Writing Course Review Form (12/1/08)
I. General Education Review – Writing Course
Dept/Program
Course # (i.e. ENEX ENLT 218
English
Subject
200)
Course Title
Enlightenment to Romantics
II. Endorsement/Approvals
Complete the form and obtain signatures before submitting to Faculty Senate Office.
Please type / print name Signature
Date
Instructor
Rob Browning
Phone / Email
243-4989
Program Chair
Casey Charles
III Overview of the Course Purpose/ Description: Provides an introduction to the subject
matter and explains course content and learning goals.
This course surveys the variety of British literature composed between 1660 and 1830,
beginning with John Milton’s epic, Paradise Lost, and concluding with lyric poems by Percy
Shelly and John Keats. The core of this course is examination of the different ways creative
authors engage with or react to the promises of Enlightenment ideals, which will involve
thinking about the cultural workings of different literary kinds: chiefly heroic verse, satire, the
novel, and the lyric. The course’s main critical approach, therefore, is to study aesthetic forms
within the context of the time they were composed.
IV Learning Outcomes: Explain how each of the following learning outcomes will be achieved.
Students write three (five page) essays for the
Student learning outcomes :
course, each of which engages them in the
Use writing to learn and synthesize new
study of how literary texts may be illuminated
concepts
within certain cultural and historical contexts.
In their three essays, students are expected to
Formulate and express opinions and ideas in
be attentive to their initial responses to the
writing
works of literature under study, and then to
develop these responses into carefully
considered, rigorously supported ideas.
Students write for an academic audience.
Compose written documents that are
General instruction for writing for an academic
appropriate for a given audience or purpose
audience is provided in ENLT 201.
Students are given the opportunity to revise (in
Revise written work based on constructive
response to the instructor’s input) one essay.
feedback
Find, evaluate, and use information effectively 200-level courses in the English department share
(see http://www.lib.umt.edu/informationliteracy/) some common outcomes; the information literacy
Begin to use discipline-specific writing
conventions
Demonstrate appropriate English language
usage
outcome, developed with Sue Samson, is:
“Students will support their literary research with
access to academic information resources
provided by the library and will include both intext citations and a bibliography of sources that
adheres to the MLA style of documentation.” In
enacting these outcomes, writing assignments
require students to utilize proper citation methods
for incorporating sources and paper criteria
indicate that papers are partly graded on proper
use of those methods.
200-level courses in the English department share
some common outcomes; those relevant to the
writing course designation are:
“Students will be able to perform a literary close
reading, demonstrating an ability insightfully to
interpret primary literary texts by thoughtfully
integrating quoted passages into the larger
argumentative claims of an essay.” Also,
“Students will be able to write rhetorically
effective papers (well-reasoned and
grammatically consistent), driven by a thesis and
sustained by an ordered, coherent argument or
sequence of ideas.” Writing assignments require
students to enact these expectations, which are
included in paper criteria and directly addressed
in course pedagogy, including (among other
pedagogical methods) modeling those
conventions in class discussion and assigning
short writing exercises in class that allow students
to practice them.
Such demonstration is required to earn grades
of “C” and higher on the written assignments.
V. Writing Course Requirements Check list
Is enrollment capped at 25 students?
If not, list maximum course enrollment.
Explain how outcomes will be adequately met
for this number of students. Justify the request
for variance.
† Yes X No
This course has been capped at 30, in keeping
with current writing course requirements. If it
remains a W course, it will be capped at 25 with
the start of the new Gen Ed requirements.
Are outcomes listed in the course syllabus? If
not, how will students be informed of course
expectations?
XYes † No
Are expectations for Information Literacy listed in
the course syllabus? If not, how will students be
informed of course expectations?
Are detailed requirements for all written
assignments included in the course syllabus? If not
† Yes XNo
Detailed instruction in information literacy is
provided in ENLT 201.
† Yes X No
Detailed requirements for each assignment are
how and when will students be informed of written provided in separate assignment sheets.
assignments?
What instructional methods will be used to teach
Copious written (and often oral) feedback from
the instructor alerts students to problems in their
students to write for specific audiences, purposes,
approach to writing for an academic audience.
and genres?
Will written assignments include an opportunity for X Yes † No
revision? If not, then explain how students will
receive and use feedback to improve their writing
ability.
VI. Writing Assignments: Please describe course assignments. Students should be required to
individually compose at least 16 pages of writing for assessment. At least 50% of the course grade
should be based on students’ performance on writing assignments. Clear expression, quality, and
accuracy of content are considered an integral part of the grade on any writing assignment.
