| LIT 321 – 01 1 course unit no prerequisites Term: Spring 2026 Time: 5:30-8:20pm M Room: Bliss Annex 151 |
Prof. Glenn Steinberg Office: Bliss Hall 216 Office Phone: 771-2106 Office Hours: 2-5:30pm on Mondays or by appointment E-mail: gsteinbe@tcnj.edu |
TEXTBOOKS:
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- Ovid, The Metamorphoses, trans. Rolfe Humphries (Indiana, 2018), ISBN 9781118823972
- Plautus, The Menaechmus Twins & Two Other Plays, ed. and trans. Lionel Casson (Norton, 1971), ISBN 9780393006025
- Seneca, Four Tragedies and Octavia, ed. and trans. E. F. Watling (Penguin, 1966), ISBN 9780140441741
- Plutarch, Makers of Rome: Nine Lives by Plutarch, trans. Ian Scott-Kilvert (Penguin, 1965), ISBN 9780140441581
- John Gassner, ed., Medieval and Tudor Drama (Applause, 2000), ISBN 9780936839844
- Arthur F. Kinney, ed., Renaissance Drama: An Anthology of Plays and Entertainments, 3rd ed. (Wiley Blackwell, 2022), ISBN 9781118823972
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COURSE DESCRIPTION. This course reconstructs the literary “horizons of expectations” for Shakespeare’s comedies, histories, and tragedies at the time of their first performance. This will not be a course in Shakespeare per se but rather a course in the literary, dramatic, and cultural texts that shaped the literary expectations, perceptions, and tastes of Shakespeare and his audience. We reconstruct what an Elizabethan audience might have expected when it went to the theater to see a play “from a pre‑understanding of the genre, from the form and themes of already familiar works, and from the opposition between poetic and practical language” (Hans Robert Jauss, Toward an Aesthetic of Reception [1982], p. 22). For English majors, this class meets LHR and British.
When the College went through a curriculum revision several years ago, the vast majority of undergraduate courses were “transformed” from 3-credit to 4-credit (1-unit) learning experiences. While most of the classes continued to meet for only 3 academic hours per week, it was understood that the “transformed” courses offered a depth of learning with additional learning tasks unfolding in the equivalent of a fourth hour, including, sometimes, an actual additional hour of class interaction. As the equivalent of the fourth hour in this course,
F) students are assigned additional learning tasks that make the semester’s learning experience more deeply engaged and rigorous, and no other additional classroom space is needed.
LEARNING ACTIVITIES AND EXPECTATIONS. The principal learning activities in this course are reading, writing, and discussion. The readings that I have chosen to assign to you are the foundation of your learning. If you do not do the readings, you miss out on that foundation, so keeping up with the readings is absolutely essential.
Upon the foundation of the readings, you build by writing response papers, which are more about writing-to-learn than writing-as-assessment. Response papers are a safe, low-stress space for you to try out ideas, increase your understanding of concepts, and improve your retention of what you’re learning. By writing, you reinforce and expand the learning that you’re gaining from your reading. But in order for response papers to serve this function (helping you to think through the readings to increase understanding and deepen learning), you need to actually write them yourself. Using generative AI to write them defeats the purpose. For this reason, you are not allowed to use generative AI of any kind for any assistance with the writing of your response papers – not for brainstorming, not for the actual writing, not even for checking grammar and punctuation. In general, AI just spews out bad writing anyway – full of “hallucinations” (errors concerning the facts, plot, characters, concepts, or words of the assignment) and vague generalities. Such writing is one of the few ways to fail a response paper, whether you used AI to generate it or wrote it yourself.
