Expository Writing
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English
203 Section B HOPW 12 Fall,
2007 MWF 1-1:50 pm |
Dr.
Chidsey Dickson Office:
Carnegie 222 544-8110
dickson_c@lynchburg.edu Office
Hours: M&W 10-10:45am (in library foyer) and 2-3pm (Carnegie 222). |
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Required Materials
The Beauty of the Beastly. Natalie Angier
Dancing in The Streets: A History of Collective Joy. Barbara Ehrenreich
Eye For an Eye. William Ian Miller.
Resource Packet (handout)
A folder for keeping all works-in-progress
A notebook for taking notes (bring to every class, along with a pen or pencil)
2 highlighters (different colors)
Course Description
This course is a collaborative investigation into the craft of expository writing. You will read a lot—increasingly challenging examples of expository writing. You will highlight sections of what you read as follows:
· YELLOW: interesting stylistic features (tropes, metaphors, syntax, etc)
· GREEN: provocative “moves” and “weaves” (summary, transition, claim, qualification, etc)
You will underline vocabulary words new to you and create a glossary at the beginning or end of the book. You will also “gloss” (= annotate, writes notes about) the sections you highlighted (see examples in the Resource).
It goes without saying, since this is a sophomore-level
writing course, that you will write a lot. Small assignments (mini-writes and
flash-writes) will build to larger assignments. You will learn to give and make
use of feedback. At the end of the semester, you will learn some photoshop
skills and produce a zine to share with the campus. After a semester of reading
and writing, your prose skills will have improved. To what degree is up to you—why
do you want to improve your writing? If you don’t know the
answer to that question, it’s going to be a long semester.
Course Objectives
By
the end of the semester, students will demonstrate
·
greater facility in recognizing what a writer is doing and applying it
to their own writing
·
greater awareness of the mechanics of prose style (tropes, schemes,
figures, sentence construction, moves, weaves)
·
greater flexibility in how they discover and develop ideas
Grades
|
Participation
(highlighting&glossing, discussion, pop quizzes, mini-writes, peer
response) |
15% |
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WP1 |
20% |
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WP2 |
20% |
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WP3 |
20% |
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WP4 |
20% |
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Final
Semester Reflection (2 pages) |
5% |
Standards
To get an A in the class you:
- Prepare fully for every class—be ready to write
and discuss. Be ready to help the whole class or your small group engage
with the material for the day. Slouching down in your seat,
hood-or-iPod-earpiece-wearing, sleeping or head-on-desk: all indicate a
lack of preparation and engagement.
- Participate actively in class—listen
attentively to what others are saying (not just the instructor) and
RESPOND. Don’t hog the stage but don’t sit back and let others keep the ball
rolling.
- Turn in
all assignments on time (exceptions can be negotiated as they arise, but
must involve good reasoning and be discussed in a timely fashion).
- Do excellent work!
- Miss no more than three classes (extreme
exceptions can be dealt with on an individual basis).
To get a B, you will generally need to meet the criteria of an
A, but with some inconsistencies—or, you do all the work but the writing does
not meet the departmental standards. The “inconsistency” could happen in any
area, but generally it shows up as not being prepared for every class (not
having the reading done, not handing in assignments on time), writing projects
that don't meet all the assignment criteria, sporadic participation in class,
or attendance or tardiness problems. The key here is that you are generally
meeting the criteria for an A, but occasionally or in a particular area you are
not.
To get a C, one or two inconsistencies become a norm rather
than an exception. So, you could be working hard and learning a lot—improving your writing abilities—but
your writing that continually misses the mark (doesn’t respond fully to the
assignment description), or you show little to no participation in class
discussions, your is routinely late, so on.
Consistently
failing to meet the criteria to receive any of these grades will result in a D or a failing grade.
Attendance/Class Behavior
- More than three
unexcused absences from class indicates that, regardless of your writing
ability or performance, you are not really invested in the course. After
three absences, I might ask to speak to you about what’s hindering your
full engagement (problems with workload, difficulty of assignments, etc.).
