Dr. Jo Koster
228 Bancroft Hall
kosterj@winthrop.edu
803-323-4557 http://faculty.winthrop.edu/kosterj

Office Hours: MTWR 10-11:30; and gladly by appointment

Texts:  See the Overview page (click the link at the left).

Course Goals:

1.      To gain an appreciation of the variety of literatures and literary forms created throughout the history of British literature through examination of major works and authors;

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

3.      To understand how writers across literary chronology have treated similar concerns;

4.      To develop your skills of literary analysis and literary appreciation;

5.      To develop your skills at presenting information in written and oral form, including correct documentation.

The complete listing of Goals for English Majors is available online at http://www.winthrop.edu/english/englishgoals.htm#undergrad

Course Requirements:

• Three in-class tests, 15% each

• Final exam: 20%

• Correctly documented reflection paper of at least eight pages (exclusive of Works Cited page): 20%

• Quizzes: 10% (if you take all twelve quizzes you may drop the lowest two grades)

• Active participation, essay questions, etc.: 5%

• Please note that graduate students taking this course as ENGL 620 will have separate requirements and grading distributions. This is an accreditation requirement for the course.

Grading Standards:

A: 91-100

B: 81-90

C: 71-80

D: 61-70

F: 60 or below

Additional Information:

The English Department’s home page is http://www.winthrop.edu/english.  Resources for many of our courses can be found at http://www.winthrop.edu/english/core.htm.  
 

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, the penalty for plagiarism is a grade of zero on the assignment and possibly an F in the course with a report to the Student Judiciary System if the infraction is extensive.

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). To demonstrate that you understand the correct use of borrowed information and the need for documentation, you must turn in both a hard copy of your paper and an electronic version through www.turnitin.com. I will be providing information on that service in the Reflection Paper assignment.

Attendance Policy:
Attendance is expected. According to University Policy, if you miss 25% of the classes in a course (in a summer class, 4 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 3 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; if they go off, you will be counted absent for the day. The official Winthrop University Attendance Policy and Final Examination policies are listed on page 29 of the Winthrop University Undergraduate Catalog 2006-2007. You are expected to abide by them.

Students with Disabilities
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 letter, please notify me so that I am aware of your need for accommodations well before the first assignment for which you are requesting accommodation. I will be happy to work with you to meet your learning needs.
 

Expectations:

1. While this is a 200-level survey class, we have to cover 1400 years of literature in 4 weeks. This means you have to read a lot every day. Keep up with it! The reading should be completed before you come to class.

2. I know some of you need to carry cell phones and pagers. Turn them off while you are in class; if your electronics disrupt class, you will be counted absent for the day (see attendance policy). The classroom is not the place for multitasking; no texting or IM-ing while class is in progress.

3. I do not read minds. If you have questions about the materials or about assignments, ask me. If you don’t tell me there’s a problem, I’ll assume that you’re fine.

4. Check your e-mail every day. I will set up a class e-mail list after our first meeting so that we can communicate with each other and will use it to keep you posted on any changes in schedule, etc. Do this before you come to class. 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. You must have a working campus e-mail account by June 6. If you do not check this account, then set it to forward to the e-mail account you check regularly. You are responsible for all messages sent to the class via the listserv.

Tests:

My practice is to solicit input from you for the tests in the form of suggestions for essay questions. They must be e-mailed to the class list by the assigned time on the class day before the exam. I will choose from this list (editing if necessary) to make up the essay portions of the exam, but if the questions are not challenging enough, I will make up my own. So it’s up to you to write good questions! The factual parts of the exam will revolve around history, terminology, dates, and quotations, which will be drawn from the readings, lectures, and supplementary materials in the text and on the web page.

Details:

1. 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.
2. You must complete all assignments in the class to receive a passing grade for the course.
3. No late papers are permitted; I will not allow make-up exams unless you present me with an approved excuse (that is, one acceptable to the dean of students, with documentation).
4. 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. Evidence that you care about your writing, such as appointment slips from the Writing Center, influences me favorably. Yes, this is a hint.
6. Excuses offered in advance are likely to earn more leniency than those offered after the fact.
7. Failure to plan or manage time wisely on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.