English 200s: World, British or American Literature
Southeastern
Department of English
Professor: Dr.
Whitton
Office: DVickers 231
Phone: 549-2413
(no calls returned)
E-mail: nwhitton@selu.edu
Blackboard: http://blackboard.selu.edu/
Turn It In: http://www.turnitin.com/
Faculty Website: http://www.selu.edu/Academics/Faculty/nwhitton/
(see faculty website or BB for office hours which are updated each semester)
Teacher Contract: I want you to do well in this class. I commit to
interesting you in the subjects of reading and writing and to helping you
succeed in this course. I look forward to getting to know you.
Placement: Students must have completed English 102 or 122H with
a P or have a minimum combined ACT English and Composite score of 65 and an
advanced-standing examination. For an
internet course, students are required to be self-starters because you will
have to cover a lot of material on your own.
I would not consider taking this course unless you have above a 24 on
the verbal section of the ACT and received an “A” or “B” in English 101 and
102.
Course Policies and Syllabus Validation: All students must read and validate the syllabus in
the course information area of Blackboard.
Course Description: The English 200s are designed to advance the
students= skills in writing critical essays and to improve
their analytical reading skills, including, but not limited to, training in
some basic literary devices (i.e. genre, plot, characterization, etc.). Class discussion is intended to raise
important themes and issuesBthose basic to a broad and liberal educationBconnecting many of these works, showing that thematic
issues, while they may change on the surface, often remain basic in depth. This course will acquaint students with the
major prose, poetry and drama of a particular region of literature – 230
(World), 231 (English), 232 (American) and with the historical context from
which they emerged.
Teacher Expectations: When you finish this class, I hope that you will have a better
appreciation for reading and literature. All the writers that we will cover
this semester wrote because they wanted to change your life. They wanted to
communicate what they were feeling in hopes that it would reach other people,
not so that they would be required reading in a college literature class. You
may not like all of the selections that we read this semester, but I hope that
you can find several that interest you. We will focus on your reading and
interpretation skills this semester with only one major writing assignment. I
will want each of you to relate what we do in this course to your daily lives.
Required Materials: Rental Reader
High Speed Internet Access
Turnitin.com
Account for Essay
Check
Email and Blackboard Daily
Microsoft
Word
Attendance: Attendance will be based on your participation in
virtual classroom activities. I will not
drop you for non-attendance or non-participation. It is your responsibility to withdraw. Please
see or email me before dropping. All
students who drop internet classes are placed on file in the English
Department. Because space in internet
classes is limited, I take dropping this course very seriously. There is always a waiting list, so please
think carefully before giving up the spot that you have taken away from another
student.
Grading: Your grade will be based on reading quizzes, your
participation on the Blackboard discussion board, a midterm and final exam, and
a paper. I expect everyone to get an A in the course since you have
unlimited extra credit opportunities and since much of your grade is determined
by participation. You can bring your paper by my office during the semester as
often as you like for help and revision. See the University Calendar or
Blackboard for the withdrawal deadline.
Grading
Scale: Ten point grading scale; under
a 60 is an “F.”
Extra Credit: I want to encourage you to attend cultural events
held at SLU. If you attend an approved event, write a one page description of
what you saw and turn it in, you will receive extra credit. I do not drop any
of your grades, but I will add extra credit to your average at the end of the
semester. There is no limit on the
number of activities that you can attend and turn in. For each assignment, you
will receive one point that will be added to your final average. Extra credit
can raise your grade by one letter.
Late Work: Late work will not be accepted and will result in a
zero. You will have all of your deadlines on the first day of class. Taking an
internet class requires that you do independent learning, so you will not be
reminded of every assignment. You will have work every week and should plan to
check Blackboard as part of your daily routine.
Classroom Decorum: Free discussion,
inquiry, and expression are encouraged in this class. Classroom behavior that
interferes with either (a) the instructor’s ability to conduct the class or (b)
the ability of students to benefit from the instruction is not acceptable.
Examples may include routinely entering class late or departing early; use of
beepers, cellular telephones, or other electronic devices; repeatedly talking
in class without being recognized; talking while others are speaking; or
arguing in a way that is perceived as “crossing the civility line.” In the
event of a situation where a student legitimately needs to carry a
beeper/cellular telephone to class, prior notice and approval of the instructor
is required.” Classroom behavior which is deemed inappropriate and cannot be
resolved by the student and the faculty member may be referred to the Office of
Judicial Affairs for administrative or disciplinary review as per the Code of
Student Conduct which may be found at http://www.selu.edu/admin/stu_affairs/handbook/
.
Academic Integrity: Students are expected to maintain the highest
standards of academic integrity. Behavior that violates these standards is not
acceptable. Examples are the use of unauthorized material, communication with
fellow students during an examination, attempting to benefit from the work of
another student and similar behavior that defeats the intent of an examination
or other class work. Cheating on examinations, plagiarism, improper
acknowledgment of sources in essays and the use of a single essay or paper in
more than one course without permission are considered very serious offenses
and shall be grounds for disciplinary action as outlined in the current General
Catalogue.
Use of Turnitin.com (Originality checker): Students agree by taking this course that all required
papers may be subject to submission for textual similarity to Turnitin.com for
the detection of plagiarism. All submitted papers will be included as source
documents in the Turnitin.com reference database solely for the purpose of
detecting plagiarism of such papers. Use of the Turnitin.com service is subject
to the Terms and Conditions of Use posted on the Turnitin.com website.
Email Policy:
E-mail is considered one of the official forms of communication at the
University. Requests to substitute non-Southeastern e-mail addresses for
purposes of official communication will not be honored. With an internet course, you will be expected
to check email and Blackboard every day. I
cannot answer emails sent from non-SLU email addresses.
