ENG 211, American Literature I		Fall Semester
Dr. Reilly	Office: Parkhouse 441	Phone: 215-641-6371
		Radio Snow #: 320

Office Hours:	Mon, Wed, Fri	7:30-7:50 a.m.
	Mon, Wed, Fri	12:30-1:20 p.m.
	Mon, Wed	3-3:15 p.m.
	Other times, including Tues, by appointment. Please phone during normal office hours (see above).

TEXTS: Norton Anthology of American Lit, Volume I, 8^th ed, $38. Hawthorne's Blithedale Romance (Norton paperback), c. $6.

ATTENDANCE is a course requirement.  I permit no absences and urge you to attend every class. If you miss a fourth class: you cannot get an "A," will need at least one "B+" on an essay for a "B," will need at least one "C+" on an essay for a "C." If you received a "D" or "F" on the first essay and miss a fourth class, you have failed the course. If you miss a fifth class, you have failed the course.

PREPARATION is also required. Count on a quiz (PQ) each week, a quiz based on the week's reading. Your composite quiz grade will constitute 25% of your final grade. Quizzes are announced in advance on the syllabus. If you miss a quiz, you may make it up only by seeing me in advance before you return to class. Stopping me in the hallways 30 seconds before class does not constitute "seeing me in advance." Stopping by my office a full ten minutes before a class, any MWF class, or during office hours is fully acceptable.

TAKE-HOME PAPERS (there are two) must be turned in on time. Grades for late papers will be lowered for each day (not class-day) the paper is late; weekends count double. Please note that paper should be turned in, not emailed in (my experience with missing paragraphs, disappeared paragraph breaks and unprintable attachments has been dismal). If it's an emergency and you must email, the paper is automatically late.

DISAPPEARANCE will be disastrous. If you "vanish" at some point during the semester, be advised I shall not sign a Withdrawal Form after mid-term.

LATE ARRIVALS, though occasionally unavoidable, must be kept to a minimum. If you arrive after roll has been taken, you are late and must see me after class to be sure you are not marked absent. After your third late arrival, each subsequent late arrival counts as an absence (see "Attendance," above).

PLAGIARISM is strictly forbidden and can cause you to fail the course. If you plagiarize once, you will receive an "F" on the assignment in question. If you plagiarize a second time, you have failed the course.

YOUR FINAL GRADE: Paper #1 = 371/2%. Paper #2 = 371/2%. Composite quiz grade = 25%. And, there will be a "half-a-letter" bonus for students who contribute extraordinary class contributions throughout the semester.

Since this class participates in MCCC's Honors Program, students may take it for Honors credit. In the process, they will receive an Honors scholarship (equivalent to partial tuition reimbursement). As a minimum requirement, candidates for Honors must have a G.P.A. of 3.2 or better and must have completed at least 12 credits. If you are interested, please see me during the first week.

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The Primary Goal of the course is to acquaint you with the literary history of the United States from the arrival of the first Europeans until the last third of the nineteenth century.

The Secondary Goal is to encourage you to contrast the ideas, convictions, confusions, prejudices, and passions of those early Americans with your own and your contemporaries.

Week of:

Your Assignment

9/3		Introduction
	Fri	Lecture
9/6	Mon	LABOR DAY - NO CLASS
	Wed	No quiz on "Iroquois" 54-57
	Fri	Quiz on "A Trial for Adultery" (last page of handout) and Smith 106-13; and, extra credit quiz on "One Mrs. Hutchinson" (bottom of 227 to 232).
		When reading Smith, begin with "Being but six or seven" (Smith sets out to obtain food for his starving men and does so with only six or seven companions). And, note that the narrator, Cpt. John Smith, refers to himself in the third-person. In other words, when the narrator says "Smith said" or the "Captain said," he is referring to himself.
		No quiz on Rowlandson 298-309, Byrd 426-28, Edwards 479-81, Bradstreet 268-71 & 278-79, and Ballads. Start reading Scarlet Letter (begin on p. 1331)
9/13	Mon	Quiz on "Bridget Bishop" (handout), Bradford (on "Morton") 187-90 and Morton's "XV" 210-13. When reading Bradford and Morton's "essays," please be patient with the stuffy and often confusing prose. Rather, concentrate on the differences between the two author's rendering of the same event.
	Wed	Quiz on Hawthorne's "Maypole" 1245-52
	Fri	Catch-up on Bradstreet and Rowlandson. Keep reading Scarlet Letter (1331 ff.)
9/20	Mon	Quiz on "Goodman" 1236 and "Minister's" 1252. Friday, 12:15 p.m., all Honors students meet in PH 331.
9/27		MAJOR QUIZ on The Scarlet Letter (counts as three quizzes; extra credit possible). Note: begin reading on p. 1331, not on any earlier page.
10/4	Mon	Quiz on "Custom House": Read from 1309 ("This old town") to 1311, and read from 1321 to 1324 (stop at "This incident"). If we have time, we'll watch a film of The Scarlet Letter.
	Wed	Quiz on Rip 936 and Kinsman 1223
10/11	Mon	No quiz this week. Finish "Kinsman" and lecture on quoting and documentation. Then, discussion of:
		-Franklin, Crevcouer, Freneau, Paine, and Jefferson; -Ballads of the American Revolution and some early-nineteenth century traditional songs (handouts)
10/18	Mon	Turn in paper #1; continue ballads.
	Wed	Begin "Negro Spirituals" (handout). Please start reading Blithedale..
10/25	Mon	Extra credit week. No quiz on Douglass 2000-06 and 2010-11, Crevcouer 641 and 648 and Wheatley 825. You must show up for either Wed or Fri (although you may show up for both).
	Wed	Voluntary quiz (worth two extra credit questions) on Melville's "Benito Cereno" 2372.
	Fri	Voluntary quiz on Roger Malvin's Burial (handout)-worth two extra credit questions. Please keep readingBlithedale.
11/1	Mon	Poe week. No quiz on Poe's various Ravens (1492)
	Wed	Quiz on Usher 1508 and Ligeia 1499. Keep reading Blithedale
11/8	Mon	No quiz on Emerson and Thoreau
	Fri	MAJOR QUIZ on The Blithedale Romance [counts as three quizzes; extra credit possible]
11/15	Mon	Honors students' oral reports, and continue Blithedale
	Wed	Blithedale
	Fri	Easy quiz on Whitman: skim 2080-81; 2084-85; 2096-99; 2101; 2104-05; 2130 (bottom "I do not despise you" to 2133; 2136 (middle "I have said that the soul") to 2138.
11/22		Begin Dickinson (no quiz) and Honors papers due on Monday
11/29	Mon	Easy quiz on three Dickinson poems. The poems begin on p. 2491. Pick any three of the following numbered-poems:
		49, 67, 131, 185, 214, 241, 249, 258, 280, 303, 314, 315, 324, 328, 341, 435, 441, 449, 465, 501, 536, 712, 986, 1078, 1540, 1545, 1624, 1732
12/6		Finish Dickinson. Listen to some Traditional American l9th Century ballads. If there is time, well see a portion of the film, Belle of Amherst.
12/13	Mon	Counseling

Thursday 12/16/98: turn in Paper #2; slide it under the door of Parkhouse 441.

Papers accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope will be mailed back within ten or so days of the papers due date. Unaccompanied papers will be saved until the last day of the next semester, whereupon they will be thrown out.