Note: I reserve the right to change any of these plans and policies. Changes which may affect your grade will be issued in writing.

What this class is about

Welcome to English 201 – “The Nature of Literary Studies.” This course is designed to teach you to write the literary research essay.

 

What is a literary research essay, and why do you need to know how to write one?

 

Now, I know how to write a regular research paper: I have a topic, and I ask a question about the topic, and then I do research to arrive at an answer, and I make that answer the thesis of my paper, and then I structure my paper as an argument which supports my thesis using the material I’ve found through research as evidence for that thesis.  You know how to do this, too, more or less – whether you do it well or badly, easily or with difficulty.  You can write a research paper.

 

But what about a research paper on a work of literature?

 

Everyone remember good old Bruce Ballenger, the guy who wrote the textbook you used in English 102? Anyone read the part at the very end – Appendix C – where he finally talks about what goes into a literary research paper? Here are his own words: “What distinguishes a paper on a literary topic from others is where most of the information . . . comes from . . . A research paper about a story, poem, essay, or novel will usually use that work more than any other source.  Literary papers rely heavily on primary sources.” Everything other than the actual story, poem, essay, or novel you’re analyzing is considered a secondary source.

 

So, uh, Bruce – if everything besides the poem I’m analyzing is “secondary,” then why bother to do any research at all? I already have the poem; why isn’t that enough? And if it’s just me and the poem, what am I supposed to do with it? The poem just sits there; it doesn’t tell me anything new.  Why don’t I just write on the page, “The poem says what the poem says?” (Like writing “2 + 2 = 2 + 2” – true but totally uninformative?) Ballenger says we’re supposed to “mine” the primary text for ideas.  How do you “mine” a text? Exactly what are we digging for in this “mine”? What do you have to do to a poem to get it to say something else? What research could you possibly do that would help you to make it do this? (Ballenger suggests a few reference works that might be helpful, but says almost nothing about how to use them.)

 

What is literary research, and how is it done?

 

Well, this course is designed to answer that question in some detail.  I suppose the question for you is: are you interested in learning how to do literary research?

 

If you are an English major, jolly for you – this course is required reading for good reason, and everything you do here will serve you well in the coursework for your major.  If you’re not, then there are still a couple of good reasons to be here, apart from filling the 200-level-English-course requirement.

 

First of all, it’s just further training in writing and research.  Strangely enough, law schools like English majors, because they like articulate students who know their way around a library; even if you don’t want to be an English major, if you work hard in this course, you could learn to impersonate one.

 

I’m joking, but I’m also serious.  The skills that go into literary research and writing are specialized, but they also have some real universal application.  Over the last four decades, our methods of analyzing texts and thinking about their meaning have had unbelievable influence on all the other fields of the humanities and human sciences, from anthropology to political science, from social work to management theory.  Once you learn how to really engage with a literary text, you have a set of tools that you can apply to all kinds of other texts, including things you might not even think of as “text” – like a movie, which we’d call a “filmic text” . . . or a website, which we’d call an “electronic text” . . . or a painting, which we’d call a “visual text” . . . or a bit of interaction between people, which we’d call a “social text.” Any human creation or activity which is patterned, organized, and invested with symbolic significance or meaning can be considered as a “text,” hence as something that can be “read,” interpreted, and critiqued.  What we do here is just an especially powerful form of critical thinking, and anybody can benefit from some training in it.

 

But there’s something else to be gained, too – and this is what’s most important, to my mind: this is a course which highlights interpretation, which is something you do in other English courses but which this class alone is focused on.  And interpretation is not just a skill.  It’s not just a technique.  It’s an art form.  To do it well requires genuine creativity.  This course really offers you a chance to exercise your creative powers.  It’s taking your experience of literature to a whole other level.

 

This is what it’s about, for me: getting even more out of the experience of reading.  Some people are afraid that if they learn to interpret, to analyze, they will kill the joy of reading.  Far from it.  Interpretation means not taking away, but adding more to the experience.  More knowledge, yes, but more pleasure, too.  More stimulation.  More wonder.  More possibilities.  And the stakes of the game become higher.

 

We’ll talk a lot on Thursday about what interpretation is, and how it differs from just plain reading a text, but one short definition of interpretation is “making the text speak again.” I like this definition, because it reminds me of something from Hamlet.  In the very first scene, the guards on the night watch bring Horatio to confront the ghost of the dead King, and tell him, “Thou art a scholar, speak to it.” To say that interpretation is about “making the text speak again” is a little mysterious, but it gets something right: interpretation is a mysterious and wonderful process.

 

But it takes work to get good at it.  So now that I’ve talked this course up a bit, let me give you the lowdown on the workload.

