Literature 127

Introduction to Fiction

On-Line

"Fiction is like a spider’s web, attached ever so lightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners. Often the attachment is scarcely perceptible." 

- Virginia Woolf

Overview

The work in this course is divided into three main components: discussion posts, papers, and exams.  These are weighted accordingly:

Very Important Note:

In order to successfully complete the course, you must complete all major assignments.  Failure to complete ALL of the papers and exams and AT LEAST 70% of the discussion posts will result in FAILURE of the course regardless of mathematical outcome. In other words, if you do not complete one of the papers or exams or miss more than 30% of the posts, you will receive an F in the course no matter your average

Discussion Posts

Each week, you will be assigned readings, either short stories or sections of the novel.  For these readings, you will be given discussion prompts.  Specific directions will be given for each prompt.

In Weeks 1-8, you will be assigned between four short stories, depending on the length of the stories.  You will be required to:

• Answer a discussion prompt for three of those short stories.

• Respond to the posts made by your fellow group members (three responses).  Disagree, challenge, expand on what they said.

These two sets of posts will have separate deadlines.

In Weeks 9-15 (Week 16 has its own issues), you will be assigned sections of the novels and provided with discussion prompts.  You will be required to:

• Answer three discussion prompts.

• Respond to three posts made by your fellow group members.

These posts will not be terribly lengthy - a paragraph of 5-10 sentences will suffice for most.  You are certainly free to write more, of course.

Posts will be graded according to the quality of response: 

• insight into the work and the topic, 

• the use of specific points in the text to support contentions, 

• responsiveness to either the topic or the post (that is, responses to your group members' posts will be graded in part by how much you actually respond to what they wrote).  

• just to give you a baseline, posts should be at least 4 sentences long.

Other criteria include:

•  mechanics (grammar and spelling - your posts don't need to be perfect, but they need to be comprehendible)

• following directions (posting in the correct Conference with the correct heading, etc)

Please note that you are always free to post more than the required minimum if you find yourself engaged in the discussion.  Although no specific extra credit value will be given, this would be one factor that might tip that balance should your final grade be on the borderline.

Special Note: In any class where response to others' posts are required, we run into an obvious problem: what do you do if one (or more) group members does not post in time?  Clearly, it's not fair to penalize you for his/her failure to post.  So, should one (or more) of your group members fail to post by the deadline, simply respond to a second post by another group member.  As long as at least one other person posts, you will have enough to respond to to fulfill the requirement.

Papers

You will be writing three papers of approximately 5 pages each.  Specifics for these assignments will be posted to the papers page.

Exams

We will have two exams: a midterm and a final.  For obvious reasons, these will be "open book."  Therefore, they will not ask for the repetition of facts, but for you to apply the concepts of literary discussion to the works covered in class in the form of short answer and essay questions.  

Questions will be posted on the exam page four days before the exam deadline.  Your answers should be submitted privately to me via email.  Format and submission requirements will be posted with the exams themselves.

Grading Scale

Final grades will be calculated according to a 100 point scale by percentage.  Grade percentages are:

Final Grade Breakdown by Percentage: