Faculty Syllabus

PREREQUISITES: 

Students must satisfy prerequisites for all 2000-level literature classes. Students can meet the prerequisite for 2000-level ENGL literature courses in three ways.

1. Students have credit for ENGL 1301 & ENGL 1302 or equivalents with a 

minimum grade of C. 2.

2. Students have credit for a sophomore-level literature class from ACC or a transfer institution with a minimum grade of C. (For example, E314 or E316 from UT or ENG 2000 courses from Texas State)

3. Students have 84 college credit hours from ACC and/or transfer institutions including ENGL1301 or its equivalent with a minimum grade of C.

● Students will present proof as needed, and the professor will verify.

● Faculty must confirm prerequisites for students to remain in class.

● A transcript or grade report proves a prerequisite.

ACC EMAIL - REQUIRED:

• You must use ACC student email; it’s the official way to receive notice from the College. 
• You’ll receive group announcements and individual communication that way.
• I will regularly send group announcements to your ACC mail. I will also communicate with you individually through that address.
• Make sure that you have activated your ACC email address and have forwarded it properly to a personal e-mail account if you don’t want to check your ACC account. It is your responsibility to make sure you receive all messages sent to your ACC email.  
• Instructions for activating an ACC mail account can be found at http://www.austincc.edu/accmail

` BLACKBOARD COURSE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM – REQUIRED:

• You must be able to submit assignments on Blackboard.
• Files submitted on Blackboard, except for Reading Notes as discussed below, must be in MS Word or Word-compatible formats.  Acceptable formats:  MS Word and free shareware Open Document.  Unacceptable formats:  pdf, Google docs, Mac or .pages files, Microsoft Works (saves as a .wps file).
• You are responsible for submitting in an acceptable format.
• Note that MS Word is installed on ACC computers available to students in libraries, learning labs, and other open computer labs.

STUDENT RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Familiarizing yourself with the policies of this class as they appear on the syllabus and adhering to the policies.
• Familiarizing yourself with all the materials posted on the Blackboard course site.
• Purchasing required course materials at the beginning of the semester.
• Submitting papers, quizzes, paper revisions, and other assignments by the published deadlines and according to assignment guidelines. 
• Reading textbook and materials before the class in which the readings will be discussed.
• Participating in class discussion and activities.

FACULTY RESPONSIBILITIES: 

• Grade all assignments promptly and consistently.
• Respect and encourage student writing and in-class discussion.
• Enforce policies consistently for all class members.
• Hold office hours as scheduled.
• Maintain the schedule and deadlines listed on the syllabus.
• Provide written notifications of any changes in policy, deadlines, or procedure.  Such notification may come in the form of an e-mail and announcement posted on Blackboard.
• Work cooperatively with students who request assistance.

ATTENDANCE:

Attending class is an absolute must in order to be successful. If you know in advance you will have to miss a session, please let me know in advance. If you miss class unexpectedly, please let me know why at your earliest opportunity. It is your responsibility to get caught up on what you will have missed: either ask me (at an appropriate time or via email) or ask your classmates. Any student who misses more than 12 class sessions in total may be withdrawn. 

ACADEMIC PROGRESS:

Students need to maintain steady academic progress throughout the course. If a student receives an F grade on the revised final version of one of the two extended writing projects in the course, or on six or more of the weekly Reading Response assignments, they may be withdrawn.  

WITHDRAWAL:

It is important to know that The Texas State Legislature passed a bill stating that students who first enroll in public colleges and universities beginning in fall 2007 and thereafter may not withdraw from more than six classes during their undergraduate college career. See the ACC Student Handbook for further information.

LATE WORK:

If you suspect at any point that you will not be able to submit an assignment by the deadline, for whatever reason, please contact me (in person or via email) in advance to arrange an extension. Without such an official extension, work not submitted by a deadline will be penalized by losing a letter grade per day until it receives a fail grade (“F”).

ACADEMIC MISCONDUCT AND PLAGIARISM:

Acts prohibited by the College for which discipline may be administered include scholastic dishonesty (e.g., cheating on an exam or quiz, plagiarizing, and unauthorized collaboration with another in preparing outside work). Academic work submitted by students should always be the result of their own thought, research, or self-expression. Plagiarism can be defined as using the words and ideas of another writer without acknowledging the debt. Plagiarism takes many forms, including the omission of parenthetical citations, the failure to place quotation marks around direct or modified content taken from another source, and another person writing the essay for the student. It is of utmost importance for students to understand that in academic and professional life, plagiarism of any kind is absolutely unacceptable. We will be studying the MLA referencing system as part of the course and you will be expected to use it. Plagiarism, whether deliberate or inadvertent, will be penalized. 

