ENGL2370 Syllabus Sp15 Deb Moore
Syllabus SP15
Introduction to Fiction ENGL2370
Instructor: Deb Moore CRN 28171: 8-8:50 MWF Irby 310
Email:
Office Hours (Irby 428): MWF 9-10, 11-12, and 1-2
(other times by arrangement)
Text & phone: 501-291-0433 (After 7 am but before 9 pm; please ID yourself).
About the Syllabus: The first and most important thing you should do as a student in this class is to make yourself familiar with this document. The course syllabus (for this course and for all the other courses you take) contains everything you need to know to be successful in class:
It details what you will be learning and when it will be covered.
It makes clear what is expected of you as a student.
It allows you to know what to expect of your instructor.
It outlines the organization of the course and when assignments are due.
It explains how grading will be accomplished.
It states the attendance requirements.
Course Focus: In this class, we will read, discuss, and write about fiction in a way that considers its formal elements (character, plot, setting, themes, and narrative style) as well as its contexts and value (social, historical, aesthetic). We will build our base of knowledge collectively, through discussion, in both large and small groups.
Because our discussion will sometimes address complex and potentiallysensitive subjects that may be personal to some of us, it’s important to come to the conversation with an open mind, a willingness to listen and consider alternative points of view, and respect for one another, our authors, and the people represented in the stories we read.
Class meetings will consist of brief lecture, full-class and small-group discussion, and various other activities (student presentations, in-class writings, slide shows, video and audio recordings).
Catalog Entry:“Satisfies the humanities requirement in the general education program. Students will learn to read stories and short novels carefully and analytically and be encouraged to see the way stories both reflect and enhance our understanding of life. Lecture, discussion, writing. Prerequisite: None. Fall, spring.”
Required Texts and Resources:You will need the following by the beginning of the second week of class:
Fiction: A Pocket Anthology, 7th ed., by R.S. Gwynn (2012). ISBN 978-0205032136.
The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (1998). ISBN 978-0385490818
Access to a computer and printer.
An Engrade Account: (you will be given access credentials during the first week of class).
General Requirements:You are responsible for the material covered in the assigned readings on the day the reading is due. If you expect to miss class for university-sponsored events (choir, band, orchestra, debate, sports), please speak with me about it at the beginning of the semester. In addition, I ask that you:
Be sure I receive written official notification from your coach, director, or sponsor;
Submit an email reminder to me immediately before each absence;
Turn in assignments that come due during your absence on or before the due date, rather than after;
Check with another student to see what you’ve missed;
Be mindful of how important it is to be in class when you aren’t traveling.
Students will receive a paper copy of the syllabus and the course outline, but all other handouts will be posted online. The syllabus and course outline may change. The version appearing online supersedes all others.
Coursework:Coursework consists of daily work as assigned, one position paper, one short story review, one class presentation, and two tests.
Daily Work (combined) 25%
Position Paper 15%
Book Review 15%
Presentation 15%
Midterm 15%
Final Exam15%
One Writing Center tutoring session is required for the Position Paper, Book Review, and Presentation assignments. You may use your tutoring session at any point during the drafting and revising process (brainstorming, revision, or editing) and as many times as you wish. There are a limited number of appointment slots, though, so please plan ahead and make your appointments early.To make an appointment, submit a paper for online tutoring, or to find out about drop-in hours, visit The Academic Success Center is also available to help you with all aspects of college work:
DAILY WORK may be hand-written and may or may not be graded. The occasional assignment may come about in response to class discussion and may not be on the course outline.Combined, daily work is worth 25% of the total grade in the class.
Reader Responses: For each reading assignment, please write a one-page response to the text to be used in class discussion. Focus on the thoughts and questions you had when reading and that you would like to touch on in conversation with your peers. These may be hand-written, and won’t be accepted for grading unless you are also present for that day’s discussion. Late submissions are not accepted. Reader Responses may not be substituted for missed quizzes. Ten 100-point responses.
Quizzes: Expect quizzes on this material. Quizzes are administered at the beginning of class and cannot be made up if you are tardy or absent.
In-Class or Exploratory Writing: Freewriting in response to a prompt about the reading assignment. Freewriting cannot be made up if you are tardy or absent.
FORMAL WRITING:Position Papers, Critical Reviews, Class Presentations, and other major assignments are considered formal writing tasks and are to be typed in MLA format. Submit these assignments on their due date via the Turn In function of Engrade.
