"An old woman sits in her shuttered room. She is alone in the whole world. Every other thing is dead. The doorbell rings."
attributed to Thomas Baily Aldrich

This 3-unit course is fully transferrable to both UC and CSU. NOTE: there is a prerequisite for this course. You must either have completed English 101 (or its equivalent) with a grade of "C" or higher, or you must be placed into English 101 as a result of the assessment test. For more information, please contact the counseling staff at LAHC.

Most of you have done book reports and plot summaries; many of you have researched some biographical information on authors. WE WILL NOT be doing that in this class. You are going to be challenged to look more closely at works of fiction to try to find out what ideas various writers/thinkers have to share with us. In literature these ideas are often suggested rather than stated explicitly, so you are going to have to really think about what we read.

English 102 is designed to enable students to read a wide variety of literature with increased understanding, to sharpen critical thinking, and to improve skills in effective writing and research. This is primarily a course in ideas. We will be looking at techniques different writers use to engage, entertain, challenge, even tease us, but mainly we will be looking at what different writers have to say. Perhaps you will see something of yourself. At the very least, ENJOY! Most of our time will be spent discussing works assigned; there will also be writing assignments for each genre.

What distinguishes this particular section of English 102 is its final project. Shaped around our semester's novel--Station Eleven, there will be a research paper and final project which will challenge you to draw connections, to be very creative, to problem solve in very practical ways, and to apply critical thinking skills. Since the presentation menthod for the final project also allows you to work in various media, it may also tickle out some of your artistic and technological interests.

This is not a class in personal beliefs or opinions or abstractions, logical fallacies, or vague, general thoughts. It is a course in concrete details, examples, incidents. You are NEVER required to agree or disagree with the ideas the authors express; you ARE required to try to understand what they are saying, and, as in any other class, you will need to back up your analyses with credible, logical evidence.

General Nature of the Course

This course functions very much like a correspondence course; the chief difference is the electronic environment and your relatively immediate access to your instructor (me). Also instead of students submitting work on paper, assignments are submitted, commented upon and returned via e-mail; lecture material, course deadlines, assignment information are available via the internet.

Class Schedule: You will need to regularly keep track of assignment (reading and writing) due dates by referring to the Class Schedule. It is up to you to keep up with assignment deadlines. I highly recommend that you bookmark the Schedule page.

Lectures: There are a series of online lectures on topics related to your reading and writing. Be sure to read the lecture material for each week listed because this should help you to understand what some of my expectations and special concerns are about your reading and writing. To get to the different lectures, click on the links to Lecture 1, Lecture 2, etc. on the Class Schedule.

Essays: Much of your grade is based on your written assignments. There are detailed instructions on how to produce and submit essays on the class Writing Assignments page. Read over this material very carefully; there are requirements on length, file format, MLA format, etc. that you need to know. Specific paper topic instructions can be reached through the links on the Class Schedule page or the Writing Assignments page.

Class Discussions: Most of the rest of your grade will be based on class discussions of certain questions relating to the readings. Discussions will be conducted with the entire class on an ETUDES message board (more information is available on the Discussions page). Be sure that you read this page thoroughly so that you can earn maximum discussion points. To get to individual discussion questions, click on the links to Discussion 1, Discussion 2, etc. on the Class Schedule.

Miscellaneous: There may be some miscellaneous short activities (such as the class Orienatation Assignment) that will be done in the Assignments/Tests section of ETUDES. These will be noted on the Class Schedule.

Are you starting to see why I recommend you bookmark the Class Schedule page? It is leads out to all other sections of the class :)

Student Learning Objectives

Student who complete this course successfully should, minimally, be able to

Here is the Webster's definition of plagiarize:

to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one's own : use (another's production) without crediting the source

intransitive senses : to commit literary theft : present as new and original an idea or product derived from an existing source

Realize that if you are caught plagiarizing, you will fail the assignment with no chance to revise it. There are no exceptions. If you are unsure what constitutes plagiarism, contact me.

Student Responsibilities

Your responsibilities for this course are really the same as those of any student taking any course with the following addition: you have to keep reminding yourself what is required (assignment dates, rules, etc.) because you don't have an instructor in the front of a room reminding you every class.

