YORK UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF LIBERAL ARTS & PROFESSIONAL STUDIES

WRITING DEPARTMENT

PROFESSIONAL WRITING PROGRAMME

WRITING 1300.03

THEORIES OF WRITING

COURSE SYLLABUS

Winter 2013

COURSE DIRECTOR:

John Spencer

S329Ross

TEACHING ASSISTANTS:

Angela Meyer Sterzik

S329Ross

Sadia

S329Ross

LECTURES AND TUTORIALS

LECTURES:

Wednesdays 12:30–2:30

Vari LH D

TUTORIALS:

01: Wednesdays 3:30-4:30

S136 Ross

Tutorial Leader: John Spencer

02: Wednesdays 2:30-3:30

VH 1016

Tutorial Leader: Sadia Banerjee

03: Thursdays 12:30-1:30

S128 Ross

Tutorial Leader: Angela Meyer Sterzik

04: Thursdays 1:30-2:30

HNE B10

Tutorial Leader: Sadia Banerjee

05: Thursdays 11:30-12:30

HNE B10

Tutorial Leader: Angela Meyer Sterzik

COURSE OBJECTIVES

Together we will study some of the major contemporary writing theories and theorists, with particular emphasis on those from the social sciences. The course is divided into three main sections. In the first section we will examine some of the dominant understandings of language and its role in human activities. We will then learn how the study of written language is organized in the academy, while concluding with a review of the main theories related to the process of writing, focusing on the various phases of that activity. In this way we will seek to become knowledgeable about the act of writing as an academic discipline, and apply these theories to our own writing.

COURSE ASSIGNMENTS AND GRADING

CLASS PARTICIPATION:

Reading Presentation: 20%

Class Participation: 15%

RESEARCH ESSAY: 25%

(assigned February 6; due March 27/28)

EXAMINATIONS:

Mid-term Examination: 20%

(in lecture February 27)

End-term Examination: 20%

(in lecture April 3)

REQUIRED READINGS:

All the assigned readings, as listed below under the course lecture schedule, are bound together in a Writing 1300 Course Kit available in the York Bookstore.

LECTURE SCHEDULE AND COURSE READINGS

SECTION ONE: WRITTEN LANGUAGE

JANUARY 9:

Course Introduction

Brief Overview of Epistemology

Social Science Research

JANUARY 16:

Language Theory

Language and Thought

Written Language

Reading:

Emig, Janet. “Inquiry Paradigms and Writing.”

JANUARY 23:

Communication Triangle

Reading Theory

Readings:

Emig, Janet. “Hand, Eye, Brain: Some Basics in the Writing Process.”

Rumelhart, D. E. “Schemata: The Building Blocks of Cognition.”

JANUARY 30:

Genre

Audience

Readings:

Lunsford, Andrea and Lisa Ede. “Audience Addressed/Audience Invoked: The

Role of Audience in Composition Theory and Pedagogy.”

Devitt, Amy J. “Generalizing About Genre: New Conceptions of an Old

Concept.”

SECTION TWO: RHETORIC AND COMPOSITION STUDIES

FEBRUARY 6:

Discourse Communities

Classical Rhetoric

Current Traditional Rhetoric

Readings:

Blakesley, David. “Reconceptualizing Grammar as an Aspect of Rhetorical

Invention.”

Barrit, L.S. and Barry Kroll. “Some Implications of Cognitive-Developmental

Psychology for Research in Composing.”

FEBRUARY 13:

The New Rhetorics

Basic Writing

Readings:

Nelms, Gerald. “Reassessing Janet Emig’s The Composing Processes of

Twelfth Graders: An Historical Perspective.”

Bartholomae, D. “The Study of Error.”

FEBRUARY 20:

Reading Week

FEBRUARY 27:

Mid-term Examination

SECTION THREE: THE WRITING PROCESS

MARCH 6:

The Writer

Writing Process Theories

Readings:

Flower, Linda and John Hayes. “A Cognitive Process Theory of Writing.”

Murray, Donald. “Writing as Process: How Writing Finds its Own Meaning.”

MARCH 13:

Invention

Research

Composing

Readings:

Flower, Linda, and John Hayes. “The Cognition of Discovery: Defining a

Rhetorical Problem.”

Perl, Sondra. “Understanding Composing.”

MARCH 20:

Revision

Arrangement

Readings:

Eden, Ruth and Ruth Mitchell. “Paragraphing for the Reader.”

Elbow, Peter. “The Music of Form: Rethinking Organization in Writing.”

MARCH 27:

Grammar

Editing

Readings:

Noguchi, Rei R. “The Limits of Grammar in Writing Improvement.”

Beason, Larry. “Ethos and Error: How Business People React to Errors.”

APRIL 3:

End-term Examination