MAJOR AUTHORS: CHARLES DICKENS | Spring 2008
REQUIREMENTS
Texts
Pickwick Papers (Penguin)
Dombey and Son (Penguin)
A Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Writings (Penguin)
Bleak House (Norton)
Great Expectations (Penguin)
Papers, Exams, and Other Assignments
One 5-page essay - 25%
One 7-page essay - 35%
Online writing - 15%
Oral presentation - 5%
Final Exam - 20%
Oral Report
You are required to present an oral report on an article, essay, or book related to the current reading. Your oral presentation should last no longer than 10 minutes and provide a summary of your chosen source. (Look under the "Calendar" tab in mycourses to see when you will be presenting.) Before or immediately after giving your presentation, you must contribute an entry on your source to the Annotated Bibliography of Nineteenth-Century British Fiction on the SUNY Geneseo wiki. Together, the oral presentation and bibliography entry count for 5% of the final course grade.
Online Writing: Discussion Forums and Wiki
You are required to participate in online discussion forums for this class. For each class meeting, I will post a discussion question at the Coffeehouse to which every student must reply by 11:59 p.m. of the day before that meeting.
You are required to participate in collaborative writing on the SUNY Geneseo wiki. To fulfill this requirement, you may annotate a passage from one or more of the novels on the syllabus; contribute to a collaborative essay or article; help develop genetically modified literature; or propose and contribute to another collaborative project.
Optional Project
You may permit 50% of your final exam grade (i.e., 10% of your course grade) to be determined by an optional project that explores, examines, or illuminates one or more of the semester's texts using means other than the conventional literary essay. Examples of such a project might be:
- a video trailer for a film version of one of the novels;
- a musical interpretation of a character, situation, or theme from one of the novels;
- voice-over narration for a segment of an existing film or video version of one of the novels;
- an audio or video interview with a character from one of the novels.
This is not an exhaustive list; you are welcome to propose other kinds of unconventional project. However, bear in mind the following constraints:
- The project will be judged by the degree to which it genuinely sheds light or offers meaningful commentary on the text(s) in question. (You may, if you like, provide a written explanation of how it does so.)
- The project must be approved by me in advance. Proposals may be submitted no later than April 15.
- So that others in the class may view the project, the project must be submitted no later than May 1.
- For team projects, all team members must be listed in the original proposal.
Students with Disabilities
SUNY Geneseo will make reasonable accommodations for persons with documented physical, emotional or learning disabilities. Contact Tabitha Buggie-Hunt, Director of Disability Services to discuss needed accommodations as early as possible in the semester.
You must complete all assignments to receive a passing grade in this course.