ENGL 3110 B: Intro to Literary Studies — Syllabus

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Course Information

ENGL 3110 B — Intro to Literary Studies
CRN: 15604
TR 12:30 pm - 1:45 pm
Newton Building 1114

Course Description

Vocabulary and approaches of modern literary criticism, reading and interpretation of literary texts, and the tools of literary research and writing.

Course Dates

• January 10: Class begins
• January 10-13: Drop-Add period
• March 7: Last day to withdraw with a "W"
• March 14-19: Spring Break
• May 2: Class ends
• May 3: Final exam

Learning Outcomes / Career Readiness Competencies

Learning Outcomes are the knowledge or skills you should gain (and be able to demonstrate) by the end of a particular course.

Career Readiness Competencies are core competencies developed by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). They address eight areas where employers agree that your abilities and skills signify your readiness to begin and/or extend your career. Below are the skills you'll have the opportunity to practice in this course.

Learning Outcomes:

Upon successful completion of this course, you should be able to:

• Recognize and analyze literary elements in a text.
• Situate and interpret texts in their historical, cultural, and literary contexts.
• Create well-developed and organized essays with clear and precise prose, presenting sustained arguments.

Since this is the introductory course to the English major, you're not expected to have mastered all these outcomes by the end of this course. These learning outcomes are introduced here, and reinforced in every other course you'll take in the major. You'll demonstrate how completely you have learned to handle these outcomes when you take your Senior Seminar, your capstone course in the major.

Career Readiness Competencies contained within this course:

Self-Development	Display curiosity; seek out opportunities to learn. Assume duties or positions that will help one progress professionally. Seek and embrace development opportunities. Voluntarily participate in further education, training, or other events to support one’s career.
Communication	Understand the importance of and demonstrate verbal, written, and non-verbal/body language, abilities. Employ active listening, persuasion, and influencing skills. Communicate in a clear and organized manner so that others can effectively understand. Frame communication with respect to diversity of learning styles, varied individual communication abilities, and cultural differences.
Critical Thinking	Make decisions and solve problems using sound, inclusive reasoning and judgment. Gather and analyze information from a diverse set of sources and individuals to fully understand a problem. Proactively anticipate needs and prioritize action steps. Accurately summarize and interpret data with an awareness of personal biases that may impact outcomes. Effectively communicate actions and rationale, recognizing the diverse perspectives and lived experiences of stakeholders.
Equity and Inclusion	Solicit and use feedback from multiple cultural perspectives to make inclusive and equity-minded decisions. Seek global cross-cultural interactions and experiences that enhance one’s understanding of people from different demographic groups and that leads to personal growth. Keep an open mind to diverse ideas and new ways of thinking.
Leadership	Seek out and leverage diverse resources and feedback from others to inform direction. Use innovative thinking to go beyond traditional methods. Plan, initiate, manage, complete, and evaluate projects.
Professionalism	Act equitably with integrity and accountability to self, others, and the organization. Be present and prepared. Demonstrate dependability (e.g., report consistently for work or meetings). Prioritize and complete tasks to accomplish organizational goals. Consistently meet or exceed goals and expectations. Have an attention to detail, resulting in few if any errors in their work. Show a high level of dedication toward doing a good job
Teamwork	Listen carefully to others, taking time to understand and ask appropriate questions without interrupting. Effectively manage conflict, interact with and respect diverse personalities, and meet ambiguity with resilience. Be accountable for individual and team responsibilities and deliverables. Employ personal strengths, knowledge, and talents to complement those of others. Exercise the ability to compromise and be agile.
Technology	Navigate change and be open to learning new technologies. Use technology to improve efficiency and productivity of their work. Identify appropriate technology for completing specific tasks. Manage technology to integrate information to support relevant, effective, and timely decision-making. Quickly adapt to new or unfamiliar technologies. Manipulate information, construct ideas, and use technology to achieve strategic goals.

