COURSE SYLLABUS FOR ENGLISH 105-08, INTRO TO NARRATIVE
Instructor: Ben Klinkner
Office: 335-B Curry
Office Hours: 3–5 PM on Thursdays & Fridays
Email: bwklinkn@uncg.edu
Class Time: 3:30–4:45 PM on Mondays & Wednesdays
Classroom: 209 Graham
OVERVIEW
Course Description
We’re going to read six books of narrative literature in here. It’s modest enough to say that these books cover a
healthy range of literary forms & styles. An underlying point of the course, then, is to survey the myriad ways in
which narrative literature works as art. The textbook Lenses will dictate & help illuminate our course terminology,
and the writing & speaking you do for this course will further illuminate that terminology. With any success, we’ll
all finish the semester with richer understanding of narrative—if not greater appreciation for it.
Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs)
At the end of this course, students will be able to do the following:
1. Demonstrate the reading skill required for the student of literary texts. (LG3)
2. Identify and/or describe some of the varied characteristics of literary texts. (LG3)
3. Demonstrate orally, in writing, or by some other means, a fundamental ability to use some of the
techniques and/or methods of literary analysis. (LG1 and LG3)
4. Identify and/or describe some of the various social, historical, cultural, and/or theoretical contexts in which
literary texts have been written and interpreted. (LG3)
Required Texts (Books are available for purchase at the University Bookstore. Waste no time whatsoever in
obtaining these books or they very well might be returned to distributors. Other documents—including rubrics &
assignment sheets—will be posted on Blackboard. Print them and bring them to class.)
Carver, Raymond. What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. New York: Vintage, 1989. Print.
ISBN 0679723056.
Danticat, Edwidge. The Dew Breaker. New York: Vintage, 2004. Print. ISBN 1400034299.
Dickens, Charles. Great Expectations. London: Penguin, 2002. Print. ISBN 0141439564.
Gibson, Scott Thomas, Tammy Lancaster, and Summer C. Sparks. Lenses: Perspectives on Literature.
Plymouth: Hayden-McNeil, 2013. Print. ISBN 0738051055.
Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print. ISBN 0684801221.
Moore, Lorrie. Birds of America. New York: Picador USA, 1998. Print. ISBN 0312241224.
Silko, Leslie Marmon. Storyteller. Reprint edition. London: Penguin, 2012. Print. ISBN 0143121286.
Grades
participation (SLOs 1–4) ................................................................................................................................... 15%
quizzes & homework (SLOs 1–4) ..................................................................................................................... 20%
essay (SLOs 1–4) ............................................................................................................................................... 20%
midterm exam (SLOs 1–4) ................................................................................................................................ 20%
final exam (SLOs 1–4)....................................................................................................................................... 25%
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Participation
Our course’s thorough participation rubric is posted on Blackboard. In sum, though, successful class participants
share relevant thoughts during discussions and bring their books to class. Participation makes up a significant part
of your grade; take it seriously.
Quizzes & Homework
Quizzes will assess your retention of our reading material and require that you put your understanding of course
concepts to analytical work. Some quizzes will be announced in advance; others will be of the pop variety. You
might as well prepare yourself for a lot of quizzes in here. Finally, if you’re absent on a day when I administer a
quiz, you’ll receive a zero on that quiz with no opportunity to replace the grade.
Most homework assignments will be weighed as one quiz grade. I’ll let you know if a particular assignment will
count as multiple quiz grades. A pleasing heads-up: I won’t be assigning much homework, aside from what’s
already on this syllabus.
Essay
You are hereby assigned to write one formal essay for this course. Focus principally on how one of our course’s
primary sources embodies one of the key (bolded) terms from Lenses. Your ultimate goal, then, is to prove with an
extended written analysis that your selected term reinforces the thematic concerns of your selected primary source.
You might, for example, analyze how imagery in Storyteller reinforces Leslie Marmon Silko’s thematic concerns.
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minimum length: 5 pages
deadline: April 29
Exams
Though both exams will assess your retention of our reading material, they will be much more thoroughly
discursive in nature than the quizzes you’ll take throughout the semester. That is, you’ll be prompted to discuss—in
writing—our course terminology as embodied in our course narratives when taking these exams.
Course Materials
Always have paper and a writing utensil in class. You’ll also need access to a computer, the internet, a printer, and
a stapler. To my mind, binders & flash drives are extremely helpful, but these are not outright essential for our
purposes.
