English Writing 407 Syllabus

EASTERN OREGON UNIVERSITY -- College of Arts and Sciences Syllabus
English/Writing 407 Seminar in Canonical British Literature (2 credits)
Spring 2006 MW 1-1:50 PM

Instructor: Nancy Knowles, Loso Hall 146, 962-3795, nknowles@eou.edu , M 11-11:50 AM, TR 1-2 PM and by appointment
Course Home Page: http://www.eou.edu/~nknowles/spring2006/englwr407s06.html
Catalog Description: Advanced study of the British canon. Prerequisites: ENGL 206 or 207, one British or American survey course, upper-division standing.
Required Texts available through the EOU Bookstore: Longman Anthology of British Literature Compact Edition. Also required: one self-selected longer work and access to handbook with MLA citation information or to an online resource like http://www.ccc.commnet.edu/mla/

Learning Outcomes:

Join intelligently in the canon debate,
Situate canonical British literature in its socio-historical context,
Read critically,
Present topics orally, and
Write effectively as a means of discovery and of sharing critical and creative responses.

Means of Assessment and Grading:

In-class writing (10%)--outcomes 1-3 and 5
Classroom discussion (15%)--outcomes 1-4
Presentations on period, longer work, and writing project (35%)--outcomes 1-4
Writing project (40%)--outcomes 1-3 and 5

A 92-100, A- 90-91, B+ 88-89, B 82-87, B- 80-81, C+ 78-79, C 72-77, C- 70-71, D+ 68-69, D 62-67, D- 60-61, F 59 and below

Course Requirements:

Read all assigned readings by the date they appear in the syllabus. Bring text to class.
Participation not attendance counts.
Deadlines: in-class writing cannot be made up, and late work will be penalized.
Academic writing must be word-processed with a 12-point font and 1" margins. Check grammar and spelling before submission.
Writing project final draft must be accompanied by drafts demonstrating substantial revision, copies of all cited secondary materials, a works cited page, and a self-evaluation.
Revision is permitted and may be required. All revisions must be accompanied by the graded draft. Revision grades, if higher, will replace the initial grade, but revision does not guarantee a higher grade.
The final examination is an institutional requirement. Rescheduling the final requires permission from the course instructor and the Dean of Arts & Sciences.
Extra Credit awarded for: excellent participation and visits to the Writing Lab (submit blue form).
Keep copies of all your work until you receive your official course grade.
Those who cannot treat others respectfully will be asked to leave. Repeated problems will result in disciplinary action.
Statement on Academic Misconduct: Eastern Oregon University places a high value upon the integrity of its student scholars. Any student found guilty of an act of academic misconduct (including, but not limited to, cheating, plagiarism, or theft of an examination or supplies) may be subject to having his or her grade reduced in the course in question, being placed on program or suspended from the university, or being expelled from the university--or a combination of these.

Collaboration means sharing work equally. Doing someone else's work or allowing someone to do yours is cheating.
Use MLA citation format: cite all summarized, paraphrased, and quoted information; quote special concepts and more than three words from the original; paraphrasing requires changing wording and sentence structure; your work should significantly exceed the quantity of citations and build new ideas upon them.
No work from another course may be used for credit in this one without prior permission from both instructors.

If you have a documented disability or suspect that you have a learning problem and need accommodations, please contact the Disability Services Program in Loso Hall 234. Telephone: 962-3081.

Schedule by Week: (May be altered in class. )

4/3M -- 4/5W "The Middle Ages"; Beowulf description, lines 1-281, 693-813, and 1245-1295; Judith description and selection (1st ed. pages 95-100)
4/10M MIDDLE AGES PRESENTATION "Arthurian Myth"; Marie de France description, Prologue, and Lanval; Sir Gawain description and selection (lines 2239-2530) -- 4/12W Chaucer description, "The Wife of Bath's Prologue"
4/17M EARLY MODERN PRESENTATION "The Early Modern Period"; Spenser description, The Faerie Queene description and selection (1st ed. pages 395-409); Sidney's Apology (1st ed. pages 438-443); Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepherd" and Raleigh's "The Nymph's Reply" -- 4/19W Shakespeare description, Sonnets 18 and 130, Twelfth Night first scenes of Acts 3 and 4
4/24M John Donne description, "A Valediction"; Herrick description, "Delight"; Herbert description, "Easter"; Lovelace description, "To Lucasta" (684); Marvell description, "To His Coy Mistress" -- 4/26W NO CLASS
5/1M Milton description, Paradise Lost description and Book 2 -- 5/3W RESTORATION AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURY PRESENTATION "The Restoration and the Eighteenth Century"; Pepys description and selection (1st ed. pages 934-938); Way of the World selection (handout); Gay description and Beggar's Act 1 Scenes 1-7
5/8M Dryden description and "Mac Flecknoe"; Behn description, Oroonoko description and selection (1st ed. pages 1059-1069); Swift description, "The Lady's" and Montague's "The Reasons," selections from Gulliver's (1st ed. pages 1105-1112, 1134-1138) -- 5/10W Pope description and Rape; Gray description and "Elegy"; Johnson description, Rambler No. 4, Boswell description and Life selection (1st ed. pages 1281-1284)
5/15M ROMANTICS PRESENTATION "The Romantics"; Barbauld description, "To a Little"; Blake description, Songs description, "The Lamb," "The Tyger," "London"; Wordsworth description, "Lines/Spring," "Lines/Tintern," Preface selections (1st ed. pages 1533-38), "I Wandered," "Solitary"; D. Wordsworth description, 4/15/1802 diary entry -- 5/17W FIRST GENERATIVE Wollstonecraft description and Vindication (1st ed. pages 1477-1482, 1486-1488); Coleridge description, "Kubla Khan," Bibliographia selection (1st ed. pages 1667-1673); Byron description, "She Walks"; Shelley description, "Ode,"; Keats description, "Ode/Grecian," "To Autumn"
5/22M VICTORIAN PRESENTATION "The Victorian Age"; Carlyle description, "Captains of Industry"; Mill description, Subjection selection (1st ed. pages 1851-1857); E. Browning description, Sonnets 22 and 43; Tennyson description, Lady -- 5/24W SPRING SYMPOSIUM
5/29M HOLIDAY -- 5/31W SECOND GENERATIVE Darwin Origin; R. Browning description, "My Last"; Arnold Description, "Dover"; Rossetti description, "Goblin Market"; Hopkins description, "God's Grandeur," "The Windhover," and "Pied Beauty"; Wilde description, Decay
6/5M 3 COPIES OF PROJECT-- 6/7W TWENTIETH CENTURY PRESENTATION "The Twentieth Century," Hardy description, "Channel"; Brooke description and "Soldier"; Sassoon description and "Glory"; Owen description, "Dulce"; Yeats description, "Second Coming," "Leda"; Joyce description, Ulysses description and selection (1st ed. pages 2389-2394); Eliot description and Love Song ; Thomas description and "Do Not Go"; Heaney description and "Skunk"
Final TBA: WRITING PROJECT FINAL, PRESENTATION, AND SUPPORTING MATERIALS

