WPA Outcomes Statement

WINONA STATE UNIVERSITY

PROPOSAL FOR REVISED COURSES

Department _____English______Date ______3/16/04______

If proposed course change requires A2C2 and/or graduate Council approval, i.e., not considered a notification, complete and submit this form with the appropriate number of copies. Refer to Regulation 3-4, Policy for Changing the Curriculum, for complete information on submitting proposals for curricular changes.

A. Current Course Information

___324______Projects in Writing & Language______1-2_

Course No. Course Name Credits

This Proposal is for a(n) __x___ Undergraduate Course ______Graduate Course

Applies to: __x___ Major ______Minor ______University Studies

_____ Required _____ Required ___x__ Not for USP

__x__ Elective __x__ Elective

Prerequisites ______Instructor’s Permission______

Grading __x__ Grade only ______P/NC only ______Grade and P/NC Option

Frequency of offering ______yearly______

Proposed Course Information. (Please indicate only proposed changes below.)

______1-3_

Course No. Course Name Credits

This Proposal is for a(n) ______Undergraduate Course ______Graduate Course

Applies to ______Major ______Minor ______University Studies

_____ Required _____ Required ______Not for USP

_____ Elective _____ Elective

Prerequisites ______

Grading ______Grade only ______P/NC only ______Grade and P/NC Option

Frequency of offering ______

B. If the proposal requests any changes in the course description as listed below, please list both the present description and the proposed change.

1. Catalog description.

2. Course outline of the major topics and subtopics.

3. Basic instructional plan and methods utilized.

4. Course requirements (papers, lab work, projects, etc.) and means of evaluation.

C. Rationale for the changes proposed.

D. Description of any impact of this proposal on other departments, programs, majors, or minors.

E. Description any impact that this proposal may have on the University Studies Program.

Attach an Approval form.

Department Contact Person for this Proposal:

J Paul Johnson 457-5453

Name Phone e-mail address

NOTE:

What follows below is the current course description for the course as a two-credit offering, which is the version approved by A2C2 last year. If and when the course is offered for three credits, the course would further entail an additional formal research writing component based on the class annotated bibliography. This assignment has been added as B.4.E below and is shaded in GRAY.

B. Course Description: English 324, Projects in Writing and Language (1-3 s.h.)

1. Catalog Description

Special projects in writing, publishing, and/or language, including such work as tutoring writing, teaching English as a Second Language, editing literary publications, or other similar undertakings. Specific project announced in class schedule. Offered yearly. Prerequisite: Instructor’s permission.

2. Course Outline of Major Topics and Subtopics

English 324, Projects in Writing and Language: Tutoring Writing (2 s.h.)

Please note that the sample syllabus offered here provides one of a number of possible iterations of English 324, in this case “Tutoring Writing.” Other projects offered on a (semi-) regular basis would include publishing and editing Satori (the department’s literary magazine), tutoring literature, and/or teaching English as a Second Language.

