| English 222-02 |
MASTERPIECES
OF THE WESTERN WORLD II |
SPRING
2008 |
| Dr. Kevin Brown |
|
Lee University |
HOW TO GET IN
TOUCH WITH ME
Office: Vest
Building 101C
Office Hours: MWF 10-11, 1:30-2; TTh 1-2
Phone: 8232
E-mail: kbrown@leeuniversity.edu
UNIVERSITY MISSION
STATEMENT
Lee University seeks to
provide education that integrates biblical truth as revealed in the
Holy
Scriptures with truth discovered through the study of the arts and
sciences and
in the practice of various professions. A personal commitment to
Jesus
Christ as Lord and Savior is the controlling perspective from which the
educational enterprise is carried out. The foundational purpose
of all
educational programs is to develop within the students knowledge,
appreciation,
understanding, ability and skills which will prepare them for
responsible
living in the modern world.
TEXTBOOK
Mack, Maynard, et al., eds.
The Norton Anthology of Western Literature.
8th ed. Vol. 2. New York: W. W.
Norton, 2006.
STUDENTS WITH
DISABILITIES
Lee University
is committed to the provision of reasonable accommodations for students
with
disabilities as defined in Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of
1973.
Students who think they may qualify for these accommodations should
notify
their instructor immediately. Special services are provided
through the
Academic Support Program.
GRADING PROCEDURE
| Exams (3) |
50% |
Response Papers (6) |
10% |
| Proposal and Annotated Bibliography |
5%
|
Rough Draft |
5%
|
| Paper |
15% |
Quizzes |
15% |
The grading scale is as follows:
| A = |
92% or above |
C+ = |
78 - 79% |
| A- = |
90 - 91% |
C = |
72 - 77% |
| B+ = |
88 - 89% |
C- = |
70 - 71% |
| B = |
82 - 87% |
D = |
60 - 69% |
| B- = |
80 - 81% |
F = |
59% or below |
· You
must complete all major assignments in order to pass this course.
LATE WORK
Because all of the assignments in this class are related to
the work we are doing at a specific time, it is important that work be
turned
in on time. Otherwise, the connection between what we are doing
in class
and the out-of-class assignment is lost. If work is late, the
penalty is
5 points per class day. If you have a major life crisis, talk to
me about
it, and we’ll work something out; otherwise, all work is due at the beginning
of the class on the assigned date. If you know you are going
to absent
on a day when an assignment is due, please turn it in ahead of
time.
I will not accept any papers later than 2 weeks after the due
date.
Also, no papers will be accepted after the last day of class.
Also, quizzes and daily work will not be made up. Quizzes
begin at the scheduled beginning time
for the course, and they end ten minutes
after class has started. If you come in
late, but before those ten minutes are up, you will be able to take as
much of
the quiz as we cover during that time; if you come in after those ten
minutes
have passed, you will not be able to take the quiz that day. If you leave before the end of class, your
quiz will also not count for that day.
Thus, you are rewarded for being punctual and present at all
classes,
but you are not penalized for missing a few classes.
ACADEMIC
INTEGRITY/PLAGIARISM
The Lee University
Catalog states, “As a Christian
community of scholarship, we at Lee University
are committed
to the principles of truth and honesty in the academic endeavor. As
faculty and
students in this Christian community, we are called to present our
academic
work as an honest reflection of our abilities; we do not need to
defraud
members of the community by presenting others’ work as our own. Therefore, academic dishonesty is handled
with serious consequences for two fundamental reasons: it is stealing –
taking
something that is not ours; it is also lying – pretending to be
something it is
not. In a Christian community, such pretense is not only unnecessary,
it is
also harmful to the individual and community as a whole.
Cheating should have no place at a campus
where Christ is King because God desires us to be truthful with each
other
concerning our academic abilities. Only with a truthful presentation of
our
knowledge can there be an honest evaluation of our abilities. To such
integrity, we as a Christian academic community are called” (60).
Pages
60 and 61 further define academic dishonesty and plagiarism, and we
will talk
about it further in class. If you have
any questions at any time, please ask them, as this issue is one of the
most
serious in higher education. The
penalties are severe, as the catalog states:
“The faculty member may determine an appropriate course of
action
ranging from giving the student an F on the assignment or exam to
awarding an F
for the course” (61). Please treat this
issue with the gravity it requires.
TECHNOLOGY
Cell Phones --
Against all of my efforts, cell phones have become a part of almost all
college
students’ lives. They should not,
however, be a part of this class. All
cell phones should be out of sight
and off (not on vibrate) during
class. This ban applies to all uses of
cell phones, whether that be text messaging or checking the time.
