ENG 210-006 Sears Spring 2011

ENG 210-006 Spring 2011 Foundations of Literary Studies

Instructor: Shannon Sears E-mail: searssha@msu.edu Office hours: TTh, 12:30-1:30 & by appt. Meeting time: TTh, 10:20-11:40am Meeting place: 112A Berkey Office: 9 Morrill Hall

Course Description: English 210 is an introductory course that will introduce you to the habits, skills, and terminology of English as an academic field and give you a venue in which to practice and hone those habits/skills/terms. Great emphasis will be laid on close reading skills, which are the foundation of English study. In order to best practice close reading, we will focus on short pieces for our course reading. Because this course is writing-intensive, you will be required to engage with and respond to the reading on a daily basis through both short and long writing assignments. Through frequent practice, instructor and peer feedback, and the process of revision, you will learn how to compose various types of writing for the English classroom and an academic audience. Course Goals: By the end of this course, you will be able to: -identify different genres of writing and talk about their characteristics -identify the themes, metaphors, symbols, and significant language of a piece of writing -perform a close reading -respond to and analyze a piece of writing, both verbally and textually -compose a textual argument (a paper) about your interpretation of a piece of writing -provide constructive feedback to classmates about their ideas/writing -accept & thoughtfully consider constructive feedback from classmates and the instructor about your ideas/writing -thoughtfully and carefully revise a piece of your own writing Required Materials: 1) The Norton Introduction to Poetry, Eds. Hunter et al. (9th edition) 2) The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction, Eds. Bausch and Cassill (Shorter 7th edition) 3) The Oxford Shakespeare: The Merchant of Venice, William Shakespeare (Editor, Halio)

ENG 210-006 Sears Spring 2011 *Norton Intro to Poetry appears as [NP] in attached schedule. *Norton Anthology of Short Fiction appears as [NA] in attached schedule. Assignments: There are two different types of writing assignments in this course. The first type will consist of short, comparatively informal pieces of writing that will be written either in class or as homework. Homework will be assigned daily in class, and those instructions will also be posted in the Homework folder on ANGEL. The second type will consist of persuasive, analytical papers. Each paper will be explained in a handout, distributed a couple weeks before it is due. Grading: Poetry Paper: 15% Drama Paper: 15% Short Story Paper: 25% Short Writing (in class & homework): 25% Participation: 20%

Course Policies: Participation & Attendance: The success of this course depends upon student engagement with the readings and writings as well as class discussions. It is important that you be attentive in class, bring your text every day, and chip in during our conversations about texts and ideas. English is a field based on interpretation, which means that we wont all agree all the timeand thats part of the beauty of it. Class discussion is an opportunity for you to share your perspective, collaborate with others, and be exposed to new ideas. So long as we can disagree respectfully, well be in good shape. You have to be here (mentally and physically) in order to participate, however, so if youre texting, sleeping, talking to neighbors, or otherwise demonstrating that youre mentally absent, your participation grade will be negatively impacted. Likewise, for every absence after three, your participation grade will be lowered 0.3 (e.g. from a 3. 5 to a 3.2). Late Papers: For each day a paper is late, it will receive a 0.2 grade deduction. You may send your paper to me in the body of an e-mail and as an attachment to forestall the accumulation of this deduction. Computers: Theyre distracting to you and the people around youthe minute you lose interest in class conversation, its too tempting to check your facebook page, scan the news, or update your amazon wish list. Therefore, all computers (and phones) need to be stowed away during class time. Practice your manual notetaking skills instead.

