English 1321:  Rhetoric and Composition I

Focus, Assignments, and Responsibilities

 

Ms.  Anita Dugat-Greene’s office location and hours:  Heard Hall, 113;

by appointment, before and after classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays

E-mail:  anitagale@yahoo.com  (I prefer that you use this e-mail account rather than my UMHB account.)

 

Course description

 English 1321 is a course designed for students who can demonstrate a sound basic knowledge of grammar and usage.  Emphasis on development and organization of different types of expository writing. Requires students to write extensively in a variety of modes and styles. Prerequisite: A grade of “C” or higher in ENGL 1312 or appropriate score on placement test.

 

Course Materials

• Peterson and Brereton, The Norton Reader:  An Anthology of Nonfiction, 11^th edition.
• Faigley, The Penguin Handbook, 2003.
• Two standard pocket folders (heavy paper)
• College-ruled notebook paper (printer paper for printing drafts of essays)
• Black or blue ink pens

 

Course Assignments and Grade Determination

4 essays  (multiple drafts) and a final                                                  70%

Participation (portfolios, homework, in-class work)                             20%

Departmental Grammar Exams (2) and possible quizzes                                 10%

 

 

What are the objectives of Freshman English? 

The primary objectives of any composition course are to teach students to think critically and to write well.  To achieve those primary objectives, however, you will learn:

• to work through the stages of writing, from prewriting to drafting and revising;
• to determine audience, situation, and purpose in writing;
• to establish a voice and presence in your writing that connects with your readers;
• to focus your ideas with stated or implied thesis statements and topic sentences;
• to use modes of discourse to organize your ideas in meaningful ways;
• to support claims with evidence and specific details;
• to use natural, clear, and lively language to communicate ideas;
• to edit your writing for coherency, conciseness, and clarity;
• to evaluate the effectiveness of the writing of others and to offer good writing advice to classmates in writing workshops;

·      to use quotations and ideas of others responsibly.

 

How will you achieve the objectives of Freshman English?

 Put simply, you will achieve the objectives of this rhetoric and composition class by reading, writing, and participating in class.  More specifically, you will read examples of effective  (and ineffective) writing and you will come to class prepared to discuss these readings.  You will write essays in response to these readings and to topics that I assign.  You will meet deadlines for writing drafts for class discussion and for final evaluation. 

 

 

For each major writing assignment, you will turn in a portfolio(a two-pocket folder) that will include:

• the final draft of the assigned essay
• rough drafts of the essay
• peer evaluation sheets
• reading responses (may include in-class writing assignments as well as assignments given as homework)

 

I will assign two separate grades for each major assignment, one grade for the final draft of the essay and another grade for the portfolio.  (See the class summary for information on grade distribution.)  For each major essay assignment, I will hand out descriptions of the assignment and requirements for that particular assignment.  Unless otherwise indicated, final drafts of major essays should be 650 to 1000 words.  Final drafts must be typed with a word processor and printed in black ink, following MLA format for documents (more specific information will be provided later).

 

What are your responsibilities as a student in this course?

ü    To complete all assignments in order to pass the course.

ü    To turn in assignments on the date and at the time at which they are due.

ü    To attend class regularly and to be attentive and (appropriately) active in class.

ü    To exhibit academic honesty in doing your own work to the best of your ability.

 

Assignments: You will complete all readings in time for class discussions on those readings.  To assure that you are maintaining this responsibility, I will give unannounced quizzes on the reading.  These quizzes cannot be made up.   Over the course of the semester, you will write several drafts of the assigned essays.  You will bring these drafts to class for discussion and peer evaluation.  In addition, I will require short writing assignments that may be responses to the readings or pre-writing for the longer essay assignments. To pass the course, you must complete all of the assignments, and you must make at least 61% on the departmental grammar exams.

 

            Late work:  All assignments are due at the beginning of the class period on the date of the announced deadline. Late assignments will be lowered a letter grade.  If you do not turn in the assignment within three days of the due date, I will not accept the assignment, and you will receive a zero for the work.

