updated 10/1/15
Lewis Carroll
E349S, #34525,Writing Flag
TTh 2-3:15 Denius room, 2nd floor, HRC
Jerome Bump
Office Hours: TTh 3:30-6:30 in Parlin 132 Office phone 471-8747
We will explore the works of Lewis Carroll chronologically and by systematically working our way through the enormous collection in the Harry Ransom Center. More importantly, we will explore them as the author may well have intended: with our child as well as our adult selves, with both sides of our brains, the emotional as well as the rational, the visual as well as the verbal, etc.
Required Texts: The Annotated Alice, the Definitive
Edition (hardback: Norton: 9780393048476).All other texts will be included in the course anthology, which is a collection of photocopied materials (sometimes over eight-hundred pages long). It will be available from Jenn's, 2000 Guadalupe (basement of the Church of Scientology at 22nd and Guadalupe, 473-8669). It will cost about $80; Jenn's takes major credit cards, of course. However, if you don't get there within the first few days you might want to call ahead to make sure they have a copy reserved for you.)
Literacy: To prepare you for your college and later careers we will cultivate digital, information, and print literacy and practice college-level writing, speaking, listening, discussing, and analyzing ideas. Grades will be based in part on meeting the two expectations employers have of college graduates: time management, and the ability to read, analyze, and follow complex, detailed directions.
Digital Literacy. Writing, from blogs to projects, will also require digital literacy (multimedia) as well as print literacy. Because the "Five Characteristics of a Successful Student at U.T." include "Good computer skills" as well as "Strong writing skills," students will be expected to check the course Blogs and the Canvas Gradebook, especially the day before class. In addition, there will be a closed Facebook site "to help students develop a small community within the larger whole" (CRUE). Because email is an official means of communication at this university, outside of class and office hours, students are required to use email to communicate with the instructor, rather than the Canvas "Communication" system. Hence students must also maintain their best email address in the U.T. Direct system.
Quizzes and informal writing: There will be daily quizzes on the assigned readings worth up to twenty points, -10 if you get none right, -5 if you get one right. However, if you have a valid blog posted before the deadline you will only get -5 if you have none right. Informal writing will be blogs about the readings in preparation for class discussion. One way to practice the emotional literacy required for our approach to Carroll's works is to briefly identify emotions felt in the previous week in a session known as "High and Low." You can earn points and prepare for these weekly sessions by doing a weekly blog in the "Emotional Literacy" discussion blog.
Your formal writing will be two research projects on Lewis Carroll of at least fourteen-hundred words each. Each project must include at least two images or other multimedia and at least one quotation from a source not available on the internet. You can create two separate projects, or one project of twenty-eight hundred words (which must include at least four images and at least two quotations from sources not available on the internet and must be submitted twice for peer review, either in two separate parts or in two drafts). Each individual project is worth two hundred and fifty points + up to one hundred more points for focusing on materials in the HRC. Thus the maximum number of points you can earn for your research writing is five hundred, plus two hundred more for HRC research, or seven-hundred points, out of a thousand needed for an A in the course. (However, do not slack off in the rest of the course, as it is quite difficult to earn anywhere near the maximum number of points.)Each project will be revised in response to peer critiques before the instructor's grading and critique. For these assignments especially, students should be prepared to think for themselves, that is, to practice discovery learning. Discovery learning means that there will be fewer instructions about the content of projects than what students may be used to from other courses. This can be frustrating for some, especially those who want a detailed formula that will guarantee them a good grade. Instead, students will be encouraged to be creative and write about what is most important to them. However, all students will be expected to follow very detailed instructions about the form and format of the essay.
Grades. About 50% of the final grade will be determined by multimedia web projects (250 points each), 26% by informal writing such as Blogs (260 points); 14% by the daily quizzes (140 points), and at least 10% by class discussion and attendance (100 points). To pass the course students must demonstrate college-level writing, complete all basic requirements of both projects, and score at least 50% of the total for the writing categories (rubrics) for each project. 1075 points (out of 1,300 or more) are required for an A+ (unofficial grade); 1050 for an A; 1000 for an A-; 965 for a B+; 945 for a B; 900 for a B-; 865 for a C+; 845 for a C; 800 for a C-; 765 for a D+; 735 for a D; and 700 for a D-. Because more than 1200 points will be available, students can emphasize formal over informal writing or vice versa. However, at the end of the course, students will receive exactly the grade recorded in the online gradebook, even if it is one point short of the next higher grade.
Writing Grades: Your formal writing assignments will be two essays. All must be polished, college-level writing scoring at least sixty percent of the rubrics total score. For these assignments especially, students should be prepared to think for themselves. Discovery learning means that there will be fewer instructions for the content of the projects than what students may be used to from other courses. This can be frustrating for some, especially those who want a detailed formula that will guarantee them a good grade. Instead students will be encouraged to be creative and write about what is most important to them. However, while the specific subject varies, all students will be expected to follow very detailed instructions about the form and format of the essay.
Grades for projects especially will be based in part on meeting the two expectations employers have of college graduates: time management, and the ability to read, analyze, and follow complex, detailed directions. Essay one will be critiqued by the instructor. Both essays will be revised in response to peer critiques before the instructor's grading and critique. You cannot pass the course without satisfactory critiques of others and without writing college-level essays. However, you can get help from me, your classmates, and the Undergraduate Writing Center.