Building on your reading and writing, discussion is also very important for your learning in this class. In general, my approach to class discussion is to begin by posing a question or problem, then to have us brainstorm lots of ideas together in response to the opening question/problem, then to move to evaluating the ideas that we’ve brainstormed, and finally to come to a consensus, as a class, about the best answers/solutions to the opening question/problem. Your input to the discussion is absolutely critical. Even though I may have taught some of the materials in this class many, many times before, no two classes have ever had exactly the same discussion about them. Different classes come up with different ideas, different solutions, different approaches. As the professor, I’m not looking for one idea or one solution or one approach in particular. I want us to think things through together – to throw out as many ideas as possible, to test and evaluate those ideas against the evidence of the material in front of us, and to draw the best conclusions that we can. We all learn so much by working together in a free and open discussion to answer a question or solve a problem. I learn so much from your fresh perspectives, and you learn so much from each other. But this means that our class discussions always depend on your preparedness (how thoroughly and thoughtfully you’ve done your assigned homework) and on your courage (how willing you are to take risks, brainstorm, and share ideas – even when your ideas are only half-baked). I can’t make a good discussion happen. Only you all can do that. I can work to create a classroom space that feels safe, and I can pose provocative questions for us to discuss, but a good discussion – along with the incredible learning that comes from it – only happens if you all come to class prepared and willing to join in.
GOALS. In this course, you will learn
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- to grow ever more responsible for and independent in your own learning,
- to improve cognitive endurance in order to be better able to complete readings of considerable length and complexity,
- to analyze how creative texts, artworks, or performances reflect, shape, exalt, or challenge the values of a culture (Literary, Visual, or Performing Arts goal in the CORE),
- to pursue a sustained investigation of the idea of literature itself by examining what literature is and how it is culturally, politically, philosophically and/or sociologically defined and influenced,
- to demonstrate sensitivity to the concrete historicity and cultural specificity of texts and to the development of literary traditions, cultural values, modes of thought, and uses of language over time,
- to acquire perceptual habits and conceptual lenses conducive to the appreciation of specific media, genres, and styles, and
- to demonstrate greater facility with critical practices and writing conventions in the field of English scholarship.
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In addition, this course addresses the following goals for the School of Humanities & Social Sciences and the English major:
#1 Written Communication
#5 Critical Analysis and Reasoning: Ability to critique the arguments of others in the discipline and the construction of one’s own arguments in the discipline, using data/evidence as a focus of instruction and/or the ability to analyze linguistic and cultural patterns
#7 Interpret Language and Symbol
#8 Intercultural Competence: The development of understanding of other cultures and/or subcultures (practices, perspectives, behavior patterns, etc.)
#12 Students will be able to demonstrate familiarity with a range of critical, generic, and literary traditions (including recent theoretical approaches) that shape – and are shaped by – literary discourses and texts of particular periods or movements
#14 Students will be able to identify historically specific elements relevant to a particular text
#15 Students will be able to read a literary work and characterize its main aesthetic, structural, and rhetorical strategies in an argumentative, thesis-driven essay or in a writing workshop
REQUIREMENTS. For this course, you must complete the following graded assignments:
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- six two-page response papers (together worth 20% of your final grade),
- a take-home midterm exam (worth 10%),
- PAPER 1 (20%),
- PAPER 2 (25%), and
- an in-person cumulative, comprehensive final exam (25%).
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Your final grade will be based on the following scale: A = 93%-100%, A- = 90%-92%, B+ = 87%-89%, B = 83%-86%, B- = 80%-82%, C+ = 77%-79%, C = 73%-76%, C- = 70%-72%, D+ = 67%-69%, D = 60%-66%, and F = below 60%. This scale is absolute. Because the response papers are in a sense a form of extra credit built into this course from the start, I do not give extra credit at the end of the semester to help students raise their grade even a whisker. So, even if, at the end of the semester, you are just .0001 points away from an A-, your final grade will be a B+.
RESPONSE PAPERS. In the course of the term, you are required to submit six short, informal papers (about 2 pages each) on the assignments for class. You may choose for which days you want to write a response paper, as long as you have completed six response papers by the end of the term. You must, however, submit at least one response paper before the midterm exam. If you have not submitted at least one response paper by then, you will receive a zero that you cannot make up as one of your six response paper grades.
