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Assignments: Blog Project 1 | Paper 1 | Take-Home Midterm | Blog Project 2 | Paper 2

 

E n g l i s h 1 0 4 – 0 1  Introduction to Literature: Fiction

Spring 2009  178236  RR209  MW  3:15-4:50P.M.  4 Cr.

Ryan Davis, Clackamas Community College English Department
Office: Rook 233  Office Hours: M 1-3 / T 10-12 / W 1-3

Phone: 503.657.6958 x 5137

Email: ryand@clackamas.edu

Class Website: http://www.portlandwt.com/schoolhome.htm

Class Blog: http://rdccc2.wordpress.com/

Blackboard: http://clackamas.blackboard.com/webapps/login

 

COURSE DESCRIPTION  This hybrid course will introduce the genre of short fiction, define and explore literary elements, encourage personal and cultural reflection and understanding, incorporate relevant literary theories, and model a close reading and analysis of literary texts.  We will approach the readings not only as individual works of art to be read creatively and enjoyed imaginatively and intellectually, but also as examples of the response of the writers to their unique life experiences.  Recommended: Pass RD-090 or placement in RD-115; pass WR-095 or placement in WR-121.

 

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES To pass ENG 104, students should be able to:

  1. demonstrate an awareness of the structural elements of prose fiction.

  2. determine the theme of a given work.

  3. analyze character and methods of characterization in a given work.

  4. determine from which point of view a given work is written and tell what effect this has on other aspects of the work.

  5. demonstrate an understanding of the nature of plot.

  6. determine the philosophical influence on a given work.

  7. demonstrate an awareness of both the historical and current social significance of a given work.

  8. make and defend value judgments based on his/her knowledge of the fundamentals of prose fiction.

  9. write well-organized and mechanically acceptable papers in which he/she exhibits an understanding of the basic terminology of literary analysis.

REQUIRED TEXTS AND TOOLS

  • Pickering, James H.  Fiction 100: An Anthology of Short Fiction.  New York: Longman, 2010.  ISBN: 02056769

  • - - -.  A Reader’s Guide to Accompany Fiction 100.  New York: Longman, 2010.  ISBN: 02056769

  • You will need four tools to pass this class, all of which can be used in the Streeter Hall Academic Computer Lab:

    • a working computer to write your papers

    • the Internet to view the course webpage and readings and conduct research (please check the course webpage regularly)

    • a printer to print your papers

    • an active email account with an appropriate user ID to communicate with me and receive announcements and supplemental information (please check your email regularly)

CLASS POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
Attendance

  • Any student with five or more absences will automatically fail the course.

  • If absent, please obtain missed information from another student or the course website or blog.  I cannot summarize an entire class, so do not ask me what you missed.

  • If you are absent when a paper is due, you are still responsible for turning the work in on time.  Workshops cannot be made up.

  • If you stop attending class and do not officially drop or withdraw, you will receive an "F" for the course. It is your responsibility to take care of your GPA and college record.

Work Submitted

  • All assignments must be completed to pass the class.

  • All assignments written outside of class must be word processed, following all MLA guidelines.

  • Please save your assignments in Rich Text Format in Microsoft Word, so they can be recognized by most computers.

  • Please keep all assignments on your hard drive, a portable storage device, a CD-ROM, and in your email account.  Printer issues and lost work are not excuses.

  • Please only turn in assignments on their due dates, after we have completely covered their content and guidelines in class.

Assignment Timeliness, Length, and Delivery

  • Late assignments will, at best, earn a “D” (after class is dismissed on the due date, your work is late).  There are no excuses for late work.

  • Assignments shorter than the full announced length automatically earn a “C” (if I ask for 3 pages and you turn in 2.95 pages, you will receive a "C").

  • Late and short work automatically earns an "F."

  • No emailed paper will be accepted unless I previously approve it.

Effective Learning

  • Creating and maintaining a safe and civil environment depends on all of us, so please respect your classmates in class.  If you do not, you will be told to leave class.

