English 203: The Literature of Sports is one of the courses (along with ENGL 209, 210, 211) that fulfill the third required component in the freshman-sophomore English sequence for a bachelor's degree at the University of Kansas. Like other 203s offered by the KU English Department, this Independent Study version is topic-focused; in this case, the course examines various topics and themes in the literature of sports. Students in this course should be able to build on the understanding and analysis of the written word they gained in English 102. As in English 102, the course grade heavily depends on the student's ability to write effective, analytical essays on the assigned reading.
During my twenty-plus years of teaching at the University of Kansas, the Literature of Sports course has been my favorite because it combines two of my greatest loves: sports and literature. It's quite possible—and many of my students admit it freely—that more students are drawn to the sports aspect of this course than the literature one. The key to remember is that in and out of this course the two are forever intertwined. For students, a love of sports will help drive them through the work this course involves, and I hope these students will also derive a better appreciation of literature from this course as well. Dare one suggest a love of literature, too?
Athletes and their sports or games have been subjects for literature since the Greek civilization. Socrates debated the value of athletic training, or gymnastics, for women; Pindar praised Olympia, the "Mother of games" (The Sporting Spirit: Athletes in Literature and Life, Robert J. Higgs & Neil D. Isaacs, eds. San Diego: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1977, p. 7); and the deriders of sports blossomed in Greek culture too. The poet Euripides complained that athletes were accorded too much respect by their fans, for the prowess of an athlete was so temporary:
. . . . Shining in youth
they stride about like statues in the square.
But comes astringent age, they shrink in rags.
(Higgs and Isaacs, 8)
Most children in American culture have worshipped at the altar of one sports hero or another at some point in their young lives. And perhaps for that athlete, the unfortunate burden of "role model" has quickly been added to his/her responsibilities as world-class athlete or high-school star. Many of the works assigned in this course deal with such topics.
I have divided the course study guide, somewhat arbitrarily, into two halves: the athlete in sports and the athlete outside sports. These two halves are conveniently divided by a midcourse examination. The principle behind this division is that most of the works read in the first half of the course center on the athlete in action: training, honing and perfecting skills, reaching for peak performance, and so on, while the second half of the course deals primarily with athletes who are at or near the end of their careers: straining to maintain performance level, considering retirement, harking back to their past as athletes.
The literature of sports, however, involves more than just the individual athlete. In The Celebrant, End Zone, and Bang the Drum Slowly, we also examine the progress of teams through their seasons; at times they succeed in achieving their championship goals, at other times they fail to gel into an effective unit. We do not neglect the sports fan either, whether it be the aficionados of bullfighting in Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises or the somewhat creepy Luther, who follows young tennis-playing Rosie in Lamott's Crooked Little Heart. Other issues examined in this course include sports as a builder of character, violence in sports, and the corruption of sports by outside influences, such as gambling.
It's a full and exciting menu for the sports lover. It's also a good combination of writers for the aspiring student of literature to critically examine and gain knowledge and insight from. Whether unraveling the corruption plots that threaten to engulf New York Giant star Christy Mathewson and his fan Jackie Kapinski in The Celebrant or analyzing the connections between the violence of nuclear war and the violence of football in End Zone, students should find ample opportunities to discover the literary value of the works of sports literature.
Students in this course will study ten lessons on ten different literature texts (with a total of seven writing assignments) and complete both a midcourse exam (over the works studied in the first half of the course) and a comprehensive final exam. The midcourse exam includes both objective and essay portions, while the final is only essay. As is required in other Independent Study courses, students must pass the final exam in order to pass the course. Among various pedagogical reasons for this is the need to ensure that students do their own work in the course.
By studying the lessons carefully and by reading the assigned texts diligently, you should be able to progress through the course. After you complete a reading assignment, read the study questions that follow each lesson, and consider how you would answer them. These questions will help you understand the texts and their importance to the course as a whole, thematically or otherwise. Although you are not required to submit written answers to these study questions, you should at least consider, in detail, how you would respond in writing. Writing a response to a question—even in rough form—helps you learn more than just thinking about that question without ever committing pen to paper.
