Notice of Student and Instructor Accountability

Students and Instructors are accountable for all information on this syllabus, which is in this course’s Blackboard Site.

Course Information

Catalog Course Description

This course refines literary analysis skills with emphasis on critical approaches and methods. Students will learn techniques in literary research and apply researched, critical perspectives to a variety of texts. PREREQ: ENGL 102, ENGL 190, ENGL 191, or PERM/INST.

Schedule

This course meets for a regular 15-week hybrid flex session from August 21-December 14 on Tuesdays (in person and asynchronous online) from 1:00-2:15 p.m. in NCAB 311. In this hybrid flex class, I will teach on campus, and as a student, you have the choice to come to campus for class or to watch the asynchronous online presentation and complete all assignments online. NOTE: Students who attend completely online will have additional weekly online discussion requirements.

Instructor Availability

I am here to help you succeed. If you have any questions about the course or our assignments, please contact me.  

• My preferred method of contact is email, lizalong@cwi.edu. I will try to respond to you within 24 hours, Monday-Friday. I also check email at least once on weekends. If you do not hear back from me within this time frame, please email me again.
• My office hours are Tuesdays 11:30a.m.-12:45 p.m. and Thursdays 11:30am-2:15pm, and 4:00-4:45 p.m. in NCAB 312B or via Zoom and by appointment. If you need to schedule an appointment outside of my posted office hours, just let me know, and we will find a time that works for both of us.
• My office number is (208) 562-2193. However, I only check voice mail once or twice per week, so I strongly recommend that you email me if you have questions or concerns.

Course Focus

This course is designed for English literature and creative writing majors, especially those planning to transfer to a four-year institution. The course also meets the Research and Writing requirement for Liberal Arts majors. One of my primary goals is to prepare you for the work you will do in upper-division literature courses. To accomplish this goal, we will do a substantial amount of reading and writing each week. We will explore literary analysis, a variety of theoretical approaches to literature, and some basic information on literary research. The culmination of this class will be a group-produced critical edition Pressbooks publication of one of our main texts for the semester.   Course Learning Outcomes

1. Consider a wide range of alternatives to a habitual way of approaching texts
2. Analyze literature with attention to style and form as well as content
3. Use accepted methods of literary research and MLA documentation to integrate others’ ideas respectfully, accurately, and critically
4. Apply a variety of critical strategies in responding to literature
5. Write literary analysis essays using critical approaches and incorporating the ideas of others
6. Discuss the significance of cultural, historical, thematic, and theoretical perspectives in interpreting literature
7. Deliberate over the kinds of political interpretations made when reading and writing about literature

Please see the syllabus addendum for expanded course outcomes.

Outcomes Assessment

There are 1000 points possible in this course. You should expect to spend at least 7.5 hours per week on course activities. The course outcomes for English 211 will be assessed in the following manner:

*Groups will set their own internal deadlines for critical edition components. The final website is due to the instructor on Friday of Week 16.

Reading Responses: For our major reading projects over the course of the semester, you will write 500–750-word responses for class discussion. All students will post their reading responses to the discussion board by Thursday at 11:59 p.m. Students who attend class in person are not required to post responses to classmates because we will discuss your work together in class. Online students (or anyone who misses class) will earn full credit by providing substantive (150-200 word total) comments on at least two classmates’ posts by Sunday at 11:59 p.m. You will receive detailed guidelines for these assignments.

Short Theoretical Responses: For our readings from Critical Worlds you will practice application of each theory we study in these 500-750-word theoretical responses. Think of these assignments as “mini-essays.” All students will post their theoretical responses to the discussion board by Thursday at 11:59 p.m. Students who attend in person are not required to post responses to classmates because we will discuss your work together in class. Online students (or anyone who misses class) will earn full credit by providing substantive (150-200 word total) comments on at least two classmates’ posts by Sunday at 11:59 p.m. You will receive detailed guidelines for these assignments.

Literary Analysis Papers: You will write three major literary analysis papers over the course of the semester, (1) poem; (2) Kazuo Ishiguro’s novel Klara and the Sun, and (3) your assigned short story. You will receive detailed guidelines for the essays and other supporting assignments (process work, drafts, peer review).

Article Analysis & Response Paper: You will choose a peer-reviewed article that analyzes Adrienne Kennedy’s one act play A Movie Star Has to Star in Black and White and summarize, analyze, and respond to that article. You will receive additional details on that paper and supporting assignments.

Final Group Project: For the final project, students will work in small groups to produce a critical edition part for the English 211 publication Beginnings and Endings. This part will include a group-produced annotated bibliography and an essay from each student that applies a different theoretical approach to the text. Students will license their work using Creative Commons. You will receive detailed guidelines for this assignment.

