Policy Statement and Syllabus
First-Year Writing and Rhetoric
WRTG 1150, Section 079
Fall Semester, 2007, TR 5:00 PM–6:15 PM, DUAN G1B27
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Instructor:Dr. Sigman ByrdOffice: TB1, 4B
E-Mail: Office Phone: 2-4764
Office Hours: T, R 2:00–3:15 PM and by appointment
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Course Overview
WRTG 1150 aims to prepare you for and help you succeed in the academic writing you will do here at the university. Using your own experience, curiosity, knowledge, beliefs, and research, you will write a variety of essays through which you will practice critical thinking, reading, and writing skills. While we will read a variety of essays exploring issues pertinent to contemporary society and the role mass media play in our lives, we will also explore various visual media like film and political cartoons to talk about these issues. That being said, the main text for the course will be your work and the work of your classmates. The essays you write will be something you have chosen (except in one case) and something that ignites your curiosity about the issues we discuss in class. To best facilitate this exploration, class will frequently be conducted as a full-class or small-group workshop in which you give feedback and respond critically to your classmates’ work and in which you receive feedback about your own work. Class will also be conducted as a seminar in which you discuss assignments, readings, and writing strategies and share particular insights or questions about the work at hand.
In addition, this course will not only develop your academic writing skills but allow you to see the work you do at the university as a form of interactive inquiry in which you engage in a dialogue with the world around you. In essence, our daily lives are greatly affected by all manner of policies and laws, practices and codes, images and symbols. With this in mind, a series of questions will prompt our explorations this semester: How do we understand our experience of society today? How do the media influence what we believe? And, finally, how do we articulate our ideas in writing to an audience in order to voice an opinion or affect a change?
Course Objectives and Requirements
During the term you will learn to:
• Analyze a writing task and its rhetorical content, including the purpose of the essay, its audience, its uses and constraints.
• Study the basic features of academic writing, including the different parts of the essay such as introductions, summaries, descriptions, evaluations, arguments, claims, evidence, lines of reasoning, and conclusions.
• Write successfully in various prose genres in order to learn and express what you think.
• Write usable, persuasive, clear, accurate, and readable prose so as to develop a better sense of your own individual writing style.
• Reflect on your own writing process in order to discover what works and what doesn’t.
• Gain familiarity with the research process.
• Present your thinking and writing to an audience.
In addition to completing the reading assignments, reading and commenting on your classmates’ writing and contributing to class discussions, you will be evaluated on the following:
• Personal essay (15%)
• Exploratory essay (15%)
• Editorial cartoon essay (15%)
• Film review (15%)
• Final project (30%)
• Class participation (10%)
Texts
• Knowing Words, Program for Writing and Rhetoric, CU-Boulder
• The Everyday Writer, 3rd edition, Andrea Lunsford
• Duplicate drafts of your own writing for workshop discussions
•Other essays, handouts as assigned
Course Policies and Procedures
The following policies apply to this course.
- Active participation in the reading and writing community of your class is required.
2. Regular attendance is mandatory. Only three excused or unexcused absences are allowed. After three absences your final grade will drop a third of a letter per absence.
3. Lateness to class is not acceptable. Any more than three late arrivals will count as one absence.
- Late assignments will be evaluated but automatically receive a deduction of two letter grades. All assignments must be typed.
5. In addition to due dates for final drafts of assignments, you are also responsible for bringing in drafts of your writing and making copies. Failure to do so will affect your class participation grade.
6. All written work turned in for a grade must contain the CU honor code policy statement plus your signature. The honor code reads as follows: “On my honor as a University of Colorado at Boulder student I have neither given nor received unauthorized assistance on this work.”
Plagiarism Policy
Plagiarism—claiming or suggesting that words or ideas of others are your own—is a form of cheating. The university’s policy on cheating is clear and can be summed up as follows: Plagiarism is the appropriation of any other person’s work and the unacknowledged incorporation of that work in one’s own work offered for credit. It is like theft, and anyone caught plagiarizing will receive an automatic failing grade in the course. Moreover, further disciplinary action may be taken.
Note: Any student eligible for and needing academic adjustments or accommodations because of a disability should notify both me and the Disability Services Office in Willard Hall during the first two weeks of class. I will make every reasonable effort to meet your learning needs.
If you speak English as a second language, you should contact me before the third class meeting so that I can better assist you in the course or refer you to appropriate services on campus.
Daily Schedule
Note: Daily assignments are subject to change. Any changes will be announced in class, and you are responsible for being aware of them.
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Week 1, August 28–30
Topics: class methodology; personal essay; images and details.
T—Introduce the course, get to know classmates, discuss writing approaches.
R—Discuss “Dinner at Uncle Boris’s.” Brainstorm and workshop topics for personal essay.
Assignment for 8/30: Read “Dinner at Uncle Boris’s” by Charles Simic.
Assignment for 9/4: Write a draft of the first half of your essay, and read “Ways of Seeing” by John Berger.
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Week 2, September 4–6
Topics: Writing personal essays; ways of looking at art and the world.
T—Workshop drafts of the first half of your essay. Discuss writing as a form of argument and “Ways of Seeing” by John Berger.
