Metro State, Fall 2002, section 3
Dr. Cynthia Kuhn

Course Description: ENG 2100 provides an introduction to academic literary study—its concepts, traditions, critical approaches, and controversies. Students will read and write about literature written by women and men from diverse backgrounds. In addition, we will discuss critical terms and concepts useful for working with literary texts. By the end of the semester, students should understand general features of major types of literature and should be able to write an effective interpretive paper.

Required Texts: 
The Bedford Introduction to Literature (Meyer, 6^th ed., St. Martin’s, 2002) 
A Handbook to Literature (Holman & Harmon, 8^th ed., Prentice Hall, 2000)

Assignments:

Response Papers (10 ea.) = 100 points Three essays (100 ea.) = 300 points Workshops (25 ea.) = 100 points Portfolio with Critical Essay = 200 points Presentation = 100 points Final exam = 200 points Total  = 1000 points

900-1000 = A  800-899 = B  700-799 = C   600-699 = D  0-600 = F

Response Papers: Response papers should be one page long and typed (double-spaced). A response paper should reflect your critical reading of a text: after reading the text at least twice, take a position on something by exploring one specific topic in detail. This is not a summary of the plot or a discussion of whether or not you liked the text—it is a short position paper, so take a clear stand in your thesis (make it your first sentence) and support it throughout your paper. The following list may help you focus on a direction for discussion:

• Choose a section that is important to your interpretation of the text and explain why it is significant.
• Trace a pattern that you notice and speculate about its function.
• Explore the structure or point of view of the text if it is unusual or surprising--and explain the result.
• Discuss a specific point of comparison to another text we’ve read and draw a conclusion.
• Discuss the implications of the text’s main "issue."

Essays: With each essay, your goal is to take a meaningful stand (defined in a clear thesis) and support it with lively, well-developed and well-organized discussion using relevant textual examples. Your topic may be an extension of ideas examined in your response papers, a response to an issue discussed in class, or a new idea altogether. However, you must focus your discussion on a text we’ve read for class. Essays should be approximately four pages long. You should integrate some paraphrases and/or short quotations where appropriate—documented, of course, with parenthetical citations and a works cited list in MLA format. Do not incorporate block quotations—in other words, quotations should be less than four lines long.  Workshop drafts and final versions of your essay should be word processed in a 12-point standard font (e.g., Times New Roman, Garamond, Arial, etc.). Your name and page number should appear on every page in the upper right-hand corner (see upper right-hand corner of this syllabus), and you do not need a title page. Aim for the length requirement; half a page over or under is acceptable. Please proofread carefully. When you turn in a final version of an essay, please include all of the drafts leading up to your final version in your folder, and keep all materials—you may need to include them in your portfolio.  Click here for grading standards.

Portfolio: Please divide the different sections below with a sheet of paper (titled/designed or not), and have all the materials spiral- or coil-bound. 

• Cover Page: Include your portfolio title, your name, the course number and title, my name, and the date. Design is completely up to you. Graphics are welcome.
• Introduction (40 points): In a page or two, please reflect upon your experiences and progress working with literature this semester. What are the most important things you have learned or mastered as a reader, writer, and thinker? What issues have you found the most compelling—and why? What texts or activities might you recommend to others—and why?
• Critical Essay with Articles (150 points): Choose a topic generated by one of your essays, by class discussion, or by a response paper and substantially revise/develop it into a critical essay. Find and use at least three critical articles on your selected text/topic. You may use articles from scholarly journals in print or articles downloaded from academic databases available through the Auraria library. While you may also use credible website material, websites do not count as critical articles. Your primary goals should be to take a position, develop your idea, and support it, taking into consideration other scholarly views on your topic. Use evidence where appropriate and be scrupulous about paraphrasing, quoting, and citing sources. This essay should be approximately six pages long, with correct format, documentation, and works cited list. Please include draft/workshop versions of your essay and the articles you used after the final version of essay in this section.
• Response Papers (10 points): Include a copy of all of your response papers in chronological order. You do not need to revise them or print out clean copies (unless you want to do so).
• Other Essays: Include the final versions (clean copies or the graded copies) of your other essays so that your entire semester of work is together.
• Extra Credit (optional): You may include two drawings, poems, or short stories inspired by the literature we’ve read for ten extra points each.