  • Please be on time so that you do not disrupt class.

  • You may eat and drink in class, but please, nothing noisy or smelly.

  • All cell phones must be turned off.  If you are texting during class, I will ask you to leave.

  • No visitors in class.

  • While literary discussion is mandatory, discussion of the way the class operates is unnecessary.  I have structured the course this way based on years of experience.  If you disagree with any aspect of the course, consult with me before or after class or during my office hours.  I will not use class time for disagreements.

Assignments and Grading

  • Assignments (guidelines for all assignments will be distributed in class and posted online)

    • Email address/Blog registration:  By Friday of the first week, in one email, send me your full name, class and section number, email address, and blog account information (you will register for a blog with WordPress [www.wordpress.com]).  Be sure to register at wordpress using the same email address.

    • Reading Questions/Discussion Topics:  Each Monday and Wednesday, you will come to class with two typed questions about the assigned readings that will help guide our discussion.

    • Paper 1:  In a three-four page paper, you will explore the influences on a particular writer and his or her work, discuss a work by someone we did not discuss in class, compare two writers or works with common themes, or focus on some other instructor-approved topic that interests you.

    • Paper 2:  Same as Paper 1

    • Take-Home Midterm:  You will chose two of many essay questions from the first half of the term to answer and submit.

    • In-Class Final:  You will choose two of many essay questions from the second half of the term to answer and submit.

    • Blog Project 1:  You will create and present a blog entry containing an author/work’s brief annotated bibliography (an author/work found in our anthology).

    • Blog Project 2:  You will create and present a blog entry on an author, work, group of authors, or literary movement not fully discussed in class, using appropriate visual or audio aids.  Presented in electronic format, your project might take the form of a collage, sculpture, model, diorama, song, video, dramatic interpretation, dance, webpage or website, or critical essay (much like the Papers).  As part of the blog entry, a critical analysis of your topic is the basis for the majority of the grade for the project (unless you choose the critical essay, which is itself an analysis).  Your topic is the same author/work used in Blog Project 1.  You will post the project (a image, audio, or video file; link; and/or critical essay) to the blog.

    • Online Writing:  A large portion of your grade is made up of reading and responding to online postings on the blog.  By midnight on Friday of weeks 2-9, you must comment on/add to the discussion regarding the information I post earlier in the week.

  • Grading

    • All assignments and final grades will be scored on the following scale:  A 100-90 / B 89.99-80 / C 79.99-70 / D 69.99-60 / F 59.99 or below.  I do not round grades up.

    • The grade breakdown is as follows:

      • 1%      Email address/Blog Registration

      • 4%      Reading Questions/Discussion Topics

      • 15%    Paper 1

      • 15%    Paper 2

      • 10%    Take-Home Midterm

      • 10%    In-Class Final

      • 10%    Blog Project 1

      • 10%    Blog Project 2

      • 25%    Online Writing

SCHEDULE (all dates subject to change with sufficient notice)

WEEK 1

3/30    Course Introduction

4/1      Hemingway “Hills Like White Elephants”

4/3      Email address/Blog registration due via email

4/4      Last day to add classes without instructor signature (end of first week)

 

WEEK 2

4/6      Jackson “The Lottery”

4/8      Welty “A Worn Path”

4/10    Bambara “The Lesson” / Blog reading response due by midnight / Last day to drop full-term classes and receive full refund

 

WEEK 3

4/13    Alexie “This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona”

4/15    Erdrich “The Red Convertible” 

4/17    Chopin “The Story of an Hour” / Blog reading response due by midnight

 

WEEK 4

4/20    Glaspell "A Jury of Her Peers"

4/22    Fitzgerald “Winter Dreams” & Baldwin "Sonny's Blues"

4/24    Faulkner “A Rose for Emily” / Blog reading response due by midnight

4/25    Blog Project 1 due

 

WEEK 5

4/27    Bierce "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" & Garcia Marquez "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings"

