Course Description:
This course helps you devise strategies you can use in all the writing you will do in college. You will learn skills of composing—how to come up with ideas, get them on paper, revise them and make them interesting and persuasive to readers. Writing well involves more than following a set of rules or formulas. It means understanding and using the relationship between who writers are and who their readers might be. This class aims to help you understand that relationship by practicing it.
During the semester, you’ll do a lot of writing both in and out of class. You’ll write for yourself and for others, analyze each other’s texts as well as your own, reflect and respond and argue and do research. We’ll talk about how you develop your own style, how you develop ideas and change them, and how you understand your 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.
Learning goals:
Writing and evaluating arguments
Communicating clearly and effectively
Evaluating and using relevant information
Understanding aims and methods of intellectual discourse
Evaluating different viewpoints
Required Texts:
Legacies
Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit
Always Running: Gang Days in L.A.
Policies & Procedures:
Attendance: Regular attendance and participation is crucial to the success of this course. I take issues of prompt, prepared attendance very seriously. If you aren’t in class, you can’t learn from class discussion nor do we have the chance to learn from you. Miss three classes, you’ll be docked a letter grade. Miss six classes, you’ll be dropped from the course. I also have no tolerance for tardiness; it disrupts class. Don’t do it.
Class Participation: Though there will be occasional lectures, this course is primarily discussion based. This means that participation is MANDATORY. A lack of participation will significantly affect your grade. Come to all classes prepared to talk about the reading materials. When a majority of the class has not done the reading, class discussion is curtailed and a quiz results. Class etiquette is extremely important for this course (and all courses!). We will be having several small and large group discussions. It is extremely rude to carry on another conversation while someone else is talking, whether it is me or one of your classmates. If you can’t possibly pay attention, you should leave, and I reserve the right to ask students to leave the class at any time.
Response Journal: For this course, you are required to keep an ongoing journal. A minimum of three journal entries must be made each week, and you must spend AT LEAST 15 minutes on each entry. As far as the content of your journal entries, the only requirement is that it relates to the class. Reflect on the assigned readings, the class discussions, etc.. The journal can also be used to brainstorm about possible paper topics. These journals will be picked up four times throughout the semester.
Grading: I will not give you a grade on individual papers or journals. If
requested, I will give you a grade-so-far mid semester. My comments to you
on journals and papers should give you a sense of my evaluation of your work.
I encourage you to talk with me any time about your grade. Success in our class
depends on:
1. meeting all the requirements
2. the quality of your written and oral work
3. your willingness to try new perspective, to revise and rethink, to take
chances
Portfolio: A folder to be handed in at the end of the semester, made up of
at least twenty pages of complete and polished writing. A handout with further
information will be distributed later in the semester.
The Writing Center: The Writing Center is located in 101 McIver, and is open Monday-Thursday, 9:00am-8:00pm, and Friday, 9:00am-3:00pm. You may make an appointment by calling 334-3125, or you can simply drop in, bringing your work-in-progress with you. It is highly encouraged that you utilize this resource.
Class Schedule:
Week 1:
Aug 15: Intro to course. Syllabus.
Aug 17: Critical reading / writing process
Aug 19: “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” pg 46
Week 2:
Aug 22: “This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona” pg 374
Aug 24: “A Good Man is Hard To Find” pg 108
Aug 26: Poetry TBA
Week 3:
Aug 29: “The Yellow Wallpaper” pg. 626
Aug 31: “Sonny’s Blues” pg 349
Sept 2: “Medusa and the Snail” pg 279
Week 4:
Sept 5: Labor Day. No classes.
Sept 7: “The Allegory of the Cave” pg 1196
Sept 9: Response journals due.
Week 5:
Sept 12: “I Stand Here Ironing” pg 331
Sept 14: Workshop
Sept 16: Papers due
Week 6:
Sept 19: Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit
Sept 21: Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit
Sept 23: Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit
Week 7:
Sept 26: “The Myth of Sisyphus” pg 1202
Sept 28: Poetry TBA
Sept 30: “Cathedral” pg 121
Week 8:
Oct 3: “Hills Like White Elephants” pg 605
Oct 5: “The Shawl” pg 835
Oct 7: Response journals, and Midterm letters due!
Week 9:
Oct 10: Fall Break
Oct 12: “The Third and Final Continent” pg 1046
Oct 14: “Woman as Other” pg 765
Week 10:
Oct 17: “Our Hurried Children” pg. 264
Oct 19: Workshop
Oct 21: Papers due
Week 11:
Oct 24: “Oedipus Rex” pg 786
Oct 26: “Oedipus Rex” pg 786
Oct 28: Poetry TBA
Week 12:
Oct 31: Workshop
Nov 2: “The Things They Carried” pg 850
Nov 4: Response journals due
Week 13:
Nov 7: Always Running
Nov 9: Always Running
Nov 11: Always Running
Week 14:
Nov 14: “The Prism of Race” pg. 941
Nov 16: Workshop
Nov 18: Papers due.
Week 15:
Thanksgiving Break
Week 16:
Nov 28: Poetry TBA
Nov 30: “Sure Thing” pg 722
Dec 2:Response journals due
Week 17:
Dec 5: In class writing
Dec 7: In class writing
Dec 9: Final letters and final portfolios due!
Happy Holidays!