These career readiness skills will serve you well no matter what your next steps after graduation might be. Find out more about them on this page of the NACE site.

Required Material

You'll need to purchase three books for this class:

I'll also be providing a number of resources for you — most notably the English Major's Cheat Sheet series — which will be available on the course site in Folio.

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Course Structure

General

This course will introduce you to the fundamentals of studying literature. So we'll be covering matters like:

• the theme-form-context matrix for understanding what you're reading;
• genre-specific matters;
• figures of speech;
• prosody and scansion;
• historical periods in British and American literature; and
• literary criticism and theory.

But all of this information is useless if it remains locked in your head. So we will focus on the iterative process of writing, where you write, revise, proofread, workshop, revise again, then submit your papers.

Parallel Tracks

Think of this course as consisting of three parallel tracks:

1. The elements of literary study and research
2. Improving your writing
3. Reading critically

The first track is about learning the techniques we use in this field, and the language we use to describe our findings.

The second track is about learning and practicing the processes that will allow you to write clearly, concisely, and persuasively.

The third track is about having something to write about. That material is the fruit of your critical reading.

Readings

Our primary guide for the semester will be Habib's Literary Studies: A Norton Guide. We'll walk through that text, do a number of exercises in it, and use it as a reference tool. (This book will be handy for you to have throughout your undergraduate career, so don't sell it back at the end of the semester.)

The other two texts, Holden and Holden's Poems that Make Grown Men Cry: 100 Men on the Words that Move Them and Poems that Make Grown Women Cry: 100 Women on the Words that Move Them, will be the raw material you'll investigate for your papers in this class.

Papers

You'll write a number of short papers for this class, all of which are tied to the course learning outcomes. We'll begin with some simple paraphrases and explications, then move on to deeper explorations. You'll conclude the semester with a fairly short paper where you'll incorporate the views of other scholars into your own interpretation of a text.

Of course, you'll need to acknowledge where you got your information from, in the documentation format that we use in our field (MLA 9). We'll work on that during the semester as well.

As we get into more complicated writing, we'll also practice some peer review, because it's always better to have more than one set of eyes take a look at your work before you turn it in for evaluation.

Your simpler papers will be turned in as a hard copy, and I'll mark them up and return them to you. But as the semester progresses, you'll submit your papers via a dropbox in Folio, where they'll go through TurnItIn to check for academic integrity. My comments on those papers will be available to you through the Grademark view in the TurnItIn section (click on your TurnItIn score to access this).

Exams

We'll have two exams, one halfway through the course and one at the end of the course. These will contain some recognition questions (can you identify something like personification?), some practical questions (can you scan a stanza of a poem?), some short answer questions (can you figure out why a particular piece of writing might be from a particular period?, and an essay question.

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Course Expectations

Learning Commitment

The "Carnegie Unit" is how universities define credit hours and categorize the amount of work students do for each credit hour. Each credit requires fifteen "contact hours" which are essentially the hours you spend in class during the semester. And each contact hour requires two hours of outside work, or time devoted to the class that doesn't happen in the class. This is a three-credit course, with 45 contact hours. Those 45 contact hours necessitate at least 90 hours of out-of-class work on your part. That's at least 135 hours committed for each three-credit class that you take.

If you're not a self-starter, or you have problems with deadlines, or you just don't think you can commit to this level of work, you should probably look for another section of this class.

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Academic Integrity

I expect that you will conduct yourself within the guidelines of the Honor System. All academic work should be completed with the high level of honesty and integrity that this University demands.

I do not tolerate academic dishonesty. Beyond the moral implications, I find it insulting. All instances of plagiarism will be reported to the Office of Student Conduct. Any instance will result in an F in the course and possibly further sanctions. Plagiarism is presenting someone else's work as your own without giving them credit. Someone else is defined as anyone other than you: another student, a friend, relative, a source on the Internet, articles or books. And work is defined as ideas as well as language. So taking someone else's ideas and putting them in your own words—or using someone else's words to express your ideas—is plagiarism. And, in the case of friends and family, it doesn't matter if they give you permission.

