ENG 600: Introduction to Graduate Studies
Joseph T. Thomas, Jr.
email: jtthomas@mail.sdsu.edu
Class Meetings: Tuesday 7:00PM - 9:40PM ; Storm Hall 339
Office: AL-255
Contact: jtthomas@mail.sdsu.edu
Office Hours: Tuesday: 3:00-3:50PM; Wednesday: 5:00-6:50 (and by appointment)
!!!! IMPORTANT: Online Schedule !!!!
(This schedule is tentative. Check back often for changes and updates)
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This course is designed to familiarize you with the complex and rich world of English Studies, as well as the historical traditions that inform it. We will be reading a wide array of texts of varying degrees of difficulty. The course of study we are undertaking is not a subject that can be "mastered"--indeed, much of the critical theory produced in recent years resists the very idea of mastery. Instead of "mastering" these texts and the ideas they seek to communicate, we will seek to engage and interact with them, discovering how they might inform the work we undertake as students and scholars of English Studies.
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Texts (required):
Falling into Theory: Conflicting Views on Reading Literature (Paperback)
by David H. Richter
# Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's; Second Edition edition (December 24, 1999)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 0312201567
# ISBN-13: 978-0312201562
$34.00How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read
by Pierre Bayard
# Publisher: Bloomsbury USA (October 30, 2007)
# ISBN-10: 1596914696
$20.00Professing Literature: An Institutional History, Twentieth Anniversary Edition (Paperback)
by Gerald Graff
$19.00
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 20 Anv edition (December 15, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226305597
• ISBN-13: 978-0226305592Crusoe's Footprints: Cultural Studies in Britain and America (Paperback)
by Pat Brantlinger (Author)
$34.95
# Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (June 27, 1990)
# Language: English
# ISBN-10: 0415902843
# ISBN-13: 978-0415902847
Late Work:
Work will be turned in on the date due or not at all. We all have schedules, and it is imperative that we keep to them. However, I am not completely draconian. In extreme cases I may accept late work, but don't count on it.
Plagiarism:
Plagiarism is taking someone else's words, idea, or argument and claiming it as your own. Don't do it unless you have a interesting and rigorous intellectual or aesthetical reason. Cite all your sources unless you discuss your appropriation with me first. Instances of plagiarism designed to avoid intellectual work will earn you an F for the course, and, in egregious cases, may result in expulsion from the university. Please familiarize yourself with SDSU plagiarism policies, discussed in your handbook. Throughout the syllabus and my links page are links to many useful web sources. Do not take the words or ideas from any of these sources without providing the appropriate citations unless, again, you discuss your aims with me first. This goes for oral presentations as well as written work.
Assignments/Grade Distribution:
Facilitation: 20%
Blackboard Posts: 25%
Participation: 25%
Final Paper: 30%
Participation: (25%)
I expect you to come to class with something to say. In addition to researching the authors, think about when the books or essays were published, reacquaint yourself with historical context that surrounds the work, its reception, etc. Make connections between the content of this course and others you have taken, and apply whatever theoretical, philosophical, or pedagogical rubrics you feel are appropriate (check out the literature, poetry, and theory links on my webpage. And use print sources as well. The library is a wonderful place). Contributions to the Blackboard discussion threads above and beyond the minimum requirement counts towards your participation grade.
Absences will count against your final grade, especially as this is a once a week class. One absence is the same as missing an entire week of class. Keep that in mind, and miss as few classes as possible.
Blackboard Posts (25%)
These are formalized reflections on the week's readings which will be posted to a discussion thread on Blackboard (log into Blackboard, click on "communication," and then on whatever week you are responding to. We'll go over the process in class). You will be a member of either Group A or Group B. Beginning on the second week, one group will write a Reading Response of three hundred to three hundred and fifty words (300-350) to the assigned readings. These responses may focus on one reading, or link two or more of the readings, including previous reading assignments. However, while they may reference earlier readings, these responses should focus primarily on the readings for that week. Then the second group will write a shorter, two hundred and fifty to three hundred word (250-300) Peer Response to a Reading Response. (Please put your word count on the bottom of each post.) These two groups will alternate throughout the semester.
The first group (Reading Response) will post their work to Blackboard by 10:00AM Sunday. The second group (Peer Response) will post their response by 10:00AM Tuesday, etc. Thus, each group is responsible for posting their writing by 10:00AM on its assigned days. Responses will guide our class discussion. Reading Responses may point out and discuss crucial terms and concepts, challenge or extend ideas developed in previous discussions or in the critical readings, or link the readings in surprising ways. Peer Responses will critically engage, challenge, or extend the ideas raised by that week's Reading Responses. Both responses should be cordial and collegial, even (or especially!) when disagreeing with classmates. You will want to be generative, opening up discussion, not foreclosing it.
You may want to (and are encouraged to!) continue discussing ideas once you've met the minimum requirement. In other classes, I've had discussion threads continue for weeks. These discussions are for your benefit, so enjoy them. Contributing often and articulately certainly won't hurt your participation grade.
The schedule is as follows (note that, for parity, Week Ten deviates from the regular schedule):
Week Two
Sept 6 Group A Reading Response
8 Group B Peer ResponseWeek Three
Sept 13 Group B Reading Response
15 Group A Peer ResponseWeek Four
Sept 20 Group A Reading Response
22 Group B Peer Response
Week Five
Sept 27 Group B Reading Response
29 Group A Peer ResponseWeek Six
Oct 4 Group A Reading Response
6 Group B Peer ResponseWeek Seven
Oct 11 Group B Reading Response
13 Group A Peer ResponseWeek Eight
Oct 18 Group A Reading Response
20 Group B Peer ResponseWeek Nine
Oct 25 Group B Reading Response
27 Group A Peer ResponseWeek Ten (NOTE DIFFERENCE!!)
Nov 1 Groups A & B Reading Response
3 Groups B & A Peer ResponseWeek Eleven
Nov 8 Group B Reading Response
10 Group A Peer ResponseWeek Twelve
Nov 15 Group A Reading Response
17 Group B Peer ResponseWeek Thirteen
Nov 22 No Posts This WeekWeek Fourteen
Nov 29 No Posts This WeekWeek Fifteen
Dec 6 No Posts This Week
Facilitation: (20%)
For this project you will team up with two other classmates (for groups of three) and lead the discussion for the first half of class (spilling over to the second half, if you'd like). You shouldn't prepare a long, scripted presentation (a few opening remarks to frame the readings initially is okay, of course); rather, you should consider how you can lead the class in discussion, facilitate conversation about the issues raised in the week's readings. You should prepare for the facilitation by reading outside sources of your own selection. I'm more than willing to help out in this regard.
Final Paper: (30%)
This will be a piece of argumentative writing, due at the end of the semester (on the final exam day), that grows organically from the issues we've been discussing and reading about all semester. It should be around 20 pages.