POLICIES (I don’t enjoy being as terribly stubborn and curt as I will be about my policies. So, please
understand, they’re in place so that I can reward those of you who perform well, not so that I can punish those of
you who slip up.
Academic Integrity
“Academic integrity is founded upon and encompasses the following five values: honesty, trust, fairness, respect,
and responsibility. Violations include, for example, cheating, plagiarism, misuse of academic resources,
falsification, and facilitating academic dishonesty. If knowledge is to be gained and properly evaluated, it must be
pursued under conditions free from dishonesty. Deceit and misrepresentations are incompatible with the
fundamental activity of this academic institution and shall not be tolerated” (from UNCG’s Academic Integrity
Policy). To ensure that you understand the university’s policy on academic integrity, review the guidelines and list
of violations at <http://academicintegrity.uncg.edu>. I expect you to abide by the Academic Integrity Policy.
Penalties for plagiarism, among other forms of academic dishonesty or unethical intellectual property appropriation,
may range from an automatic zero on the assignment to administrative censure from the university, depending on
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the severity of the violation of academic integrity, prior violations, and the overall value of the assignment in
question to the final grade.
Attendance
I take attendance at the beginning of every class meeting. Three or fewer absences will not affect you. But every
absence thereafter will knock your final grade down by half a letter. Miss six classes and you’ll fail this course.
You are, by state law, allowed two excused absences due to religious holidays, which do not count toward your
total allowed absences. If you plan to miss class because of your faith, you must notify me at least 48 hours prior to
the absence. I will not excuse a holiday absence if you notify me after the fact.
You’ll be marked tardy if you arrive anywhere between one second and ten minutes late. Three such instances will
count as an absence. Though I’m sure you could infer this, I will mark you absent if you walk in eleven, twelve,
etc., minutes late. When you’re tardy, I suggest seeing me after class to ensure I noted your eventual attendance.
On a quick note, it is your responsibility to keep up with in-class readings in the wakes of absences.
Do not even think about packing up to leave before I say whatever I say on any given day to affirm that our meeting
is done. I’ll pay you the respect of never keeping you late, and I’ll expect no less respect in return with regard to
how class ends. You’ll be marked tardy if you violate this policy. Same goes if you outright leave class early.
Classroom Conduct
All forms of aggressiveness, offensiveness, prejudice, etc., are completely prohibited from this classroom. I will
deal with violations of this policy on a case-by-case basis. Trust me—such violations will upset me more than
anything else you might do.
Electronic Equipment in Class
Laptops may be used in class only by students having special needs for purposes of note-taking or other classroom
activities. Students with such needs should make specific arrangements with me.
Otherwise, all electronic devices are prohibited from my class. Violating this policy will cost you tardiness on my
attendance sheet. And don’t wear headphones during class, even if you’re not listening to music—same deal here
with the tardiness.
Late Work
Late submission of work will come with a cost. For every day an assignment is late, your grade on that assignment
will drop by a full letter. I will consider an assignment a day late if you submit it even a single minute after our
class meeting begins on a deadline. Twenty-four hours thereafter, if I’ve yet to receive your submission, your grade
on the assignment will drop another entire letter, so on & so forth, till you fail the assignment altogether.
An email submission of your work, then, might come in handy. That is, I’ll consider your work submitted on time if
it’s in my email inbox before class on its deadline. But if you have to rely on email for the initial submission, make
sure to bring me a hard copy of the assignment as soon as humanly possible.
Let’s say you have finished typing an assignment just one minute before class begins. Here’s what you should do:
Save the document, send an email to me with the document attached, print your document, come to class, and,
finally, submit the hard copy. In this case, the only penalty you receive is tardiness—small potatoes. Of course, if
your attendance record is terrible, and you’re one instance of tardiness away from another absence, you might want
to rework this plan. The point is that you should consider what your personal academic standing calls for when you
land in a tight situation.
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In the event that technological problems sandbag timely submission of your work, know two things: 1) I feel really,
really, very bad for you; 2) I’m not going to budge on my late-work policy. A flash drive, in this regard, might just
save you some day.
