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1250 1st YEAR WRITING AND RHETORIC: FALL 2007
Instructor: Dr. GasserOffice: TB-1, Room 6
Office Phone: 492-2613.Office Hours: Thursday 10-1 + M/W/F by appt
Home Phone: (303) 922-8051 E-mail:
My Campus Mailbox: TB-1, main hallway, against the wall just past Room 113
texts/ equipment
Required Texts- Written drafts for and by the class (consider these as part of the course textbook costs)
-Writing Analytically, 4th ed, David Rosenwasser and Jill Stephen
-They Say, I Say, Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein
-Assigned articles
-small stapler/-A CU email account that you check regularly
Course objectives
In this writing course, geared to honors-level students, we will focus on analysis as a basis for a compelling, convincing communication of the message you wish to convey to audiences – both general and academic – of critical thinkers. We will read a variety of materials and analyze the authors’ motives, arguments, biases, and intended audiences, and you will simultaneously learn to shape your essays by first identifying why your audience needs yet another treatment of your topic; then by presenting
a necessary and interpretative (as opposed to obvious and factual) thesis; then by demonstrating, in depth, why your evidence -- quotation or example -- helps support it. In the process, you will unleash a level of creativitywhich will equip you to produce cutting-edge work. You will thus equip yourself to excel at standards required for writing across the disciplines and in the corporate and civic as well as the academic world. These goals are covered at further length in sources ranging from Aristotle to the article “Form and the Essay,” (see They will be still further explained on assignment sheets distributed throughout the semester. Although issues of grammar and syntax may be addressed in class, students with major deficiencies in these areas should see me about where to get additional help outside of class. The course emphasizes thoughtful revision of written assignments.
WORKSHOP FORMAT:A paper is never finished; it is just due
This course is a writing workshop. After an initial segment devoted to preparatory readings, exercises, and short pieces of writing, most of our class time will be spent analyzing your essays and, ultimately, your research project. Every third or fourth class day, you will distribute a draft of your work to your classmates and me. On the following class day, we will discuss it in class. The workshop method is designed with the following goals:
-Teach you how to analyze and critique the work of others
-Give you direct audience response so that you can revise and improve your essays
-Provide you with a method for drafting and revising your essays in other courses
You are expected to write multiple drafts of each essay. Each draft should be presented as if it were a final version. Each must be typed, double-spaced, on 8 ½ x 11 paper, and turned in on time. Late drafts will not be accepted. I will comment – in writing and in class – on each draft. I will grade the final draft only, with deductions for missing or essentially unrevised preceding drafts.
Assignments
(Due dates to follow: assignments will always be announced at least one week in advance. Later in the semester, I will distribute workshop schedules with specific distribution dates for the various drafts of your papers.)
Writing Assignments
-2- page paper: Analytical Response to a Single Work: Seeing Doonesbury:
-2-page paper: Applying a Reading as a Lens: Doonesbury via “Politics and the English Language”
-2-page paper: Deepened Analytical Response to a Single Work: Choose from among three assigned essays.
(This will be your first workshopped paper: one round + revision)
-2-page Synthesis Paper: Difference Within Similarity or Similarity Despite Difference: Choose from among any course readings to date. (This will be your second workshopped paper: one round + revision)
-5-page Research Project: Rhetorical Analysis on current discussion of topic of your choice: 2-3 rounds
-Minor exercises assigned over the course of the semester + written critiques as assigned
Additional Requirement
Regular attendance and regular participation in class discussion. You are expected to read as many as four student essays for each class workshop period, and you are expected to comment on the strengths and weaknesses of each student essay during class discussion. (I will explain in detail at the appropriate time, but, regardless of previous training or lack thereof, you are each responsible for no more – and no less – than the approaches to both our readings and to aspects of writing covered in each class session: in that sense, everyone starts from the same 1250 Advanced Writing“Square One”.) Lack of substantive class participation will result in a full letter grade penalty.
Later in the semester, I will distribute workshop schedules with specific distribution dates for the various drafts of your papers.
grading:
My words fly up, my thoughts remain below.Words without thoughts never to heaven go.
Hamlet 3.3.96-7
Grading in WRTG courses is rigorous; however, you are not predestined to receive a C or worse, nor is it impossible to earn an A. To earn an A, you must write mechanically and stylistically outstanding papers that present your individual insight, defended and developed through a line of reasoning that originates with you. Your best means of getting a good grade is to revise your essays according to recommendations given during the class workshops. On the other hand, merely following advice does not guarantee an A. Your relative success or failure will be based on the product resulting from your ability as a writer and thinker and the amount of effort you put into your work. (Please note: This honors-level course assumes a working knowledge of English grammar and syntax. If you struggle in these areas, I will do my best to direct you to people and resources that can help you.)
Plagiarism: Don’t go there
Using someone else’s words or ideas without crediting the source will lead to dismissal from the course with a grade of F and may be subject to further disciplinary action by the University. In order to discourage plagiarism, each essay must go through the entire workshop process.
Attendance policy
Ninety per cent of success in life is just showing up. Woody Allen
Your class participation is essential to every student’s success in this workshop course. Punctual attendance is mandatory. If you arrive late, you miss important announcements and you disrupt the workshop.
Have strategies for weather/traffic/computer/printer emergencies/ minor illnesses/ family reunions/ off –campus events: it is your responsibility to see that these do not cause you to be absent. In the case of an extraordinary situation – death in the family, prolonged illness, injury, your participation in the model UN – I make exceptions to those with written documentation so long as absences remain manageable. I also make exceptions to religious holidays. Absences before and after Fall Break-Thanksgiving are strongly discouraged. You must have a strategy for getting hard copies of drafts to class on your workshop due dates. Email does not count. You must also obtain copies of classmates’ drafts for that day, and turn in a written critique for each classmate’s draft you missed workshopping: two copies – one for me and one for each classmate. If you are late, do come in, quietly, and explain to me after class to strike the absence from your record. Except for unavoidable circumstances, frequent tardies will lower your final grade.
university policies and resources