Position Paper: Write a 750-word position paper responding to a prompt. This 100-point assignment is worth 15% of the total grade. Due at 11:59 pm on Friday, February 20.
Book Review:Write a 750-word (minimum) review of a book you have read on your own (not assigned for this class).Set your own due date: students sign up for book review due date slots during the first full week of class. Students who miss due dates will be given an alternate assignment, at the instructor’sdiscretion.This 100-point assignment is worth 15% of the total grade.
Presentations: Each student will research, develop, and give to the class a short presentation addressing historical (political, scientific, technological, and cultural) events occurring during the time the short story was written, with the express objective of contributing to a better understanding of the work. Students who are signed up for the same day’s presentations should coordinate to avoid stupefied zombification of classmates. Sign up for presentation slots during the first full week of class, and advise the instructor of your approach on the Monday immediately preceding your presentation (email is acceptable, but you will not be allowed to present without this step). Students who miss their presentations will be given an alternate assignment. To receive credit for your presentation, email a copy, along with an annotated bibliography to your instructor by 11:59 pm on the day of the presentation. Students who miss their own presentation may be given an alternate assignment at the instructor’s discretion.This 100-point assignment is worth 15% of the total grade.
Exams:There will be a Midterm and a Final Exam. Each is worth 15% of the total grade.
OTHER CONCERNS:Class discussion is an important part of this course. Please read and be prepared to discuss the material on the day that it is due. Bring the text of that day’s reading with you to each class. Students who come to class without the materials necessary to be a contributing member of the classroom community may be counted as absent.
Processing and paraphrasing information is essential to learning. Recent studies have shown that taking notes by way of a laptop results in shallower processing and decreased ability to answer conceptional questions. Therefore, I ask that you please take notes in longhand for this class.
It is generally accepted that students will need at least 2 hours of course preparation outside of class for every credit hour taken. For a three-hour course such as this one, you should plan to spend a minimum of six additional hours each week outside of class reading, thinking, and writing.
Assessment Methods:Grading standards will be included with individual assignment instructions.Papers that are plagiarized will earn a failing grade.
Grading:
90-100=A
80-89=B
70-79=C
60-69=D
59 and below=F
There are no extra credit opportunities. Grades are posted on (and calculated by) Engrade so you may know your grade at any time. You must meet with me in person to discuss a grade—to do so, wait 48 hours after the grade has been posted, but before 14 days have passed. I will not discuss grades via email.
Attendance: Punctual class attendance is mandatory. In addition to contributing to your understanding, in-class discussion, quizzes, and other in-class activities constitute a portion of your grade and cannot be made up if missed. In the event of unavoidable absence, please check with another class member to find out what you missed before returning to class.
There is no distinction between “excused and “unexcused” absences. Students who miss more than two weeks' worth of classes—i.e., six class meetings in a MWF course—and/or miss a week's worth of classes consecutively without contacting the instructor may be dropped for non-attendance and assigned a WF, WP, or W grade as appropriate. Any combination of three late arrivals or early departures will count as one absence.
I call roll every day. If you arrive to class late, I may have already counted you as absent. You should get with me after class is over to make sure that you get credit for having been in class. The roll book is the official record of attendance.
EASTER EGG: Write down a question about this syllabus and bring it with you to the second class meeting and you will earn 100 daily work points. (Not valid after the second class meeting.)
Late Work:Assignments are due at the beginning of class. Late assignments receive a whole letter grade reduction per calendar day and are accepted only with my prior approval. Be aware that I sometimes also request that a late essay be accompanied by a 500-word explanation, which will be graded for grammar and punctuation.
Class Etiquette:Please make an attempt to be completely present by setting your cell phone to silent or vibrate and putting it away. I respectfully ask that you not engage in text messaging during class time. Students who are unable to accommodate this simple request will be asked to leave and will be marked as absent.
Please do not sleep in class.
Students who exhibit disruptive behavior—that is, any behavior that interferes with my ability to conduct the class and foster student learning, or who exhibit behavior so outrageous as to severely impede the conduct of the class—may be dropped. Students dropped for disruptive behavior will be assigned a WF grade.
UCA Policies:Please take the time to familiarize yourself with all the academic policies in the Student Handbook.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY STATEMENT: The University of Central Arkansas affirms its commitment to academic integrity and expects all members of the university community to accept shared responsibility for maintaining academic integrity. Students in this course are subject to the provisions of the university's Academic Integrity Policy, approved by the Board of Trustees as Board Policy No. 709 on February 10, 2010, and published in the Student Handbook. Penalties for academic misconduct in this course may include a failing grade on an assignment, a failing grade in the course, or any other course-related sanction the instructor determines to be appropriate. Continued enrollment in this course affirms a student's acceptance of this university policy.
