EWRT 1C

Week 1 Class 1

AgendaThe Course Description

and Details• What is a Hybrid Class?• Adding the Class• Syllabus• Green Sheet• Website• Kaizena • QHQ

The Lecture• What is Literature and

Composition?• What is literature?• What is Literary

Theory?• What is New Criticism?

What is a Hybrid Class?

• A hybrid class meets both in the classroom and electronically. For this course, it means that we will meet twice a week for 1 hour and 50 minutes and that you will complete the remaining hour of this five unit course on your own, via a presentation on the website. This work must be completed and posted before class on Monday. We will not meet together; rather, you will simply go to the online presentation and work through it on your own. I will answer questions by email.

Adding the Class

• If you are on the waiting list, you can stay. I will hand out add codes as seats become available.

• As we go over the syllabus, consider whether you will stay in the class. If you want out, please let me know, so I can offer your seat to another student.

The Green Sheet

• What you will find here– Course Requirements

• Assignments and values• Participation

– Required Materials– Class Policies

• Plagiarism• Conduct and Courtesy

– The Class Website• How to sign up for an

account• How to post your

homework.– How to use Kaizena to

submit your Paper

Texts and Required Materials

Available at the De Anza Bookstore  Room by Emma Donoghue Night by Elie Wiesel

Available online and from local booksellersNight by Elie WieselRita Hayworth and Shawshank

Redemption by Stephen KingThe Metamorphosis by Franz KafkaCritical Theory Today by Lois Tyson

A Gmail account that you will be willing to share via Wordpress, Kaizena, and Google Drive

Large Bluebooks for exams

Requirements:

• Active participation in class discussions and regular attendance. You will earn real points for your participation in activities.

• Keeping up-to-date on the assignments and reading.

• Formal writing: Three essays• Two exams: midterm and a comprehensive final• A series of posts to the class website• Reading quizzes, writing workshops, and in-class

assignments.

Grading

Class Policies

Writing Submissions

•Essay Submission:•All out of class essays are to be submitted to me electronically before the class period in which they are due. 1. Before you submit your essay, please save your file as your last

name and the assignment: Smith 1. 2. Submit your essay through Kaizena at

https://kaizena.com/palmoreessaysubmissiongmail. Or simply use the link on our class website home page.

3. Sign in to your Google Account and allow Kaizena access to your Google Drive. You may want a dedicated Gmail account for this class.

4. You can follow the directions from this point to join a group or submit your essay. If you have trouble, please see the appropriate presentation on our website under “Create Accounts.”

All out of class essays are to be submitted to me electronically before the due date.

Attendance:Success in this course depends on regular attendance and

active participation. Participation points will be part of our daily activities. If you are not in class, you cannot earn these points. You should save absences for emergencies, work conflicts, weddings, jury duty, or any other issues that might arise in your life.

It is your responsibility to talk to me your absences or other conflicts. Work done in class cannot be made up. Also, please arrive on time, as you will not be able to make up work completed before you arrive, including quizzes.

Exams: We will have two exams during the quarter.

They will likely be terms, identification, short answer, and an essay question.

Late WorkI do not accept late work. I do, however, extend

an opportunity to revise either essay #1 or #2 for a better grade.

Conduct, Courtesy, and Electronic Devices:

In this class, we will regularly engage in the discussion of topics that may stir passionate debates. Please speak freely and candidly; however, while your thoughts and ideas are important to me and to the dynamics of the class, you must also respect others and their opinions. Courtesy will allow each person to have the opportunity to express his or her ideas in a comfortable environment.

Courtesy includes but is not limited to politely listening to others when they contribute to class discussions or while they give presentations, not slamming the classroom door or walking in front of classmates giving presentations if you do arrive late, and maintaining a positive learning environment for your fellow classmates. To help maintain a positive learning environment, please focus on the work assigned. We will discuss appropriate use of computers and tablets. Do not text-message in class; if you have an emergency communication, please step outside. If your behavior becomes disruptive to the learning environment of the class, you may be asked to leave and/or be marked absent.

