Exploring Language (LC/ENG376)

Syllabus

Summer 2005

The Norton Reader: Eleventh Edition, by Peterson, Brereton;

The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver

All in the Timing, by David Ives

As the title "Exploring Language" implies, our purpose is to explore. As such, the journey itself is to be its own reward--a pleasure cruise if you will. The course, or direction in which we will embark may see to veer a bit into strange waters, and we have permission, indeed, an imperative to linger or spontaneously decide to stop over along the way--to wander up a stream of thought or two to the source of an idea/feeling. Navigation will be by metaphor, symbol, design, pattern, various linguistic devices, inventions, and, of course, lots of imagination.

The journeying of our exploration will be as important as our goal and objectives, i.e., our destination. First and last, since we will be using (among other tools) language, with all of its conventions, devices, peculiarities and subtitles to explore language itself, our subject matter becomes both the ship, the journey, and the destination in which we are interested, and the primary vehicle by which humans have explored and recorded the journey of consciousness.

COURSE GOALS:

To develop an increasingly complicated, nuanced understanding and appreciation of fine writing and its elements:

techniques, devices, inventions, designs, etc.

To develop and sharpen your own writing and verbal skills by asking you to engage in intellectual discussion and

literary analysis, and by attempting to integrate a few of the ideas, devices, and insights of the class into one's own

To expand your horizons by expanding your consciousness, and to help the rest of us expand ours.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

Each class member will:

(1) Read and keep notes on the assigned reading.

(2) Participate in scheduled, (a-synchronous) forums where discussion of the thematic content and design of the readings will be held.

(3) Write four essays outlined and described in the assignments folder, and one (un-graded) bio-information paper.

(4) Take the final exam.

(5) Participate in possible forum discussion regarding student writings.

Each of these requirements is generally explained in the ensuing sections.

(A brief, un-graded paper)

FOUR essays of three and one half to four page minimum (no font larger than 12pt., double-spaced, indented paragraphs, one-inch margins on all sides) will be electronically submitted on the date for each assigned. This paper must be of the type assigned, and submitted no latter than 11:59 p.m. on the due date. It will be graded with a combined grade for content and mechanics, and each paper will account for 20% of your final grade.

A brief paper (un-graded) that tells me a little about you, your interests, hobbies, professional goals, background, some of the things you have enjoyed reading, or participating in, and some of your expectations-perhaps anxieties-about this course.

READING ANALYSIS RESPONSES FORUM:

Each class member will prepare " Reading Responses" for the weekly reading assignments. "(Required Reading Response)" highlights these readings on the calendar.

Suggestions and possible directions for reading responses may be suggested by the instructor, another student's questions or comments about the piece, or perhaps through an internet site comment or insight. (See internet links for additional information about writers.)

Please respond to the questions posed or provide the information requested by topics. Forum reading responses must be submitted by 11:59pm on the due dates.

Web CT courses: All assignments are due by 11:59pm on their assigned dates (usually a Sunday.)

Failure to comply with this policy will result in a zero for the particular assignment.

All written work must be appropriate senior level college work. As this is primarily a writing class, please pay very close attention to eliminating typos, spelling, grammatical and other mechanical errors from your writing. A part of your grade is at stake here.

It is expected that students will actively participate during each class section. The participation grade as noted in the

DISTRIBUTION OF COURSE GRADES section is based on an electronic attendance, timeliness, and participation in forum discussions. As a rule of thumb, thoughtful, and critical analysis in forum responses will result in100% of your participation grade.

Note: The un-graded paper at the beginning of the course is evaluated as a portion of student participation for this course.

*Note: Threaded discussion in the forum is still a new format for most of us, so don't panic; just give what you read some serious thought and a considered response.

DISTRIBUTION OF GRADES

Component Percentage

Participation	10%
Four Essays	20% each
Final Exam	10%
Total	100%

Please review the Linfield policy regarding academic dishonesty. It can be found in the college catalog. Note that any

incidence of academic dishonesty may result in a final grade "F."

Students with documented disabilities, who may need accommodations, who have any emergency medical information

the instructor should know of, or who need special arrangements in the event of evacuation, should make an appointment

with the instructor as early as possible, no later than the first week of the term.