If you do not agree to all of the above requirements, do not take this course.

Textbooks

Important Textbook Note

Most of the texts can be found in our bookstore; you can also get them online at Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble or any other online book vendor (there are lots).

Just remember that if you are going to get them online, there is shipping time, so get them early. That's one reason I require you to check in early.

Staton Elevn is a new book, and it is a bestseller. It should be widely available at your local public library, but get a copy early since they will be checked out by your fellow classmates quickly.

Required Texts:

Grading

Each assignment will receive a point score; letter grades are based on percentages (90-100% = A; 80-89% = B; etc.); for example, if a discussion is worth 20 points possible, and if you score a 16, then you have scored 80% which equals a B for that assignment.

At the end of the semester, your overall score will be converted into a percentage of the points possible for the entire course to determine your letter grade for the course.

Points Break Down Like this:

Here's a little something to help you out: if you looked at the Class Schedule, you might have noticed FIVE discussions (not four). That last discussion is a Bonus Discussion. It is completley optional, but it is worth 20 extra credit points. So if you have to miss a discussion (don't miss lots of them), or if you have to turn a paper in late and take a penalty, the extra credit will wipe out that penalty :)

General Information about Essays

Paper 1 will require you to develop papers of a minimum of three (if you are trying for a "C") to four (if you are trying for a higher score) full typed pages (the research paper and the final project will be longer) in standard MLA format (see below) to adequately cover the topic. You'll want to use specific examples whenever possible. Feel free to draw on personal experience, but that's generally not enough to support your thesis. Content is most important with these essays, but I will look closely at the form of the essays as well, so you'll need to edit and proofread to eliminate as many of the spelling, punctuation, grammar, syntax errors as possible to earn a high score.

NOTE: these are not just personal opinion papers.

These are, for the most part, analytical essays. Even if you find an occasion where it is appropriate to include personal experience, you will be supporting a thesis (the central idea/point you are trying to develop/prove) with examples/evidence--that is the essence of an argument/analysis. Depending on the writing task, you will generally be required to include a lot of supporting examples (documented quotations) from the readings themselves. This is true both for the essays and the class discussions.

For more information about what constitutes an "A" paper (or not), click here.

MLA Essay Format

Save a copy

always keep copies of all of your assignments with grades and comments on them. If there is a disagreement about a score in your gradebook, you will have the saved paper to support your position.

Formatting in WORD

All essays must be in standard MLA (Modern Language Association) format; this is the format you should have learned in English 101. College and university academic standards require that papers written in the humanities (there is a different format for scientific papers) be submitted in this format.

Important Note about MLA Format: In 2016 The MLA made significant changes to how Works Cited pages are done. The document formatting is the same, but the Works Cited page entries are not. So if you do not have a handbook with the 2016 MLA changes, then you must refer to the Purdue OWL site when you put your WC pages together.

For complete information on what this format looks like, refer to your Engish 101 writer's handbook (if you still have it). I have also included a copy of a sample MLA paper with some instructions that you can look at here (I've saved the files in two formats; you should be able to open at least one); please open and read this file, and review it before you do your first essay (or print it out to refer to as you write your papers)::

Sample MLA Essay in Word (.doc) Format
Sample MLA Essay in Rich-text (.rtf) Format

You can also find information on the MLA format and more general information on academic writing at the following web site:

Purdue MLA format site.

You can also visit the school's Writing Lab in the Learning Assistance Center for more help.

Please look over the format of your essay before you submit it. You will lose points for incorrectly-formatted papers; in some cases, essays will not be accepted if the format is too far from the MLA standards.

Late Work, Revisions and Extra Credit

Try to get all work in on time. Late essays will always be penalized. A late essay will lose 10% of the total score. NOTE: Any essay that is more than one week late will receive no credit! To avoid a late penalty (or a zero), it's a very good idea to submit work early. Always keep a copy of your work in case it gets lost or misplaced in the e-mail.

Revisions are super, but in a six-week class, there's just no way. Instead, I do offer you a little extra credit. The final class discussion is optional and is worth 20 bonus points.