Framingham State University ENGL 110 Expository Writing Summer 2016

Transcription

1 Framingham State University ENGL 110 Expository Writing Summer 2016 Disclaimer: This syllabus is intended to give the student guidance in what may be covered in the course and will be followed as closely as possible. However, the professor reserves the right to modify, supplement and make changes as needs arise. Instructor: Dr. Bartholomew Brinkman Credit: 4 Teaching Hours: 60 Time: 2 hours/day, Mon-Fri COURSE DESCRIPTION This course is designed to help you improve your college-level writing. Because good writing depends on critical reading and careful thinking, we will devote a great deal of attention to these processes as well. We will refine our skills in listening and reading; in verbal and written academic argumentation; and in collecting, evaluating, and organizing evidence in order to support an explicit, arguable, and substantive thesis for an appropriate academic audience. These skills will serve you well throughout your college career and beyond no matter what your major may be. You will have an opportunity to practice these rhetorical strategies through multiple assignments over the course of the semester that focus on methods of analysis, narrative and argumentative structure, concrete details and the use of evidence, and they say/i say argumentation. To help focus our discussion and writing, this course will have a thematic emphasis on popular culture. Together, we will read some essays on popular culture and you will have a chance to explore popular cultural texts of your own choosing through initial exploratory papers. These papers will prepare you to write a well documented paper that incorporates both primary and secondary sources. We will devote the second part of the course to the researching and writing of this paper so that you will have the opportunity to slow down and carefully examine each stage of the writing process. In addition to receiving extensive feedback from me, you also will practice how to give and receive constructive comments as you deliver a formal presentation, workshop writing with your peers, and participate in class discussion. Note: This course is equivalent to College Writing which fulfills general education requirements in most US universities and colleges. COURSE OBJECTIVES A: Rhetorical Awareness

2 Goal: Students will understand that effective academic writers use information about rhetorical situations to make decisions throughout the writing process. Objectives: To develop rhetorical awareness, students will: 1. Address academic audiences for specific purposes. 2. Understand academic expectations for structure and use of evidence and apply that knowledge to writing tasks. 3. Use syntax, diction, structure, tone, and style that are appropriate for academic audiences. B: Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing Goal: Students will understand that reading and writing are dialogically related and are used for inquiry, learning, thinking, and communicating. Objectives: To develop their critical faculties, students will: 1. Become familiar with and apply strategies for active reading. 2. Discern qualitative differences between excellent and average writing. 3. Use writing to develop thesis-driven arguments. 4. Use writing to engage with multiple viewpoints. 5. Support claims with appropriate evidence and development. 6. Find and use evidence from sources in the form of summaries, paraphrase, and quotation to support an argument. C: Process Goal: Students will understand that writing is a recursive and collaborative process and that good writing often requires multiple drafts. Objectives: To develop awareness of and responsibility for the writing process, students will: 1. Develop flexible strategies for generating ideas, researching, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading. 2. Recognize quality writing in order to evaluate their own and others work. D: Knowledge of Conventions Goal: Students will understand the conventions of academic writing. Objectives: To develop their knowledge of conventions, students will: 1. Practice organizational elements of written academic discourse, including introductions, transitions, and conclusions, and understand how such elements contribute to the success

3 of arguments. 2. Document their work following at least one style guide and be aware of several other documentation style guides. 3. Achieve clarity, conciseness, variety, and proper emphasis by using sentence-level features such as syntax, diction, grammar, and mechanics. REQUIRED TEXTS X. J. Kennedy, Dorothy M. Kennedy, and Jane E. Aaron, The Bedford Reader, 12 th Edition (Bedford) Gerald Graff, Cathy Birkenstein, and Russel Durst, They Say/I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing, 3 rd Edition (TS/IS) Other readings and materials, available online (O) You should also have a good dictionary, a thesaurus, and bookmarks to The Writing Guide at CASA, external/writing guide/, and the Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL), Both websites will give you help with composition, grammar, punctuation, and documentation. ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING You will be asked to complete and submit several short assignments and multiple stages of a research paper. Unless otherwise indicated, assignments will be due at the beginning of class on the date specified and should be double spaced, with numbered pages and 1 margins. You must complete all of the assignments to pass this course. The percentage breakdown for assignments is as follows: Descriptive Analysis 10% Multiple Text Analysis 10% Annotated Bibliography 10% Research Presentation 10% Research Paper 25% Workshop Participation 10% Weekly Quizzes 10% Participation (including exercises and informal assignments) 15% Descriptive Analysis: In this assignment, you will have an opportunity to practice division analysis and the use of descriptive language in your representation of one popular text. This assignment should total about 500 words. Multiple Text Analysis: In this assignment, you will have a chance to connect three objects together, using a specific type of analysis that we have discussed in class. This paper should be words long.