For each response paper, choose one of the following topics and analyze the assignment for the day with respect to the topic you’ve chosen:
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- Values. What are the fundamental values of the text? Does the text value hard work, honesty, wealth, breeding, loyalty, physical prowess, outward beauty, love, intelligence, humility, learning, action, duty, honor, (self-)discipline, individual freedom, community, and/or patriotism? How and where do the characters manifest such values? How and where are they rewarded for good values (or punished for bad)? How does the text define such values as duty, honor, love, and loyalty – terms that can mean very different things to different people? How does the text define and portray heroism? What is (and isn’t) heroic? How do the text’s values relate to those of previous reading assignments in class? What do Elizabethans seem to expect in terms of values in their plays and stories?
- Tastes. To whose tastes does the work seem to appeal? What kind of tastes does it advance, reinforce, question, or criticize? What standards of taste does it assume? To what social class(es) might the tastes of the work appeal? To what social class(es) might the work be directed? Are there social classes whose tastes are mocked or criticized by the work? Why might this text appeal specifically to one segment or another of the Elizabethans? How do its tastes compare to those of previous assignments in class? What do Elizabethans seem to expect in terms of taste in their plays and stories?
- Conflict. Does the conflict of the text focus more on the psychological, the personal, the social, or the political? Is the focus more on internal demons and an individual’s emotional issues, on an individual’s private affairs and family life, on communal situations and social norms, or on civic events and political repercussions? Is the focus more on mental health (internal), private morality (personal), group identity (social), or civic power (political)? Is there more than one aspect to the conflict? How do the psychological, personal, social, and political aspects of the conflict relate to one another? How does the conflict compare to those in previous assignments in class? What do Elizabethans seem to expect in terms of conflict in their plays and stories?
- Setting. Where is the text’s story set? How does the setting affect our perception of the plot and characters? Does the setting change? How is any change of setting significant to the action and characterization of the text? Is the setting symbolic? If so, how? How is the natural world portrayed in the text? Is nature awe-inspiring, threatening, restorative, dangerous, innocent, primitive, violent? What assumptions do Elizabethans seem to make about the significance of certain settings (e.g., forests, Italy)? How does the setting compare to the settings in previous reading assignments? What do Elizabethans seem to expect in terms of setting in their plays and stories?
- Genre. NOTE: This topic only applies to dramatic texts (i.e., plays). To what genre does the play belong (comedy, tragedy, romance, history play, something else)? Does it belong to a particular sub-genre of that genre? What seem to be the critical elements in the play that associate it with its particular genre? How does the play reflect or upset the “horizon of expectations” for its genre? How does it compare to other examples of its genre that we have read for class? How does it fit or change the specific conventions of its genre (as suggested by other reading assignments from the same genre)? Is its genre easy or difficult to identify? What dramatic genres seem to have been popular in Elizabethan England?
- Spectacle. NOTE: This topic only applies to dramatic texts (i.e., plays). What kind of “special effects” does the text use? What kind of props and costuming? How does the staging work? How is the staging awkward, sophisticated, simple, complex, innovative, fantastical, realistic? In what ways does the spectacle of the performance fit the themes and ideas of the play? How does the spectacle of the play compare to that of other plays we’ve read? What do Elizabethans seem to expect in terms of spectacle in their plays?
- Language. NOTE: This topic only applies to texts originally written in English (i.e., not to translated texts). What are the characteristics of the language of the text? What kind of language is used? What kind of tone and style is exhibited? Is the text’s language bombastic, elegant, contrived, colloquial, educated, simple, coarse, conventional, all of the above, none of the above? Do different characters speak differently – in a different style or tone? How do the text’s language and tone compare to that in earlier assignments? What do Elizabethans seem to expect in terms of language in their plays and stories?
- Gender. How are men and women portrayed in the text? What seems to be the attitude of the author toward men and women? What are the characteristics of a good man in the text? a good woman? a bad man? a bad woman? Does the text generalize about male and female gender roles? What does the text imply or say about what are appropriate roles for each gender? Does the text seem to favor or criticize either gender, portray one or the other gender negatively or positively? How does the text’s treatment of gender relate to that of previous reading assignments in class? How might the text’s treatment of gender fit (or not fit) the “horizon of expectations” in Elizabethan England? How do the Elizabethans seem to conceive of gender and gender roles? Don’t generalize wildly about how the Elizabethans viewed gender. Use the evidence of the text (and others we have read this semester) to think about how gender might have been viewed.
