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EL 190
Introduction to Literary Study
Freshman Seminar
I. Instructor:
Dr. Dennis D. McDaniel
Office: 407 Placid Hall
Office Hours: MW, 11:00-12:00pm; TH, 10:30-11:30.
Phone: 724-805-2150
E-mail: dmcdaniel@stvincent.edu
II. Texts
DiYanni, Robert. Literature: Approaches to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 6th Ed. NY: McGraw-Hill, 2006
Harman, William, and Hugh Holman, eds. A Handbook to Literature. 10th Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, 2006.
Gibaldi, Joseph, ed. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6th Ed. NY: MLA, 2003.
III. Description:
In this course, which is designed for new English majors and other freshman with similar interest and experience in reading,
students will acquire the tools needed to study literature intensively at the college level. The course is organized around
the major genres of imaginative literature and students will learn the distinctive qualities of each of these genres, understand
and practice key critical terms and methods, and develop the reading, thinking, writing, and research skills needed to succeed
in intermediate and advanced English and Humanities courses.
This course is a Freshman Seminar: Freshman Seminars at Saint Vincent College are courses designed to make new students
feel welcomed and integrated into the SVC learning community on academic, social, and cultural levels. Through the seminar,
first-year students have the opportunity to establish a sense of camaraderie with their teachers as well as with one another,
and to focus on areas essential for success in the Saint Vincent curriculum: academic responsibility, critical thinking, and
presentation of ideas. Freshman seminars enable students to be effective learners and thinkers both in their major fields
of study and in other areas of the curriculum. To complement this experience, students participate in extracurricular events
and learn to apply their academic skills both in the classroom and in the world beyond campus. In this class, students, in
small groups, will collaborate on a production of a short film or play to be performed for or screened by the class.
IV. Objectives
Besides its own goals and that of Freshman Seminars, this course pursues many of the objectives of the Saint Vincent College
English Department and of the Saint Vincent College Core Curriculum. Students who complete this course with a “B”
grade or better should be able to perform the following tasks:
Course Goals:
• Read and interpret literary texts with a high degree of proficiency
• Distinguish among the various literary genres
• Understand and apply key literary terms to enrich students’ ability to read, interpret, and communicate
their appreciation of a literary text.
• Evaluate the quality of a literary text
• Clearly and effectively communicate--both orally and in writing--their understanding of a literary text
• Write formal, documented essays about literature with a high degree of proficiency
• Perform a college-level literary research project
• Collaborate with other students on a sophisticated task
• Learn the rudiments of filmmaking.
English Department Goals
• Become familiar with and be able to use traditional rhetorical modes
• Learn to read critically
• Understand the importance of primary texts
• Explicate primary text
• Participate in class discussion, and to synthesize and reflect
• Understand literature as an act of imagination in language
• Connect literature to "life" and develop a growing understanding and valuing of self, humanity and
diverse cultures, the human condition, and the human spirit.
Core Curriculum Goals
• Form habits of ordered inquiry, logical thinking, and critical analysis
• Develop effective communication skills
• Develop skills in reading, writing, and literature
V. Requirements
A. Five Study Guides (together, 50% of final grade). Write these Study Guides for an audience of college freshman in
order to give them a greater understanding of the formal features of a selected text. For each study guide, choose three
key, relevant, non-overlapping literary terms for the assigned text and apply each term. Draw the terms from the list of
literary terms appended to this syllabus, each of which is covered in the Handbook to Literature. For each term, write a
paragraph of no less than 150 and no more than 250 words. Begin each term-devoted paragraph with a topic sentence that provides
the main insight inspired by an application of that literary term to that text. Do not define the term, or paraphrase or
quote definitions from the Handbook or any other source. Instead, reveal your understanding of the term through your explanation,
with the assumption that readers will go to the Handbook if they want to read the definitions. Applications to the text should
cite specific, paraphrased or directly quoted passages from the literary text (but not the Handbook), and all citations must
be documented using the MLA parenthetical form. Inevitably, a discussion of one key term will involve the use of other terms
given on the list: these terms should be typed in upper case. Study Guides must be submitted on time or receive a “zero”
grade.
Study Guides will be graded on the basis of the choice of terms, the accuracy of the treatment of the term and its application,
the level of depth and insight exhibited in the application of the term to the text, and the compositional quality and mechanical
correctness of the paragraphs.
B. An Annotated Bibliography with Bibliographic Essay (30%)
An annotated bibliography is a listing of information sources including a brief statement of that source’s main
idea or purpose. A bibliographic essay draws inferences and makes comments on the data compiled in the bibliography.
Topic Choice: Compile such a bibliography and compose such an essay on a major literary work of your choice. This work
may be a novel, poem, work of prose nonfiction, or dramatic work. Though I will not demand that your choice be of a “great”
work, a canonical text is usually the most researchable.
