• Classroom: RLFS 105.
• Times: Tuesday, Period 7 (1 :55-2:45); Thursday, Period 7-8 (1:55-3:50).
• Office: Anderson 203 A.
• Office Hours: Monday, Period 8 ( 3:00-3: 50) and by appointment.
• Phone: English Department (leave message): 392- 0777.

• Steven Lynn: Texts and Contexts. Harper Collins.
• Italo Calvino: Six Memos for the Next Millennium. Harvard University Press.
• Italo Calvino: If on a Winter's Night a Traveler.
• Fulwiler and Hayakawa: The Blair Handbook. A Blair Press Book.
• Supplemental material (the short stories, the poems, and the essays used in addition to the above texts will be indicated during the semester and will be available at the reserve desk).

When you approach a work of literature you already have, in a more or less aware way, an idea of what "literature" is; moreover, you also somehow know how to read that piece of fiction, or drama, or poetry, and how to write about it. Well, the goal of this course is to help you to reduce the vagueness of your thoughts about literature, reading and writing. "The stars we see are the stars our telescopes allow us to see" is the topic of one of our classes. In a metaphorical sense, this course is a kit for building certain telescopes that will enable us to see certain constellations of stars. We will try to change our unfocused eye into a multifaceted, critical eye, so that, through it, we will be more capable of identifying, analyzing, interpreting, evaluating and writing about the constellations of stars --the literary texts-- we will happen to see.

The analysis of the concept of text is central to this course. What is a text? How many different texts can we have? What is a literary text? What are the elements of a literary text? How do we read and interpret literary texts? How do we integrate one text within a body of texts? Is that body of texts what we call literature? Do different theories --our telescopes-- identify different literatures? Or different aspects of the same, universal literature? And, finally, how do we write about literary texts? How can we improve our skills so as to be able to give shape to our ideas and beliefs, to organize our thoughts, to express and defend our opinions, to find our own critical voice?

Since ENC 1102 is a writing course, there is the Gordon Rule to satisfy: each of you has to write at least 6,000 words. You will fulfil this requirement by keeping journals, by responding to the writing of your classmates, by writing 2 in-class assignments and 3 out-of-class essays developed through a series of drafts and revisions.

• Journals: The informal (or rather, semi-formal) writing of the journal should help you to easily and quickly materialize your thoughts and questions, to critically respond to the assigned readings and discussions and to keep track of your progresses. Journal entries will only occasionally be submitted to me; nevertheless, these entries will be used as a starting point for the class discussion, and you should regularly use them as exercise to develop and test your own ability to respond in a written form to oral and written texts.

• Papers: By working on the in- and out-of-class essays, by writing drafts and revisions, you will try to understand the processes allowing you to transform a simple and often unshaped idea about a literary work into a well- written, organized, coherent, and imaginative essay expressing your thoughts, your emotions, your creativity. The dates for the submission of the in -class and out- of-class essays will be indicated during the course. The out-of- class essays must be typed on a 8"x111/2" paper, double-spaced. Their drafts must also be typed, so as to make the reading and the grading process easier.

Only through a lively and informed participation of all of you in class meetings, can I help you to develop the basic skills for reading and writing about literature. Therefore, attendance is required. Punctuality is also required. Tardiness will be excused only if the reasons are reasonable to me. After three unexcused absences the grade will be dropped. Absences due to illness, family crisis, athletic or extracurricular activities will be excused if documented, and if not prolonged. Students excused from an absence are not excused from the work assigned, and they must make up any work missed.

• 1. In-class essays 20%
• 2. Out-of-class essays 50%
• 3. Drafts + Journals 15%
• 4. Class Discussion 15%

Scale:

• A=100-90
• B+/B= 89-80
• C+/C= 79-70
• D+/D= 69-60
• E=59-0

Unless otherwise indicated in connection with group work, all work must be individual. Evidence of collusion (working with another student) or plagiarism ( use of another's ideas, data, and statements without acknowledgment and/or extensive use of another's ideas, data, and statements with only minimal acknowledgment) will lead to the procedures set by the university for academic dishonesty.

Complaints about separate assignments should be discussed with me. Complaints about final grade should be discussed with me in at least a conference soon after the next term begins. If the conference on the final grade does not resolve the problem you can submit the proper form ( available in the English Office, 4008 Turlington Hall) to the Director of Freshman English. The form must be accompanied with copies of every assignment and my directions. The review committee will decide if the grade should be raised, lowered, or maintained. Their decision is final.