Formatting Guidelines
Format all writing assignments with such:
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twelve-point Times New Roman font
double spacing
no extra spacing between paragraphs
one-inch margins all around the page
a heading with your full name, course & section number, and the date
a header with your last name and the page number; right-aligned with half-inch margin from the top
a staple in the upper left corner
I’ll conduct several formatting tutorials near the end of the semester. You need to talk to me if the tutorials don’t
give you the formatting know-how you’ll need—need most of all for an A-worthy essay.
RESOURCES
Communication with Me
Throughout the workweek, I’ll respond to any email you send my way within 48 hours. If such time passes and I’ve
yet to respond, send your email again. Emails, by the way, are not text messages. Use a salutation, Standard Written
English with a respectful tone, and a valediction when you write me. I’ll do the same for you.
Making myself readily available to assist you with absolutely any work you do for this course is nearly my whole
rationale for cooping up in my office four hours a week. You are not merely welcome to come by; you’re
encouraged. I will help you with terminology. I will help you with generating ideas for your essay if you walk
through my door a perfectly blank slate. I will help you with…well, you name it, and, as long as your request
pertains to our coursework, I will dedicate every ounce of my mental energy to making you feel comfortable.
The Office of Disability Services
Students with documentation of special needs should arrange to see me about accommodations as soon as possible.
If you believe you could benefit from such accommodations, you must first register with the Office of Disability
Services on campus before such accommodations can be made. The office is located on the second floor of the
Elliott University Center (EUC) in Suite 215, and the office is open 8am to 5pm, Monday - Friday. Telephone: 3345440; e-mail: ods@uncg.edu.
The Writing Center
The purpose of the Writing Center is to enhance the confidence and competence of student writers by providing
free, individual assistance at any stage of any writing project. Staff consultants are experienced writers and alert
readers, prepared to offer feedback and suggestions on drafts of papers, help students find answers to their
questions about writing, and provide one-on-one instruction as needed. Located in the Moore Humanities and
Research Building, room 3211.
CALENDAR (Love denotes What We Talk About When We Talk About Love. All other titles have been left
unabbreviated. On days when you’re scheduled to have read from a narrative book, bring that book to class. Bring
Lenses to every class meeting. Readings you need to have completed before even entering our classroom appear in
bold text like this, as do notifications of needs to bring books for in-class readings. Scheduled quizzes appear in
underlined text like this. Scheduled exams & assignment deadlines appear in underlined, bold small caps LIKE
THIS. For Love, The Old Man and the Sea, and Great Expectations, you might have to add or subtract up to twenty
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pages to or from the page numbers I’ve listed below, depending on the edition you purchase; the story titles, chapter
numbers, and quotes I’ve included are your indisputable stopping points. I’ll likely make very minor changes to the
calendar as the semester goes on; in any such event, you’ll be notified through Blackboard.)
WEEK 1
Monday, January 14
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bring to class if possible: Lenses
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in class: syllabus rundown
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in class: brief introductions
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read in class: Lenses, excerpts from Chapter 1, pages 1–7
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read in class: excerpt from Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows
Wednesday, January 16
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read before class: Love through the end of the story “Gazebo,” pages 3–29
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in class: introduction to five basic modes of narrative discourse
WEEK 2
Monday, January 21
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class dismissed for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday
Wednesday, January 23
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read before class: Love through the end of the story “The Third Thing That Killed My Father Off,”
pages 31–103
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in class: five basic modes of narrative discourse
WEEK 3
Monday, January 28
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read before class: Love through the end of the book, pages 105–159
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in class: five basic modes of narrative discourse
Wednesday, January 30
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read before class: Birds of America through the end of the story “Which Is More Than I Can Say
About Some People,” pages 5–46
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in class: quiz on five basic modes of narrative discourse, some questions pertaining to today’s reading from
Birds of America
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in class: introduction to tense & point of view
WEEK 4
Monday, February 4
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read before class: Birds of America through the end of the story “Beautiful Grade,” pages 47–142
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read before class: Lenses, Chapter 9, pages 107–114, (don’t read the sample analysis that begins on
page 114)
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in class: tense & point of view
Wednesday, February 6
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read before class: Birds of America through the end of the story “What You Want to Do Fine,” pages
143–176
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in class: tense & point of view
WEEK 5
Monday, February 11
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read before class: Birds of America through the end of the story “People Like That Are the Only
People Here,” pages 177–250
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in class: tense & point of view
Wednesday, February 13
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read before class: Birds of America through the end of the book, pages 251–291
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in class: quiz on tense & point of view, some questions pertaining to today’s reading from Birds of America
WEEK 6
Monday, February 18
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read before class: Storyteller through the end of the story “Yellow Woman,” pages 1–60
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read before class: Lenses, designated sections from Chapter 3, pages 25–38
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in class: form & genre
Wednesday, February 20
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read before class: Storyteller through the end of the poem “Storytelling,” pages 61–93
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in class: form & genre
WEEK 7
Monday, February 25
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read before class: Storyteller through the end of the poem “Deer Dance / For Your Return,” pages
94–182
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read before class: Lenses, designated sections from Chapter 4, pages 39–47
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in class: figurative language
Wednesday, February 27
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read before class: Storyteller through the end of the story “A Geronimo Story,” pages 183–215
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in class: figurative language
WEEK 8
Monday, March 4
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read before class: Storyteller through the end of the book, pages 216–259
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in class: quiz on form, genre, and figurative language, some questions pertaining to today’s reading from
Storyteller
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in class: midterm review
Wednesday, March 6
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IN CLASS: MIDTERM EXAM
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This upcoming Friday, March 8, is the last day you can drop this course without receiving academic
penalty. See me should you have questions about your grade.
