ENG 2100 Writing about Literature: Introduction to Poetry

Instructor: Ruth Haller Class Time: Mon/Wed 5:30-7:05 PM Class Location: State Hall 0129 Office: 5057 Woodward E-mail: ruth.haller@wayne.edu Office Hours: Mon/Wed 4:30-5:30 PM Description: This course serves as an introduction to varying techniques and forms of poetry through critical reading of, and writing about, poems of various types and from several periods. We will be reading specifically British and American poetry ranging from the early modern period to present times. The poetry we encounter will deal specifically with the concept of love; we will be using the three Greek conceptions of love, eros, philos, and agape, (loosely translated, erotic, friendship, and divine love) as a theme to guide our study. We will make connections between thoughts and conceptions of love throughout the centuries. Our goal for this class is to come to learn how to conduct close readings of poetic texts, and to subsequently analyze them in organized and structured essay form. Another aim is to learn how to research topics within the field of literature. Students will be expected to write analytical blogs, take quizzes, participate in writing workshops, contribute to class discussion, and complete four major writing projects. Note on Spring/Summer Term The spring/summer term is a few weeks shorter than a normal semester, but we will be covering the same amount of material and assignments as we would in the Fall or Winter terms. Please be aware that this means a higher concentration of work in a shorter amount of time. Please make sure you are up for the challenge! Methods of Instruction: This section of ENG 2100 is a discussion-based course. All students are expected to read all of the assigned texts for each class session and come fully prepared to discuss them with the instructor and their peers. The course website, www.introtopoetry.weebly.com, will provide up-to-date information about the class and assignments.

Learning Outcomes: By the end of this class, you should be able to Identify and understand various poetic devices, forms, methods, movements, and sub-genres within the broader genre of poetry Critically read and analyze poetic texts

Write about poetry analytically, argumentatively, and persuasively using researched primary and secondary sources Required Texts: Ferguson, Margaret, Mary Jo Salter, & Jon Stallworthy. The Norton Anthology of Poetry, Shorter Fifth Edition. Norton, 2005. Grade Scale: A: 94-100% / A-: 90-93% / B+: 87-89% / B: 84-86% / B-: 80-83% / C+: 77-79% / C: 74-76% / C-: 70-73% / D+: 67-69% / D: 64-66% / D-: 60-63% / F: 59% or less *NOTE: Per the (IC) requirement for this course, you need to earn a C or better to pass this class.

Point Breakdown: Attendance and Participation - 25 Quizzes 25 (5 each) Blog Entries 100 (10 each) Annotation Analysis 25 (5 each) Close-Reading (single text) 50 Comparison Essay 75 Researched Argument Essay - 100 Poetry Re-Write Project - 100 TOTAL POINTS 500

Attendance and Participation: Students are expected to ideally be in class every session. However, students have 3 unpenalized absences at their disposal for the semester. The fourth absence will take 5 points away from the final grade, and the fifth absence will take 10 points. A sixth absence will result in failure of the class, no exceptions. Please be aware that the work we do in every class session is very important to your success in the class! If you do miss a day, please do not email me and ask me what we did in class. The class schedule gives this information and if you want details, please ask a fellow student. However, if you miss class, assignments are still due on their due dates! Everything is submitted electronically except for quizzes, which cannot be made up. Quizzes: Throughout the course of the semester, students will take five pop-quizzes. These quizzes are designed to be brief assessments of the students familiarity with the reading material for that day. Quizzes will take place at the beginning of class and students will have 10 minutes to complete them. Missed quizzes may not be made up. Blog Entries: Students are expected to maintain blogs for the semester, using platforms such as Wordpress, Blogger, or Weebly. These posts should be 400-600 words and should focus on one aspect of a poem read for the next class. The best responses will be mini-exercises in the art of analyzing literature: identifying the main theme of a poem, analyzing a line in-depth, or parsing literary devices like similes, metaphors, or alliteration, and explaining the significance of these to the poem. Please do not use the blogs just to summarizethis will result in a deduction of points. Please email me a link to your blog by Friday, May 9. The links to all student blogs will be posted on the course website. You must write and post 10 blog entries throughout the course of a semester, and they are due by noon on the day of class. Each blog entry is worth 10 points. Annotation Analysis: At five different points throughout the semester (for a class session for which you did NOT write a blog posts), you will post a picture or screen-shot of a poem you read for that class session with your own original annotation/marginalia. You must also provide a brief 100250 word analysis of your annotation, describing what you wrote on the poem or in the margins and how this may have helped you close-read the poem more efficiently. By posting these annotations and analyzing them, the goal is for you to better understand your own reading process. Feel free to take a look at your fellow students annotations, too, to glean reading methodology from them, as well! These posts are due to the class blog at noon on the day of class. Each annotation analysis is worth 5 points. Close Reading: For this essay, you will need to choose a poem that we did not discuss in class (I will provide a list for you to choose from) and conduct an explication of that poem. This essay should include an introduction and thesis, a detailed analysis of the poem with lots of evidence from the text, itself, and topic sentences for each paragraph (basically, your body paragraphs should follow the claim/evidence/analysis pattern), and a conclusion. The best explications will examine one or more (but not all) of the following aspects of poetry: speaker, tone, imagery, meter, rhyme, sound devices (repetition, alliteration, etc), form, and/or word choice. You should not consult or utilize any outside sources for this essay except for the Oxford English Dictionary, in the case that you need to look up a familiar word, or a familiar word that is being used in an unfamiliar way. This essay should be 4-5 double-spaced pages. It is due on May 21 and is worth 50 points.

