Course Syllabus

Instructor: Mark Crane

Office: LC 223a

Hours: 12-12:50 p.m., MWF

Reading Schedule

Surveys American essays, letters, biographies, fiction, drama, and poetry from 1865 to the present.  Studies literature as a reaction to American and world events and to the general condition of the American people through discussion, lecture, videos, and writing.

All assignments must be submitted electronically to http://canvas.instructure.com

Emailed attachments do not fulfill the submission requirement.  Assignments must be submitted in a format that I can read: Microsoft Word, Open Office, Rich Text Format, HTML, PDF or Apple's Pages.

Late work: Reading responses will not be accepted if they are late. Two-page papers lose 15% for each day they are late.

Reading responses: I will provide response prompts.  Your responses should show that you read the assignment, and may include your thoughts and feelings about the text, relevance to daily life or culture, comparisons to other texts in the course or your life, or other useful insights.  They should not exceed 250 words in length unless they are especially awesome. Images may be included.  You may respond in the form of a link to a Youtube video but it should not exceed three minutes in length, unless, of course, it is especially awesome.

Two-page response papers: These are 500 words in length and are due each Friday at 5:00 p.m. Each paper should explore a topic we have raised in class and cite examples from the texts we are reading that week.  They will be graded on their insights, proper use of examples from our texts, coherence, critical thinking and prose style.

Class participation: I expect you to have completed the reading and to participate regularly in our class discussions.  I also expect you to be a decent human being, which includes not making derogatory statements about participants or lobbing unsupported, obnoxious comments at the students or instructor.  If you have complaints about the instructor, the course, or other students, please contact me outside of class, as opposed to engaging in sarcastic comments, heavy sighing, eye-rolling or other dramatic gestures.  Actively hurting the learning environment in the course will destroy your grade.

Final exam: The final will consist of three open essay questions and 20 identification questions.  Failure to complete the reading during the semester will hurt you in this regard.

"Students who need accommodations because of a disability should contact the UVU Accessibility Services Department (ASD), located on the Orem Campus, in LC 312. To schedule an appointment, or speak with a counselor, call the ASD office at 801-863-8747, or for Deaf/Hard of Hearing individuals, use the video phone number, 886-760-1819."

No, seriously--if you think you might have a learning disability or other disability, please get tested while you are a student.  It is exponentially cheaper than the private sector and can be incredibly helpful.