Course Structure and Assignments
I've divided the term up into two deadlines a week, however instead of UC's typical Tuesday/Thursday schedule, I've opted for Tuesday/Friday, which will give students a little more balanced time betwen classes for reading and writing. On these deadline days one or two students will be handing in brief critical responses to the day's readings. They'll also be responsible for posting one or two questions or observations (rooted in their responses) that will serve as a jumping-off point for our discussions of the readings (a few generic examples: "What does X's decision in chapter 4 reveal about his character?," "What do the events depicted in today's readings — specifically X and Y — demonstrate about early 20th century race relations in the US?," "Is X truly a hero after his actions at the end of the book or is he just a cheater?").
The responses themselves should be a minimum of 800 words and offer a critical close reading of the day's texts, focusing on either big-picture facets of the book at hand (i.e. character and/or plot development) or their relation to larger abstract cultural ideas (i.e. race, gender, class, etc.) or values (i.e. honor, heroism, fair play). You should be making an argument , and therefore analyzing specific evidence from the readings and dealing with details, rather than hovering generally over the surface of the narrative. These responses aren't a place for point-by-point recaps of the plot (presume the reader — namely, me — is familiar with the book and doesn't need to have its story retold to him), personal anecdotes ("this reminds me of a story my grandfather once told me..."), thumbs up/thumbs down book reviews ("I like this book a lot because..."), or filler not directly related to the text under discussion. When responding to poetry, you'll choose one poem and write a close-reading analysis of it. I've provided you with tools and pointers to help you both make effective arguments and interpret poetry (available in the right-hand sidebar) and I welcome and questions you might have.
Each student will turn in two of these responses during the semester, and they'll have equivalent weight to a midterm essay/exam (approximately 1/3 of the final grade). You'll also be expected to take part in our online discussions of the readings, and if participation is lagging, there will likely be quizzes — these will account for approximately 1/3 of your grade, and the remainder will come from your final essay.
Participation
The success or failure of this class — both individually and as a whole — will be largely determined by how actively you take part in it, and that's precisely why so large a proportion of your grade goes to class participation. Unlike real-world classes, you can't just sit in the back of the classroom and not say anything all term, and I've tried to design this class in such a way that you'll actually be doing quite a bit of work without it seeming like work, namely by making online commenting (something that comes very naturally to all of us in this highly-wired world) the main mechanism of participation. This is also why we'll be using a combination of this blog and Facebook as the main venues for our class, versus Blackboard (which, quite frankly, is awful and outdated software that does nothing to facilitate online discussion). If you're not on Facebook, then sign up and welcome to the 21st century! If you are on Facebook and are afraid about your friends making fun of you because you're talking about literature online, then fear not, our class group is private and your interactions will be invisible from anyone other than your classmates.
It's very easy to forget about a class or its responsibilities when you're not actually showing up in a classroom a few times a week, but I want to encourage you to stick with it. The readings should actually be fun (I hope) and the work will be relatively gentle. I'll warn you in advance that I don't give incompletes, so all work for the class must be done by the grade deadline in late April. If you aren't taking part in the class discussions, you'll be missing a major component of your coursework and therefore your final performance will suffer greatly.
The responses themselves should be a minimum of 800 words and offer a critical close reading of the day's texts, focusing on either big-picture facets of the book at hand (i.e. character and/or plot development) or their relation to larger abstract cultural ideas (i.e. race, gender, class, etc.) or values (i.e. honor, heroism, fair play). You should be making an argument , and therefore analyzing specific evidence from the readings and dealing with details, rather than hovering generally over the surface of the narrative. These responses aren't a place for point-by-point recaps of the plot (presume the reader — namely, me — is familiar with the book and doesn't need to have its story retold to him), personal anecdotes ("this reminds me of a story my grandfather once told me..."), thumbs up/thumbs down book reviews ("I like this book a lot because..."), or filler not directly related to the text under discussion. When responding to poetry, you'll choose one poem and write a close-reading analysis of it. I've provided you with tools and pointers to help you both make effective arguments and interpret poetry (available in the right-hand sidebar) and I welcome and questions you might have.
Each student will turn in two of these responses during the semester, and they'll have equivalent weight to a midterm essay/exam (approximately 1/3 of the final grade). You'll also be expected to take part in our online discussions of the readings, and if participation is lagging, there will likely be quizzes — these will account for approximately 1/3 of your grade, and the remainder will come from your final essay.
Participation
The success or failure of this class — both individually and as a whole — will be largely determined by how actively you take part in it, and that's precisely why so large a proportion of your grade goes to class participation. Unlike real-world classes, you can't just sit in the back of the classroom and not say anything all term, and I've tried to design this class in such a way that you'll actually be doing quite a bit of work without it seeming like work, namely by making online commenting (something that comes very naturally to all of us in this highly-wired world) the main mechanism of participation. This is also why we'll be using a combination of this blog and Facebook as the main venues for our class, versus Blackboard (which, quite frankly, is awful and outdated software that does nothing to facilitate online discussion). If you're not on Facebook, then sign up and welcome to the 21st century! If you are on Facebook and are afraid about your friends making fun of you because you're talking about literature online, then fear not, our class group is private and your interactions will be invisible from anyone other than your classmates.
It's very easy to forget about a class or its responsibilities when you're not actually showing up in a classroom a few times a week, but I want to encourage you to stick with it. The readings should actually be fun (I hope) and the work will be relatively gentle. I'll warn you in advance that I don't give incompletes, so all work for the class must be done by the grade deadline in late April. If you aren't taking part in the class discussions, you'll be missing a major component of your coursework and therefore your final performance will suffer greatly.
The Writing Center
The Writing Center is a valuable and free resource available to all UC students. Writing Fellows are available to help students at all stages of the writing process from brainstorming to drafting, as well as with editing essays. I strongly encourage you to have a tutor review all the writing you do for this course. Please visit their website for hours of operation, writing resources and more information.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism, defined as “the appropriation of information, ideas, or the language of other persons or writers and the submission of them as one's own to satisfy the requirements of a course,” can take many guises, including cutting-and-pasting information found on the web, failing to properly cite sources or fabricating them entirely. Any student found guilty of plagiarism, in any form, will automatically fail this course and face official disciplinary action, putting your academic future on very shaky ground.
Special Needs Statement
Paper Formats
All formal writing handed in for this class (i.e. your two response papers and final essay) must be in proper MLA format (including a full header, in-text citations and [for the final essay only] a works cited list), use double-spaced 12-point Times New Roman (or a similar serif font), and be numbered. Online responses need not adhere to these conventions (save in-text citations). Late work will be penalized.
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