Summer, 2014, 1302
Hello, my name is Cliff Hudder, and greetings to all signed on for English 1302 Online Class for Summer of 2014.
This document is not a syllabus, but a way to give you all an idea of what’s coming up for the course in the Summer. There are some things you can be doing now to get started, but don’t fret too much. Like any “normal” class, English 1302 Online proceeds week by week at a reasonable pace, and does not require anything to begin save fulfilling registration requirements, having access the Internet and email and knowing how to use them, and basic keyboarding skills. The course itself will be available on your D2l page very soon
THE ORIENTATION: To quell your fears and questions about the orientation–it’s the sort of thing which can be done online, and will not require your presence at any particular location or any particular time before the Summer. This is pretty much how I run the course (with one important exception). I’m always trying to utilize the versatility available to us in an online section.
One part of the orientation is a short introduction specific to our course which you can read on Week 1 after class starts. Should you have questions after examining the online orientation, feel free to ask me via email, phone, or you can even come see me in person in Rm G120F on the Montgomery campus. I do think that even if you haven’t used D2L before, like any software, playing with it for a week or so will bring familiarity, and I’m expecting a learning curve for such things at the start of the course.
ABOUT THE COURSE IN GENERAL:
English 1302 is both a writing course and an introduction to the study of literature. It’s next to impossible to write meaningfully about literature without first considering some technical aspects about it, therefore the weekly readings (something like my classroom lectures) on the website are important, and information from there will make up most of the quizzes, mid-term and final exams. That said, I’ve been working over the past years to come up with ways to present literature that doesn’t reduce it to some sort of long dead specimen to be dissected and analyzed until all joy is drained from it . . . and I hope you’ll find the process more enlightening than painful.
OUR BOOK: Kennedy, X. J. Backpack Literature, New York: Addison Wesley Longman, 2008. 4th Edition.
This is the anthology from which we’ll be examining drama, poetry, and fiction. Beware: many of the other sections are using something else by an author named Madden—do not purchase the Madden text, just the Backpack Literature from X. J. Kennedy. This book is much cheaper (and better) than the one used by the other sections. Because the bookstores are commonly confused about this, I will be posting the first readings for the first week—but obtain that book as quickly as you can: it’s not optional.
Also I’ll be sending those of you with grammar or mechanical issues to examine a reference resource online: The Owl at Purdue. You can Google this now if you’d like to look it over: I’ll be providing links as well inside of the course.
THE FINAL: This is the only exception to the “not having to show up at any particular place at any particular time” aspect of the course. These “in-class” writing assignments for the course will be given on computers and be available at all Lone Star Testing Centers in the last weeks of class. Many other locations can be arranged by students so long as they are proctored. (I just had a student complete a similar course from Chile.)
There is no other way to insure that those who say they’re taking the course actually are, so you should consider that it is this exam which guarantees the integrity of your three credit hours.
That’s probably enough to burden you with before the semester is upon us, but feel free to email me with questions: After your section begins, I will answer within a working day. You might also catch me before the semester starts at my office: 976-273-7399, or leave a message. As I said, I believe the course will be enjoyable, and I’ve always found that if you jump in, keep up, and attempt everything, it’s difficult to do poorly in English 1302 Online.
Thanks, and welcome aboard,
Cliff Hudder