ENGLISH 321 - MEDIEVAL BRITISH LITERATURE

--------------------, Instructor English 321.001 - Summer I, 2006

Office: LI 218K 11:30-1:20 MTWR - Linthicum 015
Phone: ------------------------ Office Hours: 1:30-2:30 MW & by appointment
E-Mail: -----------------------

COURSE INFORMATION

REQUIRED TEXT: Thomas J. Garbáty, ed., Medieval English Literature. Prospect Heights, IL:
Waveland, 1984.

COURSE COVERAGE: This course will cover—in the original language—medieval English
lyrics, legends, romance, drama, allegorical verse, fabliaux, and chronicles. In addition to the
works themselves, relevant background material will also be covered.

COURSE OBJECTIVES: The course will have three main objectives: 1) to learn to pronounce
and understand Middle English with a reasonable degree of accuracy and ease; 2) to gain a basic
acquaintance with the background material and with some of the fundamental scholarly concerns
connected with Middle English literature; 3) to examine and discuss the selected readings as
works of literature and as sources of insight and enjoyment.

COURSE GRADES: Course grades will be based on the following work:

Midterm Examination 25%

Research Paper 25%
Final Examination 30%
Class work Grade 20%

The two examinations, part objective and part essay, will cover both the reading assignments and
the class material (lectures, discussions, handouts). The objective questions will test your
knowledge of relevant factual information. The essay questions will test such things as your
ability to evaluate literature, to respond to a specific questions and support general statements
with relevant material, and to demonstrate good writing ability. The research paper will be
approximately five to eight pages double-spaced and will be on some topic related to one of the
works covered in the course. The class work grade will include class participation, reading
ability (including pronunciation and translation), and anything else not covered in the other
categories.

ATTENDANCE: Regular attendance is expected. Repeated absences, whether excused or

unexcused, will be detrimental to your class work grade, as could repeated late arrivals or early
departures.
STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES: If you need accommodation due to a disability, please
make an appointment to see me, and bring a statement from Disability Support Services (410-
704-2638) authorizing your accommodation.

CHEATING AND PLAGIARISM: All work done in this course must be your work only.
Cheating and/or plagiarism could result in an "F" for the course. For details see the Student
Academic Integrity Policy.

NOTE: This course may be repeated only once without permission of the Academic Standards
Committee.

TENTATIVE COURSE SYLLABUS

May 30 Introduction
May 31 Middle English Language & Lyrics
June 1 Lyrics
June 5 Piers Plowman
June 6 Piers Plowman
Research paper topic
June 7 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
selected
June 8 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
June 12 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
June 13 Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
June 14 MIDTERM EXAMINATION (25%)
Last day to change
June 15 Pearl
research paper topic
Last day to drop course
June 19 Pearl
with W or P/F
June 20 Brut
June 21 Morte D'Arthur Research papers due
June 22 King Horn
June 26 Mandeville's Travels
June 27 The Miller's Tale
June 28 Everyman
June 29 FINAL EXAMINATION (30%)
 RESEARCH PAPER ASSIGNMENT

ASSIGNMENT: Write a research paper relating in some way to one or more of the assigned
selections in our text. The topic must be selected and approved by the instructor no later than
June 7. Changes in topics must be approved by June 15. Several sources from both books and
periodicals should be consulted, and at least some sources should be relatively recent, i.e., from
the past decade or so.

LENGTH: 1500-2200 words of text.

SUBMISSION DEADLINE: 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, June 21.

FORMAT: The submitted copy must be typed, double-spaced, on 8 1/2" x 11" typing paper.
Margins for text should be approximately 1" on all sides. The sheets of the paper should be
fastened with a staple or paper clip in the top left-hand corner; otherwise, one-third of a letter
grade will be deducted from the overall grade for the paper. Pagination (preceded by the student's
surname) should be in top right-hand corner of every page. A cover sheet will not be necessary.
Do not put your completed paper in a folder or plastic cover, and do not include fly sheets (i.e.,
sheets with nothing on them).

CITATIONS: Use the new MLA (Modern Language Association) parenthetic documentation
style instead of footnotes or endnotes. Include a Works Cited sheet at the end of your paper.
Details concerning the new MLA style can be found in The MLA Handbook for Writers of
Research Papers (1984 or later), in recent (1985 or later) handbooks of grammar and writing
style, or by clicking here. Papers not conforming to MLA style in all particulars will be marked
down accordingly.

LATE PAPERS: One letter grade will be deducted for each class meeting that the paper is late.

PLAGIARISM: Failure to document sources properly will definitely hurt your grade and could
result in a grade of F for the course.