COURSE INFORMATION SHEET

FALL 2009

COURSE NUMBER AND TITLE: ENGL 2326 American Literature 

A survey of readings in American Poetry, short fiction, essays and novels; textual analysis and critical thinking. Prerequisite: Passing grade in English 1301. 

Concise Anthology of American Literature 6^th ed. Eds.George McMichael et.al. Prentice Hall, 2001. (ISBN#: 0-13-193792-8) [**You can also use the 5th edition ISBN# 0-13-028941-8]      

Flash/thumb drive

COURSE WEBSITE:
You will be required to access Moodle.  You will use your WebAdvisor login and password. If you do not have a WebAdvisor login, the Distance Education office will contact you with that information before the first day of class. 

CONTACT INFORMATION:
Use the email above to communicate with the instructor.  All email messages will be answered as soon as possible, not to exceed 24 hours, during the business week. 

If you have a documented disability which will make it difficult for you to carry out classwork as outlined and wish to request reasonable accommodations, please notify me and the Support Services Office within the first two (2) weeks of the semester. For more information, call or visit the Support Services Office in the Auxiliary Services Building at (956) 364-4520. 

Assignments from this course are subject to being archived for general education assessment. Procedures will follow protocols as prescribed by the research guidelines of the Association for Institutional Research               

ENGL 2326 introduces students to critical thinking, close, analytical, college-level reading of various American authors in different genres from early to present times and to the composition of critical analyses and other shorter writings in response to that reading. Students will employ the most basic methods of library research, participate in group discussions and activities, document research sources, accommodate cultural diversities in written communication, and proofread written documents.  

Students will be required to search the internet to find critical essays and other articles relevant to readings from the designated textbook enabling them to compose essays that demonstrate a grasp of literature from the past and the ability to connect that literature to current events. Students will share these resources/essays via the Discussion Board allowing commentary by both classmates and the instructor. The instructor will provide links to articles and critical essays similar to those the student will be expected to locate. All of this material will play as great if not greater role in the class than the textbook itself. We will discuss this at length. Ask questions!!!! 

The Literature of Colonial America 
The Literature of Reason and Revolution
The Age of Romanticism
The Age of Realism
Twentieth-Century Literature 

During class, you should be actively engaged in reading, listening, speaking, note-taking, annotation, writing and discussion assignments.  One of the most effective ways of ensuring these activities take place is to require you to keep a Writer’s Portfolio as evidence of active and successful participation in the class and the assignments.  The portfolio may contain the following:

1. 5 essays - one for each literary period covered
2. Fianl exam essay

Your active participation in the class is expected.  After a prewriting assignment designed to stimulate your thinking about a topic, you will be asked to present their best insights to the full class for further discussion.

You may be asked to exchange early drafts of your paper with others.  You will read the other papers and respond with comments about anything you don’t understand or would like the writer to elaborate more fully about.  (This activity not only helps students to discover possibilities for further development, it also reinforces the crucial habit of formulating questions while reading and writing.)

GRADING POLICY:
Daily assignments and first drafts will ask you to explore different ways to produce writing on paper. I will comment on the papers on the discussion board with suggestions for revisions. These comments will be made to the group sometimes and on an individual basis when necessary. Students are encouraged to ask questions both on the discussion board for all to share in both question and answer or via email if they would rather remain anonymous. Here again, your willingness to engage in the community discussion counts toward you participation grade. At the end of the semester you will submit a portfolio which includes copies of the “final,” polished revisions of your essays. Your papers must be typed, double-spaced, and formatted according to MLA guidelines. 

This system of grading rewards you for timely, serious effort on daily assignments and in workshops. It gives extra weight to your highest level of achievement near the end of the semester. It does not penalize you for mistakes and experiments that go wrong, if you learn from the mistakes how to produce good finished work. In fact, this system assumes that finished, effective communication is often the product of a very messy process in creation, in which you take risks, follow false trails, make lots of mistakes, go back and start over again. This system encourages you to engage in the recursive and sometimes disordered process of becoming a productive and fluent writer. Early in the semester we will arrive at an understanding of the standards by which our writing is judged, both within the community of our class and within the larger public audience of readers. The course assumes that your final essays will also observe the conventions of grammar, spelling, and punctuation of “standard written English.” If you have trouble with these conventions, you will be able to get help from me and your classmates.

