Summer Syllabus
2001
English 500
Graduate Studies
Dr. Gass
Office Hours: MTTh 12:00-1:00 p.m. or by appointment
Office: UH440
Telephone: (714) 278-2713
e-mail: jgass@fullerton.edu
fax: (714) 895-5751
MH 44 (TTh 8:00-9:50) 10:00-11:00 Group discussion
UH 317 (M) 8:00-11:00
Summer 2001 Syllabus
Welcome to English 500, Graduate Studies, a foundation course for graduate studies in
English and Comparative Literature. English 500 provides an introduction to the tools and
methods of advanced research and to the modern and contemporary approaches to literary
criticism and literary theory.
This semester, portions of this course will be taught in cyberspace. In addition to
class meetings, you will be completing your assignments, conducting your research,
communicating with me and your colleagues, and interacting with me and your colleagues via
the Internet and this web site. Because of this, the course requirements are somewhat
different from what you would normally expect.
Required Texts: **** All books are available at the Little Professor Book
Center on Placentia Ave.
Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, fifth ed. (This
edition only.)Modern Language Association.
Groden, Michael and Martin Kreiswirth eds. The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary
Theory & Criticism. Johns Hopkins Press.
Harmon, William and C. Hugh Holman. A Handbook to Literature, seventh ed.
MacMillan.
Lentricchia, Frank and Thomas McLaughlin, eds. Critical Terms for Literary Study
, 2nd ed. University of Chicago Press.
Turabian, Kate. A Manual of Style, 6th ed. University of Chicago
Press.
Equipment Requirements:
You must have or have access to:
a computer with a modem
floppy disks
an on-line service or Internet provider
a hard drive with sufficient memory to support the creation of your own web page
If you have a computer and modem, but do not have an on-line service, you can get an
account from the Computer Center in the basement of the Library which will give you access
to the Library (we will be having a library tour which will provide you with more
information on this topic). The service will cost you $15.00 per month, but it
is well worth the cost. The University Learning Center in the basement of McCarthy
Hall has wonderful new computers equipped with Netscape and friendly helpers who will help
you; in addition, the computer center in the basement of the Library has both IBM and
MacIntosh computers. They are equipped with Word, Power Point, and Excel, and they also
have Netscape Navigator, so you can do some of your Internet research there. When you
enrolled, you were assigned an e-mail address. You should now find out how you can access
that address and use it.
If we use our time wisely, however, you will be able to do much of the composing of
your web page in MH ? and during class time.
Attendance, Preparation, and Participation:
We will be meeting as a group in the English Department Writing Center in
McCarthy Hall --- on Mondays. The other two class sessions will be held in
UH 317. During our meetings, we will discuss any problems we are encountering, go over
assignments, and make theory presentations in addition to working online. Other class
times will be devoted to research on the project that you have identified,
discussion of assigned work, and presentations. You will work
in the Library or on the Web. During that time, you will also be posting your assignments
and exercises to me via e-mail or fax.
Written assignments must be submitted on time and conform to the prescriptions and
conventions of the MLA Handbook, unless otherwise indicated (for example, some assignments
will ask you to create documentation both in MLA and in Turabian--Chicago Style
Manual--formats).
Scrupulous attention must be paid to grammar, punctuation, spelling, and diction. When
you post something to me, make sure that it is properly formatted--this will require that
you learn to use the 'enclosure' feature of e-mail. I reserve the right to return (or
re-post) unsatisfactory assignments to you for revision and correction.
***The number and cost of the required texts for this course is heavy; however, you are
presumably beginning your tenure as a graduate student at CSUF, and you will use these
texts many times in the next two years. Therefore, I recommend that you consider these
works as the foundation for a reference library worthy of a graduate student in English
and Comparative Literature (and a potential or current teacher of literature and writing).
Course work:
A seminar paper is the culminating experience for the course; therefore, you will have
to choose a topic for your paper very soon. If you are taking another seminar, I suggest
that you undertake a research project on a topic of your choosing and related to the
seminar that you are taking this semester.
You will spend the next several weeks creating a web page which will contain all of the
research that you do both in the Library and in cyberspace. Your web page will, in
essence, be a summary of your research activities and will be focused upon the topic of
your seminar paper; you will also evaluate the materials obtained via the Internet.
In addition, you will create a twenty-item (minimum) annotated bibliography to
complement your web page and to indicate your knowledge of the scholarship in your field
of research.
You will also be doing a series of related assignments and exercises which entail both
traditional forms of research and the new ones you'll be exploring. Those assignments can
be found on my web page: hss.fullerton.edu/english/jgass. When you access my home
page, scroll down to the buttons and click on English 500, from there, go to
"assignments."
Three times during the semester, I will assign you short, analytical essays in which
you will analyze a poem or a short story as a means of sharpening your analytical
skills and as a practice for timed writing as it is expected of you in the
m.a. examination.