In this class, any student who turns in an assignment that includes a passage that has been either written for him or her by someone else for pay or as a favor or passages copied from a print or electronic source written by another author (even if some of the words have been changed), will immediately be dropped from the course and will receive a WF grade.
Any student who turns in a paper that has borrowed from other sources and fails to give complete and unambiguous credit to every source (e.g. quotation marks, in-text citations, or missing or incomplete bibliography), will receive a grade of 0 (zero) on that paper.
We will be discussing plagiarism in class to be sure you understand what it is and how to avoid it.
DISABILITY POLICY: The University of Central Arkansas adheres to the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act. If you need an accommodation under this act due to a disability, contact the UCA Office of Disability Services at 450-3613.
EMERGENCY PROCEDURES: An Emergency Procedures Summary (EPS) for the building in which this class is held will be discussed during the first week of this course. EPS documents for most buildings on campus are availableonline at Every student should be familiar with emergency procedures for any campus building in which he or she spends time for classes or other purposes.
EVALUATIONS: Student evaluations of a course and its professor are a crucial element in helping faculty achieve excellence in the classroom and the institution in demonstrating that students are gaining knowledge. Students may evaluate courses they are taking starting on the Monday of the twelfth week of instruction through the end of finals week by logging in to myUCA and clicking on the Evals button on the top right.
HARASSMENT POLICY: Harassment by any faculty member, staff member, or student is a violation of both law and University policy and will not be tolerated. Please read the appropriate pages of your Student Handbook for the policies, definition, and procedures concerning harassment. If you have questions or concerns, please contact me or the chair of the department. Individuals who believe they have been subjected to harassment should report the incident promptly to their academic dean or to a departmental chair or directly to the university’s Affirmative Action officer, legal counsel or assistant vice president for human resources.
Title IX Disclosure: If a student discloses an act of sexual harassment, discrimination, assault, or other sexual misconduct to a faculty member (as it relates to “student-on-student” or “employee-on-student”), the faculty member cannot maintain complete confidentiality and is required to report the act and may be required to reveal the names of the parties involved. Any allegations made by a student may or may not trigger an investigation. Each situation differs and the obligation to conduct an investigation will depend on those specific set of circumstances. The determination to conduct an investigation will be made by the Title IX Coordinator. For further information, please visit: *Disclosure of sexual misconduct by a third party who is not a student and/or employee is also required if the misconduct occurs when the third party is a participant in a university-sponsored program, event, or activity.
SPECIAL PROBLEMS: If, during any point of the semester, you find that personal problems are keeping you from completing your course work, you may find it beneficial to visit the counseling center. All students are entitled to free, confidential, professional counseling. Please contact the University Counseling Center at 450-3138. They are located in the Student Health Center, suite 327.
Course Outline
Reading selections marked with * are available for download on Engrade.
Date / Day / Topic / What’s Due (at the beginning of class)Jan 9 / Friday / CourseOverview
Reading Short Fiction
Jan 12 / Monday / The Syllabus /
- Read the syllabus.
- Read pages 1-6 of the textbook
Jan 14 / Wednesday / Writing About Short Fiction /
- Read pages 21-28 of the textbook.
- Read about formatting your writing for this class:
- Read about how to build an Annotated Bibliography:
- Read Anne Lamott’s “Shitty First Drafts”:
Jan 16 / Friday / How Not to Plagiarize /
- Read Paraphrasing and Summarizing, paying particular attention to “Everything You Need to Know About Plagiarism”:
Deadline to sign up for presentation subjects/dates
Deadline to sign up for Book Review due dates.
