Autumn 2005
ENG 398: Critical Writing
Denney Hall 213
TR 3:30 – 5:18
Instructor:  Dr. David Herman
Office: 409 Denney (office hours M 3:00 - 4:30, TR 5:30 - 6:30, and by appointment)
Phone: 292-6123; e-mail: herman.145[at]osu.edu

Web address for this syllabus: http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/herman145/ENG398.html

Online information about the English Major: http://english.osu.edu/programs/undergraduate/default.htm

Introduction to the course

Welcome! English 398 is designed to be a gateway to the English major. We will review the areas you can focus on within current-day English studies, and then turn our attention to one such focus area: namely, writing critically about literature. We will explore the basic literary genres—including poetry, drama, and fictional as well as nonfictional narrative—and also survey major critical approaches to studying literary (and other) texts. In addition, you will get hands-on practice with planning out, researching, and (re)writing intellectually sophisticated essays of the kind that you will be expected to write in upper-level courses within the major. One of the key emphases of the class is how various critical approaches enable you to ask different kinds of questions about the texts we read—questions concerning the internal logic of literary works; the commonalities and contrasts among poetic, dramatic, and narrative representations of identity; the role of the reader; and the links between literature and history.

Required texts (available at SBX):
Course Requirements:

Please note that I use a +/- system of grading and a 10-point grading scale.  Your grade for the course will be determined by the following factors:
1. Attendance and active class participation. I expect this class to be a collective endeavor, and your attendance and participation are crucial. You will get more out of each class if you come having done the assigned reading and prepared to discuss it. More than two unexecused absences will lower your participation grade by one whole grade: for example, from a B to a C. I may also give occasional quizzes and in-class exercises that will also factor into your participation grade.
2. A collaborative oral presentation. Each student will team up with several classmates to present a research report on a topic related to our class discussions. These topics are indicated on the schedule of readings. You will sign up for a group during the second week of the quarter; at that time I will also distribute more specific guidelines for the report. Presentations should be about 15 minutes long and should be shared by all of the students in the group.
3. Four papers. A 500-word close-reading of a scene from Ibsen's The Doll House, due October 6; two 1,250-word critical papers, due October 25 and November 10; and a final, 1,500-word essay due December 6. Specific details about these papers will be discussed in class, but you can find some general guidelines for composing your essays on the following webpage: http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/herman145/papertemplate.html. These papers must represent your own work; all cases of suspected plagiarism will be reported, in accordance with university rules, to the Committee on Academic Misconduct. Plagiarism and cheating are serious offenses at OSU and will be reported to the appropriate officers of the university. Plagiarism is the representation of another's work or ideas as one's own; it includes unacknowledged quotations as well as paraphrases of someone else's words or ideas. Penalties may range from failure of the particular assignment, to failure of the course, or worse.

Grading:

Attendance and participation: 10%
Oral presentation: 15%
First paper: 15%
Second paper: 15%
Third paper: 20%
Fourth paper: 25%

Completing Assignments:

All assigned readings must be read before the date listed on the syllabus. All out-of-class assignments are due at the beginning of class. If an emergency arises and prevents you from turning in your assignment on time, always call me and leave a message on my voicemail if I am not there. In the absence of any previous consultation with me, work handed in late will be graded down, normally one letter grade for each day that it is late.

Other Policies:

Cellphones:

Please make sure that cellphones, pagers, etc. are turned off before you enter the classroom. 

Special needs:

Anyone who feels s/he may need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact me privately to discuss your specific needs. Anyone with such needs should also be aware of the the Office for Disability Services in room 150 Pomerene Hall (614-292-3307) which provides services for students with documented disabilities.

The Writing Center:

All members of the OSU community are invited to discuss their writing with a trained consultant at the Writing Center. Go to http://www.cstw.org or call 688-4291 to make an appointment.

Course Schedule:

The following is tentative course schedule. Depending on the actual pace at which we proceed during the quarter, we may have to make adjustments to the syllabus as we go.

September

Th 22  Introduction: An Overview of English Studies. Read Lynn, pp. 3-35; Landy and Allen, pp. 3-14.    

New Criticism and Close Reading

T 27  Lynn, pp. 37-59; practicing New Criticism/close reading with narrative fiction: Hemingway, "Hills Like White Elephants," and Faulkner, "A Rose for Emily" (both in Landy and Allen)

Th 29  Practicing New Criticism/close reading with poetry: Read the poems by Shakespeare, Blake, Browning, Whitman, Stevens, Yeats, Moore, Auden, Brooks, and Olds in the "Anthology of Poems" in Landy and Allen, pp. 491-534

October

T 4  Workshop on sample student essays (file versions to be e-mailed to the class). Read Hacker's sections on Clarity, Grammar, Punctuation, Mechanics, and MLA Papers in her Pocket Style Manual and be prepared to use those sections to comment on strengths and weaknesses of the sample essays. Also, access the online peer-review worksheet at http://people.cohums.ohio-state.edu/herman145/peerform.html and come to class prepared to discuss how you evaluated the sample essays. Mark any surface errors you noticed.

