Syllabus for English 2328 Literature of America II Fall 2011 Instructor Sean Ferrier-Watson Course ENGL 2328.

040 R 6:00-9:00PM PJC-GC Office Hours by appointment Website

Office PJC-GC 201 E-mail/Phone # [email protected] 903-454-9333 Required Texts

Belasco, Susan, and Linck Johnson. The Bedford Anthology Of American Lit, Vol. 2. Boston: St Martins, 2008. ISBN 0-312-41208-8 Course Content A study of American Literature masterworks of the Twentieth Century, with emphasis on major writers and representative writers of the periods. Collateral readings, class themes and research projects. Course Prerequisites ENGL 1302. Core Curriculum satisfied for Humanities. Purpose This course is a survey of American literature after 1865, geared toward familiarizing students with significant American texts and scholarship. Students will read a variety of literary texts from all over the United States and will analyze these texts in terms of their literary merit and historical significance. Students will demonstrate their ability to analyze these texts by writing critically about them in accordance with the rules and conventions of typical American scholarship in the humanities. Discussion and retention of these texts will be expected throughout the semester. COURSE OBJECTIVES Successful students in English 2328 will: 1. Improve attitudes towards written communication 2. Refine writing skills for college level discourse by: i. Identifying and utilizing Standard Written English ii. Identifying and utilizing basic Academic Discourse 3. Increase critical reading skills 4. Build analytical thinking skills 5. Successfully learn relevant literary texts in the American canon 6. Successfully identify and utilize MLA style for citing and documenting sources. Assignment Policy & Grading With the exception of some daily grades, all assignments should be completed on time and formatted correctly to be considered for full credit. Major essays must be formatted in accordance

with MLA guidelines and typed in legible twelve point font. The page length and other detailed specifications are listed further below. These assignments will be submitted to the instructor as a hardcopy on the class day the assignment is due. No late papers will be accepted in person or through email. Papers will be returned graded and with comments to the students roughly two class periods after submission. All assignments will be graded according to the merit of the students work and their diligence in following the prescribed guidelines (see individual assignments for more details). Procedure This course will consist of daily lectures and discussion over assigned readings. Regular attendance is required to facilitate this goal. On occasion, in class assignments or quizzes may be offered to enhance understanding of assigned readings. The class website will act as the online component to this course, where class materials and assignments will be housed. Class Disruption Policy/Active Participation Policy/ Dismissal Policy Disruptions will not be tolerated in my class. Cell-phones, laptop computers, audio/music devices, and any other technological device that does not pertain to the lesson will be banned in my classroom. If the device is used as a note taking instrument or as a way of performing class activities, I will grant an exception to this policy. Newspapers, magazines, and any other material not pertaining to the subject at hand may also constitute a violation of this policy. Any violation of this policy can result in the students immediate dismissal from the classroom for the day and a grade of zero being entered for daily participation. Failure to participate in class activities or behavioral disruptions will also constitute grounds for dismissal for the day or worse. Tardy/Leaving Early Policy The occasional tardy is acceptable and often unavoidable in any given semester. I understand that things happen and that missing a few minutes of class was not your design; however, excessive tardinesstardiness that results in missing more than fifteen minutes of class or tardiness that occurs frequentlyis unacceptable. In these extreme cases, I will generally mark the student absent for the day. Unless I have given you permission to leave class early, cutting-out before class is over will almost always result in an absence or zero for the day. Late Policy I will NOT accept late assignments. If you believe you will be absent or late on the day an assignment is due, I encourage you to submit it early or notify me ahead of time and make arrangements for an alternative due date. I will not negotiate on due dates after the original due date has passed. Please do not ask. I also reserve the right to maintain all original due dates as I see fit. Participation/Attendance/Response Paper 20% Participation may include class discussion, readiness for class, quizzes, homework, or any other classroom activity. These grades are to be confined to no more than 5% of the total grade for the class (see breakdown below). Attendance is mandatory. As with any college class, attendance is a vital part of the learning process. If a student misses more than three class sessions, a deduction will be applied to the students participation grade (attendance is an important part of your grade, so please do not underestimate the attendance policy). Absences are considered to be unauthorized unless officially sanctioned by the university. Students must present proof of the incident before an excuse will be issued. If, through a misfortune, a student should arrive after the instructor has recorded absences, it is the students responsibility to talk with the instructor immediately after class in order to discuss changing the unauthorized absence to a tardy. If the