ENG 210-006 Sears Spring 2011 E-mailing: I will respond to your e-mails in as timely a manner as possible, and I expect you to do me the same courtesy. However, please note that you should not expect immediate responses to e-mails sent at three in the morning or 15 minutes before class. Similarly, I will not reply to e-mails asking me to read your rough draft the day before a paper is due. Academic Honesty: Every student is expected to submit his/her own original work in this course and at the university. Submitting someone elses work as your own, turning in a paper you downloaded from the internet, using sources without citing them, and allowing someone else to submit your work as his/her own are all forms of academic dishonesty (plagiarism). If a proven instance of plagiarism occurs in this course, the student may fail the assignment, receive a grade deduction, and/or fail the course entirely, as deemed appropriate by the instructor. If a student fails the course as a result of plagiarism, a letter of notification will be sent by the instructor to the dean of the students college. Please visit the MSU Ombudsmans website (the Academic Honesty page) for further information on the universitys definitions of and policies concerning plagiarism: https://www.msu.edu/unit/ombud/honestylinks.html Students with disabilities: If you have a documented disability that will affect your performance in this course, please let me know as soon as possible so that we can talk about accommodations. You should also contact the Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities. You can contact them in person, in 120 Bessey, or by phone at 353-9642 (voice) or 355-1293 (TTY). Resources for Students: The Writing Center: 300 Bessey Hall. http://writing.msu.edu/ ESL Writing Lab: In the English Language Center in A714 Wells Hall. http://elc.msu.edu/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=171&Itemid=27 Learning Resource Center: 202 Bessey Hall. http://www.msu.edu/user/lrc/

ENG 210-006 Sears Spring 2011 Date T, 1/11 Th, 1/12 Reading Due NP, pp. 1-15 Tone Blake, London (33) Tobin, The Clock (39) Hayden, Those Winter Sundays (49) Adair, God to the Serpent (56) Speaker Dickey, The Leap (185-86) Cofer, The Changeling (80-1) Plath, Lady Lazarus (565-67) Situation/Setting Wheatley, On Being Brought from Africa to America (415) Browning, Porphyrias Lover (529-531) Language Jarrell, The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner (178) Williams, The Dance (246) cummings, [in Just-] (147) Rich, Aunt Jennifers Tigers (36) Form Wordsworth, Nuns Fret Not (259) Millay, [I shall forget you presently, my dear] (269) Buson, [Coolness] (393) Seifu, [The faces of dolls] (394) Knight, [Eastern guard tower] (396) Wright, [In the falling snow] (396) The Whole Text Olds, The Victims (240) Rich, Diving into the Wreck (193-95) Stafford, Traveling Through the Dark [ANGEL] NONE - TALKING ABOUT WRITING IN CLASS NO CLASS PAPER CONFERENCES Writing Due

T, 1/18

Th, 1/20 T, 1/25

Th, 1/27

T, 2/1

Th, 2/3 T, 2/8

Poem selection due (ANGEL)

ENG 210-006 Sears Spring 2011 Th, 2/10 T, 2/15 Th, 2/17 T, 2/22 Th, 2/24 T, 3/1 Th, 3/3 T, 3/15 Th, 3/17 T, 3/22 Th, 3/24 T, 3/29 Th, 3/31 T, 4/5 Th, 4/7 NO CLASS PAPER CONFERENCES No reading Intro to Shakespeare Merchant of Venice, Act 1 Merchant of Venice, Act 2 Merchant of Venice, Acts 3 & 4 Merchant of Venice, Act 5 No reading Intro to short fiction Theme Cheever, The Enormous Radio (101-09) Carver, Cathedral (75-85) Point of View Warren, Blackberry Winter (783-98) Singer, Gimpel the Fool (693-703) Character/ization OBrien, The Things They Carried (603-15) Walker, Everyday Use (776-82) Language & Imagery Cather, Pauls Case (86-100) Hemingway, Hills Like White Elephants (335-39) Setting Le Guin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas (454-58) OConnor, A Good Man is Hard to Find (616-27) Plot Bierce, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge (51-57) Gender Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper (302-13) Kincaid, Girl (429-30) Race/Culture Ellison, King of the Bingo Game (228-235) Tan, Rules of the Game (712-19) Poetry Paper Due

Drama Paper Due

Poetry Paper revisions due

Drama Paper revisions due

ENG 210-006 Sears Spring 2011 T, 4/12 Th, 4/14 T, 4/19 Th, 4/21 T, 4/26 Th, 4/28 Th, 5/5 Class Faulkner, A Rose for Emily (262-68) Danticat, A Wall of Fire Rising (207-18) Style & Genre Marquez, The Handomest Drowned Man in the World (297-301) Hawthorne, Young Goodman Brown (325-34) Narrative Reliability Poe, The Cask of Amontillado (ANGEL) Chesnutt, Daves Neckliss (ANGEL) Humor Twain, Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog (ANGEL) Sedaris, from Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk (ANGEL) No Class Paper Conferences No Class Paper Conferences Short story selection due (ANGEL)

Short Story Projects Due