- Religion. How are religion and religious ideas portrayed in the text? How Christian is the work in outlook, doctrine, and/or symbolism? Does the text use Christian images? Does it allude to Christian stories? Does it espouse Christian values (with or without explicit Christian content)? Does it reflect on or mention Christian doctrine? How is organized religion portrayed? How are Church figures (such as the pope, friars, monks, priests, ministers, and nuns) portrayed? Does the text seem specifically Catholic or Protestant in outlook? If so, how so? How does religion in the text compare to that in previous readings? What do the Elizabethans seem to expect in terms of religious content or sympathies in their popular stories and plays?
- Character. How does the reading assignment represent characters through exposition, a character’s speech and actions, and/or the reflections of other characters? Does the reading use stock characters? Does the reading portray character as a perfectly consistent identity? Do characters sometimes act “out of character”? Are characters morally black or white (good guys or bad guys), or do characters have moral complexity? Do characters do both good and bad – sometimes even through the very same action? How does the reading represent the characters’ motives (making invisible motives visible)? Are characters completely in control of their own actions and lives, or do outside forces control their fates? How does characterization in the text compare to that in previous readings? What do the Elizabethans seem to expect in terms of characterization in their popular stories and plays?
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Keep in mind that some topics are more relevant to some readings than others (and some topics aren’t relevant at all to some readings). Don’t choose to focus on a topic for a reading for which that topic is irrelevant.
You should submit each response paper by “sharing” it with me as a Google Doc before class on the assigned day. Be sure to grant me “editing” or “commenting” status when you share the Google Doc with me (so that I can comment directly on the paper). Please note that, when you do a response paper, you are writing about the assignment for the day on which you’re submitting the paper. So, you’re writing about the assignment before we discuss it in class and submitting the paper before the class meeting for which that assignment is assigned. You can’t submit a response paper about a past day’s assignment.
The purpose of the response papers is
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- to help you in your preparation for class discussion,
- to allow you to try out new and different ideas in a safe, low-stress space,
- to help me see where you’re struggling with the concepts and assignments in class,
- to help you reinforce and expand on what you’re learning in class, and
- to help you develop your intellectual independence and confidence.
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In order to accomplish these goals, you really need to write your response papers yourself without the help of AI, so you are not allowed to use AI of any kind for any assistance with the writing of response papers – not for brainstorming, not for the actual writing, not even for checking grammar and punctuation.
Response papers are graded Pass/Fail, so they need not be a perfect, polished product (and so there’s no need to use AI assistants, such as Grammerly, to polish them). Rather, response papers should be just what their name says – a response. Think about one of the topics above that I have asked you to consider; then write a response. Don’t worry about typos or comma splices or organization. Don’t worry about answering every question I ask under a particular topic. In fact, focus on the one question that seems most interesting to you, and be as specific as you can, getting down as much as you can, as quickly as you can. Treat response papers more like a journal entry than like a formal paper. I don’t want a five-paragraph theme. Rather, I want an exploration – as detailed and specific as possible – of the assignment for the day. But don’t focus too narrowly on just one passage, scene, or episode from the assignment. Try to generalize about the assignment and then look at specific examples from all over to support your generalization.
Normally, as long as you submit a response paper of suitable length, detail, and thoughtfulness (and as long as you submit it before class on the assigned day), you will receive all the points that the response paper is worth. You may submit more than six response papers in the course of the semester (to make up for any response papers that do not pass), but no matter how many extra response papers you turn in, you will not receive credit for more than six total (and if you do not submit at least one response paper before the midterm exam, you will receive a zero that you cannot make up as one of your six response paper grades). You may not submit more than one response paper for a single day’s assignment, nor may you submit a response paper for a day that you are absent from class. But you may submit more than one response paper on the same literary work if there are multiple assignments spread over multiple days for that work. The response papers should then each be on the specific assignment for each specific day. NOTE: You may not submit a response paper for a day without a specific reading assignment for class (e.g., exam days). ALSO NOTE: Even if you do not submit a response paper on a particular day, you should still come to class prepared to discuss the response paper topics in relation to the assignment for the day, since we will focus on these topics in our in-class discussions all semester. In other words, the response paper topics above are a great guide for your class prep and studying every day, even when you’re not writing a response paper.
