Literature Off the Page

Student Learning Outcomes, Goals, Objectives:

Students successfully completing this course will be able to:

• Analyze written texts to understand how they relate to particular audiences, purposes, and contexts as a way to inform one’s own writing.
• Create and revise written texts for particular audiences, purposes, and contexts.
• Through oral or written reflection demonstrate awareness of one’s writing choices as well as how one’s own writing contributes to ongoing conversations.
• The ability to read critically and discuss the aesthetic, rhetorical, or cultural qualities in texts.
• The ability to develop convincing, well-supported print or digital projects.
• The ability to understand the relationship of literature or rhetoric to history or culture.
• The ability to incorporate research into a print or digital project.
• The ability to understand and implement a literary or rhetorical theories.

Course Grading Information:

Activity/Performance Measure	Percentage/Points
Class Attendance and Active Participation	20%
Discussion Posts	15%
Dramatic Analysis	20%
Formal Speech/Spoken-Word Poem	20%
Rhetorical Analysis Essay (Final)	25%

Grading Scale for the Course

Percentage	Letter Grade
93.0 and above	A
90.0 – 92.9	A-
87.0 – 89.9	B+
83.0 – 86.9	B
80.0 – 82.9	B-
77.0 – 79.9	C+
73.0 – 76.9	C
70.0 – 72.9	C-
67.0 – 69.9	D+
63.0 – 66.9	D
60.0 – 62.9	D-
Below 60.0	F

Attendance/Participation:

You are allowed four unexcused absences before your attendance grade is impacted. Excused absences concern unavoidable occurrences, such as illness, work-related events, advising sessions, childcare concerns, car trouble, minor emergencies, etc. If you feel that your absence falls under those criteria, email me and your grade will not be affected. However, after eight excused absences, I will request to meet with you to discuss a potential alternative learning plan that will allow you to satisfy the requirements for this class. If you miss ten classes, you will be failed, regardless of whether those absences are excused or unexcused. You may write an optional essay to make up for one absence. Alternative learning plans may include extensions for written work, additional written assignments to demonstrate comprehension of the material, etc.

State law requires that students be allowed two absences due to religious holidays; please notify me at least 48 hours prior to your anticipated absence. Intercollegiate athletes should provide official documentation of anticipated absences early in the semester. Absences for religious holidays and documented athletic events will not count toward the maximums described above.

If you have extenuating circumstances such as serious illness, chronic illness, an injury requiring prolonged medical treatment, prolonged psychological issues, etc., you should make your instructor aware of these circumstances as soon as possible and keep your instructor informed until you are able to return to class. You should also contact the Dean of Students Office, which can review documentation and notify multiple instructors on your behalf, especially if hospitalization or distress prevent you from doing so yourself. You should be aware, however, that the Dean of Students Office will not override any individual instructor’s attendance policy and that decisions about whether and how to accommodate students in distress are made by individual instructors. The Dean of Students office is located at 210 Elliott University Center, and can be reached at 336-334-5514 or deanofstudentsoffice@uncg.edu.

Course Materials Purchased by the Students:

• Hall, Emily, and Andrew Saulters, eds. Literature Matters. Seventh Edition. The Department of English, The University of North Carolina, Greensboro, 2024.
• Shakespeare, William. Julius Caesar. Folger Edition. Simon & Schuster, 2004. ISBN: 9780743482745.
• Wilson, August. Fences. Penguin Random House, 1986. ISBN: 9780452264014.
• Osborn, John. Look Back in Anger. Penguin, 1987. ISBN: 9780871292223.
• Mitchell, Anaïs. Hadestown. Ingram Publishing, 2021. ISBN: 9780573708855.