Times: MW 6:10-8:00 pm • Room: English Building 22-220 •  Instructor: Dr. Johanna Rubba • Office: 47-35B • Office phone: 756-2184 • E-mail: jrubba@polymail.calpoly.edu • Department phone: 756-2596 • Office Hours: TBA • Prerequisite: ENGL 503, 290 or consent of instructor.
Note: The quickest and surest way of contacting me is by e-mail or during office hours. I don't manage returning phone calls very well. Sorry if this causes inconvenience!

Texts: Exploring the language of poems, plays and proseby Mick Short.  Linguistics for Students of Literature is recommended, not required. It is especially recommended for grad students who will be taking the MA exam. Articles on reserve will also be assigned as we progress. I will update you on these as they become available. You can monitor what is on reserve by going to Polycat and clicking on either 'Reserves by Course Name' or 'Reserves by Instructor', via the following URL:

http://www.lib.calpoly.edu/polycat/polycat_frameset.html

Course description: Each art has its medium: the painter uses color, perspective, and line, among other things, to create visual images to be interpreted by the viewer. The dancer uses patterned bodily movement,  working together with music; the musician uses sound in all its great variety, but not sound alone: patterns and structures are built into the sound to give it form. This form is then invested with meaning by the listener.

The medium of literature is language: language is what literature is made of. Just as a painter will profit from the study of color theory, perspective, even human vision, aspiring literati, whether aspiring to roles as critic, writer, or both, can only benefit from a close study of how this medium can be shaped, bent, structured, styled to create different effects in the mind of the reader.

Language triggers thought and conceptualization in a listener or reader. How you structure your language directs the thoughts and conceptualizations of your audience.

This course will explore the ways in which writers use specific features of language, such as sound patterns, sentence length and complexity, metaphors, pronouns, verb tenses, etc. to build a world for the interpreter. From such a course you can gain skill not only in finding concrete support for interpretive analyses of specific literary works, but also in exploiting the vast resources our language provides when producing written (or spoken) works of your own.

The course will be conducted as a seminar. That means significant student participation is expected at each class meeting. Lectures by the instructor will be supplemented by students' questions and comments on the readings, and group and class work on analysis tasks, and (if time permits) peer discussions of student work. Students will be expected to be observant of language in literature they are reading for other courses or for pleasure, bringing in and discussing examples that are relevant to course topics.

Course requirements:

•  Participation will determine 30% of your course grade. Attendance is mandatory.  See my Attendance Policy page for the impact of absences on your grade.
• Assignments:  Small problems will be regularly assigned as the basis for work at the next class meeting.  Students are also expected to bring in samples of literature (or other 'stylized' language, such as advertising, bumper stickers, etc.) as discussion material. The way to get credit for this is to bring in a language sample with either sufficient comments or sufficient questions (in the context of current course topics) to get a discussion going. These will not be collected or graded, but being prepared will assure a good participation grade. Participation will be monitored closely, and the instructore will 'encourage' participation by calling on people! (If you need assistance providing enough copies for the class, contact me by 3-4:30 pm on the day of class, or earlier.)
• Grammar review: Part of the course will be a review of grammar terminology and sentence structure analysis techniques. See rationale below.** This material will be tested via quizzes and a grammar test near the end of the quarter. The grammar review will earn 20% of your course grade. Materials forthcoming. I plan to devote 20-30 min. of class time per week to the grammar review; support materials will be available on my website.
• Paper: You will write a substantial (15-20 pages) paper analyzing literature using the techniques developed in class and in the textbook. A schedule for completion of the papers is forthcoming. This paper counts for 50% of your grade, so you must get started early and consult with me frequently on it. Click here for more details on the paper.
• Final exam: There is no final exam for this course.

Participation:             60 points = 30%
Grammar review:     20 points = 20%
Paper:                      100 points = 50%
TOTAL:                     200 points = 100%

Click here for my Grading Standards, graduate and undergraduate. Undergraduates who enroll in the course will be held to undergraduate grading standards, which are more lenient that graduate standards. All students should take notice that punctuation, formal standard grammar, word usage, and overall organization of your paper will be taken into consideration when grading. Graduate students may expect tough standards in this area.

**Rationale for grammar review: I am assuming that all students enrolled in this course have had an introductory linguistics course, and so will be familiar with basic concepts and terminology in phonetics/phonology, morphology, syntax, and dialect variation. You will need this knowledge to function in this course and to accomplish the analysis project of your paper.

Linguistics courses, however, seldom cover in any detail more traditional topics in grammar, such as grammatical roles like subject and direct object. Short courses of ten weeks also seldom offer enough practice for a student to become proficient at quick, accurate analysis of sentences. These skills are, however, essential to linguistic analysis of literature, since they are part of the basic terminology and understanding used to talk about language. I have had the sad experience of grading MA exams and other student papers which play fast and loose with grammatical terminology (discussing 'tense in the noun', for example). I feel that a graduate program in English should produce graduates who can discuss English grammar accurately.

Grammar is also making a comeback in the teaching of language arts and writing at many levels. This review will prepare you for demands in your future teaching careers (other recent graduates have also commented that linguistics and grammar training is invaluable in, for example, technical writing and editing for private corporations).