| Syllabus:
Instructor: Term: Time: Room: Office: Office hours: E-mail address: Texts: |
English 410/610 (A01)--British Literature: Utopian Fiction Maner Summer A, 2008 12:20-2:00 PM, MTWTh, 303 Oelman 441 Millett WTh 2:00-3:00 and by appointment at other times martin.maner@wright.edu 1) Plato. The Republic. Trans. Allan Bloom. 2nd ed. Great Books in Philosophy Ser. New York: Prometheus, 1986. 2) More, Thomas. Utopia. Norton Critical Ed. 2nd ed. Trans. Robert M. Adams. New York: Norton, 1992. 3) Swift, Jonathan. Gulliver's Travels. Oxford World's Classics. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2005. 4) Morris, William. News from Nowhere and Selected Writings and Designs. Penguin Classics. London: Penguin, 1984. 5) Bellamy, Edward. Looking Backward: 2000-1887. Penguin Classics. London: Penguin, 1982. 6) Huxley, Aldous. Brave New World. Perennial Library. New York: Harper, 1989. 7) Heilbroner, Robert L. The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times, and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers. Rev. 7th ed. New York: Touchstone-Simon, 1999. You are also required to use the MLA Handbook for Research Writers (5th ed., 1999) for the term paper. It is assumed that you have mastered MLA format by the time you take an upper division literature course. |
| Date | Topic | Reading |
| Mon
6/16 |
Introduction | |
| Tue
6/17 |
Plato | vii-xxiv; 3-125 |
| Wed
6/18 |
Plato | 127-220 |
| Thu 6/19 |
Plato | 221-303 |
| Mon 6/23 |
More
Distribute take-home final essay questions |
vii-xii; 3-20 |
| Tue 6/24 |
More
|
31-85; 205-11 |
| Wed 6/25 |
More Last day to drop a class without a grade of "W" |
Heilbroner 13-74 |
| Thu 6/26 |
Swift | Introduction and Parts 1 and 2 |
| Mon
6/30 |
Swift | Part 3 |
| Tue 7/1 |
Swift | Swift, Part 4; Heilbroner 105-69 |
| Wed
7/2 |
Morris | ix-xli; 43-128 |
| Thu
7/3 |
Morris | 129-228 |
| Fri 7/4 |
Independence Day WSU closed |
|
| Mon 7/7 |
Morris |
Heilbroner 170-212 |
| Tue 7/8 |
Bellamy Last day to drop a class with a grade of "W" |
7-122 |
| Wed
7/9 |
Bellamy| |
122-234 |
| Thu
7/10 |
Bellamy
Last day to submit optional preliminary drafts, take-home essay portion of final exam (typed) |
|
| Mon 7/14 |
Huxley | Chapters 1-8 |
| Tue 7/15 |
Huxley |
Chapters 9-18; Heilbroner 288-321 |
| Wed 7/16 |
Huxley Question-answer review for final exam Term paper due |
|
| Thu 7/17 |
Huxley
Final exam Hand in take-home essay portion, final exam |
| Evaluation | Participation and attendance | 10% |
| Quizzes | 25% | |
| Take-home essay portion, final exam (typed) | 15% | |
| In-class objective portion, final exam | 20% | |
| Term paper (410: 1200 words; 610: 1800 words), typed, MLA format | 30% |
| Participation and attendance portion (10%) of grade: | 0-1 absence | A |
| 2 absences | B | |
| 3 absences | C | |
| 4 absences | D | |
| 5 absences | F | |
| 6 absences | F for the course |
| Computing Course Grades
Course grades are computed by multiplying weighted percentages times the numerical value of letter grades, using the following equivalents: A = 4.0, A- = 3.8, B+ = 3.2, and so on. |
| C or Better for ILA and Middle Childhood Majors Students planning to apply for admission to WSU’s Graduate Licensure Teacher Preparation Program (GLTPP) must earn a grade of C or better in this course or re-take the class until a grade of at least a C has been earned. This is a requirement for admission into the graduate licensure program. |
| Assistance on Papers
I am happy to meet with you individually for assistance, but administrative work may force me to miss office hours occasionally. Making an appointment a day ahead of time is always advisable. |
| CLASS POLICIES |
| 1. Papers are due at the beginning of the class period on the due dates indicated above; arriving in class even two minutes late will cause a grade reduction. Late papers will be subject to the following reductions: work turned in after the beginning of class but before the end of class on the due date will be penalized 5 points (on a 100-point scale). For each day or portion of a day thereafter, the penalty will be 10 points per day, with 4:30 PM as the cut-off time (because that is when the secretaries usually lock up the English office). Also, note that repeated late arrivals will lower your attendance and participation grade; each set of three late arrivals equals one absence. If something or someone is frequently going to prevent your arriving on time, you should see me at once and arrange for excused late arrivals. |
| 2. Papers shorter than the assigned minimum length will receive grade reductions of 5 points for each unit of 100 words by which they fall short.. Please do not try to evade the length requirement by fooling around with large fonts and margins. A page using proper MLA format should have 1" margins on all sides, 1/3" line spacing, 27 lines to the page (unless over-ridden by widow and orphan control), plus a page header. Properly formatted MLA templates are available at <http://www.wright.edu/~martin.maner/rptemp.htm> |