• Academic Dishonesty:Plagiarism includes quoting or paraphrasing material without documentation and copying from other students or professionals. Intentional plagiarism is a grave offense; the resulting response will be distasteful. Depending upon the severity, instances of plagiarism may result in a failing grade for the paper or the course and possible administrative action. All assignments will be scanned and scrutinized for academic dishonesty. Please refer to your handbook for more information regarding plagiarism.

The Syllabus

Syllabus

• The syllabus is a tentative schedule. • It may be revised during the quarter.• Use it to determine how to prepare for class. Week,

Dates, and Class

What we will do in class

Homework due before the next class

Website: • Our class website is http:/palmoreewrt1c.wordpress.com. In order

to do the homework, you must establish an account. To make your own FREE Word Press account, go to wordpress.com. The system will walk you through the steps to signup for a username or to set up your own user-friendly Word Press blog. Alternatively, you can sign into our website through Facebook. There are also detailed directions available on the website under “Create Account.”

• If you prefer not to use your own name, you may use a pseudonym. Please email me your username if it is significantly different from your real name.

• If you cannot establish your website and username, please come to my office hours as soon as possible, and I will help you with the process. Much of our work will take place online, so establishing this connection is mandatory.

Writing AssignmentsReading AssignmentsThe Green SheetThe Syllabus (The Daily Plan)

Writing TipsHelpful LinksYour Daily Homework Assignment (which is where you post your homework.)

Posting Homework

• On the front page of the website, you will find the homework post after each class.

• Below that post on the right, are the words “Leave a comment.”

• Copy and paste your homework into the box. • Click there and a comment box will open. Post your

homework in the comment box and click “Post Comment.”

HomeworkThere is writing homework almost everyday in this class. This is both to help you think about your reading and to help you produce ideas for your essays.

In order to earn an A on your homework, you must do the following:• Complete all of the posts.• Post them on time.• Be thoughtful in your responses.

It will be quite helpful to keep your homework in a single document.

THE QHQThinking about writing

How do I know what I think until I see what I say?--E.M. Forster

Each text we study will provide material for response writing called a QHQ (Question-Hypothesis-Question). The QHQ requires students to have second thoughts, that is, to think again about questions that arise during their reading and to write about questions that are meaningful to them. Begin your QHQ by formulating some question you have about some aspect of the reading. The first question in the QHQ may be one sentence or longer, but its function is to frame your QHQ writing. A student might start with a question like, “Why is the house in this story haunted? Or, “Why do I suspect the murdered child has come back to life?” A student might even write, “Why am I having so much trouble understanding this story?”

After you pose your initial question, focus on a close reading of the text in search of a hypothesis. This hypothesis section comprises the body of your text. The student who asked about the haunted house might refer to multiple passages about haunting in the text, comparing and contrasting them to other instances of haunting with which he or she is familiar. The student who asked about the dead child might connect passages associated with the death to sections about a new child who abruptly appears in the text. The student who struggled to understand the text might explore those passages whose meanings were obscure or difficult to understand, connecting them to other novels and/or cultural texts. After carefully exploring your initial question (200-300 words), put forward another question, one that has sprung from your hypothesis. This will be the final sentence of your QHQ and will provide a base for further reflection into the text.

The QHQ is designed to help you formulate your response to the texts we study into clearly defined questions and hypotheses that can be used as a basis for both class discussion and longer papers. The QHQ can be relatively informal but should demonstrate a thoughtful approach to the material. While the papers need to be organized and coherent, because you will sharing them in class, the ideas they present may be preliminary and exploratory.

Remember, a QHQ is not a summary or a report—it is an original, thoughtful response to what you have read. All QHQs should be posted on the website the evening before the class for which they are due. This will give both me and other students time to ponder your ideas and think about appropriate responses. Moreover, this sharing of material should provide plenty of fodder for essays. Even though you have posted your QHQ, you should bring a copy of it to class in order to share your thoughts and insights and to stimulate class discussion.