Comparison Essay: For this essay, you may write on one poem we discussed in class and one poem we did not discuss in class (I will provide a list for you to choose from). You may choose poems from different periods with similar themes or poems from the same period with similar themes. Your goal will be to read these poems against each other, noting significant similarities and/or differences in no more than 3 of the following poetic elements: speaker, tone, imagery, meter, rhyme, sound devices (repetition, alliteration, etc), form, and/or word choice. Your comparative analysis should make an overarching claim that unites all of the different aspects of the poems you will discuss. You should not consult or utilize any outside sources for this essay except for the Oxford English Dictionary, in the case that you need to look up a familiar word, or a familiar word that is being used in an unfamiliar way. This essay should be 6-8 double-spaced pages. It is due on June 9 and is worth 75 points. Researched Argument Essay: For this essay, you may either write on 2 shorter poems or one longer poem (30 lines or more). No poem you choose should be ones we discussed in class this semester. You should make a claim about the text(s) you are analyzing and support this claim by using your reading of the poem(s) and with 3 secondary sources. As we will discuss in class, your secondary sources should consist of peer-reviewed journal articles, scholarly books, and reference books (no more than one of these). As usual, you may consult and cite the Oxford English Dictionary, but this does not count as one of your sources for this paper. This essay should be 6-8 double-spaced pages. It is due on July 7 and is worth 100 points. We will be holding a roughdraft workshop for this paper in-class on July 2. Poetry Re-Write Project: This assignment serves as the capstone project for this course and will give you the opportunity to engage with a poem you read this semester both creatively and analytically. This assignment will be completed in 3 different steps: 1.) Close-read the poem (minimum 5 pages), 2.) Re-write the poem for a different period or cultural context, and 3.) Compose a rationale which analyzes the choices you made in your transitioning of the poem (minimum 3 pages). This essay should not use outside sources other than the OED, and should be a minimum of 8 pages (not including the re-written poem). It is due on the date of your final exam (TBD) and is worth 100 points. We will hold a digital rough-draft workshop for this project on July 23.

Course Policies and Information Late work: My time is important to me, just as yours is to you, and I dont have a lot of it. In light of this, the following policies are in place. Students must contact me 48 hours in advance if major projects cannot be submitted by the due date. No points will be taken off provided you have contacted me 48 hours before the due date/time. This allowance will only be made ONCE per student. Otherwise, I will determine specific grade reductions based on timely prior notification, whether revised deadlines are met, and similar factors. In general, for every day the final draft of a major project is late, it loses an entire letter grade (10%). Blog posts and annotation

analyses do not have set due dates, you just need to make sure you complete the allotted number by the end of the semester. Quizzes may not be made up. Writing Center (WRT ZONE): The Writing Center (2nd floor, UGL) provides individual tutoring consultations free of charge for students at Wayne State University. Undergraduate students in General Education courses, including composition courses, receive priority for tutoring appointments. The Writing Center serves as a resource for writers, providing tutoring sessions on the range of activities in the writing process considering the audience, analyzing the assignment or genre, brainstorming, researching, writing drafts, revising, editing, and preparing documentation. The Writing Center is *not* an editing or proofreading service; rather, students are guided as they engage collaboratively in the process of academic writing, from developing an idea to editing for grammar and mechanics. To make an appointment, consult the Writing Center website: http://www.clas.wayne.edu/writing/ . To submit material for online tutoring, consult the Online Writing Center at http://clasweb.clas.wayne.edu/writing/OnlineWritingCenter. For more information about the Writing Center, please contact the Director, Jule Wallis (phone: 7-2544; email: au1145@wayne.edu). Withdrawals: The last day to withdraw is Sunday, July 13. Withdrawals can seriously impact your financial aid and progress toward degree completion. Consider carefully before making the decision to withdraw from this course. Incompletes: The mark of IIncomplete, is given to either an undergraduate or a graduate student when he/she has not completed all of the course work as planned for the term and when there is, in the judgment of the instructor, a reasonable probability that the student can complete the course successfully without again attending regular class sessions. The student should be passing at the time the grade of I is given. A written contract specifying the work to be completed should be signed by the student and instructor. Responsibility for completing all course work rests with the student (2013-201 WSU Undergraduate Bulletin, 75). Student Disability: If you feel that you may need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability, please feel free to contact me privately to discuss your specific needs. Additionally, the Student Disabilities Services Office coordinates reasonable accommodations for students with documented disabilities. The Office is located in 1600 David Adamany Undergraduate Library, phone: 313577-1851/577-3365 (TTY). http://studentdisability.wayne.edu Plagiarism Policy:

Plagiarism is the act of copying work from books, articles, and websites without citing and documenting the source. Plagiarism includes copying language, texts, and visuals without citation (e.g., cutting and pasting from websites). Plagiarism also includes submitting papers (or sections of papers) that were written by another person, including another student, or downloaded from the Internet. Plagiarism is a serious academic offense. One instance of plagiarism, no matter how small, will result in an F for that piece of written work. A second instance of plagiarism will result in failure of the course. Instructors are required to report all cases of plagiarism to the English Department.