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Printable .pdf version of this page English 302: Introduction to English Studies All sections meet Tuesdays and Thursdays from 12:00-12:50 in Bryan 305
Textbooks and Required Materials
Contact Information Office hours are listed on the course web site: http://www.wsu.edu/~campbelld/engl302/index.html
English 302 The purpose of the course is to allow students to explore the content areas in the English Department by interpreting and responding to a range of texts, including poetry, fictional and nonfiction prose, images, film, and cultural artifacts. Its common theme is the act of interpretation and the ways in which interpretation is shaped by cultural, literary, and social conventions and, in turn, shapes our understanding of the world and the self. The goal of the course is for students to read and engage with an eclectic variety of texts—literary and nonliterary, canonical and noncanonical—and to create their own interpretive frameworks for making meaning. Interpretation is at the heart of everything we do, whether analyzing literature, understanding the appeal of Super Bowl ads or reality television, reading a battlefield letter from a Civil War soldier, trying to write a good poem, figuring out the ways in which texts imitate, resist, or speak intertextually to other texts, or seeing the ways in which cultural forces, including such features as social oppression and the pressures of the marketplace, shape authorial expression in various media. Although some principles of interpretation remain constant, issues of genre, discipline, and social context each contribute specific rules or constraints operating on the ways in which texts are read. Whether you plan to go to graduate school or law school, teach high school, become a creative writer or journalist, or pursue jobs outside of academia, learning to interpret documents from a range of fields and disciplines is important. In this course, you'll learn not only why interpretation is important to a liberal arts education but also how scholars approach the research and interpretation of texts, what significance this kind of study can have beyond academia, and how to write and read within different fields. Course Objectives At the end of the course, you should be able to do the following:
Course Structure English 302 is divided into five segments representing the content areas of the English major at WSU, and each three-week segment is taught by a different professor specializing in the field. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, you'll meet in Bryan 305 to hear the lecture, and on Friday afternoons, you'll meet in a smaller section of the class to discuss and write about what you have learned. Schedule Note: This schedule is subject to change; if you are absent, visit the course web site or check with an instructor or a classmate to see what you've missed. A list of readings and assignments for each segment of the course will be handed out in class and posted to WebCT. Also, the syllabus for each segment is available as a link.
COURSE POLICIES AND ASSIGNMENTS Attendance and Participation. To succeed in this course, you must attend both the lectures and the Friday discussion sections of the class. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, a sign-in sheet will be passed around for you to sign. Every Friday, you'll be asked either to write a short, graded in-class response or to take a quiz based on the lectures earlier in the week, and your success will depend upon your presence in class as well as your completion of the assigned readings. If you miss more than three Friday classes, you'll fail the course. Participation is expected in the discussion sections of the course, and part of your grade (at least 10%) depends on your active, enthusiastic, and well-informed participation in class. Students who leave either the lecture or the discussion class early without having informed the instructor of a reason will be counted as absent. Students who are more than 10 minutes late for class will be counted as absent unless they have informed the instructor of the reason for their lateness. WSU Statement on Disabilities. I am committed to providing assistance to help you be successful in this course. Reasonable accommodations are available for students with a documented disability. Please visit the Disability Resource Center (DRC) during the first two weeks of every semester to seek information or to qualify for accommodations. All accommodations MUST be approved through the DRC (Admin Annex Bldg, Rooms 205). Call 509 335 3417 to make an appointment with a disability counselor. www.drc.wsu.edu. Papers and Projects. You'll complete five projects or papers in this course, depending on the assignments given by the guest lecturers and instructors. Guidelines for assignments will be handed out in class and posted to WebCT. All out-of-class work must be typed, with citations following MLA style. For information, see the MLA Handbook or the Citing Sources link listed above. You have access to the Avery Microcomputer Laboratory (AML) as part of this course. Portfolio. By the end of the course, you will turn in a portfolio of writings showing your ability to interpret various kinds of texts. In addition, you may revise any two of the papers or projects in your portfolio and resubmit them for a different grade.These revised papers or projects will count more heavily (45%) toward your final grade than the unrevised papers. Make sure that you keep all the corrected papers handed back to you by your instructor. The papers you revise must be the original corrected versions handed back to you by your instructor. You may not print out a new copy of a paper and use that for the portfolio. Late Papers and Extensions. Late papers are penalized at the rate of one letter grade per class day late. A paper that would have received a "B" on Tuesday will receive a "C" if handed in on Thursday. If no paper is turned in within 4 class days (due date plus three more days), no credit will be given and a 0 will be averaged in for that part of your course grade. You have one 48-hour extension in this class. This extension means that your paper will be due without penalty on the next class day, which could be more than 48 hours if the next class day is a Tuesday. You do not have to give a reason for requesting this extension, but you must request it from your discussion section instructor ahead of time. You should save it for a true emergency, since no other extensions will be granted for illness, funerals, weddings, or any other reason. Quizzes and In-class Writings. On Fridays, you'll complete a quiz or an in-class writing based on the material assigned for that day and the information you learned on Tuesday and Thursday. Quizzes and in-class writings cannot be made up or completed outside of class, but the lowest quiz/in-class writing grade will be dropped at the end of the semester. Plagiarism Policy. Plagiarism is the unacknowledged use of someone else's words or ideas. This definition includes not only deliberately handing in someone else's work as your own but failing to cite your sources, including Web pages and Internet sources. Penalties for plagiarism range from an F on the paper to failing the course. If you turn in a plagiarized paper, at a minimum you will receive a grade of F (0 points). You will not be allowed to rewrite the paper, and the incident must be reported to the Office of Student Conduct (http://www.conduct.wsu.edu/academicIntegrity.asp). WSU Statement on Academic Integrity. As an institution of higher education, Washington State University is committed to principles of truth and academic honesty. All members of the University community share the responsibility for maintaining and supporting these principles. When a student enrolls in Washington State University, the student assumes an obligation to pursue academic endeavors in a manner consistent with the standards of academic integrity adopted by the University. To maintain the academic integrity of the community, the University cannot tolerate acts of academic dishonesty including any forms of cheating, plagiarism, or fabrication. |
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