1) Sites for Tutoring Writing

a) Writing Centers

b) High Schools

c) Literacy Centers

d) Private Venues

2) Understanding Writers and Writing

a) Habits and Rituals

b) Myths and Facts

c) Understanding Relationships: Writers, Tutors, Writing, and Texts

i) Metaphors for Tutoring

ii) Types of Tutoring

3) Tutoring and the Writing Process

a) Observing and Tutoring

b) Generating Ideas: Deepening Analysis

i) Strategies for Invention

(1) Freewriting and Listing

(2) Dialogues

(3) Brainstorming

(4) Clustering and Idea Maps

(5) Dramatizing and Cubing

ii) Matching Strategies to Writers and Genres

c) Shaping Ideas: Articulating Claims

d) Arguing Ideas: Providing Evidence

i) Types of Evidence

(1) Anecdotes

(2) Statistics

(3) Testimony

(a) Expert

(b) Witness

(4) Facts and Factual Data

(5) Scenarios and Illustrations

(6) Textual Citations

ii) Evaluating Evidence

iii) Combining Types of Evidence

iv) Acknowledging Counterarguments

v) Articulating Warrants and Qualifications

e) Tutoring through/with Paper Comments

i) Formative Comments

ii) Summative Comments

f) Editing Concerns

i) Common Types of Errors

ii) Strategies for Error Correction

iii) Methods of Proofreading

4) Tutoring Style and Conventions

a) Strategies for Improving Sentences

i) Strategies for Efficiency

ii) Strategies for Clarity

iii) Strategies for Variety

b) Strategies for Improving Punctuation

i) Comma Rules

ii) Punctuating Modifiers

iii) Rules and Conventions for Other Marks

(1) Colons and Semicolons

(2) Dashes and Parentheses

(3) Exclamation and Question Marks

(4) Quotation Marks

c) Strategies for Improving Spelling and Vocabulary

5) Tutoring in Special Circumstances

a) English as a Second Language

i) Cultural Assumptions

ii) Rhetorical Patterns

iii) Patterns of Error

(1) Syntax Errors

(2) Verb Errors

(3) Article and Preposition Errors

iv) Idiomatic Expressions

b) Dialects

c) Writing across the Curriculum

i) Writing in the Sciences

ii) Writing in the Social Sciences

iii) Writing about the Humanities

iv) Business and Technical Writing

d) Reading and Writing about Literature

i) Analysis

ii) Explication

iii) Interpretation

e) Tutoring Online

3. Basic Instructional Plan and Methods

This course will make use of four basic instructional strategies: (1) students will observe and report on tutorial sessions in various sites; (2) students will review basic college-level concepts of rhetoric, grammar, and usage; (3) students will read research and scholarship on writing and tutoring writing; and (4) students will engage in closely-observed tutorial activities. Classroom activities will vary, but the focus will be on active, participatory learning. In a given week, the instructor would typically discuss reading assignments, model tutoring and writing strategies, lecture on rhetorical and pedagogical concepts, and/or direct small-group classroom exercises.

4. Course Requirements

A. Weekly reading responses and reading summaries, posted in class discussion board (holistic evaluation)

B. Weekly grammar and usage exercises (statistical evaluation)

C. Numerous informal and two formal tutorials, observed by class and instructor (narrative evaluation)

D. Two short papers (narrative evaluation)

1. Transcript Analysis Assignment One: After gaining appropriate permissions, students will tape and transcribe a tutorial they have observed, and then write and submit a three-page analysis of that session. Gillespie/Lerner chapter 11 provides advice on performing this kind of discourse analysis.

2. Transcript Analysis Assignment Two: After gaining appropriate permissions, students will tape and transcribe one of their own class tutorial sessions, and then write and submit a three-page analysis of that session. Gillespie/Lerner chapter 11 provides advice on performing this kind of discourse analysis.

E. Research Paper Assignment (additional assignment for three-credit iteration of course)

Length: 1500-2000 words

Sources: 6-10 Works Cited

Due: November 1 (proposal, posted in tutor training forum)

November 15 (draft, posted in tutor training forum — for peer and professor review)

December 6 (finished paper, submitted as Word document in email attachment)

Choose an academic field or discipline with which you are at least middlingly familiar — or, alternatively, one in which you are at least mildly interested. Ideally, this should be a discipline offering a full major in the WSU curriculum: art, biology, theater, communication studies, psychology, chemistry, nursing, etc. The task: to discover and articulate the expectations of student writers in that discipline or field. Conduct your research by using material culled from our Writing Center collection, The Bedford Bibliography for Teachers of Writing, CompPile, and WebPALS’ ERIC and online catalog databases, as well as by interviewing knowledgeable faculty members, students, or graduates. Propose, draft, and research an article intended for an upcoming edition of The Writing Labyrinth, which provides discussion of writing issues for a university-community audience. (Note: you will be writing about student writers, not to them.)

Your proposal should outline the research question and list a half-dozen potential sources. Your draft should be at least five full pages long and document its sources in MLA format. Your colleagues and I will read these drafts with a critical eye, offering suggestions for revision. The final version of the research paper should be about 1500-2000 words and make substantial use of about a half-dozen carefully-read authoritative sources. Ideally, the final version will articulate clear claims about writing in the discipline and support those claims with a variety of kinds and types of evidence: teaching practices, quoted research material, factual examples, cited classroom documents, etc. Submit the final copy as a Word document in an email attachment for possible publication in the next edition of The Writing Labyrinth.

Some key questions to ask:

§ What types/genres of writing are expected of students—both at the lower levels and the upper levels? How do these genres differ from those practiced by professionals—in academic journals and elsewhere?

