DESCRIPTION AND GOALS, TEXTS, SCHEDULE, GRADING AND POLICIES, GROUP RESEARCH PROJECTS

Spring 2007 English 102 TT Freshman English II TTh 2:30-3:45 Fenton 337

Email	Voice Mail	Fax	Office	Office Hours
grichman@suffolk.edu	(617)573-8279	(617)305-1744	Fenton 227	MW 12:00-12:50, TTh 10:30-11:20, and by appointment

Goals and Policies

The goal of this course is to polish your reading, writing, researching, and thinking skills. To accomplish this, you will complete several research projects that will combine a variety of imaginative and expository readings with library and internet research, analysis of films, photographs, and artworks, and discussions with visiting authors, all designed to illuminate the core texts: James Baldwin's "Going to Meet the Man," Martha Collins' Blue Front, Rebecca Harding Davis's "Life in the Iron-Mills," Louise Erdrich's "Dear John Wayne," Steve Martin's "Picasso at the Lapin Agile," Shakespeare's Measure for Measure, and Wilfrid Owen's "Dulce et Decorum Est." In addition to four books, the main resources for the course will be this syllabus and the online platform Blackboard, accessed through Campus Cruiser at <http://www.suffolk.edu/campuscruiser/index.html>. To access Blackboard, you must turn off Pop-Up Blockers.

Texts Available from the Suffolk University Bookstore

Collins, Martha. Blue Front. St. Paul: Graywolf, 2006.

Hacker, Diana. A Pocket Style Manual. 4th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2004.

Martin, Steve. Picasso at the Lapin Agile and Other Plays. New York: Grove, 1997.

Shakespeare, William. Measure for Measure (1604). Ed. S. Nagarajan. Rev. ed. New York: Signet, 1998.

Ward, Candace, ed. Great Short Stories by American Women. Mineola, N.Y.: Dover, 1996.

Links for online readings and websites are included in the Schedule or in the class web pages for each core reading.

Schedule

Date	Readings	Assignments
January 16	Introduction	Blackboard
January 18	Louise Erdrich, "Dear John Wayne" (1984)	Journal 1
January 23-25	JoEllen Shively, "Cowboys and Indians: Perceptions of Western Films Among American Indians and Anglos." American Sociological Review 57.6. (1992): 725-734.JSTOR. Sawyer Lib., Suffolk U, Boston. 7 Jan. 2006 <http://jstor.org>. In class, we'll view John Ford's The Searchers (1956), starring John Wayne.	Journal 2 Response 2
January 30-February 1	Steve Martin, Picasso at the Lapin Agile (1996) Choose Group Projects.	Journal 3 Response 3
February 6-8	Arthur I. Miller, Einstein, Picasso: Space, Time, and the Beauty That Causes Havoc (New York: Basic Books, 2001: Chapter One (New York Times) Anna C.Chave, "New encounters with Les Demoiselles d'Avignon: Gender, race, and the origins of Cubism," Art Bulletin 74.4 (1994): 596-611 Fernande Olivier, "MY LOVER, PICASSO" (extracts from her memoirs, 1904-1910) SUNDAY TELEGRAPH (LONDON) 29 Apr 2001 (Guided News Search; Step One: General News; Step Two: Major Papers; Step Three: "My Lover, Picasso"; Step Four: Previous ten years) Choose Group Project Paper Topics.	Research Exercise 1
February 13-15	Rebecca Harding Davis, "Life in the Iron-Mills" (1861) 1-34 (Ward)	Journal 4 Response 4
February 20-22	Dawn Henwood, "Slaveries 'In the Borders': Rebecca Harding Davis's 'Life in the Iron Mills' in Its Southern Context," The Mississippi Quarterly 52 (1999): 567-92	Research Exercise 2
February 22	Larry Heinemann, Reading Poetry Center, Sawyer Library	1:00-2:30
February 27-March 1	Martha Collins, Blue Front (2006) and James Baldwin, "Going to Meet the Man" (1965)(see Course Documents)	Journal 5 Response 5
March 6-8	Cynthia Carr, Our Town : A Heartland Lynching, a Haunted Town, and the Hidden History of White America , pages 15-21, and Stacy Pratt McDermott, "'An Outrageous Proceeding': A Northern Lynching and the Enforcement of Anti-Lynching Legislation in Illinois, 1905-1910." Journal of Negro History 84 (1999): 61-78.	Journal 6 Response 6
March 8	Martha Collins, Reading from Blue Front, 1:00-2:30, The Poetry Center, Mildred F. Sawyer Library
March 14-16	Spring Break: No classes	Critical Paper Due: March 25
March 20-22	Wilfred Owen, "Dulce et Decorum Est" (1918); Alfred, Lord Tennyson, "The Charge of the Light Brigade" (1855), Walt Whitman, "Beat! Beat! Drums!" (1861) and "The Wound-Dresser" (1865); Randall Jarrell, "The Death of the Ball-Turret Gunner" (1945); selections from Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace, ed. Maxine Hong Kingston (2006): Maxine Hong Kingston's "Introduction" and William Larsen's "The 'New' Vietnam"	Discussion Questions
March 19-23	Maxine Hong Kingston, Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace
March 27-29	James W. Hammond. Poison Gas : The Myths Versus Reality. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 1999. Ebrary. 2003. Sawyer Lib., Suffolk U, Boston. 7 Jan. 2006 <http://site.ebrary.com.>. Chapter 2 A Brief History of Gas Warfare and Chapter 5 Is Gas Really Inhumane? World War I Movies (BBC); All Quiet on the Western Front (1930): Trailer, Dulce et Decorum Est speech , and Paul's Speech to Class	Work on Your Draft for the Project Paper
April 3-5	Catch up week.	Draft of Project Paper
April 10-12	William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Act I (1604)	Discussion Questions
April 17-19	William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Acts II-III Work on introduction to Group Project.	Discussion Questions Responses to Group Project papers
April 24-26	Measure for Measure, Acts IV-V	Discussion Questions
April 29	Final Group Project Due	11:59 P.M.
May 2	Final Exam 1:00-2:50 Fenton 337

