English 202: Literature David Kuebrich and Social Issues dkuebric@gmu.edu
Fall 2012 See me before & after
class & by appointment
Course Goals
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Emphasize concepts and terms essential to literary analysis

Improve close reading and writing skills, especially for analyzing and writing
about literary texts

Analyze the relationship between texts and their historical, political, and cultural
contexts
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Increase news media literacy, especially the need to consult independent (noncommercial) news sources

Increase political awareness, especially about three issues: U.S. foreign and military policy; the threat of climate change; the “American Dream” and the contemporary distribution of income, wealth and power
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Promote critical thinking
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Encourage informed and active citizenship
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Class Schedule
Aug 28 Introduction to the Course
Survey of Student Experience & Opinion
Aug 30 Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed , pp.1-49
Sept 4 Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed , pp.50-119
Sept 6 Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed , pp.120-91
Sept 11 Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed , pp.192-end
Rich, “Who will Stand Up to the Super-Rich?”
Sept 13 Political Analysis: Distribution of Income and Wealth
Moyers, “Welcome to the Plutocracy!”
Writing Workshop: Eliminating Unnecessary Words & Repetitions
Sept 18 Introduction to Global Warming & Climate Change
Writing Workshop: Eliminating Unnecessary Words & Repetitions
Sept 20 Gore, An Inconvenient Truth
Sept 25 Gore, An Inconvenient Truth

Sept 27 Attend one or more Fall for the Book events and write a summary of the
presentation. See the FFTB Addendum to this syllabus for a list of the
programs that are especially relevant to this course as well as instructions
for the required essay and an optional extra-credit assignment.
Oct 2 Greene, The Quiet American , pp.1-14
Narrative Point of View
Writing Workshop: Parallelism & Specific Thesis Statements
Oct 4 Greene, The Quiet American , pp.15-37
Writing Workshop: Specific Thesis Statement & Structuring an Essay
Oct 9 Columbus Day/ Indigenous People’s Day No class: Mon classes meet on Tuesday
Oct 11 Greene, The Quiet American , pp.38-83
FFTB Paper(s) Due --at the beginning of class
Oct 16 Greene, The Quiet American, pp.84-120
Oct 18 Greene, The Quiet American, pp.121-end
Oct 23 U.S. Military Spending; Goals & Instruments of U.S. Foreign/Military Policy
Hellman & Kramer, “The Mindboggling Sum We Actually Spend on National
Security,” AlterNet (5-23-12) www.alternet.org
Oct 25 Buzzell, My War: Killing Time in Iraq , pp.1-53
Cumulative Quiz 1
Oct 30 Buzzell, My War, pp.86-104
Cumulative Quiz 2
Nov 1 Buzzell, My War, pp.107-118, 130-43
Riverbend, Baghdad Burning, pp.vii-xxiii & pp.1-24, 29-44, 46-48 and 55-75
Nov 6 Political Analysis: News Media Literacy—Commercial & Independent News
Sources
Goodman, “Independent Media in A Time of War”
FAIR, “What’s Wrong with the News”
Bagdikian, The New Media Monopoly , Preface
Project Censored, “Over 1 Million Iraqi Deaths Caused by US Occupation”
Washington Post
, “Why Do We Ignore the Civilians Killed in American Wars?”
Nov 8 Buzzell, My War , pp.154-73, 201-05, 231-63, 290-91, 299-300 & 315-26.
Riverbend, Baghdad Burning, pp.76-83, 111-13, 201-16, 222-28, 243-69,
282-86

Nov 13 Buzzell, My War , pp.343-end & “The Army Wants You . . . Again! (Yes,
Really)
Political Analysis: U.S. Military Interventions: Challenges and Problems
Nov 15 Seraji, Rooftops of Tehran , pp.1-85
Literary Symbolism
Nov 20 Seraji, Rooftops of Tehran , pp.86-182
Nov 22 Thanksgiving Recess
Nov 27 Seraji Rooftops of Tehran , pp.183-258
Changing Characters & Theme
Writing Exercise: Theme and Specific Thesis Statement
Nov 29 Seraji Rooftops of Tehran, pp.259-end
Writing Exercise: Theme, Specific Thesis Statement and Structure
Dec 4 Cumulative Quiz 3
Dec 6 Cumulative Quiz 4
Dec 18 Final Paper Due --in my English Department Mailbox (Robinson A487) by
4:00 p.m.
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Attendance: I expect you to attend all classes. And arrive on time.
Quizzes and Papers: Most classes will begin with a quiz as a homework check, review of ideas emphasized earlier in the course, and preparation for class discussion. There will also be four cumulative quizzes, a required FFTB paper, and a final paper. If you are absent or tardy, quizzes cannot be made up. However, at the end of the semester, I will drop your two lowest quiz grades.
Required Texts
Greene The Quiet American Ehrenreich Nickel and Dimed
Riverbend Baghdad Burning: Girl Blog from Iraq Seraji Rooftops of Tehran
Buzzell My War: Killing Time in Iraq “Mini-Guide to Style” (handout)
Grading
Class citizenship (attendance, class participation,
regular quizzes, in-class writing) 35%
Cumulative quizzes 1 & 2 10%
Cumulative quizzes 3 & 4 15%