A note about group work: I encourage you to read and discuss these texts together outside of class. It is, in fact, the core of our endeavor, to hone our own ideas on these texts through discussions with others. You should also discuss your writing with your classmates, as hearing a number of ideas will help you create and polish your own. However, this does not mean that you should write your papers as a group. While discussion is obviously a group activity, writing is a solitary one, and should be treated as such. Any attempt to subvert this would be an instance of academic dishonesty.

The University has a more extensive definition of Academic Dishonesty (from the Student Conduct Code):

CHEATING

1. submitting material that is not yours as part of your course performance;
2. using information or devices that are not allowed by the faculty;
3. obtaining and/or using unauthorized materials;
4. fabricating information, research, and/or results;
5. violating procedures prescribed to protect the integrity of an assignment, test, or other evaluation;
6. collaborating with others on assignments without the faculty's consent;
7. cooperating with and/or helping another student to cheat;
8. demonstrating any other forms of dishonest behavior.

PLAGIARISM

1. directly quoting the words of others without using quotation marks or indented format to identify them;
2. using sources of information (published or unpublished) without identifying them;
3. paraphrasing materials or ideas without identifying the source;
4. Self-plagiarism: re-submitting work previously submitted without explicit approval from the instructor;
5. unacknowledged use of materials prepared by another person or agency engaged in the selling of term papers or other academic material.

Should you wish to pursue a case of academic dishonesty through the Office of Student Conduct, I will speak at your hearing and send a copy of this syllabus along with the documents in question to the Hearing Officer, so a plea of ignorance or non-malicious intent on your part will not be valid.

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Course Schedule

The readings below should be completed before the class period where we'll discuss them.

DATE	CLASS ACTIVITY	DUE
1/11	Introduction to the Course
1/13	Habib, Literary Studies: A Norton Guide — chapters 1-4 In-class: critical reading exercises
1/18	Habib, Literary Studies: A Norton Guide — chapters 5-6 In-class: practical applications of this material
1/20	Habib, Literary Studies: A Norton Guide — chapters 7-8 In-class: practical applications of this material
1/25	Habib, Literary Studies: A Norton Guide — chapters 9-10 In-class: practical applications of this material	Paraphrase paper 1
1/27	Habib, Literary Studies: A Norton Guide — chapters 11-12 In-class: practical applications of this material
2/1	Habib, Literary Studies: A Norton Guide — chapters 13-14 In-class: practical applications of this material
2/3	Habib, Literary Studies: A Norton Guide — chapters 15-16 In-class: practical applications of this material	Paraphrase paper 2
2/8	Habib, Literary Studies: A Norton Guide — chapter 17 In-class: practical applications of this material
2/10	Habib, Literary Studies: A Norton Guide — chapters 18-19 In-class: practical applications of this material
2/15	Habib, Literary Studies: A Norton Guide — chapter 20 In-class: practical applications of this material
2/17	Writing essay exams In-class: Essay practice
2/22	EXAM 1
2/24	In-class: Peer Review practice
3/1	In-class: Close Reading Paper Peer Review	Close Reading Paper 1 draft 1
3/3	Campus-specific research, part 1	Close Reading Paper 1
3/8	Campus-specific research, part 2
3/10	How to read an academic article, part 1 In-class: practical applications of this material	Research Paper proposal
3/22	How to read an academic article, part 2 In-class: practical applications of this material
3/24	In-class: Close Reading Paper Peer Review	Close Reading Paper 2 draft 1
3/29	Writing a Research Paper	Close Reading Paper 2
3/31	Documentation In-class: practical applications of this material
4/5	Selections from Poems that Make Grown . . . In-class: Applying critical lenses
4/7	Selections from Poems that Make Grown . . . In-class: Applying critical lenses	Research Paper Annotated Bibliography
4/12	Selections from Poems that Make Grown . . . In-class: Incorporating research
4/14	Selections from Poems that Make Grown . . . In-class: Incorporating research
4/19	Research Paper troubleshooting
4/21	In-class: Researched Paper Peer Review	Researched Paper draft 1
4/26	In-class: Researched Paper Peer Review	Researched Paper draft 2
4/28	Exam 2 prep	Researched Paper
5/3	EXAM 2

