Fall 2006 Reading Schedule (
Week 1 (August 21), The Curious
Incident of the Dog in the Night-time
Week 2 (August 28), Debunking 9/11 Myths
Week 4 (September 11), Labyrinths
STUDY GROUPS
SG1=Barnhart,Bonk,Edwards,Kelly,Montgomery,Stensland
SG2=Battista,Destine,Gudger,Leggett,Smelas,Van Haute
SG3=Baumann,Ditty,Hale,Levi,Snellgrove,Westbrook
English
1101-H3: Composition I (#10018)
Fall 2006:
Monday/Wednesday at 12:30-1:45p (75 minutes), English Building 53
Professor Robert W. Hill
Office: EB 117
Office Hours: MW 12-12:20p, 6-6:20p; often online; and by appointment
(except for certifiable emergencies, not available
after noon on Fridays or before 9 a.m. on Mondays)
Telephone: 770-423-6346
E-mails (always send to both addresses): rhill@kennesaw.edu AND rhill41@gmail.com
RWH’s KSU Web site: http://ksuweb.kennesaw.edu/~rhill
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Nota bene: KSU Statement on Academic
Honesty (8-17-99)
and
KSU Student Code of Conduct
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ENGL 1101.
N.B.: First-Year
Guidelines for University-Level Writing
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THE MAIN TEXTS (always with you in class unless otherwise instructed):
Borges, Jorge Luis. Labyrinths:
Selected Stories and Other Writings.
Dunbar, David,
and Brad Reagan, eds. Debunking 9/11
Myths.
Haddon, Mark. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. New York: Vintage, 2004. ISBN 1400032717.
OTHER TEXTS (a list in progress):
A Beautiful Mind. Dir. Ron
Howard. Perf. Russell Crowe, Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly. Universal, 2001.
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6th ed. New York: MLA, 2003. ISBN 0-87352-975-8.
---. MLA Style
Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing. 2nd ed. New York: MLA, 1998. ISBN 0-87352-699-6.
Gibson, William. Neuromancer. 1984. New York: Ace, 2004. ISBN 0441012035.
Mosher, Mark. “Atemporal Labyrinths in Time: J.L. Borges and the New Physicists.” Symposium 48.1 (Spring 1994): 51-61. [Located with GALILEO].
Numb3rs. [Several tv episodes]. Perf. Rob Morrow, David Krumholz, Judd Hirsch.
Pi. Dir.
Darren Aronofsky. Writ.
Darren Aronofsky and Sean Gullette. Perf. Sean Gullette. Artisan, 1998.
Proof. Dir. John Madden. Perf.
Gwyneth Paltrow, Anthony Hopkins, Hope Davis, Jake Gyllenhaal. Miramax, 2005.
Publication Manual of the
American Psychological Association. 5th ed. Washington, DC: APA, 2001. ISBN
1-55798-790-4.
Shumate, Michael. “Hyperizons:
From Page to Screen.” 10 Feb. 1997.
Stoppard, Tom. Arcadia. New York: Faber, 1994. ISBN 0571169341.
Teacherly handouts, occasional movies, other suggested
readings, and on- and off-campus literary events.
Reading Schedule and Some Other Assignments
(in progress all term, rev. 10/2/06)
Monday, August 21: Intro to the course and to its
interdisciplinary intentions; discuss “Authority.”
Wednesday, August 23: Have read Mark Haddon’s The
Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.
Monday, August 28: Have read Debunking 9/11 Myths; opinion and informed opinion
Wednesday, August 30: Stereotypes: mathematicians,
autism; MLA format for essays and Works Consulted
Monday, September 4; LABOR DAY, NO KSU CLASSES
Wednesday, September 6:
Monday, September 11: Have read “The
Wednesday, September 13: Have read “Preface” and
“Introduction” to Borges, “Tlon, Uqbar,
Orbis Tertius,” “Death and the Compass.”
Monday, September 18: Have read “The Lottery in
Wednesday, September 20: Have read “Theme of the Traitor and the
Hero,” “The Secret Miracle,” “Three Versions of Judas,” “The Sect of the
Friday, September 22: ESSAY 1, 750-1000
words, in MLA format, due by
Monday, September 25: Discuss Essays 1; Have read “The Immortal,” “The Theologians,” “Story of the
Warrior and the Captive,” “Emma Zunz,” “The House of Asterion,” “Deutsches Requiem,”
“Averroes’ Search,” “Valéry as Symbol”
Wednesday, September 27: “The Zahir,”
“The Waiting,” “The God’s Script,” “The Wall and the Books,” “A New Refutation
of Time,” “Kafka and His Precursors.”
Monday,
October 2: Have read “The Argentine Writer and Tradition,” “The Fearful
Sphere of Pascal,” “Avatars of the Tortoise.”
Wednesday, October 4: Three Study Groups to discuss, in
twenty-minute rotations with me, (a) Essay 1 and (b) Elements of “Your Borges
Essay” preparing for Essay 2. Essay 2 assignment is to examine in 1200-1300
words
(a)
assumptions about yourself that are evident or emerge from “Your Borges Essay”;
(b) assumptions that are evident or emerge from that essay regarding the
assignment, the academic context, your classmates, the online media, the
professor, etc.;
(c) assumptions likely from an outside, literate audience who might read that
essay; and
(d) examine ways you might have enriched that essay with additional bodies of
knowledge such as we see in Borges’s own essay. To
quote Sufjan Stevens,
[The Book of Imaginary Beings] is sort of
a fake encyclopedia that he compiled of imaginary beings in literature. It has
everything from the Chinese fox to fairies and elves, banshees and unicorns to
things I’ve never heard of. It has the pretense of being a serious
encyclopedia, but there are all these little jokes, quips, and little asides.
