Grade Breakdown

Grades are based on:
Homework (Reading Responses): 15%
Journals: 15%
Quizzes: 10%
3 essays (4 pages each): 30%
Research Paper: 20%
Class Participation: 10%

Class Schedule

Class Schedule

Week 1:
Ways of Making Literature Matter 1-33 (stop reading at end of poem)
Homework: Ways Writing Exercise p. 28 (2 pages double spaced, 1 inch margins, size 12 font)
Journal: Ways Writing Exercise p. 33

Week 2:
Ways 33-70

Week 3:
Ways 71-76, 82-98
Discuss Welty in relation to elements of fiction

Week 4: Read Trifles in Ways 120—148
Continue elements of fiction, begin elements of drama
Begin paper 1

Week 5: Continue elements of drama
Read Yellow Wallpaper

Week 6: Raisin in the Sun

Week 7: Paper 1 due; continue Raisin in the Sun

Week 8: Begin Paper 2; begin Life in the Iron Mills

Week 9: Mid Term; continue Life in the Iron Mills

Week 10: Life in the Iron Mills

Week 11: Paper 2 due; begin Their Eyes Were Watching God

Week 12: Begin Paper 3; continue Eyes

Week 13: Eyes

Week 14: Ways 102-119; elements of poetry

Week 15: Paper 3 due; discuss final paper
Ways 152-175; writing about essays

Week 16: Ways 176-205; begin final paper

Week 17: Work on final paper

Week 18: Final paper due; final exam

*All scheduled tasks are subject to change

Schilb, John and John Clifford. Ways of Making Literature Matter. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2001.

Required Texts

Schilb, John and John Clifford. Ways of Making Literature Matter. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2001.
Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry
Life in the Iron Mills by Rebecca Harding Davis
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Others to be announced and will be provided

Course Objectives

• In this class, you will:
  Write a minimum of 7000 words that demonstrate your ability to articulate, organize, and express your ideas in well developed, coherently argued, and effectively written expository and argumentative essays; at least one of these essays will be written in class.
• Apply inductive, deductive, and inferential reasoning to analyze assigned readings, participate in critical thinking class discussions and activities, and compose clearly organized and effectively argued written responses to those texts.
  
• Recognize and analyze stated and unstated assumptions of texts and draw meaningful inferences about the intentions of the author by participating in class discussions and composing written responses
  
• Recognize and evaluate the use of rhetorical techniques employed to manipulate the readers by critically responding to assigned texts both in class discussions and written assignments.
  
• Identify and analyze specific logical fallacies and apply this knowledge to evaluate critically assigned texts and their own expository and argumentative writing assignments.
  
• Learn to improve and evaluate your logical reasoning, modify your organization, and refine the grace and style of your own writing by successfully editing, revising and redrafting your own expository and argumentative essays.
  
• Learn a variety of research approaches including library and internet research skills and use your critical thinking abilities to produce an effective argumentative research paper that follows MLA documentation guidelines.
  
• Write a variety of expository and argumentative assignments demonstrating the use of increasingly sophisticated rhetorical modes and strategies.
  

Course Requirements

English 116 is a course designed to build on composition skills gained from English 114 and 115. We will continue research projects and various essay formats based on your literary reading selections. The course emphasizes instruction and practice in drafting, revising, and editing expository and argumentative essays. In this course you will write about literature using priciples of critical thinking, logical analysis, and inductive and deductive reasoning. You will examine common logical errors of language and thought.