Course Outline Survey Of American Literature II English 242 - K6 Spring 2007

All documents on this Website are considered addenda to this course outline. Please report any inconsistencies or errors in this course outline or related documents so that I may make the necessary corrections.

DESCRIPTION OF COURSE Examines American literary works form the Civil War to modern times, emphasizing the ideas and characteristics of our national literature. TEXTS Baym, Nina et al. The Norton Anthology -- American Literature. 6th ed. Shorter. New York: Norton, 2003. Harmon, William and C. Hugh Holman. A Handbook to Literature. 9th ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2003. NOTE: This book may not available in the college bookstore, but is available in the reference section of the college library. It may be ordered from amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, or other bookstores. The ninth edition is the most recent, but earlier editions will be equally useful for the course assignments. INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES Weekly assigned readings from the textbook Eight by-weekly essays COURSE REQUIREMENTS Complete assigned readings from the textbook Submit eight essays of at least five hundred words by the dates specified below. Reading Assignments The reading assignments for each week will be posted on my Website. You will be asked to read from forty to fifty pages a week in most cases. Sometimes the assignments are shorter. However, there are a few times when the reading assignments may exceed fifty pages. Therefore, you should take advantage of the weeks when the reading assignments are light by reading ahead. Essay Assignments Essay assignments based on your reading are posted on my Website. These assignments may focus on an author's ideas, language, or a literary form or device. For example, if a poem contains examples of metaphors, I may ask you to define the term, identify the metaphors in the poem, and comment on how the metaphors contribute to the overall meaning of the poem. In doing research to define a literary or rhetorical term, use the sources listed on my Links page as well as A Handbook to Literature or similar books from the library. This is a literature course and you are expected to read the assignments. That means all of them. If three stories are assigned, then read all three. When you write your essay, include a discussion of all three in the essay, unless the question explicitly asks you to do otherwise. It is also appropriate to make use of stories or poems read in earlier assignments, but you must still use the works specifically listed for the current assignment. You demonstrate that you have done the reading by integrating appropriate quotations and references to the reading into your essay. Simple summaries and general references are not adequate. Document all direct quotations as well as material that is paraphrased or summerized. I understand that some of the reading is difficult, and so I encourage you to read whatever sources you can find to help you understand the assignments. It is all right to use these interpretations in your answers, but you must document. If you don't, it is plagiarism. Length Requirements for Essays Each completed essay must be at least 500 words. There is no limit on length, but all essays should be concise, informative, and correct. Longer essays that multiply errors simply provide more justification for a poor grade. Microsoft Word will tell you how many words there are in a document. EVALUATION SYSTEM Your grade will be based on the average grade of the eight essays you submit. When you send me an essay as an email attachment, I will read it, insert comments in it, assign it a grade, and return it to you. in order to understand the basis for the grade you receive, you should open the file and red the comments. This is important since I do not accept revisions. Click on the button below to see a list of the criteria I use in grading essays. Read the documents that are linked to this list of criteria. Grading Criteria GRADING SCALE I will grade each essay by giving it a number from 1 to 100. An "A" grade is from 100 to 90; a "B" grade is from 89 to 80, etc. At the end of the semester, I will average the eight essay grades to determine your semester grade. In calculating your final grade, if your grade falls one point short of the next higher grade, I will give you the extra point and the higher grade, but only if you have completed all of the assignments. ATTENDANCE POLICY Because this is an Internet course, class attendance is not required. However, you must submit work on time to avoid a grade penalty. TOPICS COVERED Characteristics of Realism, naturalism, and Regionalism Sentimentalism Realism Regionalism Naturalism African American Writers Psychological Novel Introduction 1914-1945 and Poems Imagists and Other Poets Character and Characterization Conflict Narrator and Point of View Short Story Cultural Perspectives Metaphors and Similes LATE WORK Work assignments are due on Mondays of the weeks designated. If I do not receive the work on the designated Monday, five points will be deducted from your grade. Five additional points will be deducted for each subsequent Monday that an assignment is not received. No assignment will be accepted after the last day of class. The reading and writing assignments have been apportioned so that you can easily keep up if you do the work according to the schedule. There are four reasons why you should meet the requirements on time: You will automatically lose points when an assignment is late (see Administrative Matters below). When you get behind, you hurry to catch up, and work done under pressure is never as complete or correct as work done in the allotted time. When an assignment is late, you do not get the benefit of feedback so that you can make corrections on the next assignment; therefore you are likely to repeat errors that will cost you points. Late papers create an avalanche effect giving me less time over the course of the semester to grade more papers; therefore, I cannot do as careful a job. Email Directions HONOR CODE Proscribed Conduct is specified on page 164 of the 2006-2008 Catalog/Student Handbook. Proscribed conduct includes "all forms of dishonesty including cheating, [and] plagiarism . . . . " Students