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Dr. Elizabeth Howells |
ENGLISH 1101: Composition and Rhetoric
Connections and Reflections
Good writing is derived from a dialogic relationship between reading, writing, and thinking. In other words, reading gives us ideas, inspirations, and models that we think about and then write about. We read our writing--our thinking translated into words--in order to re-write. All of these things work together. In this course we will study this process and examine our written products in order to make them as effective as possible. This preparation will prepare you for writing, reading, and thinking in other disciplines in the future.
We will practice this by reading, writing, and thinking in and about other disciplines such as art, history, and sociology. You will be taking classes--as a learning community--in art and history and so the reading and thinking you are doing there will provide material for the writing work we will be doing in here. We will be writing purposeful writing using details from your experience as students and as citizens in this community and this world as support for the claims you are making, the assertions you are making, or the theses you desire to prove to be true. In other words, you will be constructing arguments supported by the evidence you have at your disposal.
Over the course of the term, we will, in essence, be responding to five questions through our reading, writing, and thinking:
Through those different themes, as the unit titles suggest, we will find ourselves working on skills like thinking, observing, reflecting, and reading along with writing. We will also find ourselves writing for different purposes on different occasions to an academic audience. While our writing will always be purposeful, we will explore style issues in different circumstances. We will solve problems, draw conclusions, engage in research, undertake analysis, and reflect on our writing processes over the course of the term. Our final portfolios, the culmination of the course, will be a chance to synthesize all of this work before you move on to 1102.
In other words, we will be making connections and engaging in reflections across disciplines as we reflect on our writing processes and ourselves as writers.
REQUIRED TEXTS
Toby Fulwiler and Alan R. Hayakawa's The Blair Handbook Prentice-Hall (013048603-5) the most recent edition
Lynn Bloom's The Essay Connection Houghton Mifflin (0618335919) the most recent edition
**to get ahead: Ernest Gaines' A Lesson Before Dying for the One City, One Book in the spring
REQUIREMENTS
1. Reading. This class will be reading intensive as much as it is writing intensive. You will not be successful in this course unless you do all of the reading. You will be responsible for your reading daily.
2. In-class Writing/ Reading Responses. I try to balance the reading load by giving you time to respond to the reading in class. These will be informal writings on a selected topic or on your assigned reading, and they will be a daily requirement. They should allow you to work out your ideas for your formal papers. We will discuss how these should be premeditated, thoughtful, engaged responses.
3. Formal Writing.
You will also be required to write two in-class essays which should be considered practice for the state-required Regents' exam.
You will be required to write 4 formal papers over the course of the term on each of the four units. These will be 4-5 page typed, word-processed essays.
There will also be a final formal essay in your portfolio about yourself as a writer.
You will receive a formal assignment sheet with instructions on how to successfully complete each essay. These papers must be turned in on time. Failure to complete one of these essays will constitute failure of the course
4. Workshop Participation, Group Work, Class Participation,
This course also demands collaboration and group work: we are working on creating a learning community. This class values revision and will demonstrate that by devoting a significant amount of class time to talking about writing and to talking about your writing specifically in workshops. This demands that each individual student produce thoughtful and engaged responses to the writing of his or her fellow students in order to make these workshops, indeed this course, successful. Furthermore, you and your group will work together informally throughout the term. You are responsible for making contributions to the group work on a daily basis.
This course depends on your participation. Learning only happens when you choose for it to happen. It only happens when you are engaged and active. Therefore, you must participate in class discussion.
6. Conferences. You will be required to meet individually with me at least three times over the course of this semester:
• You will have a midterm conference where you will receive a grade-so-far and have the opportunity to discuss your midterm portfolio. You will sign up for a specific meeting time.
• You will have one conference during the first four weeks of class AND one last conference sometime after the midterm conference that you are responsible for scheduling. You should come during my office hours or make an appointment to see me. You should have prepared an agenda for our meeting.
7. Portfolios. Revision is an essential component of the writing process. This class will demand you revise in order to improve your writing. Your final portfolio will consist of 15-20 pages of beautifully revised writing. It will be prefaced by a 4 page reflective analysis where you will examine--make observations about--your own writing. A formal assignment will follow.
8. Attendance. Obviously, almost all of your informal writing is done in-class, as is group work and class discussion; therefore, you must be here in order to be successful in this course. You are allowed three absences. No excuses. No penalties. After four your grade will be dropped a letter per absence; you will be dropped from the course with seven absences.
