English 307: The Writing Process
English 307.01: The Writing Process
2-3:15 p.m., TTh, Combs 322
Spring 2015
Warren Rochelle
1201 William St., #16, 654-1393
Office Hours:
Jan. 12-Feb.27: 11-12 MWF, 3-4 MW, and 1-2 TTh
Mar.9- April 24: 2-4 MW and 1-2 TTh
or by appointment
E-Mail:
Texts: (all available in paperback)
Flaherty, The Midnight Disease (Houghton Mifflin, 2004)
Lamott, Bird by Bird (Doubleday, 1994)
Murray, Write to Learn (Harcourt, 8th ed., 2005)
Bragg, All Over But the Shoutin’, (Random House, 1997)
Elbow, Writing with Power (Oxford UP, 2nd ed., 1998)
Spandel, Creating Writers (Pearson, 5th ed., 2009)
Rawlins, Metzger, eds., The Writer’s Way (Wadsworth, 8th ed., 2012)
Various handouts, a movie
Please, use the same editions of the texts as above. This will make it easier for you to participate in class and keep up with the readings.
Course Description:
This course takes as its focus the concept of writing as process. This concept revolutionized the teaching of writing in the late 20th century and is currently so ubiquitous in schools that you may not know that it is a relatively new way to think about writing instruction. Your school experiences may have always included drafting, revision, and peer editing activities. If so, your experiences come out of an academic paradigm shift brought about by the emergence of composition as a field of professional studies. Janet Emig is considered responsible for initiating two decades of research and theory about writing with her 1971 publication, The Composing Process of Twelfth Graders. Her study shifted academic attention away from a narrow focus on grading student papers to a focus on how writers actually write. The goal was to understand the writing process so that writing instruction could be more effective in helping students become successful writers.[1]
Course Objectives and Goals:
This course seeks to answer these questions:
Ø What is good writing? What is the writing process?
Ø How can I achieve it? What is my own writing process? How can I improve it?
Ø How can I help others to achieve it? How does composition theory and pedagogy inform how I would teach writing? How does it inform my own writing process? What does an examination of some of the leading theorists and practitioners reveal?
Ø How is writing both a conscious and an unconscious act? Is all writing creative?
It thus aims to help students improve their writing and to become perceptive writer-critics of their own writing and the writing of others. The course focuses, then, as much on the process of writing as son the product; it addresses such issues as “Why Johnny can’t write”; and it asks students to write—and critique—several different kinds of papers (informal personal essays, literary analysis, assignments). Texts include composition theory and practice and a variety of examples of good writing, from informal and formal essays to autobiography and ethnography.
307 might also be considered an advanced seminar in non-fiction prose. It builds on the goals of good writing of first-year writing courses, but treats the writing process more substantially, intensely, and intellectually. It also meets the requirements for a writing-intensive course, and fulfills a requirement for the English education major. This section of 307 is also speaking-intensive. Being able to communicate orally as well as verbally is an essential skill for teachers. Poetry, perhaps the oldest human art form expressed in language, was oral before it was verbal. Reading out loud is another way to interpret a text—tone, gesture, expression, and so on, all contribute to the making of meaning. Given this, students will be graded on their oral presentations as well as written assignments.
Course Requirements: Grades and Assignments:
Readings:
To be a good writer is to be a good reader is to be a good writer. I don’t believe you can have one without the other. We will do a lot of reading in this course, and you are expected to come to class having read what was assigned. We will also do a lot of writing, both in and out of class.
Blog Journal:
Many writers find keeping a journal a valuable exercise. In it they record ideas for writing, jot down interesting details and dialogue observed and overheard, respond to readings, practice writing experimentally, copy or imitate favorite quotes from their reading, and let their thoughts flow freely.
You will be required to write and post journal responses on the class blog, usually in response to a given prompt on the assigned readings or class activities. Prompts will be assigned on a regular basis. Strive for variety in types of entries, insight in your observations, and strong focus and solid development in each entry; and give attention to style as well as to content. The purpose of this journal is to keep you writing and thinking about writing, to help you develop your voice, and to prepare you for class discussions and for the course’s formal writings.
Two entries must be in the form of a double entry. A few days, or a week—you decide—after a post you select, go back and respond and comment on what you wrote. Do you still think the same? Disagree? Is there more you have to say? These can be done at any point in the semester. Pleae let me know when you have written these so that I can give you credit.
One entry will be responses to a consultation at the Writing Center—this can overlap with the double entries. See below for more information.
Please remember this is a writer’s journal and not a personal diary. I will be reading your entries and you might be reading them out loud in class. Do not include material that is too personal to be shared.
Essays and Other Assignments:
1) Personal Narrative: a biography of a paper, in two parts—a one-page quick response, and a 1200-1500+ word in-depth development, with only the latter turned in for a grade.
2) Memoir:
a. based on All Over but the Shoutin,’
b. And/or using one or more of the ideas/techniques presented in Bird by Bird.
This will be presented orally to the class and at the Kemp Symposium, and should include a reflective portion on the process.
3) Course Project:
Ø Ethnography of a Writing Class
Ø Research and Evaluation of Student Writing (Collaborative), with Reflective Essay
4) Journal
5) Poem/Explication: Using prose material, craft a poem, and discuss your choices.
6) Final Portfolio, which will include an introduction, the Course Project, five journals with a defense of your selection.
