ENGL 110—Composition for Literature
Clark # 4653
TTh 11-12:15, JSH 115
Winter 2007
3 Credit hours
Brandy McKenzie,instructor
bmckenzie@clark.edu
website: mysite.verizon.net/res1ryso
Required texts and materials:
Anderson,
Lorraine, Scott Slovic, and John P. O’Grady.
Literature and the Environment.
New York:
Addison Wesley Longman, 1999.
The Little, Brown Compact Handbook, custom ed. New York: Little
Brown, 2006.
Welcome to ENG 110, a transfer credit course in which you will be learning how to strengthen
your writing skills in terms of writing about and responding to literature. In
this class we will be reading essays, fiction, and poetry related to a central theme of environmental writing, and applying
to them both our own critical thinking and ideas found in critical writing we research in the library. You will write three essays, including in each some researched material. In these essays you will analyze
the readings we have discussed in class in terms of form, content, and/or cultural context.
Each essay will demonstrate your understanding of the assigned reading materials, your ability to find related material
in the library databases and other sources, your ability to correctly cite all sources of ideas not your own, and your ability
to critically analyze and synthesize a variety of views. This course will therefore
help you develop the college-wide abilities of effective communication, critical thinking, and information technology.
The assignments for the term include the
following:
2 3-page essays-- The
first paper will be a response to the readings with the addition of one researched source, which should provide a counterargument
to your own point of view. The second paper should also be a response to at least
one of our readings, but should include material from at least two sources which take different positions on the material
discussed, either in terms of form or content. All essays must be typed, double
spaced, and handed in on the date noted in the syllabus.
1 6-page essay—This essay will be the final essay of the class. In it you should identify
common
themes or techniques in at least three different readings from the term, and
discuss
the ways these variations affect your understanding of the subject matter. There
should
be at least six sources used, at least three of which must be researched.
A reader’s journal—This should be a journal kept with
responses to the assigned
readings. Journals may be hand written if the handwriting is legible, and may be kept in
a
notebook. In it, there should be a weekly response of two full pages in
length to the
readings,
and the journal will be checked approximately every other week.
Your
grades will be determined according to the following weights:
3-pg essays—30%
6-pg essay—40%
Reading journal—20%
Participation 10%
Your participation grade,
while including the contributions you make to the discussions, will also include such aspects of performance as your efforts
in class, keeping up with the assigned readings, timeliness with assignments, willingness to speak with me about any difficulties
you may be having, etc.
Please note that both attendance and punctuality are crucial to your success and may
also affect your final grade. Therefore, you will only be allowed two absences;
for every subsequent absence, your final grade will be lowered 5%. Furthermore,
your grade on assignments will be lowered ten percent for every calendar day they are late unless you have been granted an
extension by me beforehand. Of course, should any emergency arise, I will be
more than happy to work with you—just be sure to keep me informed.
Plagiarism will also affect your grade for the course, in that it is the policy of the
English department at Clark College to
fail any students who have knowingly presented the unacknowledged ideas of others as their own. This means that the source of any information that is not public knowledge, or not specifically your own
idea and/or reasoning, must be cited in a way that is accepted by the academic community.
I will be reviewing MLA citations, but if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.
If you have a disability which may affect your performance in this class or require special
accommodations, please let me know as soon as possible so that arrangements may be made.
Tentative Schedule (subject to instructor’s discretion)
Week 1 (1/ 2 -1/ 4) -- Introductions, syllabus, definition exercise
Discussion: “Appendix—Writing About Literature and Culture”
(504)
Week 2 (1/9-1/11)—Observations of the world
Discussion: Muir, “A Wind-Storm in the Forests” (178)
Thoreau, “Solitude”
(47)
Stafford,
“Traveling Through the Dark” (79)
Bishop, “The Fish”
(160)
Updike, “The Crow in
the Woods” (68)
Discussion: the different languages of genres
Journal due 1/11
Week 3 (1/16-1/18)—Ways the environment shapes us
Discussion: London, “To Build a Fire” (31)
Oates, “The Buck” (130)
Rogers,
“Knot” (61)
Wright, “A Blessing” (64)
Discussion: MLA formatting, pt. 1
Week 4 (1/23-1/25)—Princess Mononoke (film)
Journal due 1/25
1st 3-page essay due 1/25
Week 5 (1/30-2/1)— Ways we understand our environment
Discussion: Houston, “Rock Garden” (277)
Dove, “Crab Boil” (73)
Bingham, “A Woman’s Land”
(424)
Mander, “The Walling of Awareness”
(205)
Owens, “The American Indian
Wilderness” (447)
Discussion: MLA formatting, pt.2
Week 6 (2/6-2/8)— Living in “Harmony”
Discussion: Snyder, “Song of the Taste” (16)
Clifton,
“sonora desert poem” (176)
Stevens, “The Snow Man”
(188)
Griffin,
“The Hunt” (146)
Leopold, “Thinking Like a Mountain”
(148)
Discussion: evaluation of sources
Journal due 2/8
Week 7 (2/13-2/15)— Environmental awareness in recent history
Discussion: Hughes, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” (168)
Jeffers, “Passenger Pigeons”
(474)
McPhee, from “An Island”
(427)
Lewis, “On Human Connectedness
with Nature” (392)
2nd 3-pg essay due 2/13
Week 8 (2/20-2/22)—Discussion: Library resources (class will meet in library)
Journal due 2/22
Week 9 (2/27-3/1)— Politics of the environment
Discussion: Austin, “The Last Antelope” (452)
Frost, “The Gift Outright”
(295)
Wordsworth, “The World Is Too
Much With Us” (355)
Stegner, “Wilderness Letter”
(442)
Limbaugh, “The Environmental
Mindset” (439)
6-pg essay due 3/1
Week 10 (3/6-3/8)—Peer reviews and discussion
Journal due 3/8
Revision of 6-pg essay due 3/8
