ENGL 494 B: Honors Seminar

Description

For well over a century, filmmakers have adapted print texts into stories featuring images and music. Before cinema, playwrights rendered popular novels into embodied, spoken dramatic stories, even when the novel had not yet completed its initial serial publication run. Television networks and, more recently, streaming media companies have translated novels, films, and games into series, and game makers have transformed texts into immersive, interactive storyworlds. Alongside such commercially made and distributed works, fans have expanded existing stories into print and audio fiction, art, and video, communally sharing their work with others.

English 494 examines the relationship between stories and the media in which artists create and audiences experience them. How does the medium shape the story? What happens when stories move across media or simultaneously appear in multiple media? What possibilities do new media technologies present for storytelling and inhabiting storyworlds? What limits do the industries overseeing media creation and distribution place on the stories that can be told? To explore these questions, we will focus on three types of story-media relationships: adaptation, immersion, and fanfiction. We will use adaptation, game, and fanfiction theory to analyze creative texts composed in various forms: print novels and short stories, film, television series, games, podcasts, and art, among others.

As students examine the relationships between media and story, they will begin work toward the honors thesis. The first six weeks of the course focus on Pride and Prejudice, a work that has moved from novel—both print and illustrated—to film, play, comics, television, games, fanfiction, and children’s picturebooks. During these weeks, students will read, view, and play multiple adaptations alongside Austen’s novel, engage with adaptation, game, and fanfiction theory, and conduct research to lead discussion and build their first project. The last four weeks of the course allow students to develop an honors thesis topic that builds on what they have explored in the first part of our course, the fall honors seminar, a previous UW course, or a context outside academia. Students will undertake independent research to discover the existing scholarly conversation around their topic, compose a brief literature review, and complete a proposal they can take forward into the honors thesis course.

Goals and Methodology

Students in the course work toward several goals:

1. Developing a critical understanding of narrative strategies both within specific media as well as across media,
2. Analyzing discrete texts, the relationship between narrative and medium, and intertextuality among multiple adaptations of the same story.
3. Applying scholarly terminology and theories to the study of creative works.
4. Identifying selected historical, cultural, economic, and industrial contexts that shape stories, media, and audience reception.
5. Explicating how audiences process and produce texts within and across media,
6. Developing a topic and proposal for extended thesis work,
7. Conducting independent research and presenting that research in several forms, and
8. Constructing substantive, researched arguments and supporting those arguments with strategically selected, fully explicated evidence.

Course activities promote active learning, with most class sessions incorporating a mix of mini-lectures, discussion, individual writing, and group work. My role is to provide the tools and resources you will need to advance your own thinking. I will pose questions, design activities to help you think through these questions, and respond to your ideas. Your role is to do the hard work—the close reading, discussion, and writing. You will analyze texts, present your ideas via class discussion and written assignments, and critically respond to others’ interpretations.

Requirements

Class Participation

English 494 is a discussion-based course that involves extensive group interaction. Consequently, I expect consistent, timely attendance and engaged participation in class activities. Students should come to each class session with required reading and short assignments completed. During class discussions, students should plan to ask questions, make comments, summarize reading responses, interpret text, or contribute to small-group exchanges. Like all skills, speaking in class becomes easier with practice. I do not expect fully polished analyses in class discussion; rather, your contributions represent ideas for further development. I ask that you try your best to contribute to class conversations. If you typically have difficulty speaking in large groups, increase your participation during small-group work. Conversely, if you typically have a lot to say, encourage others to weigh in before you speak again.

There are several ways you can participate in the course:

• Speaking to the whole class or small groups of peers during class sessions.
• Taking and/or adding to group notes during small group activities.
• Sharing out ideas from in-class writing.
• Giving feedback on peers’ work-in-progress.
• Discussing course texts, ideas-in-progress, or questions with Kimberlee during drop-in hours.
• Answering peers’ questions on the Community Forum.

Because students will have multiple, sometimes conflicting, interpretations of course texts, we will establish norms for maintaining a respectful learning climate early in the quarter. 

Phone, laptops and wireless internet access can pull attention away from class conversations. Therefore, I ask that students follow basic ground rules:

• Please switch off and stow your cell phone before class begins.
• Students may use laptops to take notes, share content generated during small-group exercises, access course texts or short assignments, and research questions posed in class discussion
• Students should not use devices in ways that distract from their own learning and that of their peers, for example checking email, texting, checking social media, and gaming.