 

            Class attendance and attitude:  Would you miss work without informing your employer?  Do you expect to be promoted if you do not get along with your co-workers? Do you think sloppy, unprofessional, and incomplete work is rewarded in the business world?  What happens to employees who claim to have done work that others did instead?  They damage their reputations; they lose their jobs.  Likewise, attending college classes and treating classmates with respect are important. Do not miss more than four class periods unless you are participating in university-sponsored events. Excessive absences will affect your grade.   Three tardies equal one absence. 

                                  

Academic honesty:  If you turn in work that is not your own (or if you have plagiarized portions of the work), the most the work will receive is a zero.  There may be other penalties as well, as noted in the student handbook. See Faigley, pp. 322-332, for a discussion of plagiarism.  Ignorance is no excuse.

 

 

 

READING AND ASSIGNMENT SCHEDULE

The following schedule may be modified, depending upon the needs of the class.  These modifications, if any, will be minimal and will be announced several times in class, accompanied by handouts. The texts are abbreviated as following:  The Norton Reader (TNR), The Penguin Handbook (PH).

 

“A WORLD IN YOUR EYE”:  THE INTIMATE VOICE IN REFLECTIVE WRITING

Focus:

• Learning strategies for prewriting, drafting, revision
• Using natural, clear, lively language
• Generating specific details
• Becoming acquainted with modes of discourse
• Writing effective paragraphs, introductions, conclusions, titles

 

January 12                 First class meeting:  introduction to the course

                                   Purchase texts and read assignments for next week.

 

January 17 & 19        What is reflective writing? and Where do ideas come from?

                                   Topics of discussion:  the rhetorical situation, the writing process, reflective writing, and generating ideas for writing

                                   Reading:  PH, Chap. 1, pp. 7-21; chap. 7, pp.  133-138; chap. 3, pp. 38-50;  TNR, May Sarton, from Journal of Solitude, pp. 107-112; Frederick Douglass, “Learning to Read,” p. 408.

                                   Grammar review: sentence fragments, PH, ppp. 602-608

                                   Writing: reflective essay introduction; responses to readings

 

January 24 & 26        How do I find the words? What idea do those words communicate?

                                   Topics of discussion: using lively language, writing with a thesis, planning and drafting one's writing

Reading:  PH,; chap. 29, pp. 546-563; chap. 3, pp. 50-62; chap. 7,

pp. 138-147; TNR, Alice Walker, “Beauty:  When the Other Dancer is the Self,” p. 68. Scott Russell Sanders, “Under the Influence,” p. 140

Grammar review: run-ons and comma splices, PH, pp. 608-614.

Writing: responses to readings

 

January 31 &            How do I develop my ideas? When do I paragraph?

February 2                  Topics of discussion: patterns of development, effective paragraphing, coherency in paragraphing     

Reading:  PH, chap. 4, pp. 63-86; TNR, Judith Ortiz Cofer, “More Room,”

p. 167; N. Scott Momaday, “The Way to Rainy Mountain,” p. 192.

Grammar review: subject-verb agreement errors, PH, pp. 615-629.

Writing: drafts of reflective essay for peer review; responses to readings

 

February 7 & 9           How do I revise for focus and organization?

                                   Topics of discussion:  revising and editing, effective peer reviewing

Reading: chap. 5, pp. 87-102. Student essays from my files to be read and discussed in practice peer review.

Grammar review:  pronoun-antecedent agreement, reference, case, PH, pp. 648-666.

Writing: Thursday, typed draft of essay #1 for peer review.  Final draft of essay #1 and portfolio due Tuesday, February 14^th.

“THE WORLD IS WRITTEN FIRST”:  WRITING TO INFORM AND TO EXPLAIN

Focus:

• Determining audience, situation, and purpose in informative writing
• Understanding patterns (methods) of organization
• Composing a good thesis and supporting that thesis
• Editing for conciseness and clarity
• Editing for sentence variety
• Reading critically
• Using the library and the internet

 

February 14 & 16       What is informative writing?

                                   Topics of discussion:  informative writing and the rhetorical situation; reading critically.

                                   Reading:  PH, chap. 9, pp. 149-163; chap. 6, pp. 104-108.

                                   TNR, Garrison Keillor, “How to Write a Letter,” p. 522, “Postcards,”

p. 525; Alexander Petrunkevitch, “The Spider and the Wasp,” p. 595.