Jan 19 / Monday / Dr. Martin Luther King Day / No Class
Jan 21 / Wednesday / Part I. Theme and the Elements of Fiction
Setting /
- Nadine Gordimer, “A Beneficiary” *
- “Nadine Gordimer: Who else is there left to please?” Ruth Scurr, Telegraph *
Jan 23 / Friday /
- Sarah Orne Jewett, “The White Heron” p. 66
- “Unstable Narrative Voice in Sarah Orne Jewett’s The White Heron,” Heidi Kelchner, Colby Quarterly *
Jan 26 / Monday / Character /
- Toni Morison, “Recitatif”
(20 pgs)
- “Toni Morrison, The Art of Fiction No. 134,” Elissa Schappell and Claudia Brodsky Lacour, The Paris Review *
Jan 28 / Wednesday / Plot /
- William Faulkner, “A Rose for Emily” p. 152
- "The Ghostly Voice Of Gossip In Faulkner's ‘A Rose for Emily,’” Thomas Klein, Explicator *
Jan 30 / Friday
Feb 2 / Monday / Style & Tone /
- Gabriel Garcia Marquez, “The Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” p. 235(6 pgs)
- “A Talk with Gabriel Garcia Marquez” The New York Times
- “Leaf Storm,” Kirkus Reviews*
Feb 4 / Wednesday /
- Ursela K. Le Guin, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” p. 242
- Through Ecofeminist Eyes: Le Guin's "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas," Barbara Bennett, English Journal *
Feb 6 / Friday
Feb 9 / Monday / Point of View /
- George Saunders, “Puppy” (Engrade)
- “Rays of Hope: Tenth of December by George Sanders” Gregory Cowles, The New York Times *
Feb 11 / Wednesday /
- Raymond Carver, “Cathedral” p. 278
- “Stories of Our Loneliness,” Irving Howe, The New York Times *
Feb 13 / Friday
Feb 16 / Monday / Part II. Reading Thematically
“A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done.”
--Tim O’Brien /
- Tim O’Brien, “The Things They Carried” p. 10-27
- “Review of The Things They Carried,” Ted Gioia, The New Canon *
Feb 18 / Wednesday /
- Louise Erdrich, “The Red Convertible” p. 373
- “All American,” Liesl Schillinger, The New York Times *
Feb 20 / Friday / Position Papers due at 11:59 pm.
Feb 23 / Monday / "Love never dies a natural death. It dies because we don't know how to replenish its source. It dies of blindness and errors and betrayals. It dies of illness and wounds; it dies of weariness, of witherings, of tarnishings."
— Anaïs Nin /
- Zora Neale Hurston “Sweat” p. 140(11 pgs)
Feb 25 / Wednesday /
- Cisneros, “Woman Hollering Creek” p. 362
Feb 27 / Friday / MIDTERM EXAM / MIDTERM EXAM
Mar 2 / Monday / “There is a belief that pioneers came into the country, homesteaded, lived tough, raised a shoeless brood and founded ranch dynasties. Some did. But many more had short runs and were quickly forgotten.”
--Annie Proulx /
- Annie Proulx, “Them Old Cowboy Songs” *
- “True Grit,” Ron Carlson, The New York Times *
Mar 4 / Wednesday
Mar 6 / Friday
Mar 9 / Monday /
- Maile Meloy, “Travis, B.” *(20 pgs)
- “Irrational Behavior,” Curtis Sittenfeld, The New York Times *
Mar 11 / Wednesday /
- Sherman Alexie, “This is What it Means to say Phoenix, Arizona” p. 411(11 pgs)
Mar 13 / Friday
Mar 16 / Monday /
- Annie Proulx, Brokeback Mountain * (30 pgs)
- “Don’t Fence me in,” Richard Eder, The New York
Mar 18 / Wednesday
Mar 20 / Friday
Mar 23 / Monday / Spring Break / No Class
Mar 25 / Wednesday / Spring Break / No Class
Mar 27 / Friday / Spring Break / No Class
Mar 30 / Monday / “When did the future switch from being a promise to being a threat?”
― Chuck Palahniuk,
Invisible Monsters /
- Helen Simpson, “Diary of an Interesting Year” *
- “In-Flight Entertainment by Helen Simpson,” Christopher Tayler, The Guardian *
April 1 / Wednesday /
- Margaret Atwood and Christian Ward, “Freeforall” *
April 3 / Friday
April 6 / Monday / The Handmaids’ Tale
- Chapters 1-8
April 8 / Wednesday / The Handmaids’ Tale
- Chapters 9-17
April 10 / Friday / The Handmaids’ Tale
- Chapters 18-22
April 13 / Monday / The Handmaids’ Tale
- Chapters 23-29
April 15 / Wednesday / The Handmaids’ Tale
- Chapters 30-3
April 17 / Friday / The Handmaids’ Tale
- Chapters 39-Historical Notes
April 20 / Monday / TBA
April 22 / Wednesday / TBA
April 24 / Friday / Reading Day / No Class
April 29 / Wednesday / Final Exam / 8-10am
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This syllabus subject to change.