Three essays (of five pages each) are required to
Formal Graded Assignments
complete this course. Suggested topics are
distributed in advance of the due date, although
students have the option of devising topics of their
own. To earn a grade of “C” or higher, an essay
must have a strong, clearly stated thesis – which is
to say, a focused claim that requires the work of
the body paragraphs to demonstrate. A thesis that
is obviously true from the outset is not a strong
one. Students must write approximately six bluebook pages to successfully answer essay questions
for the mid-term exam.
Informal Ungraded Assignments
VII. Syllabus: Paste syllabus below or attach and send digital copy with form. ⇓ The syllabus
should clearly describe how the above criteria are satisfied. For assistance on syllabus preparation
see: http://teaching.berkeley.edu/bgd/syllabus.html
Paste syllabus here.
Enlightenment to Romantics (ENLT 218)
e-mail: rob.browning@mso.umt.edu
Cell Phone: 406-210-1358 (until 9 P.M.)
Office Hours: (LA 217) M, W, F 12:05-2:30 and by appointment
Spring 2009
J. R. Browning
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Required Texts:
The Norton Anthology of English Literature, volumes C and D, 8th edition. Eds. Stephen
Greenblatt
and M. H. Abrams (New York: W.W. Norton, 2006)
John Milton, Paradise Lost (any published edition will be fine)
Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe, a Norton Critical Edition. Ed. Michael Shinagel (New York:
W.W. Norton, 1994)
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This course surveys the rich variety of British literature composed between 1660 and 1830,
beginning with John Milton’s epic, Paradise Lost, and concluding with lyric poems by Percy
Shelly and John Keats. The Romantic authors thought of themselves as kindred spirits with
Milton, sharing a vision for creative writing and cultural change that was inspired by the political
revolutions of their respective times. Between these visionary “peaks” of early-modern literature is
the movement known as “the Enlightenment,” a period of mounting optimism about the power of
reason to advance knowledge in science and philosophy, to reform religion, and to promote social
justice. The core of this course will be our examination of the different ways creative authors
engage with or react to the promises of Enlightenment ideals, which will involve thinking about
the cultural workings of different literary kinds: chiefly, heroic verse, satire, the novel, and the
lyric. Our main critical approach, therefore, shall be to study aesthetic forms within the context of
the time they were composed.
Graded Work:
Essays (3) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 60%
Midterm Exam ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 20%
Participation --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10%
Quizzes --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 10%
Attendance is essential to your success in this class. Excessive absence can only hinder your progress and
prevent you from performing well on essays, exams, and quizzes. I become concerned after a student has
missed more than three classes, and expect anyone in this position to schedule a meeting with me so we may
discuss his or her status in the class. Ordinarily, each absence after three will lower your final grade by one
third of a letter grade.
Essays: Three essays are required to complete this course. Suggested topics will be distributed at least one
week in advance of the due date, although you will also have the option of devising topics of your own. To
earn a grade of “C” or higher, your essay must have a strong, clearly stated thesis – which is to say, a focused
claim that requires the work of your body paragraphs to demonstrate. A thesis that is obviously true from the
outset is not a strong one.
Quizzes: Most quizzes will be unannounced and based on the reading assignment for the day it is given.
Your lowest quiz score (including a zero, in the event of a missed quiz) will be dropped, and so there will be
no make-up quizzes.
Academic Honesty: Plagiarism is a violation of scholarly trust. According to the Provost, “Academic
misconduct is subject to an academic penalty by the course instructor and/or a disciplinary sanction by the
University. All students need to be familiar with the Student Conduct Code. The Code is available for review
online at http://www.umt.edu/SA/VPSA/index.cfm/page/1321.” If after studying the university’s Conduct
Code you have questions about what constitutes plagiarism you should let me know. Violators of the Student
Conduct Code will fail the course. Each essay you submit must be signed at the bottom of the last page,
assuring that the work is your own, except where indicated by proper documentation. Your signature is your
word that the essay is free of plagiarism and that you have upheld all expected ethical standards of academic
conduct in completing the essay.
Nota Bene: The English Department may utilize, for assessment purposes, any work students produce in this
class. No departmental assessment of student work will have any impact on a student’s grade in the course or
progress in the major. Throughout the assessment process, all summary data will be aggregated and student
work will remain anonymous, with all characteristics identifying individual students removed before the
material is read by anybody but the course instructor. Students who do not wish to have their work used by
the Department for assessment may opt out by notifying the instructor in writing before the first assignment is
completed.
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Weekly Schedule (Tentative). At the beginning or end of each class I’ll confirm the reading assignment for
the next class. Readings on electronic reserve (marked below as “e-res”) can be accessed from the Mansfield
Library homepage (via the “Course Reserves & ERes” link on the right side) using the password, “sublime.”
1/26 Mon.
1/28 Wed.