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Instructor

Dr. Pellegrino

I'm Dr. Joe Pellegrino, an Associate Professor in the Literature department. I teach lots of different classes. My specialties are Irish literature and postcolonial literature, so I end up doing classes that don't fit into the standard Brit Lit/American Lit model: Irish lit, African lit, etc. For instance, this semester I'm also teaching a course on mythology. Basically, if other people in my department can teach it, I don't teach it.

It seems like I went to school forever, and went to lots of different schools: Duquesne University, St, Louis University, Mannes College of Music, The New England Conservatory, and UNC-Chapel Hill, which is where I did my last degree. I've also taught at a lot of schools: Duquesne, UNC, Eastern Kentucky University, University of South Carolina-Upstate, Greenville Tech, Converse College, and here at GS. I've got some experience in online education; I was a University Director for the (short-lived) Kentucky Commonwealth Virtual University, and have taught online classes for over 20 years now.

Professionally, I also edit two international journals, The Journal of Global Postcolonial Studies and The International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. I'm interested in a number of fields, but most of my publications are either on Irish studies, postcolonial lit, or teaching.

I have only one item on my bucket list: to see the Northern Lights. One day I'll get there, but in the meantime I'm raising two daughters, making heirloom furniture (pretty much a middle-aged guy cliché), keeping up with new technology, wishing I could spend more time doing music, and trying to keep my head above water.

Contact Information

• Email: jpellegrino@georgiasouthern.edu
• Phone: 912.478.5853

A WORD ABOUT EMAIL

Please don't hesitate to post to me if you have a question about any of the readings, especially if you're struggling to figure them out. But please think twice about posting questions where the answer is in this syllabus. If you do, I have two options for a reply: I can copy and paste material from the syllabus or schedule just for you, but that's redundant, since you already have access to the material. Or I can reply with something like "check the syllabus" or "check the schedule," which you should already know to do. Since neither of those are satisfactory, if you ask a question that is already answered in the syllabus or in the schedule, I won't be replying at all. So if you don't hear back from me, you should know that the answer to your question is in this document.

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CLASS POLICIES

Writing Proficiency

If you need additional work on the surface features of your writing, I will require you to schedule sessions at the Writing Center in order to pass the course. If you're unable to get to campus in order to meet with the Writing Center staff, you'll have to provide documentation that you availed yourself of some other tutoring, editing, or proofreading service.

Course Work

All electronically-submitted assignments will be placed in the appropriate dropbox section or discussion forum of the Learning Management System (Folio).

I DO NOT ACCEPT LATE ASSIGNMENTS. NO EXCEPTIONS, NO EXCUSES. A late assignment is any work that is not turned in during the class period in which it is due. This means that you must anticipate any problems that will occur. In other words, a computer / printer / drive / car / arm being broken at the last minute is not an excuse. To avoid last-minute catastrophes (which always occur), DO NOT WAIT UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE TO DO YOUR WORK.

Accessibility Accommodation

In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), this course will honor requests for reasonable accommodations made by individuals with disabilities or demonstrating appropriate need for learning environment adjustments. Students must self-disclose their disability to the Student Accessibility Resource Center (SARC) before academic accommodations can be implemented.

For additional information, please call the SARC office at (912) 478-1566 on the Statesboro campus, or at (912) 344-2572 on the Armstrong and Liberty campuses.

Attendance

The University Undergraduate Catalog states unequivocally: “Students are expected to attend all classes.” Attendance in this class is not optional. Attending class means that you are present and attentive for the whole class period and that you are prepared for the day’s lesson. If you miss a class, regardless of the excuse, it will be counted as an absence (unless you are missing for a University-sanctioned reason). You do not want me in the position of deciding whose excuse is valid and whose isn’t, so I don’t need any documentation for your absences. If you’re within the limit it is not necessary, and after the limit it will not matter.

But life gets complicated. So you'll have a free pass to miss almost 15% of our classes. I certainly don't encourage you to do so, but I'll give you two weeks of absences (that's four classes) before you begin to negatively affect your grade for the class. If you are absent more than four times, regardless of the excuse, your final grade will be lowered by 2.5% for every subsequent absence. If you have to miss more than your allotted absences, there is obviously something going on in your life which does not allow you to pursue this degree wholeheartedly, so you should consider withdrawal. Keep this in mind when using your absences—that’s ALL you will be allowed. I do not accept ANY excuse after that.

By now you recognize that arriving on time for class is, at its core, a sign of respect for your classmates and your professor. Tardiness, therefore, is a statement saying that your time is more important than anyone else’s. I will strike a blow for the group by counting every instance of tardiness as 1/3 of an absence. So, if you’re doing the math, you can be tardy several times without any consequences, save the collective disdain for your actions. And yes, your tardiness works in conjunction with your absences, so a combination of the two will push you toward the negative consequences outlined above.

Contingencies

Given the current state of the Covid-19 pandemic, and the predictions for a significant surge in cases during this semester, I've got a couple of plans in place:

• If the institution shuts down:
  We will move completely to Zoom sessions for our classes, and exams will be administered through Folio. Exams will be available in Folio for the entire day on which they're scheduled. You can take the exam at any time during that 24-hour period. Once you open the exam, you'll have the usual amount of time to complete it (75 minutes for Exam 1, 120 minutes for Exam 2). All other course activities will continue as planned. Class discussions may be a bit more forced, but we'll muddle through.
• If you are under quarantine:
  I can't grant you any exemption to the attendance policy unless I receive a report from the GS CARES Team about your status. You can't just email me to say that you think you might have the virus and are self-isolating in order to minimize the chance of infecting others. That means that if you think you might have been exposed, or if you have tested positive, you must complete a COVID-19 Health Reporting Form, which can be found in the COVID-19 Information & Resources section of your MyGeorgiaSouthern page.
  
  If you do have a CARES report and must self-isolate, it'll be like this class did not exist for you during your period of isolation. So those absences will not count against your total absences for the class (see the Attendance policy above), and you will neither gain nor lose points for the class discussions you missed. If a paper is due during your quarantine, you'll have an extension until you return to class. If you miss either exam, we'll work that out on a case-by-case basis.

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Writing Prompts

Paraphrase Papers Prompt

These first two papers are very simple. For each of them, you'll choose a poem from either Holden and Holden anthology, and, in no more than 400 words, rewrite the poem in prose. It's a paraphrase, so you have to use your own words; you can't quote from the poem, and you can't use the work of others (either other scholars or some online rando). In a nutshell, you're telling your readers WHAT the poem is saying. You don't have to say what the theme is, or who the characters are, or who the author is; you just have to understand the poem well enough to write it out in prose.

These short first papers are a gauge of your comprehension and writing skills. If you don't know a word or a turn of phrase that's in the poem you're writing on, look it up. Don't just skip over it and hope for the best, because that word or phrase may be the intellectual or emotional lynchpin for the poem, or the meaning of the poem itself may hinge on that particular passage.

You should write this in the third person, so you're not going to assume the voice of the speaker in the poem. For instance, here are the first four lines of Shakespeare's Sonnet 73:

You'll be evaluated on the clarity and correctness of your writing, the depth of your understanding of the poem, and your thoroughness in addressing the poem. I'll be using the pertinent pieces of the rubric below when I look at your paper, so you should probably familiarize yourself with it. Please don't make the mistake of thinking you can submit something you dashed off in an hour or two. If you do, you will be sorely disappointed in your grade

Close Reading Papers Prompt

Close readings are our bread and butter; although they themselves are a form of analysis, they serve as a foundation for any other analysis or application of a critical lens. Doing one correctly, and expressing your thoughts with clarity, will do more than anything else to guarantee your success as an English major. Or, to put it negatively, if you can't do a close reading and articulate that reading well, then you'll be at a serious disadvantage when you come to more advanced arguments.

