English 1020: Composition II
Jackson State Community College
Instructor: Dr. Liz Thompson
Email: ethompson8@jscc.edu
Phone: 424-3520 ext. 258
Office: Classroom Building 235
Office Hours: By appointment M-F
Description
The course will focus on expository writing using both research and documentation
procedures and the ideas found in literature. (Prerequisite: ENGL 1010.) Career program
students may be required to take only ENGL 1010 as requirement, but ENGL 1010 and
1020 should be taken if the student plans to pursue a baccalaureate degree.
Course Objectives
To receive credit for this course, you must be able to
A. Identify thesis statements
B. Recognize and use a variety of organizational patterns
C. Respond effectively in writing to both primary and secondary source material
D. Generate thesis statements appropriate to given research topics
E. Locate various research sources
F. Evaluate a variety of research sources for objectivity, relevance, and timeliness
G. Incorporate a variety of research material into original essays
H. Document a variety of research material using MLA style
I. Prepare research papers in appropriate MLA manuscript format
J. Use standard literary terminology to analyze poetry, drama, and fiction
K. Identify and understand symbolic and figurative language
L. Illustrate in writing relationships between literature and life
M. Quote, paraphrase, and summarize primary and secondary material
Required Course Materials
1. Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense, 10th edition, Arp et al., eds., ISBN
1413033083 (Please bring text to every class!)
2. You MUST have a recent version of Microsoft Word or the free “compatibility
package” that is easily found on Microsoft’s website. If you use any other word
processing program, this course will be very difficult for you to complete. It is your
responsibility to make sure that all digital files uploaded for assignment submission
are in the correct file format.
3. Computer/Internet Access, as this course will be primarily paperless; that is, all
course materials will be available on the JSCC eLearn site. You’ll also upload all
papers to the dropbox on the eLearn website. Details of this process will be
explained further in class.
1
Policy on Absences and Classroom Behavior
Your regular, punctual attendance is expected. Four absences in a TR/MW class and six
absences in a MWF class will be considered excessive—this is the equivalent of missing a full
two weeks of class—and will lower your final grade by at least one full letter grade. If you
miss five classes in a TR/MW course or seven classes in a MWF course, you'll likely fail the
course.
Coming to class late or leaving early disrupts everyone and should be avoided. Arriving after
attendance has been taken counts as a tardy; three instances of tardiness count as an
absence. However, arriving more than twenty minutes late will be counted not as a tardy but
as an absence. For an assignment to be considered for full credit, you are accountable
for submitting work due on its assigned date whether you are in class or not, as all
assignments will be submitted online in the eLearn dropbox. It is also your
responsibility to see me about handouts or changes to the class schedule you missed due to
an absence.
If I am lecturing, you should be taking notes. Please come to every class prepared to work in
a professional environment; this means that you should bring your textbook, notebook for
taking notes, and a writing utensil to every class meeting. The instructor reserves the right to
eject any unprepared students from the classroom at her discretion.
I expect that all reading assignments be completed before the appointed date on the
schedule, and that you come to class prepared to discuss the assigned readings. In classroom
discussions, we will be mutually respectful to one another. This means that you will call me
by my professional title, and you will extend your respect to your fellow peers by not talking
when they are talking. Lastly, I will dismiss class promptly at the appointed time: please do
not leave, rustle backpacks, etc. until I have dismissed class.
*Note: Out of courtesy to others, I do not permit the use of laptop computers or other
technological gadgetry in the classroom, as it may interfere with your ability to prove
effective reading and comprehension of the assigned text(s). Cell phones are to be turned
OFF while class is in session unless you have a personal situation that requires otherwise;
please see me if this is the case.
Policy on Late Papers
Due dates for assigned work are clearly noted on the course schedule. It is expected that
you will comply with those due dates. Should there be circumstances that prevent you from
submitting a major writing assignment on its due date or that prevent you from attending
class on the day of an in-class essay, it is your responsibility to notify me in advance of the
deadline to discuss a mutually acceptable alternative. Otherwise, a late major writing
assignment will be graded down one full letter grade and will only be accepted one class day
late; papers will not be accepted later than one day.
Policy on Academic Honesty
Integrity is expected of you in all academic work. The guiding principle of academic integrity
is that your submitted work must be your own with, of course, accurate attributions to, and
citations of, others' work where appropriate. Failure to adhere to this principle will result in
2
failure on the assignment and other consequences as per JSCC policy, which can include
failure in the course, suspension and/or expulsion from the college.
