Practical Criticism
ENGL 2300-01
MW 2:00pm – 3:15pm,
Humanities 205
Dr. Margaret E. Mitchell
Office: TLC 2235
Email: mmitchel@westga.edu
Website: http: //www.westga.edu/~mmitchel
Phone: 678.839.4852
Office Hours: MW 4-5; T 11:30-4:00; by appointment.
Essay template: What your essays should look like
Course Description: Practical Criticism introduces students to the English major and the discipline of literary studies. In it you will develop the analytical, writing, and research skills necessary to succeed in the major. You will study some of the most important and useful critical perspectives in contemporary literary studies, and learn to employ them. The primary focus, however, is on refining your skills in writing thesis-driven critical essays, and thus literary theory will always be employed in the service of your own original ideas and arguments about particular works of literature. The goal is to become a literary critic in your own right.
Required Texts: Denis Johnson’s Jesus’ Son, Daphne du Maurier’s Don’t Look Now, Mary Gaitskill’s Veronica, MLA Handbook 7th Edition. (All theoretical and critical material will be on electronic reserve in the library.)
Course Requirements
Two 5-page analytical essays, one 10-page research paper, weekly short writing assignments, quizzes if necessary, midterm, final, active class participation. Explanation: This is an intensive, demanding class; ask any English major, and they’ll agree. It is important that you stay on top of your work—your reading, your writing, your thinking. Your ability to do so will affect your ability to succeed in this class and, ultimately, as an English major. In order to pass the class, you must turn in all written work. You must come to class prepared to discuss your reading. Early in the semester, I will give you regular quizzes to ensure that everyone has done the necessary preparation. (Quizzes will be straightforward and fact-based.) Should this prove unnecessary, I’ll discontinue the quizzes.
Policies and Procedures
Your active presence is essential to the success of the class: this is not a class you can phone in, as they say. Not only will we discuss each day’s reading, both critical and literary, but we will incorporate writing instruction into most classes throughout the semester. Many classes will involve workshops and activities from which you will not benefit unless you participate. Quizzes and in-class writings cannot be made up regardless of the reason for your absence. (Exception: ONCE during the semester, if you know in advance that you will need to miss a class, contact me and we can arrange for you to make up the quiz or assignment for that day.) Essays will drop a third of a letter grade for each day they are late (from a B to a B-, for instance). Papers will be accepted only in class; please don’t email them to me or leave them in my mailbox unless you’re specifically instructed to. Short writing assignments received late will not earn anything higher than a C. Process-based assignments (such as assigned notes or outlines) are mandatory, and you will receive credit for them based upon a ten-point scale. You may miss three classes without penalty (aside from missing whatever class work occurs on that day). There is no such thing as an excused absence. I assume that illness or other pressing circumstances may legitimately cause you to miss three classes in the course of the semester; I don’t need to know your reasons. Beyond that, however, absences will affect your grade, regardless of your reasons. I will deduct half a letter grade for your fourth absence and another half for your fifth, at which point I will ask you to meet with me and discuss your standing in the class. If you accumulate six absences you will automatically fail the course. If you must miss class, it is your responsibility to find out what you missed and arrange to obtain handouts, notes, or information. (If you have truly extraordinary circumstances documented by the university, of course, please meet with me to discuss your options.) Absence does not excuse failure to complete reading or other assignments for the following class. If you anticipate having trouble with attendance, this probably isn’t the best semester to take 2300.
Please come to class on time. If you are late three times it will count as an absence. Lateness will also affect your ability to complete quizzes or in-class assignments within the amount of time allowed. If you arrive late, it is your responsibility to speak to me at the end of class so that I can mark you late, rather than absent; I won’t interrupt class to do this, and might otherwise not remember.
Grading
Short writing assignments/ process assignments/quizzes: 20%
These will be graded on a 10-point scale.
Essay #1 10%
Essay #2 20%
Midterm: 10%
--Will cover terms % concepts introduced in class.
Final Exam: 10%
Cumulative. Will cover terms and concepts introduced in class.
Research Paper: 30%
Please turn off cell phones and other potential sources of electronic disturbance before you enter class and remove them from sight. If such a device does go off during class, or if I see you checking messages, texting, etc., I will mark you absent.
If you fall asleep, I will ask you to leave and mark you absent.
Assignments, detailed instructions, and information relevant to the class, including updates to the schedule, will be posted regularly on my website. (I will also announce them in class.) It is your responsibility to check this.
I check my email regularly; this is always a good way to contact me. University policy dictates that we correspond via your westga email account rather than any email accounts you might have. Make sure to use your My Westga account when you write to me. In addition, I’d like you to address me properly (rather than as “Hey!”), write in complete sentences with conventional punctuation and capitalization, and sign your name. These are good habits to acquire: corresponding with your professors is not the same as corresponding with your friends.
You MUST bring any texts under discussion to class with you. If you don’t, I may mark you absent. You must also bring a notebook, and it should be open, on your desk, ready to receive your thoughts. Taking good notes will help you tremendously on the exams.
