Jan Stirm                                                       Office Hours: MW 11-12, TR 3:15-4

Intro to Literature: English 150                 Office: Hibbard 404; phone 715-836-3016

Spring 2001; TR 2-3:15   HHH 230                Email: JStirm@uwec.edu

 

Goals: My goals for this class include 1) giving you a solid introduction to the college level study of literature works, 2) improving your writing skills, especially in writing about literature, 3) improving your class discussion skills, 4) familiarizing you with a body of literature, selected plays, poems, and fiction.

 

Reading:  I usually figure about 3 hours of outside work per hour in-class, but your time will vary.  This may seem like a long time to spend on a few poems, but you need to put in the time.  Start by reading the poem aloud a couple of times.  Look up EVERY word you don’t know and  reread the poem again.  Try writing about it for 10 minutes, and then reread it again.  Identify and tease out the metaphors; explore the way the poem sounds and feels in your mouth.

 

I reserve the right to give reading quizzes if I feel the class as a whole isn’t reading with enough care.  All quizzes will be closed book, and open notes.

 

Notes:  You should take reading notes for every text we read, and you should read any introductory material for each text.  Read where you have ready access to a dictionary; when you run across a word you don't know, look it up and write a short definition in the margin.  As I read, I make short notes about things that interest me, including page (or line) numbers; I usually write down plot bits, moments of repetition, and passages which seem important, as well as things I really just like.  At the end of my first reading of a scene or act, I write a short summary, including a list of characters with some identifying notes, the plot or argument, and any special action I think is important.  I also make a special point of writing questions I have about the work.   This goes double when I read theory or criticism.

 

Class Attendance and Contribution:  Absolutely required.  Make sure you come to every class with your reading notes and questions.  You will need to finish the assigned reading by the day we begin discussion in class.  Missing more than three days of class will adversely affect your grade.

 

Assignments: You will have three formal essays, occasional quizzes, a midterm, and a final exam. 

 

Percentage of grade:            Assignment:

10                                                                                Quizzes

20                                                                                Midterm Exam

20                                                                                Final Exam

10                                                                                Essay #1

20                                                                                Essay #2

20                                                                                Essay #3

 

 

 

 

Information about Formal Essays

 

As with any other essay you write for an English class, these need to have a strong thesis statement and to make an argument.  You will, of course, cite the source of all quotations in your paper.  You should use the MLA style for citations, which you can find in your Heath Handbook (or any other handbook you have), the MLA Style manual, or on line at:  http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/cgos/idx_basic.html

 

I will be happy to talk with you about your papers as you start working on it.

 

Some basic information about formats, using quotations, and citations.

 

MLA format: I prefer parenthetical citation and will give you examples of that format; please refer to the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers for other possibilities.

 

Example:  When Lear tells Regan to “reason not the need!  Our basest beggars / Are in the poorest thing superfluous,” he argues that human desire is based less on need than on the possibility of using a resource (King Lear 2.4.264-5).

 

Notes: 1) Embed quotations into the context of your sentences so that your reader will have a sense of both the situation in the work AND of how the quotation works as evidence in your argument.

2) Show verse lineation by using a slash (/) between lines and capitalizing the first word of the next line.  If you have quotations of 3+ lines, you will want to set the quotation off by using a margin change (in which case you reproduce the verse as it looks on the page, starting your left margin with two tabs, or, in WordPerfect 6.0+ you can use the F7 key.  For prose, you need to set off the whole quotation two steps in from the left; in WordPerfect 6.0+, you can do this easily with the F7 key, which you use at the beginning of the first line of a paragraph to indent the whole paragraph).  You need not change the right margin.  

3) The first time I quote from the play, I give the title.  If it will be clear to my reader that I am quoting from the same play (either through context, the fact that your paper only talks about one play, or whatever), then I wouldn’t need to give the title every time, but would only give Act, scene and line numbers.  If my readers will know what scene I’m quoting from, I can give only line numbers.  Make sure that your reader will be able to find the quotation easily.  

4) See that my comma went INSIDE the quotation marks.  The period goes outside the last parenthesis.  The general rule for punctuating around quotation marks in the US is: Periods and commas go inside; semi-colons go outside.  Exclamation and question marks go inside if they are part of the quotation, and outside if they are part of your sentence.