Plagiarism:  Don’t do it.  If you are afraid  you are plagiarizing, talk to me and we will make sure you don't do it.   Any plagiarism and failure to credit your sources properly (including failure to paraphrase appropriately) will result in a failing essay grade.  If you are suspected of plagiarism, you will be required to bring all sources and/or works cited to defend your method of documentation.  If you cannot successfully defend your methods, you will automatically fail this course. 

Plagiarism Statement:  "The attempt of any student to present as his or her own work that which he or she has not produced is regarded by the faculty and administration as a serious offense. Students are considered to have cheated if they copy the work of another during an examination or turn in a paper or an assignment written, in whole or in part, by someone else. Students are guilty of plagiarism, intentional or not, if they copy material from books, magazines, or other sources or if they paraphrase ideas from such sources without acknowledging them. Students guilty of, or assisting others in, either cheating or plagiarism on an assignment, quiz, or examination may receive a grade of F for the course involved."

• 5 Essays (4-5 pages) over each literary period, all of which will require research and documentation.   Details of each assignment will be posted and we will discuss them. The student is responsible to ask questions if they do not understand. All essays will be prepared in MLA format.
  

• Participation/Discussion and Group Work: Students will submit a first draft of each essay, so we can all see what eveyone is doing.  Then everyone will submit a final revised version.  If students elect to resubmit the original draft, they will be free to do so.  Shorter writing samples will reinforce the concepts we will cover in this course.  These assignments will be in response to a variety of writing prompts; each will build on the other to help you with your longer writing assignments. You will be asked to respond to discussion questions posted by the instructor each week. Your response to the instructors question should be at least 1-2 well developed paragraphs in length.  In addition, you must respond to at least two of your classmate’s postings, and these should be at least 2-3 well-developed sentences in length. So you should have a total of at least four postings to the discussion forum per week.  This work counts toward your participation grade, which constitutes 20% of the course credit.  The discussion are designed to allow you to engage with the readings, and connect with the class community: I think you will find this the most enjoyable aspect of the course.
  

• Final Exam Essay--We will discuss the Final Exam and instructor will post a detailed assignment

Students will be permitted/expected to rewrite all essays before submitting the portfolio for evaluation at semester’s end. Course grade will reflect the quality of work you are doing at term’s end. This means specifically that the instructor will evaluate the portfolio holistically in an attempt to assess a grade that reflects the student's ability to answer in writing the fundamental question “what does the literature writer say, and why do we care?” demonstrating not only familiarity with the literature at hand but the ability to think critically and connect this literature to our everyday lives. Understand that failure to read the assigned texts as well as what critics (those who have studied and written about the assigned readings) will result in failure of the couse.  This is a reading intensive course and if you do not spend the necessary time and if this is not reflected in your writings, you will not pass the class.  If you have questions about this, please ask and I will explain so as to avoid misunderstanding. 

Portfolio: During the semester, all work will be compiled into a portfolio. This compilation will represent the total effort put forward during the semester, including revisions and rewrites of all papers. The instructor will evaluate this portfolio before assigning the final grade.  We will discuss this at length during the semester, so pay attention. Ask questions !!!!

Changes in course guide and course schedule: Instructor will provide a partial reading list at the beginning of the semester as well as a tentative schedule for the class. The inevitable changes in this course guide and in the course schedule will be announced and agreed upon by the class.

Being a Responsible Netizen (citizen on the 'net)
Links to Guides and Explanations

The absence of "face-to-face" interactions in WWW-based courses is not a license to ignore guidelines for respectful, responsible, ethical behavior. In addition to all of the normal rules for interacting with others, you'll want to be familiar with the particular rules of etiquette for online interactions (Netiquette). We will expect that you will be familiar with one or more of the sites listed below and that you will add "netiquette" to your already well-developed respectful demeanor.

Individuals who intentionally act in ways that are not respectful or ethical will lose their privilege to attend this online class, just as they would not be welcome in a regular classroom.