Texts:
The Writer's Brief Handbook, 4/e, (Longman) by Alfred Rosa and Paul Eschholz.  It is important that you buy the fourth edition of this text because it contains the latest Modern Language Association (MLA) guidelines for the documentation of research papers; these are the guidelines we will be learning to use.

Models for Writers, 7/e, (Bedford/St. Martin's) by Alfred Rosa and Paul Eschholz.  We will read the essays in this collection and use them, not so much as models for the way you should write (although they are very helpful in that sense), but for analysis of the ways published writers have solved various problems they have faced and how they have accomplished their goals.  Most of the essays are 2-3 pages long and quite interesting.

Please have the reading assignments, both in The Writer's Brief Handbook and Models for Writers, accomplished by the date announced on the syllabus and be prepared to discuss what you have read.

Course requirements:

Course Objectives
Demonstrate the knowledge and/or proper use of:

• the contents of both The Writer's Brief Handbook and Models for Writers
• all aspects of the writing process
• argumentative techniques
• a thesis and a thesis statement
• audience awareness
• paragraph construction
• sentences
• organization
• logic and clarity
• transitions
• grammar
• punctuation and mechanics
• usage
• conciseness
• diction and tone
• MLA documentation
• online and library research techniques

• prewriting
• drafting
• revising
• editing
• publishing

Writing Conferences
Essential to our work are writing conferences, discussions about your writing with various audiences -- another student, two or more students, the entire class, me.  Think of your work, then, as both private and public.  You write in solitude but share that writing in public in order to improve it.  In this sense the classroom is an ideal place for us to learn to write.  We'll talk more, as the course unfolds, about the proper attitude we all need to bring to the classroom in order for conferencing to be effective.

Grades
Grades will be determined at the conclusion of the course and will be based on the quality of the work you have produced.  You will submit a portfolio of all your written work along with the various drafts of it that you have produced.  These portfolios will be submitted to me before the end of the semester at a date we'll agree upon later.  I will read what you have written, determine a grade for it, and discuss that grade with you shortly thereafter.  It is important to realize that while it is not possible to get a good grade without a lot of hard work, it is possible to put in a lot of hard work and not get the grade you would like.  With writing we are dealing with a skill that comes easier for some of us than it does for others.  Your roommate may be able to get better grades than you even with fewer revisions and less work.  The important thing for you, however, is to come to an awareness of yourself as a writer, to know what your strengths and weaknesses are, to improve from wherever you start as a writer by being conscious of what you are trying to do, and to learn the steps necessary to revise your work and to edit it properly.

It may seem risky for some of you to wait until the end of the course to learn how you are doing.  Ideally, you should know better than anyone how you are doing.  By understanding the composing process, immersing yourself in each of your compositions, building confidence in your abilities, and acquiring the tools necessary for improvement, there should be no mystery in all this.

Let me say also that I believe that this course is the most important course taught at any University - not because it is an English course, not because I teach it.  I believe it so because it is a course in you and your writing.  I always explain to students that English 50 is a course I could take profitably every semester for the rest of my life, beginning wherever I found my skill level and improving from there.  Writing is not something you finally learn to do; it is something that you get better and better at -- it's a journey, not a destination, to use a well-worn expression.

Class Participation
Your participation is essential to making our time together in the classroom interesting and fruitful.  By participating, you develop your thinking and understanding of the various subjects and issues that come before us and encourage your peers to do the same.

Attendance
The college catalog and the Cat's Tale (student handbook) require that you be in attendance for each class meeting; therefore, I will take attendance each class day.  You are allowed two absences, excused or not.  After that, any absences will be charged off against your final grade in the course at the rate of one half-letter of your course grade per absence.  Look at it this way: your third and fourth absences reduce your letter grade from an A to a B, and so on.  During the first two weeks of classes student athletes should give me in writing a schedule of their out-of-town obligations.  Students who would like to meet special religious obligations should make their wishes clear to me in writing during the first two weeks of classes.

Portfolios
Prepare your final writing portfolio in the following manner.  Place the four assignments in descending order of quality.  Use a large binder clip to hold the various drafts of each assignment, from the most recent draft to the earliest draft.  Be prepared in your conference with me to defend your choices as to quality and to explain what occurred as you wrote the drafts of each paper.  In other words, be prepared to explain what you did to improve each draft.

Finally, prepare a one-page statement reflecting the progress you made as a writer over the semester.  What did you learn?  What are you now able to do that gave you trouble earlier?  What still causes you fits? What can you do to make your writing better in the future.

Office visits
I try to make myself available to students from 10-12 on Wednesdays. I leave it to you to avail yourself of the opportunity to get help on your reading or to come in and chat about the course material we are studying.  Please let me know ahead of time if you are planning on stopping by my office so I can plan accordingly.
 
 

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Last revised December 26, 2002