Office Hours:
By appointment (leonhirt@tecomm.com)
Students are welcome to send requests for further explanations of course materials or assignments or other questions by email to the instructor. Please use email as a learning tool. Use leonhirt@tecomm.com to contact me.
To provide a survey of American literature to include a variety of genres including drama, poetry, novels, and short stories and to move from literature of colonial times to contemporary American literature.
To develop an understanding of American literature and its contributions through
The class will include lectures, guest speakers, class discussions, and research projects to explore these topics. Grading of performance in the class and of understanding of course materials will include evaluation of tests, writing assignments, and class discussions.
The required text for the course is "A History of American Literature." (The textbook is in .pdf format and will be forwarded to each student.)
Readings also will include other materials online and class handouts.
Examinations for the class will include short essay questions and will try to measure your understanding of course materials and allow application of course materials. The final exam for the class will be comprehensive.
Each student will prepare two briefing papers during the semester. One
briefing paper will deal with an individual important to American literature. Please
focus on an individual who made significant contributions, but who may be
less well-known. One briefing paper will deal with a characteristic of literature with a focus on its role in American literature.
Each briefing paper should be no more than 3 pages
(typed and double-spaced, not including citations and references.
Each briefing paper about the individual will include at least the following information:
I. Concise biography.
II. Contributions of individual to American literature.
III. Current status of those contributions.
IV. Your analysis of the importance of those contributions to the study of American literature.
V. List at least five sources for additional reading. These do not include the references that you use for your citations.
Please confer with the instruction about an appropriate subject for the briefing paper about the literature characteristic.
For your briefing paper, include:
I. Information about the characteristic of literature you are examining.
II. Information about its relationship to other characteristics of literature.
III. An examination of the specific role of the characteristic in American literature.
IV. Your analysis of the importance of this characteristic to the study of American literature.
V. List at least five sources for additional reading. These do not include the references that you use for your citations.
Students may do the briefing papers in the order they wish.
GRADES:
Grading Scale
Grading for the class will be as follows:
Grades for attendance will be based on the same scale as overall grading for the class. If you attend at least 90 percent of class sessions, for example, you will receive an "A" for attendance.