Northwest-Shoals Community College / Spring 2003

English 271 / World Literature I

Thursday Evening Class, 5:30 pm – 8:10 pm

 

Instructor: Michael Patrick McClung, B.A., M.A.

256/331-6313

Office: AV-16

E-mail: mcclung@nwscc.edu

 

 

Required Texts: The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces, Volume 1, 7th ed.

                           Hamlet, William Shakespeare (The New Folger Library  / ISBN: 0-671-72262-X)

 

Prerequisites: English 102 or an equivalent second part of freshman composition.

 

Class Attendance: Students should attend all class meetings.  Students who miss more than 2 class meetings (that is, more than 20% of the course) will receive an F for the course regardless of the grades they have earned thus far.  Thus, students are discouraged from missing any class meeting unless a genuine emergency arises.  If you are absent due to sickness, you do not need to bring a doctor’s excuse to the instructor; unlike high school, there are no “excused” absences—absent is absent for whatever reason.

 

Make-up Policy: Students who miss essays or exams are allowed to make up the assignment, but the missed work must be completed within one week of its due date.  No work will be accepted beyond this extra time allowance.  Make up exams are painful and inconvenient for everyone involved, so the student is advised to be here any time an exam is scheduled to be given.

 

Grades: Your final course grade will come from performance on the exams, critical essays, daily reading quizzes, and your general attitude during the course.

 

Conferences: Students are encouraged to speak with the instructor at any time during the semester about their progress and improvement.  However, students should not at any time during the semester tell the instructor what grade they “just have to have.”  Example: “Oh, Mr. McClung, I need to bring up my GPA, and I just have to have a B in this class!”

 

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): It is the policy of NW-SCC to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).  Any student covered under this act needing and desiring reasonable accommodations for this class should notify the instructor by the end of the second week of classes.  Students may not claim to have a disability at the end of the term and then request special treatment, change of grade, etc.

 

Academic Citizenship: The following are some things you need to know about being a student in this course or any other college course.  (1) You may not habitually come to class late; tardiness is rude and it is a distraction.  Repeated or habitual tardiness indicates gross ignorance of academic amenities.  The instructor will take special notice of those who are repeatedly late to class, and habitual tardiness will result in a lower final course grade for the student; (2) You must purchase the required book(s) for the course; the books are not optional; (3) You may not talk and carry on conversations with your friends and neighbors while the instructor is talking; (4) You may not sleep in class or work on classwork for other courses; (5) It is your job to look interested during class time even if you are not; this is one of the most important lessons you can learn in life; (6) You will not allow a cell phone to ring under any circumstances during class time; in fact, throw your cell phone in the garbage today on your way out of class—every time you use a cell phone, it decreases your intelligence substantially; (7) If you copy essays or portions of essays off the Internet and turn them in as your own work, you will be found guilty of plagiarism and will have an F in the course as of that day; taking someone else’s writing—whether from the Internet or any other print source—and presenting it as your own is a serious academic offense.

 

About Your Professor: Mr. McClung received his B.A. degree in English from the University of North Alabama (1993) and his M.A. degree in English from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (1995).  He has taught in the English Departments of UAB, UNA, and NW-SCC.

 

 

Course Schedule:

1/16:        Introduction and Syllabus

                Seating Assignment

 

1/23:        Old Testament selections:

Genesis 1-3, 6-9; from Job;  Psalms

 

1/30:        Homer, The Odyssey

 

2/6:          Complete The Odyssey

                Videos: The Gods & The Heroes

Sophocles, Oedipus the King

 

2/13:        Plato, The Apology of Socrates

                New Testament selections:  Luke 2, 15;

      Matthew 5-7, 26-28

 

2/20:      Exam #1

 

2/27:        Beowulf

 

3/6:           Dante, The Divine Comedy: Inferno

 

 

 

3/13:         Chaucer, The Canterbury Tales

                    (read the General Prologue)

 

3/20:         Chaucer, the Miller’s Tale; the Wife of

                    Bath’s Prologue; the Wife of Bath’s

                  Tale

 

3/27:        Spring Break / No Class

 

4/3:          Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

 

4/10:       Exam #2

 

4/17:        Literary Analysis Research Essay

                 assignment (3rd major grade);

                Guidelines for Writing About Literature page

 

4/24:        Shakespeare, Hamlet

 

5/1:          Hamlet discussion continued

 

Final Exam:  Thursday, May 8, 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm

             

 

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** Daily Reading Quizzes**

 

At the beginning of most class meetings, students will be asked to respond to a few short answer questions relating to the readings assigned for that class period.  At the end of the semester, the instructor will total and average these daily quiz grades to make one major grade.  Students will be allowed to drop one quiz grade only; that is, Mr. McClung will drop the lowest quiz grade before he averages all the others.  There will be no make-up quizzes.  If you miss a quiz due to absence, then you have a zero for that day’s quiz.  If you come into class late and we are in the middle of taking a quiz, you may respond to as much of the quiz as possible, but the instructor will not go back and repeat the earlier questions.