According to the 2010-2011 Jackson State Community College Catalog and Student
Handbook, “no students shall:
o Claim or submit academic work of another as one’s own.
o Procure, provide, accept, or use any materials containing questions or
answers to any examination or assignment without proper authorization.
o Complete or attempt to complete any assignment or examination for another
individual without proper authorization.
o Commit plagiarism if you submit as your own work:
--Part or all of an assignment copied or paraphrased from another
person’s manuscript, notes or talk (lecture).
--Part or all of an assignment copied or paraphrased from anything
published.” (21)
Plagiarism is the theft of someone else’s intellectual property and subsequent attempt to
purport it to be your own. If you buy, borrow, or steal another person’s ideas and present
them as yours, you will fail this class. If you plagiarize in this class, you will receive a
final grade of ‘F.’
Acts of intentional plagiarism include: downloading papers or excerpts from the internet and
pasting them into your own work, permitting a friend or family member to write any part of
your work, or including ideas from a secondary source—even when you’ve modified the wording—
without properly citing that source. You are permitted—even encouraged—to make use of
secondary sources in some assignments, but you must properly cite your sources. Please see
the link on the JSCC library homepage entitled “MLA format” for instruction on how to do
this.
Acts of unintentional plagiarism, which are nearly as grievous, may include: failure to
correctly cite sources using MLA format and neglecting to understand the concept of
paraphrasing. Accidental plagiarism will happen in Composition I and II, as we learn to use
sources correctly, but by the end of the semester, you must be able to use sources correctly
in order to pass the course.
Disability Accommodations
Students who may need class or test accommodations based on the impact of a disability are
encouraged to speak with the instructor privately to discuss their specific needs. The
Disability Resource Center (DRC) coordinates reasonable accommodations for students
with documented disabilities. Students who are registered with the DRC are expected to
provide the instructor with an accommodations memo at the beginning of the semester.
Students who need accommodations but do not have such a memo should contact the DRC
at (731) 424-3520 ext. 354 or go to Student Union room 13 for more assistance.
Format for Assignments
All out-of-class assignments should be submitted to the eLearn dropbox typed, doublespaced, in Times New Roman 12-point font, with one-inch margins and numbered pages.
Documentation and citations should conform to the most current MLA specifications.
3
The dropbox that you will use to submit your work was created and set up before this class
began. Each dropbox will close after the assignment is due, which is generally at 11:59 pm
on the due date. These times and dates are programmed into the eLearn program and will
not change. Therefore, it is extremely important that you submit your assignments on time.
Late assignments will be accepted only with the instructor’s permission and only in
the case of an extreme and documented emergency; these late submissions will be
assessed a penalty of one full letter grade.
Since you will be submitting all of your outside essays online to the dropbox, these excuses
will not be accepted: 1) “I sent you the file. Didn’t you get it?” 2) “Oh, I’m sorry! I sent you
the wrong file.” These are the 21st century equivalent to “the dog ate my homework,” and
your instructor will not accept any work that is late for the reasons listed above. Please be
responsible for your own work by double-checking to see that the assignment was properly
uploaded and submitted in the correct 2007 or 2010 Microsoft Word file format. Your
instructor will not be held responsible for a student’s error.
If the eLearn program crashes or is not working properly and you miss a due date, your
work will be accepted, as eLearn technical problems are not your fault. Your instructor will
be notified of any eLearn problems and will be aware of them. In the case of technological
issues, please contact JSCC’s IT department for assistance, as your instructor is unable to fix
technological problems—e.g., problems with one’s login/password, email issues, etc.
Course Requirements and Grading
Your semester grade will be determined as follows:
In-Class Unit Essays (3)..............................................................................................45%
Out-of-Class Research Papers (2) .............................................................................40%
Final Exam In-Class Essay (1)....................................................................................15%
A separate handout and/or verbal explanation will be available on eLearn and will be discussed in class for
each out-of-class assignment that will describe its purpose and process as well as its grading criteria. Below,
however, are brief descriptions of each assignment:
• The In-Class Essays will be in-class, timed writing responses. There will be one in-class
essay for each unit of this course—fiction, drama, and poetry—and each essay is worth 15%
of your final grade. These will be closed-book responses on topics of my choosing; these
topics will be based on the assigned readings from your textbook.
• The Out-of-Class Research Papers require some outside literary analysis research and will each
be worth 20% of your final grade. You will choose from a list of possible topics, which will
be based on the assigned readings from your textbook.
