Students sometimes misunderstand the nature of faculty offices and office hours. We try to be in our offices during posted office hours, but sometimes we have meetings we have to go to, administrators who want to see us, etc. Therefore, it is always a good idea to let a faculty member know in advance when you plan to stop by, so that he/she can be sure to be there. "In advance" does not mean an hour before by e-mail, however. Not all of us check our e-mail compulsively. I don't have a smartphone. Can't afford one.

Office phone: I'm not in my office every day to check phone messages, so it's better to e-mail me.
e-mail: richard@berrong.fr (mail sent to rberrong@kent.edu has a tendency to get lost. I check it, but it's best not to send anything to that address).

As I said above, I don't have a smartphone - they cost too much. I answer e-mail from my computer at home, during the workweek. I can't pomise you instant turn-around, therefore. I know you're accustomed to instant replies from your friends, but I'm not of their generation. Figure a minimum of 24 hours for an answer, not counting weekends and holidays. So if you have a question, send it asap, rather than waiting until the last minute.

As in Composition, the texts for this course are on the class website and should be printed out from there. I realize that more and more of you have IPads or some other tablet that lets you read online texts. That's fine with me, too, but you'll have to figure out some way of taking notes on the text, because I indicate passages that you have to know for your midterm and final. In whatever format you read these novels, you must bring the assigned text with you to every class.

Laye, L'Enfant noir

One of Black Africa's most distinguished writers constructs a novel out of his memories of his childhood and adolescence. The struggle between his devotion to his parents and his fascination with French culture and the advancement that it offered. How can he retain his own culture if he goes off to France for the education he needs to advance in a culture that also fascinates him?

Mme de La Fayette, La Princesse de Clèves

The story of a young woman convinced by her family to marry one man, only to have another, very attractive man pursues her. How will she deal with this? Will she fall in love with the second man? Will she give in to him? Remember, divorce did not exist for Catholics in 16th century France.

Balzac, Eugénie Grandet

The story of a young woman who lives at home with her repressive father, only to have an attractive young man, her cousin, show up one day for a visit. How will she deal with this? Does the cousin really want her for herself, or does her father's money have something to do with his attentions?

Hémon, Maria Chapdelaine

Before there was Northern Exposure there was Maria Chapdelaine, the classic French-Canadian novel. It's the story of a young woman with too many suitors. But then what else was there to do in the Great White North?.

Syllabus quizzes 5%
Mid-term exam: 15%
Final exam: 20%
Each paper assignment: 15%
Victime du jour: 10%
Révision de la lecture assignments: 20%

Each paper should be 4-6 pages in length, word-processed and double-spaced. I will stop reading at the bottom of the sixth page, so if you turn in more than six pages, it will be counted against you. Better to spend time honing your work down to a good six pages, rather than turning in a sloppy eight pages. The papers will be judged on the interest and originality of the argument (do not simply restate something that the instructor has already presented in class; that is not acceptable, and guarantees that you will not get a good grade), the appropriate use of the primary text to support the points of the argument, which includes quoting passages not gone over in class by the instructor, the clarity of the organization, and the quality of the French. In short, the points that were taught in French Composition, plus originality. The two papers may not deal with the same novel.
     Your papers must also have the essentials that you should have learned back in high school: there must be a title, the pages must be numbered, etc.

An Idea for Your Second Paper

I have acquired for the library a collection of many of the illustrated editions of Balzac's Eugénie Grandet, the third novel you will read this semester. If you have a perceptive eye and an interest in art, you could write your second paper on how the various illustrators have interpreted scenes in the novel. If this is well done, I would consider giving it extra credit, as it takes particular imagination and originality. You would need some device, like a smartphone or a camera, to take pictures of the illustrations you want to talk about, as the books are on reserve and cannot be taken out. For a list of the editions in the library, see the class website. If you are going to do this, let me know, and I will add my personal copies of some of the illustrated editions the library does not own.

