Please note: This course format is available on the Web at the URL shown at the bottom of the page, in case you want to bookmark it on your own computer.

Instructor: Dr. Stephen doCarmo
Office: Penn Hall 131 (Newtown Campus)
Hours: MW 1:00-2:00, F 1:00-3:00 
Phone: 215-968-8267
E-mail: docarmos@bucks.edu

Required Texts
The Norton Anthology of American Literature, 7th edition, package 2 (volumes C,D, and E). 
The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway.
Goodbye, Columbus, by Philip Roth. 
Tar Baby, by Toni Morrison.
Mao II, by Don DeLillo.

The correct editions of all these texts are available for you at the campus bookstore.

Course Description (from the BCCC catalog)
This course surveys the development of American literature from Whitman to the present with emphasis upon thorough acquaintance with the work of the better-known writers of the period.  (3 credits.)

Course Objectives
This course has five goals: 

1.  to strengthen your ability to closely study and understand important literary texts;
2.  to strengthen your understanding of those works' central themes;
3.  to strengthen your understanding of those works' relations to the historical periods in which they were written;
4.  to strengthen your understanding of those works' relations to literary/artistic movements to which they may belong;
5.  to strengthen your critical-thinking, writing, and public-speaking skills, which are important to all academic and professional endeavors, not just lit class.

1. You'll need to write three polished essays, one for each of the three major units of our course.  These will be written in response to instructions I'll give you once the semester is underway, but I can tell you now that those instructions will require you to identify major themes in the works we'll be reading together and to assess those works' relations to both their times and to particular literary/artistic movements.  You may also be required in these essays to quote critical articles I'll provide you.  Our classwork leading up to these essays will prepare you to do all these things. 

I can also tell you here that each essay will require you to produce about three pages of polished writing -- and that I may wind up requiring you to write two short essays rather than one long three-pager for each of these assignments. 

The first essay is due before midterm, the second is due about five weeks after, and the third is due at the end of the semester.  Actual due dates are on the course schedule at the end of this format. 

Though this isn't a writing class per se, you should strive to write well in these essays.  This means they should be thesis-driven.  They should strive to acheive unity, coherence, good organization, good support, and good sentence structure, plus proper punctuation, diction, and grammar.  You'll have time to work with me and/or official Bucks tutors on these essays before you submit them for grading.

I'll put written comments on each of your essays, along with an A-F grade, with +'s and -'s possible.  I'll also let you revise either of your first two essays to improve its mark by up to one full letter grade, should you decide you'd like to.  Just be sure to (a) turn the rewrite in within seven days of getting back the original essay, (b) include the original essay, with my comments on it, and (c) make significant improvements!  Simply re-arranging a few words or fixing some punctuation won't earn you a higher grade.  Please note too that while essays turned in late can be re-written, the penalty for lateness never goes away (see "late work," below).

2. You'll need to take at least a dozen reading quizzes on readings assigned for class.  They'll be easy, provided you've read.  That's the good news.  The bad news is you don't know when you're getting them -- and any day there's a reading assignment due is a day on which you might see a quiz.

These quizzes will be short (five questions each), they'll be given at the very start of class, and they'll focus on important information from the readings, not abstract matters like theme or symbolism.  (In other words, I might ask you how a certain major character dies in act II of a play we're reading; I won't ask what her death "means" within the work as a whole.  That's the sort of thing we'll sort out together in class.)  Since these quizzes are information driven, you only need to read, reasonably carefully, for each and every class meeting to do well on them.

I'll grade each of your quizzes on a 0-5 scale.  Get all five questions right and you'll get a "5," or an A, basically.  A "4" is equivalent to a B, a "3" is a C, a "2" is a D, and a "1" or a "0" is an F.

I'll drop your lowest quiz grade at the end of the semester before averaging all the others, so don't sweat it if you bomb one or two.  But sweat it if you start bombing them consistently.

Please note that you can't make up missed reading quizzes!  It wouldn't be fair to people who had to take them on time.  If, then, for any reason you won't be able to make it to class on a day you suspect we're due for a quiz, call me in my office sometime before class that day, and I'll let you take the quiz over the phone.  Please note, though, that doing this doesn't erase the absence. 

3. You'll need to keep a freewrite journal.

At the beginning of pretty much all of our class meetings, I'll ask you to spend five minutes freewriting in response to some "thinky" question I'll ask you about the day's assigned reading.  (We'll do these freewrtites after reading quizzes on days we have them.)  You'll then bring those freewrites to the small groups you'll work in for a portion of each class, so you can share your ideas from them with your groupmates.

Don't lose these freewrites.  Compile them.  Because once they're comiled, they become your freewrite journal, which I'll collect from you twice during the semester -- once at midterm and again at finals time.  (See the course schedule at the end of this format for exact collection dates.)

I don't mind telling you outright that your freewrite journal is an effort grade.  As long as I can see when I collect it that you've (a) been staying up on the reading and (b) been spending those five minutes at the start of each class doing your best to grapple, in totally informal writing, with those "thinky" questions I've been posing you, you can expect a high grade for your freewrite journal. 

