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