Like the lessons and study questions, the essay assignments are designed so you may address specific issues raised in the course through discussion of the assigned works. You should read the essay assignments carefully and make sure your papers address the topic as required. As in any composition course, evaluation of the essays involves more than reading them for content. They will be judged on your ability to support arguments with specific examples from the text in an effective manner. Correct spelling and punctuation, solid sentence structure, and coherent organization also are imperative. Remember to use transitions to link sentences and paragraphs, as well as other methods of cohesion (key word repetition, synonyms, echoing) to keep your paragraphs flowing. Conveying ideas in a clear, concise manner, while avoiding vague generalities and wordiness, is also essential to effective writing.
Of course, in writing about literature, the "proof" for any argument must be found in the text itself; therefore, supporting claims with examples from the text and explaining the significance of these passages to the reader are important to effective discussion of literature. Appendix 1 explains the mechanics of quoting, how to introduce passages, how to incorporate them into your own sentences, how to punctuate them. Refer to this appendix when drafting your essay to be sure you are using quotations appropriately.
Serious problems in one or more of the areas mentioned here may cause the grade of an essay to be well below average. You should therefore make editing and revising your papers a priority in the writing process; a last-minute, quick-fix approach may not do the job needed to be successful.
Do not submit the writing assignment for lesson 2 until lesson 1 has been returned to you. Thereafter, you may submit up to three lessons per week without waiting for previous lessons to be returned. Each writing assignment should be accompanied by an Independent Study cover sheet.
The seven writing assignments required in this course are worth a total of 60% of the course grade.
Top of Page | Bottom of PagePlagiarism is presenting someone else's words or work as your own. Plagiarism applies to material taken from a book, article, or the Internet, or to material taken from another person without properly citing your sources. Paraphrasing another writer, substituting words, or rearranging sentences from the work of another also constitutes plagiarism. Plagiarism is easily detected with databases and search engines.
Plagiarism is academic misconduct and is a violation of rules and regulations of the University of Kansas. Penalties for academic misconduct range from failure of the assignment to expulsion from the University. In this course, plagiarism on an assignment will result in an F for that assignment, and any additional plagiarism will result in failure of the course and possible further penalties. Plagiarism on an examination will result in failure of the course, regardless of the current status of your grade. If plagiarism is discovered after you complete the course, your instructor may reexamine your work and will notify you of the proposed penalty. If you disagree with a charge of academic misconduct, you may request a review by Continuing Education.
The KU Writing Center provides guidance on academic integrity, incorporating and properly citing reference sources, and how to avoid plagiarism.
Students may enroll in English 203 only after completing English 101 and 102 or their equivalent.
Eric Rolfe Greenberg. The Celebrant. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983.
Ernest Hemingway. The Sun Also Rises. New York: Macmillan, 1926.
John McPhee. Levels of the Game. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1969.
Anne Lamott. Crooked Little Heart. New York: Doubleday, 1997.
Emilie Buchwald and Ruth Roston, eds. This Sporting Life. Minneapolis: Milkweed, 1997.
August Wilson. Fences. New York: Penguin, 1986.
Don DeLillo. End Zone. New York: Penguin, 1972.
Alan Sillitoe. The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner. New York: Plume/Penguin, 1959.
James Dickey. Deliverance. New York: Dell, 1970.
Mark Harris. Bang the Drum Slowly. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1956.
Griffith, Kelley, Jr. Writing Essays about Literature: A Guide and Style Sheet. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich. 1990.
Andrea Lunsford. The Everyday Writer. Boston and New York: Bedford/St. Martin's. 2005.
Department of English. Composition and Literature. Lawrence, Ks.: Dept. of English. 2005.
A recent, full-size dictionary such as Webster's Tenth Collegiate Dictionary or its equivalent.