4/29    Carver "Cathedral" & Chekov "The Lady with the Dog"

5/1      Irving “Rip van Winkle” / Blog reading response due by midnight

 

WEEK 6

5/4      Paper 1 due / Gilman "The Yellow Wall-Paper" & Hawthorne "Young Goodman Brown"

5/6      London "To Build a Fire" & Lawrence "The Rocking-Horse Winner"

5/8      Jewett “A White Heron” / Blog reading response due by midnight / $75 late fee will be assessed on any outstanding

            account balance

5/9      Last day to drop classes without responsibility for grade (end of sixth week)

 

WEEK 7

5/11    Take-Home Midterm due / Conrad "Heart of Darkness"

5/13    Melville "Bartleby the Scrivener" & Oates "Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been?"

5/15    Poe “The Cask of Amontillado” / Blog reading response due by midnight

 

WEEK 8

5/18    Borges "The Garden of Forking Paths" / Writing Discussion

5/20    No class

5/21    Blog Project 2 due

5/22    Bradbury "August 2002: Night Meeting" / Blog reading response due by midnight

5/23    Last day to make changes to schedule (end of eighth week)

 

WEEK 9

5/25    Memorial Day—No Class!

5/27    Paper 2 due / O'Brien "The Things They Carried" & Joyce "The Dead"

5/29    Theroux "Mr. Bones" / Blog reading response due by midnight

 

WEEK 10

6/1      Kittredge "We Are Not in This Together" & O'Connor "A Good Man Is Hard to Find"

6/3      Barth "Lost in the Funhouse" & Tolstoy "The Death of Ivan Illych"

 

WEEK 11

In-Class Final, Wednesday, 10 June, 2009, at 2 P.M.

 

PLAGIARISM  According to the CCC Instructional Standards and Procedures, “A student who submits the work of another as her/his own or deliberately fails to properly credit words or ideas borrowed from another source is guilty of plagiarism.”  You must adhere to the following guidelines, borrowed from Clark College, regarding plagiarism:

 

What you need not acknowledge:

1.   Common knowledge. If most readers like yourself would likely know something, you need not cite it.

2.   Facts available from a wide variety of sources. If a number of textbooks, encyclopedias, or almanacs include the information, you need not cite it.

3.   Your own ideas and discoveries.

 

What you must acknowledge:

1.   Any direct quotation. You must place the exact words quoted in quotation marks.

2.   Paraphrases and summaries that provide background information, present facts not commonly known, and explain various positions on your topic.

3.   Arguable assertions. If an author presents an assertion that may or may not be true, you must cite the source.

4.   Statistics, charts, tables, and graphs from any source. You must credit all graphic material, even if you yourself create the graph.

 

Purchasing research papers and submitting them is plagiarism. Asking another party to write a paper for you is cheating, and, in this case, will be considered plagiarism. Resubmitting or rewriting a paper from another course for a new grade without alerting me is plagiarism. If you are guilty of plagiarism, you will automatically fail the course.

 

Remember—if you have any questions regarding plagiarism—ask me.

 

SUPPORT SERVICES

  • Writing Center: McLoughlin 112, writing@clackamas.edu, 503.657.6958 ext. 5310

  • Advising and Counseling Department: Bill Brod Community Center, 503.657.6958 x2213

  • Dana Library: M-Th 7:30 A.M.-9 P.M. / F 7:30 A.M.-5 P.M., 503.657.6958 x 2288

    • Your last name and either your CCC ID or library barcode number will act as your password for the following databases:

      • EBSCOHOST (Academic Search Premier, Business Source Premier, CINAHL, MEDLINE and many more indexes)

      • NewsBank (The Oregonian and The New York Times [2000-present])

      • ProQuest (The New York Times [Historical 1851-2002])

      • First Search (Article First and Worldcat databases)

      • CQ Researcher

      • Access Science

      • NetLibrary

      • Gale Virtual Reference Library

Updated: 21 May 2009