Macnolia, A. Van Jordan
Writing Matters (2005 ed.), UNCG Composition Department
The Mercury Reader, Eds. Janice Neuleib, Kathleen Shine Cain, Stephen Ruffus,
and Maurice Scharton
The Little, Brown Essential Handbook (5th ed.), Jane E. Aaron
E-reserve readings (Available through Blackboard)
A notebook for keeping a writing journal
COURSE DESCRIPTION
English 101 is a course designed to introduce you to reading, interpreting, and writing at the college level. To give you practice in college writing, the major assignments ask you to hone your skills at observation and analysis—of texts, personal experiences, and ideas—and to improve your writing through revision. Each unit in this course will consist of readings, workshops, and journal entries that will enhance your understanding of the writing process and will also challenge you to think critically about the subject of writing.
This course will focus on writing as a communal act. Many times throughout this semester, you and your classmates will collaborate on in-class writings and draft workshops. The purpose of this collaboration is to emphasize the “writing community” and also to allow you to share your writing with “knowledgeable peers” who can help you. My intention is to help you develop your voice by talking and collaborating with other students so that you may receive suggestions and feedback that will help you in your drafting and final portfolio decisions.
COURSE GOALS
? To engage in the process of writing and to develop or expand your individual
writing process.
? To demonstrate an understanding of the aims and methods of intellectual discourse.
? To write clear, concise, and coherent essays that take differing viewpoints
into account and also logically evaluate and synthesize relevant information
or details.
? To construct cogent arguments and to interpret/evaluate argumentative discourse.
? To understand the role of community in the writing process.
? To compile a final portfolio that presents polished, proficient writing and
the process of achieving that writing.
COURSE APPROACH
To give you practice in establishing authority as a writer, we will use the thread approach for this course, which means that you will develop a topic of your own choosing and write about the topic throughout the semester. You will have five writing challenges: a learning letter, a prospectus, a personal narrative, an interpretive paper, and a research-based paper. It is important that your topic be rich and adaptable for all of these assignments, and your topic should also be one that interests you.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
? Attendance Your physical and mental presence in this class is invaluable to the work we will do. Come to class on time; if you arrive more than 10 minutes late to class, you will be considered absent. You are permitted 3 absences; however, for each additional absence, your final grade will be reduced by 1/3 of a letter grade. If you miss more than 6 classes, you will be dropped from the course. (Please remember that illness and family emergencies do not apply. You will not be penalized for missing class for one of these reasons, as long as you provide appropriate validation upon request, if necessary.) Note: missing a scheduled conference will result in 2 absences (See Conferences).
? Participation / Process Work (20%) This course is designed around interaction with one another, so please be ready to engage in all class activities, including in-class writing, discussion, draft workshops, and journaling. While attentive silence is a passive form of participation, verbal communication plays an important function in the writing process. Therefore, we will work on developing our verbal communication skills throughout the semester. Note: in-class assignments cannot be made up.
? Draft Credit (40%) You are responsible for five original papers (A-E). You will be required to submit each paper at three stages of development (1-3). In order to receive full credit, drafts must be turned in on the assigned meeting, and they should be thoughtful and well developed. Minimum guidelines for a complete draft are listed below, and other requirements will be given on individual assignments.
Paper A: Learning Letter (2-4 pp)
Paper B: Thread Prospectus (2-4 pp)
Paper C: Personal Narrative (3-5 pp)
Paper D: Interpreting a Text (3-5 pp)
Paper E: Research-based Paper (5-7 pp)
Draft 1: This draft is not a typical “rough draft.” Instead, this draft is where your ideas come from and your plan for a true rough draft emerges. Use this draft to get all of your ideas down on paper. A Draft 1 paper will include nay mixture of the following: brainstorming/invention pages, journal entries you think you could expand, free-writing, outlines, versions of an introduction/opening scene, or any portion of writing that you can share with your peers or me. Although this material is informal, you should have enough material(s) so that it roughly equates the expected page minimum for Drafts 2 and 3. This material may be handwritten or typed.
Draft 2: This is a rough draft of a paper. In this draft, you will reflect upon the input offered to you by me and/or your classmates on Draft 1 and develop a coherent—not perfect—paper. A reader should be able to read the paper from beginning to end without stopping to ask you for the “missing” pieces. All Draft 2 papers must meet the page requirement for that paper, be typed (12-pt. font, Times New Roman), and adhere to MLA format for headings, spacing, and margins. *See p. 142 in The Little, Brown Essential Handbook for details on MLA style. Note: if you are familiar with another documentation style and would like to use it, please come talk to me.*
Draft 3: This is the draft where you are close to a product that you would send out into the world with your name on it. This draft will be more polished than Draft 2 but must reflect considerable revision that may or may not make it into your portfolio. Since we will be working throughout the semester on what constitutes revision (v. clean-up, editing, or proofreading), I will be more specific about the kinds of revising that will be necessary in preparing Draft 3. Like Draft 2, this draft must meet the page requirement, be typed, and in MLA format.
? Conferences For each unit, you will schedule a 15-20 minute conference with me. We will sign up for these conferences the week before they start, and we will not meet for regular classes the week we are conferencing. At the conference we will discuss your writing, revision possibilities, and additional concerns or comments you may have about your draft or about the course. Missing a scheduled conference will count as 2 absences. Additional conferences are available during my regular office hours or upon request.