EXAMS. The exams in this course are an assessment of how well you are learning, understanding, and retaining the material in class. The exams ask you to identify quotations that were important in our class discussions and to explain the reason(s) that they were important (i.e., what concepts, themes, or meanings we discussed in relation to them). The quotations are usually ones that we discuss at length together, although some quotations may be less discussed in class but still central to the plot and themes of the work from which they come (and therefore reasonable passages for you to be able to identify and relate to our class discussions). In addition, the exams assess your retention of important character names, settings, critical terms, and concepts by asking you to identify and describe them. Finally, the exams offer you the opportunity to draw together the different strands of what you’ve been learning in class in an essay that asks you to look broadly at overarching themes and ideas. The exams will be open-note but NOT open-book.
The midterm exam is mostly a sort of trial run for the final exam – to give you an experience, partway through the semester, of what the final exam will be like (so that you can better see what will be expected of you on the final).
PAPER 1. Read Romeo and Juliet and choose one text that we have read for class. In a paper of 4-6 pages, argue a clear, specific, interesting thesis about how Shakespeare’s play reflects or upsets the Elizabethan “horizon of expectations” for drama as represented by the reading from class that you have chosen. To help you think about what to write, consider the following questions: How does Shakespeare’s play compare to the material that we’ve been reading for class in the areas of values, tastes, conflict, setting, genre, spectacle, language, gender, religion, or character? What is the most important similarity or difference between Shakespeare’s play and the readings for class? How does that most important similarity reinforce (or how does that most important difference challenge) the Elizabethans’ “horizon of expectations” for drama? (NOTE: The answer to this last question should probably be the thesis of your paper.) Remember that, in addition to the Shakespeare play, you should use only one of the texts that we’ve read for class in order to characterize what the Elizabethan “horizon of expectations” for drama would have been. What one text from class would be best for comparison to Shakespeare’s play to illustrate how Shakespeare reinforces (or challenges) Elizabethan expectations? You may refer in passing to other readings from class, but your paper should focus in detail on just one class text. Be sure to distill your thoughts into a clear, specific thesis, focused very narrowly on one concrete claim that you are arguing in your paper. Don’t talk about everything or just anything.
You need not use any sources for this paper other than Shakespeare and the text you’ve chosen from class. In fact, I would encourage you not to use other sources (because I’d rather hear what you think than what some published scholar, online blogger, or AI thinks). But if you do use any other sources (whether scholarly, online, or AI) for ANYTHING (an idea, a piece of background information, an overall perspective, a phrase or wording, a grammar check), be sure to cite and document those sources appropriately (in notes or with a “Works Cited” page). If you use AI to assist you in any way, explain how you used it IN DETAIL in a note at the end of your paper. Check out the APA’s “How to Cite ChatGPT” or the MLA’s “How do I cite generative AI in MLA style” for guidelines on how to do this. If you fail to cite sources or AI that you used, you are violating academic integrity. You do not need notes or a “Works Cited” page just for Shakespeare and the text from class if they’re the only sources that you’re using. Just cite relevant act, scene, and line numbers in parentheses.
Your paper will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
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- Does the paper have a clear, specific thesis? Does the thesis offer an interesting perspective or “hook” that is provocative without being gimmicky or offensive?
- Does the paper’s analysis progress logically? Does the paper have a clear and consistent overall organization that relates all the ideas of the paper together in support of the thesis (rather than simply a list of random ideas without relation to one another or to the thesis)? Does the paper have appropriate transitions to aid the reader in following the paper’s logic (rather than weak transitions like “The first…,” “Another…,” and “…also…”)?
- Are the paper’s paragraphs properly developed – neither too long and wandering nor too short and deficient? Are the topics of the individual paragraphs suitably narrow and focused on a single claim rather than vague and broad? Once a paragraph gets specific about anything, does it stay focused on that topic to the end?