4 Annotated Bibliography: Your annotated bibliography will be the basis for your final research paper. In your annotated bibliography, you should address at least four critical sources, which you will find through library research, with full citations and two argumentative paragraphs each. The first paragraph should be a They Say summary and quotation from your source; the second paragraph should contain an I Say response to the source. The annotated bibliography should be words long. Research Paper Outline: This outline will form the skeleton of your final research paper and research presentation, ordering your claims and evidence into a coherent argument. This outline will be fairly fleshed out and should be words long. Research Presentation: As a means of conveying the initial results of your research and receiving preliminary feedback from your peers, as well as a chance to practice your presentation skills, you will have an opportunity to deliver a short presentation, accompanied by a PowerPoint or other effective visuals. Final Research Paper: The research paper is in many ways the culmination of the course. It should be a polished presentation of an interesting and persuasive argument, driven by a compelling thesis that is based upon your engagement with critical sources from your annotated bibliography and the incorporation of feedback from your presentation. The polished research paper should be words long. Peer Review Workshop: You will have an opportunity throughout the course to engage in peerreview workshop sessions in which you ll both offer and receive constructive feedback on drafts of your writing before you submit assignments to me for a final evaluation. To ensure full participation in these workshops, I am asking you to write a short Blackboard responses to workshop pieces, along with detailed comments on the writing itself. This writing must be completed and you must be actively present at the workshop in order to receive full credit. Quizzes: To continually assess your learning through reading and class discussion, I will be administering frequent quizzes. These quizzes cannot be made up. I will, however, drop your two lowest scores from throughout the semester. Informal Assignments: To practice techniques and apply knowledge, I will be asking you to complete several short exercises and assignments over the course of the semester. Some of these will be completed in class; others will be done outside of class and brought in for discussion. These exercises and assignments will count toward your participation grade. Research Conferences: As you progress in your research paper, you will have an opportunity to meet with me in an individual conference, where we will discuss the direction of your research and any difficulties you have encountered. You will be expected to bring a response sheet to the meeting in preparation for our discussion. Foundations Section: As a Foundations-designated course, you are expected to participate in Foundations sessions throughout the semester, which are designed to help you develop the skills

5 and knowledge that will facilitate your transition to college and prepare you for a successful life beyond college. Your participation in these classes will count towards your overall grade. ACADEMIC HONESTY Academic honesty requires but is not limited to the following practices: appropriately citing all published and unpublished sources, whether quoted, paraphrased, or otherwise expressed, in all of the student s oral and written, technical, and artistic work; observing the policies regarding the use of technical facilities. Infractions of the Policy on Academic Honesty include, but are not limited to: 1. Plagiarism: claiming as one s own work the published or unpublished literal or paraphrased work of another. It should be recognized that plagiarism is not only academically dishonest but also illegal. 2. Cheating on exams, tests, quizzes, assignments, and papers, including the giving or acceptance of these materials and other sources of information without the permission of the instructor(s). 3. Unauthorized collaboration with other individuals in the preparation of course assignments. 4. Submitting without authorization the same assignment for credit in more than one course. I expect you to obey the rules and regulations established by Framingham State University concerning academic honesty. Visit if you are not sure what the policy is or you want a refresher. DISABILITIES Students with documented disabilities are required to notify me within the first two weeks of the course, in private, if accommodation is needed. I will provide students with disabilities with all reasonable accommodations, but students are not exempted from fulfilling the normal requirements of the course. Work completed before notification of his/her disability may be counted toward the final grade.

6 Course Schedule Week One: The Reading and Writing Process How To Use this Book: (Bedford 1-6) The Writing Process (Bedford 27 55) Shitty First Drafts (O) Critical Reading (Bedford 9 26) How to Read Like A Writer (O) Description (Bedford ) Edward Hopper s Nighthawks, 1942 (Bedford ) Division or Analysis (Bedford ) The Capricious Camera (Bedford ) Week Two: Methods of Analysis: Peer Review Workshop: Descriptive Analysis Narration (Bedford ) Process Analysis (Bedford ) Cause and Effect (Bedford ) The Rise and Fall of the Hit (Bedford ) Comparison and Contrast (Bedford ) Classification (Bedford ) Definition (Bedford ) Descriptive Analysis Due Week Three: Academic Writing: Starting with what Others are Saying Peer Review Workshop: Analysis Paper Academic Writing (Bedford 56 88) Argument and Persuasion (Bedford ) Preface (TS/IS xvi-xxvi) and Introduction (TS/IS 1 15) What s Motivating This Writer? (TS/IS ) Reading Games (O) They Say (TS/IS 19 29) Her Point Is (TS/IS 30 41) As He Himself Puts It (TS/IS 42 51) 2b or Not 2b (O) Yes/No/Okay, But (TS/IS 55 67) Extra Lives: Why Video Games Matter (O)

7 Analysis Paper Due Week Four: The Research Process Discussion of Library Databases and other Resources Independent Research and Conferences Week Five: Forming the Argument Peer Review Workshop: Annotated Bibliography And Yet (TS/IS 68-77) Skeptics May Object (TS/IS 78 91) So What? Who Cares? (TS/IS ) As a Result (TS/IS ) But Don t Get Me Wrong (TS/IS ) Ain t So/Is Not (TS/IS ) Annotated Bibliography Due Week Six: Drafting, Presenting and Revising the Research Paper In-Class-Presentations Peer Review Workshop: Research Paper Draft Using Templates to Revise (TS/IS ) Research Paper Due

8 Brinkman, Expository Writing