english/plagiarism.htm.) Ignorance or failure to consult this material is no excuse.

4.                  Duplicate Submission of Papers: You may not submit a paper for a grade in this class that already has been (or will be) submitted for a grade in another course, unless you obtain the explicit written permission of me and the other instructor involved in advance. This is to conform to the Student Code of Conduct, §V, which states: "Academic misconduct includes but is not limited to … presenting the same or substantially the same papers or projects in two or more courses without the explicit permission of the professors involved." (Student Code of Conduct §V: http://www.winthrop.edu/studentaffairs/Judicial/judcode.htm )

5.                  If you have a disability and need classroom accommodations, please contact Gena Smith, Coordinator, Services for Students with Disabilities, at 323-3290 (or ext. 3290), as soon as possible. Once you have your professor notification letter, please notify me so that I am aware of your need for accommodations well before the first assignment.

6.                  Evidence that you care about your writing, such as appointment slips from the Writing Center, influences me favorably. Yes, this is a hint.

7.                  Excuses offered in advance are likely to earn more leniency than those offered after the fact.

8.                  The calendar of readings is posted on the class web page. It may change as the course progresses. Make sure you keep up with the online version to be sure you are prepared for class.

9.                  There can be no excuse for not reading the literature assigned. This is a literature course. If you are a weak reader, allow yourself extra time so that you can keep up.

10.              Failure to plan or manage time wisely on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.

11.              Disruption of class by cell phone or other electronic device is punishable by death. Actually, it will count as an absence for the day.

Web Discussion and E-mail

In a survey class that only meets twice a week, we won’t have enough time in class to talk about all the works we want to in enough detail. Fortunately, we have an electronic substitute that will help us. The class will have a listserv e-mail list for discussion, posting exam questions, review material, etc. If you do not have an e-mail account, go to 15 Tillman immediately to sign up for free e-mail and to the ACC to register so that you can print out in the labs. You may also use off-campus e-mail accounts (e.g. Hotmail, Yahoo, AOL) to access this discussion forum. You can get access to the Web for free in any of the campus computing labs, in Dacus Library, and at many public libraries if you do not have any other way to reach the web.

On-line Resources

The English Department maintains a large number of on-line resources for the study of literature at http://www.winthrop.edu/english/core.htm. The Writing Center maintains a large number of on-line resources for student writers at http://www.winthrop.edu/wcenter. I am one of the people responsible for maintaining these pages; if you have a question about using them, encounter a problem with a page, or have suggestions for improvements, I gladly welcome your input. We maintain these for you, so please let us know how to make them serve you better.

Reading Schedule:

Complete the readings BEFORE the due date. In class we will be discussing aspects of these readings, and you will be expected to know what they are about so that you can contribute to the discussions. Some of the readings cover quite a few pages, so plan ahead; if people are not keeping up with the readings, I will start giving sadistic impromptu quizzes. You’ve been warned. Schedule is subject to change. Click here for the calendar of readings.