? Writer’s Notebook You need to bring a notebook to every class that will be designated as your writing journal. You will use it to invent topics for papers, work on revision strategies, and experiment with free-writes, questions, and ideas. Everything you write in class will become part of your writer’s notebook. You will submit 3 notebook entries into the final portfolio.
? Portfolio (40%) At the end of the semester, you will turn in a portfolio of your written work. This is the final product of all of the process work you will do throughout the semester—do not throw away anything that you write for this course. The portfolio will be evaluated on the quality of the final drafts you select to include and the quality of revision shown in each. I will provide you with more details on the portfolio throughout the semester, including examples of how to compile your materials. Except under extraordinary circumstances, there is no such thing as a late portfolio.
The final portfolio must include:
Paper A Final (Along with A1, A2, A3—copies with written feedback from me/your peers)
Paper E Final (Along with E1, E2, E3—copies with written feedback from me/your peers)
TWO papers selected by you from: Paper B Final, Paper C Final, or Paper D Final (You must include copies of Drafts 1, 2, 3 with process feedback from me/your peers)
THREE journal selections: originals or copies of journal entries that you feel best reflect how you progressed in the writing process throughout the course. Remember to include only entries you feel comfortable sharing with me.
? This project will equal 40% of your final grade. In order to receive full credit on your portfolio, you should be able to effectively communicate your ideas in standard written English, following the guidelines of MLA documentation style. Your writing should also be thoughtful, original, and well developed.
? University Writing Center The University Writing Center (101 McIver Building) is open Monday-Thursday (9am-8pm), Friday (9am-3pm), and Sunday (5pm-8pm). Consultants will work with you one-on-one and provide assistance with style, organization, content, voice, grammar, and documentation (including MLA, APA, and other documentation formats). In addition to your draft and/or any pre-writing notes, bring your assignment to your session. For more information, visit http://www.uncg.edu/eng/writingcenter; to make an appointment, call 334-3125.
? Academic Integrity Students taking ENG 101 are expected to follow the Academic Integrity Code of the University. Please take the time to read this code, as the penalties for plagiarism are severe. To read the terms and conditions of the Code, visit the following website: http://studentconduct.uncg.edu/policy/academicintegrity.
COURSE EVALUATION
Participation / Process work: 20%
Draft Credit: 40%
Portfolio: 40%
Tentative Weekly Schedule
INVENTION: THE WRITER, THE PROCESS, THE IDEA
Week
1 Monday 8/15 Introduction / Syllabus
Wednesday 8/17 What is the writing process? Begin A1
Friday 8/19 What is good writing? A1 due
Week
2 Monday 8/22 Developing a topic
Wednesday 8/24 Continue developing a topic / The writer’s notebook
Friday 8/26 Writing the prospectus / begin B1
Week
3 Monday 8/29
Conferences / B1 due / Writer’s Notebook due
Wednesday 8/31
Friday 9/2
RHETORIC: AUDIENCE, VOICE, APPROACH
Week
4 Monday 9/5 No class. Labor Day.
Wednesday 9/7 What is rhetoric?
Friday 9/9 What is revision? / In-class workshop / B2 due
Week
5 Monday 9/12 B3 due / Introduction to voice
Wednesday 9/14 Details, description, imagination / Grammar activity
Friday 9/16 Understanding perspective / C1 due
Week
6 Monday 9/19 Identity and the self
Wednesday 9/21 In-class workshop / C2 due
Friday 9/23 Power and democracy
Week
7 Monday 9/26 Conferences / C3 due / Writer’s Notebook due
Wednesday 9/28
Friday 9/30
ORCHESTRATION: INTERPRETATION AND DIALOGUE
Week
8 Monday 10/3 What is interpretation?
Wednesday 10/5 M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A / A2 due
Friday 10/7 M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A
Week
9 Monday 10/10 No class. Fall Break.
Wednesday 10/12 M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A / D1 due
Friday 10/14 M-A-C-N-O-L-I-A / Movie and mini-presentation
Week
10 Monday 10/17
Conferences / D2 due / Writer’s Notebook due
Wednesday 10/19
Friday 10/21
PROFESSIONAL CONVERSATION:
RESEARCH, ORGANIZATION, AND ARGUMENT
Week
11 Monday 10/24 What is research? / In-class workshop / D3 due
Wednesday 10/26 Primary and secondary research
Friday 10/28 What is a thesis? What is argument?
Week
12 Monday 10/31 LIBRARY DAY. *Attendance required*
Wednesday 11/2 Integrating your words with the voices of others
Friday 11/4 What is documentation?
Week
13 Monday 11/6 Organization / E1 due
Wednesday 11/9 Revising and editing
Friday 11/11 No class. / Work on E2
Week
14 Monday 11/14
Conferences / E2 due / Writer’s Notebook due
Wednesday 11/16
Friday 11/18
Week
15 Monday 11/21 Grammar activity / E3 due
Wednesday 11/23 No class. Thanksgiving Break.
Friday 11/25 No class. Thanksgiving Break.
Week
16 Monday 11/28 Discuss portfolios / A3 due
Wednesday 11/30
Group conferences about portfolios
Friday 12/2
Week
17 Monday 12/5 Last day of class / Portfolios due
Friday 12/9 Exam period: 12:00-3:30pm / Return portfolios *Attendance required*