Required Text: Larry D. Benson, ed. The Riverside Chaucer. 3rd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1987.

Course Coverage: This course will cover--in the original Middle English--Chaucer's two masterpieces, The Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde. In addition to the works themselves, relevant background material will also be covered.

Course Objectives: The course will have three main objectives: 1) learning to read and pronounce Middle English with a reasonable degree of accuracy and ease; 2) gaining a basic acquaintance with the background material and with some of the fundamental scholarly concerns connected with these two works; 3) examining and discussing The Canterbury Tales and Troilus and Criseyde as works of literature and as sources of insight and enjoyment.

In achieving these goals, students will enhance their reading and critical thinking skills. The research paper assignment will allow them to improve their research skills (both online and in the library) as well as their writing abilities, and the assigned works will allow them to reflect on the human condition both in the fourteenth century and now.

Course Grades: Course grades will be based on the following work:

Mid-Term Examination	25%
Final Examination	30%
Research Paper	25%
Daily Grade	20%

The two examinations will cover both the reading assignments and the class material (lectures, discussions, handouts). These examinations will be part objective and part essay, in a ratio of approximately 40%-50% objective to 50%-60% essay. The objective questions will test your knowledge of relevant factual information. The essay questions will test such things as your ability to evaluate literature, to respond to a specific questions and support general statements with relevant material, and to demonstrate good writing ability. The research paper will be 1600-2200 words long (2000-2600 for graduate credit) and will be on some topic related to one of the works covered in the course. The daily grade will include class participation, reading ability, and anything else not covered in the other categories.

Attendance: Regular attendance is expected. Repeated absences, whether excused or unexcused, could be detrimental to your daily grade, as could repeated late arrivals and/or early departures.

Students with Disabilities: If you need accommodation due to a disability, please make an appointment to see me, and bring a statement from Disability Support Services (410-704-2638) authorizing your accommodation.

Cheating and Plagiarism: All work done in this course must be your work only. Cheating and/or plagiarism could result in an "F" for the course. For details, see the Student Academic Integrity Policy.

Classroom Decorum: During class, please do not eat, sleep, chat, read extraneous material, leave and re-enter the classroom, or do other things that may distract the instructor or other students from the task at hand.

Note: This course may be repeated only once without the permission of the Academic Standards Subcommittee.

Numerical Values for Letter Grades:

A(+) = 98	B+ = 88	C+ = 78	D+ = 68
A = 95	B = 85	C = 75	D = 65	F = 50-0
A- = 92	B- = 82	C(-) = 72	D- = 62

(Note: Towson University does not recognize A+ or C- as final course grades.)