WTG100 SECTION 010: COLLEGE WRITING,
FALL 1993
PROFESSOR UNGER
OFFICE: TBA
OFFICE HOURS: TBA
PHONE (W) TBA (H) (508) 853-4594
(BEFORE
Required Texts:
Ways of
A college handbook of your own
choosing; possibilities include:
The Holt Handbook, Kirszner and Mandell
The Little, Brown Handbook,
Fowler
The
WTG100 is an introduction to
College-level thinking, reading, and writing.
It is designed to encourage you to question your own ideas and ways of
working, as well as the ideas of others, and, in both instances, to find the
methods that work for you and begin to weed out the methods that do not. You should think of this class as the first
step in the assembly of a "tool kit" which should help you not only
in other courses but also in life, in your careers, in your ability to
make an impact on your environment.
Writing, above all else, is about finding your voice and learning how to
use it efficiently, powerfully, and effectively.
Learning, in this course, is a
collaborative endeavor: you get out of it what you put into it; you are
responsible not only for yourselves but for each other, not simply for your own
work but for the work of the other members of the class. If you are confused by some of the things
that happen in this class, by the readings, or the discussions, or some of the
things that you are asked to do: this is good. You learn not by sleep walking down paths you
already know but by beating your own paths through areas that are often hard to
traverse. Ideas and problems and
questions are meant to be wrestled with; this is how we grow. Aside from not giving this class the respect
of attending to its mechanical requirements, the worst thing that you can do
when faced with things you do not understand, is either to give up and walk
away or to quietly pretend that you understand, when you don't. When you "don't get it" (and this should
happen to all of you, more than once, in the next few weeks) you have to stand
up and shout this until someone makes things clear for you or until you have
enough additional information to make things clear to yourself.
Attendance: Regular class attendance is expected. Should you be unable to attend a class, the
professor should be notified ahead of time. Two or more unexcused absences will be
considered sufficient reason for you to fail the class. Two latenesses
equal one absence.
Participation: As a great deal of class time will be spent
in workshop format, active participation is essential. In order to participate meaningfully, it is
essential that you do the required reading and do it on time. Students who are not prepared for class will
be asked to leave and that class session will count as an unexcused absence.
Facilitating
Discussion: For each essay
that we read, a group of students will facilitate the class discussion. Everyone will do this at least once by the
end of the term. Your performance in
leading the discussion, and the amount of time you put into preparing to do
this, will be reflected in your participation grade.
Notebooks: Students are required to keep a notebook,
including thoughts on assigned readings, preliminary work on essays and
comments or questions generated by class discussion. Students may be asked to read notebook
entries aloud in large or small group discussions, or to use them in a variety
of in-class exercises. Notebooks may be
collected at any time during the term.
All notebooks will be turned in at the end of the term as part of the
"final folder," on which grades will be based. Students who are keeping up with the work
should find that they are writing a minimum of five pages per week in
their notebooks.
Workshops: On workshop days--when you go over rough
drafts of each others papers--each student must bring in two typed copies of
the current working draft of his or her paper.
Participation in the workshops is required. Students who fail to provide drafts for
workshop cannot pass the course.
Students are encouraged to visit the
Papers: Papers are due at the beginning of class on
the dates listed in the syllabus. No
unexcused late paper can receive a grade above a "D." All assignments must be completed in order to
pass the course.
Paper Format: See directives for typed papers without title
pages in Holt (Appendix B), or whatever handbook you have chosen. All papers are to be submitted in a manila
folder marked with the following information: Name, phone number, course
number and section, professor's name.
Working papers (drafts, brainstorming sheets, etc) must also be enclosed
with the completed essay. Keep a second
manila folder on hand to collect your marked papers over the course of the
term. All marked papers from the
"final folder" must be submitted at the end of the term.
In general, when you hand in a paper,
it should look like you are submitting it to an editor; your name should be on
every page, the sheets should be attached to each other, and you should NEVER
hand in your only copy of a paper.
Plagiarism: Any student who plagiarizes will fail the
course. (See Holt pp 562-67; look
up plagiarism in the index of whatever handbook you have chosen; or refer to
the school guidelines on this subject)
If it is possible to have the student expelled, this will be done as
well.
Grades: Short Assignment grades will be checks, with
pluses and minuses. Grades on the papers
will be letter grades, also with pluses and minuses. Final, course, grades will be letter grades
only. The following should make clear
what is required to attain each grade:
A:
Understood the assignment and was able to reinterpret it, adding a high
degree of personal style and insight. Essentially without mechanical flaws.
B:
Understood and was able to reinterpret the assignment. Went beyond the minimum the assignment called
for. Better than
average from a mechanical point of view.
C:
Reasonable understanding of the assignment. Visible effort to fulfill
the requirements of the assignment.
Adequate level of mechanical competence.
D:
Flawed understanding of the assignment.
Some evidence of a good faith effort to understand and
complete the assignment. High number of mechanical errors.
F:
Clear that the assignment was not understood. No serious effort made to understand or
complete the assignment. Very high number of mechanical errors.
Final Grades:
will be calculated based on the grades earned on the written assignments and on
the satisfaction of the mechanical requirements of the class: the requisite
number of notebook pages, participation in the class, absences, latenesses, the timely completion of reading and writing
assignments, etc.