When you close read, you observe facts and details about the text. You may focus on a particular passage, or on the text as a whole. Your aim may be to notice all striking features of the text, including rhetorical features, structural elements, cultural references; or, your aim may be to notice only selected features of the text—for instance, oppositions and correspondences, or particular historical references. Either way, making these observations constitutes the first step in the process of close reading.

The second step is interpreting your observations. What we’re basically talking about here is inductive reasoning: moving from the observation of particular facts and details to a conclusion, or interpretation, based on those observations. And, as with inductive reasoning, close reading requires careful gathering of data (your observations) and careful thinking about what these data add up to.

Close Reading has three primary objectives:

1. It encourages you to be a better and more careful reader.
2. It asks you to employ the tools you've seen us use in class, and probably have employed yourself: analysis of the speaker, diction, figurative language, sound, and genre, to name just a few.
3. It engages you in the act of synthesis. Even as you divide the passage or poem into its composite elements, you will want to discuss how those elements come together to form a whole.

What’s in a Close Reading Essay?

• A thesis that is an assertion about the meaning and function of the text. It must be something you can argue for and prove in your essay.
• Evidence from the text. What specific words or phrases led you to have the ideas you express? Quote them.
• Analysis of that evidence. If the work were self-evident you could just turn in the book or image as your proof. Literally thousands of people have had thousands of different ideas about the words or details you mention. Explain how you arrived at your ideas.

Again, you'll get two bites of this apple, and you'll also have some help from your peers (we'll do an in-class peer review session for each of these papers). For each assignment, you'll choose a poem from either Holden and Holden anthology and produce a close reading of it that falls somewhere between 750 and 1,000 words. In the case of a longer narrative poem, you can choose just a section of it — but the section you're addressing must be at least 20 lines long.

Review the material we've covered in class about how to do a close reading. Pay special attention to Vendler's example on Keats' "On First Looking into Chapman's Homer." You don't have to address every single point that she does in her reading, but you should be familiar enough with all of them to know which ones are important for what you want to say, and which ones won't add much to your analysis.

Research Paper Prompt

Throughout the semester you’ll be working on a researched paper of 1500-2,000 words (+ or – 10%) on a poem or group of poems of your choosing from the Holden and Holden anthologies. In this paper you will present a reading of the text you have chosen through a particular critical lens. You may take any critical approach you deem appropriate. You may not choose any of the texts in anthologies that we have covered in class.

Expectations:

• You’ll situate and interpret the text you’ve chosen in its historical and cultural context.
• You’ll apply one of the critical approaches we have covered to the text.
• You’ll address the literary structures in the text. Elements of development (plot, setting, narrative structure, characters, mood, theme, etc.) are all fair game for your analysis (not for your summary). Techniques which further this development (metaphor, simile, alliteration, hyperbole, allegory, etc.) should also be noted, but should not be shown as ends in themselves.
• If necessary, you’ll make and explain the connections between the text you’re working on and other works of literature.
• Your writing will be clear and precise in its arrangement, unity, coherence, vocabulary, grammar and usage, punctuation, spelling, and use of the conventions (MLA 9 formatting of the paper and the Works Cited).
• Your writing will be pitched for an academic audience, as demonstrated in your register and tone.
• You’ll critically engage the ideas of other scholars, and synthesize the results of your research into your own writing.
• You’ll use and document at least four sources, not including the text itself.

Introduction
Powerful works of literature invoke and support multiple readings. In other words, we can all read the same story or poem (or watch the same movie or listen to the same song) and come up with different, even conflicting, interpretations about what the work means. Who we are reflects how we read texts.