problem is serious enough to miss a significant amount of class, then the student should consider dropping the course or speaking with the university. Weekly Response Papers are designed to help students engage literary texts and scholarship. These response papers can be handwritten or typed and should always be legible. I encourage students to go beyond merely summarizing their reading for the week and to attempt to formulate a brief argument for each response paper. These papers are due at the start of class every week. The average response paper should be roughly one page in length. They are graded credit or no credit. Midterm Exam & Final Exam 40% Student will take two essay exams in this class: Midterm 20% and Final 20%. The dates for these exams are listed on the schedule. These exams will reflect the students knowledge of material discussed within the weeks before the exam. Prompts will be provided for each essay exam and students will be expected to bring bluebooks (or essay exam paper) to class. Exam length should not exceed two pages or fall below one page for each prompt. Essay #1 & Essay #2 40% Student will complete two major essays: Essay #1: Scholarly Debate (2-4 pages) 20% and Essay #2: Research Paper (3-5pages) 20%. The dates for these essays are listed on the schedule. Major essays must be formatted in accordance with MLA guidelines and typed in legible twelve point font. Each of these assignments will focus on at least one text the student is studying for class. They will need to create an argumentative thesis and find scholarly sources to support their arguments. Specific guidelines will be provided as the essay dates near. Grading Policy Breakdown Participation 20% y Attendance 5% y Homework/Daily Work/reading/discussion 5% y Weekly Response Papers 10% Essay #1: Scholarly Debate 20% y 2-4 pages in length y Position yourself against a literary scholar y Cite scholar and primary source y Check website for details Midterm Essay Exam: Close Reading 20% y Bluebook or paper needed y Write one to two pages for each of the two prompts selected y Check website for details Essay #2: Research Paper 20% y 3-5 pages in length y Must contain at least two articles on the work cited page y Must be proceeded by a research proposal y Check website for details Final Exam: Close Reading 20% y Bluebook or paper needed y Write one to two pages for each of the two prompts selected y Check website for details

Class Assignments* & Reading Schedule Fall 2011 Response Papers are due every class meeting* September 1First Day! y Class Introduction y Review of Syllabus & Class Schedule y Discussion on American Literature over the last two centuries. 8Mark Twain and Ambrose Bierce y Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog (62) y A True Story, Repeated Word for Word as I Heard It (67) y Chickamauga (124) 15 Henry James and Sarah Orne Jewett y Daisy Miller (132) y The Real Thing (173) y A White Heron (194) 22 Kate Chopin; Charlotte Perkins Gilman; and Edith Wharton y The Storm (223) y The Yellow Wall-Paper (252) y The Other Two (281) 29 Jack London and Willia Cather y To Build A Fire (handout) y The Law of Life (389) y A Wagner Matine (380) October 6 Midterm Exam y Bring in a bluebook or paper y Attendance will be taken and all of class time will be provided for the exam y Grades will be returned the next class meeting 13 Booker T. Washington and W. E. B. Du Bois y Up from Slavery (442-50) y The Souls Of Black Folk (453-9) y Essay #1 is due (No late essays will accepted) 20 Robert Frost; Carl Sandburg; and Wallace Stevens y Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening (593) y Fire and Ice (592) y The Road Not Taken (588) y Chicago (601) y Grass (604) y The Snow Man (614) y The Emperor of Ice-Cream (614) 27 William Carlos Williams and T. S. Eliot y The Waste Land (676)

The Red Wheelbarrow (638)

November 3 Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner y Barn Burning (963) y A Clean Well Lighted Place (handout) y Hills Like White Elephants (handout) 10 TBA: Sherwood Anderson and Katherine Ann Porter (tentatively) y Hands (863) y Paper Pills ((866) y Flowering Judas (871) 17 John Dos Passos; F. Scott Fitzgerald; and Flannery OConnor y Vag (946) y A Good Man is Hard to Find (1303) y The Ice Palace (917) 24 Thanksgiving! No Class. December 1Arthur Miller y Death of a Salesman (1176) 8 John Updike & Review y A&P (1392) y Final Essay Due (Hardcopy Only! No Submissions After This Date) 15tentative date for Final Exam y Bring Paper/ Bluebook