Text
The American Tradition in Literature. Vol. 1.  Tenth Edition.  Perkins and Perkins, eds. McGraw Hill,   2002.  
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Objectives
This course introduces students to the literature of the United States from its origins through the 1860s, emphasizing connections among representative works.
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Requirements
Class attendance is required.  Missed classes must be explained beforehand when possible or promptly afterwards (please provide in writing or e-mail, with dates).  Though this does not excuse the absence it shows seriousness about your work in the course, and failure to account for an absence jeopardizes your grade.  The quality of coursework (hence, the grade) will suffer significantly if classes are missed.  As a policy, missed work cannot be made up.

More than mere attendance is necessary for a high-quality performance, however, and even in a large class, participation in class discussions is encouraged whenever possible.  All assigned works are to be read en toto by the day they are assigned.  Besides the readings specifically assigned on the course outline, four other short sections in the text are required at the appropriate times : “Exploration and the Colonies,” pp. 1-9; “Puritanism,” pp. 109-111; “The South and the Middle Colonies,” pp. 215-217; “Reason and Revolution,” pp. 285-289; “The Romantic Temper and the House Divided,” pp. 525-532; “Transcendentalism” pp. 877-878; “Romanticism,” pp. 1225-1227; and “The Humanitarian Sensibility and the Inevitable Conflict,” pp. 1675-1680.  In addition, all headnotes to authors are required reading.

In addition to these components (class attendance, class participation and reading), course requirements also include completion of all exams and quizzes.

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Quizzes and Exams
The course includes two 20-minute announced quizzes, the midterm, and the comprehensive final. Each of the announced quizzes will be comprised of two parts : a short answer section (40%) and a brief essay section (60%).  The midterm and the final will each be composed of three sections : a short answer section (25%), a brief essay over the Web Course-Enhancement project (30%) and a long essay (45%). To promote learning, there will be unannounced quizzes as well. To aid students with preparation, reviews for the midterm and the final are scheduled shortly before both exams.

Grading
For the final course grade, the average of all the unannounced quizzes will count about 10%, announced quizzes will count about 10% each, the midterm will count about 30%, and the final exam about 40%.  Class participation is very helpful for learning.

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Extra Credit
Extra credit is built in to each quiz and exam. For those students who take the initiative, consistent class participation of a high quality will count for extra credit (students must provide their names and summarized contribution to the TA after class or via e-mail within 48 hours to receive credit). Also, for additional extra credit students may e-mail to the TA suggested pop-quiz questions for each reading at least 48 hours before the reading is due.

Web Course-Enhancement Projects
There will be two Web course-enhancement projects, each taking about an hour and a half online. The first project, to be completed by the midterm exam, will be on Jonathan Edwards’s “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (pp. 298-309 in our textbook) and John Woolman’s Journal (pp. 241-253).  The second project, to be completed by the final exam, will delve into views on Nathaniel Hawthorne by two of his contemporaries, Edgar Allan Poe and Herman Melville.  Each of these is a review of a book of short stories by Hawthorne, Twice-Told Tales (1842) and Mosses from an Old Manse (1846), respectively.  Melville’s review, “Hawthorne and His Mosses,” is in our text, pp. 1526-1533, but Poe’s review, “ Hawthorne ’s Twice-Told Tales,” is not, so we’ll use http://bau2.uibk.ac.at/sg/poe/works/criticis/twice_to.html as our text.  Essay questions on the midterm and final exams will cover the material in these Web projects.  Students should read all the writings beforehand and should have print copies of them (in the textbook, for Edwards, Woolman and Melville, and a printout from the Web, for the Poe review) as they work through the enhancement project online.  Time has been set aside on the schedule early in the semester for an explanation of these Web projects.