Tiffin

University, School of Arts and Sciences

Spring 2012

English Poetry
ENG361-01 Spring 2012
Catalog Description
English Poetry (3 hours; preq. ENG 142): A survey of English poetry from the Romantics through the twentieth century. The course examines leading poets from the Romantics, the Victorians, the early Modernists, the W orld War I poets, and contemporary poetry.

This semester we will focus on the poets William Blake and Lord Byron.
William Blake and George Gordon, Lord Byron represent two important moments in English poetry. Blake, a first-generation Romantic poet born in 1757, drew inspiration from the American and French revolutions as they were occurring, suffered disenchantment with the French Revolution when it collapsed into tyranny, and lived through the final defeat of Napoleon in 1815. Blake turned thirty-one in 1788, the year that Byron was born. For the first twenty-seven years of Byrons life England was at war with France with only short interruptions. The American Revolutionary War was a fact of history for Byron as the Vietnam War is a fact of history for todays students: people were alive who saw it happen, but Byron wasnt one of them. Both poets, living in a tumultuous age, exhibit complex attitudes towards government, religion, gender, and poetry. Between the two, however, we will be able to study almost every significant genre of poetry written in English.

James Rovira
Office M 9:00-12:00; 1:00- Hours 5:00; T -F 3:30-5:00 Class Monday nights, 6:30- hours 9:15 Class Main 21 Location About M.Phil. Drew U 2004 Ph.D. Drew U 2008 Contact rovirajtiffin@gmail.com 419-448-3586 Bridgewater House 5

To study poetry is to study the most complex uses of the English language. It will improve your communication, listening, reading, writing, and critical thinking skills.

Tiffin University School of Arts and Sciences

Spring 2012

Course Policies

Participation in this course implies agreement with all policies as stated in the course syllabus. Applicable policies are not limited to those explicitly stated in the course syllabus but also include verbal instruction given privately, given in class, and university-wide policies. Required Texts: Blakes Poetry and Designs, Norton Critical Edition Byrons Poetry and Prose, Norton Critical Edition MLA Handbook, 7th ed. Students must purchase the assigned texts for this class as notes, introductory material, and criticism unavailable online w ill be assigned from these texts. All final drafts of w riting assignments are to be uploaded to turnitin.com. The instructor will grade them using the Grademark function in turnitin.com. Once the writing assignment has been graded, students can view instructor comments by opening the assignment and clicking the Grademark button in the upper left hand corner of the page. Instructor comments w ill appear both in the right sidebar and in little blue bubbles on the paper. The blue bubbles will reveal instructor comments when the mouse cursor is placed over them. Please do not just view final grades on turnitin.com. Read all instructor comments and correct errors on your next assignment. Errors that are repeated from assignment to assignment will cost more points each time they are repeated. Join class ID 4651964 w ith password EPSP2012

Academic Honesty Policy

This course will follow the academic honesty policy as stated in the most recent edition of the student handbook. The following course- specific policies will also be enforced: Any student found plagiarizing on any paper over the course of the semester to any extent may be awarded a grade of XF for the class. This policy may be applied retroactively to any papers found to be plagiarized after a final grade has been issued. Please note, however, that the instructor distinguishes between citation and/or documentation errors and blatant plagiarism, the final determination of which rests with the instructor alone. Improper citations will result in a lower grade, but not necessarily a grade of XF.

Documentation
All papers in this course shall be formatted and documented following MLA style as described in the MLA Handbook 7th edition. All papers shall be set up according to the MLA Handbook following the example provided by the sample paper in the MLA Handbook: Times New Roman, 12 pt. font double spaced from top to bottom without interruption or extra line spaces and with 1 margins all around. Proper setup of assigned papers counts toward the mechanical half of paper grades described below. 2

Following correct documentation style gives you invaluable practice in reading and following complex written instructions and in paying attention to detail. It is a sign of professionalism in written presentations.

