Literature in Translation 275 – The Tales of Hans Christian Andersen
Communication-B Discussion Section Syllabus
Dr. Nete Schmidt
Fall 2018

TA: Bailey Green
Email: bagreen2@wisc.edu
Office: 1340 Van Hise Hall
Office Hours: Wednesday 11:00am -12:00 pm, Wednesday 1:00-2:00 pm, or by appointment
Sections: 302 Tuesday 12:05-12:55 pm (5322 Social Sciences)
301 Friday 1:20-2:10 pm (391 Van Hise)

Welcome to the Tales of Hans Christian Andersen! This class is a writing-intensive course and qualifies as a Communications-B requirement. As we read the tales of Hans Christian Andersen throughout this semester, you will learn how to analyze, critique, and interpret various literary works. Consistent practice at the writing process will help you master the essentials of writing and analytic reasoning. Through in-class activities and take-home assignments you will be guided through the process of writing a well-researched, well-argued academic paper.

The goals for the writing sections of the course are:

• to deepen understanding of works of Hans Christian Andersen
• to improve your critical thinking, reading, and writing skills
• to improve your oral communication skills, with an emphasis on discussion in small groups and class presentations
• to improve your ability to critique your own writing as well as that of your peers
• to increase your knowledge of and skill at using library/research resources, bibliographic form, and essay styles

The most important things to remember from this syllabus:

• Comm-B is meant to teach you HOW to write a good research paper— it might be intimidating, but Bailey is here to help you! Please do not hesitate to ask for help with anything in the course.
• YOU CANNOT PASS THIS CLASS IF YOU FAIL DISCUSSION SECTION, AND YOU CANNOT PASS THIS CLASS IF YOU FAIL LECTURE. YOU NEED TO PASS BOTH PARTS OF THE CLASS TO PASS THE ENTIRE COURSE.
• Bailey has a lot of candy in her office, and she will give it to you if you come to office hours and ask for help. I cannot give you a Reese’s cup via email.

Schedule and writing assignments due dates

These due dates are subject to change. You will be informed of any additional assignments at least one week in advance.

Assignment Descriptions

• Close Reading Paper

The close reading paper should be on a particular tale of H.C. Andersen that is not being covered in class and take a firm and well-supported stance on how you believe that tale should be read. Read it carefully and pay attention to word choice, symbols, ambiguities, and structures. Make a claim about how you think those things should affect our understanding of this tale. Your claim should make a convincingly written, coherently organized argument, which is well supported by evidence taken from the text. THIS IS NOT A SUMMARY OF THE PLOT, BUT A LITERARY ANALYSIS!

• Context Paper

Rather than attempt to interpret a tale based wholly upon your own interpretation, this assignment requires you to contextualize a tale and develop its interpretation by using information from outside sources, like academic journals, newspapers, etc. Depending upon the tale you choose, this could involve delving deep into H.C. Andersen’s biography, socioeconomic, ideological or gender issues in his society, or looking at pre-existing versions of the same tale or a tale’s folk origins. Use a minimum of two outside sources found through the library databases (books or journal articles), not the dictionary, random websites, or Wikipedia.

• Annotated Bibliography and Thesis Statement

This will be your first step towards completing the final research paper. List the complete bibliographic information for five outside sources found through the library databases (books or journal articles) that you plan to use in your paper. Annotate that bibliography with brief (3-4 sentences) descriptions of each piece of source material, why they are of interest to your planned paper topic, and how you plan to use them in your paper. This assignment also requires that you submit a fully developed thesis which includes not only the overarching argument of the paper, but also your supporting arguments, and description of the methodologies you plan to employ.

• Rough Draft and Outline

This is the rough draft of your final paper. You will be incorporating both close readings and research to support and contextualize those readings. You will choose two of H.C. Andersen’s tales in order to substantiate one overarching and (most importantly) compelling thesis. You should be attempting to convincingly show why the stories chosen are conducive to the development of that thesis, how they illustrate the importance of that thesis or what they imply about the questions your thesis is attempting to answer. We do not expect the paper to be fully formed but as complete as possible and ready to be graded. Please include an outline of what you plan to do for the remainder of the paper.

• DIY Fairy Tale Group Project

For this project, you will work with a group to produce your own fairy tale following Propp-R like we do in class. Your fairy tale can be put into a hardcopy with illustrations, or you can also use other forms of media (Prezi, iMovie, photography, comics, etc.). It’s up to you! You will present your project in section. Each group must submit a written version of the fairy tale, put it into Propp-R, and attach a list explaining how each group member contributed to the project. This is meant to give you a little break from writing, so get creative and have fun!

• Peer Review

Bring one hardcopy of your final research paper draft to section with you. We will be doing an in-class peer review activity.

• Final Paper Presentation

In short: describe your argument. Tell us why you chose the stories you did. Tell us why the thesis and stories are significant. Tell us about the process, did your thesis change as your research progressed? Did you run into any problems and how did you solve them? This presentation should be about why you chose what you chose, and how you went about solving or answering the problems you encountered. You may choose to use a PowerPoint or another form of media to enhance your presentation.

