Professor: Tom Christopher

Contact Information:
Office: 334K McIver Building
Phone: 256-0483
Email: techris2@uncg.edu
Mailbox: 132A McIver Building

Course Description:
This course helps you devise strategies you can apply to all the writing you will do in college. You will learn skills of composing—how to generate ideas, get them onto paper, revise them, and ultimately make them interesting and acceptable to readers. Writing well involves more than following a set of rules or formulas. It means understanding and manipulating the relationship between who writers are and who their readers might be. This class aims to help you learn that relationship by practicing it.

During the semester, you will do a lot of writing both in and out of class. You’ll write for yourself and for others, analyze your classmates’ texts as well as your own, reflect and respond, argue, and do research. We’ll talk about how you develop your own style, how you develop ideas and how you change them, and how you understand audience. Our discussions will often happen in small groups, and your work in your group is important to your success. Writing in this class will make you more confident of your ability to write for a variety of purposes and help you discover how writing matters to your thinking.

Student Learning Goals:
• Interpret and Evaluate argumentative discourse, including writing and speech
• Construct cogent arguments
• Communicate those arguments clearly, coherently, and effectively
• Locate, synthesize, and evaluate relevant information
• Demonstrate an understanding of the aims and methods of intellectual discourse
• Weigh evidence and evaluate the arguments of differing viewpoints

Class Work:
4-5 essays (equaling at least 20 pp.): being on time, the proper page requirement, margins, etc. 20%
A Journal of reflections, responses 10%
Class participation, including:
Discussion, in-class writing, group presentations, and miscellaneous activities. 20%
2 Conferences with me 10%
Final Portfolio 40%

The Grading Policy:
This course is not “an easy A”. However, it will be easy to earn an A in my course. You might be surprised to find that your papers and assignments will not be marked with a specific letter grade. This is because the skills you are learning are a matter of use, growth, and improvement; not simply some product. Be sure, if you are putting the required effort into this course, it will reflect in your work, and a strong grade will not be difficult to obtain. The above percentages are to give you a sense of how the material is being weighed for the course, not a math equation for you to calculate “if I got a C”. If that is your attitude, your grade will ultimately reflect it. Throughout the semester, use my comments to give yourself a sense of my evaluation of your work. Talk with me at anytime during the semester about your grade.

Assignment Details:
All typed assignments should be double-spaced, with a size 12 “times” font, 1 inch top and bottom margins, 1.25 inch left and right margins. The papers are to be stapled (no folded corners stuff) and turned in at the beginning of the class period in which they are due.

Late papers not only will cost points from your “essays” section of your grade, but as much of our class work will be dealing with what you write, it will inevitably reduce your “class participation” section as well. Plus it will just get on my nerves. After three days overdue, the paper will not be accepted at all nor allowed in the portfolio. Weekends count.

There will be no lateness tolerated for the final portfolio.

I will not accept assignments over the internet, through email, as attachments, etc.

Conferences:
Throughout this course, you’ll be required to have two individual conferences with me. We’ll have one before the Mid-Term so you can look at your “grade-so-far”; the other conference will fall just before the Thanksgiving Holiday. You are also welcome to meet with me on any other occasions throughout the semester by dropping in at my office hours or scheduling an appointment with me. These are opportunities for you to get some individual assistance, discuss your thoughts about the class, assignments, readings, and your work. Failure to show up prepared for a scheduled conference will negatively affect your grade.

Journals:
For this course you will be required to keep an active and up-to-date journal, which will be collected once every other week. This is not a formal assignment, so handwritten entries on loose-leaf paper is completely acceptable (please trim jagged edges from spiral notebooks). Similarly, you may choose to write about whatever you wish: how your week is going, conflicts with your parents or roommates, insights upon your first year at college. However, please note that I will read these (so restrict the subject matter accordingly).

Although not formal, this is an assignment and required for the course. At least twice a week, sit down and write for no less than 20 min. I will keep an ongoing list of prompts in case you feel like you don’t have anything to write about (believe me, you do!)

Class Participation:
This portion of your grade should be fairly self-evident. It includes, but is not limited to, class discussion, participation in your groups, having full knowledge of the readings assigned, and laughing at my bad jokes. This also allows me to call upon any member of the class to assist in readings or to promote discussion...be ready, pay attention.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T:
You will, without a doubt, encounter a wide range of personalities, viewpoints, theologies, morals, and opinions in this class. You may be exposed to cultures that you are not accustomed to, ideas and ideals you have never encountered, and arguments you simply cannot agree with. Each member of our class will be allowed to express their views without having to endure personal attacks in or out of class. We are all allowed a voice, and we will treat each other with respect. This includes my relationship to you. Feel free to talk to me at any time if you feel someone is not receiving the respect that they deserve, especially if I am the one disrespecting.

Portfolios:
Don’t worry about this yet. They will ultimately be the culmination of your entire work of the semester, a collection of your progress, and a testament to your accomplishments. We will talk about these more as mid-term approaches.