Grading Policy

Essays will be graded using a rubric provided to you. Other assignments will be graded on three levels. These levels are:

• Full Credit (full points). If your work is complete, thorough, and thoughtful, then you will receive full credit.
• Partial Credit. If your work is unevenly developed, misses some directions, or lacks depth of thought, you will receive partial credit.
• No Credit (0 points). If your work is exceptionally uneven, seems perfunctory, or misses directions entirely, or if you fail to turn in an assignment, you will receive no credit.

Assignments must be submitted to Blackboard to receive credit. Blackboard will not accept Google Docs or Pages files, so please make sure that you save your work as a .docx (Word) or pdf file before you submit it.

Note: Students must submit all four major essays (three literary analysis essays and the article analysis) to earn a passing grade in this course.

Grading Scale: Your work in this course earns you points on a 1000-point scale.

A = 900 – 1000 points

B = 800 – 899 points

C = 700 – 799 points

D = 600 – 699 points

Anything below 600 points is not considered a passing grade for this course.

I will make every effort to give you timely feedback on your work. Reading responses and theoretical responses will be graded within one week of their due date. It usually takes me up to two weeks to grade your essays and longer assignments. I will let you know if I cannot meet this deadline for any reason. I encourage you to schedule a call or an appointment with me during office hours any time you have questions about your grades or my expectations for your assignments. If you earn a grade lower than a B on any essay, I encourage you to revise and resubmit your work.

Note: Concepts expressed in the classroom are for educational purposes, and a student’s adherence to any particular belief system will not be used as evaluative criteria.

Textbooks and Required Materials

• Long, Liza. Critical Worlds: A Targeted Introduction to Literary Analysis. CWI Pressbooks, 2023. https://cwi.pressbooks.pub/lit-crit/ (NOTE: We are piloting this beta version of an open education resource book this Fall semester. Using an OER will save students $50-70 for textbook costs. Chapters will be available to you the week before they are assigned. I will also be asking for feedback from you on this textbook throughout the semester).
• Klara and the Sun, Kazuo Ishiguro ISBN-13: 978-0593318171 (You must purchase this book, any format including audio book is acceptable)
• A Movie Star Has to Star in Black and White, Adrienne Kennedy. Available at no cost through the CWI Library: https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.cwi.idm.oclc.org/lib/cwidaho/detail.action?docID=310544 I will also provide a pdf of the play in Blackboard.
• Beginnings and Endings: A Critical Edition https://cwi.pressbooks.pub/beginnings-and-endings-a-critical-edition/ (you will be contributing to this book through a group project during the last few weeks of the course).
• Additional readings (poems and short stories) will be available in Blackboard.

Instructional Conversation

Learning is an active exchange between faculty and student.

As a faculty, I will

• Instruct through required readings, lectures, presentations, and videos.
• Assess through online discussions, major assignments, and a final group project.
• Inform through in-class announcements, Blackboard Course Announcements and emails.
• Facilitate through class discussions, both in person and online.

As a student, you will

• Attend class each week on time and participate in discussions (or watch the recorded presentation and participate in discussion responses on Blackboard).
• Submit work in the required format by the due date on the Course Schedule.
• Participate by asking questions when you need help and contributing to discussions and group project.
• Interact by showing respect to your classmates and your instructor, considering the ideas of others, and engaging in peer review.

Course Calendar

Please see the attached course schedule and Blackboard calendar for assignment due dates

Course Expectations

Make time. This class involves extensive reading and writing. You will have 50-75 pages to read each week, and you will write short essays weekly. Plan on at least 7.5 hours of reading and writing each week including class time. If you are spending less time than this, you will likely struggle to complete the assignments successfully. If you are spending more than 10 hours per week, please reach out to me for help. Manage your time wisely and read ahead whenever possible.

Attendance: In this hybrid flex class, your instructor is teaching from campus, and as a student, you have an option to attend class or to watch the recorded lecture and complete your work completely online. You’ll have two options to meet this attendance requirement:

1. Come to class on campus
2. Watch the class recording and complete an additional assignment (posting 150-200 word responses to two classmates’ discussion posts). This online course is asynchronous, which means you do not need to log in to the class at a specific time. However, you will need to meet weekly assignment due dates on Thursdays and Sundays. Occasionally (if we have a guest speaker, for example), I may invite students who participate online to join our class remotely. I will send a Zoom link if this happens.

Both methods will meet the attendance requirements for this class, so I encourage you to choose the option that works best for you, and feel free to change your attendance pattern at any time.  Regardless of how you choose to attend the course, you will need to post your reading response or theoretical response to our weekly discussion board by Thursday each week at 11:59 p.m.

If you miss class for any reason, you are responsible for asking about what you missed and working with me to submit late work. If I need to miss a class for any reason, I will notify you on Blackboard and via email. Absence from class does not excuse you from being prepared when you return.