Please take care to date each entry in your journal.

If ever you miss a class, you can, in fact, "make up" that day's missing freewrite-journal entry.  Just email me -- or talk to me before the start of the next class -- and I'll let you know what question I asked everyone to freewrite in response to the day you missed.  You cand then do five minutes' worth of freewriting on your own time.  Please note, though, that doing this doesn't erase absences! 

Also, please bear in mind that you probably won't do very good freewrites about texts you haven't read!  This means our reading quizzes aren't the only incentive you have to read for class every day. 

4. You'll need to participate in class.  If you come to class regularly, on time, and prepared; participate in whatever in-class activities I've devised; and are respectful of me and your classmates, your freewrite-journal grade will be your participation grade.  If you don't do the aforementioned things, though, I reserve the right to adjust your freewrite-journal grade to reflect the overall quality of your class participation as I see it.

Grade Distribution
Each of the three essays will be worth 25% of your final grade. 
Your reading quizzes will collectively be worth 15% of your final grade. 
Your freewrite journal (whose overall grade I may adjust to reflect the quality of your class participation) will be worth 10% of your final grade (or 5% each of the two times I collect it). 

Attendance
You get four free skips, "excused" or "unexcused" doesn't matter.  After that, your final grade for the course falls a half letter grade per absence (from a C+ to a C, for instance, or from a C to a D+, since there are no "minus" final grades at Bucks). 

Since I don't distinguish between excused and unexcused absences, you shouldn't burn all your skips thinking it'll be okay to miss more classes later should you get sick or have an emergency!  Your four skips are for sickness and emergency. So budget them wisely. 

Also, please don’t vanish from class for extended periods of time (more than two classes in a row) without getting in touch with me! 

Lastly, be sure to come to class on time.  Not only might you miss reading quizzes given at the start of the hour if you're late, but I'll count three late arrivals as an absence. 

Late Work
You may submit essays late at a penalty of one half-letter grade per weekday. 

You may submit your freewrite journal late, on either of the two occasions I collect it, at a penalty of one full letter grade per weekday. 

You can't make up missed reading quizzes, since it wouldn't be fair to people who had to take them on time.  If you can’t be in class on a day you suspect a quiz will be given, call me in my office sometime before class that day (215-968-8267), and I’ll give you the quiz over the phone.  Please note, though, that taking the quiz that way doesn’t erase the absence.

Skipping Assignments 
Sorry, but you can't. All three formal writing assignments (the three essays, in other words) must be submitted to me -- otherwise you can't receive a passing grade for the course. 

Back-up Copies 
You must -- must! -- save copies for yourself of each of the three essays you turn in to me.  That way, in the highly unlikely event I lose one of them, you can re-submit it to me the moment we realize it's missing.  (In other words, "You lost my only copy" isn't a valid excuse for not submitting an essay!) 

Cell Phones
Cell phones should be switched off before class!  Not even silent texting is okay.  If there's some emergency that's going to require you to use your phone during class time, please (1) let me know about it before class begins, and (2) leave the room to do it. 

Tutoring 
If you need help with a writing assignment for this course, please work either with me or someone in the Tutoring Center (Library 121). 

If you'd like to listen to the advice of a friend, family member, or classmate who's read a rough draft of one of your essays, that's fine -- great, even.  But nobody besides me or a Bucks tutor should help you actually compose an essay for this course.  Please talk to me if you're confused about what constitutes too much help from others. 

Special Needs 
If you have a documented learning problem that requires you to have extra time on quizzes and/or in-class essays, please talk to me about it at the start of the semester, so we can make arrangements for whatever you need. 

Plagiarism 
This is from the College Catalog: 

The expectation at Bucks County Community College is that the principles of truth and honesty will be rigorously followed in all academic endeavors.  This assumes that all the work will be done by the person who purports to do the work without unauthorized aids.  In addition, when making use of language, information and some ideas not his or her own, whether quoting them directly or paraphrasing them in his or her own words, the student must attribute the source of the material in some standard form, such as naming the source in the text or offering a footnote.

I've been teaching comp and lit courses in college for over fifteen years now.  And I've met very few students who weren't able to pass a comp course simply by doing their own work.  You don't need to cheat to get through English 110 -- but you may need help.  I expect to give lots of it, and so do the people in the Tutoring Center.  So come put us to work.

Course Schedule
Please note: All readings are from your Norton Anthology, unless otherwise noted.

Wed. Jan. 21: Introduction to the course. We'll go over the course format, and I'll collect a writing sample from you.

Mon. Jan. 26: We'll begin our Realism & Naturalism unit by discussing Chapters 1, 2, and 3 of Henry James' "Daisy Miller: A Study" (begins on pg. 391). 
Wed. Jan. 28: This is the day we lost to snow. 

Mon. Feb. 2: Discussion of the remainder of James' "Daisy Miller."
Wed. Feb. 4: Discussion of Chapter 2 of Booker T. Washington's Up from Slavery, entitled "Boyhood Days" (pgs. 673-80), and Chapter 14 of the same book, "The Atlanta Exposition Address" (pgs. 680-88). 