Th 6  Practicing New Criticism/close reading with drama: Ibsen, A Doll's House (read pp. 537-540 and 819-878 of Landy and Allen). Paper #1 due: choose a scene from Ibsen's play that you find particularly significant (for example, because of its content, themes, imagery, symbolism, etc.) and write a 500-word close reading of the scene and its significance in the context of the play. Please double-space your essay and use your computer's word-count function to check the exact number of words. List the number of words at the end of your essay, making sure that it is within 50 words of the target length (450-550 words).

Reader-Response Criticism

T 11  Lynn, pp. 61-95; also read O'Connor, "A Good Man is Hard to Find," Browning, "My Last Duchess," and Havel, Protest (all in Landy and Allen)

Deconstructive Criticism

Th 13  Lynn, pp. 97-131; also read, in Landy and Allen, Hawthorne, "The Minister's Black Veil: A Parable," Lawrence, "The Rocking-Horse Winner," and all the Emily Dickinson poems (pp. 341, 342, 344, 413, 414)

Feminist and Gender-oriented Criticism

T 18  Lynn, pp. 211-243; Gilman, "The Yellow Wall-Paper," Porter, "The Jilting of Granny Weatherall," and Tillie Olsen, "I Stand Here Ironing" (all in Landy and Allen)

Th 20  Writing Workshop: Draft of paper #2. Focusing on Willa Cather's "Paul Case: A Study in Temperament" (available online at http://www.willacather.org/TrollGarden/Paul'sCase.htm), write a 1,250-word essay that is informed by reader-response criticism, deconstructive criticism, or feminist/gender-oriented criticism. You may also compare and contrast how two of these approaches might be used to generate interesting interpretations of Cather's story. While brainstorming for your essay, you should pay attention to the questions suggested by Lynn himself in his chapters on these three approaches, although you may want to consider other questions instead; in any case, you should view the questions as prompts for your own thinking, not as organizing points for your essay. Again, please use the word-count function in your word-processing program to make sure that your essay conforms to the "+/- 10% rule," coming in somewhere between 1,125 - 1,375 words.
    After the Workshop, we'll discuss the requirements of the English major. Please review, prior to coming to class, your Handbook to Undergraduate Studies in English or else the website listed near the top of this syllabus.

Psychological Criticism

T 25  Paper #2 due. Lynn, pp. 183-209; also read, in Landy and Allen, Edgar Allen Poe, "The Man of the Crowd," and Grace Paley, "Anxiety"

Th 27  Case study: The issue of emotions. Read Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing (in Landy and Allen). Report on emotions (start with the readings for which everyone in class will be responsible on this day: chapters 5 and 8 from Keith Oatley's Emotions: A Brief History, on electronic reserve).

November  

Historical, Biographical, Postcolonial, and Cultural Criticism

T 1  Kathy Dean from the Library will lead a library skills instruction session; meeting place to be announced. In preparation for this class, please read Lynn, pp. 245-79

Th 3  Lynn, pp. 133-181; Wolfe, "The Colored Museum" (in Landy and Allen)

T 8  Wright, "The Man Who Was Almost a Man," Ortiz, "And there is always one more story," Silko, "The Storyteller's Escape," and Momaday, "The Delight Song of Tsoai-talee" (all in Landy and Allen). Two reports: one on issues pertinent for interpreting Wolfe and/or Wright; the other on issues pertinent for intepreting Ortiz, Silko, and/or Momaday

Narrative Theory, Autobiography, and the Distinction between Fiction and Non-Fiction

Th 10  Paper #3 due (1,125 - 1,375 words). Read Ryan, "Narrative," and Prince, "Narratology" (on electronic reserve); Touching the Void, chapters 1-4

T 15  Read chapters 2 and 8 of Cohn's The Distinction of Fiction and Gorman's "Fiction, Theories of" (on electronic reserve); Touching the Void, chapters 5-10

Th 17 Read the remainder of Touching the Void and the excerpts from Twain, Angelou, and Herr in the chapter on "Autobiography" in Landy and Allen (pp. 183-209). Report on approaches to autobiography (start with the readings for which everyone in class will be responsible on this day: the articles by Lejeune and Löschnigg on electronic reserve)

T 22  Individual conferences

Th 24  Thanksgiving Holiday

T 29  Screening and discussion of the film version of Touching the Void

December

Th 1  Continued discussion of film; conclusions and evaluations

T 6  Final paper (1,350 - 1,650 words) due in my mailbox in Denney 421 by 5:00 p.m.