- COURSE
OBJECTIVES:
The mission of ASU’s
Writing Programs is to introduce students to the importance of writing
in the work of the university and to develop their critical reading, thinking
and writing skills so that they can successfully participate in that work.
Writing is intellectual work, and the demands of writing within the university
community include the need:
- to
synthesize and analyze multiple points of view;
- to
articulate and support one’s own position regarding various issues;
a
- to
adjust writing to multiple audiences, purposes, and conventions.
Students
in our courses are expected to engage the ideas encountered in academic and
serious public discourse, to develop complex ideas and arguments through serious
consideration of different perspectives, and to connect their life experiences
with ideas and information they encounter in classes.
English
216 is an advanced interdisciplinary writing course emphasizing major contemporary
public issues. Practice in and study of: the logic by which writers construct
arguments; the various means that writers use to persuade an audience; the
conventions of evidence, claims, and argument in persuasive discourses. Throughout
this course, students will:
- significantly
improve their persuasive public writing;
- understand
and effectively employ various forms of persuasion;
- understand
and deploy effective rhetorical strategies in situated discourse;
- discover
and evaluate the methods of persuasion used in the construction of a public
issue;
- read
critically and analyze rhetorically writings within public forums and
use those lenses to frame their own discourses;
- write
in the different forms and styles of a particular public discourse;and
- develop
techniques for conducting research on the Internet and with other electronic
databases.
- REQUIRED
TEXTS/SUPPLIES:
Faigley,
Lester and Jack Selzer. Good Reasons with Contemporary Arguments.
Boston:Allyn and Bacon,
2001.
Reading
Packet (available from Student Bookstore August 27)
Guide
to ASU's Writing Programs.
University
Policies/Student Affairs Office: Student
Code of Conduct, including: Student
Academic Integrity, Sexual Harassment, Class Disruption
2
new 3 1/2" disks
An ASUrite account
Stapler
and staples (standard size -- trust me on this one) OR binderclips
copy
cards for use in the library
- Course
Requirements and Grading
| Project1:
Conjecturing Public Issues |
15% |
| Project
2: Evalauting Public Issues |
20% |
| Project
3: Visual Rhetoric of Public Issues |
25% |
| Project
4: Proposal Concerning Public Issues |
30% |
| Heuristics
&
Participation |
10% |
Attendance
and 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 FOUR (4) class meetings, you cannot pass this course. This is a Writing
Programs policy and is non-negotiable. This means that there is no such thing
as an "excused" absence. There are only `absences.'
"Attendance" means being present, on time, awake, and prepared for the entire
class period. A student who is chronically late to class, leaves early, sleeps
through class, engages in off-task activity, or is not prepared to participate
in the day's class work will not receive attendance and participation credit.
Further, I may cancel classes at least once this semester to hold mandatory
conferences with you. If you miss a conference, you will be counted absent (as
if from class). Beyond this policy, I expect students to make every effort to
attend all meetings and to miss class only in rare and unavoidable circumstances.
Should you arrive after I have called the roll, it is your responsibility to
ensure that I correct the roll at class end.
Note #1: To accommodate students who participate in university-sanctioned
activities, the Writing Programs Office offers sections of this course at various
times of the day and week. We have asked advisors across campus to help students
enroll in appropriate sections. If you think that this course may conflict with
a university-sanctioned activity in which you are involved--athletics, the debate
team or another--please see me after class today. Transferring to another section
may be the only viable option, but we should discuss it.
Teacher Conferences:
You must visit with me in my office at least twice during the
term to discuss your papers and your class performance. I will schedule the
first conference. The second conference will be scheduled by YOU. Please
take this opportunity to let me get to know you a little better. I also encourage
you to visit your other professors during their office hours. Your conferences
with me will be figured in your final grade.
Classroom Protocol:
We will spend much of our class time in discussions and workshops.
A portion of some classes may also include lecture. Regardless of the class
format, you are expected to be prepared, to listen, to contribute, and to participate
in an appropriate fashion. Among other things, this means no off-task use of
your computer. In addition, turn off all cell phones and set beepers to vibrate.
Unless you are part of an emergency on-call organization--Fire Department, Police
Department, EMT, etc.), you should not and will not receive calls during class.
Course Work:
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
two to three hours outside of class for every hour in class. Writing classes
frequently require more time from students than many other classes do. All final
drafts of papers must be typed or wordprocessed and double spaced. Place your
name, my name, course title, date, and title of the Paper at the top of the
first page. Be sure to number each page and to staple all the pages together.
Keep all your writing for this course, including in-class and out-of-class working
notes, drafts, revisions, final drafts, workshop responses, and heuristics.
(I strongly urge you to backup all your work. It could be disastrous for you
gradewise if you cannot produce evidence of your work at semester's end.) All
major projects must be completed in order to pass the course.
Academic/critical
essays:
We will be writing critical, academic essays this semester—essays
that present some sort of an argument and that try to persuade readers to
"see it the writer's way." To help you better understand what I'm asking you
to do in these essays, keep the following in mind: The critical/ academic
essay
grapples
with ideas and complexities, rather than presenting untheorized information,
experi-ences, details;
weaves
together multiple texts, playing them off of one another and working with
them rather than pasting them into a paper;
is
claim-driven—makes a point/claims; has a purposeful trajectory. though not
necessarily presenting a single assertion or argumentative stand;
may
or may not contain personal experience\the choice is the writer's.
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 of this course. Consider soliciting advice from family, friends, and
roommates. To plagiarize is to present as your own any work that is not exclusively
your own and violates the University policy on Academic Integrity. Plagiarism
of all or a portion of any assignment will be severely penalized.
This class will also introduce you to several aspects of computer research
and pedagogy. We will frequently be doing class exercises and collaborative
work on computer. You do not have to have expertise on the computer to succeed
in this class, but you will have to work frequently on computer-aided assignments.
If you do not have a computer at home, you'll want to visit the ASU
computing sites on campus. There are several locations. Although the Computing
Commons is the biggest site, it is also the busiest. So, it's a good idea
to explore and visit the smaller sites as well.
If you're interested in free software or connecting your home computer to
ASU's system, please contact the Computing Assistance folks on the second
floor of the Computing Commons, or call 965-6500. They have answers to the
most difficult computer questions. These are also the people to call if you
would like to get Internet access at a small fee (usually $10-$15).
NOTE:
As a rule, I try not to penalize students for late work when
something unexpected prevents completion of a particular assignment on time.
HOWEVER, students who make it a practice to turn in work late should expect
that as much as a letter grade will be deducted at the end of the semester from
their final grade. In addition, a paper that is more than one week late may
be dropped as much as one letter grade. Late in-class and take-home assignments
will not be accepted for credit. Again, All four major projects must be completed
in order to pass the course.
The Public Nature of the 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 possible effects on others, that you take responsibility for
your words and for engagement with the words of others.
PROBLEM SOLVING:
All of us struggle with our limits, and I sometimes suspect that
no one is more conscious of that than students in writing requirement courses.
Keep in mind, as you set your priorities, that I am very moved by students who
visibly struggle with their limits.
I encourage you to also see me during office hours, e-mail me, or make an appointment
anytime 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 and discussing their writing projects and/or classroom concerns.
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,' i.e., not-yet-crises, and downright testy with
those who permit things to slide until a crisis is unavoidable.
If anything arises about which you want an opinion or advice other than mine,
please contact the Writing Programs Associate Director at 480/965-3853 or see
our Administrative Assistant in LL314.