Course Information: 3 credit hours Section 08 Fall 2013 M/W 11:30-12:50 P 231

ENGL 204.08 THEMATIC APPROACHES TO LITERATURE: WOMEN WRITERS

Instructor Information: Ms. Courtney King ceking12@svsu.edu Office Hours: M/W 10-11:30 & by appointment

COURSE DESCRIPTION This communication-intensive course will explore a spread of literature (novels, short stories, essays, and poems) written by women of different cultures, eras, and literary movements. We will discover what it means to be a woman writer and how wide the scope of this often underrepresented literature truly is. Prerequisite: All reading and writing Basic Skills requirements must be completed before enrolling in this course. COURSE OUTCOMES By the end of this course students should be able to: Understand and explain how elements like plot, characterization, and figurative language contribute to the meaning of various works of literature. Compare and contrast several different works in terms of their treatment of a theme. Express their ideas about the texts we will read, both in writing and in conversations with classmates. REQUIRED MATERIALS Padma Hejmadis Room to Fly: A Transcultural Memoir Virginia Woolfs Mrs. Dalloway Edith Whartons Ethan Frome Sandra Cisneros House on Mango Street Padma Hejmadis Room to Fly Quan Barrys Water Puppets Zitkala-as American Indian Stories, Legends, and Other Writings A Wordpress account A Box.com account Supplementary texts (provided electronically via our course blog) Your own dynamic experiences and perspectives SUGGESTED MATERIALS A laptop or tablet A flash drive, external hard drive, or cloud storage Access to Microsoft Word An open mind

COMPOSITION OF FINAL GRADE Project 1 (15%) Project 2 (15%) Project 3 (15%) Project 4 (15%) Class Participation (10%) Blog Participation (10%) Homework/Quizzes (10%) Attendance (10%)

READING JOURNALS Any time we have an assigned reading, a very brief reading journal will be due by that classperiod on your Wordpress blog. This practice will encourage deeper consideration of the text and can help focus our energies on the topic at hand. I will often provide a prompt for the journaling on your course schedule, so be sure to check your course blog. Many class discussions will be based on the entries you post and will be shared with the class. I will check to see if you participated in the journal writing immediately following class time and will assign participation points accordingly. HOMEWORK/QUIZZES If students seem to be skipping readings, I will begin assigning more strenuous homework or conducting quizzes over the reading at the beginning of each class period. I would prefer not to assign such busy work, but if necessary to keep everyone on schedule, I will. DRAFT SUBMISSIONS In the weeks leading up to the due date for a project, you will engage in peer revisions. With every major assignment you will submit a draft which meets all requirements by the due date. After I return your papers with my comments, you may revise and resubmit your paper up to one week after you receive your grade. I will let you know when the latest date for resubmitted papers will be. LATE WORK Late work will not be accepted. The fast-paced nature of the course does not allow for it. Contact me beforehand if you have a legitimate reason for asking for an extension. All draft submissions will be digital. All drafts will be due on Box.com by 5 PM on the due date unless otherwise stated. CLASS PARTICIPATION Your participation will consist of the following factors: Being prepared for class (with your text, paper, laptop, etc.) Participating verbally in class Engaging in group work For those of you too shy to speak up often in big group discussion, I hope to hear your comments expressed in small groups. This is a vital part of your learning in a literature course and its importance cannot be stressed enough.

