ENGL 1301

ENGL 1301 is the second of the three First Year Writing classes in the English Department at SMU. It is also the first class taught by graduate students in the PhD Program at the school. The following information is based upon a model syllabus developed by English Department faculty.

Course Objectives
The primary objective of English 1301 is to help students become better writers. Writing well is an essential ability not only in advanced university-level work but also after graduation, no matter what career or field of endeavor one chooses.

Course Requirements
To complete the course successfully, students must write five essays: three done primarily out of class and two done almost entirely in class. In addition, there will be ten ten-question quizzes spread across the semester to make sure that students have read the assigned material and paid attention in class. Students who miss the first in-class paper or as many as three of the ten quizzes and who have an excused absence for the day on which the task occurred may make up the missed work on make-up day, which is Friday, December 5. Students with no work to make up are excused from class on make-up day. The value of the assignments is listed below:
 * Paper 1=20 points
 * Paper 2=25 points
 * Paper 3 (In Class)=10 points
 * Paper 4=25 points
 * Paper 5 (In Class)=10 points
 * Quizzes=10 points (each quiz question is worth 0.1 points for the course)

Grading Scale

 * 94-100                    A
 * 90-93                      A-
 * 87-89                      B+
 * 83-86                      B
 * 80-82                      B-
 * 77-79                      C+
 * 73-76                      C
 * 70-72                      C- (Please note that students must make a C- or above to receive credit for this course)
 * 67-69                      D+
 * 63-66                      D
 * 60-62                      D-
 * 0-59                        F

Course Readings
Readings for ENGL 1301 usually include a unit on the First Year Students' Common Reading and some readings from Criteria, the First Year Writing Department's annual journal. Additionally, the following texts and authors have been used in courses in the past:
 * Joan Didion's "On Going Home."
 * N. Scott Momaday's "The Way to Rainy Mountain."
 * Sandra Cisneros's "Only Daughter."
 * Ray Bradbury's "The Veldt."
 * Selections from the Biblical book of Genesis.
 * Leah Hager Cohen's "Words Left Unspoken."
 * Jimmy Santiago Baca's "I Ask Myself, Should I Cry? Or Laugh?"
 * Selections from the English Book of Common Prayer.
 * William Morris's "The Haystack in the Floods."
 * Richard Rodriguez's "The Achievement of Desire."
 * bell hooks's "Keeping Close to Home: Class and Education."
 * Selections from the Koran.
 * The Biblical book of Jonah.
 * Plato's "The Allegory of the Cave."
 * Toni Cade Bambara's "The Lesson."
 * Roland Marchand's "The Parable of the Democracy of Goods."
 * Steve Craig's "Men's Men and Women's Women."
 * Michael Levin's "The Case for Torture."
 * Tom Regan's "The Case for Animal Rights."
 * Henry David Thoreau's "Life Without Principle."
 * E.M. Forster's "What I Believe."
 * Chinua Achebe's "Language and the Destiny of Man."
 * Selections from St. Augustine's Confessions.
 * Katherine Anne Porter's "St. Augustine and the Bullfight."

Other Versions
This is a template version of this course. Graduate students beyond their second year may adapt it as necessary. As this course is adapted, new variations on it will be listed and linked to below.

Resources

 * An example syllabus for ENGL 1301.
 * A possible schedule for ENGL 1301.