English 309.01
Mary Adams, Instructor
TR 11-12:15 Coulter 304
About this course
This course is designed to improve your poetry. Sometimes,
that means learning about things you're not interested in,
and always, it means reading a lot of work by other people.
We will learn to think about four levels of poetry (typographic,
sonic, sensory, ideational) and will develop a vocabulary
to talk about writing, reading, experiencing, and improving
poems.
Learning Outcomes
At the end of this course, you should have developed or improved
the following skills, which will be measured by your grades
in class assignments:
- Understanding of rudimentary poetic meter and form
- Critical vocabulary for analyzing and workshopping original
work
- Ability to work in a range of structured and free forms
- Knowledge of current practices by contemporary American
poets
You will also gain resources for continuing to write, publish,
and get support beyond the classroom.
Texts:
- Rental: Bishop, Wendy. Thirteen Ways of Lookng at
a Poem. 6th Edition. 0321011309.
- Purchase: Gwnn, R.S et al. Contemporary American Poetry.
Longman 2005. ISBN 0321182420.
- Lux, Thomas. Selected Poems.
Assignments:
- Poems
- Structured Assignment Poems (5) 20%
- Other Poems (5) 20%
- Other Assignments
- Critical
Paper 15%. Topic choices
- Critical Analysis of 2 books by a Modern Poet
from text (5-7 page paper) and presentation
- a formal study (comparative paper, with research,
of several poets who use the same form).
- Midterm (on poetry terms, rhyming, and Thomas Lux
10%
- Reading sheets (15%)
- Participation (in class and in online workshopping)
10%
- Class Portfolio (Final exam) 10%
Policies:
- Workshopping: After the first week, half the students
will post their poems for workshopping. Three of those students
will subject their poems to more intensive in-class workshopping.
The following week, the other half of the students will
workshop. We will continue until everyone has workshopped
in class, and then we will repeat the cycle.
Students will post their poems online for the class by Wednesday
evening. The three whose poems are to be workshopped in
class will also email me a copy of the poem by Wednesday
evening. The poems should be typed in Word. I won't accept
handwritten poems without titles, and I won't accept poems
copied into the email. Each student will probably have 4
poems workshopped during the semester.
Peers should have one week to respond to the poems online.
You should use the same general vocabulary we use in class
to talk about poems online.
All poems should be posted anonymously. Workshoppers, however,
must sign their names. All students posting online or in
class should send me a copy of the poem, in Word, with their
name on it.
- In workshopping, we follow a prescribed format. It is
important for us to help each other, but we must always
also be respectful of each other's work.
- Handing in Assignments in PC Format (MS Word or RTF preferred).
Use the class web page to email me your poems. This means
that all poems have to be typed on computer in PC format.
- Grading: I use a plus/minus grading scale, but I don't
grade individual poems. Students who do all poems (5 formal,
5other) will receive at least a B unless they do not do
the assignment or are plagiarized (see below); poems that
evince extraordinary effort or skill will receive an A.
All other written assignments will be graded like other
English papers.
- Poem assigments and deadlines: You must write 10 poems
in this class. At least three of those are required (**),
and at least five of the poems must be written in form(*).
With the others, you can choose to write on the topic or
mode we discuss in class, or you can choose to write something
else. But you must hand in a poem on the prescribed day.
I will not accept poems in your final portfolio unless I
have seen them during the semester.
- Plagiarism: Plagiarism is the inaccurate or unacknowledged
use of another's material. One plagiarized assignment will
result in a 0 for the assignment; a second instance will
result in failure of the course and may result in legal
action.
- The university's policy can be found in the faculty
handbook.
The university
procedure includes the following language:
"Instructors have the right to determine the
appropriate sanction or sanctions for academic dishonesty
within their courses up to and including a final grade
of "F" in the course. Within 5 calendar
days of the event, the instructor will inform his
or her department head in writing of the academic
dishonesty charge and sanction."
- Attendance: After THREE absences, your final grade will
be dropped one letter for each additional absence. It doesn't
matter if your absences are excused or not, so please budget
carefully. Extreme or extensive tardiness could count as
an absence. PS: Attendance is counted in participation grade,
too.
Other Required Information
WCU Statement on Accommodations for students with disabilities:
Western Carolina University is committed to providing
equal educational opportunities for students with documented
disabilities. Students who require disability services or
reasonable accommodations must identify themselves as having
a disability and provide current diagnostic documentation
to Disability Services. All information is confidential.
Please contact Kimberly Marcus for more information. Phone:
(828) 227-7234; E-mail:kmarcus@email.wcu.edu.
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