Sylabus
Course Schedule
Week 1: Intro -Discussion of upcoming semester -Homework: Read Roland Barthes: “Death of the Author,” and “Borges and I”
Week 2: Author, Reader, Narrator -Essay guidelines test-Authorship vs. narration; discussion of Barthes and Borges -Presentations: briefly revise strategies for effective public speaking -Homework: Read Samuel Beckett: “Text for Nothing 9”
Week 3: Dealing with Ambiguity -Discussion of minimalism, absurdity and ambiguity in Beckett -Finding a subject in a long or difficult text and making it an argument -Discussion of mock exam
Week 4: Mock Exam -Students will be given the opportunity to sit Section B of the English Skills exam, which they will be graded on. This task will count for credit for ALL students. -Homework: Read Joyce Carol Oates: “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” and find a critical essay on the text. Write a 500-word summary of the essay, identifying its thesis and discussing its merits or failings
Week 5: Fiction, Criticism and Reality -Discussion of Oates. How much to use from “real life’’ when researching -Homework: Read David Lodge, The Art of Fiction
Week 6: The Art of Fiction -Discussion of David Lodge -Discussion of the final essay -Thesis statements revisited; time management -Homework: Prepare topic of the final essay, read I. A. Richards, Principles of Literary Criticism
Week 7: Weighing up the evidence; reading sources critically -Discussion of final essay topics -Discussion of Richards -Homework: Read Cixous, write abstract of final essay
Week 8: Open-ended Criticism -Discussion of Cixous -Presentation of abstracts -Homework: Prepare presentations, continue work on final essay
Week 9: Student presentations -Students present a critical essay they will use as a source for their final essay -Homework: Read “That Crafty Feeling” by Zadie Smith; write first draft of the final essay
Week 10: Craft -Remainder of student presentations -Discussion of Smith’s essay and approach to craft -First draft of final essay due -Homework: Continue development of final essay
Week 11: Consultations -Students receive individual feedback on the first draft of their essays. -Homework: Complete second draft of final essay
Week 12: Editing -Second draft of final essay due -Peer editing, troubleshooting the final essay
Week 13: Conclusions -Wrap up -Final essays are due one week after the final class
Anotace
Absolvování semináře je podmínkou pro zápis do všech povinných a povinně volitelných předmětů ve 2. a 3. ročníku. Úspěšné dokončení prvního semestru kurzu je podmínkou pro zápis tohoto kurzu v druhém semestru.
Stručná anotace předmětu
Praktický jazyk - kulturní komunikace je integrovaný jazykový kurs zaměřený na souběžné zvládnutí následujících dovedností: čtení a analýza textu (např. novinové články, literární texty, cestopisy, populárně naučné články), psaní
(recenze, popis, resumé, srovnání, kritika, polemická esej), mluvený projev (komentáře, diskuse, debatní a prezentační dovednosti).