Syllabus

American Lit I
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Syllabus

AMERICAN LITERATURE I, ENGL 213
Timothy E. Trask, Professor

Schedule (and complete syllabus as pdf)

Required textbooks (all are published as Dover Thrift Editions and are available in the college bookstore):

Swann, ed. Native American Songs and Poems: An Anthology. Dover, 1996.
Nathaniel Hawthorne. The Scarlet Letter. 1850; rpt. Dover, 1996.
Thomas Paine. Common Sense. 1776; rpt. Dover, 1997.
Benjamin Franklin. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. 1868; rpt. Dover, 1996.
Sherman, ed. African-American Poetry: An Anthology, 1773-1927. Dover, 1997.
Edgar Allan Poe. The Raven and Other Favorite Poems. Dover, 1991.
Edgar Allan Poe. The Gold-Bug and Other Tales. Dover, 1991.
Ralph Waldo Emerson. The Concord Hymn and Other Poems. Dover, 1996.
Ralph Waldo Emerson. Self-Reliance and Other Essays. Dover, 1993.
Nathaniel Hawthorne. Young Goodman Brown and Other Short Stories. Dover, 1992.
Frederick Douglass. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Dover, 1995.
Henry David Thoreau. Walden: Or, Life in the Woods. 1854; rpt. Dover, 1995.
Henry David Thoreau. Civil Disobedience and Other Essays. Dover, 1993.
Herman Melville. Bartleby and Benito Cereno. Dover, 1990.
Harriet Jacobs. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. 1850; rpt. Dover, 2001.

Course description (from college bulletin): "An introduction to American literature, this course examines the major contributors to the development of American literature, culture, and ideals from the colonial period to the era of American Romanticism."

Prerequisite: English Composition II.

Goals:
     1.    To study representative selections from the literature of the United
             States prior to the Civil War.
     2.    To get a view of the topics and issues that have concerned our
             writers from the Colonial Period to the Civil War, including
             representatives from the European colonists, the natives they
             encountered, and the people brought by force from Africa.
     3.    To improve skills in reading and critiquing imaginative and
             narrative writing.
     4.    To put research skills to use.

Objectives:
     1.     To read assignments.
     2.     To participate in class discussions.
     3.     To pass quizzes on assigned reading.
     4.     To write a research paper using approved techniques for research
              and writing.
     5.     To pass three examinations, including the Final Exam.

Class Attendance and Participation. I expect you to be in class on time, to remain in class for the duration, and to participate in discussions. This class is an interactive discussion group, and it will not work unless you are there and willing to participate. You will be expected to have read all assignments before the class during which they will be discussed. I may give frequent pop quizzes on the assigned reading, and they will be graded. Attendance and participation count toward your grade. You may on occasion find some of the reading difficult. In these cases, prepare questions to bring to the class discussion. If you miss more than five hours of class, you will be in jeopardy of being dropped from the class.

Examinations. There will be three major examinations. Each will cover assignments given before the date of the exam. I will go over the material to be covered and the form of each examination during the class before the examination date. The last examination will be part of the Final Examination. The Final Examination will be in two parts. Part I will cover the last third of the course, and Part II will cover the entire course with a single essay.

Research Paper. There is a sequence of steps for completing the research paper on a separate handout. I will be going over each step in class well before the assignments are due. Late papers will lose a step-grade for each class that they are late. I will give you a list of suggested topics later in the semester. If you think you have a paper topic that is more to your liking, please see me for prior approval.
    It is suggested that you follow the MLA style for documentation. However, if you are in a program that requires another style (i.e., APA), you are free to follow that style. If you are not following the MLA style, please indicate the style you are following. Instructions for using the MLA style are included in the handbook that you used for Comp I and Comp II and online here.
    For tips on using the World Wide Web in research, click here.

Grading. Grades for the course will be weighted as follows:

Attendance/Participation*          20% (full credit for perfect attendance)
Examination I                            15%
Examination II                           15%
Final Exam                                30% (15 for Part I, and 15 for Part II)
Research Paper                         20%

A, A-          90 - 100
B+, B, B-   80 - 89
C+, C, C-   70 - 79
D             60 - 69
F               below 60

If at any time you feel that the grade you receive for any part of this class or that your final grade is inappropriate, please talk to me about it.

Academic Resource Center. Tutoring and assistance in writing is available in the ARC. I may suggest that you seek assistance in some particular area of writing. You pay for this assistance with your tuition and fees, so make use of it.

Library resources. The library at Massasoit is staffed by competent professionals. They can provide access to Internet and assistance in doing research. Books on American literature are shelved primarily in the PR and PS sections of the stacks. Other colleges in the area have excellent research materials as well.

Computer usage. I strongly recommend that every student make frequen use of the computer facilities of the college during the semester. I encourage email and will respond to email queries in a timely manner.

Schedule (and complete syllabus as pdf)

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