COURSE GRADING SCALE The grading for this course follows these grading standards: A: Outstanding achievement-awarded only for the highest accomplishment A = 94-100; A- = 90-93 B: Praiseworthy performance-above average in most respect B+ = 87-89 ; B = 83-86 ; B- = 80-82 C: Satisfactory performance-work meets the standards for competency C+ = 77-79 ; C = 74-70 D: Minimally passing-effort and achievement less than satisfactory D = 60-69 ; F = 0-60 ATTENDANCE POLICY Due to this being a literature course with a focus on discussion and participation in the process, your daily attendance is paramount. If for whatever reason you cannot attend a class period, please contact me beforehand. It will be your responsibility to acquire notes or future assignments from your classmates or the course blog. You may miss two days without penalty. Thereafter, each missed day will deduct 2% from your attendance grade. Additionally, any missed day will result in a 0 for daily in-class participation. Missing seven class periods is grounds for failing the course. Also keep in mind that it is required for you to be present for the entire class period to be counted present for that day. Leaving early and arriving late will not be tolerated. ELECTRONIC DEVICES Because our course relies heavily on the use of laptops and tablets, I will ask that you only have these devices out during Screens Up time. When we are ready to disengage from our technologies and be humans again, I will announce Screens Down and will expect you to close your laptop or turn your tablet face down. Cell phones, mp3 players, and other devices will be expected to be silent during the class. If I see your cellphone during class you will lose your daily participation points. Please respect me and your fellow classmates by waiting until after class to attend to nonurgent communication. If an actual emergency arises, feel free to excuse yourself from the classroom quietly to take necessary calls. DROP/WITHDRAWAL POLICY It is your responsibility to know the last drop and withdrawal dates for a given semester. Please keep track of this. If you are concerned with your grade in the course and are worried that you may not be able to pass, please see me as early as possible. DISABILITY/EQUALITY STATEMENT Students with disabilities that may restrict their full participation in course activities are encouraged to meet with me or to contact the SVSU Office of Disability Services in Curtiss 112 (x7000) for assistance. SVSU does not discriminate based on race, religion, color, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, physical impairment, disability, or Vietnam-era veteran status in the provision of education, employment, and other services.

TOLERANCE STATEMENT It is one of my highest goals to have a classroom in which all students feel safe, accepted, and heard. You should feel comfortable sharing your views freely and productive debate is encouraged. If for any reason, however, a student attacks, degrades, or silences another student on the basis of race, ethnicity, sexual preference, gender, religious affiliation, or another matter of identity through hate speech, derogatory terms, or isolation, I reserve the right to expel that student from the classroom. ACADEMIC INTEGRITY The Council of Writing Program Administrators (CWPA) states that In an instructional setting, plagiarism occurs when a writer deliberately uses someone elses language, ideas, or other original (not common-knowledge) material without acknowledging its source. According to the SVSU Student Handbook, Academic integrity is undermined whenever one is dishonest in the pursui t of knowledge. Dishonesty takes many forms, including cheating, plagiarism, and other activities for undermining the educational process. By definition, plagiarism involves intentionally or unintentionally presenting another persons expressions ideas, opinions, illustrations, data, style as ones own expression (16). Forms of plagiarism include directly transcribing (copying) without quotation and attribution, summarizing without attribution, paraphrasing or patchwork paraphrasing without attribution, patching electronic materials (including pictures, graphs, and/or charts) without attribution. As an institution of higher education, SVSU is committed to principles of truth and academic honesty. To maintain the academic integrity of the community, the University cannot tolerate acts of academic dishonesty including any forms of cheating, plagiarism, or fabrication. We reserve the right and the power to discipline or to exclude students who engage in academic dishonesty. TURNITIN.COM Students agree that by taking this course all required papers may be subject to submission to Turnitin.com for a review of their similarity to other papers in the database. All submitted papers will be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism. Use of the Turnitin.com service is subject to the terms of use agreement posted on the Turnitin.com site. (See theTurnitin.com Registration Agreement.) ADDITIONAL RESOURCES Feel like you need a little extra boost to get through all this writing? Need an extra set of eyes to look at the monsterous paper you just wrote for your mean teacher? Here are some helpful places to turn when your paper needs a little love. The Writing Center (Zahnow Library) - An expert reader to help you polish a draft? For free? Use this resource! The OWL at Purdue - A fantastic source for MLA guidelines, model papers, and general questions. Your course blog Check our blog regularly! Your instructor - I respond to email regularly and would love to clear up any misunderstandings if I can.