Readings
Dante, Inferno
Sappho, Poems
Nguyen Du, The Tale of Kieu
Langton, The Dante Game
Pearl, The Dante Club
Farah, Links
Jong, Sappho's Leap
Dore's Illustrations to Dante's Divine Comedy
Birk, Dante's Inferno
Greene, The Quiet American
Bao Ninh, The Sorrow of War

Writings
    Each student will write four short expository essays, two-and-a-half to three pages long, one slightly longer research paper, about five pages long; the research essay will involve at least five secondary sources.  Each essay will be typed and double-spaced; include the following information: your name, English 111, the section number, the date, the number of the paper, and the revision number. As suggested by the last item in the preceding sentence, each paper may be revised and re-submitted. If the paper has indeed been improved, its grade will probably be raised. With few exceptions, revised essays will not be raised more than a single grade; most, if improved, will be raised by one-third or one-half of a grade. The only limits to the number of times a student might re-write an essay are the limits of the term itself and the limits of my own capacity for reading essays.
    For the first portion of the semester, we will focus on Dante and spin-offs of his Inferno; for the remainder of the term, we will focus on versions of Sappho and Nguyen Du.

Student Objectives:
    The student will demonstrate an ability to write clear expository prose relatively free of grammatical and stylistic problems; to read with understanding of meaning and structure; and to use the library well as evidenced in a short research paper documented according to MLA standards.

Other Matters
Each student is expected to attend each class and be prepared to discuss the assigned readings and writings. If you must miss class, please contact me.

My desk is in the Humanities Office, Room 252 of the Bisdorf Building. The office telephone number is 845-6241; my home number is 281-1323. My campus e-mail address is: GVathing@nvcc.edu; my home e-mail address is: TVathing@aol.com.
 
 

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