ENGL 109: Introduction to Fiction Section D, MWF 11-11:50 1062 Lincoln Hall

Instructor: Dbora Tinou Email: tienou1@illinois.edu Office: 33 English Building Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday, 12-1 Mailbox: #227 English Building (located on the second floor) Course Description This course is designed to introduce you to ways of analyzing a variety of fictional texts. This means well be reading short and long fiction from diverse time periods and authors. Upon completion of the course, you will be equipped with the tools you need to perform close readings of a text and analyze what you find there. Since this is also an advanced composition course, you will also practice writing critically about fiction a fair amount (25-30 pages altogether). We will devote class time not only to the discussion of fiction and how to write about it, but also to actual writing (and rewriting) and reviewing the work of your peers. Required Text Charters, Ann. The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction. Compact Eighth Edition. Bedford St. Martins, 2011. Various short stories and articles from online sources or handouts. I will announce these as the semester progresses. Course Policies Attendance: You may miss up to 4 classes for any reason. If you miss more than 4 classes, you will lose one full letter grade from your course grade for each subsequent class that you miss. Please note that job interviews and personal travel are not grounds for having your absence excused. If you need to miss class for these reasons, understand that it will count toward your allotted 4 absences. Notes from McKinley will not excuse you from class. If you have to miss class for an emergency, contact the Emergency Dean at (217)333-0050. You can find more information about the Emergency Dean at the following web address: http://www.odos.uiuc.edu/emergency/ Tardiness: I expect you to be in class on time. If, for some reason, you do arrive to class late, please enter the classroom quietly and discreetly. You can get any notes you many have missed from someone in the class. If there is a situation that results in your being late on a regular basis, e.g. you have a class across campus right before we meet, talk to me about it. If you are more than five minutes late, it will count as an absence. Participation: Participation is crucial in this class because you learn through doing and discussing. Contributing to the class will strengthen your interpretive skills and your writing. The best way for

you to improve as a communicator is to engage in written and verbal communication. For this approach to work effectively, you need to come to class prepared, having read the assigned readings which will inform your work. Writers Workshop: If you need help with a writing assignment or general help with your writing, contact the Writers Workshop (http:///www.english.uiuc.edu/CWS/wWorkshop). Workshop consultants can help you learn how to improve your writing by offering assistance with planning, drafting, and revising. The resource is free, and I highly recommend it. Drafts: Good writing is rewriting. For many of the assignments, you will bring early drafts of projects to class for peer review. I am also willing to look at your drafts and offer feedback. I invite you to submit drafts of any assignments for my comments and suggestions. If you choose to submit a draft, you must meet with me to discuss it, either during my office hours or by appointment. When submitting it, please state clearly what you would like me to do with the draft. Please do not submit a draft and simply ask for suggestions or feedback. Please give me at least three working days to read the draft before our meeting, and give yourself at least a few days to revise the draft before you submit it for a grade. This means you need to start early on the assignments so that you can send me a draft well before the deadline. One final note on drafts: the comments I make on a draft are not exhaustivemeeting with me to discuss your work does not by any means guarantee that you will receive an A on the assignment. Plagiarism: The University of Illinois has high standards of academic integrity set out in Article 1, Part 4 of the University Student Code, which I uphold. All written coursework in this course is expected to be your own, with all words and/or ideas from other sources fairly attributed. To use phrases and/or ideas from any other source as if they were your own constitutes plagiarism. Submitting your own work for more than one course without permission of both instructors can also constitute plagiarism. The University Student Code sets out possible consequences of plagiarism in coursework, ranging from failure on the assignment to suspension or dismissal from the University. The Code specifies that ignorance of these standards is not an excuse. All students in this class should familiarize themselves with the Code at www.admin.uiuc.edu/policy/code/, with our librarys guidelines at www.library.illinois.edu/learn/research/academicintegrity.html and with the chapter on plagiarism in the Modern Language Handbook for Writers of Research Papers [or a comparable print source]. Documentation should follow current MLA form; the current MLA guide is available at the Undergrad Library reference desk or, via their webpage, at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/2/. If you have questions about fair use or documentation, please do not hesitate to consult me.

Submission: All assignments are to be completed using Microsoft Word (unless otherwise indicated). Type in 12 point font, leave at least one-inch margins on all four sides, and attach sheets with a staple. Submit all formal assignments in both hard copy and electronic form. Cell Phones: You must silence your cell phones during class unless you have spoken to me before that class. If you answer your phone during class, you will be asked to leave Assignments and Grading Assignments: Here is a basic outline of what you can expect over the course of the semester. I will give you more details about individual assignments as they come up. You must complete all major assignments to pass the class. Short responses: These 2 page responses are designed to help you practice your analytical skills. There will be 5 throughout the course of the semester. You can write these responses on any text you choose, but you must turn in three before Spring Break and two afterwards. You can use these responses as building blocks for your longer essays or they can be completely unrelated. Two 4-6 page essays: You will write two 4-6 page essays analyzing one or two texts of your choice. These essays should use class discussion as starting points, but your analysis should extend beyond class to show your independent thought. I will provide prompts to get you started, but you may also choose to expand one of your short responses for your essays. Final essay: The final essay will be 8-10 pages and will ask you to use the skills youve learned over the course of the semester and apply them to a longer piece of writing. For this essay, you will have to undertake research and include outside sources. Grading: Here is a breakdown of all major assignments (and participation) that will make up your final grade. With individual assignment prompts you will be given more information about grading procedures: Short responses: 20% Essay 1: 15% Essay 2: 15% Final essay: 30% Participation/In-class writing: 20% My job as an instructor is to give you a clear and informed commentary on your writing. I will not mark or comment on every problem in your writing, because part of the learning process is to learn to identify and correct problems yourself, but I will comment in detail on portions of each assignment. As I review your documents, I will be assessing your success in meeting the criteria of excellence outlined for each assignment. The best way to interpret your grades is to pay close attention to the comments I make throughout the document and on the comment sheet attached to it.