These texts are highly recommended for successful completion of this course, especially for students who did not take the prerequisites for this course at the University of Kansas. Writing Essays about Literature can help answer questions regarding concepts such as the difference between topic and theme or between symbol and metaphor. The Everyday Writer or an equivalent college-level handbook provides assistance for students on grammatical and stylistic questions. And the Composition and Literature pamphlet outlines grading standards and expectations for freshman-sophomore English courses taught at the University of Kansas.
Top of Page | Bottom of PageEnglish 203 courses allow instructors and students to explore a specific body of material (in this case the literature of sports) by both examining topics, themes, types of characters, and philosophies and considering other aspects of literary studies that pertain to the subject. As one of the courses that may be taken for the final composition and literature requirement in the freshman-sophomore English sequence, English 203 also requires the writing of a significant number of essays on literature. Students are expected to go beyond the level they attained in English 101 and 102 in writing competence and in their understanding of literature.
In this Literature of Sports course I hope students will also come to understand the relevance and importance of this topic outside the classroom. Typically, students who complete this course approach not only literature but also sports in our culture with a more analytical perspective; for example, they recognize hero worshipping not only in contemporary events but also in a broader context and with a better knowledge of its history in literature and sports.
The midcourse exam is a two-hour proctored, closed-book examination involving both objective and essay portions. The objective portion requires you to identify fifteen out of twenty quotations from the texts assigned in the course by giving the work's full title or the first and last names of its author and answering whatever other questions are given for that quotation. These questions include: Who is the speaker? To whom is he or she speaking? About whom? and so on. Characters should be identified by giving their first and last names. Other questions concern an explanation of some significant point or event referred to in that passage. The total points possible on the objective portion of the exam is thirty (two points per quotation identified). You will be asked to circle the numbers of the fifteen quotations on which you wish to be graded. Failure to do so will severely penalize you if you have attempted to answer more than fifteen of the twenty quotations.
The essay portion of the exam consists of two short essays and one long one. The two short essays involve explaining the significance of a lengthy passage from a work to the work as a whole in terms of theme, symbolism, characterization, and whatever other relevant aspects are appropriate. Four passages are given, from which you must select two. Each essay should consist of a minimum of two well-developed paragraphs. You should begin by identifying the work from which the passage is taken and the approximate location of the passage in the work. Each essay is worth fifteen points (total of the two short essays = 30). The long essay of around 500 words considers a sports topic covered in several required readings; this essay is worth forty points.
Consult the Midcourse Preparation section of this study guide (pp. 31-35) for a list of the works from This Sporting Life for which you will be held responsible on the midcourse exam. A work from This Sporting Life should be identified by its full title or first and last names of its author. You may not simply give the title of the anthology or the names of its editors to receive credit.
As with any examination, if you can't remember the exact name of a character or the precise title of a work, you should try to describe that character or work of literature in a specific manner so that you can receive partial credit.
The midcourse examination is worth 15% of the course grade. Extensive review of the works read is necessary to perform successfully on this exam.
The final examination is also proctored, but there is no objective portion of the exam. Instead, you must write two essays of at least 500 words each during the three-hour exam. You may use the assigned texts for reference on the essays. You must select the two essays from a choice of three essay topics concerning major themes and or topics covered in the course. You must discuss at least three of the works studied in the course on each essay. You are required to focus on different works according to which topics you discuss; therefore, you should be well-prepared to write about all the texts studied in this course. Questions often require you to include specific works in your discussion of the topic. Each essay is worth one half of the final exam grade.
Use the sample final examination on pages 69-70 of this study guide to help you prepare for the examination. This exam is for review purposes only and need not be sent to your instructor.
The final exam is worth 25% of the course grade. You must pass it in order to pass the course. This is a requirement of all Independent Study courses.
Semester grades will be straight letter grades rather than +/- ones. The College defines A-F grades as follows:
The grade of A indicates achievement of outstanding quality.
Essay is outstanding from start to finish; addresses all requirements of the assignment very effectively; has a well-focused thesis/controlling idea which is well-argued and supported throughout essay; is well-organized throughout; uses supporting evidence from text in very effective manner, including compelling explanation/analysis of quoted passages; employs consistent and effective style throughout; shows originality in thought/insight and expression/voice; has been carefully edited to avoid problems in syntax, grammar, spelling, and usage.