I assess participation weekly on a credit/partial credit/no-credit basis. Students who participate in good faith in the ways outlined above and whose contributions demonstrate careful preparation and active engagement with course texts will receive full points. Lack of engagement in class activities, inadequate preparation, and failure to adhere to classroom climate norms will substantially lower your participation grade for the course.

Short Assignments

Students will use the Canvas discussion area to analyze readings, apply critical concepts to novels, films, games, and fanfiction, share work-in-progress, and reflect on learning in the major. Short assignments typically range from 250 to 300 words. Please note, though, that selected assignments require longer responses. Short assignments allow us to extend class conversations, raise issues for in-class discussion, and develop ideas for course projects and group microteaching.

I assess short assignments on a credit/partial credit/no credit basis, with full credit granted to on-time work that meets minimum content requirements, adheres to the course academic integrity policy, and demonstrates serious engagement with the prompt and text.

Group Microteaching

Working in groups of three or four, students will teach peers how to analyze narrative texts produced in a specific medium (film, game, fanfiction, etc.) or apply critical readings to course texts. Microteaching sessions should run 40-50 minutes and include at least one activity that allows classmates to apply analytical strategies to a creative text. To prepare for their session, students will conduct independent research to supplement class readings. They may also assign homework (readings, questions, writing, etc.) to help students prepare for their session. Group members will submit an assessment of their work, themselves, and one another after leading their session.

Projects

Students will compose two projects: a Pride and Prejudice adaptation case study and an honors thesis proposal. Your proposal will take traditional essay form, but you may produce your Pride and Prejudice case study in essay or multimedia format. Students will discuss project proposals, ideas-in-progress, and drafts during class. They may also do so with me during student drop-in hours. Additionally, they can seek feedback from consultants at the CLUE Writing Center in the Mary Gates Commons or the Odegaard Writing and Research Center in Odegaard Undergraduate Library.

Presentation

During the last week of the quarter, students will give a short presentation on their thesis proposal, answer audience questions, and receive feedback.

Connecting with Others

In addition to interacting with others in-person and online, you have other opportunities to connect with peers and the instructor:

Community Forum

The Community Forum is an asynchronous space where you can ask general questions about the course, readings, or assignment prompts. Posting questions in the Community Forum helps others with the same question. It also allows students to share answers the instructor might not have.

Student Drop-in Hours

You need not have a specific question about the class, course texts, an assignment, or work-in-progress to attend my student drop-in hours. I’m available every Monday from 9:30-10:30 in Padelford A-305 and via Zoom (https://washington.zoom.us/j/99279139070) and Thursday from 9:30-11:30 a.m. via Zoom. Come visit me to discuss your interests, experiences at UW, or even the class. If you cannot make my scheduled drop-in hours, please contact me to set up an alternative time.

Texts

Novel

The following text is available via the UW Bookstore and online retailers:

• Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. A Norton Critical Edition, 4^th Edited by Donald Gray and Mary Favret. W.W. Norton & Company, 2016. ISBN: 9780393264883.

Films and Television Series

All series and films are available in streaming media format via the course Canvas site or UW Libraries.

• Bride and Prejudice (Gurinder Chadha, UK/USA/India/France, 2016, 122 min.)
• Fire Island (Andrew Ahn, USA, 2022, 105 min.)
• Pride and Prejudice (Simon Langton, BBC, 1995, 6 episodes, approximately 55 minutes each)
• Pride and Prejudice (Joe Wright, UK/France/USA, 2005, 129 min.)

Other Texts

• Critical articles available via the course Canvas site
• Pride and Prejudice card, board, and videogames played in class or available via Steam
• Fanfiction titles available online

Grading

Assessment System

Grades in English 494 will be computed by points, with 400 points equaling a 4.0, 300 points a 3.0, and so on.  If your total falls between grades, I will round up if you score one to five points below the higher grade and round down if you score one to four points above the lower grade.  For example, 274 points equals a 2.7 and 275 points a 2.8. Students who score less than 65 points total will receive a 0 for the course, as the UW grading system does not scale grades lower than 0.7.

Short assignments receive credit for meeting due date and minimum length requirements and thoughtfully engaging with instructor prompts. Students who regularly participate as outlined in “Class Participation” will receive full participation points. All other assignments are evaluated based on quality of work submitted. Assessment comes in the form of grades and instructor feedback, either free-form or within a rubric. If you do not understand course readings, ideas discussed in class, or assignment prompts, ask questions in the Community Forum, class sessions, or drop-in hours.

