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ENGL 232—SURVEY OF BRITISH LITERATURE II
Spring 2010
11:00-12:20 TR
MRC rm. 471
INSTRUCTOR INFORMATION
Professor: Dr. Apryl Denny
Office: Murphy Center 546
Office Hours: 12:30-2:00 TR; noon-1:00 W; online 6:30-7:30 p.m. M
Also available by appointment; please call or e-mail.
Telephone: 608-796-3488 office
608-782-0961 home
Email: aldenny@viterbo.edu
COURSE DESCRIPTION, FORMAT, AND OUTCOMES
This course offers an overview of important British Romantic, Victorian, and Twentieth-Century
writers. Literary Analysis Course: Apprentice Level. Prerequisite: English 104 or 105.
Twice-weekly classes consist primarily of large and small-group discussion based on close
reading of the novels. In large-group discussion our goal is to engage as many students in the
discussion as possible each day. In class we will discuss and apply strategies for encouraging
quiet students to become comfortable speaking and for encouraging frequent talkers to become
comfortable listening. Our goal is for everyone to strike a balance between talking and listening.
In small-group discussion each student will be given a role to play (coordinator, recorder,
spokesperson, or facilitator).
In addition to daily close reading and discussion of how the language of the assigned texts
influences meaning, class will include brief lectures on and group discussion of:
a) the historical and political contexts of the assigned texts
b) the social and cultural contexts of the assigned texts
c) themes common to each author and period of literary history studied
d) genre and its relevance to theme in the assigned works and periods
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Course Outcomes
Students read and
comprehend
Romantic, Victorian,
and Modern British
poetry and prose.
Students analyze
individual literary
passages orally,
referring to specific
language in the text to
prove a claim.
Students plan and
organize a literarycritical argument.
Gen. Ed.
Literary Analysis
Outcomes
Outcomes
Critical Thinking
English Dept.
Outcomes
Read Critically
Assessment
Tools
Daily Quizzes
Critical
Thinking,
Communication
Read Critically
ClassDiscussion
Rubric
Write Effectively
Report- or
PaperProposal
Rubric
Midterm
Exam, Part 2;
Final Exam,
Parts 1 and 2;
Report Option
Identifies how
language manifests
meaning in literature
Critical Thinking
Students write or
speak about how
British Romantic,
Victorian, and/or
Modern
culture/history inform
meaning in the
assigned literature.
Students write about
how language
manifests meaning in
literature.
Students develop,
organize, and support
in writing a
convincing thematic
interpretation of
poetry and/or fiction.
Students derive
specific evidence
from a literary text to
demonstrate a claim.
Critical
Thinking,
Communication
Applies generic
conventions and/or
cultural/historical
contexts to elucidate
meaning in literature.
Read Critically;
Understand
Literary
Classifications-History
Critical
Thinking,
Communication
Identifies how
language manifests
meaning in literature
Read Critically,
Write Effectively
Critical
Thinking,
Communication
Uses textual evidence
to demonstrate a
written claim about
meaning in literature.
Write Effectively
Information
Fluency
Derives evidence
from a literary text to
demonstrate a claim
Write Effectively
Students cite textual
evidence according to
MLA style.
Students use scholarly
print and electronic
sources to support a
literary-critical
interpretation of one
or more literary texts.
Information
Fluency
Cites textual evidence
according to MLA
style
Research and
Document
Effectively
Research and
Document
Effectively
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Information
Fluency
Midterm and
Final Exams,
Parts 1 and 2;
Paper Option
Midterm and
Final Exams,
Parts 1 and 2;
Paper Option
Midterm and
Final Exams,
Parts 1 and 2;
Paper Option;
Report Option
Report Option;
Paper Option
Report Option;
Paper Option
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REQUIRED TEXTS
The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Ed. M. H. Abrams and Stephen Greenblatt.
Vol. 2. 8th ed. New York: Norton, 2005.
Carroll, Lewis, The Annotated Alice. Ed. Martin Gardner. New York: Norton, 2000.
Books for the class are available in the Viterbo Bookstore. Other materials for the course are
available on our Blackboard page accessible through the Viterbo home page. If you have
questions about how to access our Blackboard page, please see me or call Chad Gilbeck in ITT at
3870. The syllabus, assignments, and documents for our course are posted on this page and will
be updated throughout the semester, so please be sure that you access our Blackboard page
regularly. Also, I will notify you by e-mail of any significant changes in the syllabus during the
term, so be sure to check your campus e-mail regularly.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
The final grade consists of an average of the following:




25%--Midterm Exam
25%--Final Cumulative Exam
25%--Choose one: A researched Social History Report including a cultural /historical
reading of a literary text OR a Researched Literary-Critical Paper on one or more works
assigned during the term.