Participation: Every student is expected to participate in class discussions, small groups, peer review, and outside group work. Participation includes being prepared for class, coming to class on time (if you choose to attend in person), and engaging with the course material and our classmates. I expect each student, whether attending in person or online, to contribute during the week.

Be prepared for class. Submit your assignments on time and participate in all course activities.

Keep an open mind. Literary texts can be challenging and may present controversial ideas. Please demonstrate respect for each other’s views.

Use your resources. The Writing Center and the Library are both excellent resources to help you improve your writing and research skills. Additionally, we will be experimenting with using AI assisted feedback in this class. I expect you to use these resources.

Use of ChatGPT or other AI Tools: CWI’s academic integrity policy has been updated and identifies the following as a violation of academic integrity: “submission of work created by artificial intelligence tools as one’s own work.” However, I use ChatGPT every day and think it’s a fascinating new tool to assist with learning and writing. Thus, I encourage students to use generative AI tools for the following types of tasks:

1. Outlining content or generating ideas.
2. Providing background knowledge (with the understanding that ChatGPT and other generative AI programs are often wrong—Wikipedia is a better resource for this right now)
3. Checking grammar and syntax.

We will use ChatGPT occasionally for in-class activities.

If you choose to use generative AI tools for your essays, you MUST do the following:

1. Cite the AI tool (see this resource for more information on how to do this).
2. Write a brief paragraph at the end of your work explaining how and why you used an AI tool. Include the prompts you used, and answer this question: Who is the author of this work? Then explain your answer. You will save this as an appendix to your essay. I reserve the right based on my assessment of your assignment to require you to revise and resubmit all or parts of the assignment if I conclude that you have not used AI tools appropriately.

If I suspect that you have used generative AI tools, and you have not included the required citation and reflection, then you will need to meet with me either in person or through Zoom to talk about the assignment. This conversation will include knowledge checks for course content.

Ask questions. Whenever you have questions, work with your instructor. I am here to help you succeed! If you cannot attend my regular office hours, please schedule an appointment.

Submit work on time to Blackboard. All essays and most other work will be submitted through Blackboard. Familiarity with computers and Blackboard is necessary for this course. Assignments and essays are due by 11:59 p.m. on their due dates. Late initial discussion responses are allowed for a 5-point penalty. I do not allow late responses to classmates on discussion posts. Every student may turn in one of the first three essays up to three days late without penalty. You will need to submit your essays as Word documents. Microsoft Word is free for CWI students through Office 365. Click this link for information about downloading and installing it to your computer.

End of Course Evaluations: I value your feedback on your experience, and I use end of course evaluations to improve this course for future students. You will earn 5 extra credit points for submitting a screenshot of your end of course evaluation. If 75% of the class submits, I will double the points to 10 for everyone who completes.

Religious Observance and Holiday Absence Policy: Students are permitted by college policy to be absent from class to observe a religious holiday. Students who miss class to observe a specified religious holiday are expected to make prior arrangements with their instructor to make up any work missed.

Communication in this course will take place in several ways including but not limited to in class announcements, Grade Center, Discussion Board, email, and/or Blackboard announcements. You should check the course announcements each week to make sure you understand the requirements and due dates.

Electronics in the Classroom: I encourage the use of technology and e-readers in the classroom, so if you are already using a paperless reading device (e.g., a smartphone, tablet, laptop, etc.), please plan to continue this practice. I expect you to participate in discussions and group assignments without interference from electronic devices. I reserve the right to ask you to put away your device or leave if your focus is on electronics instead of on class participation, or if your use of electronics is disruptive to the learning environment.

Guests: Guests are welcome with advance notice to the instructor.

Eating in the Classroom: Snacks, water bottles, coffee, etc. are fine to have in class if they do not distract you or others from learning. Please do not smoke or vape in class. Smoking is prohibited on the CWI campus.

Classroom as a Community: Our classroom is a community of learners. While we may disagree about ideas, we should all strive to value each other as members of that community. Sometimes learning requires us to examine and challenge our beliefs and assumptions about ourselves and our society. Testing our beliefs and assumptions is an integral part of the learning process, and I ask that you respect your fellow learners in this process.

Academic Engagement (Attendance) Prior to Census

CWI must verify that students have met academic engagement prior to census in order to confirm that students are active in their courses and eligible for financial aid. Academic engagement is active participation by a student in an instructional activity such as attending class, submitting an assignment, participating and/or completing online activities, or one-on-one interactions with the instructor.

In this class, my primary tool in verifying academic engagement is submission of the first week writing assessment to Blackboard. If you are having difficulty meeting this expectation, it is critical that you connect with me as soon as possible.