Students who have six or more
absences automatically fail the class. Since the class is only 50
minutes long (5 minutes of which is taken up with roll-taking and
announcements), being on time is absolutely necessary. If you are
chronically late, I will have to begin to count each lateness as one half
an absence.
- No food is allowed in class but you can bring a
drink if there is a top.
- Use the restroom before
you come to class, but if you need to go, you don’t need to ask
permission—just be quiet as you leave and return. Also, sometimes during
the middle of class you just need to stretch your legs and take a deep
breath—if you can do this quietly I have no problem with it.
Behavioral Standards for Learning Environments
(excerpted
from the Hornet)
The values and attitudes that should guide student behavior consistent with
maintaining an environment conducive to learning are set forth in the Lynchburg
College catalogue and The Hornet. Responsibility and authority for maintaining
order in the learning environment are assigned to faculty in Section 3.12.3 of
the Faculty Handbook.
The following standards and procedures apply to all learning environments.
However, each School and each instructor may have codes to specify additional
standards suitable for learning environments or activities.
No student in Lynchburg College classes, laboratories, performances, lectures,
and/or organizations shall behave in any way that obstructs or disrupts the
normal functioning of the environment. Such behavior includes, but is not
limited to, behaviors that persistently or grossly (1) inhibit the ability of
other students to learn; (2) interfere with the meaningful participation of
other students; or (3) inhibit the ability of an instructor or presenter to do
his/her job. Specifically, students should foster an optimal learning
environment by doing the following:
- Arriving
on time.
- Being
seated when it is time to begin and being attentive throughout.
- Refraining
from engaging in conversations with others unless participating in group
activities.
- Using
a courteous tone when speaking.
- Using
appropriate language.
- Refraining
from leaving the event while it is in progress (except for illness or with
prior approval).
- Treating
others with respect.
- Refraining
from eating.
- Respecting
the process of discussion and group activities.
- Leaving
the facility in a neat and clean condition.
Missed Classes
Due
to sickness, athletic events, family problems, etc., you will probably miss one
or two classes during the semester. There’s no need to notify me if that’s all
you miss. It is your responsibility, though, to have contact information for
another person in the class (email and phone number) so that if you do miss a
class you can find out what you missed, possible changes to the syllabus, etc..
More than three unexcused absences results in a drop in your semester grade by
½ letter grade.
Picking Up Work After an
Absence
Some
of my response to your writing will occur online, but you will occasionally
turn in hard copies. If you are absent on the day I return a hardcopy of your
work, you can pick it up later outside my office door in a cardboard box marked
“ENGLISH 111 Dr. Dickson.” If you leave your work there for weeks and weeks, it
will indicate to me a lack of interest in improving your work (see
“Participation Grade”).
Class Preparedness and Late
Assignments
Late
assignments are penalized a half a letter grade for every day they are late. My
feedback to your work will be prompt if it is turned in on time, but if you
turn something in late, I cannot promise that I will have time to turn your
work around as quickly. It may be 4-7 days before I have time to respond.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
is a serious act of intellectual theft and will not be tolerated. All language
and ideas you deploy in formal projects that you derive from sources must be
credited. We will discuss the MLA guidelines for incorporating and documenting
sources. As far as CW posts go, you are on your honor not to read your peers’
posts and merely paraphrase what they say. If I see that this is a problem, I
will speak to you individually. If the problem is not addressed, I may choose
to turn off your ability to see your peers’ posts, which disrupts part of the
point of the electronic forum: seeing what others have to say.
What to Bring to Class (this is part of your
“Participation Grade”)
- Notebook and pen
- Any text* from which
there is a reading assignment for that particular day
- Any work (drafts,
notes, etc.) from the major writing project you’re working on
*Occasionally,
I will take up your books and check them to see that you are doing the
highlighting and glossing.
