The mission of ASU’s Writing Programs is to introduce you to the importance of writing in the university and to develop your critical reading, thinking, and writing skills so that you can successfully participate in the university. Writing is intellectual work, and the demands of writing within the university community can include the need:

To synthesize and analyze multiple points of view;
To articulate and support one’s own position regarding various issues; and
To adjust writing to multiple audiences, purposes, and conventions.

• Outcomes:

You will engage with ideas encountered in academic and serious public discourse, develop complex ideas and arguments through serious consideration of different perspectives, and connect your life experiences with ideas and information you encounter in classes.

• Required Texts & Supplies:

Reading Culture: Contexts for Critical Reading & Writing, Diana George & John Trimbur

EasyWriter, Andrea Lunsford & Robert Connors

Disks, a manila folder for submitting work & stapler

Attendance & Participation:

Because so much of your learning will take place in class, you must attend on a regular basis to receive credit for this course. If you miss more than 4 class meetings, you cannot pass this course regardless of the reason for your absence. This includes university-sanctioned activities. This is a Writing Programs policy and is non-negotiable. "Attendance means being present, on time, and prepared for the entire class period. A student who is chronically late to class, leaves early, or is not prepared to participate in the day’s work will not receive attendance and participation credit. I expect you to attend all class meetings and miss class only in rare and unavoidable circumstances. Should you arrive for class after I have called the roll, it is your responsibility to ensure that I correct the roll at the end of that class.

Classroom Protocol:

We will spend much of our class time in discussions and workshops. Regardless of the class format, you are expected to be prepared, to listen, to contribute, and to participate in an appropriate fashion.

Course Work:

Preparation: You must come to each class prepared to write, to share your drafts with others, and to revise what you have already written. This means you must work steadily both in class and on your own. You should plan to spend three hours outside of class for every hour in class. Writing classes frequently require more time from students than many other outside classes do.

Assignments: All polished drafts of assignments must be typed or computer printed and double-spaced. Drafts for workshops should also be typed. Put your name, my name, course title, date, and title on the first page. Number all pages and staple your paper & submit in a manila folder with invention work, drafts, and peer reviews.

Keeping all work: Keep all your writing for this course including in-class and out-of-class working notes, drafts, revisions, final drafts, reflections on your writing, workshop responses, and free writings. At the end of the semester you will review all your work to analyze and evaluate your progress. Keep at least one back-up disk. Computers at ASU regularly become infected with a virus and having one disk that you do not take to ASU could help with this problem. It could be disastrous for you gradewise if you cannot produce evidence of your work at semester’s end.

Academic Honesty: To plagiarize is to present as your own any work that is not exclusively your own, and it violates the University policy on Academic Integrity: "Each student has an obligation to act with honesty and integrity, and to respect the rights of others in carrying out all academic assignments." It is the University’s policy to severely penalize plagiarism of all, or a portion, of any assignment. See the Guide to Composition and the Student Academic Integrity policy for specific rules.

Since each writer’s needs are unique, this course will provide lots of individual attention and feedback from me as well as from other students in class. I also encourage you to seek reactions to your ideas and drafts from people outside this class. In addition, I encourage you to make full use of the Writing Center located on the 3^rd floor of this building and various places on campus. The Writing Center can help with getting started on a paper, reviewing and revising your own work, and particular individual problems with writing. The help is free.

Grade Distribution

Assignment 1 15%
Assignment 2 15%
Assignment 3 15% (70% for polished writing)
Assignment 4 15%
Final Reflection Letter 10%

Free writing & Hwk 10%
Attendance & Participation 10% (30% for process)
Peer Review 10%

• Late Papers:

I do not accept late assignments. If you are sick on the day an assignment is due, you should arrange to have a friend deliver that paper to me during office hours or bring official documentation (such as a complete doctor’s note—a copy of your prescription is not enough) when you return. If this is an extended absence, you should phone or email me as soon as possible to discuss your return and submission of work. In-class work, journals, and homework may not be made up.

• Revision Policy:

In a very real sense, you will be revising your work throughout the semester, therefore there are no revisions on polished drafts.

• The Public Nature of Class Writing and Discussion:

Part of becoming a good writer is learning to appreciate the ideas and criticisms of others and in this course our purpose is to come together as a community of writers. Remember that you will often be expected to share your writing with others. Avoid writing about things that you may not be prepared to subject to public scrutiny or that you feel so strongly about that you are unwilling to listen to perspectives other than your own. This does not mean that you are not entitled to an opinion but that you adopt positions responsibly, contemplating the effects on others, that you take responsibility for your words and for engagement with the words of others.

• Problem Solving:

I encourage you to see me during office hours, email me, or make an appointment if you wish to discuss issues connected with this class and/or your performance. Students frequently tell me that the most helpful feature of the class was coming to my office to discuss their writing projects. Please discuss concerns with me while we still have options. I tend to be generous with students who take the initiative to consult with me about concerns while they are still "situations" and "not yet crises," and less generous with those who permit things to slide until a crisis is unavoidable. If anything arises about which you want an opinion other than mine, please contact the Director of the Writing Programs, LLB 314, 965 3168.