25%--Daily Grades--The average of
1) Reading comprehension quizzes, 10-12 points each
2) Discussion credit, 5 points each
3) Paper Proposal or Report Proposal, 25 points
4) Close-reading make-up papers for missed classes, 10-12 points each.
If you do not write a make-up paper for a missed class (even if the absence is excused), I
will deduct 10 points from the “Daily Grade” scores for the missing paper.
ATTENDANCE
Because this course consists largely of discussion, regular attendance is required. Any
unexcused absence lowers the final grade by three points. Please notify me in advance of an
absence if possible. If I have to be absent, I will notify you by e-mail. Please see the Viterbo
University Planner and Handbook for a complete statement of the university's attendance policy.
If you are absent, excused or otherwise, you are required to write a 2-page analytical paper
on the material assigned for that day. If you fail to complete this assignment, 10 points will
be deducted from your Daily Grades for each missed day that was not made up with a
paper. You are also responsible for checking with me to see if any course changes or extra
assignments were made in class on the day you missed.
QUIZZES
Attendance merely records bodily presence; daily quizzes record intellectual presence. I
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administer a quiz at the beginning of nearly every class. Each quiz consists of six readingcomprehension questions based on the reading assignment for the day. Each question counts two
points each. Any absence requires that you write an extra 2-page close-reading of a passage
from the reading assigned for the class period you miss. (See above under ATTENDANCE.)
The grade on this paper will be averaged in as a Daily Grade.
QUIZ SCORES
Each quiz question is worth two points for a total of 12 possible points per quiz. Ten points on
any quiz is considered a perfect score. If a student scores 11 or 12 points on any quiz, the bonus
point(s) from that quiz can be applied to a subsequent or prior quiz of less than 10 points. I call
this the “floating bonus,” and students agree that it is better than a bonus because it can transform
a score of 12 and a score of 8 into two perfect 10s. Obviously, this is a generous system of
grading quizzes. Please be warned, however, that frequent absences, failure to write makeup
assignments, and/or frequent failure to read the assignments easily results in an F for the average
quiz score.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
Be sure to check Blackboard daily for announcements relevant to our course. Also, check your
Viterbo e-mail daily. If you use an e-mail account other than the Viterbo account, be sure to
enter Blackboard, go to Tools, and change your e-mail address under Personal Information. This
should forward my e-mails to your correct account.
DISCUSSION GRADES
In order to encourage class discussion, I ask students to come prepared to class each day with at
least one passage that you have identified as thematically important and which you are prepared
to discuss briefly in class. Early in the term, I identify passages for you to consider, but later on I
expect you to be able to choose your own passages to discuss. Each passage you discuss is
worth a possible 5 discussion points. No student may obtain more than 10 discussion points per
day. You may also accrue discussion points by responding intelligently to a passage that another
student in the class has identified as important. Please click the “Rubrics” button on our
Blackboard home page to see the rubric for scoring class discussion.
PROPOSALS
Each student submits one of two proposals: one for the paper OR one for the oral report.
Proposals of both types should include:
1) Project description: briefly describe the project and topic you have chosen
2) Project goals: state the specific goals that you have set for your project—include a
thesis statement to prove
3) Evidence: explain the ways you expect to meet your goals—include the evidence you
will use to prove your claim and offer a bibliography of the secondary sources you
will be using to prove your claim.
4) Questions: identify any questions you have about your project or help that you foresee
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needing to complete your project.
5) Process outline: create a list of the parts of the process necessary to completing the
project--i.e. arriving at a topic, researching, group meetings (if relevant), writing a first
draft, revising, practicing the presentation, etc.
6) Timeline: include a specific weekly timeline (with dates) for completing each stage of
the project’s process listed in #5. Oral report proposals should include a proposed
delivery date.
A proposal with all parts clearly delineated will receive written feedback and a maximum of 25
points to be factored with your quiz grades. A proposal with unclear or missing parts must be
rewritten until it receives credit. Oral Report
proposals are due no later than Feb. 3. Paper proposals are due no later than March 17. Please
click the “Rubrics” button on our home page to find the rubric for scoring the proposals.
FINAL PAPER
The final paper is to be a typewritten, 5-page critical, researched response to a work or works by
one author we study during the term. The paper is to be argumentative and should present your
own reading of a text or texts rather than a summary of research. I want to see evidence of your
own thinking. This paper should be more formal than the oral discussions of individual passages
you have done in class during the term and should prove its argument with allusion to multiple
passages. The paper should use critical sources, but please be sure that your own argument
(opinion to be proved) is the paper's focus. Please do not merely summarize one or more critics'
responses to the novel. I want to see your mind at work in this paper. Be sure to document all
ideas and direct quotations borrowed from sources by using Modern Language Association style.
