Course Aims: This is a course is about researched writing. The objectives of the course are the following. 1) For you to learn the principles, practices, and processes of research writing and documentation, so that your writing, your voice and your authority can be informed and enriched by the ideas of others. In particular, we will focus on posing and refining interesting questions, problems and hypotheses; finding and evaluating credible and useful sources; evaluating the content of what we read; developing our knowledge of a range of methods for producing worthwhile researched projects you are invested in and feel confident about. 2) For you to become involved in the processes of writing so that you see the "finished" essay as a part of a continuing process of engagement with your ideas and you learn the meaning of "substantive revision." 3) For you to learn the rhetoric of argumentation and evidence within your own processes of research writing so that you can present your ideas powerfully and convincingly. Part of what this entails is developing a sense of audience reactions to your writing, enabling you to write with greater sensitivity to others. And finally, 4) for you to gain practice using the conventional spelling, punctuation, mechanics, and documentation of written academic discourse. Course Description: This course is designed to function as a writing workshop. We will be reading and commenting on each other's work and relying on each other's expertise as readers and writers as we move through the semester. Think of the course as a braid. One strand of the braid will focus on thinking about, reading extensively about, and writing about a reseach topic of your choice. The second strand of the braid will focus on thinking about, reading extensively about, and writing about your researching and writing processes. How and why do you do what you do as a researcher and writer? What is effective for you and why? In what ways do you "spin your wheels" or waste time and effort in your researching and writing process? How can you develop more effective strategies and techniques for researching and writing? The third strand of the braid will focus on thinking about, reading extensively about, and writing about the research and writing habits of other writers -- these writers will include professional or published writers and all of our peers in this class, and perhaps, in other writing classes. We will read, write, discuss, and listen to people talking about their research and their writing process and test what we learn from these activities as we apply them to our own research and writing. Required Texts and Other Expenses:
Three Papers. (At least three drafts each. See schedule for due dates.) A. One personal narrative or developed discovery essay which establishes a context for the topic you've chosen to research and pursues some issues and a possible direction for your research paper. (5-6 pages). B. One critical analysis of a piece of literature which explores some aspect of the text and your connection to the theme or the issues the literature explores. (4-5 pages) C. A research paper in which you work with sources, explore new ideas, and organize your arguments. (8-10 pages). Each draft must be accompanied by a writer's note, which should 1) clearly state your thesis or organizing idea and discuss how the essay is organized. 2) explain what you were trying to accomplish (as in describe, persuade, argue, discuss, explore, explain, compare, contrast). 3) discuss areas that you feel are problematic or that you would like specific feedback about. The second drafts of A and B are worth 10% of your grade. The second draft of C is worth 15% of your grade. Late work will be penalized. Responses to Drafts. Three classmates will read the first draft of each paper. Classmates will develop a response to the paper critiquing its effectiveness and offering suggestions for revision. The writer's note should guide your response, but I'll supply some guidelines for responding to help you out. The responder is responsible for giving the writer some feedback they can WORK with. The writer will grade each response, based on how helpful it was in the revision process and turn it in to me with the revision of the essay. Over the course of the semester, you'll write 9 responses. Each response is worth 1% of your grade, for a total of 12%. Late work will be penalized. A research journal. This journal is a record of all the research you do this semester. It reflects your commitment to and your involvement in your writing project. The journal should be divided into three parts: a) bibliography -- where you record sources you've discovered through your research, b) reading journal -- where you record quotations and notes as you read, and c) ideas and drafts -- where you jot down brainstorming, looping, clustering, exercises; ask questions; sketch outlines; attempt initial drafts and record examples from your own experience. The journal is worth 15% of your final grade. Late work will be penalized. A final portfolio. You'll received feedback from me about your second draft. You'll have an opportunity to revise this draft for the final portfolio. This portfolio will be a polished collection of all your drafts and will include up-to-date writer's notes which include comments on your revision process (what you changed, why you changed it and how it has improved the piece). The portfolio will also include a learning letter, which details what you've learned about researched writing over the course of the semester. The final portfolio is worth 25% of your grade. Late work will be penalized. A. The first presentation, a topic search presentation, will be an opportunity to share your topic idea with the class, to discuss with us what you already know about that topic, to tell us why you think this topic is important to explore in more depth, and to get some feedback from the class about what they think is interesting about your topic. This is your testing ground for your topic. It's the place to find out if it is interesting to others and what angles your readers might like you to explore. You must convince the class that this is a topic worth exploring, worth the time and effort both you and they will put into it over the course of the semester. B. The second presentation is a report on one of the essay in Literacies. Your task is three fold. First, you need to discuss how the text you've chosen is constructed. What is the thesis or organizing idea? How does the author organize her or his support for the thesis? What's the function of the piece? To compare and contrast? To analyze? To define? To explore cause and effect? To classify? Who is the intended audience? How can you tell? How does that intended audience affect the rhetorical style the author has chosen to use? What's the most obvious feature of this rhetorical style? What is the most effective writing strategy the writer uses? Second, you need to lead us in a discussion of the piece. Find out what we thought of the content and the style. Third, you need to lead us in a writing exercise that evolves from some writing strategy you observed in this piece. Can you help us to work with images? Can you help us to use conversation or dialogue? Can you help us strengthen our use of verbs? Can you help us cite sources more gracefully? Can you help us move between genres? Can you help us develop stronger descriptions? You can work with a partner for presentation #2. The first presentation is worth 5% of your grade, the second is worth 8%. If you miss the date assigned for your presentation for any reason, you will not be able to make it up. You will lose the 5 or 10 % of the grade. Class Attendance and Participation 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 and write, 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. 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 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.
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