I expect you to preserve an atmosphere of courtesy, respect, and intellectual maturity in the classroom, to take your own work and that of the other students seriously. Anyone who does not comply with this expectation will be asked to leave: this is for everyone’s sake.
If you have special needs of which I should be aware, please meet with me as soon as possible to discuss satisfactory arrangements.
Academic Honesty
Presenting the language or ideas of someone else as your own constitutes plagiarism--whether your source is a friend, a relative, or a critic; whether the uncredited material is a phrase, a paragraph, or an entire paper; whether it is a formal or an informal assignment; whether the language is exact or paraphrased. Plagiarism will result in a failing grade for the class; will be reported to the English Department, the Vice President for Academic Affairs, and the Student Judicial Officer; and may have consequences at the university level. There will be no exceptions, no negotiations. “Accidental” plagiarism is plagiarism nevertheless. If you are ever concerned about what constitutes plagiarism, please consult me. You may also see the English Department website for more details and resources (see the link on my website).
*Instructions for accessing critical reading that's on electronic reserve:
Start at the library's website: http://www.westga.edu/~library/ Click "Course Reserves" under the header "Find Information"
Click "Electronic Reserves & Reserves Pages <http://westga.docutek.com/eres/courseindex.aspx>"
Type my last name, "Mitchell," into the empty box. Select 2300 and click on it.
Enter "Fiction" as the password.
Click the appropriate essay title.
Click on the pdf.
Print.
M 8.17 Intro.
W 8/19 Excerpts from Culler (handout); Du Maurier’s “The Birds” (59)
M 8/24 Bressler: Cultural Poetics or New Historicism. (*Available on Docutek, through the library's electronic reserves. Password: fiction. See instructions above.) Short writing assignment due: Choose 1 textual detail from “The Birds” and 1 idea from the Bressler reading for Monday. In a thoughtful, typed paragraph, discuss how you might apply this critical idea or concept to your textual detail in order to produce a reading of the story. (Note: you aren’t actually performing that reading at this point—you’re just sketching out how you would approach it, what questions it would raise, how it might lead to a consideration of the story as a whole. For additional explanation of how you might go about this, click here.
W 8/26 Du Maurier, “Don’t Look Now.”
M 8/31 Bressler: Feminism. Short writing assignment due.
W 9/2 Du Maurier, “Split Second” and “Kiss Me Again, Stranger”
M 9/7 Labor Day—no class
W 9/9 Bressler: Cultural Studies: Postcolonialism, etc. Du Maurier: “The Blue Lenses.” Short writing assignment due (Write a well-organized paragraph on how you might apply postcolonial criticism to one of the du Maurier stories. Make sure you focus on specific textual details and explain your critical approach carefully). Assign Essay #1.
M 9/14 Du Maurier, Monte Verita. Discuss essay structure. Notes due for essay # 1.
W 9/16 Return notes. Workshop.
M 9/21 Rough draft of essay #1 due. As a result of today’s weather, very few people attended this afternoon’s class. For that reason, I am postponing the workshop we were going to have today until Wednesday (assuming Georgia hasn’t washed away by then). Please come to class with your rough draft. There is no additional assignment, although this will give you time to do more work on your draft, if you like.
W 9/23 ROUGH DRAFT WORKSHOP.
M 9/28 Thesis Workshop. Please email me the opening paragraph of your essay NO LATER than 3:00 SUNDAY afternoon. NO MIDTERM.
W 9/30 Jesus’ Son (Car Crash" and "Two Men"). Final draft of essay #1 due.
M 10/5 Jesus’ Son. Short critical reading.
*Tues. Oct. 6: Last day to withdraw with a W
W 10/7 Jesus’ Son. Critical reading: essay from Feminist Studies, available as Full Text through library. Print it out.Jeffords, Susan. “Debriding Vietnam: The Resurrection of the White American Male.” Feminist Studies 14.3 (1988): 525-43.
M 10/12 Jesus' Son.
W 10/14 Essay # 2 assigned
M 10/19 No class. Work on essays
W10/21 Notes for essay #2 due. Workshop.
M 10/26 Rough draft of essay #2 due. Gaitskill’s Veronica to p. 75.
W 10/28 Critical reading.
M 11/2 Final draft of essay # 2 due. Gaitskill’s Veronica.
W 11/4. Short writing assignment. Critical reading: Postcolonial/cultural criticism.
M 11/9 Finish Veronica.
W 11/11 Research paper assigned
M 11/16 Proposals due for research paper.
W 11/18 Writing workshop:
M 11/23 Writing workshop. Notes due. Architecture: building a research-based argument.
W 11/25 no class—Thanksgiving break
M 11/30 Rough drafts of research papers due.
W 12/2 Last day of classes. Discuss final. Present briefly on your research project.
Final exam, Mon. Dec. 7, 2-4. Papers due at final.
Additional information concerning the official learning outcomes for this class, etc. can be found on the online version of this syllabus.