WEEK 9
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Monday, March 11
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class dismissed for Spring Break
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Remember that you have nearly 60 pages of reading due next Monday.
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How hard have you worked on your essay? It’s due in seven weeks.
Wednesday, March 13
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class dismissed for Spring Break
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Remember that you have nearly 60 pages of reading due next Monday.
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How hard have you worked on your essay? It’s due within seven weeks.
WEEK 10
Monday, March 18
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read before class: The Old Man and the Sea through the paragraph that ends with “Have you been
long enough at table?” pages 9–44
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read before class: Lenses, Chapter 2, pages 9–23
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read before class: Lenses, designated sections from Chapter 8, pages 95–105, (don’t read the sample
analysis that begins on page 105)
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in class: refresher discussion regarding essay, which is due in six weeks
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in class: setting & time
Wednesday, March 20
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read before class: The Old Man and the Sea through the paragraph that ends with “…he waited to
see if there would be more lions and he was happy,” pages 44–81
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in class: setting & time
WEEK 11
Monday, March 25
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read before class: The Old Man and the Sea through the end of the book, pages 81–127
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in class: quiz on setting & time, some questions pertaining to today’s reading from The Old Man and the
Sea
Wednesday, March 27
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read before class: The Dew Breaker through the end of the story “Seven,” pages 3–52
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in class: deeper meaning
WEEK 12
Monday, April 1
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read before class: The Dew Breaker through the end of the story “The Bridal Seamstress,” pages 53–
138
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read before class: Lenses, designated sections from Chapter 5, pages 53–65, (don’t read the sample
analysis that begins on page 65)
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in class: deeper meaning
Wednesday, April 3
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read before class: The Dew Breaker through the end of the story “The Funeral Singer,” pages 139–
181
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in class: deeper meaning
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WEEK 13
Monday, April 8
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read before class: The Dew Breaker through the end of the book, pages 183–242
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in class: quiz on deeper meaning, some questions pertaining to today’s reading from The Dew Breaker
Wednesday, April 10
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read before class: Great Expectations through the end of Chapter 7, pages 3–53
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read before class: Lenses, Chapter 7, pages 81–90, (don’t read the sample analysis that begins on
page 90)
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in class: character
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in class: citations & formatting tutorial
WEEK 14
Monday, April 15
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read before class: Great Expectations through the end of Chapter 26, pages 53–217
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in class: character
Wednesday, April 17
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read before class: Great Expectations through the end of Chapter 37, pages 217–299
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in class: character
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in class: citations & formatting tutorial
WEEK 15
Monday, April 22
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read before class: Great Expectations through the end of Chapter 52, pages 300–421
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in class: quiz on character, some questions pertaining to today’s reading from Great Expectations
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in class: refresher discussion regarding essay, which is due in one week
Wednesday, April 24
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read before class: Great Expectations through the end of the book, pages 421–484
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in class: final review
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in class: citations & formatting tutorial
WEEK 16
Monday, April 29
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DUE: ESSAY
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in class: final review
FINAL EXAM SESSION: 3:30–6:30 PM on Wednesday, May 8