Writing Center (Hopwood 04)
All
writers can benefit from discussing their work with another interested writer;
hence, the individual attention provided by the Writing Center tutors is a
helpful resource for all students in ENGL 111-112. You should decide at
what point in your writing process discussion with a tutor would be most
helpful:
-
invention and focusing your document in the early stages
-
developing and organizing ideas in the rough draft
-
integrating and documenting sources (when applicable)
-
editing and proofreading before a final draft
You
may like to visit the Writing Center more than once per assignment as your
purpose changes at various points in the writing process, but a requirement of
this course is that you make at least
two visits to the Writing Center. To avoid being blocked out of the
Writing Center, make the appointments well in advance. Afterwards, the
tutor will send me an email form, which outlines the main points of your
discussion. This is how I know you have gone. This is worth 5% of
your semester grade.
Teacher Licensure
This course is designed to assist students
preparing to meet Virginia Department of Education, Teacher Licensure
Competencies in English as follows:
Competency 1:
Understanding of the knowledge, skills, and process of English as defined in
the Virginia Standards of Learning. (SOLS are 9.6-9.7; 10.7-10.9; 11.7-11.8 for
ENGL 111; and all of these plus 9.8-9.9; 10.10-10.11; 11.9-11.10; 12.7-12.8 for
ENGL 112).
Competency 3: Knowledge of grammar, usage, and
mechanics and their integration in writing
Writing Projects: Overview
Mini-Write** 1-A
Mini-Write 1-B
Mini-Write 2-A
Mini-Write 2-B
WP#3 Essay on Strong Emotion
Mini-Write 3-A
Mini-Write 3-B
Mini-Write 3-C
WP#4 Zine (elaboration/remediation of one of the
earlier projects. Note: this can
be a collaborative project)
*4-5-pages
**2
pages
Schedule of Assignments Fall 2007
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Date |
Reading and Writing Assignments |
Online Resources |
AUGUST |
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M 27 |
Introduction to Course and Diagnostic Essay |
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W 29 |
BEAST Introduction and 3-49; quiz on technical terms (tropes, schemes, figures) |
Rhetorica Silva: check out tropes, schemes and figures. Be ready to discuss what these concepts refer to and to give examples. Website here: |
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F 31 |
Mini-Write 1-A [in class: Matt McCormick’s short film, “American Nutria”] |
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/sentences.htm [Whenever there are assignments from this online grammar source, your assignment is to read the information, note the examples, and then take the quiz. You will immediately get the corrected answers. If you didn’t get 70% or better correct, it probably means you need to spend more time with this page and/or see me] |
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SEPTEMBER |
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3 |
BEAST 97-127, 177-196 |
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5 |
BEAST 131-174, 233-260 |
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F 7 |
Mini-Write 1-B |
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10 |
WP#1 |
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12 |
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F 14 |
Revision WP#1
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17 |
JOY 1-76 |
Re-take one of the earlier quizzes from the online grammar that you did not do well in. |
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19 |
JOY 77-153 |
Re-take one of the earlier quizzes from the online grammar that you did not do well in. |
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F21 |
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24 |
Re-take one of the earlier quizzes from the online grammar that you did not do well in. |
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26 |
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F 28 |
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OCTOBER |
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1 |
WP#2 |
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3 |
No class |
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F5 |
Come with 2 questions!!
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8 |
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10 |
E4E ix-36 |
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F12 |
E4E 58-108 |
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15 |
Holiday (over
the break watch a movie about revenge) |
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17 |
Mini-Write 3-A |
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F19 |
E4E 130-159 |
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22 |
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24 |
E4E 168-202 |
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F26 |
Mini-Write 3-C |
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29 |
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31 |
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NOVEMBER |
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F 2 |
Revision WP#3 |
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5 |
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7 |
Meet in Computer Lab (workshop Photoshop) |
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F9 |
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12 |
Proposal for WP#4 |
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14 |
Expansion of earlier WP |
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F16 |
Revision |
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19 |
Research/find 4-5 images (put on P-drive or email to yourself) Meet in Computer Lab (work on images) |
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21 |
Holiday |
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23 |
Holiday |
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26 |
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28 |
Meet in Computer Lab |
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F 30 |
WP#3 |
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DECEMBER |
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3 |
Revisions |
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5 |
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F 7 |
Meet in Library For Zine Fair Bring 5 copies of your Zine |
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