Your number one task in this paper is to make your reader read the text in question exactly the way you do. That is, you need to teach your reader how to read, how to see the text through your eyes. There are many metaphors that we use for this. Some have spoken in legal terms, where you marshal evidence in support of your case. Some have talked about logic, with major and minor premises and an irrefutable conclusion. But I like to talk about inevitability. You need to make your conclusion inevitable. Readers, if they buy your first premise, must, inexorably, be led to your conclusion. You do this by offering evidence: from the text itself, from other texts (other critics, historical documents, cultural artifacts, etc.), from analogies, from examples, from critical thinking.

Beginnings: Thesis
When applying theories to literature, remember, as always, that it is your thesis that matters. Theory is a framework…it is what you do with it that is the core of any literary analysis. Many pieces of literary criticism do not even mention what critical or theoretical approach is used. The approach is inherent in the argument the author makes. This is a good benchmark to help you assess the appropriateness of your argument given the theory you are tasked to explore.

Readings: Begin with understanding what you’re reading
Literary criticism involves close reading of a literary work, regardless of whether you are arguing about a particular interpretation, comparing stories or poems, or using a theory to interpret literature. Do not summarize the story. The purpose of your paper is not to inform readers about what goes on in the text, but to argue a particular interpretation of that text. So any plot summaries will not only be out of place, but will negatively affect your grade for the paper. You only need to cite parts of the work that support or relate to your argument (and follow MLA 9 formatting guidelines as you do so).

Argument v. Assertion
Refer to the “Writing as an English Major” handout for a reminder of the difference between these two. You’re writing an argument, which means your points need to be supported.

Proposal
Your paper proposal will present a working thesis statement, a rough outline of your argument, and a list of potential works to be cited or consulted.

Draft
A draft is a written document, at least 85% complete. It is not a collection of notes or summaries of what you’ve read. There are no bullet points, no notes to yourself, no reminders. It’s an attempt to actually write something for an academic audience, not remind yourself to do so.

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Grading

     Essay Rubric
Your papers for this class will be evaluated with the appropriate elements of this rubric:

SLO	4	3	2	1
1. Recognize and analyze the literary elements in a text.
	Uses and applies literary terms & elements (such as plot, characters, setting, tone, style, point of view, narrative technique, structure, theme, etc.) accurately and clearly, contributing to a richer understanding of the text(s).	Accurately addresses textual literary terms & elements (such as plot, characters, setting, tone, style, point of view, narrative technique, structure, theme, etc.) Their use does not add to an understanding of the text(s).	Addresses textual literary terms & elements (plot, characters, setting, tone, style, point of view, narrative technique, structure, theme, etc.), with some lapses or omissions.	Does not use literary terms & elements, or does not use them accurately.
2. Situate and interpret texts in their historical, cultural, and literary contexts.
	Presents the text(s) as representative of its culture, historical moment, cultural milieu, or literary period. Identifies and explains aspects of the text(s) which reflect or shape the dimensions of the culture in which it was created.	Attempts to interpret the text(s) in relation to a particular historical moment, cultural milieu, or literary period. May not identify all aspects of the text(s) that justify such a reading.	Attempts to make a point about history, society, or a literary period using the text(s) as evidence. Does not identify aspects of the text(s) that justify such a reading.	Does not present the text(s) in relation to a historical moment, cultural milieu, or literary period.
3a. Create a well-developed and organized paper with clear and precise prose, presenting a sustained argument that uses discipline-specific vocabulary and analytic techniques.
Thesis / Position	Thesis is focused; intent is obvious. Positions are insightful and clear.	Thesis is general; intent is evident. Positions are sound and understandable.	Thesis is general or vague. Positions are sound and understandable.	Thesis may be absent or intent is unclear. Lacks a position on topics.
Structure	Overall structure complements and completes content.	Overall structure is appropriate for the content.	Overall structure is generally adequate for the content.	Overall unity and coherence are flawed.
Style	Demonstrates overall sophisticated prose, syntax, and clarity.	Demonstrates moderate strength in terms of prose, syntax, and clarity.	Demonstrates acceptable if inconsistent, facility in terms of prose, syntax, and clarity.	Demonstrates unsophisticated prose, syntax, and clarity
Grammar / Errors	Grammatical structures are well-chosen. No errors detract from meaning.	Grammatical structures carry the meaning forward, although readers notice occasional error(s).	Grammatical structures detract from the meaning.	Grammar errors are so obtrusive that readers are seriously distracted.
3b. Create a well-developed and organized paper with clear and precise prose, presenting a sustained argument that applies and/or incorporates appropriate literary criticism and/or theory.
Critical lens	Demonstrates mastery of the literary perspective applied.	Demonstrates a solid understanding of the literary perspective applied.	Demonstrates some understanding of the literary perspective applied.	Demonstrates little understanding of the literary perspective applied.
Relevance of sources	Sources are thoroughly examined, explained, and clearly relevant to the argument.	Synthesizes or explains material from secondary sources, with occasional lapses.	Most material from secondary sources is not synthesized or explained.	Almost all material from secondary sources is insufficiently synthesized or explained.
Attribution of sources	Sources are clearly attributed with accurate documentation.	Sources are attributed, but some documentation may be inaccurate.	Some sources are not attributed, or their documentation is inaccurate.	Most sources are either not attributed or their documentation is inaccurate.
Essays plagiarized or not written on the essay assignment will receive a score of zero

