English 111 – Syllabus Spring 2011

_________ English 111-201 Spring 2011: Syllabus• I do not require students to have a Netflix account for this class, but it is stronglyrecommended. You may want to consider temporarily signing up for one of their basicaccounts (typically $5-8 a month) for the duration of this class. Or, you might want to askaround and see if a friend has an account you can share. Like I said, I will try to provideyou with multiple viewing options, but having a Netflix account will definitely make yourlife easier.• If you aren't near the UWM Library and want to keep your costs down, check out yourlocal public library. You'd be amazed at how many films they have. (Also, tip: These daysyou can usually log into the library's website and reserve films for yourself in advance.)• When discussing film and television, you may also be asked to go to a movie theater towatch a film or turn on a television and watch content as it is broadcast live (commercialsand all ). When we focus on digital media, you may need to visit websites that requireyou to download and install plug-ins (i.e. Quicktime, Flash, etc.) to view their content. Ifyou think you may have problems doing any of these things, be sure to contact me thefirst week of class so we can discuss it.AssignmentsDiscussion and ParticipationAs an online course, this class relies heavily on the active participation of all students. Eachweek, most of our time will be spent discussing the readings and screenings. To fully participatein the course and to get the most out of it, you must take the time to reach through all posts andcomments. (Just FYI, D2L lets me see who does and does not read each post.) Regularly readingand responding will help you with the course material. Just as importantly, your contributions willalso allow you to help others in the class, as all of you work together to flush out an idea orhammer through a challenging question.As an online class, you will find yourself writing a lot in this course. With each of our study units(film, tv, digital media), you will find yourself writing several pages worth of comments and posts. Iwill provide guidelines to help you with creating your posts and to give you a sense of theappropriate tone for our discussions. At the beginning of the semester, I will also give youfeedback on your posts and comments so that you have a sense of what's expected.Reading and Screening NotesEach week you are expected to take notes as you read and watch the weekly assignments.These notes need to be uploaded to D2L by 11 pm each Tuesday. (If you prefer to take notes byhand, instead of typing them in a document, you may scan your handwritten notes and uploadthem as a pdf file.)EssaysYou will write three short essays this semester, one for each of the three study units (film, tv,digital media). These essays should be 4-5 pages long (double-spaced), use a standard sizedfont and follow the MLA style of citation and formatting. The essays will assess yourunderstanding of the theories, methods, trends, histories, and styles that will be presented to youthrough lectures, readings, and screenings.All work in this class must be your own. Any material or ideas taken from another person must beappropriately cited and contextualized. Failure to do these things will be considered an act ofplagiarism and will lead to failure in the class.Be warned, plagiarism is a serious offense under UWM's code of ethics and has seriousconsequences. For more information and additional university policies, go here:http://www.uwm.edu/Dept/SecU/SyllabusLinks.pdf.pg. 2