Syllabus

English 206 Six American Authors CE Ses 1  / Spring 2007   Kingsley

/

Required Texts:

Six books (see below).  I have chosen inexpensive mass market paperback editions where available.  Barnes and Noble publishes a number of these which are quite good editions and cost approximately $5.00 each new.

Course Description:  Probably one of the most well-known lines in American literature was penned by Mark Twain and comes out of the mouth of Huck Finn.  At the end of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck tells the reader that he does not want to go back to live with Aunt Sally and attend school.  He says, “ …I got to light out for the Territory ahead of the rest, because Aunt Sally she’s going to adopt me and sivilize me and I can’t stand it. I  been there before.”  This line or Huck’s desire probably spoke to and continues to speak to readers because we have been taught or conditioned to view “breaking away” from home, from family, from town, etc. as a natural stage in growing up.  Indeed, our culture or national psyche not only encourages us to “light out,” whether lights out means across the street, the state, the country or the ocean, but our entire nation was founded upon this idea of lighting out and creating a new way of life free from the constraints of the old or “sivilized” world.  We will read some works in which characters real and fictional light out and in so doing transform or find themselves.  They take to the woods, the city, or the road in their journeys to find themselves and their place(s) in their America. 

The reading load for the course is demanding and will average 150 to 200 or more pages a week of fairly heavy reading.  In order to participate and do well in class, you must keep up with the reading.  Thus, if you do not enjoy lots of reading, you may want to consider choosing another course.

Grading: Your grade for the course will be based on two formal papers, five shorter and more informal response papers, class attendance and participation,  and a presentation.  The grade will be calculated as follows: 

Attendance and Class Participation:  10  Points

Five Short Response Papers:   50 Points 

Two Formal Papers:  30 Points  (15 points each)

Presentation(s):  10 Points

Total:  100 Points

For a final grade in the course, the points you have earned are calculated and translated into a letter grade following the usual scale (90 points and above are in the “A” range, etc.)

Details and requirements for participation, papers, and the presentation will be discussed in class and I will provide written guidelines for each of these types of assignments.

This course offers guided practice in the close reading.  Close reading is emphasized along with developing aesthetic and evaluative responses to the literary works we will read.  We will examine the strategies, styles and structures which authors use to elicit particular responses, as well as the ways in which we, as readers, participate in the construction of a text.  Attention will also be paid to the historical, social, and cultural circumstances in which specific texts were produced and what effect this has on both the creation of those texts and our response(s) to them.  

Course Goals

• To develop a vocabulary of and working knowledge of literary terms and the ability to apply and work with them.
• To better understand how literature unveils and explores questions of our own conception of self, society, and values.
• To improve writing skills or develop a repertoire of rhetorical moves through the creation of well-organized, thoughtful papers which engage in the critical analysis of the texts we read, and build on the foundation of our class discussions.     
• To form a classroom community of readers, writers, and learners which is intellectually supportive, challenging, and which encourages, through reading and discussion, an interaction with literature that students can apply to their lives.

Course Requirements

 Student Email:  Students are required to have a UMB email account.  All students are issued a UMB email account when they register for classes. If you do not have or have not activated your email account go to end * for information on how to obtain/activate your account.

Email will be the main mode of communication outside of the classroom, and you should check your email daily for updates, changes, and messages from the instructor or classmates. If you don't have a computer at home, please utilize the computers at school. The Healey Library has hundreds of computers available to students.

  Using the Class Website:  Throughout the semester, you will expected to use the class website.  Think of the site as an extension of our classroom.  You can access it anytime to see announcements and to obtain and download handouts and assignments.  In addition, you may be asked throughout the semester to post writing to the website. The website is password protected and, thus, only our class will have access to it.  We will discuss this in class.

Course Guidelines and Procedures

A Word About Guidelines and Procedures:  In order for the type of course that I

have designed to work, there are certain guidelines that everyone must follow.  Since much of what we learn will result from what we are doing in class (class discussions, work on drafts, in-class writing, and exercises, etc.), it’s imperative that you be in class and on time.  Thus, you must follow the class guidelines, as follows.

Course Guidelines and Procedures:

1. You must come to class regularly and on time.  You are allowed up to 2 absences (students missing more than 2 classes should not expect to pass the course).  Three lates will be the equivalent of one absence, and being late on a consistent basis will bring down your grade. 
2. Assignments must be handed in on time.  To get credit for formal assignments, hard copies must be turned in to me.  Each assignment must be turned in/submitted electronically by midnight of the day it is due.  Your grade will be dropped for each day a paper is late.  I do not accept papers after they are one week late. 
3. If you miss class, it’s your responsibility to get the assignment and do the homework (assignments are available on the class website.)
4. Students are expected to come to class with all necessary materials for participating actively. Cell phones should be off and headphones put away.