Questions I ask while grading

For each sentence in your paper, I ask the following questions:

1. What are you saying? At a basic level, I’m trying to decode the meaning of each sentence. If I cannot understand what you’re trying to say, everything that follows is problematic. If your sentence is confused, convoluted, or contradictory, you make it difficult, or even impossible, for me to answer this basic question.
2. Is what you’re saying accurate? Does this sentence demonstrate that you understand the text or the critic you’re addressing? For instance, if you’re summarizing someone else’s argument, I need to assess if you’re being true to the original author's intent. In your response, I’m assessing your evidence and examples.
3. Is what you’re saying well-expressed grammatically and mechanically? This assumes that your grammar and mechanics aren’t so bad that I’ve been stymied back up at Question #1.
4. Does the writing have appropriate flow, in that each idea links up with the one previously and the one to follow in a way that meets audience needs, attitudes, and knowledge?

If I can answer all four of these questions positively for every sentence, you’re doing well. But when the answer is no, complications ensue. If I can’t understand what you’re saying, I have no way to engage with your ideas, and so I have additional questions.

• Do you not understand the original text you’re addressing?
• Do you understand the original text, but your writing leaves a gap between that understanding and what is written on the page?

"Sticking" your grade

Like gymnasts who "stick" their landings, you'll have to "stick" your grade on each paper. That is, the grade you'll see on a paper when I return it to you is not really a grade until you resolve every comment I made on the paper. So if your paper is marked with an "85," that grade won't be registered until you submit a new version of the paper that corrects every error, answers every question, and addresses every comment. Until you do that, your grade for the paper remains a "0". You're rewarded for engaging in the editing process.

Of course, if you do a sufficient amount of editing and proofreading before you submit your paper, you'll have minimal work to do on the back end (and will score much higher on your initial submission). So you can do the hard work up front, or you can do it at the end, but you'll find that the latter choice offers very few rewards.

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Evaluation

ASSIGNMENT	WEIGHT
Paraphrase Paper 1	7.5%
Paraphrase Paper 2	7.5%
Close Reading Paper 1	12.5%
Close Reading Paper 2	15%
Research Paper Proposal: 10% Annotated Bibliography: 10% Draft 1: 15% Draft 2: 15% Final Version: 50%	25%
Peer Reviews (4 @ 2.5%)	10%
Exam 1	10%
Exam 2	12.5%
TOTAL	100%