Personal Technical Skills

This course will not provide information on how to use a computer, use Blackboard, navigate the web or manage electronic files. Students who are having difficulty should contact their instructor, IT Help Desk or Tutoring Services. Please use the resources listed above or speak with your instructor before dropping a course.

Students must be able to do the following with or without accommodation:

• Use an internet browser to navigate the internet and Blackboard.
• Download, upload, create, save, edit and open documents using Microsoft Office applications, such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
• Download and upload audio and video files.

Civility and Behavioral Expectations

The College of Western Idaho is committed to educational excellence and recognizes that to achieve that excellence, students, faculty, and staff have a right to be in a safe environment, free of disturbance and civil in all aspects of human relations. Membership in the CWI learning community places a special obligation on all members to preserve the safe learning environment, regardless of the medium of the environment. It is the responsibility of instructors to determine, maintain, and enforce the standards of behavior required to preserve that safe environment.

Behavior that has a negative impact on the learning environment is prohibited. Such behavior may include, but is not limited to, rude, sarcastic, obscene, or disrespectful and/or disruptive behavior. Instructors will determine the appropriate response to problematic behavior in line with the procedures stated in the CWI Student Handbook. Problematic behavior may result in a student being removed from the class session and/or referred to the CWI Academic Conduct Process. For information on how problematic behavior will be managed, see the CWI Student Handbook. It is the student’s responsibility to check their email to receive notification of any scheduled appointments or other urgent communications.

Any student or other member of the learning community may report a violation of the Student Code of Conduct here.

Academic Integrity One of the College’s Core Themes is Instructional Excellence, and in order to achieve Instructional Excellence, academic integrity must be upheld. Academic Integrity is the “commitment to six fundamental values: honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility, and courage. … communities flourish when community members “live” the fundamental values … consider and discuss the role of ethical values and their ability to inform and improve various aspects of life on and off campus” (The Fundamental Values of Academic Integrity, 2019). These values are especially important in how students represent their own learning, ideas, and work. Practicing academic integrity includes, but is not limited to, non-participation in the following behaviors: cheating, plagiarism, falsifying information, unauthorized collaboration, facilitating academic dishonesty, collusion with another person or entity to cheat, submission of work created by artificial intelligence tools as one’s own work, and violation of program policies and procedures.

For additional information on academic integrity expectations, see the Student Code of Conduct. Violations may result in disciplinary action ranging from failure of the assignment to failure of the entire course. Acts of academic dishonesty, especially when sanctions are given, are reported and run through the Academic Conduct Process. Repeated acts of academic dishonesty have more severe institutional consequences.

Title IX & A Respectful Community

Title IX guarantees all students the right to an education free from discrimination on the basis of sex. This includes the right to an education free from sexual harassment, including sexual assault. This may include unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature in class, or in online discussion boards or through chat or video conferences. This law also protects students from discrimination based on pregnancy or being a parent and provides support options as well. If you, or someone you know, may have experienced sexual harassment or discrimination of any kind, you are encouraged to report it to the College Title IX Coordinator by completing a report here, or by e-mailing respectfulcommunity@cwi.edu. Filing a report allows the College to provide supportive measures to those involved. It does not obligate a student to go forward with an investigation, and all information reported is protected under federal law. For more information, click here.

Student Services

CWI provides a number of offices and services to assist students on their academic journey. Below is a list of the services most commonly accessed by students:

• One Stop Service Centers: Provides assistance with admissions, advising, registration, financial aid, and most other common needs you may have. They are a good first stop for any questions.
• Student Disability Services – Provides accommodations and support for students with a range of disabilities.
• Counseling Services: Short-term counseling for students provided free of charge.
• Library & Research Support: Assists students with research, study skills, textbook reserves and other services key to academic success.
• Tutoring Center: Free tutoring services on a range of academic subjects, available to all enrolled students.
• Writing Center: Provides strategies to help students identify opportunities to improve the quality of their writing, free of charge.
• Assessment & Testing: Proctoring services for a range of course exams, accommodated testing, and outside certification tests.
• Student Affairs: Provides a range of engagement opportunities, including professional and interest organizations, student government, support for veteran students & families, and CARE Services to support students through unexpected life events.

Emergency Procedures

CWI posts instructions for evacuation in all rooms and encourages everyone on campus to review the CWI Emergency Handbook.

Liberal Arts Research and Writing Course

This course fulfills the requirement for the Liberal Arts program by meeting the following criteria:

• Students will learn methods of inquiry and research that will prepare them to navigate upper-division coursework.
• Students will write well in a variety of rhetorical contexts, paying attention to audience, voice and style appropriate to an academic research setting.
• Students will become practiced at higher order thinking skills: analysis, synthesis, and creativity.

Appendix I: Expanded Course Outcomes