1/30 Fri.
Introductions
Norton Topics Online: http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/17century/welcome.htm
1) From this first webpage, read the introduction to the “Early 17th Century: Topics”
2) Also at Norton Topics Online, read “Civil Wars of Ideas” (link on left side of webpage)
3) Read Andrew Marvell’s poem, “An Horatian Ode” (handout)
4) Read Norton Anthology, vol. C, pp. 2057-61
John Milton, Paradise Lost, book one: “The Argument” and lines 1-330
2/2 Mon.
Paradise Lost, book two: “The Argument” only; book three: “The Argument and lines 1-
2/4 Wed.
2/6 Fri.
Paradise Lost, book four: “The Argument and lines 1-504
2/9 Mon.
Mankind”),
1) Thomas Hobbes, from Leviathan, chapter XIII (“Of the Natural Condition of
265, 416-735
2/11 Wed.
2/13 Fri.
1) “The Great Fire of London”: http://www.luminarium.org/encyclopedia/greatfire.htm
2) Samuel Pepys, from the Diary: “The Great Fire” (Norton anthology, vol. C, 2133-38)
3) John Dryden, from Annus Mirabilis, “London Reborn” (2083-86)
Online: http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/phl302/texts/hobbes/leviathan-contents.html
2) John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester, “Satire Against Reason & Mankind” (2172-77);
3) John Locke, from An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (2151-55)
Aphra Behn, Oroonoko (2183-2202)
Oroonoko (2202-2226)
2/16 Mon.
2/18 Wed.
2/20 Fri.
Presidents’ Day (no class meeting)
Essay one due. Daniel Defoe, Robinson Crusoe
2/23 Mon.
2/25 Wed.
2/27 Fri.
3/2 Mon.
3/4 Wed.
3/6 Fri.
Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe
Robinson Crusoe
3/9 Mon.
3/11 Wed.
3/13 Fri.
Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, “The Spectator Club” (2470-73), “The Aims of the
Spectator” (2473-75), “The Royal Exchange” (2478-81), “The Pleasures of the Imagination”
(2488-90); Anonymous, “The Character of a Coffee-House” (e-res)
Alexander Pope, from An Essay on Man: epistles 1 and 2 (2540-2548)
Pope, “Eloisa to Abelard” (2532-2540)
3/16 Mon.
3/18 Wed.
“Eloisa to Abelard”
Samuel Johnson, from A Dictionary of the English Language (2749-55); exam preparation
Robinson Crusoe
Jonathan Swift, from A Tale of a Tub (2315-2323)
Jonathan Swift, Gulliver’s Travels, Part 3: chapters 2 and 5 (2405-2413)
3/20 Fri.
Mid-term exam. As part of your preparation for this exam, review the Norton Anthology
(vol. C) introduction, pp. 2057-61. Also read pp. 2061-77.
3/27 Fri.
William Hogarth, The Four Times of Day
(http://www.library.northwestern.edu/spec/hogarth/decay2.html)
Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea, “The Introduction” and “Nocturnal Reverie” (229498); William Collins, “Ode to Evening” (2873-74); A. Roger Ekirch, from At Day’s Close,
“Prelude” and “Cock-Crow” (e-res)
Anna Barbauld, “A Summer Evening’s Meditation” (Norton volume D, pp. 29-32)
3/30 – 4/3
Spring Break
4/6 Mon.
4/8 Wed.
4/10 Fri.
William Blake, from Songs of Innocence (81-87). Read “The Lamb” closely.
Blake, from Songs of Experience (87-97). Read “The Tyger” closely.
Essay two due. Edmund Burke, from Reflections on the Revolution in France (vol. D, 15258) and from A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and
Beautiful (e-res)
4/13 Mon.
4/15 Wed.
4/17 Fri.
William Wordsworth, from the Preface to the Lyrical Ballads (262-74)
Wordsworth, “Tintern Abbey” (258-62)
S. T. Coleridge, “Frost at Midnight” (464-66)
4/20 Mon.
4/22 Wed.
4/24 Fri.
Wordsworth, The Prelude, from Book Fourteenth (385-89)
Coleridge, “Kubla Khan” (446-48)
Thomas de Quincey, from Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (554-69)
4/27 Mon.
4/29 Wed.
5/1 Fri.
Percy Shelley, The Defense of Poetry (838-50)
P. Shelley, “Mont Blanc” (762-66)
“Mont Blanc”
5/4 Mon.
5/6 Wed.
5/8 Fri.
John Keats, “Ode to a Nightingale” (903-05)
Keats, “Ode on a Grecian Urn” (905-06)
Essay three due. Fragmentary conclusions
3/23 Mon.
3/25 Wed.
There is no final exam for this class.