• The Final Exam In-Class Essay will be an in-class, timed writing response. I’ll provide three
possible prompts based on the assigned readings from your textbook, and you’ll respond to
two of these topics.
Semester Grade Points
Final grades for this course will be determined as follows:
A—95-100%
4
B—85-94%
C—75-84%
D—65-74%
F—0-64%
A minimum of one letter grade will be removed from the final grade if the student misses
more than the allowed 4 absences for a TR/MW class or 6 absences for a MWF class. All
absences—whether one misses for a medical issue or to merely sleep in a bit—will carry
equal weight. The reasons for student absences are of no concern to the instructor, so
please take responsibility for keeping up with your missed days and/or tardiness. You need
not email me if you will be absent, but please be sure to keep track of what you missed and
how many absences you’ve accrued. If you need to miss due to a major emergency, please
take advantage of the built in days for absences, but be aware that an absence that occurs
after one has already used one’s allotted days—even if for a legitimate reason—will still be
counted against the student.
Class Schedule **(Schedule begins Tuesday, January 18th after the MLK holiday)
This schedule is subject to revision. Such revisions will be discussed in class. You are responsible for keeping
track of any schedule changes even if you are absent from or late to class on the day that the modification is
discussed. All assigned reading is to be completed before the date of our class meeting,
as you will be expected to engage in classroom discussion of the assigned text. Unless
noted otherwise, readings will be found in Perrine’s Literature: Structure, Sound, and Sense.
Unit I: Fiction
Week 1: Reading the Story
Day One – Course Introduction; discussion of “Writing about Literature”
Day Two – Updike’s “A&P” 624; Wolff “Hunters in the Snow” 86
Week 2: Plot and Structure
Day One–Greene “The Destructors” 111
Day Two– Faulkner “A Rose for Emily” 526
Week 3: Characterization
Day One– Oates “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” 469
Day Two- Joyce “Araby” 403; First in-class essay today (Friday for MWF classes)
Week 4: Theme
Day One–Gautreaux “Welding with Children” 198
Day Two – Chekhov “The Darling” 212; Introduce first research essay
Week 5: Point of View
Day One –Jackson “The Lottery” 261
Day Two- Hemingway “Hills like White Elephants” 278
5
Week 6: Symbol, Allegory, Fantasy
Day One–Lawrence “The Rocking-Horse Winner” 295
Day Two–Le Guin “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” 321
Week 7: Humor and Irony
Day One–O’ Connor “A Good Man is Hard to Find” 420
Day Two–Chopin “The Story of an Hour” 524; Final draft for first research essay due
(Friday for MWF classes)
Week 8: Spring Break
March 7-12: No Classes
Unit II: Drama
Week 9: The Nature of Drama
Day One–Glaspell Trifles 1029
Day Two–Ives Time Flies 1071; Introduce second research essay
Week 10: Realistic and Nonrealistic Drama
Day One- Wilson Fences 1594-1628
Day Two– Wilson Fences 1628-1652
Week 11: Tragedy and Comedy
Day One– Shakespeare Othello 1273-1328
Day Two–Othello 1328-1366; Second in-class essay today (Friday for MWF classes)
Unit III: Poetry
Week 12: What is Poetry?
Day One– Williams “The Red Wheelbarrow” 647; Brooks “Kitchenette Building” 646 and
“We Real Cool” 827; Frost “Home Burial” 920
Day Two–Hughes “Theme for English B” 976; Piercy “Barbie Doll” 754; Roethke “My
Papa’s Waltz” 1000; Final draft for second research essay due (Friday for MWF
classes)
Week 13: Reading the Poem
Day One– Stevens “Sunday Morning” 930; Bishop “The Fish” 935; Rich “Diving into the
Wreck” 937
Day Two– Auden “The Unknown Citizen” 767; Jarrell “Death of the Ball Turret Gunner”
977; Dunbar “We Wear the Mask” 893
6
Week 14: Imagery
Day One– Keats “Ode on a Grecian Urn” 917; Eliot “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”
925; Browning “Meeting at Night” and “Parting at Morning” 690-1
Day Two– Frost “After Apple-Picking” 698; Dickinson “I Felt a Funeral in My Brain” 695;
Third in-class essay today (Friday for MWF classes)
Week 15: Figurative Language
Day One– Donne “A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning” 720; Marvell “To His Coy
Mistress” 721; Browning “Porphyria’s Lover” 857; Yeats “The Second Coming” 1018
Day Two– Last Day of Class; In-class final exam (Friday for MWF classes)
7