Grading and Policies

Particpation

Education requires active participation of the whole class. We all have the obligation to contribute to the education of others in the class as well as our own. The only way to accomplish this is to attend class regularly, read texts carefully before class, complete assignments on time, bring books to class, and contribute to the discussion by asking questions or making comments.

Attendance

• Education is a contact sport. If you are not in class, you can not contribute to your own education and that of the other students; therefore, more than four absences during the semester will lower your grade. If you miss more than six classes, you will be in danger of failing the course. See me to discuss your options.

• If you miss a class, you are responsible for the material discussed in that class. Be sure to obtain notes (preferably from more than one student).

• But attendance in itself is not sufficient. Your grade will also be based on the quality of your participation.

• Bring your books to class. We will frequently discuss particular passages in the readings, and students without books will be unable to participate in the discussion.

• Please come to class on time prepared to stay the whole period. It is very annoying to the class if students are constantly coming and going. (Let me know, of course, of special circumstances.)

• Please turn-off cell phones and pagers!

  Students with Disabilities

  Students with documented disabilities who wish to request accommodations to ensure full participation in this and other courses should contact Assistant Dean Chris Giordano at (617) 573-8239.

  Email

• All students are expected to check their Suffolk email regularly for official communcations from the University and me.

• If you prefer to use another email account (Hotmail, Yahoo, etc.), forward your Suffolk email to this account by setting up a forwarding file. Go to Web Mail at <http://sumail.suffolk.edu/>. Click on Options and then Forwarding.

• Remember to change this file if you change email accounts.

  Revisions and Late Assignments

• You may revise any assignment within two weeks of receiving my comments and grade.

• If you correct the mechanical errors (typos, spelling, punctuation, grammar, conventional formats) using Hacker's A Pocket Style Manual, I will raise the grade by half a grade (from, say, B to B+).

• If you strengthen your ideas, add clarifying details and supporting evidence, and improve the organization, there is no limit to the change of grade.

• The revised grade will replace the initial grade.

• Because the working method of this course is to use student and instructor responses to improve performance, you must post assignments to Blackboard on time. If more than four assignments during the semester are posted late, your grade for the course will be lowered. (If you are having computer or Blackboard problems, let me know and you won't be penalized for posting these assignments late.) In order to pass this course, you must complete every assignment.