DIMENSIONS IN
DIVERSITY
A Learning Community Experience
Office: Building #2 – 5W Section: P
Phone: 964-6417 Time: 10:10-11:05
E-mail: rejedele@dmacc.edu Room: 2-17
Office Hours:
(Additional times are also available and encouraged by appointment)
_____________________________________________________________
Instructor: Eden Pearson Class: Litr. 120
Office: Building #2 – 5S Section: B
Phone: O: 964-6555 H: 462-2915 or 462-3917 Time: 11:15-12:20
E-mail: efpearson@dmacc.edu Room: 2-17
Office Hours:
(Additional times are also available and encouraged by appointment)
Hawthorne, Nathaniel. The Scarlet Letter. Ed. Ross C. Murfin. Boston: Bedford Books of
St. Martin’s Press, 1991.
Lundsford, Andrea A. The Everyday Writer. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2001.
Meyer, Michael, ed. Thinking and Writing about Literature: A Text and
Anthology. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2001.
This is not a
correspondence course! Each student is permitted ____ absences from class. Absence ___ is an automatic F in
the course—no questions asked, no exceptions allowed. We will not qualify absences; in other words, there are no excused
or unexcused absences—attending a funeral or keeping a doctor's appointment is
no more of an excuse for missing class than sleeping late or sitting in
Building #5 with friends.
Experience has proven that students who do not attend class are not successful. Although attendance is not mandatory, it is expected. Please note that 20% of each student's final composition grade is based on grades achieved on in-class assignments and writings. Obviously, if a student is not present during a class period, it is impossible to participate in discussions and in-class writing activities. In addition, since the course is designed to be a community, your absence will take away from the collaborative learning experience. Also, no late work is accepted and the word "make-up" does not exist in your instructors’ vocabularies. All assigned Reading Responses are due the day the selection is discussed in class. The bottom line? If you want the points and expect to be successful, be in class.
Although cell phones seldom ring in our classroom, they are unacceptable. Turn them off before class begins. It is rude to answer a cell phone in such public places as classrooms, restaurants, or movies. If you are anticipating an important call because of a family emergency, stay at home and wait for the call or wait for the call in the hall.
Several class meetings will have in-class writings or short quizzes. Usually, these will be reactions to the reading assignments. None of these assignments can be made up at a later date. It is also important that students be punctual because if there is an in-class writing exercise, it will be at the beginning of the class. Thirty to forty minutes will be allotted to complete these responses. Thus, it is important that you read the assignments. (You should budget your time so that you can read the assignments more than once. You will soon discover that a quick or casual reading will not be sufficient to complete the tasks expected of you in class.) There is not time to read the assignment and respond in class. These assignments will constitute 20 % of the final grade for composition.
All Reading Responses are due at the beginning of the class.
The four major essays are also due on the dates they are assigned. Any major essay that is not submitted on the date assigned will lose 5 points for each day that it is late. In other words, if an essay is due on a Wednesday and it is not submitted until Thursday, it will lose 5 points. If it’s handed in on Friday of the same week, it will lose 10 points.
Although all essays can be revised for a higher grade, the points lost because an essay was originally submitted late cannot magically be earned in the revision process. For example, if an essay is submitted late one day and received a C (78) for a grade, the actual grade recorded will be 73 (D+). If the student decides to revise and receives an A- (92) on the revision, the grade recorded will be an 87 (B).
In the literature class, students are only allowed to make up one test during the course of the semester. If you are not in class the day of a test, a test will be waiting for you in the Academic Achievement Center in Building #6. You have until the beginning of the next class to take the test. If the test has not been taken by that time, you forfeit the points for the test. (In the event of hospitalization or extreme emergency, call Eden and discuss the issue with her.)
Visual rhetoric pertains to how a document looks even before it is read. What this means is that all work must be keyboarded and be neat in appearance. Appropriate margins, spacing, and headings must be used. Proper pagination must be utilized in every assignment. (Proper pagination means that a student’s last name and a page number appears on every second and consecutive page.) Any paper that appears sloppy and unprofessional, or inappropriately submitted, will not be graded.
All assignments should have reasonable side margins. Your academic essays are the only papers that are required to be double-spaced in format. Your short assignments and professional documents should be single-spaced. The particular format for each assignment will be determined by the style sheet that is selected or by the type of document that is being produced. All formats will be discussed in class; they are also illustrated in your handbook.
Every academic document—professional documents have different identifying information—submitted should have the following identifying information in the upper left-hand corner:
Student name
Instructor name
Type of Assignment
Date of Submission
All major essays will be submitted in a ½” three-ringed binder. Students will keep writing logs for major assignments. The logs, all drafts, and copies of any outside sources must be submitted with the final draft. Whenever an outside source is used, a Work(s) Cited page must accompany the essay. An essay will not be graded if any part is missing.