This class will be graded on a 0-100 scale, with the letter grade breakdown as follows: A 93-100 A- 90-92 B+ 87-89 B 83-86 B- 80-82 C+ 77-79 C 73-76 C- 70-72 D+ 67-69 D 63-66 D- 60-62 F 0-59

Emergency Plan In the event of an emergency, you will be asked either to exit the building (e.g., in the case of a fire) or to go to the basement (e.g., in a tornado). Please do so quickly and quietly, making sure to find me once you have exited to the proper location. Please remain with your classmates and me, even after I checked you in. You will not be allowed to leave until officially notified by emergency personnel. If you have a physical disability and would like help in exiting the building, please see Lauri Harden in the Undergraduate Studies Office (room 294) to sign the voluntary register for assistance. Students with Disabilities If you have a documented disability that may impact your work in this or other classes for which you have accommodations, you must be registered with and provide documentation of your disability to the Division of Rehabilitation-Education Services 333-4602. Modification of Syllabus I reserve the right to modify the syllabus at any time. You are responsible for staying current with the syllabus, even if you did not attend class during which a modification was announced. Modifications will not increase the workload, but may be made in order to better address the unique needs of each class. Course Schedule Week 1 (Jan. 14-18): Plot in Appendix Two (1082-1086) Appendix One: Reading a Short Storyincluding Samuel, Grace Paley (1077-1081) Job History, Annie Proulx (740-744) An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, Ambrose Bierce (103-110) Week 2 (Jan. 21-25): No class Monday, Jan. 21 (Martin Luther King Jr. Day) Character in Appendix Two (1086-1088) A & P, John Updike (834-839) Everyday Use, Alice Walker (852-858) A Good Man is Hard to Find, Flannery OConnor (676-678) Cathedral, Raymond Carver (122-133)

Week 3 (Jan. 28-Feb. 1): Point of View in Appendix Two (1090-1094) The Tell-Tale Heart, Edgar Allan Poe (727-731) The Open Boat, Stephen Crane (270-388) Hills Like White Elephants, Ernest Hemingway (367-371) Appendix Four: Writing About Short Stories (1108-1113) Week 4 (Feb. 4-8): Rough Draft of Essay 1 Due Setting in Appendix Two (1088-1090) Young Goodman Brown, Nathaniel Hawthorne (356-366) A White Heron, Sarah Orne Jewett (403-411) Shiloh, Bobbie Ann Mason (541-552) Week 5 (Feb. 11-15): Theme in Appendix Two (1096-1097) Girl, Jamaica Kincaid (506-508) Harrison Bergeron, Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (845-850) Sweat, Zora Neale Hurston (377-386) Week 6 (Feb. 18-22): Final Draft of Essay 1 Due Battle Royal, Ralph Ellison (293-304) The Man Who Was Almost a Man, Richard Wright (877-887) How It Feels to Be Colored Me, Zora Neale Hurston (946-952) Week 7 (Feb. 25-March 1): The Yellow Wallpaper, Charlotte Perkins Gilman (339-351) Commentaries on The Yellow Wallpaper (939-945) The Story of an Hour, Kate Chopin (203-204) The Lottery, Shirley Jackson (387-393) Appendix Four: Writing About Short Stories (1113-1123) Week 8 (March 4-8): Interpreter of Maladies, Jhumpa Lahiri (509-524) Casebook Two (1030-1037) Two Kinds, Amy Tan (783-793) In the Canon, For All the Wrong Reasons, Amy Tan (987-990) Week 9 (March 11-15): Benito Cereno, Herman Melville The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, Sherman Alexie (14-19)

Week 10 (March 18-22): No class (Spring Break) Week 11 (March 25-29): The Red Convertible, Louise Erdrich (305-312) Rough Draft of Essay 2 Due Week 12 (April 1-5): Writing the Research Paper in Appendix Four (1124-1132) Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad (207-269) Week 13 (April 8-12): Heart of Darkness, contd An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrads Heart of Darkness, Chinua Achebe (893-898) Final Draft of Essay 2 Due Week 14 (April 15-19): TBD Week 15 (April 22-26): Final Essay Workshop Week 16 (April 29-May 1): Final Essay Workshop Final essay due Monday, May 6 by 7 pm