| 3. A pop quiz may be given on any day. As long as you keep up with the daily reading assignments, you should be able to do well on the quizzes. Scheduling pressures make it impossible for me to give make-up quizzes or extra credit assignments. The final exam cannot be rescheduled. |
| 4. Assistance on written work should be limited to the instructor, library reference personnel, and Writing Center personnel. Automatic penalty for any form of plagiarism (defined as passing off the work of someone else as if it were your own): F for the course, written notification of the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and the English Department Chair. Your papers for this course must be exclusively your own and exclusively for this course. Re-using work submitted for credit in another course is a form of academic dishonesty, since it puts other students at a disadvantage. If you wish to write a single paper to meet two course requirements, you must secure written permission from both instructors, and the paper must meet the combined length requirements of both assignments. |
| 5. I normally do not grant "I" grades, since they usually cause more problems than they solve. If you miss an assignment, your grade will be computed on the basis of the work you completed, with the missing assignment counted as a zero. |
| 6. Please do not ask me what you missed. You are responsible for making arrangements with a classmate to supply you with information about classes you missed. If questions remain, see me. |
| 7. Mid-course changes in the syllabus (assignments, readings, grading policies) are sometimes necessary, though I will always try to provide sufficient advance notice of such changes. I may use WSU e-mail for such notices. Wright State now requires you to check your e-mail regularly, and if you do not, you will lose the benefit of such notifications. |
| 8. My office is 441 Millett, telephone 775-2639. You may leave messages for me with the department secretaries at 775-3136. Another convenient way to have individual conferences is via e-mail. My e-mail address is listed at the top of the syllabus. I check my account daily. Note, too, that this syllabus is posted on the Web at <http://www.wright.edu/cola/Dept/eng/maner/maner.htm>. |
| 9. Sending a fax copy to meet a deadline is acceptable. The departmental fax number is 775-2707. However, it is your responsibility to follow up the fax transmission by calling 775-3136 to confirm that the fax copy was received. You should always "chase" a fax copy with a regular printed copy as soon as possible, since fax copies are flimsy and often only semi legible. |
| 10. You may not have accumulated enough points of graded credit by the drop date to assess accurately the odds that you will pass the course. The best way to estimate your likely performance in this course is to ask yourself the following questions: a) Am I ready and able to spend at least 16 hours per week (outside the classroom) on this course? b) Have I become familiar with the essential library tools such as bibliographies, indexes, online resources, and library catalogs? c) Has the diagnostic quiz over English skills indicated that my grade is likely to be limited to C or lower? (Diagnostics are available on request.) |
| 12. Due to the continuing decline of courtesy in American culture, it is necessary to mention some things that should normally go without saying. a) It is rude to e-mail someone anonymously, using only a screen name. b) It is rude to leave voice mail messages without identifying yourself. ("I am a student in your morning class" is not adequate self identification.) c) Unless there is a genuine emergency, it is rude to bring a beeping watch, or cell phone, or other digital device to class without turning it off first. If there is a genuine emergency requiring you to have your cell phone turned on, you should tell the instructor in advance that the class may be disrupted. d) It is rude to bring a child to class with you, especially if you have not asked for the instructor's permission. |
| RESOURCES |
| Online Research Tutorial (in two parts):
http://www.wright.edu/~martin.maner/eval01.htm (Finding and Evaluating Sources) http://www.wright.edu/~martin.maner/act06.htm (Gathering Information Online) |
| Guide to Essential Tools for Research in English Literature:
http://www.wright.edu/~martin.maner/essential_tools.htm |
| Using Search Engines to Find Web Resources:
http://www.wright.edu/~martin.maner/search_engines.htm |
| Online Resources for Research Writers:
http://www.wright.edu/~martin.maner/eng344.htm |
| Links to Resources in Literature and the Humanities:
http://www.wright.edu/cola/Dept/eng/lit_links.htm |
| E-Mail Links:
Martin Maner Erica Clay (Humanities Reference Librarian) Martin Jenkins (Humanities Reference Librarian) |