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Tiffin University School of Arts and Sciences

Spring 2012

Attendance and Grading Policies

There are no excused absences except for competition sports travel as per NCAA regulations. Absences for family illnesses, births, deaths, weddings, etc., and the students own illnesses are not excused absences. Students who miss more than three classes except for competition travel will receive an automatic grade of F in the class. All students are required to submit all written work by the due date and time, to demonstrate comprehension of the material in their written work, to argue a thesis original to the student in every paper, unless summary is explicitly assigned, to follow MLA style. No late work will be accepted under any circumstances, including competition sports travel, unless the student m akes arrangements in advance to which the instructor has agreed either in writing or by email. Late papers will otherwise be issued a grade of 0. Grading There will b e 100 pt. quizzes given in class on each weeks reading. Quizzes cannot be made up unless you make arrangements in advance. I will agree to one make-up date. If you do not meet that date, you will not be able to make up the quiz. Quizzes will cover factual information about the literature studied, being very similar in content to your midterm and final (see below). You must take notes on your reading in order to pass the quizzes. Students must complete an initial two-page paper plus an additional eighteen pages of writing. Due dates are on the paper option contract form. All students shall complete twenty pages of writing by choosing one of the following options: Ten two-page papers 3

Three six-page papers Two nine-page papers A combination of shorter papers One eighteen-page paper as follows: April 10: 250 word proposal describing the students topic, probable thesis or question, outline, and bibliography. April 17: Annotated Bibliography due. April 24: First full draft due for instructor review (required scheduled conference). April 30: Final draft submitted to turnitin.com Under no circumstances will any papers be accepted after April 30th. All papers shall be focused on literature, shall be about any one or m ore of the literary works found in the assigned texts but none external to it, shall argue a thesis original to the student about the literature, and shall support that thesis with evidence quoted from the literary texts and from peer-reviewed, scholarly sources properly documented following MLA style. Class discussion will serve the purpose of helping students develop ideas about the literature. See also the handout Writing a Literary Thesis on eCollege. Students are also required to incorporate at least five critical sources into their writing. These critical sources may come from the assigned texts, from the MLA International Bibliography on Ohiolink, from Tiffin Universitys library, or from peer-reviewed articles obtained by Interlibrary Loan.

Tiffin University School of Arts and Sciences

Spring 2012

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No sources from the publicly accessible internet will be accepted as one of these five sources without prior written or emailed consent from the instructor. Students who do not complete a full twenty pages of writing that incorporates at least five approved sources into that twenty pages of writing will be issued a grade of F regardless of their final average as they have not met the minimum requirements of the course. Each individual paper will be graded on the following basis:

50% -- grammar, spelling, MLA formatting. 50% -- clarity, style, organization, content, and fulfillment of the
requirements of the assignment.

Services
Tutoring Students who would like additional help with their papers may take advantage of tutoring services offered by TUs Student Success Center. The Student Success Center is located in Friedley Hall and is open from 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on Fridays. Students w ho wish to work with a tutor are encouraged to call extension 3324 to make an appointment. Please be advised that tutors w ill not write or fix papers, nor will they guarantee particular grades. Their function is to review and discuss writing with students and to make suggestions for improvement. Student Conduct TU is a professional university; its students are preparing for professional careers. They are therefore expected to dress appropriately and behave professionally. Students must turn off cell phones and pagers at the beginning of every class. Students must not spend class time writing letters, doing homework, using computers for activities not related to class, chewing tobacco, and/or talking privately with others. Such conduct is highly disrespectful and will not be tolerated.

Points will be deducted from the final grade of any paper for being short of
length requirements in and page increments as determined by the instructor adding up to 100 points per page. Students should not pad their papers with unnecessary words, phrases, or ideas if they are coming up short. They should add more detail, more support, more examples, and/or further explanation.

Papers using internet or text message abbreviations will receive an

automatic grade of F. My computer crashed is not an excuse for not submitting a paper to turnitin.com by the due date. Students are responsible for backing up all work either onto a memory stick, onto the school network drive, or onto a file storage system such as Google docs or Dropbox (preferably at least two of the above). Students who have their work backed up will be able to continue their work on a public computer on campus should their personal computer crash. Students who do not back up their work are responsible for failing to do so. The m idterm and final exams will be worth 500 pts each. The final exam will cover only material studied since the midterm exam. Each exam will consist of 50-100 multiple choice questions asking factual questions about the following topics:

Associating authors with their works. Birth and death dates of authors and composition dates of works. Genre and other literary features of works. Relevant biographical and historical details associated with the works. Quotation or speaker identification: please note that being able to identify
a quotation or the speaker associated with quoted text does not mean that students are expected to memorize assigned reading, only that they have read it, comprehended it, and understood its m ajor themes and m ajor characters well enough to identify them within a multiple choice question.

