Documentos de Académico
Documentos de Profesional
Documentos de Cultura
The theme for this section of English 367 is “Postmodern America: (Re)Reading, (Re)Thinking,
(Re)Writing.” The keystone text will be Don DeLillo’s White Noise with supplementary readings
from Harry G. Frankfurt’s On Bullshit and On Truth. These texts will help us to explore our
contemporary postmodern condition, which refers to a cultural, intellectual, or artistic state
lacking a clear central hierarchy or organizing principle and embodying extreme complexity,
contradiction, ambiguity, diversity, and interconnectedness or interreferentiality. Examining
these topics in literature will help us better understand how to tackle difficult, real-world
postmodern questions such as: What is truth? What is reality? How can we best investigate
reality so that all humanity can understand the world in which we live and prosper from such
knowledge? This course is premised on the idea that answering difficult questions (i.e.,
producing good writing), takes time and commitment; therefore, significant emphasis will be
placed on revision (rereading, rethinking, rewriting) throughout the quarter.
Required Texts
∗ DeLillo, Don. White Noise. New York: Penguin, 1985. ISBN#: 0-14-007702-2
∗ Frankfurt, Harry G. On Bullshit. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2005. ISBN #: 0-691-12294-6
∗ ---. On Truth. New York: Knopf, 2006. ISBN #: 0-307-26422-X
Recommended Text
∗ Kirszner, Laurie G. and Stephen R. Mandell. The Pocket Wadsworth Handbook. 3rd Ed. Boston:
Heinle, 2006. ISBN #: 1-4130-1168-3
Course Policies
Attendance is important to the success of this class and to your development as a writer;
therefore, each unexcused absence after two will result in the lowering of your final
grade by a third, and it is program policy that five unexcused absences will
automatically result in failure for the course. Excused absences accompanied by official,
written documentation, such as illness, family tragedy, religious observance, or travel
for inter-collegiate athletics, will not affect your grade. Whether the absence is excused
or unexcused it is your responsibility to contact the instructor for compensatory work.
Tardiness is disruptive to the classroom environment, and prevents you from fully
participating and assimilating the information and materials discussed in class.
Excessive tardiness will lower your participation grade: showing up more than five
minutes late will constitute a tardy, and three tardies will constitute one unexcused
absence.
Plagiarism is the unauthorized use of the words or ideas of another person. It is a serious
academic offense that can result in referral to the Committee on Academic Misconduct
and failure for the course. Please remember that at no point during the writing process
should the work of others be presented as your own.
Student Work must be completed and submitted on time. All assignments must be
turned in during the class period when they are due.
1. Draft assignments: Turning in draft assignments late will mean that you cannot
receive a timely or full response from the instructor. Failure to turn in an
assignment draft at all will result in the deduction of one-third of a letter grade
on the final version of the paper (for example, B+ to B). Further, if the
assignment draft was part of a peer group exercise, failure to turn in the draft
will lower your participation grade.
2. Final graded assignments: Late submission of a final graded assignment will
result in the deduction of one full letter grade for each day past the due date
(for example, B+ to C+).
The grade will not be affected when a draft or final graded assignment is late for
reasons that would result in an excused absence. Students who know they will miss the
class when the assignment is due must contact the instructor as soon as possible in
advance of class to arrange for submission of the assignment.
Please pick up all late-quarter work as soon as possible. Materials will be held until the
end of the second quarter subsequent to the quarter in which you take English 367.
Paper Format: double spaced, 12 point font, standard 1 inch margins, your name,
instructor’s name, the class, and the date should appear in the upper left corner of the
first page; pages should be numbered according to MLA standards; paper should have
a title.
Class Cancellation Policy: In the unlikely event due to emergency, I will contact you via
email and request that a note on department letterhead be placed on the door. In
addition, I will contact you as soon as possible following the cancellation to let you
know what will be expected of you for our next class meeting.
Resources
The Ombudsman of the Writing Programs, Dr. Matthew Cariello, mediates conflicts
between teachers and students in 110 and 367. You can contact him at 292-5778 or
cariello.1@osu.edu. Spring 2008 office hours in Denney Hall 412 are Monday, Tuesday,
and Wednesday 1:30 – 3:00 p.m., but other times are available by appointment. All
conversations with the Ombudsman are strictly confidential.
Writing Center consultants hold one-to-one writing tutorials with any member of the
OSU community at 475 Mendenhall Laboratory (Monday-Friday, 9:30 a.m.–5:30 p.m.),
at the Younkin Success Center (Monday-Thursday, 5:30-7:30 p.m.), and through the
Carmen chat system (www.carmen.osu.edu). In addition, clients can have face-to-face
tutorials recorded to CDs and can schedule appointments online. Please visit
www.cstw.org to make an appointment or to have an online tutorial. Clients may also
call 688-4291 to take advantage of this free, professional writing tutoring and
consultation service.
The Office for Disability Services, located in 150 Pomerene Hall, offers services for
students with documented disabilities. Contact the ODS at 292-3307.
Course Requirements
Please note that you must complete all assignments in order to pass the course.
No later than the final class day of the quarter (Wednesday, May 28, 2008), you will
submit a portfolio of three representative (Re)Reading, (Re)Thinking, (Re)Writing
Journal entries. Your choice of entries should showcase your highest quality
compositional craftsmanship in content and style per the guidelines suggested
immediately above. Entries may be edited prior to portfolio submission but should stay
true to the original topic and should not exceed 500 words each. These entries will also
be accompanied by a 250-500 word “reflection.” More information about this portfolio
will follow (10%).
Secondly, after presenting your analytical summaries, you and your peer will lead the
class in a twenty-minute comprehensive and analytical discussion of your assigned
reading. You must come prepared with at least five to ten discussion questions and
should provide a handout for your classmates (which may or may not include a copy or
outline of your analytical summaries and a list of the discussion questions for the day).
You should also consider using some form of visual support (Power Point presentation,
overheads, etc.), but, most importantly, you must involve your fellow students in
lively discussion. Be creative in finding ways to engage the class in a productive
discussion.
This class requires the regular use of Ohio State’s course management system, Carmen.
You will use Carmen to participate in online class discussions, to download and to print
additional course materials, to gain easy access to helpful resources, to turn in some
daily and all larger drafts and final assignments, and to track your grades, among other
things. Navigate to https://carmen.osu.edu/, double click “log in,” and sign in with your
OSU Internet User name and Password. Click the “+” next to “Spring 2008” under “My
Courses” in the middle of the page, then click an additional “+” if necessary, until you
find “ENGLISH 367.01 (CLEMENTS) -10.” Click this once, and you will find you are
already enrolled in the course. Additional navigation techniques will be discussed on
in class if necessary, and help is available at http://telr.osu.edu/carmen/stu/index.htm. I
rely heavily upon Carmen and communication via e-mail; therefore, you will need to
check your university e-mail account at least once or twice daily.
Daily Schedule
!!Note: Readings should be completed before coming to class on the day under which they are listed!!