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English 200: Section 1-- SyllabusInstructor: BenediktssonTime: Wednesday, 5:30-8:00 Office: Rm. 110, 6th Floor Wheatley Room: Wheatley W01-0010 email: gunnar.benediktsson@umb.edu Required Texts and Materials:
Course Description The course catalogue promises that this course will offer “guided practice in the close reading of three major literary genres-poetry, fiction, and drama-with works to be drawn from various historical periods.” In a sense, this is the promise of every literature class—to make of its students better and more astute readers. However, our objective will be twofold—to read intensively, but also to practice intensive reflection on our reading experience in the form of writing. To that end you will be asked to respond critically to each of the 5 major texts that we will be tackling, and it is my hope that as the semester goes on your responses will become more sophisticated and thoughtful. The value a course like this adds to your life can be difficult to measure—but it is nevertheless very real. On one hand you will acquire a knowledge of history and culture of various time periods, and on the other you will begin to see how writers of different time periods tackled issues that may well look familiar to you. Through this process you may gain a capability far beyond merely sophisticated reading and response: you will become writers in your own right, capable of responding in writing to the urgent demands of the present. I hope we will learn that writing is a tool by which we can explain the present and influence the future—and that we will take it as our mission to continue to read—and above all, to write.
Procedures and Expectations This is not a knowledge-based lecture class—and its success or failure for you depends heavily on your participation and engagement with the material. As such, I do expect regular and prompt attendance, and anyone who is habitually late for class will be marked absent. This is especially vital in that we only meet once per week—so missing a single class amounts to the same disruption as missing an entire week in any of your other classes. Therefore, you should not expect to pass this course if you miss more than 2 class periods, and you should expect a penalty to your grade if you miss more than 1. However, showing up is not enough. I expect you to arrive in class having not only done the reading for that day, but having taken careful notes on each work, having summarized the piece and jotted down a few possible comments that you might make if called upon. Participation is a critical aspect of the course—because learning to write is partly about learning the process of reading and responding to texts, which is one that requires a little bit of legwork and labor. It is often through careful reading that the best ideas for written projects are discovered—so it’s my hope that this labor will be worth your while. In the meantime, think of it as your weekly homework for the class. An Important Note on Procedure: While you are in class, I expect your undivided and enthusiastic participation. In part, this means that I would like all cell phones and electronic devices, including mp3 players and iPods removed and stored in your bag. You may not wear headphones or hats in class, and I ask that you please put away your laptop computer. Persons not complyig with this policy will be asked to leave and marked absent. All assignments, including weekly responses and the summary assignment must be typed and carefully proofread before being handed in. They must also be turned in at the start of class on the day that they are due. Late assignments will be penalized one full letter grade for each class period that they are late. For instance, if a paper is due on Wednesday, October 1st, and is deemed worth a B+--but not turned in until Wednesday, Oct. 8th, it will be recorded as a C+. Rewrites of the paper later in the semester remain subject to the late assignment penalty.
Course Procedures: This course has 5 basic units, and thus will require 5 short critical responses worth 5% of your grade each. These short (1-2 page) critical responses will each be graded out of 5 points, and should at a minimum engage thoughtfully with the text for that unit. The texts that I expect you to respond to are: Tempest, The House of Mirth, Billy Budd, Watchmen and The Big Clock. I will not accept critical responses late: if you do not have your response prepared by the start of class I will record a grade of 0 out of 5 for that assignment. In addition, you will write 2 longer essays, which may or may not grow out of one of your critical responses, but which will represent your best possible work and will count for a combined 50% of your grade. There will also be a Mid-Term exam worth 10% of the grade which will ask you to identify and comment on quotations from the texts we have talked about in class. I ask that you keep all of your written assignments for this class in a folder, which you should treat as your portfolio of work that you complete for the course. Each time you turn in an assignment I ask that you turn in the complete portfolio, so that you and I may both evaluate the progress you are making in becoming a more capable reader and writer. Course Requirements and Grade Breakdown
Policy on Academic Misconduct Plagiarism—copying someone else’s work and submitting it as your own (e.g., downloading a paper from the internet)—will lead to a grade of F, both on the assignment and in the course. Please see the University’s policy on academic misconduct if you have any questions or concerns about plagiarism.
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