Course Information

A survey of American masterpieces from the Civil War to the present.

As a result of class instruction, students will . . .

• be able to explain and describe the essential characteristics of realism, naturalism, romanticism, modernism, and postmodernism;

• be able to explain and describe social, philosophical, historical, and political contexts that influenced the characteristics of post-Civil War writing;

• be able to analyze and interpret specific works of prose and poetry with regard to the literary genres and the characteristics of the period during which the work was written;

• refine their writing techniques. (Students are expected to demonstrate the writing skills and documentation skills taught in ENGL 1010 and ENGL 1020.)

Prerequisites and Corequisites:

Since a substantial amount of writing is required for the course, students must have completed English 1010 and 1020 before enrolling in English 2120.

NOTE: English 2110 (American Masterpieces I) is NOT a prerequisite to English 2120.

Course Topics:

The course will cover selections of American literature from the Civil War up to contemporary times. Students will read stories, poems, novels, and plays from the realist, naturalist, modern, and postmodern literary periods.

Specific Course Requirements:

To do well in this course, students should be prepared to read, analyze, and interpret the assigned literary works, retain specific knowledge about the works and their authors, and express ideas about the works in writing.

Textbooks, Supplementary Materials, Hardware and Software Requirements

Required Textbooks:

Please visit the Virtual Bookstore to obtain textbook information for this course:

 http://rodp.bkstr.com/

Supplementary Materials:

None.

Hardware Requirements:

The minimum requirements can be found below and at http://www.rodp.org/students/hardware_software.htm. No additional hardware requirements are needed for this course.
 

PC users… A minimum computer system that will help you access all the tools in the courses is a Pentium 166 or better, 64 Megabytes of RAM or better, Windows 98 (or higher if possible), A modem (56k minimum; Cable or DSL will give you best performance), And a dependable internet service provider (ISP). Any provider will do as long as you get an email account, have access to the World Wide Web, and don’t have serious problems connecting. For a list of ISPs in your area see The List. Mac users… Minimum system requirements for Mac users are a 604 PowerPC processor Preferably a G3 (iMac are included) or G4 processor computer running Mac OS 9.x or above Your Macintosh should have a minimum or 64 MB RAM, preferably 128 with at least 25 MB assigned to your browser.  If you need assistance in  adjusting memory please refer to your Apple Help file searching under the header Memory - Adjusting your memory usage. It is advised that you not  have multiple applications open while working in your browser within the Online Degree Program . This requires more RAM and will cause the browser to run very slowly. A modem (56k minimum; Cable or DSL will give you best performance) And a dependable internet service provider (ISP). Any provider will do as long as you get an email account, have access to the World Wide Web, and don’t have serious problems connecting or maintaining a connection. For a list of ISPs in your area see The List.

Software Requirements:

Students must submit their writing assignments in one of the following formats:

• Microsoft Word (filename.doc)

• Rich Text Format (filename.rtf)

• HTML (filename.htm)

Students who cannot create files of one of these types will need to check with the instructor at the beginning of class to explore alternatives.

Instructor Information

Since different instructors may be teaching different sections of this course, please see the separate page inside the course to find the instructor’s contact information.

Assessment and Grading

Testing Procedures:

Students will take their objective tests (reading quizzes) using the WebCT quiz function inside the course. No proctors will be necessary for this course.

Grading Procedure:

Reading Quizzes
Students will take 7 reading quizzes to test their knowledge of specific works. These quizzes will take the form of 25 multiple-choice questions. The questions will be worth 2 points each for a total of 50 points. Total points for all quizzes are 350.

Written Assignments
Students will submit 3 written assignments to test their ability to analyze and interpret literature and their ability to understand works of literary criticism. These written assignments will be worth a total of 550 points. (Author Project = 200; Short Analysis Paper = 100; Long Analysis Paper = 250)

U Students should keep back-up copies of all written assignments.

Class Participation
Class participation will be evaluated throughout the course. Students will participate in the class discussion area in WebCT to ensure that they are fully involved in the community of scholars that makes up their learning environment. Students will be awarded 100 points for full and active participation in the course. 

High Achievement
To achieve the highest grade in this course, students should

• keep up with reading assignments (both in the textbook and in the content pages of the WebCT course);

• read the literary texts more than once when possible, making notes along the way;

• make every attempt to delve below the surface meaning of the text;

• attempt to find connections between (1) ideas within one text, (2) ideas in more than one text, (3) the text and the society which produced it, (4) the text and the contemporary world.

Grading Scale:

900-1000 points---A
800-899---B
700-799---C
600-699---D
<600---F

Assignments and Participation

Reading Assignments:

Module 1 – Twain, Huckleberry Finn
Module 2 – James, Daisy Miller
Module 3 – Chopin, The Awakening
Module 4 – Crane, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets
Module 5 – Selected modern and postmodern poems
Module 6 – Selected modern short stories
Module 7 – Miller, Death of a Salesman
Module 8 – Selected postmodern short stories

Class Participation:

Students will be expected to communicate regularly with the instructor and with other students via WebCT email and discussion postings. Students should keep up with assignment deadlines and submit assignments on time.  Students should check their email, discussion area, and announcements page regularly to check for important information.

