College Writing II: Writing and Literary Study

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College Writing II: Writing and Literary Study

Fall 2016

WRIT106-##

Instructor:Class Meetings:

Email:

Office:Office Hours:

Required Texts

• Schakel, Peter and Jack Ridl. Approaching Literature: Writing + Reading + Thinking. 4th

ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s 2017.

• You may use whatever handbook you purchased for your first composition course. If you are purchasing one, make sure it has been updated with MLA revised in 2016.

The Specifics: What We Will Do in this Course

Over the course of the semester, you will read literary texts including short stories, plays, and poems. We will approach these texts in three full units. Each unit will include readings and a sequence of essay drafts, culminating in a final essay, due at the end of each unit. In addition, there will be a fourth mini-unit that will lead to a multimodal project and a short essay. Expect to share your writing with the class, so only write what you feel comfortable sharing. You will receive feedback on your writing from peers and from me and will revise your work based on this feedback. Your final course work will be the creation of a portfolio. In order to complete the portfolio project successfully, you will need to save all drafts and graded final versions of the three essays completed throughout the semester.

Course Objectives

College Writing II builds on the basic writing strategies taught in College Writing I and extends the goal of helping students to become effective writers of intellectual arguments in response to literary works of fiction, poetry and drama. Students continue to practice and develop as writers, but the focus in this course is on reading and interpreting literary texts. A minimum of 6000 words of formal writing, including at least one documented essay that engages students in the process of academic research, is required. The central goals of this course are to help studentsexpand upon their critical thinking and writing skills and build theirunderstandingand appreciation of complex literary texts.

Course Outcomes

By the end of this course, you will be able:

• To read and analyze literary works, understanding the basic elements of fiction, poetry, and drama
• To write clearly focused, interpretive, analytical essays about literary works, based on textual evidence
• To continue to develop, through practice, techniques that promote good writing at every phase of the writing process: techniques for planning, organizing, drafting, revision, editing, and proofreading
• To comment constructively on texts written by peers

Course Requirements/Grading

Unit Essays (60%)

Three fully revised papers, generally ranging from 4 to 7 pages in length, will be written over the course of the semester. Individual essay assignments will provide all the details for each assignment. Please know that you cannot reuse papers you have written for another course.Each essay will undergo revision and rewriting, with the assistance of peer review, instructor feedback, and your own further thinking. All essays will adhere to MLA or APA format for research papers, including documentation. Only final drafts receive a letter grade; however, credit for the rough drafts will be factored into the final essay grade. More specifically, there will be penalties for short, late, or missing drafts and for short or late essays, or for drafts that show minimal revision. In general, late work will be penalized by one letter grade (i.e. a grade of B becomes a C) for each class meeting that it is late. I may make exceptions to this policy if you request an extension in advance of the original due date.

Multimodal Projectand Reflective Essay (10%)

Communication takes many forms, some of them newly enabled by technology and others older than language itself. This project will ask you to choose a mode of communication other than a traditional written essay to bring some aspect of one of our course readings to life. Details to come.

Portfolio (20%)

The portfolio in FYW takes the place of an exam. It contains comprehensive revisions of two of your previously graded final drafts. It is through the final portfolio that you demonstrate how you have incorporated the skills and practices of the course by attention to the criteria we have worked on all semester: claim or focus; organization, development and analysis, and clarity of prose. The portfolio receives its own grade, which in this course is 20% of your final grade, but does not change the grades originally earned by the essays. Additionally, your portfolio will contain a two to three page reflective essay in which you consider your journey as a scholar. Specific details will be provided on the portfolio assignment.

Course Citizenship (10%)

This is not a lecture course, and your active engagement is required. To be actively engaged in the classroom means being on time and prepared to discuss the day’s reading by having annotated the texts and having all necessary materials in class. Your grade for course citizenship includes contributing to in-class activities such as class discussion, peer review, and group work, as well as participating on the Canvas discussion board and completing the Live Lit assignment, as well as the completion of the course evaluation. Your participation is what will make our classroom meetings dynamic, interesting, and illuminating.

Class Cancelation

If a class must be canceled due to an emergency, you will be contacted through a Canvas announcement and a mass email sent from Canvas; an online assignment will be substituted.

Syllabus Caveat

This syllabus is our contract with each other. The standardized section of the syllabus, which includes the FYW policies on attendance and plagiarism, can be found on Canvas under the “Syllabus” tab. You are responsible to know the information in both of these documents and are held to the policies and requirements stated there. Please read both very carefully and bring any questions to class. I am also bound by these policies and requirements, and I will not change the grading breakdown or major assignments specified in this syllabus. I do reserve the right to make changes to the course schedule or to make minor additions such as pop quizzes on the reading if it becomes necessary. Any changes will be reflected in the copy of the syllabus residing on our course Canvas site.

Tips for Doing Well in this Class

•Stay connected: Come to office hours, know classmates’ names, and seek help early.

•Be present: When you are in class make a difference with your presence: add your voice to make class discussion dynamic and interesting; be fully “there” by having prepared and thought about the topic for discussion. Be punctual and treat absences as emergency situations, not holidays.

•Take chances: Don’t always go for the “safe” answer, probably the one you have previously heard. Take some risks with your thinking. Trust yourself, your brain, and your ideas.

•Avoid tools that tell you how to think: Specifically avoid sites like Ask.com, eNotes, Spark Notes, and the like that shut down thought by telling you what to think about our readings.

•Think “like a lawyer”: Back up your opinions and insights with strong evidence; put forth and maintain your integrity through your actions.

•Be a good colleague: Treat your peers as deserving of your respect and act in a way that engenders respect.

• READ!!!! Read all instructions carefully. Read assignments thoroughly well before any deadline and ask questions about anything you do not understand. Read and annotate all assigned texts, and reread them if possible. My favorite writer on our syllabus is Toni Morrison. Find a picture of her online and email it to me and you will receive an extra credit bonus to your class participation grade.Perhaps you’ll find a new favorite writer this semester as well. Becoming a good writer starts with being a good reader.

Welcome!

Welcome to WRIT106-##! I’m glad you are here, and I look forward to getting to know you as a person and as a writer. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me, either in person or by email, if you have any questions or concerns, if you would like to make an appointment to discuss your work, or if there is anything that I can do to help you to succeed in this cours