Total Points for the Course

Each component of the course is worth the following number of points. Please note that Canvas does not integrate well with my point schema. Canvas automatically converts points into percentages, a conversion that can make your grade seem lower than it actually is. For example, 10/20 points represents the C range under my system and the F range (50%) under a percentage system. For this reason, I include point range information on each assignment. In short, keep track of your total points and ignore Canvas's percentage conversion.

Policies

Lateness

Since short assignments form the basis of in-class discussion, I will not accept these assignments late, nor will I allow students to reschedule microteaching sessions or presentations.  Projects are due on the dates/times indicated on the course schedule. Late projects will receive a 10-point deduction per day late, including weekends and holidays. Failure to submit the required final project draft and participate in the class draft workshop will result in a 10-point deduction from the final project grade, as the ability to consider and revise from feedback is an essential component of the assignment. I will make exceptions to the lateness policy only in cases of illness or family emergency. 

• Technology glitches do not constitute valid excuses for lateness. To avoid problems, you should save frequently while working and you should back up work saved to a hard drive on a USB drive or an online file archive (Dropbox, iCloud, UW Google Drive, personal files space on Canvas). You are responsible for submitting the correct version of all digital assignments.

Academic Integrity

English 494 adheres to the University of Washington’s Student Conduct Code, which prohibits academic misconduct like plagiarism: the unacknowledged use of others' words or ideas. The course also prohibits using generative AI like ChatGPT to compose text, images, audio, or video. Early in the quarter, we’ll collaboratively a more extensive generative AI policy.

When you draw upon or reproduce sources, make clear to your audience that you are incorporating others’ work by placing quotation marks around exact words; noting the creator’s name whenever you quote, describe, summarize or paraphrase; and captioning audio and visual content with creator and title information. For assignments produced in essay format, we will use MLA citation conventions, which require in-text parenthetical citations and a list of works cited.  We will discuss citation conventions appropriate to other formats students choose for their projects.

Submitting work authored by another person or AI or failure to credit sources may result in a failing grade for the assignment, a failing grade for the course, or other disciplinary action. If I see evidence of academic misconduct, I will make a report to the Community Standards & Student Conduct office.

Accommodations

Disability Accommodations

Disability accommodations grant students with ongoing or temporary disabilities access to educational opportunities. Disability Resource for Students (DRS) works to ensure access for students with disabilities by designing and implementing accommodations. If you experience educational barriers based on disability, please visit Disability Resources for Students online for more information about requesting accommodations (http://depts.washington.edu/uwdrs/). The DRS office in Mary Gates 011 is open Monday through Friday from 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Staff can work with you in person, by phone, TTY, video chat, or email (uwdrs@uw.edu).

If you have already established accommodations with Disability Resources for Students (DRS), please communicate your approved accommodations to me at your earliest convenience so we can discuss your needs in this course.

Your experience in this class is important to me, and you may have accessibility needs not covered under DRS’s umbrella—for example spotty web access, an unreliable computer, etc.—or you may not yet have DRS accommodations in place. Please talk with me as soon as possible so we can brainstorm solutions.

Religious Accommodations

In accordance with state law, UW provides reasonable accommodations for student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy (https://registrar.washington.edu/staffandfaculty/religious-accommodations-policy/). Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form (https://registrar.washington.edu/students/religious-accommodations-request/).

Technology Requirements

The following technology is essential to accessing course materials and submitting assignments:

• Reliable Internet access.
• Web browser and computer specifications adequate for using the Canvas Learning Management system, Zoom, YouTube, and UW Google Docs.
• Webcam and microphone or phone camera and microphone or computer/phone audio for participating in drop-in hours via Zoom. Note that the Student Technology Fee loan programhas laptops available for checkout if you need a computer.
• Word processing software. Note that although you may use any software, you must submit essay assignments in PDF or Microsoft Word format (.doc or .docx). If you use any other program, use the Help function for instructions on converting your files to PDF or Word format. Students may get Microsoft Office 365 for free.
• Headphones or speakers (internal or external) to hear video content.
• PDF viewer (Adobe PDF Reader or Apple Preview)
• Basic image editing tool that allows image cropping (Paint, Preview, Paint.net, Photoshop Express)
• UW Net ID/Email with UW Google activated. The class email list uses your UW email. If you want UW email to go to another account, you must configure forwarding preferences with UW Net ID account management tools. Using the UW-licensed version of Google Apps allows us to share notes taken during class discussions without having to type multiple email addresses.