The Writing Intensive feature
This course may be used to satisfy the Writing Intensive Course (WIC) requirement. The purpose of a writing-intensive course is to assist students in becoming effective writers within their major discipline. A WIC requires a substantial amount of writing, provides opportunities for guided revision, and focuses on writing forms and standards used in the professional life of the discipline.

As a result, students not happy with the grade they receive on the first version of either paper have the right to rewrite one of them and submit a second version, by the deadline specified on the syllabus. If a student rewrites a paper, the grade for the assignment will be calculated at 70% for the first version and 30% for the rewrite. A student happy with the grade he/she receives on the first version of a paper does not have to submit a rewrite. A student who does not mind giving up the option of a rewrite can turn in his/her one version of the paper on the date of the revision.

There are two requirements for being able to do a rewrite:

1) The first version, which must be turned in by the date on the Calendar below for the first version, must be turned in with Drafts 1, 2, 3a, 4, and 5, as done in FR 33212/4 (Composition), showing that the paper was built up as you were taught to do in that course. Drafts 3a, 4, and 5 must show signs of serious proof-reading on the printed drafts.
2) After receiving the first version back, the student who wishes to revise his/her paper must make time to meet with the professor during his office hours to go over it, since the university rules for revisions in a Writing Intensive Course are that it must be a "guided revision."

Cheating
Students may receive no outside help with any written work submitted for a grade in this class. This means that they may not ask others to go over their papers, help with quizzes, etc. For university policies on cheating, see below Student Cheating and Plagiarism, below.

Due Dates
No assignment will be accepted late without a university-approved excuse. Papers must be turned in at the beginning of the class for which they are due, not at the end of class, or later that day, or by e-mail because you skipped class to write it, or .... Students not present for the midterm and final at their scheduled times cannot request a make-up unless they have a documented excused absence. The same holds true for your participation as victime du jour.

Class participation
Regular participation in class discussions of the literature being read is mandatory. A student who fails to participate regularly will have his/her grade reduced by a whole letter grade..

Victime du jour
The victime du jour will operate as in Composition. The victime will arrive in class ready to answer questions on the asigned reading, a lecture, chapter, or set of chapters from a novel, without consulting the text. (If there is more than one chapter or lecture assigned for that day, the victime will need to ask the professor what she/he will be responsible for.) The other students will show up with three questions about that lecture/chapter/etc. written out. (I will collect them at the end of class, so make sure you do write them out to turn in.) Students will each ask the victime at least one of their questions. The victime's grade will be a function of how many questions he/she answers correctly. Students should remember that what goes around comes around: if you ask unfairly difficult questions of the victime, you in turn may be peppered with unfairly difficult questions by your colleagues. Don't be "nice," but be fair.

Alternative to being "victime du jour" - and extra credit
There is an alternative to being victime du jour. Pêcheur d'Islande, which you read in detail in Composition, is based extensively on Eugénie Grandet, but Loti ended the story well before Balzac did, as you will see when you read Eugénie Grandet. There have been various sequels to Pêcheur d'Islande, a play, a movie that goes on where the novel stops, etc., because many readers didn't like the end of Loti's novel and wanted to know more about what happened to Gaud, or didn't like Yann's death, or ...
      As an alternative to being victime du jour, an enterprising student - or small group of students; you will have to clear the number with me in advance, explaining exactly what each member of the group will do - can produce a video/short movie that makes use of the end Eugénie Grandet to present a possible continuation of Pêcheur d'Islande. Because this is a French class, the movie would have to show your command of French and your in-depth knowledge and understanding of both novels. If you choose to go this route - and for creative students, this could be a lot of fun, as well as a great way to use their French - you will need to speak to me WELL in advance of your scheduled day as victime du jour, so I can tell you if what you are proposing will be sufficient.
      If I judge your video, which you will present to the class, to be good - and my judgment here is final; in undertaking such a project, you have to accept that there will be no appealing of my evaluation - you will not only get an A for the assignment, you will get a double or even triple A, which in effect will amount to extra credit. Remember, though: the more students who partipate in such an undertaking, the less extra credit each will receive, though perhaps that could be divied up porportionately as a function of the work - and use of French - involved.
      As you can see, there is a lot of potential here, but you need to speak to me about this WELL in advance. If it flops, you risk an F for the 10% of the final grade that goes to the victime du jour componant, so a junk video made in 5 minutes is not a good idea. It will involve planning, the wisdom not to take on people whose schedules don't match, a basic knowledge of making and editing videos (which you can get help with in the library), etc. Think about it, but don't rush into it.