This class is going to be so easy!Is this class too hard?

Is this classHistory 10?

Will I be the teacher’s favorite?

Questions?

What is Literature and Composition?

This class applies the analytical, critical, and synthesis skills developed in English Writing 1A and 1B to the ways meaning can be made in diverse cultural, social, and historical contexts in prose, poetry, and drama by reading and analyzing texts and critical interpretations and by composing critical responses, analyses, and arguments. That is, this course will help you learn to think, read, and write about literature, and by extension, the world.

What is literature?

According to the Oxford Dictionary, the word “Literature has three definitions:1. Written works, especially those considered of

superior or lasting artistic merit: a great work of literature.

Many scholars consider this novel a modern classic in US literatures.

2. Books and writings published on a particular subject: the literature on environmental epidemiology

It is certainly true that the published literature on the subject is well surveyed.

3. Leaflets and other printed matter used to advertise products or give advice.

They will be visiting problem areas to hand out literature and advice to people on how best to secure their vehicles, and offering support to victims.

One Guide to Literary Terms defines it this way:

• Literature: writings in which expression and form, in connection with ideas and concerns of universal and apparently permanent interest, are essential features. While applied to any kind of printed material, such as circulars, leaflets, and handbills, there are some who feel it is more correctly reserved for prose and verse of acknowledged excellence, such as George Eliot’s works. The term connotes superior qualities.

What is Literary Theory?

Literary theory is a tool box of strategies to help us read, interpret, and understand the many facets of a literary work. The ideas used in theory act as different lenses we can use to view and talk about art, literature, and even culture. These diverse lenses give us new ways to consider works of art based on certain hypotheses and conventions within that school of theory. They also allow us to focus on particular aspects of a work we consider important.

Some Theoretical Approaches

• Formalism and New Criticism • Marxism and Critical Theory • Structuralism and Poststructuralism (Deconstruction) • New Historicism and Cultural Materialism • Ethnic Studies and Postcolonial Criticism • Gender Studies and Queer Theory • Cultural Studies • Psychoanalytical Criticism

– Trauma Theory• Feminist Criticism

What is New Criticism?

New Criticism occupies an unusual position in the field of literary studies today. On the one hand, it is no longer practiced by literary critics, so it can’t really be called a contemporary theory. On the other hand, New Criticism, which dominated literary studies from the 1940s through the 1960s, has left a lasting imprint on the way we read and write about literature

New Criticism

Some of New Criticism’s most important concepts concerning the nature and importance of textual evidence—the use of concrete, specific examples from the text itself to validate our interpretations—have been incorporated into the way most literary critics today, regardless of their theoretical persuasion, support their readings of literature. In fact, if you’re an English major, you probably take for granted the need for thorough textual support for your literary interpretations because this practice, which the New Critics introduced to America and called “close reading,” has been a standard method of high school and college instruction in literary studies for the past several decades. So in this sense, New Criticism is still a real presence among us and probably will remain so for some time to come (Tyson 135).

Typical Questions by New Critics

1. How does the work use imagery to develop its own symbols? (i.e. making a certain road stand for death by constant association)

2. What is the quality of the work's organic unity "...the working together of all the parts to make an inseparable whole..." (Tyson 121)? In other words, does how the work is put together reflect what it is?

3. How are the various parts of the work interconnected?4. How do paradox, irony, ambiguity, and tension work in the text?5. How do these parts and their collective whole contribute to or not

contribute to the aesthetic quality of the work?6. How does the author resolve apparent contradictions within the work?7. What does the form of the work say about its content?8. Is there a central or focal passage that can be said to sum up the

entirety of the work?9. How do the rhythms and/or rhyme schemes of a poem contribute to

the meaning or effect of the piece?

Homework• Establish your username and

explore the class webpage

• Buy your books • Read: Critical Theory Today:

Chapter 1 Introduction 1-10• Read: Critical Theory Today:

Chapter 5 New Criticism 135-164• Post #1: QHQ: New Criticism