(Please see the section on plagiarism below.)
Sample paper topics will be available later in the course under the course documents button on
our Blackboard page. You may use one of the sample topics or you may choose your own topic.
You will also submit a paper proposal, as described above in the section on Proposals. I will
return the proposal to you with suggestions within a week of the proposal's due date.
Please click the “Rubrics” button on our Blackboard home page to see the rubric for scoring the
paper.
ORAL REPORT OPTION
During the semester pairs of students may choose to deliver an oral, social-history report. (If you
choose not to deliver an oral report, you must write the final paper. See below.) The
primary goal of the report is to present some aspect of social history relevant to understanding
one or more assigned literary texts and to apply that information to interpret the text or texts.
The report should be thoroughly researched and should include print sources as well as scholarly
online sources. The reports may take whatever form you see as appropriate for the topic—a
Powerpoint presentation, a lecture with discussion, a demonstration, etc. Sample report topics
are listed on the syllabus. You may also originate and schedule your own topic but must clear it
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with me at least 2 weeks in advance of the proposal due date.
Because you will be working in groups, reports must reveal that both students in the group have
participated equally in preparing and presenting the report. In order to receive a grade on a
report, the report pair must also turn in
 a one-page summary of the report,
 a written assessment from each student that evaluates his/her own contribution to the
preparation of the report and an assessment of his/her partner’s contribution,
 a Works Cited list in correct MLA form of all sources used in preparing the report.
These materials are due at the time the report is delivered. The report group will not receive a
grade until the summary, student assessments, and Works Cited sheet are turned in.
The last day to organize your group and to choose your report topic and delivery date is Feb. 4.
Please click the “Rubrics” button on our Blackboard home page to see the rubric for scoring the
oral report.
FINAL GRADES
The final grading scale is as follows.
A= 90-100
A/B=88-89
B=80-87
B/C=78-79
C=70-77
C/D=68-69
D=60-67
F=59 or below
PLAGIARISM AND ACADEMIC DISHONESTY
Cheating, plagiarism, and/or falsification of any kind will not be tolerated in this class.
For the purposes of our class, you must use MLA style to document any idea or any exact
wording you receive from a source of any kind. (See External Links for access to a site that
explains MLA style.) If you borrow words or ideas from another student, he or she must be
referenced just as you would document a print source or an on-line source. Be aware of how
your ideas evolve and indicate clearly and honestly which ideas are your own and which are
borrowed. There is certainly nothing wrong with using another person’s ideas, unless, of course,
you do not give him or her credit. Intentional plagiarism or cheating of any kind will result in
failure in this class. Any unintentional plagiarism must be revised before you will be given a
grade for the assignment. For further information on plagiarism see the External Links.
STUDENT SERVICES
Please check your student handbook to see the student services available at Viterbo. Particularly
relevant to English classes are those offered by the Learning Center, located in Murphy Center.
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The learning center offers tutoring, study sessions, and help with writing. Also, the center offers
“assistance to students with disabilities. Any student who has a documented, diagnosed disability
and requires specific legitimate accommodations should:
Contact and meet with the ADA Coordinator in the Viterbo Learning Center.
Request a copy of the Viterbo University Guidelines Applying to Nondiscrimination on the Basis
of Disability and the application form.
Complete the appropriate application for accommodations.
The Learning Center provides services to students who have indicated that they have a disability.
Special arrangements or accommodations are only provided to those students who have
documentation on file that describes and certifies the disability and indicates services needed.
ETIQUETTE IN CLASS
Our comments in class discussion should always be civil and courteous. You are bound to
disagree with some of the comments that other students and I make during the course of the term.
Feel free to question or to offer a different opinion. The give and take of ideas is how we all
learn. Disagreement, however, should not mean incivility. Always be aware of the fact that
there is a person behind every comment. One of the goals of good discussion is to seek to
understand what motivates an opinion different from your own and to consider that opinion in its
various contexts. Mary Field Belenky calls this task “connected knowing,” seeking to put
yourself into the mind-set of a person you do not agree with in order to understand his/her
perspective. Once you understand a perspective unlike your own, you are in a better position to
analyze and to challenge your own thinking as well as the thinking of others.
WELCOME
I am looking forward to our class and anticipate a productive and fun term. I invite you to come
to my office early in the term so we can chat and get to know each other better. Also, if you
have any questions or concerns during the term, please e-mail me or come and visit in my office.
I find that the sooner problems are dealt with; the easier they are to solve. My goal is for each of
you to do the best work you can this term, and my job is to help you accomplish this. Happy
learning.
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