It’s pretty hilarious. (AJC
Monday, October 9: Discuss mathematical implications in selected
poems, including Wislawa Szymborska’s
“View with a Grain of Sand.”
Wednesday, October 11: ESSAY 2, 1200-1300 words, in MLA format, due by
Thursday, October 12: FIRST ONLINE RESPONSE GRADES, AS OF
Friday, October 13: Last Day to Withdraw without Academic Penalty
Monday, October 16: ESSAY 3, 750-1000 words, in MLA
format, due by
Wednesday, October 18: Discuss Essay 3; have read
“Inferno, I, 32,” “Paradiso, XXXI, 108,” “Ragnarök,”
“Parable of Cervantes and the Quixote,” “The Witness,” “A Problem,”
“Everything and Nothing,” “Elegy.”
Monday, October 23: Discuss Borges, Haddon, and
Essay 4.
Wednesday, October 25: In-class group work on Essay 4.
Monday, October 30: ESSAY 4, 750-1000 words,
in MLA format, due by
Wednesday,
November 1: Discuss Essay 4.
Monday, November 6: Group
work on Portfolios.
Wednesday, November 8: Group
work on Portfolios.
Monday, November 13: Discuss readings.
Wednesday, November 15: Discuss readings.
Wednesday-Sunday, NOVEMBER 22-26: FALL
Monday, November 27: Discuss readings and
Portfolios.
Wednesday,
November 29: PORTFOLIOS due by 12:30pm, in both hard and e-copy.
Monday, December 4: Take deep breaths.
Wednesday, December 6: Return Portfolios, graded;
FINAL ONLINE RESPONSE GRADES, AS OF NOON TODAY.
Monday, December 11: Final Examination,
12:30-2:30pm: Portfolio presentations by study groups.
Here are several
ways we’ll establish and maintain an active learning community during this
semester:
(a)
Inform me immediately about your access to and skill with computer
technology;
(b)
Follow our evolving syllabus at my KSU web
site and its reiterations in Nicenet and WebCT;
(c)
Send a “Here I am” message to BOTH my e-mail addresses above,
including your most accessible telephone number(s);
(d)
Using the Class Key that I
will announce the first day (Class Key: 6Z73223E88), join our class at http://www.nicenet.org;
(e) Using your WebCT number and PIN number, join
our
(f) Spend at least fifteen minutes twice a
week online, writing thoughtful responses to our readings/viewings, class
discussions, classmates’ writings, etc., being sure all the while to maintain
civil, respectful, considerate rhetoric in dealing with our co-workers in this
important enterprise. (I will read everything but will intrude rarely.) Do NOT duplicate
responses, but you must have roughly equal numbers of responses at each site.
(g)
Meeting only twice a week, we need always to attend class unless a
genuine emergency prevents (usually medical).
EVALUATION PROCEDURES: Your final grade will be determined
according to the following formula:
(a) Average of two grades on response
writings—10% (A or F, graded at midterm and at end of course: viz., appropriate
numbers, quality of engagement, and distribution between WebCT and Nicenet)
(b) Four essays = 30%
(c)
Four essays revised for Portfolio + your “cover” essay = 50%
(d) Exam-day Portfolio presentations by Study
Groups = 10%
ATTENDANCE POLICY:
Because this is a university-level class,
I believe that attendance is a matter of student responsibility. However, my
experience has been that students who miss more than one week’s worth of
classes find it difficult to perform at acceptable levels, often placing unfair
demands upon their classmates to “help out” or “cover.” The assumption in all
such classes, for me, is that students want to be here (for their own various
reasons) and thus will be here.
This class begins at 12:30pm and ends at
1:45pm. Persistent tardiness or leaving class early is considered equivalent to
an absence.
If you are
absent, I expect you to communicate with me as soon as possible—in person, by
telephone, or in writing—about any work that you miss. Students should not miss
class on a regular basis with no explanation and expect, at the end of the
course, to receive special consideration of any kind.
RESPONSE WRITING:
“Response writing” includes in-class
writing assignments and online responses. The category does not include posting
your assigned essays online nor work written as part of in-class assignments
such a group chatroom activities. Group “chats”
outside of class will count if they are recorded and subsequently posted for classmates to read,
Online response writings will not be graded
for grammar, spelling, mechanics, etc., but for their regular, conscientious
contribution to our ongoing class discussion. Bluntly, either it’s done or it
isn’t. Unless otherwise instructed, you should post responses in both Nicenet
AND WebCT for classmates’ edification and delight. Do NOT duplicate
responses, but you must have roughly equal numbers of responses at each site.
Response writings serve several functions
in this class. They can be the basis for class discussion when they are written
at the beginning of class; they can guide your preparation for the following
class when they are written during or at the end of the period. Those responses
written at the end can also indicate to me material that needs further
explanation or development at the next meeting. I expect you always to use
those writing assignments to develop your ideas and to improve and strengthen
your writing abilities. I see these papers serving you as an ongoing dialogue
with yourself about issues raised in the course objectives and evolving ideas
that will emerge in our class discussions.
Formal writing
assignments, however, must demonstrate a serious effort to deal with writing
problems that have been pointed out in earlier writings. In addition to my comments on your work and in-class
lectures, I will be glad to work with you during office hours to facilitate
your improvement as a writer. You can also work with the
EXPECTATIONS:
I expect students to take their work
seriously, to come to class prepared and willing to participate, and to treat
peers and their ideas with respect. I expect students to read well, think well,
write well, and speak well as members of this English 1101 community. And enjoy
the ride.—RWH,
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