Grammar review:  commas, semi-colons, colons, PH, pp. 686-716.    

Writing:  Essay #1 and portfolio due Tuesday; responses to readings

 

February 21 & 23       How do I write with conciseness, clarity, emphasis, and inclusiveness?

            Topics of discussion:  recognizing active and passive voice, using action

                                   words, varying sentence structure, eliminating unnecessary words, reducing wordy phrases, adding power with parallelism and effective word order, avoiding bias in language.

Reading:  PH, pp. 514-525, pp. 526-534, pp. 536-545; pp. 564-572; 722-730; TNR, Amy Cunningham, “Why Women Smile,” p. 261; student essays from my files.

Writing: responses to readings; selected exercises

 

February 28 &                        How do I write the best draft?

March 2                      Topics of discussion:  revising the personal informative essay

                                   Writing:  draft of informative essay for peer review,

                                   Essay #2 and portfolio due next week.

                                   English Department’s Major Errors Exam, Thursday

 

March 7 & 9               How do I summarize what I’ve read and viewed?

                                   Topics of discussion: summarizing

Reading:  PH, pp. 332-335; TNR, Lars Eighner, “On Dumpster Diving,” p. 22.

                                   Writing: summaries, responses to readings and viewing

Viewing: Agnès Varda’s The Gleaners and I.

                                                Interview with Agnès Varda: 

 

                                                An online essay on Agnès Varda:

                                               

 Reviews of the documentary at Rottentomatoes.com:

 

March 13-17               SPRING BREAK

 

 

 

March 21 & 23                      Where do I find information?

            Topics of discussion:  using the library, searching the Internet.

                                   Reading:  PH, chap. 16, pp. 267-286; chap. 17, pp. 287-303. 

Writing:  library assignment; assignment for next essay.

Keywords:  dumpster diving, found art, scavenging, gleaning, waste products, recycling art, recycling waste, found objects (art), salvage

 

March 28 & 30                      How do I evaluate the information I find?

                                   Topics of discussion:  reliability of print sources and internet sources, the interpretation of facts.

                                   Reading:  PH, chap. 18, pp. 307-321.

Writing: preliminary drafts of research-supported informative essay

 

April 4 & 6                 How do I use sources responsibly?  Can the reader hear my voice?

                                   Topics of discussion:  avoiding plagiarism, citing sources, writing for interest

                                   Reading:  PH, chap. 19, pp. 322-335; chap. 21, pp. 348-411.

                                   Writing:  draft of Essay #3 for peer review

                                   English Department’s Major Errors Exam, Thursday

 

“THE TIME IS ALWAYS RIPE TO DO RIGHT”: WRITING TO CHANGE, THE PERSUASIVE VOICE

Focus:

• Understanding the elements of persuasion—logos, ethos, pathos
• Evaluating effective persuasion
• Supporting assertions with evidence
• Understanding audience in persuasion

 

April 11 & 13            What is persuasive writing?

                                   Topics of discussion:  ethical, emotional, and logical appeals in persuasion, non-threatening language in persuasion

                                   Reading:  PH, chap. 10, 177-187; chap. 7, pp.117-129. TNR, Martin  Luther King, “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” p. 889; “John Donne:  No Man is an Island,” p. 555.

                                   Rhetorical analysis of King’s letter at:

                                   http://www.millikin.edu/wcenter/king1a.html

                                   and at: http://www.drury.edu/ess/alpha/mlking.html

                                   Writing:  final draft of essay #3 and portfolio due Tuesday; analyses of reading, responses to assigned questions; handout on essay #4

 

April 18 & 20           What convinces:  Evaluating the persuasive appeals

                                   Topics of discussion:  continuation of discussion of appeals, with

                                   emphasis on voice and on support

                                   Reading:  TNR, Brent Staples, “Black Men and Public Space,” p. 369;

                                   James Baldwin, “Stranger in the Village,” p. 360.

 

April 25 & 27             What convinces, continued; wrapping it all up

                                   Topics of discussion:  continued discussion of persuasion

Writing: essay #4 and portfolio due.