English Composition 111 -- Fall 1998
MWF 9:00-9:50
Instructor: Julie Barak

Course Goals:

1) To develop a writing habit. 2) To practice several skills and techniques that are helpful in various stages of the writing process: pre-writing, drafting, revising, and editing. 3) To develop the ability to respond helpfully, analytically, and critically to the writing of others -- both peers and professionals. 4) To learn to accept and to respond in writing and through re-writing to others' comments about your work.

Back to Top

Course Methods/Description:

The course is designed as a writing/reading workshop. We will spend most of our days in class writing, reading our writing out loud, and discussing that writing. We will also read and discuss the work of several published writers. In order to be a successful member of this class, you must be prepared to write daily in and out of class, to read your work out loud to small groups of your classmates and to the class as a whole, to comment thoughtfully on the writing of others and to accept others' comments about your own work. Participation in all of these activities is required from all members of the course. If you opt not to participate in the writing, sharing, or responding, you will fail the class. Writing is a craft we can learn. It is also a means of exploring ourselves, our relationships with others and with our world. Writing is a mind-expanding, exciting, risky business. Let's all take up the challenge of living a writer's life this semester. It will be worth the effort!

Back to Top

Required Texts and Other Expenses:

--Sharon Loan Fiffer and Steve Fiffer, Eds. Family: American Writers Remember TheirOwn.
--Leland Jones and Lloyd Newman. Our America: Life and Death on the South Side of    Chicago.
--A couple of file folders for your journals and portfolios. Lots of paper and ink.
--Copies of your essays as needed for peer and instructor evaluation.

Back to Top

Course Requirements:

Writing --

Journal. Each week you should spend at least two hours outside of class working with the exercises we will begin in class. I've designed these exercises to help you move through various stages of the writing process -- pre-writing, drafting, researching, revising, and editing. We'll move through them in this order, but you might find, as you journal each week, that you'd like to go back and try one of the previous exercises with a new idea you're writing about. You might do the exercises more than once. For example, you might do the pre-writing exercises for each new piece you start. You might find a couple of drafting or revising exercises that really work for you, and go back to them for each draft. Use the exercises to your advantage. By the end of the semester you should have a MINIMUM (for me that translates in to a grade of "C") of 15 journal entries -- one for each exercise we "practice" in class. I'll collect and evaluate your journals 3 times during the semester. The journal is worth 14% of your grade.

Back to Top

Essays. At the end of the semester, four polished essays, each about 4-5 double-spaced pages long, are due in your portfolio. During the course of the semester, two drafts of each of these four essays need to be submitted to me and to the class on the dates indicated on the calendar. Each draft must be accompanied with a letter that discusses the writing issues you dealt with as you wrote or revised the piece. I call this kind of reflection a "Writer's Note" or "Comments on the Draft." This letter is absolutely essential reflection, not only for you, but also for your peers, who will need your comments in order to advise you about your writing. No draft will be accepted without this letter. Each of the eight drafts are worth 6% of your grade, for a total of 48%.

Back to Top

Responses. You must respond, in writing, to two of your classmates' drafts each time a draft is submitted. I will provide you with some guidelines for responding and we'll use class time to read the essays and to begin to formulate a response. Then you'll have a day or two to polish your response, type it up and turn a copy over to the writer and to me. We can decide if you'd like to work with the same group members all the time, or if you'd like to switch partners throughout the semester. Each response is worth 1% of your grade, for a total of 16%.

Back to Top

Midterm and Final Learning Letters. At midterm and at the end of the semester, you'll be asked to assess your learning in writing. Each of these letters is worth 3.5% of your grade, for a total of 7%.

Back to Top

Portfolio. At the end of the semester you will submit four polished drafts, one for each of the essays we've worked on during the semester. In addition to the polished drafts, you'll submit the rough drafts and the revisions that have lead to that draft. Each polished draft will be accompanied by a comprehensive writer's note. This portfolio is worth 15% of your total grade.

Back to Top

Reading and Discussion --

Outside Texts. Each week, we will have a reading assignment from our two texts or from some other sources I'll provide. We will spend one day discussing these readings, especially focussing on the ways the writers present their ideas about writing and on their writing techniques. You should always try to utilize the information gained from the reading and the discussion when you are working on your journal exercises and drafting. These readings and discussions should play a large role in your comments in your writer's notes and in your learning letters, where you might tell me and your classmates what you have learned from these other writers that you've tried to implement in your own writing.

Back to Top

Class Texts. We will also spend time reading and discussing each other's writing. Sometimes we'll do this in small groups, sometimes as a whole class.

Your participation in these discussions is important to me when I make decisions about grades. Have I heard your voice? How have your comments influenced the other writers in the class? Participation is determined by 1) how much you say, 2) how thoughtful and useful your contributions are to other writers, 3) how carefully you listen to the contributions of others. Lack of participation or inappropriate, distracting participation can adversely affect your grade.

Back to Top

Attendance --

Show up for class. You've got to come to class to do well in the class. In order to share your responses and to help us construct a shared meaning of the texts we'll read, you have to be here to participate in the discussions. But, because I know that life can get complicated, everybody gets three free absences. After three, you lose a third of a letter grade for each absence. (That is, if you have a B for the class, but you've missed 5 classes, your final grade will be a C+.) You will also be penalized for coming into class late - three "lates" equals one absence.

Back to Top

Turn work in on time. Late work will not be accepted. I'm adamant about this. There will be no exceptions to this rule. If you don't turn your work in on a day we're doing group work, life is miserable. I don't want to be miserable. So, if you don't have the writing in your hand in class on the day we're going to be working with it, you don't get credit for it -- you will receive an "F" for that assignment. Do your work ahead of time. Print your essay or response out the night BEFORE it's due. Don't wait until the last minute to dash something off. Be sure you back up all the work you do on your computer so that you have a copy on your hard drive and a copy on disk. I will not accept excuses of ANY sort for late work - computer, printer, and disk problems included.

Back to Top

Summary of Evaluation Criteria --

This all looks pretty scientific, but remember that lack of attendance and participation can adversely affect these numbers.

Back to Top

************************************************************************************************************************************************************ Reading/Assignment Due Date Schedule

Back to Top

Back to Top

Back to Top

Back to Top

Back to Top

Back to Top

Back to Top

Back to Top

Back to Top

Back to Top

Back to Top

Back to Top

Back to Top

Back to Top

Back to Top

Back to Top

Back to Top

Back to Top