English 101-02

Exploring Self and Developing Voice through Reading and Writing

Syllabus

Spring 2002

MWF: 9-9:50 a.m.

Room: McIver 139A

Instructor: Laura Savu

Office: McIver 137

Office Hours: MWF 8-9 a.m. or by appointment

Phone: 334-5867

E-mail: lesavu@uncg.edu

Required Texts:

Your own writing

Ford, Marjorie and Jon Ford. Dreams and Inward Journeys. Fourth Edition. New York: Longman, 2001.

Writing Matters: A Guide to Freshman English. 2001-2002

Reynolds, Nedra. Portfolio Keeping. A Guide for Students.

The Little Brown Handbook

Photocopied readings and/or handouts on e-reserve

Optional readings: Quick Study Charts (English Composition and Style and English Grammar and Punctuation) available at the UNCG Bookstore.

Materials

2 binders of your choice for your portfolios

4 two-pocket folders for your essays

a loose leaf notebook for your in-class writing assignments

General Course Objectives

• to help you become more confident and competent writers and speakers

• to sharpen your reading, writing, and critical thinking skills

• to make writing a conscious and worthwhile activity whose implications extend beyond the classroom
• to foster self-awareness and help you find and maintain a distinct voice in your writing
• to give you a sense of the complex relationship among the writer, the message/idea, and potential readers
• to help you communicate with an audience and work effectively with your peers

Course Description

Nothing said to us, nothing we can learn from others, reaches us so deeply as that we can find in ourselves (Theodore Reik).

I write to understand as much as to be understood (Elie Wiesel).

This is the way in which I feel writing matters. It clarifies and intensifies, it deepens and connects me to others (Julia Alvarez).

This class is as much about learning to write as it is about writing to learn. Since one of the best ways to learn how to write is by writing, you will be asked to do a great deal of inventing, drafting, and revising. You will write for yourselves, for your peers, and for me. The writing assignments are spaced throughout the term so that you can learn and improve from each one. In addition, many of our class meetings will involve group presentations, peer editing exercises, collaborative responses, class discussions, and in-class writing exercisesall ways of figuring out ideas and differing viewpoints. As its title makes clear, this course will also be reading intensive. Youll read each others work in progress and the writing of other students as well as published authors to discover different approaches to topics and different writing voices. Through writing, reading, and collaborating with your peers, you will learn to critically examine yourself and the world around you.

The textbook for this course revolves around the dream concept as a complex metaphor for both writing and readingtwo closely intertwined inner journeys on the path towards understanding your own personalities and values as well as those of others. As such, we will be using the word dreams to describe not only the visions of sleeppowerful experiences that cannot exactly/coherently be put into wordsbut also our fondest hopes and aspirations. Most of the issues we will be exploring together relate to the impact that the symbolism of dreams, myths, creativity, and memory has upon our lives and translates itself into our writing.

Although the strategies we cover should apply to any writing task you face, our emphasis will be on the processes and forms of academic writing. By the end of this course you should be able to do the following:

• read closely and understand the aims of different types of fiction and non-fiction texts

• understand the decisions and strategies that are involved in writing effectively for a variety of audiences and contexts
• compose papers that are unified, fully developed, logically organized, clearly written, and that engage your readers interest
• choose appropriate evidence, organization patterns, and styles for particular writing tasks (narration, description, argument, etc)
• locate, summarize, paraphrase, and evaluate textual evidenceincluding some that present views opposing your ownand incorporate it into your own writing
• analyze your writing and the writing of others, critically evaluating effectiveness of content and presentation.
• demonstrate a working knowledge of the grammatical and mechanical conventions of standard written English

Instructional and Evaluative Methods

4 essays that make up the core of your final portfolios

Midterm portfolio

Final Portfolio

Journal

Class participation (including group work/presentations)

Conferences

Attendance

You must meet all the above requirements in order to do well in this class. Your final grade will be based on the quality of your written and oral work, on your willingness to revise, rethink your writing, and challenge yourself. For evaluation criteria, or degrees of good writing, read Writing Matters, 99-101.

Our focus is on writing as an ongoing creative process rather than a final product that is beyond revision. Therefore, throughout the term I will provide extensive feedback on your writing, calling your attention to both its strengths and weaknesses, but I will not assign grades to individual papers. Instead, I will give you a midterm so far grade, which, in combination with the comments I make on your papers and our discussion in conferences, should give you a sense of how you are doing in the course.