Questions on the midterm and final will be drawn from class discussion
and from assigned reading. All papers m ust be submitted to the appropriate folder on turnitin.com on the due date (by the start of class the day that the final draft is due) for a grade to be issued. Students will also have to sign a contract indicating which paper option they have chosen. No papers will receive a grade without this signed contract.

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Tiffin University School of Arts and Sciences

Spring 2012

Course Schedule

Essay Grading Standards

Grade of A: Excellent The A paper is a highly sophisticated paper that supports an original thesis with a complex argument that skillfully and correctly integrates substantial outside research. The A paper demonstrates not only substantial understanding of primary and secondary reading but the ability to advance knowledge w ith its insight into the material. It has few or no grammatical or punctuation errors -- no more than three or four for every five pages of w riting -- and maintains a highly academic tone that correctly and effectively employs field-specific language. Grade of B: Above Average
The B paper fulfills all requirements of the assignment. It meets or exceeds research requirements effectively, demonstrating comprehension of all sources. It properly documents its sources with no more than two or three citation errors. It is almost free of grammatical or punctuation errors, having no m ore than one or two errors per page, but while highly competent, the B paper lacks the insight and linguistic competence characterizing the A essay.

January 16: Course introduction, avoiding plagiarism, MLA style, how to read poetry. January 23: Introduction to Blake. Assigned reading: Blakes Poetry and Designs (BPD) Preface; Introduction; Comments by Contemporaries; Viscomi, Blakes Relief Etching Process January 30 BPD: All R eligions Are One; There is No Natural Religion; Songs of Innocence and of Experience; Frye, Blakes Treatment of the Archetype February 6 BPD: The Book of Thel; Visions of the Daughters of Albion; Ostriker, Blake and Sexuality; Wright, How Different the W orld February 13 The Marriage of Heaven and Hell; Nurmi, On The Marriage of Heaven and Hell February 20 America a Prophecy; Europe a Prophecy ; Makdisi, Fierce Rushing February 27 The [First] Book of Urizen; Eaves, The Title Page. . . March 5 Midterm Exam March 7 Midterm grades due March 12 Spring break, no class March 19 Introduction to B yron. Assigned reading: Byrons Poetry and Prose (BPP) Introduction; Nineteenth-Century Responses through Jeffrey March 23 Last day to withdraw March 26 Poetry Part 1 through Childe Harold Canto 1; Reiman, Byron and The Other April 2 Poetry Part 2; Butler, Orientalism April 9 Poetry Part 3 except for Manfred; Franklin, Soulless Toy April 16 Manfred; Manning, Manfred April 23 Don Juan through Canto 1; Chandler, Moral Mechanics

Grade of C: Average The average college-level paper will receive a grade of C. This paper is w ritten w ell enough to be easy to follow, but could benefit from some restructuring o r additional paragraphs. It meets minimum assignment requirements for research and other elements and integrates sources correctly following the most basic requirements of the

assigned documentation style; in-text citations are clearly keyed to the references, bibliography, or works cited page. It demonstrates basic reading comprehension of both primary and secondary sources. It may have some minor punctuation, capitalization, grammatical, or spelling errors or some use of informal language but is generally appropriate and correct. Grade of D: Below Average The D paper is deficient in one or more of the following areas: structure/organization, research, reading comprehension, documentation, word choice, grammar, or punctuation, capitalization, or spelling. The grade of D indicates below- average achievement in organizing ideas, expressing ideas, understanding sources, writing correctly, or following documentation style. Most D papers contain serious errors in usage and fail to present a central thesis or to develop it adequately. These essay standards summarize the Writing Intensive Class rubric created by Dr. Jim Rovira and Dr. Sherry Truffin in the Summer of 2011. The rubric itself is on eCollege and integrated into turnitin.com and will be used to score your papers.


Tiffin University School of Arts and Sciences Spring 2012

Grade Scale
A A- B+ B B- C+ C C- D+ D D- F 93-100 90-92 87-89 83-86 80-82 77-79 73-76 70-72 67-69 63-66 60-62 59 or below
Invest in this class. In doing so, you w ill invest in yourself in your knowledge of the world, of people, of language, of history, of art, and of imagination.

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