AI USE POLICY:

ACC makes a distinction between two forms of AI usage:

• Instructive AI (Grammarly, Packback, etc.), which can help check existing writing.
• Generative AI (ChatGPT, Gemini, etc.), which can generate writing and images from scratch.

In brief, it is OK to use AI resources that fall into the first category as writing resources, but AI resources in the second category are much more problematic.  If a student is found to have used generative AI to create 50% or more of a given assignment it will be regarded as a case of plagiarism: the student will first be asked to revise the assignment to make it more original, and then, if the issues are not resolved in the revised version, the assignment will receive an F grade.  

• I expect students to put their own effort into each step of the writing process, including generating ideas, drafting, and revising. Even when AI is used as a tool, it should not substitute for a student's critical thinking. 
• I require that all final assignments reflect a student's unique ideas stated in their original words and sentences. Any ideas or phrasing that are not directly from a student must be properly attributed to their sources. Even when AI is used, it should not be used to generate content that will be graded as if it were a student's own. For those assignments where a list of references is required, use of instructive and/or generative AI must be documented.

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION:

You are strongly encouraged to participate in class. In any classroom situation that includes discussion and critical thinking, there are bound to be many differing viewpoints. These differences enhance the learning experience and create an atmosphere where students and instructors alike will be encouraged to think and learn. On sensitive and volatile topics, students may sometimes disagree not only with each other but also with the instructor. It is expected that faculty and students will respect the views of others both when expressed in classroom discussions or class-related writing.

COURSE SCHEDULE:

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

English 2323, British Literature II: A survey of the development of British literature from the Romantic period to the present. Students will study works of prose, poetry, drama, and fiction in relation to their historical and cultural contexts. Texts will be selected from a diverse group of authors and traditions.

COURSE SCHEDULE:

COURSE OBJECTIVES/RATIONALE: 

The goals of sophomore literature courses are:

• To provide a working knowledge of the characteristics of various literary genres.
• To develop analytical skills and critical thinking through reading, discussion, and written assignments.
• To broaden a student’s intercultural reading experience.
• To deepen a student’s awareness of the universal human concerns that are the basis for literary works.
• To stimulate a greater appreciation of language as an artistic medium and of the aesthetic principles that shape literary works.
• To understand literature as an expression of human values within a historical and social context.

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES: 

Upon completion of sophomore literature, students should be able to:

• Identify key ideas, representative authors and works, significant historical or cultural events, and characteristic perspectives or attitudes expressed in the literature of different periods or regions.
• Analyze literary works as expressions of individual or communal values within the social, political, cultural, or religious contexts of different literary periods.
• Demonstrate knowledge of the development of characteristic forms or styles of expression during different historical periods or in different regions.
• Articulate the aesthetic principles that guide the scope and variety of works in the arts and humanities.
• Write research based critical papers about the assigned readings in clear and grammatically correct prose, using various critical approaches to literature.

COMPOSITION & LITERARY STUDIES DEPARTMENT STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES:

The following outcomes are developed in all sophomore literature students regardless of student age or course location:

• Write clearly, coherently and effectively about various genres in literature
• In discussions and writing, address the culture and context of the work of literature
• Write about and discuss elements of literary texts and relate these to the work as a whole.

CORE OBJECTIVES (GENERAL EDUCATION LEARNING OUTCOMES):

Upon completion of the general education component of an associate’s degree, students will demonstrate competence in:

• Critical Thinking Skills (CT) - creative thinking, innovation, inquiry, and analysis, evaluation and synthesis of information 
• Communication Skills (COM) - effective development, interpretation and expression of ideas through written, oral and visual communication 
• Teamwork (TW) - ability to consider different points of view and to work effectively with others to support a shared purpose or goal
• Social Responsibility (SR) - intercultural competence, knowledge of civic responsibility, and the ability to engage effectively in regional, national, and global communities 
• Personal Responsibility (PR) - ability to connect choices, actions and consequences to ethical decision-making