SyllabusEnglish 1B Online, Fall 2006
Course Code: 53041
Instructor: S. Bowie
Email: sydney.bowie@reedleycollege.edu
Office: Room CCI 215 Phone: 638.3641 x3273
Required class meetings: 6-7 p.m. in HUM 62: 8/18 (Introduction), 10/13 
(Midterm), 12/13 (Final)
Welcome to English 1B at Reedley College!
English 1B is a literature survey and composition course that is designed to 
follow English 1A. Students will be introduced to four major literary genres: 
short story, novel, poetry, and drama. It is a three unit course, which is fully 
transferable to University of California and California State University and 
most other public and private four-year colleges and universities.
Students are required to read approximately 100 pages per week and to write 
papers related to the reading assignments. They will also be discussing the 
literature on the Blackboard web site, which is our electronic forum and virtual 
classroom, so it is important to keep up with the reading. Students should plan 
to spend 10-12 hours a week on this course, reading, writing and discussing the 
literature for the class. Students need to access the computer each day to read 
lectures, check the assignment schedule, post on the Discussion forum, look 
through and respond to email, or write a paper. Students may do these activities 
on their own schedule-on-line courses take place at all hours-but students must 
be organized enough not to fall behind.
BlackBoard Discussion: Students are required to post three messages a week to 
the Bb discussion forum. Full instructions and passwords are given at the first 
meeting.
Students are required to attend three meetings of the class on the Reedley 
Campus-an introductory meeting to receive passwords and learn to use the 
software, a midterm meeting to take the midterm and answer questions that have 
arisen, and a final meeting to take the final examination. For specific dates 
and times, see the calendar. Information about the midterm and final will be 
made available well in advance of those tests.
Last Day to drop without a grade: September 9

Texts:
  Backpack Literature, an Introduction to Fiction, Poetry and Drama, -X.J.(or 
  Joe) Kennedy (ISBN: 032133373X) 
  Handbook of Literary Terms, XJ Kennedy (packaged with Backpack Literature in 
  the Reedley College bookstore). ISBN: 0-321-20207-4 
  Bartleby and Benito Cereno, Melville 
  Favorite Poems, Wordsworth-Dover Edition 
  A novel selected from list. See Blackboard site for details.



Essays on literature topics: Students will write three papers relating to the 
reading assignments. The papers will vary in length but the general standard is 
500-700 words. Specific topics will be assigned. The paper will never be a 
summary of the work assigned, but will reflect the student's thoughts and 
analysis of the reading assignment.
Novel Papers: At the end of each unit, students will write a longer (750 word) 
paper on each novel studied. The last paper will incorporate literary criticism 
and research. 
       AssignmentPoints EachTotal Points
      Three Essays50150
      Two novel papers150300
      Weekly participation in Discussion Forum 10 each week150
      Midterm and Final 50100
      Various online assignments25100
       Total Points Possible*800

*Assignments and points may be changed a little--each class is different, but 
this table shows my intentions.
Grades: 90%=A; 80%=B; 65%=C; 50%=D
Note on grades: missing papers receive no points. Late papers are not accepted; 
contact me if you have an extraordinary situation. Computer problems are the 
students' responsibility. Make sure you have a good connection and back-up. 
Discussion (Blackboard) grades are awarded at the midterm and the final; the 
scores are based on quality and quantity (students need to post three messages a 
week) of students' messages. It's a subjective grade based on my careful reading 
of the discussion--it is very clear which students are contributing thoughtful 
entries.
Revised: 27 July 06 by S.Bowie