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Students taking this
course should read all the material on this syllabus and information page
(and the links related to it), as well as the material on the right side of
my photograph on my home page. The material is pertinent to your course with
me, and you will be responsible for its content.
Texts
Chopin, Kate. The Awakening. Penguin Editiion. ISBN: 9780140481340.
Dickinson, Emily. Final Harvest: Emily Dickinson's Poems. Little, Brown Edition. ISBN: 9780316184151.
Hacker, Diana. The Bedford Handbook. Bedford/St. Martin's. Eighth Edition. ISBN: 9780312544308.
Shakespeare, William. Hamlet. Washington Square Edition. ISBN: 9780743477123.
Sophocles. The Theban Plays. Penguin Edition. ISBN: 9780140440038.
Wright, Richard. Native Son. Harper Edition. ISBN: 9780060929804.
Course
Description
Honors English 111, 020A, is
an in-depth course in critical reading, thinking, and writing. Due to its
nature, this course will not be lecture-driven; rather, I will encourage
you to express your opinions about the literature we will be reading—all of
it provocative. During our discussions, you may say anything about that literature as long
as you can support your views and as long as your comments are meant to help us as an academic community to come to a better understanding of the works. In addition, the writing for the course will allow you to
form your own interpretations of these books and to argue that your views
are valid. You will read the texts thoughtfully and use specifics from them
to create convincing arguments. In addition, we will study research
skills to prepare you to document these papers. And, by the way, we'll
also have some fun.
Course
Objectives
Upon successful
completion of this course, you should be able to accomplish the following
tasks:
Placement Testto create thoughtful, intelligent essays about the topics assigned in class to create a firm thesis statement that reflects an opinion about a topic to support a thesis with specific facts and opinions, connected logically to write clear, complete sentences consistently throughout an essay to use standard grammar and American usage consistently to document research material according to the Modern Language Association (MLA) guidelines
To be eligible for this class, you should have taken an English placement test and been specifically recommended for Honors English 111. In addition, you should have also filled out an application to allow you to take honors courses. In this process, you should have come into contact with Professor Shon Grant, the honors coordinator, or Ms. Marjorie Kinnaman, the honors counselor. If you have not been recommended for the class by way of the placement test, or if you have not talked with either of these persons, you should see me after the first class.
Evaluation
I will evaluate you in two ways: through essays and quizzes. You will write five
essays this semester. These will develop the topics you choose from the literature
under discussion. (I will, however, make suggestions about the scope of those
topics.) For each paper, you will create a firm thesis that expresses an opinion
about your topic, and then you will use specific passages from the texts to
support the thesis. The first few papers will be a minimum of one thousand words; the last two will run approximately twelve hundred words. Each paper will be documented according to standard Modern Language Association (MLA) format. You will have
approximately three weeks to write each paper, and each must be typed. Under normal conditions, I will not accept your papers via email. You should submit hard copies. The quizzes will be based on the readings and discussions in class. Approximately eighty percent of your evaluation will be based on the essays, approximately twenty percent on the quizzes.
Conferences
For each essay,
you will want to show me a thesis and stages of the rough draft. I will
then make suggestions to help you improve the essay. After you have completed
each paper, I will evaluate and return it. You should then study my remarks,
look up the errors in the handbook, and then, if you wish, arrange a conference
with me to discuss your response to my evaluation. The first meetings,
which will take place in class before the paper is due, are required; a
conference after the essay has been evaluated is not required. I will leave that to your discretion. An evaluated
essay may be revised but not for a different grade.
The
Readings
The following is a list
of readings, along with the weeks they should be ready for discussion. For the major works, I have put the writer's name, followed by the work to be discussed; for instance, Sophocles: Oedipus the King. You should have read that work (or a substantial part of it) the week that it is due. If
no writer's name appears before the page number, it refers to the Hacker text,
the handbook for the course.
8/22 |
Introduction to the course; Sophocles: Oedipus the King; Explore and Plan; then Rough out a First Draft: 2-35 |
|---|---|
8/29 |
Sophocles: Oedipus, continued. Make Global Revisions; then Revise Sentences: 35-61 |
9/5 |
Sophocles: Antigone. Build Effective Paragraphs: 62-84; Repair Sentence Fragments: 226-234; Revise Run-on Sentences: 235-243 |
9/12 |
Sophocles: Oedipus at Colonus; Writing about Literature: 589-620; The Apostrophe: 387-391; Quotation Marks: 392-400; Integrating Information from Sources: 504-516 |
9/19 |
Shakespeare: Hamlet; Repair Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers: 160-169; Emphasize Key Ideas: 176-191; Balance Parallel Ideas: 147-151 |
9/26 |
Shakespeare: Hamlet, continued; Make Pronouns and Antecedents Agree: 256-262; Make Pronoun References Clear: 262-265 |
10/3 |
Shakespeare: Hamlet, concluded; Eliminate Distracting Shifts: 169-176; Provide Some Variety: 191-196; Tighten Wordy Sentences: 198-203 |
10/10 |
Dickinson: The following numbers refer not to pages but to the first number above each poem in your text: 43, 427, 447, 46, 542, 389, 116, 509, 322, 523 |
10/17 |
Dickinson, continued: 168, 11, 28, 95, 112, 525, 120, 202, 203, 403, 335, 130, 58; Choose Appropriate Language: 203-216; Find the Exact Words: 216-224; Numbers 413-415; Italics: 416-418 |
10/24 |
Dickinson, concluded: 39, 265, 307, 563, 7, 290, 209, 184, 177; Evaluating Sources: 462-478; Managing Information; Avoiding Plagiarism: 478-488 |
10/31 |
Chopin: The Awakening; MLA Documentation: 517-568; MLA Manuscript Format: Sample MLA Paper: 569-588 |
11/7 |
Chopin: The Awakening, continued |
11/14 |
Chopin: The Awakening, concluded |
11/21 |
Wright: Native Son |
| 11/28 | Wright: Native Son, continued |
12/5 |
Wright: Native Son, concluded |
| 12/12 | Final Exam Week |
The Essays
Click on this underlined link for your first essay . It will focus on a play by Sophocles; the essay is due at the beginning of class on 9/14. If you choose not to turn in the paper on that date, you may submit it as a late paper at the beginning of class on 9/19. Late papers are penalized one full letter grade; that is, instead of receiving a possible "A" for the paper, you are only able to receive a possible "B." All other grades for late papers will be reduced by the same margin.
Click on this underlined link for your second essay . It will deal with William Shakespeare's Hamlet. . That essay is due at the beginning of class on 10/5. The late date for the essay, with the same stipulations as mentioned above, is 10/12.
Click on this underlined link for your third essay . It will deal with the poetry of Emily Dickinson; that essay is due at the beginning of class on 11/2. Because I've given you an extra week to turn in this essay, there is no late date.
Click on this underlined link for your fourth essay. It will deal with Kate Chopin's novel The Awakening; that essay is due at the beginning of class on 11/16. The late date, with the same stipulations as mentioned above, is 11/21.
Click on this underlined link for your fifth essay. It will focus on Richard Wright's novel Native Son. That essay is
due at the beginning of class on 12/7. The late date, with the same stipulations as mentioned above, is 12/12.