§ What kinds of research materials (e.g. databases, experiments, interviews, etc.) are utilized by students? What particular skills are helpful for student researchers? What documentation system is used in the discipline, and why? Are there exceptions?

§ For what kinds of audiences do students write? In what ways does the notion of audience inform the writing?

§ What formal features should student writing expected to exhibit? (For example, is there normally a “thesis”? Where? Is there a strict or loose pattern of organization expected? Are sentences long, short, varied, active, passive?)

§ In what WSU classes do students learn (a) the basics of writing in the discipline and (b) more advanced strategies?

§ What specific resources exist for student writers in the discipline? (E.g. is there a single good website or book they might use?)

§ What advice do faculty, advanced students, graduates, or experts in the field have for student writers?

§ Which problems or issues face student writers? Which aspects of teaching student writers are particularly problematic or vexing for professors?

§ What goal is the students’ writing expected to accomplish in the long run? More broadly, what purposes are served by writing in the discipline?

C. Rationale for the changes proposed:

Expanding the variable credit for this course from 1-2 credits to 1-3 credits will allow for greater scheduling and curricular options for the English Department. Generally, this course will be offered as 1-2 credits but occasionally a 3-credit option will allow for the possibility of providing an in-depth study of a topic that is not otherwise covered in the curriculum or is given minor attention in a literary survey course.

D. Description of any impact of this proposal on other departments, programs, majors, or minors: None.

F. Description any impact that this proposal may have on the University Studies Program: None

Dr. J Paul Johnson, Minné 317 / English 324 (2 SH), Fall 2003 / M 3:00-4:50, M242
office: M 10-12, 1-3; W 11-3; F 11-1 / voice/mail: 457-5453 /

1. Catalog Description: Projects in Writing and Language

2. General Course Information

The major focus of Tutoring Writing is to provide students with a comprehensive overview of, and first-hand active-learning experience with, practices, strategies, and methods for tutoring writing. Students will also undertake a thorough review of the conventions of Standard Written English and gain opportunities to improve their own communication skills through a variety of written and oral tasks. Students will read about, write about, discuss, and practice strategies for tutoring writing under guided supervision, with multiple opportunities for actual tutoring in class. The course is designed primarily for English/CAL majors interested in teaching or tutoring writing in secondary, postsecondary, community, or workplace settings. Students completing the course with success will earn a “letter of introduction” to high schools, literacy centers, or writing centers for subsequent tutoring opportunities.

This course includes requirements and learning activities that promote students' abilities to...

Ø understand the various dynamics of common and specific rhetorical situations;

Ø diagnose, articulate, and address problems in written texts;

Ø understand gender, class, cross-cultural, and other dynamics of tutorial sessions;

Ø understand and apply conventions and rules for usage in Standard Written English;

Ø consult relevant resources (written and human) for assistance with complex situations;

Ø provide writers with relevant, substantive, appropriate advice on writing tasks; and

Ø function as skilled, articulate representatives of their institutions and organizations.

Also, this course addresses the following English Department goals, including requirements and learning activities that promote students’ abilities to...

Ø read critical texts, expository prose, and the writing of their fellow students. (Goal 4)

Ø write in several modes and for different audiences and purposes. (Goal 5)

Ø understand how education translates into lives and careers outside the classroom. (Goal 6)

3. Textbooks

required: Meyer, Emily, and Louise Z. Smith. The Practical Tutor. New York: Oxford U P, 1987.

notes: (1) Students will also need an up-to-date handbook of grammar and usage. I recommend Diana Hacker’s The Bedford Handbook for Writers (6th ed. Boston: Bedford St. Martins, 2002). (2) Additional readings will be required via Blackboard, WSU Library, and/or the web.

4. Basic Instructional Plan and Requirements

5. Blackboard

Beginning the first day of class, assignments, activities, grades, and resources will be posted on our course “Blackboard” at http://bb.winona.edu/. If you are new to Blackboard, your login is the same as it is for registration.

6. Grading

Ø You can earn a course grade of C … by meeting all of the following criteria: (1) timely, acceptable weekly assignments; (2) all grammar quizzes completed at a rate of 70% correct or higher; (3) occasional class participation; (4) competent tutorials; and (5) acceptable papers.