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ENGL H1204 |
Index#: 6122 |
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Office Hours: 12:30-1:30 T TH & by appt. |
Office: Williams 216 |
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(540) 231-7797 |
Class time: 3:30-4:45 T-TH |
Classrooms: Williams 220/221 |
This syllabus is on the Web at
http://ebbs.english.vt.edu/exper/mosser/classes/1204.f99/1204.html
Watch for updates...
The primary aim of this course is to help you become proficient (or aware of already-existing proficiencies) in the processes of critical thinking, reading, and writing. Throughout the course, these processes will be foregrounded in order to make you self-conscious (in a positive sense) of how and why you do certain things when you read and write. In part, this will result from examining how other writers do these things. Thus, while we will be reading for content, we will also be observing and discussing the structures and methods (the writer's tools) employed by each writer to achieve explicit and implicit aims and purposes.
We will use this course to explore the nature of seeing and the seeing of nature, with particular emphasis on the sense of "Inhabiting Place." The texts provide us with various models for exploring the natural world and the ways in which humans use, relate to, inhabit, impact, and/or separate ourselves from that world.
We will make a committed use of available technologies to explore the ways in which they can help us (or not) to achieve these aims.
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A précis (10 points); two essays @ 15 points; and a third @ 20 points) |
60%
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Small Group Research Project |
15%
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Class discussion |
10%
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Final exam |
15%
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The Virginia Tech Honor System applies to all activities in this course. [What is Plagiarism?]
[Available from the Tech Bookstore / 118 S. Main St. / 552-6444]
Web Tools
- Environmental Organization Web Directory
- Search Tools (including citation and formatting guides for research papers)
- Class e-mail list: 1204.99@ebbs.english.vt.edu (class subscribers only)
- Hypertext Webster's Dictionary
- Oxford English Dictionary, online (internal--VIVA--users only)
- Online English Grammar
- Virginia Tech Library Catalogues & Databases
- Constituents of a thesis
- Methods of and Purposes for writing ( "Persuasive Appeals")
- FAQs: Frequently asked questions and clarifications on my comments on your essays...
- MLA Style Sheet
English H1204 Schedule
[Revised 10/14/99]
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Tuesday, August 24 |
Intro. to course & CIC |
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Thursday, August 26 |
pp. 506-509 in LATE, "Reading for Meaning"; "Getting Ready for Class Discussion"; Gelernter, "In Rats We Trust" (handout); Gary Snyder, excerpt from "The Etiquette of Freedom"; "Song of the Taste," LATE, 14-16 (more on Snyder) |
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Tuesday, August 31 |
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Thursday, September 2 |
Thoreau, "Solitude" (LATE, pp. 48-52) |
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Tuesday, September 7 |
Précis due by Midnight; work in CIC |
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Thursday, September 9 |
Rogers, "Knot" (LATE, p. 61); "Inhabiting Place" (LATE, pp. 163-165); Rexroth, "Incarnation" (LATE, pp. 166-168); Hughes, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" (LATE, pp. 168-169) |
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Tuesday, September 14 |
LATE, pp. 504-506; 509-520 ("Writing about Literature and Culture); work in CIC on Essay 1 |
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Thursday, September 16 |
Kingsolver, "The Memory Place" (LATE, pp. 199-204); Limbaugh, "The Environmental Mindset" (LATE, pp. 439-442); Stegner, "Wilderness Letter" (LATE, pp. 443-447); Bass, "On Willow Creek" (LATE, pp. 249-258) |
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Friday, September 17 |
Draft of Essay 1 posted to the class list by Midnight. |
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Monday, September 20 |
Peer Evaluations of Essay 1 posted to Mosser & authors by Midnight. |
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Tuesday, September 21 |
Finish final drafts of Essay 1 & mail to Mosser by Midnight |
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Thursday, September 23 |
Jerry Mander, "The Walling of Awareness" (LATE, pp. 205-214); Hooks, "Touching the Earth" (LATE, pp. 169-173) |
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Tuesday, September 28 |
Work on Essay 2 |
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Thursday, September 30 |
Berry, "A Good Scythe" (LATE, pp. 389-392); Lewis, "On Human Connectedness with Nature" (LATE, pp. 392-401); Kittredge, "A Second Chance at Paradise" (LATE, pp. 284-290) |
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Tuesday, October 5 |
Work on Essay 2/Research Project |
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Thursday, October 7 |
Kaufman, "Confessions of a Developer" (LATE, pp. 413-422); Bingham, "A Woman's Land" (LATE, pp. 424-427); Meadows, "Living Lightly and Consistently on the Land" (LATE, pp. 377-380); Abbey, "Eco-Defense" (LATE, pp. 344-347) |
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Tuesday, October 12 |
Essay 2 due by Midnight |
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Thursday, October 14 |
Williams, "The Clan of the One-Breasted Women" (LATE, pp. 347-352); Meloy, "The Flora and Fauna of Las Vegas" (LATE, pp. 240-249) |
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Tuesday, October 19 |
Work on Essay 3 /Research Project |
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Thursday, October 21 |
Sáenz, "Exile, El Paso, Texas" (LATE, pp. 309-316); Daniel, "A Word in Favor of Rootlessness" (LATE, pp. 259-264); Berry, "Stay Home" (LATE, pp. 222-223) |
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Tuesday, October 26 |
Work on Essay 3 / Research Project |
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Thursday, October 28 |
Dodge, "Living by Life" (LATE, pp. 230-238); Polsgrove, "On a Scrap of Land in Henry County" (LATE, pp. 223-229); Estés, "La Mariposa, Butterfly Woman" (LATE, pp. 17-21) |
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Tuesday, November 2 |
Work on Research Project /Essay 3 |
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Thursday, November 4 |
Kerouac, "Alone on a Mountaintop" (LATE, pp. 191-199); Houston, "Blizzard Under a Blue Sky" (LATE, pp. 184-188); Dillard, "Living Like Weasels" (LATE, pp. 4-7) |
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Tuesday, November 9 |
Essay 3 due by Midnight |
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Thursday, November 11 |
Roszak, "'Take This Job and Shove It" (LATE, pp. 367-371; Durning, "The Conundrum of Consumption" (LATE, pp. 371-376); Traven, "Assembly Line" (LATE, pp. 356-365) |
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Tuesday, November 16 |
Work on Research Project; Research Project Due by 5 PM |
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Thursday, November 18 |
T.B.A. |
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Saturday, Nov. 20-Sunday Nov. 28 |
Thanksgiving Break |
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Tuesday, November 30 |
T.B.A. |
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Thursday, December 2 |
T.B.A. |
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Tuesday, December 7 |
Last Day of Classes |
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Thursday, December 16, 1:05-3:05 PM |
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