R—Workshop drafts of second half of your essay. Discuss use of tension and detail, beginnings, middles, and ends. Continue discussion of “Ways of Seeing.”
Assignment for 9/6: Re-read“Ways of Seeing,” and work on draft of second half of personal essay.
Assignment for 9/11: Work on draft of personal essay.
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Week 3, September 11–13
Topics: Writing personal essays; looking for arguments in what we read and write.
T—In-class writing day. Discuss other writing issues.
R—Introduce exploratory essay assignment. Discuss “Crash.” Personal essay due.
Assignment for 9/13: Finish final draft of personal essay. Watch film “Crash.”
Assignment for 9/18: Write introduction of exploratory essay. Read “What’s in a Name?” by Henry Louis Gates and sample essays in Knowing Words.
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Week 4, September 18–20
Topic: Analysis and argumentation; making claims; structuring ideas.
T—Workshop drafts of the first page of exploratory essay. Discuss “What’s in a Name?” and sample essays.
R—Continue workshopping drafts of exploratory essay. Discuss “What’s in a Name?” and sample essays. Also, discuss handout on writing arguments.
Assignment for 9/20: Continue work on exploratory essay.
Assignment for 9/25: Continue work on exploratory essay. Read pp. 49–62 of The Everyday Writer.
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Week 5, September 25–27
Topics: Creating a cohesive narrative; constructing paragraphs.
T—Finish workshopping exploratory essay. Discuss pp. 49–62 of The Everyday Writer.
R—In-class writing day. Discuss other writing issues.
Assignment for 9/27: Bring in current draft of exploratory essay.
Assignment for 10/2: Finish final draft of exploratory essay.
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Week 6, October 2–4
Topic: Analyzing visual arguments; creating a cohesive narrative; constructing paragraphs.
T—Introduce editorial cartoon essay assignment. Discuss uses of summary and analysis. Exploratory essay due.
R—Discuss sample student essay. Workshop first section of editorial cartoon essay.
Assignment for 10/4: Choose an editorial cartoon, write the introduction of editorial cartoon essay, and bring both the cartoon and your draft to class.
Assignment for 10/9: Write and bring to class the second section of your editorial cartoon essay. Read “Two Cheers for Materialism” by James Twitchell.
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Week 7, October 9–11
Topics: Writing persuasively; developing a style.
T—Workshop the second section of editorial cartoon essay. Discuss “Two Cheers for Materialism.”
R—Workshop the third section of editorial cartoon essay. Discuss “Sign of the Times.”
Assignment for 10/11: Work on draft of third section of editorial cartoon essay. Read “Sign of the Times” by David Holthouse.
Assignment for 10/16: Continue work on editorial cartoon essay. Finish work on first two library exercises.
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Week 8, October 16–18
Topics: Writing persuasively; using the library, doing research.
T—In-class writing day. Discuss other writing issues.
R—Introduce film review assignment. Discuss “Network.” Editorial cartoon essay due.
Assignment for 10/18: Finish final draft of editorial cartoon essay. Watch “Network.” Start work on first two library exercises.
Assignment for 10/23: Work on introduction of film review.
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Week 9, October 23–25
Topics: Film reviews; developing your written voice.
T—Workshop introduction of film review.
R—Workshop drafts of film review. Discuss sample film review. First two library exercises due.
Assignment for 10/25: Work on draft of film review. Start work on second two library exercises.
Assignment for 10/30: Continue work on film review.
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Week 10, October 30–November 1
Topics: Film reviews.
T—Workshop drafts of film review.
R—In-class writing day. Discuss other writing issues. Second two library exercises due.
Assignment for 11/1: Continue work on film review.
Assignment for 11/6: Finish final draft of film review.
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Week 11, November 6–8
Topics: Final projects; doing research.
T—Introduce final project.Brainstorm topics for final project. Film review due.
R—Meet in Norlin Library, rm. E303, for research seminar.
Assignment for 11/8: Develop topic for final project.
Assignment for 11/13: Work on drafts of introduction for final project.
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Week 12, November 13–15
Topics: Final projects.
T—Discuss introductions for final project. Look at sample introductions. Workshop drafts of introduction for your final essay.
R—Workshop draft of final project. Discuss “The Media-Violence Myth” by Richard Rhodes and “Devastating Beauty” by Teal Pfeifer. Debate the influence of the mass media on young people.
Assignment for 11/15: Read “The Media-Violence Myth” by Richard Rhodes and “Devastating Beauty” by Teal Pfeifer on p. 93 in The Everyday Writer. Work on the argument of your final project.
Assignment for 11/27: Work on draft of final project.
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Week 13, November 20–22
T—Fall Break. No classes.
R—Thanksgiving Holiday. No classes.
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Week 14, November 27–29
Topics: Drafting the research essay; paraphrasing, quoting, summarizing; making sources your own; preparing and delivering oral presentations.
T—Workshop draft of your final project. Discuss paraphrasing, quoting, making a source your own. Workshop draft of final project
R—In-class writing day. Discuss oral presentations.
Assignment for 12/4–12/13: Finish work on final project.
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Weeks 15 & 16, December 4–6, 11–13
Oral presentation of final projects.