Period Presentation (25% of course grade):

On the date indicated in the syllabus, make a 20-minute collaborative presentation on one of the periods of canonical British literature including the following information:

Important socio-historical information about the time period,
Names and works of canonical authors writing during the time period, assigned or not, and discussion of their significance, and
A creative, interactive means of starting class discussion regarding assigned readings.

The basis for this presentation should be the appropriate section in our text with some additional research. Evaluate all sources for credibility: books and peer-reviewed journal articles are fine; with web pages, make sure the source has an author with credentials.

Effective presenters:

Provide useful information and analysis of texts.
Attend to time constraints--present a few ideas well.
Speak from notes rather than reading a paper.
Make eye contact with the audience.
Provide a logical structure in advance for topics to be covered.
Use other media like handouts, PowerPoint slides, CDs, video clips, etc.
Make discussion interactive.
Field questions.

On the day of the presentation, please bring copies for the class of a handout overview of your material that is easy to read (maybe a bulleted list?) and a works cited. If you need me to make copies, please provide your materials at least 24 hours in advance.

Assessment: Presentations will be graded based on effective use of time (as noted above) and whether group members take equal responsibility in preparing and presenting the material. A = excellent; B = good; C = satisfactory; D = less than satisfactory.

Longer Work Presentation (5% of course grade or 5 points)
Each ENGL/WR 407 participant will make a 5-minute presentation on a longer canonical work. The presentation should

summarize the longer work,
discuss its significance as canonical British literature,
situate the work in its historical context (why did such a work emerge at the time in which it was produced?),
mention how scholars generally interpret it (skim a few recent scholarly sources--books located through Pierce or Summit or articles located through the MLA Bibliography. Web pages and encyclopedia entries are not acceptable), and
provide a one-page "cheat sheet" handout about the text addressing the above issues and including a works cited in MLA format.

Assessment: Presentations will receive a point for each of the above.

Writing Project (40% of course grade)
Create a written product that demonstrates your knowledge of canonical British literature and culminates your academic study. Ideas include an academic thesis-driven paper, an essay response, a poem imitation, an era-specific short story or one-act play, a journalistic piece for a current or past audience, an age-appropriate instructional unit, a web page, a CD-ROM, a video performance, etc. All projects should demonstrate your knowledge of the text and its context and be equivalent in effort to an 8-page research paper.

Research requirement: use at least three credible sources beyond the textbook (e.g. scholarly articles and/or books, not web pages or encyclopedia entries). Academic papers should use in-text citations in MLA format. Those producing creative works should discuss citation with me. Copies of sources must be submitted.

First Generative Writing: Write a one-page proposal of your project that indicates your plans: what will your final product look like in terms of content, genre, length, etc.? How will this project demonstrate your knowledge of canonical British literature and culminate your academic study? What assistance do you need from me at this time?

Second Generative Writing: Submit the following materials:

Initial draft--minimum half complete.
Annotated works cited page: a regular works cited page where each secondary source listed is followed by a paragraph summarizing the source and discussing why the source is credible and how it will be useful to your project.

Project Submission Checklist:

All drafts, ncluding response group work with comments from your group members
Generative writing, including annotated works cited, from both in- and outside class
Copies of cited secondary materials except those included in course texts
One-page self-evaluation reflecting on the writing process, the quality of the final product, and how it reflects the course objectives and culminates your own academic work

Assessment: Projects will be graded based on: 1) mastery of material, 2) depth of interpretation, 3) quality of writing, and 4) ability to effectively integrate source material.