Semester:
Spring
Department: English
Title: Special Topics
Instructor: Dr. Nancy Moose
Course Number: ENGL 292
Office/Phone: Beadle 111/605
256-5269
Credit Hours: 1-4
E-Mail: Nancy.Moose@dsu.edu
Catalog Description: Advanced study of an aspect of language or literature. This course does not meet general education literature requirements.
Prerequisites: ENGL 101 Composition is prerequisite to all ENGL classes above the 100 level.
Aims and Objectives: This course provides the students with the opportunity to visit Great Britain and view first hand the places where selected British authors lived and carried out their work. They will also experience those locales that influenced those writers. To physically be in the same area as the particular authors who are being studied can provide the student with a sense of making literature a worthwhile part of their education and of their everyday lives.
The student will be able to:
1) identify specific geographic locations with the author who lived there or who wrote about it.
2) recognize the universal appeals and similarities of human beings across time and culture.
3) understand the diverse issues created by the nature of the culture of Great Britain.
4) compose a statement of theme and write a paper supporting it based on their experience in visiting another country/culture.
5) make assumptions about the authors based on the student’s knowledge of the authors’ physical locations in time and space.
Grading Procedure:
For one credit hour:
A detailed daily journal of the trip including travel days--------------------------------50%
A final essay exam-------------------------------------------------------------------------------50%
For two credit hours:
A daily journal of the trip including travel days--------------------------------30%
An essay over the assigned short stories--------------------------------------30%
A final essay
exam--------------------------------------------------------------------40%
For three credit hours:
A daily journal of the trip including travel days--------------------------------20%
An essay over the assigned short stories--------------------------------------20%
An essay over the assigned novel/play----------------------------------------20%
A final essay exam-------------------------------------------------------------------40%
For four credit hours (this option is only available to students taking a foreign language):
A daily journal of the trip including travel days--------------------------------20%
An essay over the assigned short stories--------------------------------------20%
An essay over the assigned novel/play----------------------------------------20%
An essay over the assigned poetry---------------------------------------------20%
A final essay exam-------------------------------------------------------------------20%
Method of Delivery: Students taking the course for two or three credits will be expected to participate and react to the various reading selections. Both large group and small group discussion will be part of the class format. The course will culminate in a tour of Great Britain to include trips to London, Canterbury, York, Edinburgh, and Paris.
Text: Students will read a variety of selections by British authors which will be held on reserve in the Karl E. Mundt Library.
ADA: Dakota State University adheres to the policies set forth in the Americans with Disabilities Act. Students with disabilities that may affect their performance in this course should privately contact the instructor about any arrangements needed to accommodate them.
Evaluation: Primary evaluation will come from attendance and active participation in all aspects of the tour as well as from class attendance and the journal and essays.
Introduction to the class and expectations (Required for all participants).
Poetry of Robert Burns and James Herriot’s short stories (Required for those taking the course for 2-3 credits).
Dickens “A Christmas Carol” (Required for those taking the course for 2-3 credits).
Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” (Required for those taking the course for 2-3 credits).
Shakespeare’s MacBeth (Required for those taking the course for 3-4 credits).
Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes Mysteries and Agatha Christie’s short mystery stories (Required for those taking the course for 3-4 credits).
Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility (Required for those taking the course for 3-4 credits).
Shakespeare's Hamlet (Required for those taking the course for 4 credits).
A selection of poetry by British authors (Required for those taking the course for 4 credits).
WORK TO BE HANDED IN:
one credit: Journal and Final essay
Two credits: Journal, short story essay and final essay
Three credits: Journal, short story essay, novel/play essay, and final essayFour credits: Journal, short story essay, novel/play essay, poetry essay, and final essay