- Does the paper provide relevant, concrete evidence (including quotations) and logically persuasive reasons for every assertion?
- Does the paper show sensitivity to the concrete historicity of the literary works under consideration (rather than treat them as timeless museum pieces or reflect on them anachronistically)? Does the paper avoid generalizing vaguely or broadly about entire time periods?
- Does the paper exhibit confidence and insight when analyzing material never discussed in class?
- Does the introduction to the paper offer an interesting, helpful preview of the content, logic, and organization of the paper?
- Is factual information in the paper accurate?
- Is the writing in the paper clear, effective, and appropriate to an academic setting?
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I encourage you, about a week before the paper is due, to submit a thesis paragraph (a draft of the first paragraph of your paper or just a paragraph that describes what you plan to write about) by “sharing” it with me as a Google Doc (making sure to give me “editing” or “commenting” status, so that I can comment directly on your paragraph). If you do so by the date noted in the course schedule below, I will give you feedback on your proposed thesis. If you submit a thesis paragraph later than the date noted in the schedule, I will try to get you feedback as quickly as possible, but I cannot guarantee that I’ll be able to get you the feedback fast enough to be of use to you before the essay itself is due.
PAPER 2. Read The Merchant of Venice and Elizabeth Hutcheon, “Medea and The Merchant of Venice,” Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 60 (2020), 323-345 (available in JSTOR through our library). Write a paper of 5-7 pages in which you argue a clear, specific thesis about The Merchant of Venice in response to Hutcheon’s essay. Do not go point by point through the essay, slavishly following Hutcheon’s argument and focusing more on the essay than on The Merchant of Venice. Instead, respond to just the main point (or one of the main claims) of the essay with a claim of your own, and then use the bulk of your paper to make a case for your claim. Your claim should meaningfully connect to the main point of Hutcheon’s essay, either supporting it from a different angle, disagreeing with it, or expanding it in a new direction, but your paper should focus mostly on your claim rather than on the essay. I recommend that you start with an introductory paragraph (including your thesis), followed by one paragraph that summarizes Hutcheon’s main point and argument. Then leave Hutcheon’s essay behind and launch into your own ideas. In the rest of your paper, you should argue your claim, looking primarily at new evidence (or at evidence used in Hutcheon’s essay that you interpret in a new way). Only very rarely, if the essay made a major point by looking at a passage or scene in a way that is especially helpful to your argument, should you refer back to it and summarize or quote what it said, always making perfectly clear what comes from Hutcheon and what comes from you. But you should not continually use the essay to lend authoritative support to the points that you’re making. Don’t keep quoting lines from the essay that seem to have already said what you’re saying. Think of your paper as your contribution to a conversation with Hutcheon’s essay. You should be moving the conversation forward, adding something new, rather than just rehashing what Hutcheon’s essay already said and quoting Hutcheon over and over, as though you’re just going over the same ground that the essay did. In a real conversation, if you just keep repeating what somebody else says, what impression do you give? Have confidence in your own ideas, and move beyond the essay to contribute something new and interesting.
One way that you can move beyond Hutcheon’s essay is to look at The Merchant of Venice from a different angle. If you focus on one of the response paper topics that the essay doesn’t discuss at all, do you see something new or different in the play? Does what you see seem to bolster Hutcheon’s main point or torpedo it? Does it make you agree more with Hutcheon’s essay or disagree more with it? Can you formulate your (dis)agreement as a thesis?
Another way to move beyond Hutcheon’s essay is to draw on what you’ve learned from our readings in this class. Does looking at The Merchant of Venice in the context of the texts that we’ve read this semester make you see something new or different about the play? Does what you see seem to bolster Hutcheon’s main point or torpedo it? Does it make you agree more with Hutcheon’s essay or disagree more with it? Can you formulate your (dis)agreement as a thesis? If you choose to look at The Merchant of Venice in the context of our readings from class this semester, I recommend that you limit yourself to one other text in comparison to The Merchant of Venice in your paper. If you try to use more than one other text, you risk making your paper too busy and vague.
