English 132 Winter 2009 Ryan Flaherty, Instructor e-mail: [email protected] or [email protected] Phone: 734-255-3863 Office Hours: Wednesday, 8 -11a.m.; Thursday, 8-2:30 p.m., Bert Walker 125; or, by appointment Texts: Writing: A Guide for College and Beyond Lester Faigley, 2007 The Brief Penguin Handbook Lester Faigley, 2007 Other texts as provided by instructor (translation: you won’t have to buy them) Course Description: This course is a continuation of the writing instruction and practice begun in English 131, with an emphasis on critical thinking, information gathering, and those forms of writing useful to academic and professional life. Research writing is emphasized. An end of semester portfolio of informative and research writings, and an additional 16 hours of writing activities and workshops (GPAWs) is required. Prerequisite: English 131 Course Design: This course is set up to familiarize and give you practice with the thinking, writing and linguistic processes inherent in college composition. Because this course emphasizes process, the different stages and writing activities that come before final drafts will count towards your grade. This serves a dual purpose: it rewards consistent effort and helps you develop good writing habits. We will use the textbooks listed above at my discretion, meaning I will inform you as to which parts of the text will fit our purposes (see course schedule). There will be some other articles that I will also assign, which correspond with what we will be doing in class. I’ll ask that you bring the two main books (Faigley and Penguin) to class everyday, and I’ll inform you on the days when you will not need it. The first unit of the class will be dedicated to articulating your own “position” on some issue or topic of personal interest to you. The second unit will be focused on argumentation and rhetoric, during which we will examine and analyze how rhetorical elements have been utilized in different historical contexts. Similar to the “position” essay unit, the third unit will focus on an area of personal interest, which you will research and write on, utilizing books, scholarly journal and newspaper articles, and/ or interviews and surveys to support your stance. The research paper must be at least 5 pages in length My intent is to have the final unit be a media evaluation unit, wherein we will read and discuss critiques on the various forms of popular media (television, radio, internet, text-messaging). The assessment for this unit will be your own paper, evaluating one or two shows or websites that you view/ listen to critically over a two-week time frame.In order to eligible for your portfolio, any essay/ paper must be at least 3 pages. It is my goal that each assignment will be substantial enough to make 3 pages a very realistic minimum. Your research paper, however, must be at least 5 pages, and must utilize at least 5 different sources. The emphasis in this class will always be on your writing. While I will be the one developing the assignments, there will always be substantial room for you to choose what you want to write on. Many developing writers find it difficult to have so much freedom in choosing topics, so the activities that we do in class (including the readings) will always be geared towards providing some structure to your writing process, as well as some ideas for writing. Many of these activities will be graded, which will help stabilize your grade in case you struggle on some of the papers. If you choose not to do the reading and writing assignments and activities outside of writing your four major papers, your grade will suffer. GPAWs In addition to the four major writing assignments and the other activities that we will be doing in class, you are required to complete 16 GPAW hours for this class. I have assigned specific GPAWs to correspond with what we will be doing in class, so that the workshops enhance your understanding of what we are trying to accomplish. GPAWs, by department requirements, must be a minimum of 10-20% of your overall course grade; don’t blow them off. Portfolios Throughout the semester, I’ll be reminding everyone about putting together an English 132 portfolio. As you may remember from other classes, the portfolio consists of your “best” work throughout the course of the semester. The combined total of the pages you will write if you honor the minimum requirements is about 15. Your portfolio needs to be 12 pages. I will get into more detail about portfolios later. Your portfolios will be worth a little more than 30% of the course grade in this class. So, you ask, what is the difference between getting a grade on individual papers in the class and getting a grade for them in my portfolio? Great question, and I wish I would have had an answer for this coming into last semester. Here’s what will happen: You will get “credit” for having rough drafts in on time (usually 15 points); these will be for peer review and my feedback. I will grade your 2nd drafts of these papers (out of 30-50 points, depending on the assignment) more closely, and this will count for your course grade for this assignment. You will then revise these papers a final time, and re-submit them in a two-pocket (or “portfolio”) folder, at a date near the end of the semester (see course schedule). Your portfolio will be worth 220 points, entailing the actual paper grade, the audience and purpose statements, and other presentation-oriented details. Point Breakdown: As I have them calculated now, the semester’s activities and assignments will combine to equal 720 points. This total is subject to slight change. The following, is how I see these points divided among the various responsibilities: Attendance and participation: 140 pts. (about 19%) Freewriting  Attendance  Peer Reviews  Reflections  Participations in class discussion Homework and GPAWs: 105 pts. (about 15%)  Randomly assorted homework assignments  GPAWs Writings: 255 pts. (about 35%)  Rough drafts, segments (70pts)  Research Proposal (10pts)  Annotated Bibliography (20pts)  Create-your-own peer review (10pts.)  Perpos 2nd draft (30)  RA 2nd draft (30)  Research 2nd Draft (50)  Media Evaluation final draft (30) Portfolio: 220 pts. (about 31%)  Research final draft (100)  Other two final drafts (50/each) 