Grades

Your grade for class will be based on six things:

• Written assignments: 65%

   

• Mock Research Paper (4 pp) 15%

• Minor Assignments (usually 1-2 or 2-3 pp) 25%

• Researched Literary Essay (5-7 pp) 25%

   

• Midterm exam (test on terms and concepts covered in class and readings) 15%

   

• Participation 20%

The Work

20% Participation in class discussions: I recognize that some people are more shy or slow to speak out than others. Nonetheless, regular, active participation in class is important and expected. It is just as important that your participation be respectful and productive.

 

Respectful: arguments and debates are encouraged within the limits of mutual respect. That means being considerate of others' feelings and appreciative of legitimate differences of opinion. Obviously, it also means that you are polite, appropriate, don't do things to distract other students, etc., but I expect you are mature enough that I don't need to belabor this point.

 

Productive: speaking out is less than productive if what you have to say is disconnected from what has just been said. Discussions are productive when students respond directly to each other, so that, for example, one student's tentative observation about a line in a poem is quickly seconded or questioned or otherwise added to by another student.

 

Legitimate and important ways for even the shy or slow-talking types to participate in discussion:

 

a.) Write down some observations or questions about the texts to bring to class, and offer to read them out loud at the beginning of the period.

 

b.) If you can't initiate conversation, participate by responding to others' comments, asking them helpful questions like "What did you mean when you said . . ." or

 

c.) Give other students an echo – following a student’s comment, ask the student, "So you're saying that . . ." (putting that person's comment in your own words). This gives the other person a chance to say "No, that's not what I meant," and then to clarify himself or herself, or to say "Yeah!" and continue expanding on that point.

 

We'll talk more about the qualities of a good discussion in class.

 

Finally, participation entails keeping up with the reading. We can't have good discussions if no one has read what we're discussing.  Be warned: this course is reading-intensive. It’s your responsibility to get the readings, bring them to class, factor reading time into your schedule, and be prepared to discuss the texts on the scheduled dates.  After all, you don’t want your participation grade to reflect my perception that you skimmed the reading ten minutes before class – or didn’t read it at all.

 

I'll begin the semester on the "honor system," trusting each of you to stay on track, but if I sense that people are falling behind on the reading, I will give short quizzes. Each failed quiz would knock your participation grade down by half a grade (an A-minus would become a B-plus, a B would turn into a B-minus, a B-minus into a C-plus, and so on). Let's not let it get to that point.

 

15% Midterm Exam: The exam will ask you to explain several of the terms and concepts covered in class and in the assigned readings.  More will be said about this later; meanwhile, take careful notes.

 

15% Mock Research Paper: You will write a 4-page paper which demonstrates your mastery of all the rules for proper format, MLA-style citation, and use of quotations, and which is composed of complete sentences, but which is otherwise utterly nonsensical.  I’ll give detailed guidelines in class.

 

25% Minor written assignments: These will be brief, usually less formal writing assignments.  Among these will be five 2½-3 page “sketches” for a longer, research-based essay (one of which you will later revise into the Researched Literary Essay).  They will not receive letter grades; instead, they will be awarded points for completeness, substantiality, correspondence to the specific requirements of the assignment, and being handed in on time in the proper format.  Each of them will be worth a maximum of 5 points.  An assignment handed in late can only receive a maximum of 3 points.

 

25% Researched Literary Essay: This will be either an interpretive or a critical essay on one of the approved texts (if you wish to write about a text that isn’t on the list, you must get approval first).  Only one draft is required, and it is due on the last day of class.  However, if you show me a rough or first draft at any time before this, I will give you feedback.  Note: Handing in the paper late will knock the final paper grade down by one letter grade.  I will not accept any drafts after the final exam.

 

Plagiarism: When you include someone else's information, ideas, or words in your writing, you should do so in the official MLA (Modern Language Association) style, which you should already be familiar with.  Even if you are not, however, you should be aware of the general rule, which is to always acknowledge where material comes from -- a book, website, lecture, movie, personal email, magazine article, phone interview, or any other source.  Using another's words, ideas, or information without attributing them to that source means that, whether or not you intended it, you have represented someone else's work as your own, which is plagiarism.*

 

I take plagiarism -- even unintentional plagiarism -- very seriously.  If I see sufficient evidence of plagiarism in a written assignment, it will receive an F, and the writer may also receive an F for the course if the offense is serious enough.

Attendance policy

We have 32 class meetings this semester. If you miss 3 of them (nearly 10% of the total) without what I deem a legitimate excuse (e.g., illness, a family emergency, official college business), you are no longer eligible for a final grade of A; the highest final grade you can receive will be a B. If you miss 5 classes (about 15%), the highest grade you can get will be a C. 7 or more will fail you.

 

Coming to class 10 minutes late will be counted as ½ of an absence. (It’s really disruptive when people wander in late.) If too many people come in late, I’ll lower this limit to 5 minutes. This may seem harsh, but your presence or absence affects both what we can accomplish as a class and what you, individually, can learn. If I see that you're not on time and fully present (awake, engaged, here to participate), you can't count on getting credit for your attendance.

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