who commit plagiarism or who are otherwise dishonest in their conduct in this course will be dealt with according to college policy. UNRETURNED WORK If you want confirmation that I have received an essay that you have sent, look for an option in your email program that says something like "Return Receipt Requested." Barring illness, injury, or computer failure, I should be able to return your essays within a week. Sometimes things get lost in the mail and I do not receive your work, so if you do not get an assignment back within seven days, you should resend it. In your email message, tell me that you are resubmitting your work because you have not gotten the assignment back. If you wait longer than seven days to resend work which I have not received, it will be considered late and a grade penalty will be imposed. NAMING YOUR FILES Please name each file using this convention: The initials for your complete name. There have been cases when two people in the same class have had the same initials for their first and last names. The number of the assignment As an example, acp1 would be read like this: Alison Charles Phillips, assignment one. Leave no spaces in the file names. Each file must have a unique and correct identification. If your file name is not correct, ten points will be deducted from your grade. If you want confirmation that I have received an essay that you have emailed to me, look for an option in your email program that says something like "Return Receipt Requested." Barring illness, injury, or computer failure, I should be able to return your essays within a week to seven days. After seven days, you should write and ask me about work that has not been returned. When you write, you must tell me the course you are in, the title of the assignment, and the file name of the assignment. CHANGES IN ASSIGNMENTS During the semester it may be necessary to change course assignments or procedures. If this becomes necessary, I will post a notice on the announcements page. Click on the button below to see the announcements page. Changes may involve modification or substitution of assignments or changes in due dates. No change will increase the work load or reduce the amount of time allowed for an assignment. Announcements BACK-UP COPIES You should maintain back-up copies of your work. Copies should be saved to the hard drive of your computer, a floppy disk, a RW-CD, a zip disk, or a jump drive. If an assignment is lost and cannot be recovered by means of a back-up copy, the assignment must be rewritten. FIRST ASSIGNMENT Your first assignment is to complete the Course Orientation questions and to send your work to me as a Microsoft Word document attached to an email message. Click on the button below to see the Course Orientation questions. Course Orientation 242 Assignments Assignment 1 Course Orientation. Everyone must do this assignment. Due date -- January 15. Assignment 2 Characteristics of Realism, Naturalism, and Regionalism or Local Color Sentimentalism Do one assignment or the other and send it to me by January 29. Assignment 3 Realism Regionalism Do one assignment or the other and send it to me by February 12. Assignment 4 Naturalism African-American Writers Do one assignment or the other and send it to me by February 26. Assignment 5 Psychological Novel Introduction: "American Literature Between the Wars: 1914-1945." Do one assignment or the other and send it to me by March 12. Assignment 6 Imagists and Other Poets Character and Characterization Do one assignment or the other and send it to me by March 26. Assignment 7 Conflict Narrator Do one assignment or the other and send it to me by April 9. Assignment 8 Plot Cultural Perspectives Metaphors and Similes Do one of the three assignments and send it to me by April 23. HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR ESSAYS You should use Microsoft Word to write your essays. If you have Microsoft Works or WordPerfect, save your files in Rich Text Format. You will submit your essays as Email attachments. Click on the button below for important directions. Email PROOFREADING I will not try to correct all of the grammatical and punctuation errors in your your work but will only mark some instances of the errors I see to indicate the nature of the problems. If the number and severity of grammar and punctuation errors are extensive, the assignment may receive a grade of "D" or "F" regardless of the quality of the content. I do not accept revisions; therefore, it is important that you read my comments on each essay so that you can do better on the next assignment. REPORT ERRORS In revising course documents, I frequently make mistakes. If you discover contradictory instructions, misspelled words, bad links, or any other problems, please report them to me so that I can make corrections. Be sure to give the web address of the page that contains the error. Copy the page address from the location box of your web browser and paste into your email message. Thanks. ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS MAKE-UP WORK AND REVISIONS Make-up assignments will not be given and revisions will not be accepted. Students are expected to read the comments on returned essays, study the notes and web documents they are referred to, and do better on the next assignment. DEADLINE FOR RESOLVING PROBLEMS The deadline for resolving problems of missing or unreturned work is the last day of the exam period. If any assignments have not been returned to you, it is your responsibility to resolve the problem either through a telephone conversation or by a face-to-face meeting. If you do not do this before the last day of the exam period, you will receive a grade based on the work that has been received and graded, and no additional work will be accepted. WITHDRAWAL FROM THE COURSE If you want to withdraw from the course without a grade penalty, you must do so by March 16, 2007; otherwise, you will be assigned a grade. See the College Catalog (page 20) for complete information concerning withdrawal. You can check your enrollment status at anytime in the VCCS Student Information System. INCOMPLETE GRADES An incomplete grade will only be granted under extraordinary circumstances. No incomplete grades will be granted to students who have not completed at least seventy percent of the course work. P English 242 Resources