Mon. Feb. 9: Discussion of Chapter 1 of W.E.B. DuBois' The Souls of Black Folk, "Of Our Spiritual Strivings" (pgs. 895-901), Chapter 3 of the same book, "Of Mr. Booker T. Washington and Others" (901-11), and Chapters 1-3 of Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (pgs. 108-130).
Wed. Feb. 11: Discussion of Chapters 4-11 of Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Mon. Feb. 16: Discussion of Chapters 12-24 of Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (please skip the material between note 6 near the top of pg. 161 and footnote 2 near the top of pg. 169).
Wed. Feb. 18: Discussion of Chapters 25-32 of Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Mon. Feb. 23: Discussion of the remainder of Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Wed. Feb. 25: Discussion of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wallpaper" (pgs. 808-20) and Jack London's "To Build a Fire" (pgs. 1057-67).  I'll also bring you instructions for your first essay on this date.

Mon. Mar. 2: This is the second day we lost to snow.
Wed. Mar. 4: Discussion of Stephen Crane's "The Open Boat" (1000-1016) and Kate Chopin's "The Storm" (531-35). 

Mon. Mar. 9: We'll begin our Modernism unit by discussing E.A. Robinson's "Richard Cory" (pg. 1211), Robinson's "Miniver Cheevy" (pgs. 1211-12), Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" (pg. 1399), and Sherwood Anderson's "Hands" (pgs. 1422-26). 
Wed. Mar. 11: Essay 1 due at the start of class.  After that, discussion of Wallace Stevens' "The Emperor of Ice Cream" (pg. 1442), Marianne Moore's "Poetry" (pgs. 1532-33), Ezra Pound's "In a Station of the Metro" (pg. 1482), Claude McKay's "Outcast" (pg. 1689), e.e. cummings' "pity this busy monster,manunkind" (pg. 1816), Zora Neal Hurston's "How It Feels to Be Colored Me" (pgs. 1710-1713), and Hurston's "The Gilded Six Bits" (pgs. 1713-1722).

Mon. Mar. 23: Freewrite journal due.  Also, discussion of chapters 1-7 of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises (not in your Norton Anthology!).
Wed. Mar. 25: Discussion of chapters 8-12 of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises.
Fri. Mar. 27: Optional-attendance screening of Death of a Salesman.  I'll give you more info about where and when before this date arrives.

Mon. Mar. 30: Discussion of the remainder of Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises.
Wed. Apr. 1: Discussion of Arthur Miller's Death of a Salesman (pgs. 2325-2394) and Ralph Ellison's "Battle Royal" (pgs. 2083-95).

Mon. Apr. 6: Discussion of Flannery O'Connor's "Good Country People" (pgs. 2529-2543) and Chapters 1-5 of Philip Roth's Goodbye, Columbus (not in your Norton Anthology!).  I'll also bring you the instructions for your second essay assignment on this day.
Wed. Apr. 8: Discussion of the remainder of Roth's Goodbye, Columbus. 

Mon. Apr. 13: We'll begin our Postmodernism unit by discussing Donald Barthelme's "The Balloon" (pgs. 2680-84), Ishmael Reed's "Neo-HooDoo 
Manifesto" (pg. 2844-48), and Morrison's Tar Baby, through pg. 42 (not in your Norton!).
Wed. Apr. 15: Essay 2 due at the start of class.  After that, discussion of Toni Morrison's Tar Baby, up to the break on pg. 94.

Mon. Apr. 20: Discussion of Morrison's Tar Baby up to the break on pg. 199 and Allen Ginsberg's "Sunflower Sutra" (pg. 2585 of your Norton).
Wed. Apr. 22: Discussion of Morrison's Tar Baby up to the break on pg. 254 and your Norton's excerpt from Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (pg. 2492).

Mon. Apr. 27: Discussion of the remainder of Morrison's Tar Baby and of your Norton's excerpt from Art Spiegelman's graphic novel, Maus (pgs. 3091-3108).  I'll also give you a scholarly article on Tar Baby on this day.
Wed. Apr. 29: Discussion of the scholarly article on Tar Baby I'll have given you at our previous class meeting, and of Don DeLillo's Mao II, up through pg. 49 (not in your Norton Anthology!).

Mon. May 4: Discussion of Don DeLillo's Mao II, up through pg. 103 (not in your Norton Anthology!). I'll also give you the instructions for your third essay assignment on this day.
Wed. May 6: Discussion of Don DeLillo's Mao II, up through pg. 153, and Robert Pinsky's poem "Shirt" (pgs. 2910-12).  I'll also bring you a scholarly article on Mao II on this day.

Mon. May 11: Discussion of the remainder of DeLillo's Mao II, and of the scholarly article I'll have given you at our previous class meeting.
Wed. May 13: Freewrite journal due.  Discussion of sections 1-8 of Walt Whitman's Song of Myself (pgs. 30-36) and three Emily Dickinson poems: no. 359 (pg. 84), no. 591 (pg. 87), and no. 598  (pg. 88).

Fri. May 15: Essay 3 due by class time this day.