Misspelled words are inexcusable and unacceptable. Learn to use your computer’s spellchecker. Any paper that has a misspelled word in it will not be graded. When the instructor encounters a misspelled word, the word is highlighted in yellow and the paper is returned to the author to be corrected. Once the paper is corrected, it is to be resubmitted for grading. For your academic papers, do not print a new copy of the essay. Correct the spelling with ink. Don’t just correct the word and resubmit the paper; make sure no other words are misspelled in the document. However, never make ink corrections in your professional documents. Although homonyms are not misspelled words, they are signs of poor editing and/or proofreading.
According to Writing from A to Z, plagiarism is defined as “[using] someone else’s exact words without quotation marks and appropriate credit or [using] someone else’s ideas without acknowledgment. In publishing, plagiarism is illegal; in other circumstances it is, at least, unethical” (308).
Plagiarism is a serious academic offense and will not be tolerated in this class. Because students are often unaware that they have, indeed, plagiarized, the first offense will result in an automatic zero, which can be removed by resubmitting the essay with the appropriate corrections. In the event that a student is found guilty a second time, the penalty will be an F in the course.
Service Learning
Twenty percent of each
student’s composition grade will be based on the service-learning component of
this class. First, as a class we will define “service learning” and discuss the
various options. Six documents are included in this project. The portfolios
will be submitted near the end of the semester. The following is a list of the
writing components:
1.
Letter of Introduction
2.
Progress Report (in
memo format)
3.
Service-Learning
Journal
4.
Researched Profile
5.
Reflective or
Argumentative Essay
6.
Letter of Transmittal
Each student will be
expected to volunteer a minimum of 15 hours of service.
I think it is only fair that I explain some of my grading policies. I will be the first to admit that I am a slow grader. I am not a holistic grader. In other words, I do not simply read your documents and slap a grade on them. I take the time to comment on where you’re making mistakes and I make suggestions on how ou can make improvements . I will grade your Reading Responses as quickly as possible, so that you don’t continue to make the same mistakes. However, it usually takes me two weeks to grade a major set of essays.
You will have no doubt when you receive your papers that I have spent time with them. I also must admit that there have been times when I have simply written the word “stop” in the margin to signal that I have stopped reading/grading. I usually only do this on extremely poorly written papers. I will not devote my time to grading documents that students haven’t devoted their time for researching, thinking, and writing. Because writing is a process, you cannot produce good work at the last minute.
Minor assignments and quizzes are usually worth 10-25 points.
Although major assignments receive a letter grade, these letter grades and final grades are converted according to the following scale:
A 98 C 78
A- 92 C- 74
B+ 91 D+ 73
B 88 D 69
B- 83 D- 65
C+ 82 F 60
Final grades for composition are determined in the following manner:
20% Daily work, which includes in-class writings or homework
assignments to be completed before class. (Your ten Reading
Responses are not part of this daily work category.)
30% Reading Responses
30% Average of Major Essays
20% Service Learning
The final grade in this course is based on the total number of points accumulated. The grading scale, based on a student’s percentage of points, is as follows:
94-100 A 74-77 C
90-93 A- 70-73 C-
88-89 B+ 68-69 D+
84-87 B 64-67 D
80-83 B- 60-63 D-
78-79 C+ 59 & below F
In order for you to keep track of your course grade on an on-going basis, I recommend that you save all of your work as it is returned to you. If asked, I will gladly let you know how many total points have been earned to date; however, I do not have the time during the semester to add up your individual points. That is your responsibility. There will be occasions to earn bonus points, and I will let you know these as the semester progresses.
An “A” is for superior work and should be highly prized. A “B” is above average work, and a “C” is a respectable grade, which demonstrates satisfactory accomplishment. A “D” indicates only minimum accomplishment of the course objectives, and an “F” is failure to meet the standards of the course.
The point value varies, but these opportunities will be announced in advance. I urge you to take advantage of them.
· January 13 - Beginning of Spring Term
· January 18 - Last Day to Add Regular Term Classes
· January 20 - Holiday, College Closed
· March 7 - All Offices Closed (Staff Development)
· March 10 - Midterm
· March 17-21 - Spring Break
· March 26 - Last Day to Drop Regular Term Classes
· May 8 - End of Semester
· Accommodations:
“It is the policy of DMACC to
accommodate students with
disabilities. Any student with a documented disability who
requires reasonable accommodation
should contact the
special needs coordinator at 515-964-6850 voice or
515-964-6810 TTY.”
· Services for students with disabilities:
www.dmacc.edu/student_services/disabilities.htm
Contact the special needs coordinator at 515-964-6850V,
515-964-6809 TTY or the counseling & advising office on any campus
for an Application for Accommodation.