The grade of B indicates achievement of high quality.
Essay is of high (i.e., very good) quality throughout; effectively addresses all requirements of the assignment; has good thesis/controlling idea which is often well-argued and supported in essay; is effectively organized throughout; uses supporting evidence in effective manner including good explanation/analysis of quoted passages; employs fairly consistent and effective style throughout; shows some originality in thought/insight and expression/voice; has been well edited to avoid serious problems in syntax, grammar, spelling, and usage.
The grade of C indicates achievement of acceptable quality.
Essay is of acceptable quality; addresses all requirements of the assignment but perhaps not always effectively; has a thesis/controlling idea which is sometimes unfocused or ineffectively argued and supported in essay; has clear organization; uses supporting evidence but not always in an effective manner, sometimes needing explanation/analysis of quoted passages; struggles at times to have consistent and effective style; has acceptable level of thought/insight and expression/voice; may need better editing but lacks overwhelming problems in syntax, grammar, spelling, and/or usage.
The grade of D indicates achievement that is minimally passing, but at less than acceptable quality.
Essay generally lacks acceptable quality, may not address all requirements of assignment; has an ineffective thesis which is not well argued and/or supported in essay; is ineffectively organized; lacks supporting evidence and needs effective explanation/analysis of passages; has an inconsistent and/or ineffective style; generally lacks effective level of thought/insight and expression/voice; needs editing and has serious problems in syntax, grammar, spelling, and/or usage.
The grade of F indicates that the student’s work was not of passing quality.
Essay lacks acceptable quality; does not follow requirements of assignment; has an ineffective thesis which is not well argued or supported; is generally unorganized; lacks supporting evidence and analysis; has serious problems with style; lacks effective level of thought/insight and expression/voice; is ineffectively edited and has overwhelming problems in syntax, grammar, spelling and/or usage. Essays may also fail for plagiarism and/or academic misconduct (see syllabus policies).
Please use the form at the end of this study guide to record your progress through the course.
Although I was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, I grew up in Lawrence, Kansas, and have been a die-hard Jayhawk supporter all my life. I attended both the University of Kansas and the University of Bordeaux, France, as an undergraduate and received a B.A. in English and French from KU in 1978. After a "brief" real-world stint of factory work and softball, I began my graduate studies in English (A.B.D.) at the University of Exeter, England, from 1979-1982, where I studied nineteenth-century writer Thomas Hardy and Victorian architecture. I also received an M.A. in English (Creative Writing) from the University of Kansas in 1985. Since that time I have been teaching English at KU, first as a lecturer and since 1999 as an assistant professor. Among courses I've frequently taught are ENGL 105: Freshman Honors English, ENGL 314: Major British Writers after 1800, ENGL 351: Fiction Writing, and the course on which this Independent Study course is based (ENGL 203: Literature of Sports).
My sports interests, like yours undoubtedly, date back to childhood, both as a competitor and as a fan. Sports and literature consumed my youth; my heroes were not only Harmon Killebrew, Jim Ryun, and Jo Jo White, but also characters in the writings of Ernest Hemingway and A. Conan Doyle! As an athlete I competed in baseball, football, basketball, track, and cross-country into my high-school years, with mixed results. In college I worked at a bar called The Ballpark, where patrons played an electronic baseball game that could pit the 1919 White/Black Sox against the 1961 Yankees. Although I still play competitive softball, I mostly have coached youth sports in recent years, including soccer, basketball, baseball, and most frequently, chess!
As a creative writer I've published poetry in a wide variety of magazines, including The American Scholar, Kansas Quarterly, High Plains Literary Review, Stone Country, and Aethlon: The Journal of Sport Literature. My poetry chapbook, Slowly Along the Riverbeds, appeared in Coal City Review. I have also been the poetry editor for Cottonwood magazine and press since 1984.