E-Mail -- I
communicate with my classes frequently via e-mail, and I check it quite
often. Thus, this avenue is one of the
best ways to get in touch with me. That
said, remember that you are writing an e-mail to a professor, not one
of your
friends. Thus, words should be spelled
correctly and capitalized, and the tone should be appropriate to your
audience. I would suggest this approach
for communicating with any of your professors.
Laptops -- Since
more and more students have laptops, many are bringing them to class to
use
them to take notes. If using a laptop in
class helps your performance in class, then I encourage you to use one. However, since we have wireless on campus,
the temptation is always there to instant message friends or surf the
web (not
to mention simply playing solitaire).
Resist these temptations.
Printers -- The
printers on campus are notorious for running out of toner and/or paper,
and
they often simply don’t work, usually at times you desperately need
them
to. Thus, do not rely on a campus
printer (or even your own) at the last minute.
You will end up late for class, missing the quiz, and, often,
the paper
still won’t have printed. Print your
papers out the night before they are due.
While I have sympathy with your struggles with the printers,
advance
planning can help tremendously here.
STUDENT RESPONSIBILITIES
- This class works best as a discussion
class. Read your assignments carefully and come to class prepared to
ask questions, challenge, and explore ideas in depth with your
class members and professor.
- I expect you to attend class every day
it is held. There may be times, though, when an absence might be
unavoidable. You are responsible for what is on the
syllabus and for what goes on in class, whether you attend or not,
including changes to the syllabus.
- We will do some group work in class. You are expected to participate in the group
work, including sharing that work with the class at large.
- Participate in class discussions, but
do not dominate. Often, students believe
that they have to speak more than anyone else to show their
contributions to the class. Instead, that
type of behavior usually shows a lack of maturity on the student’s part
and a lack of understanding of how to truly contribute to academic
discussions. Understanding when to speak
is often as important as knowing what to say.
PROFESSOR RESPONSIBILITIES
- I will come to class prepared, with a
clear goal or goals for that class meeting.
- I will clearly explain all assignments
and answer questions to make certain that assignments are clear.
- I will return assignments promptly
with appropriate feedback.
- I will clearly lay out and explain
grading criteria for all major assignments.
COURSE GOALS
At the end of
this course, the successful student should be able to:
- Interpret,
analyze, and evaluate selected masterpieces from the Enlightenment, and from nineteenth and twentieth
century Western world literature.
- Discuss
literature intelligently with peers in the classroom setting in large
and/or small‑group activities.
- Respond to literature clearly in
writing, using appropriate sources and citations.
WHY ARE YOU TAKING THIS
COURSE?
The obvious
answer to this question is that it satisfies a Humanities requirement,
and, if
you’re an English major, we make you take this option.
Beyond that, though, there are two main
reasons. One is that the literature we
read in the Masterpieces courses is a foundation for all of the
literature that
comes after it, which helps readers understand the literature that
follows
better. Voltaire’s novel Candide
has added a word to our
vocabulary (Panglossian), as has Goethe’s Faust (Faustian, not
surprisingly),
and our current focus on the self comes from the Romantics, whom we
need to
understand to better understand ourselves.
More important, though, is the second reason this course should
be
taken. Literature changes the way we
look at the world and our selves. In a
world of instant information and communication, literature encourages
us to
slow down and think about the important questions of our mortality and
morality. There are numerous practical
reasons for studying literature, as the skills obtained by doing so are
legion,
but the most important reason, that it changes us, is unquantifiable.
THE WRITING CENTER
The Writing Center
is located on the second floor of the Vest Building. It is staffed by students who are either
English majors or who have done well in their Freshman writing courses. You can sign up for a 30-minute session with
them, where they will look at any aspect of your paper you believe
needs
work. You can go in at any point in the
process of writing your paper, from brainstorming a topic to final,
grammatical
proofreading. Always remember to take
your assignment sheet and grading rubric with you, as this information
will
help them tremendously. When you sign up
for an appointment, please do not skip it, as you have taken a spot
from
someone else, if you do. Most students
think of the Writing Center only in their Freshman English courses, but
numerous students have found it helpful throughout their career here at
Lee,
and I encourage you to visit it. The one
warning is that the Writing
Center employees
are
students, and they are not perfect.
Remember that your paper is your
paper. Thus, if they make a suggestion,
and you disagree with them, ignore their suggestion.
You are responsible for the final paper you
turn in, not them; thus, every decision is yours.
All course
information, including this syllabus and schedule, can be found at
http://faculty.leeu.edu/~kbrown/.