Number and Type of Source Materials: the bibliography should consist of 25 scholarly articles on the selected literary
work. “Scholarly” delineates those works of literary criticism or critical biography written by literature
scholars and found in a book published by university press or scholarly journal published by a university or author-dedicated
society. Articles from mass-market publications are generally not acceptable. Draw articles from the most recent sources:
begin researching the present and go back in time till you reach 25 relevant articles. Only five of these articles may be
web-based (excluding full-text articles from scholarly journals found on the web); the other twenty must be articles published
in a book or scholarly journal. Primary texts may not be included.
Form of Submitted Project: the bibliography should begin with the bibliographic essay followed by the bibliography itself.
The bibliographic entries should be given in the proper bibliographic form, as dictated by The MLA Handbook. The bibliography
should be arranged alphabetically by the last name of the author or first key word of the title, if unsigned. The annotation
should follow each bibliographic entry. The entire project should be double spaced. Indent the annotation ten spaces from
the left margin. Instead of a cover page, place a heading and a title on the first page of the bibliographic entry. Paginate.
Length and Content of Annotations: Each annotation should be about 50 words long. The annotation should be your interpretation
of the article’s thesis, written in your own words. It should not be a summary or a description of the article.
To the extent that the thesis may not be easily understood by your audience, provide some clarification, but stay reasonably
within the word limit.
Length and Content of Bibliographic Essay: The bibliographic essay, as such, should be focused on a thesis, given in an
introductory paragraph, that states your impression of the state of the scholarship on this work in the time frame covered
by your bibliography. The essay should then classify the articles collected in the bibliography on the basis of subject matter,
issues addressed, or approaches taken.
Your grade for this project will be based on the composition of the Bibliographic essay, the quality of the research,
the quality of the annotations, and the correctness and adherence to the formal matters stated above.
C. Group Creative Project (20% of final grade). With a group of four other students, produce a ten-minute film or play
based on commonly known literary work, perhaps one assigned for this class. A filmed version must be burned onto a DVD;
a theatrical version must be performed on stage near the end of the semester. Groups must submit proposals, scripts, and
other materials on designated dates. At several points during the semester, “B” sessions will be devoted
to scripting, filmmaking, and film appreciation. Students' grades will be based on level and quality of participation, the
quality of the production, and the persuasiveness of self-evaluation, that each student will submit near the end of the semester.
V. Attendance
Because large and small group discussions are a crucial element of this class, your attendance is essential. Absentees
are responsible for finding out what has been done in the class they missed. I will not spend large time reteaching a class
to a student who had missed. For panel presentations and movie production, group members must meet on mutually agreed upon
dates. If a student has been reported as not attending meetings or contributing to the group’s output, I will handle
the situation through a grade penalty. Over seven class cuts, excused or unexcused, will result in an F for the course.
VI. Academic Honesty
Of course, plagiarism, besides being unethical, is prohibited in this course. Plagiarism comes in varying degrees of
seriousness. For example, getting too much help from a friend, family member, or tutor is a mild form of plagiarism. A less
mild form would be a lack of clarity in the citation of source materials. On the other end of the spectrum, submitting someone
else's work as your own is a most heinous form of plagiarism. Depending on the degree of seriousness, instances of plagiarism
will be penalized by the deduction of points, a grade of "zero" for the plagiarized work, or an "F" for
the course
VII. Course Schedule
(The Tuesday “b” sessions take place in the Carey Center 22 unless otherwise noted).
T8/29a: Introduction to the course; syllabus.
T8/29b: Discussion of Filmmaking process. Groups formed.
H8/31: Discussion of annotated bibliography project.
T9/5a: Read Fiction terms in the Handbook; read “Gimpel the Fool” and type a paragraph that responds
to this question: “Is Gimpel wise, foolish, or something else?” This will be collected but not graded.
T9/5b Library Orientation
H9/7: Discussion of “Gimpel” continues.
T9/12a: Read “The Things They Carried”; Study Guide due.
T9/12b: Submit Proposals for films.
H9/14: Discussion of “Things” continues
T9/19a: Read “Woman Hollering Creek” and type and submit a paragraph that identifies Cleofilas’s
primary internal conflict. This will not be graded.
T9/19b: Academic Policies Presentation
H9/21: Discussion of “Woman” continues
T9/26a: Read “Sonny’s Blues”; Study Guide due.
T9/26b: Script writing and filmmaking
H9/28: Discussion of “Sonny’s Blues” continues
T10/3a: Wrap up of Fiction section.
T10/3b: Scripts Due. Film Appreciation.
H10/5: Read Poetry terms in Handbook and Keats, “On First Looking into Chapman’s Homer.”
T10/10a: Read poetry of Hopkins: type and submit a paragraph describes the tonal range of “God’s
Grandeur” or “Carrion Comfort.”
T10/10b: Guest Speaker
H10/12: Discussion of poetry continues
T10/17a & b: NO CLASS--MIDTERM BREAK
H10/19: Discussion of poetry continues
T10/24a: Read poetry of Yeats: Study Guide due.