· Academic Advising:
www.dmacc.org/student_services/academic_advising.htm
· Career counseling
http://www.dmacc.org/student_services/career_resource.htm
· Library http://www.library.dmacc.cc.ia.us/
Building
6, room 3
Monday – Thursday 7:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Friday – 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Saturday – 8:00
a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
· Computer labs
http://www.dmacc.edu/helpdesk/HD_student.htm
Building
6
Monday – Thursday 7:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.
Friday – 7:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Saturday – 7:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Work Cited
Reagan, Sally Barr, et al.
Writing from A to Z: The
Easy-to-Use Reference Handbook.
Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1994.
Tentative
Assignment Schedule
Date Assignment
M 1/13 Introduction to courses and syllabus discussion
W 1/15 Introduction to formal letters (Bring a handbook to class.)
“The Hand” (163)
M 1/20 No
Class—Martin Luther King Jr’s Birthday
W 1/22 Dear
Randy Letter Due
Introduction to Service Learning
“The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” (handout)
F 1/24 “Summer” (47)
“The Bass, the River, and Sheila Mant” (handout)
Comparison and Contrast
M 1/27 Introduction to Explication (272)
“Night Waitress” (handout)
W 1/29 Introduction to Essay #1
“A Good Man Is Hard to Find” (handout)
The Scarlet Letter (53-101)
The Scarlet Letter (101-150)
W 2/5 Test
#1—Literary Terms
Workshop Essay #1
W 9/18 Team
Presentations
Introduction to Essay #1—Poetry Explication
F 9/20 “Elements of Poetry”
M 9/23 “Elements of Drama”
Introduction to comparison and contrast
W 9/25 Test #1—Literary Terms
Ethan Frome questions distributed
F 9/27 Workshop
Essay #1
Annotation (11-16)
M 9/30 Essay
#1 Due
“Introduction to Cultural Analysis”
Date Assignment
W 10/2 “Writing and Revising” (29-46)
Play assignment and text
M 10/7 Reading Response #1 Due (Use something from Ethan Frome to
write this response.)
Ethan Frome discussion
W 10/9 Test
#2—Ethan Frome
Introduction to Essay #2—Ethan Frome paper
F 10/11 Ethan Frome movie
M 10/14 Introduction to Literary Criticism (56-82)
W 10/16 “Barn Burning” (83-103)
Reading Response #2 Due
M 10/21 Literary Criticism Presentations
Chapter 10—“Love and Its Complications”
Trifles (496-505)
Reading Response #3 Due
W 10/23 Workshop
Essay #2
Trifles
“My Last Duchess” (827-828)
F 10/25 Essay
#2 Due—Ethan Frome
“The Lady with the Pet Dog” (776-788)
“I’m a Mad Dog Biting Myself for Sympathy” (788-793)
“Jealousy” (826)
Reading Response #4 Due
M 10/28 “Lust” (796-803)
“Sex Without Love” (838)
“In the Orchard” (handout)
W 10/30 Reading
Response #5 Due
F 11/1 “Good Country People” (805-817)
“IND AFF or Out of Love in Sarajevo” (817-823)
Reading Response #6 Due
The Glass Menagerie
W 11/6 Test
#3—Love and Its Complications
F 11/8 Introduction to Essay #3—Literary research paper (118-134)
The Glass Menagerie discussion
Reading Response #7 Due (use The
Glass Menagerie)
M 11/11 Chapter 11—“Life and Its Lessons”
“The Lesson” (925-931)
“Battle Royal” (931-942)
“A & P” (981-986)
Reading Response #8 Due
W 11/13 “Young Man on Sixth Avenue” (942-943)
“Woman’s Work” (986)
“Short-Order Cook” (989)
“Out, Out” (992)
“Mr. Z” (996)
“Theme for English B” (998)
Reading Response #9 Due
W 11/20 Test #4—Life and Its Lessons/The Glass Menagerie
F 11/22 Workshop
Essay #3
Chapter 13—“Culture and Identity”
“Young Goodman Brown” (1246-1256)
M 11/25 Essay
#3 Due
“The Judge’s Wife” (1226-1256)
“Miss Brill” (1270-1274)
W 4/27 “Green Chili” (1274)
“Sure You Can Ask Me a Personal Question” (1275)
“When I First Saw Snow” (1278)
“We Wear the Mask” (1279)
“Coco-Cola and Coco-Frio” (1284)
“Dinner Guest: Me” (1286)
“Recipe” (1288)
Reading Response #10 Due
M 12/2 Test
#5—Culture and Identity
F 12/6
M 12/9
W 12/11
Service-Learning Portfolios Due
F 12/13 Comprehensive
Final Exam (10:30-12:45)