Attendance:
Attendance is required for this course. Most of this class involves you directly in writing, responding and reporting in small and large groups. Like skipping out on practice for team sports, it is simply not possible to make up that kind of work. Therefore, regular attendance and participation is crucial to your success in this class.

You are allowed two absences during the semester, no exceptions.
If you miss three days, you will lose 2 points from your final total;
if you miss four days, you will lose 5 points;
if you miss five days, 8 points.
If you miss six or more days (over two weeks of the course), you will automatically fail the course.

If you are late or leave class early, it counts as 1/2 absence

If you have no absences at the end of the semester, you will receive three extra points toward your final grade.

Texts:
Required:
Wendy Bishop. On Writing: A Process Reader.
(ISBN: 0-07-237939-1)

Tim O’Brien. The Things They Carried.
(ISBN: 0-7679-02089-0)

Rita Jones-Hyde, Chris Porter, and Liz Vogel, editors. Writing Matters.

Highly Recommended:
Strunk & White. The Elements of Style.
(ISBN: 0-205-30902-X)
A college level dictionary of some sort

Other Material:
• Loose-leaf notebook paper for in-class writing assignments (no spiral notebooks please!)
• A sturdy folder to hold all of your writing for this class (for journals and other papers)
• A 1.5" three-ring binder with dividers to act as your portfolio at the midterm and the end of the semester (no huge 3" binders, please!)
• Disks for saving your typed writing
• An active UNCG email account, Novel Password, etc. This is not only so you may receive emails from my and your classmates, but also to give you access to Blackboard, the e-reserve, and UNCG’s other technical facilities.

UNCG Honor Policy:
Students are expected to abide by the terms of the student code of academic conduct, available in your undergraduate bulletin or online at http://studentconduct.uncg.edu. I urge you all to examine this material, and consult me with any questions you may have about plagiarism and academic integrity before it becomes an issue.

Ignorance of what constitutes plagiarism is not an acceptable excuse for plagiarism. Academic dishonesty of any kind will not be tolerated and will result in a failing grade. I’m honestly interested in what you have to say, not what you can find/buy on the internet.

Students at UNCG are required to write and sign the Academic Integrity Pledge on all major work submitted for this course. The pledge reads, "I HAVE ABIDED BY THE UNCG ACADEMIC INTEGRITY POLICY ON THIS ASSIGNMENT.”

Writing Center:
The Writing Center, McIver 101, is for any writer at any level who wants some qualified, outside input on any essay for any class. Call for an appointment, 334-3125, or just drop in. However, please note they are trained to aid you with composition, grammar, etc. but do not expect them to simply proofread your paper for you. Budget time to allow for them to actually help you. Dropping in an hour before the paper is due is a not only a sure way to frustrate yourself and the staff, but also ensures very little improvement of your composition.

An Abbreviated Schedule of the Semester (I can assure you that this will change over the semester...I will frequently give you updates):

August 16: Introduction
August 23: Paper #1 assigned
August 27: Journals Due
August 30: Paper #1 in-class Workshop

September 6: Labor Day (no class)
September 8: 2nd Draft Paper #1 in-class Workshop
September 10: Journals Due
September 15: Paper #1 DUE
September 17: Paper #2 assigned
September 24: Paper #2 in-class Workshop; Journals Due

October 1: Paper #2 DUE
October 4: Mid-term Portfolios DUE
October 5-October 8: Mid-Term Conferences
October 8: Journals Due
October 11: Fall Break (no class)
October 13: Paper #3 assigned
October 20: Paper #3 in-class Workshop
October 22: Journals Due
October 27: Paper #3 due to Me; possible presentations
October 29: Possible presentations

November 1: The Things They Carried
November 2:Election Day
November 3: The Things They Carried
November 4: The Things They Carried: Paper #4 assigned
November 5: Journals Due
November 12: Paper #4 in-class Workshops
November 17-November 22: Final Conferences; Paper #4 DUE in conference
November 19: Journals Due
November 24: Thanksgiving Break (no class)
November 26: Thanksgiving Break (no class)
November 29: Reflection Assignment

December 6: Last Class; Final Portfolio Due
December 10: Exam Period; Portfolios Returned

The First Two Weeks:

Week 1 Getting our feet wet:
Who are we? What are our names?
Mon. August 16 Introduction: talk about the syllabus
Wed. August 18 In class writing “What is in a name”
Bishop:176-182
Cisneros: “My Name”
Pekar: “The Harvey Pekar Name Story”
Fri. August 20 Sedaris: “You Can’t Kill the Rooster”
Bishop: 170-176
Last day to Add/Drop

Week 2
Me On the Page vs. Me vs. Who You Think I Am vs....
Mon. August 23 Megan Daum: “Music is my Bag”
Bishop: 319-325
Paper #1: What’s in a Name?
Wed. August 25 Ellison: “On Being the Target of Discrimination”
in class writing: Who is listening?
Fri. August 27 The Rhetorical Triangle
Bishop 124-134
(see also Writing Matters 28)
discussion of “workshop”