Révision de la lecture quizzes
The révision de la lecture questions in this class serve the same function as those in Compostition, to get you to make sure that you understand what you read when you read it, since I have learned through many years of teaching that students can actually read a text and not realize that they did not understand it. The questions are online this time, though, so there are a few differences.

The questions are mutiple choice now, and will be accessible on Blackboard Learn for the four days before the texts are scheduled to be discussed, remaining available until 11:30 p.m the night before the material is scheduled to be discussed. (When we actually get to that material in class may vary from the Calendar somewhat, and usually does, but the due dates for the révision questions will not change.) To access the questions, log on to Blackboard Learn through Flashline, or learn.kent.edu.

For instructions on taking the quizzes, see the video on Blackboard Learn.

Since you have 10 minutes to answer the 10 questions on each Révision de la lecture quiz, and not forever, as you did when you answered the Révision de la lecture questions in Composition, and to take advantage of the learning features of Learn, I am giving you two tries for each quiz. You will get the better of the two scores. What I recommend you do is this:

1) read over the assigned material, taking good notes, no later than the morning of the day before it is assigned for class discussion. It's important to take good notes as you read, not in the margins, but on a piece of paper. It's what I did when I took such courses in college. Summarizing what is going on in writing forces you to focus on it, and makes it easier to remember.
2) take the Révision quiz the first time
3) if you aren't happy with your score, review your notes, and then take the quiz a second time.
Taking the quiz a second time right after you took it a first time in the hope you will do better seldom works.
Remember that the time window closes at 11:30 p.m. the night before the act is due to be discussed in class.

Here is what you can do that I do NOT recommend: you can put off reading the material until the last moment, and then take the révision quizzes just before the 11:30 p.m. deadline. That's up to you, of course, but remember that if you do this, you leave youself no time to review your notes if you don't do well the first time you take the quiz so that you can do better the second time. You're all adults, and I know that you all accept the consequences of your choices and actions.

For each quiz, there will be a fair number of questions in the test bank, so on the second try, you will probably get some questions you did not have on the first try. That is why, in preparation for the second time you take the quiz, you want to make sure that you know the material well, not just the answers to the questions you saw the first time you took the quiz. Basically, the best way to deal with this is to pretend that you are going to be the victime du jour before you take the quiz and make sure you have all the assigned reading down well.

Make sure you have access to a working computer with access to the internet when you take the quizzes. Since you have several days to take each of these quizzes, computer failures won't be accepted as excuses for not taking a quiz. Also remember that, as in Composition, there are enough Révision de la lecture quizzes that missing one will not destroy your grade. You want to keep things in perspective.

Because I want you to get used to this and not go into UPM (undergraduate panic mode, the 19 year old's version of cardiac arrest), I am letting you take the Révision quizzes for the first novel, L'Enfant noir, as many times as you like within their regular time windows. Again, the best of your scores is the one that will count. Talk about a nice guy!

In addition, I have created a Practice Quiz that you can take as many times as you like without it having any effect on your grade. It has questions on Pêcheur d'Islande. Use this to practice how to take one of these online quizzes before you start taking the ones that affect your grade..

And finally, because I am a really nice guy (trademark pending), and a ham,I have made a three-minute video on Learn showing you how to take the online quizzes. You will want to watch this before you take even the Practice Quiz. Like the Practice Quiz, it will always be available.

Remember though: as with all other graded assignments in this class, these Révision quizes must by done with no help from others. See Cheating above.