EVALUATION
You will receive extensive comments on your writing that should both give you a sense of the quality of your work as well as a way to begin to revise and improve your writing. If, at any point, you are at all unclear about where you stand, it is your responsibility to see me so we can discuss it.
Your final grades will be based on the following criteria:
• Meeting all of the requirements listed above.
• The quality of your written and oral work, in groups and as an individual.
• Your demonstration of a willingness to try new things, think new ways, and explore different perspectives as both readers and writers.
FINAL GRADES will be based on the following scale:
A=90-100
B=80-89
C=70-79
D=60-69
F=GRADES BELOW 59
PLAGIARISM
Violations of the Honor Code will be handled according to the procedures in the Armstrong Atlantic State University handbook . Plagiarism will not be tolerated in this class.
THE WRITING CENTER
The Writing Center, located in 109 Gamble, can be looked on as an extension of any writing classroom. I encourage you to take advantage of this free service whenever you are writing a paper or trying to revise one. Drop in or call 927-5210 for an appointment.
Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, AASU provides appropriate and reasonable accommodations to students with documented disabilities. Documentation and services are available at the Office of Disability Services located in Student Affairs in the MCC.
This syllabus is subject to revision at the instructor's discretion.
SCHEDULE:
August
8.17 Introduction to Course
8.19 Regents' Test #1 practice
8.24 White "The Essayist and the Essay" 30-32, Getting Started 44-48, Stephen King 49-51
8.26 Eighner handout; Student example handout; Wallace "Lunchtime" 70-72
8.31 Innerarity and Verghese "Code Blue" 376-383; Mitford handout
September
9.2 Hogan "Dwellings" 260-263; Hongo "Panoehoe" 253-258
9.7 Assignment #1
9.9 Assignment #2
9.14 Assignment #3
9.16 ROUGH DRAFT DUE (COMPLETE & TYPED)
9.21 PAPER #1 DUE; Bring in a magazine!; Killing Us Softly video
9.23 Nadler "Fat" 266-273; Wolf, Beauty Myth handout; Killing Us Softly video
9.28 Bring in beauty; Townsend Aesthetics handout; hooks "Straightening our Hair" handout
9.30 Magliozzis "Inside the Engine" 179-183; Moore "Framing my Father" 240-243; Dietcoke reading
October
10.5 ROUGH DRAFT DUE (COMPLETE & TYPED)
10.7 PAPER #2 DUE; Introduction; "Tintern Abbey"; I remember exercise; Maya Linn video
10.12 Lincoln "Gettysburg Address" 484; Monument handout; Maya Lin video
10.14 LIBRARY DAY
10.19Tschannerl "One Remembers" 287-290; Asimov "Those Crazy Ideas" 158-166
10.21 Fendrich 529-532; King "Letter" 446-459
10.26 ROUGH DRAFT DUE (COMPLETE & TYPED)
10.28 PAPER #3 due; read Halloween handouts; creative writing activity
November
11.2White "Once More" 122-128; Fadiman "Under Water" 128-131; Tan "Mother Tongue" 6-11
11.4 Sanders "Tools" 139-145; Ning Yu "Red and Black" 192-201; Sanders "Under the Influence" 275-286
11.9 Lamott "Polaroids" 57-59, Fadiman "Mail 60-68
11.11 ROUGH DRAFT DUE (COMPLETE & TYPED)
11.16 PAPER #4; portfolio exercise
11.18 Regents' Test #2
11.23-11.25 NO CLASS-portfolio preparation
11.30 PORTFOLIO DRAFT & EVALS
December
12. 2 FINAL PORTFOLIO DUE AND FINAL BREAKFAST
EXAM PERIOD: PORTFOLIO RETURN TBA
Brief Overview
Assignment: Write an ethnography--derived from your work on the preliminary assignments. Make observations about a particular subculture. Come to some conclusion about their structure and function. Prove that to be true through your observations, readings, and any research you need to do.
Assignment: What is Art? Use your experience in your Art History course, your exposure to different art objects, and your readings in this class to make an argument about the function and value of art in this world.
Assignment: What is history? Use your experience in your History course, your exposure to different historical documents and learning experiences, and your readings in this class to make an argument about the function and value of history in this world.
Assignment: Write a self essay.