• Final Research Paper

In this final draft of your research paper, you will present the most polished, complete, well-organized version of the paper you submitted as a draft. You should have incorporated all of the feedback you got on your draft from your TA and your peers, along with your own revisions, to tighten up your thesis, strengthen your argument and supporting examples, clean up your prose, ensure the completeness and accuracy of your citations, and make a compelling argument in the conclusion for why your argument matters.

Evaluation:

• Comm B Section Work 50%
• Close reading paper: 15%
• Context paper: 15%
• Annotated Bibliography and thesis statement: 10%
• Final paper draft and outline: 15%
• Final paper and presentation: 25%
• Participation: 20% (Includes in-class discussion activities, the peer review, and other written work graded as pass/fail)
• Extra-credit revisions (up to one letter grade)
• Final drafts of the close reading paper and the context paper can be revised to earn up to one letter grade higher than your original score. For example, if your original score is a B, then the highest grade you can earn after revisions is an AB.
• Lecture Work 50%

Grading scale:
A 100 - 91     B 80 -71         C 60 - 41
AB 90 - 81     BC 70-61       D 40 - 21       F 20 - 0

*Note: you must pass the Comm-B requirement in order to pass the course overall.

Due Date Policy: You must hand in a physical copy of your assignments (please staple!) at the beginning of the class on which they are scheduled to be due. Emailed papers are not accepted. We will deduct one letter grade per day for late assignments, and we will not accept graded papers more than three days after the due date. Assignments that are graded pass/fail will not be accepted after their due date. Notify us immediately if you have personal problems, religious observations etc. that prevent you from completing/turning in an assignment by the due date.

Paper Format: Please print all papers double-spaced, Times New Roman 12-point font, one-inch margins on bottom, top and sides unless directed otherwise. Keep back-up computer copies, back-up paper copies, and printed rough drafts. This will help in the event that you have computer problems on the day an assignment is due.

Attendance and Electronics Policies: Attendance at the discussion section is mandatory. More than one absence, for whatever reason, will result in drop in your final grade by one letter grade. Please inform us ahead of time if you know you will be missing class for whatever reason and make sure you are informed as to what you have missed that day. Because discussion is important, some of what we do in the beginning of class is vital, and so arriving over 15 minutes late will result in an absent mark from that discussion. Cell phones and other electronic devices should be silenced or turned off before entering the classroom. Laptops are allowed in section. Remember that you must report any University excused absences (religious observances, varsity athletics) in writing (email is fine) during the first two weeks of class.

Preparation: Be sure to be prepared for class. This means having read the assigned readings from the last lecture, as well as being ready to discuss them. Failure to do so will cause you to lose points from your participation grade, which is updated weekly. I know it is heavy, but please bring your HCA book to section when Bailey tells you to bring it.

The Writing Center: As this course entails a large amount of writing, you are encouraged to visit the Writing Center for outside assistance. It is there for your convenience. Use it. It may significantly improve your chances of writing a better paper and of receiving a better grade. It is located in Helen C. White (room 6171, appointments made by phone: 263-1992)

Academic Misconduct: Plagiarism – as at all academic institutions – is a serious issue at the University of Wisconsin. Some of the assignments in our section will involve group work, and while some collaboration and sharing of ideas is therefore encouraged, individual writing assignments must be completed by each individual student. So as a general rule remember this: if you consult a book, a person, or really anything while doing research for an assignment, writing a paper, preparing a presentation etc. just cite it properly and all will be well. Chicago and MLA are both acceptable formats for citations (guidelines: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/01/). Any form of academic misconduct will be dealt with according to university policy as described by the Offices of the Dean of Students. Details of these policies can be found at the following web address:
http://students.wisc.edu/doso/docs/UWS14.pdf

Students Requiring Additional Accommodations: All students will be fully included in all parts of this discussion section. If you require special accommodation for any aspect of this course, please inform us within the first three weeks of the semester. We will protect your privacy to the best of our ability. Information on disability-related policies and services is available at the McBurney Disability Resource Center. More information is available at http://mcburney.wisc.edu (608-263-2741).

Office Hours: Please feel free to stop by during my office hours to discuss material from lecture or discussion. I will be happy to answer questions, discuss the texts, or review assignments with you. I have candy! The best place to ask questions is during discussion. If you have a question, you are probably not the only one and our discussion will greatly benefit from your questions. If you are unable to make my office hours, then I encourage you to schedule an individual appointment.

E-mail:You are welcome and encouraged to contact me by e-mail with any questions, concerns, or ideas you may have.  It is the easiest and most reliable way to get a hold of me. I will answer e-mails sent during the week within 24 hours of receiving them. For e-mail sent after 5:00 pm on Friday, I do not guarantee a response until 11:00 am Monday. In other words – if the information in your e-mail is of a time sensitive nature, please make sure to send it to me before Friday afternoon.