Exit Exam: In
addition to the grade that you receive for this course, your continuation in
the writing sequence will be dependent on your successful completion of an exit
exam. Given in the second half of the
fall term, during dates to be announced, the exam will present you with a
series of readings that you will have several days to read and digest. You will then have four hours--not
necessarily in a row--during which time you are to write an extensive essay
that responds to these readings, demonstrating not only that your writing is at
a high enough level to allow you to move on but, just as important, that your
reading and critical thinking skills have also expanded. This exam will be read by two writing faculty
members--who will not know the names of the writers. If you are dissatisfied with the grade you
receive on the exit exam, you may use a portfolio of work from this class as an
appeal, also to be read anonymously by two faculty members. Again, unless you successfully complete this
exam, you cannot proceed to the next writing course. There will be additional and more specific
information about the exit exam, as well as more concrete schedule, within the
first few weeks of the term.
Access to the Professor: You are encouraged to bring any and all
questions or problems that you have about or with the class to me. My office hours will be posted within the
first week of the term. You may also call me at home--at the number, and hours,
at the top of this sheet. I will also
make arrangements to facilitate electronic communication, and to allow students
who are able to fax me work for critique and feedback to do so.
Notes: 1) Changes may be made in this syllabus as
the course progresses. It is the
responsibility of the students to keep up with those changes. 2) Students are responsible for all of the
readings on this syllabus; whether they are discussed in class or not, they may
be used on quizzes or tests or as part of the required papers.
|
Tue. |
|
Thur. |
|
|
|
|
9 Sep |
Course Intro. |
|
Sep 14 |
Assessment Exam |
16 Sep |
Assessment Exam |
|
Sep 21 |
"Gun
Control" Writing Process |
23 Sep |
How to Workshop Paper #1 Draft |
|
Sep 28 |
Thesis Statements Assignment #1 |
30 Sep |
|
|
5 Oct |
"The
Achievement of Desire" Assignment #2 |
7 Oct |
Context Paper #1 Final |
|
12 Oct |
"How to
Recognize a Poem When You See One" Assignment #3 |
14 Oct |
Editing Paper #2 Draft |
|
19 Oct |
"Cosby Knows
Best" Assignment #4 |
21 Oct |
Argumentation Paper #2 Final |
|
26 Oct |
Midterm Conferences |
28 Oct |
Midterm Conferences |
|
2 Nov |
"Indians" Assignment #5 |
4 Nov |
Tone Paper #3 Draft |
|
9 Nov |
"Getting
Dirty" Assignment #6 |
11 Nov |
|
|
16 Nov |
"The Banking
Concept of Education" |
18 Nov |
Revision Paper #3 Final |
|
23 Nov |
Exit Exam Practice |
25 Nov |
|
|
30 Nov |
Review Exit Exam
Practice |
2 Dec |
Exit Exam |
|
7 Dec |
Exit Exam |
9 Dec |
Exit Exam Paper #4 Final |
|
14 Dec |
Exit Exam |
16 Dec |
Final Conferences |
|
21 Dec |
Exam/Placement
Conferences |
|
|
General
Notes
A part of most Tuesdays
will be taken up by student run discussions on the readings listed in the
syllabus.
Part of most Thursdays
will be taken up by workshopping of students' work by
other students.
Papers
Paper #1: Editorial for or against gun control. Paper should run between 450 and 600 words,
between a page and a half to two pages, typed, double spaced.
Paper #2: Rodriguez writes about the meaning of
education and the ways in which the process of becoming educated often makes us
change in fundamental ways, changing the ways that we relate to our families,
our friends, the cultures that we come from.
Write a paper of two to three pages in which you focus on a specific
change, positive or negative, which you feel your education has so far forced
you to make.
Paper #3: Miller, in the essay "Cosby Knows
Best," uses popular culture as a lens, as a way of looking into
American society in the 1980's, arguing that what we see as entertainment is
actually a form of social control. Pick
a specific example from a medium of your choice--print, music, film--and use it
to argue either for or against Miller's point of view. Length: three to four pages.
Paper #4: A revision of one of the first three
papers. This paper will be worth one
half of the writing grade for the course.
All of these readings can
be found in Ways of Reading: An Anthology for
Writers.
"The Achievement of
Desire," Richard Rodriguez, p. 499
"How to Recognize a
Poem When You See One,"
"Cosby Knows
Best," Mark Crispin Miller, p. 407
"Indians," Jane
Tompkins, p. 560
"Getting Dirty,"
Mark Crispin Miller, p. 397
"The Banking Concept
of Education," Paolo Freire, p. 206
Short
Assignments
1. Make a list of the steps that you go through
from the time that you are given a writing assignment to the time that you hand
it in.
2. Make a list of ten political or social issues
that you are concerned about and write a thesis statement for each one.
3. Think about meeting a new person or finding
yourself in a new situation--a new work place or a new living arrangement, for
example. List some of the ways that you
pick up the information that you need to learn how to function in that new
environment. What do you look at, listen
to, "read," notice?
4. Make a list of mechanical issues--words that
you find difficult to tell apart, to spell, or to use properly, punctuation or
grammar problems.
5. Write three short speeches in which one
person is trying to convince another person to do something. In each one, use a different method of
varying the argument, a different way of presenting the information, or
slanting the approach.
6. Write three short letters in which you
present the same situation to three different people. You might be thanking someone for some social
event you attended together, or for help that you were given in completing some
task; you might be writing to recommend a movie or a restaurant. Think specifically about who
you are writing to and the appropriate tone for that communication. The letters should range from very informal
to very formal.