On-Campus Involvement: You will not
be required to meet with me in person this semester. Many students take
internet courses because they do not want to have to travel to campus; however,
students are encouraged to meet with me to go over their papers. I will not
comment on papers via email. There are also technical problems that I cannot
solve via email. So, if you are having trouble with Blackboard or Turnitin, I may ask you to come to campus. I am in my
office far more than the required ten hours a week, so that I can be available
to you. Your midterm and final exam will be online.
Off-Campus Involvement: The University system in America uses hours to
delineate class requirements. Thus, a three-hour course means that a student is
expected to spend three hours per week in class and six hours working on the
requirements for that course outside of class. That is why the traditional
course load per semester is 15 hours (15 hours in class + 30 hours outside of
class = a full time job of 45 hours). Since we do not have in-class hours, you
should expect to spend about nine hours each week for this course. Some weeks
you will finish your assignments in much less time, however you should use your
extra time to work on your essay. Internet classes are not designed for
students who do not have time for college. In fact, most students find that
Internet classes take up more time than traditional classes.
Class Schedule: Each week
in this course, you will be responsible for reading the assigned sections,
completing reading quizzes and participating in online classroom discussion.
The reading schedule and assignments for the semester will be posted in
Blackboard. The quizzes will be posted weekly and must be completed by
Wednesday along with your first discussion board post. You will be expected to
participate in the discussion board on a daily basis.
Writing Center: Students are invited to make use of services provided by the SLU
Writing Center at 383 DVickers, where trained student
writing consultants offer individual help and tutoring on a full range of
writing topics and issues. The Writing Center tutors have a copy of our paper
assignment and are happy to help. If you complete an appointment with the
Writing Center, please provide proof when you turn in your essay. Getting help
on your paper will improve your final grade.
Writing Assignment: Your major writing assignment this semester will be to
choose one author from the syllabus to explore in depth. This paper will be a short analysis of a
specific area of the author’s work or life. You are not to write a biography of
the writer or an encyclopedia-type description; instead, you are expected to
analyze a specific topic and write an argumentative essay. If you are having
trouble coming up with a topic, please come by my office and I will provide you
with ideas. All papers must be in MLA format as covered in English 102. The paper must have at least three
print-based sources (not internet).
Papers should be 5-7 pages, not including Works Cited. You should email me your proposed topic
before getting started. You will be required to turn in a complete rough draft
of at least 3 full pages in 12 pt Times New Roman font. If your rough draft is incomplete, you will
be docked two letter grades. If you do not turn in a rough draft then
your final grade will be dropped two letter grades. The rough draft is very important for
getting a good grade on the essay because you will be able to improve it before
the final is due. You will also be
required to submit your essay to http://www.turnitin.com/. If you are guilty of plagiarism, see academic
integrity statement above. You will use the English Department grading rubric
to determine your grade for this essay.
Weekly Assignments: Weekly assignments will be
submitted through Blackboard. If you
have problems with an assignment or need help, feel free to email me or set up
an appointment in my office or in the Blackboard chat space. Quizzes and tests will be posted in the
assignment section. We will use the discussion board to interpret each reading.
Much of your work in the course will be independent, so if you need extra help
to go over something that you have read, I would take this course in person or
make a standing appointment to meet with me each week.
Weekly Quizzes: The weekly quizzes are short fact-based quizzes on the selections for
that week, author biographies and author selections. They must be completed by
Wednesday of each week. After that time, they will not be available. If you
have technical issues with a quiz, you will need to email me or come by my
office during office hours. All quizzes are closed book. You should take them
without any notes, help from the internet, or help for classmates. Please note
that the quizzes make up a small portion of your final average. Doing poorly on
one or two quizzes will not hurt your grade. Please do not drop this course
because of your grade without emailing me. Students in the past have dropped
the class because they scored poorly on a quiz, even though their average was
an A. Once you drop the course, I cannot have you reinstated.
Discussion Board: Since we do not have the luxury of in-class discussion, we will use
online resources to make sure that we understand the readings each week. You
will be expected to check-in with your classmates on a daily basis during the
semester. Your discussion board entries will be graded on their content,
length, and care. After you finish the reading, you should post a response
entry on the discussion board for that author by Wednesday of the assigned
reading week. In your response, you should raise issues about the author’s life
and their work. You should also point out how the piece of writing does/does
not relate to your own life and current situation. Finally, you should offer
several questions for discussion with classmates. You will not receive credit
for entries that amount to, “It was great. I liked it.” or “That was the worst
thing that I have ever read. I hated it.” Neither of these entries tells us
anything about the piece or why the reader has made this assessment. Make sure
that you spell check each entry before posting (note that Blackboard includes
this option on the discussion board). The minimum length requirement for the
initial response is 300 words. If your post is shorter than this or does not include
the required discussion questions, it will receive no credit. Once you have posted your first entry, you should check
back to read what your classmates have to say and to see if you can answer
their discussion questions. Your conversation and continued postings improve
your Blackboard grade as long as they are substantive and add to the
discussion. You must answer at least 3 questions from 3 different classmates to
receive credit for your responses. Additional responses will improve your
discussion board grade. For the most part, I will let you hash things out
without interfering, but will offer guiding questions
if we get off track. You will be graded on your entries at the midterm and end
of the semester.
Midterm and Final Exam: Your midterm and final exam will also be taken online
in Blackboard. Like the quizzes, these exams are to be closed book. Instead of
going into detail, as the quizzes do, these tests will be designed to check
your overall recall of authors and their work. You will be asked to identify
key quotes from the selections that we have read and write an essay that
summarizes your learning. The final exam will not be cumulative. It will cover
only the works from the second half of the semester.
Help: Finally,
if you need any help with anything this semester, please do not hesitate to
ask. I am here to make sure that you do well in this course.