7) Homework, in-class writing
Course Grades and Scale:
Journal 10%
Personal Narrative/Paper Bio 10
Memoir 20
Portfolio 15
Course Project 30
Poem Explication 10
HW/in-class, 1-pagers,
Etc./Attendance/
Participation 5
Grading Scale:
A+ 100-98
A 95-97
A- 90-94
B+ 88-89
B 85-87
B- 80-84
C+ 78-79
C 75-77
C- 70-74
D+ 68-69
D 65-67
D- 60-64
F 59 and below
The Writing Center:
You are required to have at least one of your essays reviewed by a Writing Center tutor, and one journal entry will be a response to this visit.
Attendance and Participation:
I grade on participation, and as this course emphasizes active participation in class discussion, so attendance is mandatory. Absence, in this case, will not make the heart grow fonder or the brain wiser. Obviously if you are not here, you cannot participate; thus your grade will suffer. Discussions and in-class group work cannot be made up. If you miss more than 5 classes, I will strongly encourage you to drop. This is a studio writing class, which means it is activity-based. Be here.
Students are to be on time for all classes and in remain in class until the instructor dismisses the class. Please do not schedule doctor or dental appointments during class time.
Work is due on the given date, unless there are extenuating circumstances, or prior arrangements have been made. Late work will result in a penalty: your grade will be lowered by a half-letter grade each day the assignment is late. It is your responsibility to contact me ASAP to arrange for an extension.
Odds and Ends:
All written assignments—papers and your journal responses—are to be typed, double-spaced, in 12-point Times New Roman. If not, I won’t read it. Each day a paper is late results in a one-letter grade drop. I recommend at least two back up electronic copies, on CD/flash drive, and your hard drive.
Honor Code:
It is my expectation that in all your work for this course you will abide by the honor code. This means that each piece of work you present to me should be pledged Your signature is sufficient for this.
The Office of Disability Services has been designated by the University as the primary office to guide, counsel, and assist students with disabilities. If you already receive services through the Office of Disability Services and require accommodations for this class, make an appointment with me as soon as possible to discuss your approved accommodation needs. Please bring your accommodation letter with you to the appointment. I will hold any information you share with me in the strictest confidence unless you give me permission to do otherwise.
If you have not contacted the Office of Disability Services and need accommodations, (note taking assistance, extended time for tests, etc.), I will be happy to refer you. The office will require appropriate documentation of disability. Their phone number is 540-654-1266.
Calendar
This calendar is a work in progress and is not set in stone. It will change as the semester progresses; you are responsible for keeping up with these changes, some of which will be made orally. Regarding the reading—which seems like a lot, and it is—but fear not. Most of the time I will assign specific pages to read, rather than the whole chapter. Of course, feel free to read as much as you like.
January
13 T free-writing, c ourse intro/ are you a writer, your processes/methods/syllabus/writing as conscious and unconscious, symbol and metaphor, what is good writing
HW: This I Believe intro
15 Th Student Intros based on This I Believe
20 T Perl xvii-22, Roskelly (handouts)
culture and the classroom
Essay 1 assigned
Journal 1: education as culture
22 Th Lamott intro-15, Spandel 41-48, Writer’s Way, Chs. 1-2
what is good writing/handouts
HW: Draw your writing process
27 T Elbow: Intro, Ch. 1-2, Murray, Intro, Ch.1-2, Writer’s Way
What is good writing, part 2; what is bad writing: handouts
Journal 2
29 Th sharing your drawings
Murray Ch. 3, Elbow Ch.4-5, Spandel Ch.1
Developing peer review checklist/criteria
Start reading Flaherty
February
3 T Essay 1 first draft due/peer critiques/workshop
Journal 3
5 Th Essay 1 final draft due
Spandel
Ethnography assigned: language, thought, culture, contact zone theory, excerpts from FieldWorking
In-class writing: memory of learning to read and/or write
10 T Writing and Memory, conscious and unconscious
Perl. Chs. 11, 18 and 19 (handouts)
Lamott 33-43, Murray
Sensory exercises
Journal 4
12 Th Writing: Mechanics
Writer’s Way, Preface, Ch. 6
Essay 2 assigned: poem based on ethno data or language play
17 T Writer’s Way, Ch. 11
Elbow, “Many Ways to Revise,” 121-176, Murray, Spandel
Journal 5
19 Th Spandel, Lamott, Writer’s Way
24 T Movie: Finding Forrester, continues at 6 p.m., 1201 William St., #28
Journal 6
26 Th Ethnography draft due: writing workshop
Movie discussion
Flaherty intro
February 28-
March 8 Spring Break
March
10 T Flaherty
12 Th Flaherty
17 T Ethnography final draft due
Part 2 of Course Project assigned/Spandel
What is good writing, evaluation/AP handouts
19 Th Course Project Part 2: student essays distributed
How to evaluate: Elbow, Murray, Lamott, Spandel
Journal 8
Essay 2 due
24 T Spandel
26 Th Course Project, Part 2 workshop
31 T Course Project, Part 2: collaborative report
Journal 9
April
2 Th Reflective Essay voluntary workshop or Writing Day
7 T Perl, Ch. 17/Zinnser handouts
Memoir assigned, portfolio discussed
Journal 10
9 Th Bragg, All Over But the Shoutin’
Writing as Healing, Ch. 4/handout
14 T Bragg
16 Th Bragg
excerpt from Angela’s Ashes
Journal 11
21 T Memoir Workshop
Portfolio guidelines given
23 Th Kemp Symposium: Memoir Presentations
28 3:30 – 6 p.m.: Memoir presentations
Portfolios due at 6 p.m.
[1] Much of the preceding paragraph was taken from Dr. Rigsby’s Fall 2004 English 307 syllabus.