T10/24b: Registration Presentation
H10/26: Discussion of Yeats’s work continues.
T10/31a: Read poetry of Donne and type and submit a paragraph that fully explores the image of the flea in “The
Flea.” This will not be graded.
T10/31b: Guest Speaker
H11/2: Discussion of Donne’s Poetry continues.
T11/7a: Read poetry of Keats; Study Guide due.
T11/7b: Guest speaker
H11/9: Discussion of poetry continues.
T11/14a: Time devoted to Movie
T11/14b: Time devoted to Movie
W11/16: Time devoted to Movie
T11/21a Read Death of a Salesman and “Tragedy and the Common Man” and type and submit a paragraph
that explains how Willy Loman fits Miller’s definition of a modern tragic hero. This will not be graded.
T11/21b: Discussion continues
H11/23: NO CLASS--THANKSGIVING
T11/28a: Read A Doll’s House and “Notes for the Modern Tragedy”; Study Guide Due
T11/28b: Discussion continues
H11/30: Discussion continues.
T12/5a: Read Fences and type and submit a paragraph that draws one key similarity between Troy Maxson and either Willy
Loman or Nora Helmer.
T12/5b: Discussion continues
H12/7: Annotated Bibs Due.
Appendix A: Literary Terms for Understanding and Application
Find these terms in A Handbook to Literature and understand Harmon’s definitions. Many of these terms, like
“Plot” have a broad frame of reference that includes many other related terms, and you are encouraged
to understand those related terms also. Terms in italics are primarily used with reference to the genre with which they are
grouped but are also important in other genres. When using these or any related terms given in the Handbook in your Study
Guides, type the term in Upper Case.
FICTION
Antagonist
Antihero
Archetype
Character
Characterization
Climax
Conflict
Crisis
Dénouement
Epiphany
Exposition
Fable
Falling Action
Fantasy
Fiction
Flat Character
Foreshadowing
Freytag’s Pyramid
Genre
Irony
Motivation
Narration
Narrator
Novel
Plot
Point of View
Protagonist
Rising Action
Round Character
Setting
Short Story
Stock Characters
Story
Structure
Style
Symbol
Theme
POETRY
Allegory
Alliteration
Allusion
Apostrophe
Assonance
Cacophony
Caesura
Connotation
Consonance
Controlling Image
Couplet
Denotation
End-stopped lines
Enjambment
Epic
Euphony
Falling Rhythm
Figures of Speech
Form
Free Verse
Iamb
Image
Imagery
Internal Rhyme
Line
Literal
Lyric
Metaphor
Metaphysical Conceit
Meter
Metonymy
Onomatopoeia
Organic Form
Oxymoron
Paradox
Persona
Personification
Poem
Poetry
Prose
Quatrain
Rhyme
Rhyme Scheme
Rhythm
Scansion
Simile
Sonnet
Synecdoche
DRAMA
Act
Catastrophe
Catharsis
Chorus
Classical Tragedy
Comedy
Dramatic Conventions
Dramatic Irony
Dramatic Structure
Hamartia
Satire
Tragedy
Tragicomedy
Tragic Irony
Appendix B: Six Principles of Good Writing
Applied to Writing about Literature.
Purpose:
• The scope of the topic is appropriate
• The language of the thesis is concrete and not vague.
• The thesis makes a debatable claim about the texts
• The thesis and the essay as a whole seem to address an interested audience of classmates who are familiar
with the texts in question.
Support
• Supporting points are adequately qualified and precisely worded.
• Supporting points are developed with concrete textual evidence, both paraphrased and quoted, that illustrates
or proves the essay's thesis or the paragraph's topic sentence.
• All textual evidence is accurately documented using the MLA Parenthetical method, which includes a “Works
Cited” page that follows the final page of text.
Insight
• The essay integrates, synthesizes, and interprets challenging ideas in creative ways.
• The essay synthesizes, evaluates, and interprets the textual evidence in creative yet logical ways.
• The thesis and arguments are challenging and fresh.
• As a whole, the essay teaches the reader something new about the texts
Organization
• An Introductory Paragraph opens with an attention grabbing lead, states the texts in question, and presents
the thesis
• Body Paragraphs are logically organized and focused on a topic sentence that makes a debatable claim.
• Body paragraphs are arranged in ascending order: from least to most emphatic
• A concluding paragraph briefly summarizes the essay’s argument and ends with a closing thought.
Coherence
• Conceptual links are provided between individual elements of the writing.
• Each sentence in the paragraph relates to the topic sentence
• The relationship among sentences in the same paragraph is clear
Clarity
• Textual quotations are smoothly incorporated into the writer's own words.
• A reading of the paper reveals no awkward sentences
• Word choice is clear or appropriate throughout:
• Grammar, spelling, and mechanics are correct
• Documentation format is correct.
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