Punctuality:

To receive full credit, assignments must be handed in on time. 10% of the score will be taken away for each 24-hour period a paper or other assignment is late.

Assignment and quiz due dates can be found on the course calendar.

NOTE: Students should be aware that the course is delivered in Central Standard Time. Thus, if an assignment is due at 10:00 CST, it will be due at 11:00 EST. Students who are only able to work on class assignments in the evenings should make plans to complete assignments on the Sunday evening before the Monday morning deadline.

Course Ground Rules

This course moves quickly. Students must keep up with their reading or they will have a very difficult time catching up.

Students who have not had any previous experience with the WebCT course software must be willing to dive in and learn quickly. The instructor will provide tools to make this learning process easier. In addition, other students taking the course will have had prior experience with WebCT and will be happy to help their less experienced classmates.

Students should communicate with the instructor and their other classmates regularly. They should use their assigned WebCT email addresses in regular communication. They should also give the instructor a web-based email address (hotmail, yahoo) as a backup.

Students should address technical problems immediately. A toll-free telephone number and a web link to the WebCT Helpdesk are provided below.

The instructor of this course always welcomes questions, but students should be sure to read all of the pertinent pages in the class WebCT content area before asking questions about assignments, procedures, and requirements. Usually, all of the information needed can be found there. 

To excel in this or any other online course, students must be willing and motivated to do a lot of reading online. The instructor recommends making printed copies of the WebCT course content pages for reading and note taking.

Students should observe course netiquette at all times. This includes being respectful of others in all email and discussion posts. A good rule of thumb is “write as though your little old granny were going to read it.” (It goes without saying that your little old granny was also a terrific literary critic.)

NOTE: Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Students who copy someone else’s work (from the Internet or anywhere else) and pass it off as their own will get a "0" on the assignment or fail the course. 

NOTE: Since Composition I and II are prerequisites for American Masterpieces II, you are expected to know and understand rules of documentation when you enter this course. Rules of documentation are reviewed within the course, but ignorance of documentation rules will not be accepted as an excuse for plagiarism.

Guidelines for Communications

Email:

• Always include a subject line.

• Remember without facial expressions some comments may be taken the wrong way. Be careful in wording your emails. Use of emoticons might be helpful in some cases.

• Use standard fonts.

• Do not send large attachments without permission.

• Special formatting such as centering, audio messages, tables, html, etc. should be avoided unless necessary to complete an assignment or other communication.

• Respect the privacy of other class members

Discussion Groups:

• Review the discussion threads thoroughly before entering the discussion. Be a lurker then a discussant.

• Try to maintain threads by using the "Reply" button rather starting a new topic.

• Do not make insulting or inflammatory statements to other members of the discussion group. Be respectful of other’s ideas.

• Be patient and read the comments of other group members thoroughly before entering your remarks.

• Be cooperative with group leaders in completing assigned tasks.

• Be positive and constructive in group discussions.

• Respond in a thoughtful and timely manner.

Chat:

• Introduce yourself to the other learners in the chat session.

• Be polite. Choose your words carefully. Do not use derogatory statements.

• Be concise in responding to others in the chat session.

• Be prepared to open the chat session at the scheduled time.

• Be constructive in your comments and suggestion.

Web Resources:

• Columbia Guide to Online Style by Janice R. Walker and Todd Taylor

• Citation Styles Online http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/online/cite6.html

These resources provide guidelines for citing sources used in academic papers. For this course, be sure to follow the guidelines for MLA style documentation. The MLA (Modern Language Association) style is the one most commonly used in the humanities disciplines.

The Tennessee Virtual Library is available to all students enrolled in the Regents Degree Program. Students will use this resource to complete their critical paper assignment for the course.

Qualified students with disabilities will be provided reasonable and necessary academic accommodations if determined eligible by the appropriate disability services staff at their home institution. Prior to granting disability accommodations in this course, the instructor must receive written verification of a student's eligibility for specific accommodations from the disability services staff at the home institution. It is the student's responsibility to initiate contact with their home institution's disability services staff and to follow the established procedures for having the accommodation notice sent to the instructor.

The instructor reserves the right to make changes as necessary to this syllabus. If changes are necessary during the term of the course, the instructor will immediately notify students of such changes both by individual email communication and posting both notification and the nature of any changes on the course bulletin board.

In cases of variation between the public syllabus and the syllabus contained inside the WebCT virtual classroom, the WebCT version is the official version of the course syllabus.

For HELP with

• TECHNICAL PROBLEMS - please visit the AskRODP Customer Support web page at http://help.rodp.org or call the AskRODP Help Desk at 1-866-550-RODP (1-866-550-7637).

• REGISTRATION PROBLEMS - contact your home school RODP Campus Contact.

• TBR-RODP RELATED ISSUES - contact RODP Help Desk at 1-888-223-0023.