Class participation grades: up to nine points per class for being on time, bringing the right materials, schedule and blog printouts, etc. A way to practice practical sustainability is to copy the relevant pages into Word, then 'select all" and decrease the size of the font and spacing, and then print, specifying black and white only. If possible, print on both sides of the page. Most important of all, use only recycled paper! No points will be awarded until you attach to your next printout the label from a package of 100% recycled paper, such as Aspen100, available at Office Depot or Office Max: five-hundred sheets for $10.49 or so.
SCHEDULE: FOR LATEST VERSION GO TO www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~bump/34915/
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Policies
Our training in practical ethics will include evaluation of student behavior in the course, including lying to the instructor about absences etc., but especially actions that hurt other students' educational opportunities, such as interrupting class by coming late or by not completing the minimum number of peer critiques.
Class discussion penalties: students who talk to others while the speaker is talking and/or encourage this rude behavior with a willing ear will have fifteen points deducted from their class participation/attendance grade for each incident. Egregious behavior such as sleeping in class, reading materials other than ours, looking at your cell phone (must be turned off and stowed in backpack), iPod, iPad, or computer during class, acting out, disrupting class, etc. will be subject to a thirty-point penalty for each incident. Students who insult, threaten, or harass others will have fifty points deducted from their grade for each incident, and be referred to the Dean of Students.
Being on time:Students prepare for class discussion by being on time. There will be heavier penalties for being late than for being absent. Why? Basically, because being absent does not disrupt the class and coming in late does.
There are in fact three important reasons for penalizing lateness in this way: [1] To prepare you for the real world (employers will not tolerate this kind of behavior). [2] To be courteous and respectful of your colleagues. [3] To avoid "enabling," that is, to encourage repeat offenders to learn the lessons they need to learn.
The ultimate reasons are found in the essay by Dr. Carl Pickhardt on the website. The key sentences in that document for a teacher are: "Maintain adult demands and expect young people to meet them. Accept no excuses, make no exceptions, and attempt no rescues. Listen respectfully and empathetically and do not criticize the young person for not measuring up to what college expected. Encourage learning more responsibility from facing consequences of how one chose to act. And support the courage to keep growing forward in life."
Hence, there will be no attendance or class participation credit for the first late appearance, -5 points for the second, double the penalty for the third, triple for the fourth, etc. If anyone chooses to open the door for someone who comes late for the third time or more, they will receive the same penalties as the one who arrives late.
Honor Code. The core values of The University of Texas at Austin are learning, discovery, freedom, leadership, individual opportunity, and responsibility. Each member of the university is expected to uphold these values through integrity, honesty, trust, fairness, and respect toward peers and community. Plagiarism and other lapses in ethics will be punished severely. Any work, any paragraph, any sentence submitted by a student in this course for academic credit must be the student's own work, unless the source is explicitly acknowledged. (See "Paraphrasing vs. Plagiarism" in the course anthology). For additional information on academic Integrity, see http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/sjs/acadint.php . For Student Judicial Services see http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/sjs/
Disabilities: The University of Texas at Austin provides upon request appropriate academic accommodations for qualified students with disabilities. For more information, contact Services for Students with Disabilities at 471-6259 (voice) or 232-2937 (video phone) or http://www.utexas.edu/diversity/ddce/ssd
FERPA: students will be asked to give written permission to read and/or critique certain documents of other students that will eventually be graded..
Religious Holy Days: By UT Austin policy, you must notify the instructor of your pending absence at least fourteen days prior to the date of observance of a religious holy day. If you must miss a class, an examination, a work assignment, or a project in order to observe a religious holy day, you will be given an opportunity to complete the missed work within a reasonable time after the absence.
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About the Professor: Jerome Bump has been awarded a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship, a N. D. E. A. Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, the Jeanne Holloway Award for undergraduate teaching, the Chad Oliver award for Plan II teaching, the Dad's Association Centennial Teaching Fellowship for instructing freshmen, and the Rhodes Centennial Teaching Fellowship for directing the Computer Writing and Research Laboratory. His latest publication is "Biophilia and Emotive Ethics: Derrida, Alice, and Animals," Ethics and the Environment 19.2 (2014 ): 59-91.
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The following recommendations regarding emergency evacuation are from the Office of Campus Safety and Security, 512-471-5767, http://www.utexas.edu/safety/ :
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Occupants of buildings on The University of Texas at Austin campus are required to evacuate buildings when a fire alarm is activated. Alarm activation or announcement requires exiting and assembling outside.
- Familiarize yourself with all exit doors of each classroom and building you may occupy. Remember that the nearest exit door may not be the one you used when entering the building
- Students requiring assistance in evacuation shall inform their instructor in writing during the first week of class.
- In the event of an evacuation, follow the instruction of faculty or class instructors.
- Do not re-enter a building unless given instructions by the following: Austin Fire Department, The University of Texas at Austin Police Department, or Fire Prevention Services office.
- Behavior Concerns Advice Line (BCAL): 512-232-5050
- Link to information regarding emergency evacuation routes and emergency procedures can be found at: www.utexas.edu/emergency
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"Stress Recess" Stressed by papers? Tests? Relationship issues? For these and other stressors, take a few minutes to check out a new interactive website called "Stress Recess" at http://www.cmhc.utexas.edu/stressrecess, a component of the UT Counseling and Mental Health Center. This site is loaded with videos, animation, video games, body scans, quizzes, clickable charts and graphics and practical information tailored to YOU. Learn what causes stress, signs of stress and—most importantly---what you can do to manage stress in healthy ways!
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