The assignments can also be found under English 500 on my web page.
At the end of the seminar, you will present a 20-minute summary of your research
activity to the assembled seminar, you will display your newly-created web site, and you
will present a hard copy of your paper to the class.
Finally, we will also be surveying current trends in literary criticism; in conjunction
with our study of theory, each of you will present a lesson to the class on one of the
schools of twentieth century criticism. That lesson must be no longer than 30
minutes in length. It must be well-organized and clear, since some of the concepts will be
new to your colleagues. To assist your colleagues, you will want to provide a handout
which outlines your presentation and defines key terms.
Grading: The seminar grade will be determined in the following way:
20% Theory Presentation
25% Assignments and Analysis Essays
15% Annotated Bibliography
10% Research Presentation
30% Research Project (Web Page and seminar paper)
100%
Presentation Topics: Information for the presentations should come from, among
other sources, The Johns Hopkins Guide and Lentricchia and McLaughlin’s Critical
Terms for Literary Study. Please choose from the following topics:
New Criticism
Structuralism
Psychological Criticism
Freudian
Jungian
Lacanian
Russian Formalism
Reader Response
Feminism
French
Anglo-American
Marxist Theory
Deconstruction
Post-Modernism
New Historicism
Post Colonialism
Eco Criticism
Queer Theory
Class Schedule:
Week #1:
Monday: Pollak Library inside entryway (near Information Desk)
Library Tour with Deb Richey
Have a research topic chosen and begin doing research while under Deb
Richey's tutelage in the Library.
Tuesday MH 44
Introduction to the course.
Brief explanation of Assignment #1 Comparison of Two Journals
Creating a folder and files for research project.
Creating a document in Word and copying it to your web page.
Using Word, searching the Internet.
Assignment #2--Scavenger Hunt
Thursday MH 44
Beginning the web page.
Read sections in MLA and Turabian (Chicago Style) on ellipses, parentheses, and
brackets.
Joining Acacia and MLA.
Presenting papers at conferences--why do it?
Work on Scavenger Hunt
Week #2:
Monday: UH 317
Topic chosen and research in Library under way.
First analysis paper. Analyze a poem. Shakespeare’s Sonnet 23.
Assignment #1 Comparison of two journals due.
Discuss use and proper punctuation of ellipses, parentheses, and brackets--MLA and
Chicago Style
In-class writing: practice analysis (using m.a. exam question)
Tuesday: MH 44
Work on web page.
Theory presentations: New Criticism and Structuralism.
Assignment #3: Using ellipses, parentheses, and brackets (MLA and Chicago Style).
Thursday: MH 44
Work on web pages.
Proposal for paper due.
Week #3:
Monday: UH 317
Theory presentations: Psychoanalytic--Freud, Jung, Lacan.
Read sections in MLA and Turabian on works cited and end note pages.
Theory presentations: Russian Formalism and Reader Response.
Discuss works cited lists and end note pages--MLA and Chicago Style.
Tuesday: MH 44
Work on completion of web page.
Assignment #4: Comparing works cited lists and end note pages in MLA and Chicago Style.
Theory presentations: Feminist Theory: Anglo-American and French.
Thursday: MH 44
Finish web page.
Read sections in MLA and Turabian on using quotations and citing sources.
First draft of seminar paper. Thesis, outline, etc.
Week #4:
Monday: UH 317
Second analysis paper. Analyze a short story, Kate Chopin’s "The Story of an
Hour."
Theory presentations: Marxism and Deconstruction.
Discuss using quotations and citing sources--MLA and Chicago Style.
Theory presentations: Postmodernism and New Historicism.
Tuesday: MH 44 (if need be)
Assignment #5: Using quotations and citing sources properly--MLA and Chicago Style.
Practice M.A. exam--in-class writing. Analyze a short story.
Thursday: UH 317
Third analysis paper. Analyze an essay--Martin Luther King, Jr.’s "Letter
from Birmingham Jail."
Discuss practice exam. Class discussion of expectations of m.a. program
and of m.a. students. "The EXAM"
Week #5:
Monday: UH 317
Third in-class analysis essay--"Letter from Birmingham Jail."
Work on annotated bibliographies, web pages, and/or papers.
Theory presentations: Post-Colonialism, Eco Criticism and Queer Theory.
Read section in MLA and Turabian on annotated bibliographies.
Tuesday: MH 44
Show off web pages.
Discuss annotated bibliography--MLA and Chicago Style.
Thursday: MH 44
Assignment #6: Annotated Bibliography due.
Week #6:
Monday: UH 317
All seminar papers due to the class (copies for each member, please).
Read papers overnight and prepare questions and discussion topics.
Tuesday: UH 317
Discussion of papers.
Papers taken home to be corrected and revised.
Thursday: UH 317
Final draft of papers, including Works Cited list.
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