Portfolios: As records of your accomplishments in reading, writing, and critical thinking, the portfolios provide you with the opportunity to have your best work evaluated. Thus, they will include not only the polished versions of the four essays you are required to write in the course of the semester but samples of revised journal entries and in-class writings as well. For each essay, you will produce a rough draft for a peer review, and then a revision of that draft for me to read. I will ask you to turn in your final draft in a two-pocket folder with the current draft for me on one side, and your prewriting, peer review comments, outlines, notes, etc. on the other. When a draft is due for a workshop in class bring at least two copies. When I return your papers, I strongly advise that you read my comments and suggestions carefully and ask for clarifications where needed.

The mid-term portfolio will include about 8-10 pages of polished writing, while the final portfolio will have 20 or more pages of polished writing. Both portfolios will include a reflection paper on your progress as critical thinkers, readers, and writers this semester. For more about keeping a portfolio, read carefully Nedra Reynolds guide.

All papers written outside of class must follow the MLA format (typed, double-spaced with 1 inch margins, in Times New Roman or an equivalent). All papers are due at the beginning of class in which they are assigned. NO LATE PAPERS WILL BE ACCEPTED. Failure to turn in any one of these essays is grounds for failing the course.

Journal: This is a loose-leaf notebook for your journal entries (JE) and reading responses (RR). The first will allow you to engage the course material on a deeper, more personal level, so feel free to record your dreams and those daily experiences/observations from which you have learned something new about yourselves and/or others. While you might use an entry to describe something that happened to you, part of the entry should contain some analysis of the event. How did it make you feel? Why did you react the way you did? Sometimes topics will be assigned, but if one is not, you can create your own topic, continue with the topic assigned in class, or use one of the prompts provided on the sheet attached to this syllabus. I expect you to be as creative and provocative as possible and to experiment with various types of writing.

Reading responses work in the same manner as regular journal entries except that you will be responding to one of the works you will have read for this class.

Hold on to these entries, for you can always revise them for your portfolios and expand on them while in the process of writing formal papers. Sometimes I will ask you to add in-class writings to your journal. And since teaching this class is going to be a learning experience for me, too, I would encourage you to give me some feedback about what is going on in class and what you think I could do differently. You may choose to do this as often as you think fit.

Each week, unless notified otherwise, you will write 1 journal entry and 1 reading response, each about 1 page in length (typed, double-spaced with one inch margins). They will be given a check plus, a check, or a check minus. The overall grade will be based on the number of entries you do out of the number possible. No entries will be accepted late. For more on journaling and for samples of journal entries written by other UNCG students, read WM, 20-22 and 79-86.

Group work: During group activities you will share ideas and writings with your peers, working together through the revision process. It is important that throughout these sessions you work together supportively and cooperatively. One of the activities I have in mind will require each group to choose a topic of current interest for debate, take a position on it, and convey that position clearly and coherently to the rest of the class. You should be able to locate and evaluate supporting information both on-line and in the university library. You will receive a more detailed handout concerning this activity in due course.

Since group work counts for your final grade, I will ask each of you to reflect not only on the group work as a whole but also on your individual contribution to it. These reflections will make up a separate entry of your final portfolio.

Conferences: You will sign up for three individual and informal meetings with me in the course of the semester. The purpose of these meetings is for me to gain a better understanding of your writing-related interests and concerns and for you to receive feedback on your work. Missing a conference will count as a class absence. You are welcome, however, to stop by my office any time during my office hours.

Attendance

It is important that I see the writing you do in class as well as the papers you produce outside of class. For every formal paper that you write, you will move through drafts and revisions, working with your peers to rethink, revise, edit your work, and help them with theirs. Consequently, it is important that you attend class regularly and participate in class activities that demonstrate your writing process in addition to the final products that you turn in. Your grade will be seriously compromised by more than three absences. You will fail if you miss more than 9 classes. If a paper is due on the day you are absent, make arrangements to get the paper in on that day. You are responsible for finding out what goes on in the classes you miss, including any changes in the schedule or homework assignments. If you do miss class because of a serious illness, inform me as soon as possible.

Academic Misconduct: Plagiarismusing someone elses ideas or words as your own on any assignmentis a violation of the Academic Integrity Policy and thus unacceptable. Crediting sources places your work in a textual conversation and allows you to see your own contribution to that conversation. For instructions on proper citation methods, refer to your handbook or go to www.edu/saf/studiscp/Honor.html.

Classroom behavior: Any behavior that disrupts, distracts, or is disrespectful will not be tolerated. Tardiness is rude and so is coming to class unprepared. Sleeping in class, putting your head down, and working off topic will be grounds for removal and thus counted as absences. Cell phones and pagers should be turned off during class time. You may be reached during classes or conferences at the department phone number (334-5311) in the case of an emergency.