Syllabus quiz
There is also an online quiz on the syllabus, because without this, many students these days don't read the syllabus and then want to be forgiven when they don't follow it. (Yes, I know syllabuses get longer and longer each year. When I was in college, we seldom received a syllabus from our professors. They just told us week to week what would be due the next week. Those days are gone, though. Syllabuses are mandatory, and have become de facto contracts, so every detail must be spelled out to prevent a student from trying to argue that he/she didn't know about a policy or assignment. Yes, syllabuses are the length they are, in part, because students now have the right to file grievances.)
      Experience has shown me that even one syllabus quiz, administered in the first week of the semester, is not enough, however. Students don't take good notes on it and forget whatever they learned from it once they take the Syllabus Quiz. So, the Syllabus Quiz will be administered several times in the course of the semester, and the 5% of your grade listed above as Syllabus Quiz will be the average of the scores you get. The professor will always announce in class in advance when the next round of taking the Syllabus Quiz will be, and there will always be a several-day window to take it, but it will be the student's responsibilty to keep track of this if he/she misses class - or forgets to write it down. (If you don't carry some sort of pocket calendar to keep track of your assignments due, you will suffer for it.).
      You may take the Syllabus Quiz twice each time it is assigned; each time you will get the better of your two scores. You must complete the Syllabus Quiz the first time by the deadline on the Calendar below. Subsequent rounds will be added to the syllabus online, but the professor will not pass out new copies of the syllabus, as MCLS is broke.

Departmental, College and University policies

Notice of My Copyright and Intellectual Property Rights
Any intellectual property displayed or distributed to students during this course (including but not limited to powerpoints, notes, quizzes, examinations) by the instructor remains the intellectual property of the instructor. This means that the student may not distribute, publish or provide such intellectual property to any other person or entity for any reason, commercial or otherwise, without the express written permission of the instructor.

Registration Requirement
The official registration deadline for this course is September 8, 2013. University policy requires all students to be officially registered in each class they are attending. Students who are not officially registered for a course by published deadlines should not be attending classes and will not receive credit or a grade for the course. Each student must confirm enrollment by checking his/her class schedule (using Student Tools in FlashFast) prior to the deadline indicated. Registration errors must be corrected prior to the deadline. The last day to withdraw is November 3, 2013.

Student Accessibility Policy
University Policy 3342-3-01.3 requires that students with disabilities be provided reasonable accommodations to ensure their equal access to course content. If you have a documented disability and require accommodations, please contact the instructor at the beginning of the semester to make arrangements for necessary classroom adjustments. Please note, you must first verify your eligibility for these through Student Accessibility Services (330-672-3391 or visit www.kent.edu/sas for more information on registration procedures).

Student Cheating and Plagiarism
University policy 3-01.8 deals with the problem of academic dishonesty, cheating, and plagiarism. None of these will be tolerated in this class. The sanctions provided in this policy will be used to deal with any violations. If you have any questions, please read the policy at

http://www.kent.edu/policyreg/policydetails.cfm?customel_datapageid_1976529=2037779

and/or ask for information.

Respectful Student Conduct
The Department of Modern and Classical Language Studies follows University regulations regarding student behavior in the classroom. It is expected that each student will be respectful to the instructor as well as to fellow classmates. Use of profanity, rudeness toward fellow students or the instructor, angry outbursts, refusal to participate in classroom activities, repeated tardiness, and leaving the classroom prior to class dismissal are just some examples of disruptive behavior. The instructor will ask the disruptive student to cease and desist and will inform the student of possible suspension and/or dismissal from the class. Guidelines pertaining to class disruptions are outlined in detail in the university policy register at 4-02.2.

Policy for Makeup Tests

If students have a documented sponsored athletic event, a religious holiday, or a documented medical excuse, the instructor will provide an opportunity to make up a missed test. However, for an absence caused by a university-sponsored event, students must notify the instructor before the absence and provide official university documentation; for an absence caused by illness the student must provide university-acceptable documentation (see above under Attendance) on the first class after the absence.

