Modern Short Story -- 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 THE COURSE

Studies the modern short story as a literary form. Emphasizes appreciation and interpretation of selected stories.

TEXTS

No textbook is required for this course; however, if you are interested in literature and want to add a good reference book to your permanent library, I recommend the following title:

Harmon, William and C. Hugh Holman. A Handbook to Literature. 10^th ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2006.

NOTE: This book may not be 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

Reading assigned short stories
Researching to define literary terms
Writing essays applying literary terms in analyses of stories

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Complete assigned reading of short stories
Submit eight essays of at least five hundred words by the dates specified below

Length Requirements for Essays

Each completed essay must be at least 500 words. As a practical matter, an adequate response to these questions will require more than 500 words and so there is no limit on length. However 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 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 read 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

Plot
Conflict
Point of View
Character
Setting and Atmosphere
Concrete Language
Metaphor and Simile
Theme

Symbols
Irony
Foreshadowing
Allusions
Realism
Naturalism
Local Color/Regionalism

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. There are four reasons why you should submit your work 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

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.

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

HONOR CODE

Proscribed Conduct is specified on page 164 of the 2006-2007 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.

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.

BACK-UP COPIES

You should be careful to maintain back-up copies of your work. Copies should be saved to the hard drive of your computer, a jump drive, a CD, or floppy disk. If an assignment is lost and cannot be recovered by means of a back-up copy, the assignment must be rewritten.

COURSE ASSIGNMENTS

SCHEDULE FOR SUBMITTING ESSAYS

Because I usually have a large number of students in my Internet courses, I ask for essay assignments to be turned in every two weeks. For example, while some classes will turn in essays on the first, third, and fifth weeks of the semester, others will turn in essays on the second, fourth, and sixth weeks of the semester. The schedule for you to turn in your essays is given below. A grade penalty of five points will be imposed if I do not receive an assignment by the Monday due date designated. For each additional Monday that an assignment is late, another penalty of five points will be imposed.

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 link below to see the Course Orientation questions.

Assignment 1-- Course Orientation
Due date -- January 15.

Assignment 2 -- Plot
Due date -- January 22.

Assignment 3 -- Conflict or Point of View
Due date -- February 5.

Assignment 4 -- Character or Setting and Atmosphere
Due date -- February 19.

Assignment 5 -- Concrete Language or Metaphor and Simile
Due date -- March 5.

Assignment 6 -- Theme or Symbols
Due date -- March 19.

Assignment 7 -- Irony or Foreshadowing
Due date -- April 2.

Assignment 8 -- Allusions, Realism, Naturalism, or Local Color and Regionalism
Due date -- April 16.

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR ESSAYS

E-mail

PROOFREADING

REPORT ERRORS

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.

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