Students with learning differences: If you have a disability that could affect your performance in this course or for which you need accommodation, please contact me and/or the office of Disability Services at 334-5440.

Additional Assistance: I cannot overemphasize the importance of getting feedback on your writing. In the form of The Writing Center, located in 101 McIver, UNCG offers this service for free at any stage of the writing process (brainstorming, planning, organizing, composing, revising, editing, or proofreading). Call (336) 334-3125 for an appointment, or just drop by.

ENG 101-02

Course Schedule

The readings listed below will inform our class discussions and form the basis of most of your journal reflections. The schedule is tentative and will inevitably change as we move through the semester. Remember that youre responsible for any changes.

Week 1

01/14

Introduction to course and to each other

01/16

Read: The Writing Process And Self-Discovery (DJ 1-9)

Chanani, Whirling Through: My Writing Process as a Tornado Within (DJ 61-63)

JE: letter to me about your past writing experiences

Assign essay # 1: Imagine Your Composing Process

01/18

Read: Classroom Rituals (WM 11-17)

Stafford, A Way of Writing (DJ 17-20)

RR: response to Staffords essay

In-class: Diagnostic essay

Sign-up for conference # 1

Last day to change courses without special permission.

Week 2

Conferences to be held this week (W and F)

01/21 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday; no class

01/22 Last day to drop a course for tuition and fees refund

01/23

Reading-Writing Connections

Read: Responding to Reading through Writing (DJ 66-70)

Reading Strategies (WM 17-19)

Rosenblatt, Life in the Margins (handout)

JE: annotate a favorite reading (one page from a short-story, novel, editorial, etc.)

Paragraphing

Form groups

01/25

Revision Workshop on Draft of Essay #1

Week 3

01/28

Revised copy of essay # 1 due

Assign essay # 2: The Story Behind the Picture

Read: Rhetoric in the Writing Class (WM 23-25)

Wright, The Library Card (DJ 74-79)

In-class: group analysis of a rhetorical situation

01/30

Read: Birkerts, States of Reading (DJ 83-91)

Holtzman, Dont Look Back (DJ 91-95)

RR: the advantages and limitations of on-line reading

Summarizing

02/01

Workshop on reading the picture

Sing-up sheet for in-class writing leaders (WL)

Bring picture

Visit to the Weatherspoon Gallery (TBA)

A Way With Words: an exhibition considering one of the most important artistic developments of the 20^th century: the incorporation of text into works of visual art.

Week 4

02/04

Writing to Remember

Narration, Memory, and Self-Awareness (DJ 111-16)

Read: Angelou, The Angel of the Candy Counter (DJ 128-34)

JE: see prompt on p. 128 (DJ) or find your own topic

WL #1

02/06

Read: Portfolio Keeping (9-16).

Okada, Namesake (DJ 163-66)

Cisnero, My Name (handout)

RR: compare-contrast the authors attitude towards their names

WL # 2

02/08

Revision Workshop on Draft of Essay # 2

Week 5

02/11

Revised copy of essay # 2 due

Assign essay # 3: Personal and Cultural Myths

Read: Slade, Ave Maria (WM 41-44)

WL # 3

Writing effective introductions and conclusions

02/13

Dreams and Myths

Comparing and Contrasting: Strategies for Thinking and Writing (DJ 170-74)

Giovanni, ego-tripping (there may be a reason why) (DJ 177-78)

RR: double-entry notes on the poem

WL # 4

In-class: Intro to Myths (handout)

02/15

Read: Portfolio of Creation Myths (DJ 198-201)

Groban, Two Myths (DJ 221-224)

WL # 5

JE: open

Week 6

Library Tour (date TBA)

02/18

Bring myths for comparison-contrast (e.g. the Greek myth of creation, found on e-reserve)

Discuss your findings in groups

WL # 6

02/20

Read: Jung, The Importance of Dreams (DJ 189-97)

Freud, Erotic Wishes and Dreams (308-09)

JE: record a dream

Group discussion on the readings

WL # 7

02/22

Revision Workshop on Draft of essay # 3

Week 7

Conferences will be held this week

02/25

Read: Bulfinch, Pygmalion (DJ 304-05)

Updike, Pygmalion (DJ 305-08)

WL # 8

In-class group work

02/27

Revised copy of essay # 3 due

Assign essay # 4: Joining the Conversation

The Man-Woman Game (handout)

Group discussion

WL # 9