Weekly Schedule

*Week 1: June 4-13 Orientation	Background/Interest paper (un-graded). * Please submit this paper by June 19 via Web CT e-mail.
Students to familiarize themselves with the course requirements, the online software, begin readings and notes, and to work on a page and a half to two page background and interest paper.

Week 2: June 14-20 Reading Responses & Analysis

The Norton Reader:
The Norton Reader:

Hurston, “How It feels to Be Colored Me” (41)
Stegner, “The Town Dump” (18)
Eighner, “On Dumpster Diving” (22)
Mairs, “On Being a Cripple” (58)
Didion, “On Going Home” (9)
Eiseley, “The Brown Wasps” (74)
Soto, “The Guardian Angel” (80)
White, “Once More to the Lake” (82)
Saunders, “Under the Influence” (140)
Dillard, “Terwilliger Bunts One” (151)
Cofer, “More Room” (167)

File to (a-synchronous) forum. * * Although you may wish to make some cross-references and/or connections between one reading and another, please file your responses and analysis for each reading as a separate piece by title.

Week 3: June 21-27 Reading Responses & Analysis

The Norton Reader:

Atwood, “True North” (171)
Abby, “The Serpents of Paradise” (589)
Shah, “Tight Jeans and Chania Chorris” (304)
Douglas, “Learning to Read” (408)
Williams, “The Clan of One-Breasted Women” (636)
Hughes, “Salvation” (1125)
Rivera, “First Communion” (1127)
Barry, "I Remember Mike" (Audio)
Gallagher, "Essay 3A" (Audio)
Kling, "Lightning" (Audio)
White, "Dead on the Road" (Audio)
Matthiessen, "In Nepal" (Audio)
Morrow, "Bill For Short" (Audio)

File to (a-synchronous) forum.

*Week 4: June28-July 5

* Narrative essay (#1) Due.

Reading Responses & Analysis The Norton Reader:

Golding, “Thinking as a Hobby” (217)
Asimov, “The Eureka Phenomenon” (223)
Bronowski, “The Reach of Imagination” (210)
Twain -- ìThe War Prayerî (1122)
Saunders, “Looking at Women” (244)
Quindlen, “Between the Sexes, a Great Divide” (254)
McMurtry, “Kill Em! Crush Em! Eat Em Raw!” (305)
Ivins, “Get a Knife…” (389)
Goodheart, "9.11.01: The Skyscraper and the Airplane" (292)
Dickerson; ìWho Shot Johnny?"î (383))
Swift; ìA Modest Proposalî (857)
Arendt; ìDenmark and the Jewsî (807)
Carson, “Tides” (568)
Codrescue, “The Difference” (Audio)
Winik, "Women Who Love Men Who Don't Pay Their Parking Tickets" (Audio)

File to (a-synchronous) forum

Week 5: July 6-11

Reading Responses & Analysis The Norton Reader:
Seattle, “Letter to President Pierce” (611)
Sagan, “The Abstractions of Beasts” (604)
Levin, “The Case for Torture” (675)
Gould, “Our Allotted Lifetimes" (210)
King, “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (889)
Highet, “The Mystery of Zen” (1191)
Toth, “Going to the Movies” (1197)
Bodett, “Crying” (Audio)

File to (a-synchronous) forum.

*Week 6: July 12-18

*Expository essay (#2) Due.

Reading responses & discussion Chapters 1-8

The Bean Trees

Week 7: July 19-25

Reading responses & discussion final chapters:
The Bean Trees: Characters, Images, Emerging themes.

Week 8: July 26-August 1	Thematic Analysis Essay (#3) The Bean Trees Due*
Reading responses & discussion *All in the Timing.* (First seven plays.)

*Week 9: August 2-8

All in the Timing (Remaining seven plays and all further postings: Playing with Words, Themes, the Experts, etc.)

Words, Words, Words: Yours, Mine, Theirs; Reading and writing for each other.

Please post the single best essay you have written for this class (minus the grade and comments.) You may wish to make corrections to your paper first.

Week 10: August 9-15	*Researched Thematic Analysis Essay (#4) Due.
Reviewing for the final exam

Week 11: August 16-17	*Final Exam: Due by August 17.
Words, Words, Words: Yours, Mine, Theirs; Reading and writing for each other. Please post your responses to any three essays written by your fellow students.