Writing Intensive Course

This course may be used to satisfy the Writing Intensive Course (WIC) requirement. The purpose of a writing-intensive course is to assist students in becoming effective writers within their major discipline. A WIC requires a substantial amount of writing, provides opportunities for guided revision, and focuses on writing forms and standards used in the professional life of the discipline. For how this applies to this course, see above under Grading.

Graduating Seniors

Graduating seniors who are department majors will need to take the Outcomes Assessment Examination near the end of the semester. They should see Prof. DeJulio (mdejulio@kent.edu) for details.

(The Professor reserves the right to make alterations.)

Week I.
27.8: Introduction; The French novel from its origins through the 18th century;
29.8: L'Enfant noir: I-II
31.8 Syllabus quiz must be completed by 31.8 at 11:30 p.m. You can take it twice. See above, under Révision de la lecture quizzes.

Week II.
3.9: L'Enfant noir: III-V: Victime du jour19:
5.9: L'Enfant noir: VI-VII; Victime du jour 18:

8.9 Last day to withdraw without a grade of W. Last day to switch to pass/fail.

Week III.
10.9: L'Enfant noir: VIII-IX; Victime du jour 17:
12.9: L'Enfant noir: X-XI; Victime du jour 16

Week IV.
17.9: L'Enfant noir: XII; préparation pour La Princesse de Clèves (learning the characters); Victime du jour 15:
19.9: La Princesse de Clèves: Lecture 1;

Week V.
24.9: La Princesse de Clèves: Lecture 1 con't;
26.9: La Princesse de Clèves: Lecture 2; Victime du jour 14

Week VI.
1.10: La Princesse de Clèves: Lectures 3-4; Victime du jour 13:
3.10: La Princesse de Clèves: Lecture 5; Victime du jour 12: Gaby

Week VII.
8.10: La Princesse de Clèves: Lectures 6-7: Victime du jour 11 (Lecture 6): Emilia
10.10: La Princesse de Clèves: Lecture 8; Victime du jour 10: Briana

10-15 October: Faculty input midterm grades

Week VIII.
15.10: La Princesse de Clèves: Lecture 9; The French novel in the 19th century; Victime du jour 9: Shelby
17.10: Midterm

Week IX.
22.10: Eugénie Grandet: Lecture 1; 1st version of first paper due, if you want to be able to do a rewrite
24.10: Eugénie Grandet: Lectures 2; Victime du jour 8: Danielle

Week X.
29.10: Eugénie Grandet: Lectures 3-4; Victime du jour 7 (Lecture 4): Charlotte
31.10: Eugénie Grandet: Lectures 5; Victime du jour 6: Sarah

3.11: Last day to withdraw

Week XI.
5.11: Eugénie Grandet: Lectures 6-7; revision of first paper due (optional), or, if you chose to pass on being able to do a rewrite, first paper due.
7.11: Eugénie Grandet: Lecture 8; Victime du jour 5: Katrina

Week XII.
12.11: Eugénie Grandet: Lecture 9; Victime du jour 4: Jessica
14.11: Maria Chapdelaine: I-II; The French novel in the 20th century

Week XIII.
19.11: Maria Chapdelaine: III-V; 1st version of second paper due, for those who want to opportunity to do a rewrite
21.11 Maria Chapdelaine: VI-VIII; Victime du jour 3 (Chapitre VI): Sean

Week XIV.
26.11: Maria Chapdelaine: IX-XI; Victime du jour 2 (Chapitre XI): Heather
28.11 No class: Thanksgiving

Week XV.
3.12: Maria Chapdelaine: XII-XIV; Victime du jour 1 (Chapitre XIV): Jonnah
5.12: Maria Chapdelaine: XV-XVI; revision of second paper due (optional), for those who turned their second paper in on 19.11. Otherwise, for those who didn't turn in the second paper on 19.11, your second paper is due today.

10.12: Comprehensive Final exam: Tuesday 12:45-3:00 p.m.