You need not use any sources for your paper other than The Merchant of Venice, Hutcheon’s essay, and, if you want, a text from class that you choose to use for comparison to The Merchant of Venice. In fact, I would encourage you not to use other sources (because I’d rather hear what you think than what some published scholar, online blogger, or AI thinks). But if you do use any other sources (whether scholarly, online, or AI) for ANYTHING (an idea, a piece of background information, an overall perspective, a phrase or wording, a grammar check), be sure to cite and document those sources appropriately (in notes or with a “Works Cited” page). If you use AI to assist you in any way, explain how you used it IN DETAIL in a note at the end of your paper. Check out the APA’s “How to Cite ChatGPT” or the MLA’s “How do I cite generative AI in MLA style” for guidelines on how to do this. If you fail to cite sources or AI that you used, you are violating academic integrity. You do not need a “Works Cited” page or other documentation just for The Merchant of Venice, a text from class, and Hutcheon’s essay if those are the only sources that you use. Just cite page numbers (for the essay) and act, scene, and line numbers (for Shakespeare and the text from class) in parentheses.
Your PAPER 2 will be graded according to the same criteria as PAPER 1, plus
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- Does the paper avoid focusing too much on the scholarly essay? Does it avoid overuse of the essay as a crutch to lend authority to its own points? When summarizing or quoting the essay, does the paper accurately represent the essay’s content and focus?
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As with PAPER 1, I encourage you to submit a thesis paragraph for feedback before the paper is due.
LANGUAGES ACROSS THE CURRICULUM. A quarter-unit (one-credit) Languages Across the Curriculum independent study may be added to this course for students who have intermediate level proficiency in Latin and who wish to complement the work in this course by utilizing their language skills. Students should complete this google form (https://forms.gle/syfTjQ5BkzvXGVbS7) by Monday, February 2 to request to be enrolled in the LAC independent study. Please contact LAC Program Director Dr. Holly Didi-Ogren (holly.didi-ogren@tcnj.edu) with any questions.
PROFESSOR’S AVAILABILITY. My office is Bliss Hall 216. My in-person office hours this term are 2-5:30pm on Mondays. If you have questions about class (or just want to talk about stuff), feel free to stop by during these hours (no appointment necessary). I can also meet over Zoom during my office hours if that’s more convenient for you; just let me know, and I’ll send you a Zoom invitation. If you cannot meet during my regularly scheduled office hours, talk to me about meeting at another time, and we can set up an appointment. Outside of class, you may contact me by email (gsteinbe@tcnj.edu) or by calling my office phone (609-771-2106) and leaving a message (if I do not answer), but email is usually the best way to get in touch with me. You may also leave a written message for me in my box at the English Department offices in Bliss Hall 124.
ATTENDANCE. Regular attendance is a virtual necessity for successful completion of this class. Class discussion constitutes important, useful preparation for your graded work. If you miss a class, you will essentially lose out on that day’s contribution to your preparation, since it is never really possible to reproduce or recapture the dynamics and flow of information for a missed class meeting (even if you get notes from someone). If, however, you positively must miss a class, I expect you to find out from a classmate what you missed and to come fully prepared – without excuses – to the next class meeting. If you must miss an in-class, graded assignment due to a religious holiday, let me know ahead of time, and we will arrange a way for you to make up the assignment.
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY. Academic dishonesty is any attempt by a student to gain academic advantage through dishonest means, to submit, as your own, work which has not been done by you, or to give improper aid to another student in the completion of an assignment. Such dishonesty would include, but is not limited to, submitting as your own a project, paper, report, test, or speech copied, partially copied, or paraphrased from the work of another (whether AI-generated, in print, on the Internet, or another student’s work). Credit must always be given for words quoted or paraphrased and for ideas or information taken from somewhere else. The rules apply to any academic dishonesty, whether the work is graded or ungraded, group or individual, written or oral. Please, please, please, if you need help with an assignment, let me know rather than resort to cheating.
ACCOMMODATIONS. The College of New Jersey prohibits discrimination against any student on the basis of physical or mental disability or perceived disability. The College will also provide reasonable and appropriate accommodations to enable students with disabilities to participate in the life of the campus community. If you require such accommodations, I will make every reasonable effort to meet your needs and to create an environment where your special abilities are respected. Go to the website of the Accessibility Resource Center (ARC) for more information about how to arrange for accommodations.
DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION. We are all enriched by greater diversity, and we all bring different perspectives to this class. I want to create a learning environment that supports diversity and honors your identities and perspectives (including your race, gender, sexuality, social class, religion, mental and physical health, differing abilities, politics, etc.). If, for example, you go by a name and/or set of pronouns that differ from those that appear in your official records, please let me know. If you feel that your performance in class is being impacted outside of class by a hostile environment related to your identity, please don’t hesitate to talk to me. If something is said or posted in class (by anyone, including me) that you consider hostile or offensive to your identity, please talk to me about it. I will expect our whole class (including me) to strive always to honor every form of diversity. See also TCNJ’s statement on inclusive excellence at https://inclusion.tcnj.edu/inclusive-excellence-statement/.
SCREENS. Unless required as an accommodation for a physical or mental disability, you may not use screens (laptops, phones, or ipads) during this class. In the last ten years, there has been a ton of research that shows that screens are bad for learning – that you are less likely to remember what happens in class if you take notes on an electronic device rather than with pen and paper, that you are less likely to comprehend and remember what you read if you read it on a screen rather than in a printed format, that you are more likely to be distracted and miss things in class if you use an electronic device during class time. I am not a Luddite (someone who despises all technology); I love my screens and use them a lot. But I have watched a lot of students, especially over the last few years, perform much worse in my classes than they could (or should) have performed, because they used screens for taking notes and reading. And my anecdotal experience with students over the last decade is nothing in comparison with the towering tsunami of research that shows just how bad screens are for learning in the classroom.
For that reason, you may not use any electronic devices during this class. Note that, if we ever need to look at a text, document, or assignment that is online during class, I will display what we need on the large screen at the front of the room. You will not need your own screen.
CLASSROOM ENVIRONMENT AND COMMITMENT TO STUDENT SUCCESS, SAFETY, AND WELL-BEING. The TCNJ community is dedicated to the success, safety, and well-being of each student. TCNJ strictly follows key policies that govern all TCNJ community members’ rights and responsibilities in and out of the classroom. In addition, TCNJ has established several student support offices that can provide the support and resources to help students achieve their personal and professional goals and to promote health and well-being. You can find more information about these policies and resources at the “TCNJ Student Support Resources and Classroom Policies” webpage at https://academicaffairs.tcnj.edu/tcnj-syllabus-resources/.
Students who anticipate and/or experience barriers in this course are encouraged to contact the instructor as early in the semester as possible. The Accessibility Resource Center (ARC) is available to facilitate the removal of barriers and to ensure reasonable accommodations. For more information about ARC, please visit https://arc.tcnj.edu/.
COURSE SCHEDULE. The schedule below is subject to revision at the discretion of the professor. Changes in the schedule made after the first day of class will be shown in red.
| Date | Assignment/Topic |
| M Jan 26 |
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| M Feb 2 |
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| M Feb 9 |
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| M Feb 16 |
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| Th Feb 19 | TAKE-HOME MIDTERM EXAM DUE in my mailbox in Bliss Hall 124 by 4:30pm |
| M Feb 23 |
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| M Mar 2 |
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| Th Mar 5 | Thesis Paragraph for PAPER 1 due as a shared Google Doc by 11:59pm |
| M Mar 9 |
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| Th Mar 12 | PAPER 1 DUE in Canvas before 11:59pm |
| M Mar 16 | NO CLASS (Spring Break) |
| M Mar 23 |
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| M Mar 30 | last day to withdraw with a W or to request ungraded option NO CLASS (I’m away at the Sigma Tau Delta conference) |
| M Apr 6 |
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| M Apr 13 |
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| M Apr 20 |
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| M Apr 27 |
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| Th Apr 30 | Thesis Paragraph for PAPER 2 due as a shared Google Doc by 11:59pm |
| M May 4 |
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| Th May 7 | PAPER 2 DUE in Canvas before 11:59pm |
| FINAL EXAM PERIOD | FINAL EXAM |