Fall for the Book Response Paper(s) 10%
Final Essay 30%
English Department Statement on Plagiarism
Plagiarism means using the words, opinions, or factual information from another person without giving credit. Writers give credit through accepted documentation styles, such as parenthetical citations, footnotes, or endnotes; a simple listing of books and articles is not sufficient. Plagiarism is the equivalent of intellectual robbery and cannot be tolerated in the academic setting.
Student writers are often confused as to what should be cited. Some think that only direct quotations need to be credited. While direct quotations do need citations, so do paraphrases and summaries of opinions or factual information formerly unknown to the writers or which the writers did not discover themselves. Exceptions to this include factual information that can be obtained from a variety of sources, the writers’ own insights or findings from their own field research, and what has been termed as “common knowledge.” What constitutes common knowledge can sometimes be precarious; what is common knowledge for one audience may not be so for another. In such situations, it is helpful to keep the reader in mind and to think of citations as being “reader friendly.” In other words, writers provide a citation for any piece of information that they think their readers might want to investigate further. Not only is this attitude considerate of readers, but also it will almost certainly ensure that writers will never be guilty of plagiarism.
Disability Resource Center
If you have a learning disorder, please inform me at the beginning of the semester. You will need to contact the Disability Resource Center (993-2474) and provide me with a faculty contact sheet which explains your disorder. Then we can make appropriate adjustments to course requirements.
Honor Code
The University has an honor code policy, and you are expected to observe it.
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You must attend 1 FFTB program relevant to this course and write a response paper to each. (See Sept 19 above.) Choose from the following events:
Thursday, September 27, 10:30 AM Kurt Eichenwald
Location: Harris Theatre George Mason University, 4400 University Drive, Fairfax, VA
The bestselling journalist—a Pulitzer Prize finalist and author of The Informant , adapted for the screen with Matt Damon—charts the “harrowing decisions, deceptions, and delusions of the eighteen months” after the 9/11 attacks in his just-released chronicle, 500
Days: Secrets and Lies in the Terror Wars .

Thursday, September 27, 1:30 PM Higher Education: Challenges of the Future
Location: Johnson Center Cinema
Amid rising tuition costs and sagging state support for public colleges, increasing demands for job training over a liberal arts educations, and rising online education opportunities, today's education leaders are struggling and oftentimes not finding the same way forward. Witness recent events at the University of Virginia--the firing and rehiring of the president. This panel of some of the most experienced people in higher education gathers to discuss the challenges of today: Stephen Trachtenberg , former president of George Washington University and author of Big Man on Campus: A
University President Speaks Out on Higher Education ; and Carol Harter , former president of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Peter Pober , Mason communications professor and former president of the faculty senate, moderates the panel.
Thursday, September 27, 4:30 PM Vietnam Veteran Wayne Karlin
Location : Johnson Center, Meeting Room F
In Wandering Souls: Journeys with the Dead and Living in Viet Nam , novelist and nonfiction writer Karlin accompanies a fellow veteran back to Vietnam to return a diary to the family of a soldier he’d killed more than three decades before.
Thursday, September 27, 7:30 PM Sociologist Todd Gitlin
Location: Research I, Room 163
One of the country’s leading scholars of organized forms of protest discusses current initiatives including Occupy Wall Street within the larger historical context of such social movements. Todd Gitlin, a professor of sociology and journalism at Columbia
University, is the author most recently of Occupy Nation: The Roots, the Spirit, and the
Promise of Occupy Wall Street .
Thursday, September 27, 7:30 PM Journalists Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan
Location: Founder’s Hall, Room 125 George Mason University, 3351 Fairfax Drive,
Arlington, VA
The co-authors of the syndicated weekly column “Breaking the Sound Barrier” and the minds behind Democracy Now!
, a daily independent news program airing on more than one thousand television and radio stations, explore how ordinary people can stand up to corporate and government power—and make a difference—in The Silenced Majority:
Stories of Uprisings, Occupations, Resistance, and Hope . Sponsored by The Democracy
Project at George Mason University.
Friday, September 28, 1:30 PM 2012 Election Panel: Choices for November
Location: Research I, Room 163 George Mason University, 4400 University Drive,
Fairfax, VA

With the presidential election looming, Fall for the Book welcomes four scholars to offer in-depth perspectives on the issues at stake for the politicians, the parties, and the voters:
David Maraniss , author of the new biography of the president, Barack Obama: The
Story ; Scott Keeter , director of survey research at the Pew Research Center and coauthor of A New Engagement? Political Participation, Civic Life, and the Changing
American Citizen ; Linda Killian , journalist, senior scholar at the Woodrow Wilson
International Center for Scholars, and author of The Swing Vote: The Untapped Power of
Independents ; and Elizabeth Price Foley , professor of constitutional law at Florida
International University College of Law and author of The Tea Party: Three Principles .
Friday, September 28, 6:30 PM Barbara Ehrenreich
Location: Busboys and Poets, Shirlington: 4251 South Campbell Avenue, Arlington, VA
22206
Activist and author Barbara Ehrenreich will speak about her work, including her latest book, bright-Sided: How Positive Thinking is Undermining America (2010)
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Assignment for Required Essay: Attend the program and write a 500-word (doublespaced) summary that describes three of the major ideas presented by the presenter(s).
Your essay should have

A title that interests and informs
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A specific thesis statement that lists the three ideas you will develop in the body of your essay (devoting one paragraph to each idea)
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A conclusion that develops further implications of the points presented in the body of your essay.
Also, proof your writing carefully to eliminate unnecessary words and unneeded repetitions of words and ideas.
Assignment for Optional Exra-Credit Essay: Attend a second FFTB program and write a second 500-word essay, following the above instructions. Extra-credit will be as follows:

B Grade: grade on cumulative quiz #2 is raised two marks: e.g., from B to A-
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A Grade: mid-term grade is raised one mark: e.g. from B+ to A-
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C Grade: no extra-credit