Essay/Paper Policies and Procedures:

• Essays must be typed, in 10 or 12 point font, double spaced, and with standard 1” margins.  Please be sure to put your name and title on the first page of your essays.   Essays must be submitted electronically.  In addition, hard copies should be available when needed for class work.

• When/if turning in hard copies, number and staple your pages together (I will not accept loose pages).

• All of your essays, except for your final paper, may be rewritten for a revised grade, as long as they were originally submitted on time.  You must ask me about revising, we will discuss what you need to do to improve your paper, and we will agree on a revision schedule.  You must ask me about revising within one to two weeks of getting your paper back.  

General Information:

Disability:  If you have a disability and feel you will need accommodation in order to complete course requirements, please contact the Ross Center for disability Services at 617-287-7430.

Academic Honesty:   Students should be aware that, at the discretion of the instructor, assignments may be submitted to plagiarism detection software programs for the purpose of detecting possible plagiarism. Students in this course must be prepared to submit an electronic version of any written assignment upon request of the instructor.”

Plagiarism is "borrowing" someone else's work or ideas and presenting them as your own.  The following all constitute plagiarism: Using a document or part of a document written by another student; buying an essay or term paper from one of the services that sells such documents; using a document published on the Web; having someone else write an essay or term paper for you; or having someone so drastically edit your work so that it is no longer your work.  It is always essential to use quotation marks around any words/phrases/sentences that are not yours, and to cite the source of the quote or information.

Students must meet their responsibility as scholars by thoroughly documenting all sources consulted—regardless of whether they are quoted from directly, paraphrased, rephrased or otherwise “borrowed from.”  The documentation method endorsed is that of the Modern Language Association.  This method is explained and illustrated comprehensively in Gibaldi, MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (6th ed.).  Most handbooks also offer detailed guidelines for using the MLA style of documenting sources.  In addition, Bedford-St. Martin’s Press offers a user-friendly version of the guidelines online: http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/humanities/english.html

Of course, all English Department faculty members will be happy to help students understand the application of this documentation method in their work.  In addition, Healey Library offers an online tutorial and samples of properly documented texts and Works Cited pages.  The English Department at UMass Boston takes very seriously the obligation of students, in presenting work (whether written or oral) for evaluation, to give full credit to others where and when such credit is due.  All students should be familiar with the definitions and the regulations concerning Academic Honesty contained in the University of Massachusetts Boston “Code of Student Conduct”:

The University defines violations of academic honesty to include, but not be limited to, the following:

A.     Submitting an author’s published or unpublished work, in whole, in part, or in paraphrase, as one’s own without fully and properly crediting the author. This includes, but is not limited to, submitting unattributed published work, e.g. material from a journal, newspaper, encyclopedia, [the internet,] etc. without proper acknowledgement.

B.       Submitting as one’s original work materials obtained from an individual or agency.

C.      Submitting as one’s own original work material that has been produced through unacknowledged collaboration with others.

D.     Using any unauthorized material during an examination, such as notes, tests, calculators, etc.

E.     Obtaining answers to examination questions from another person with or without that person’s knowledge; furnishing answers to examination questions to another student; using or distributing unauthorized copies of or notes from an examination.

F.     Submitting as one’s own an examination taken by another person; or taking an examination in another person’s place.

G.     Gaining or seeking to gain unauthorized access to the computer files of a student or faculty member, or staff member, or altering or destroying those files.

For more details, visit the UMass Boston website:

http://www.umb.edu/student_services/student_rights/code_conduct.html

The English Department is committed to helping students participate responsibly in the “critical dialogue” by requiring that they credit appropriately and accurately all sources of their words and ideas.  The Department is also committed to upholding both the letter and the spirit of the “Code of Student Conduct”: for the very integrity of the academic enterprise—the pursuit of knowledge and truth—all faculty hold students accountable for any instances of “plagiarism” (that is, the misrepresentation of another’s words or original ideas as one’s own) or for any other form of academic dishonesty.  The penalties for plagiarism are a grade of “F” on the assignment in question and a grade of “F” in the course, and may involve academic suspension or outright dismissal from the University.  Plagiarism will be reported to the Dean of your College.  If you plagiarize, you will fail this course.