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CALENDAR FOR COLLEGE WRITING II Fall 2007, FPU
Professor: Tracy Mendham
Date / Topic and Assignments / Readings Due
Week 1
10/31 / COURSE INTRODUCTION
Go over syllabus, expectations for the course, introductions.
Week 2
Required: In the Conscious Reader, Sarah Lyall, “Germaine Greer’s ‘Cruelty TV’” (Shrodes 327-330)
Recommended: In A Writer’s Reference, “C1: Planning” (Hacker 3-13) and “C2: Drafting” (Hacker 14-18)
11/5 / RESPONDING TO POPULAR CULTURE
Journal: Answer one or more of the questions at the end of “Cruelty TV”
Required: Gloria Steinem, “Wonder Woman” (Shrodes 272-281)
Recommended: “C3: Revising” (Hacker 18-23) and “C4: Writing Paragraphs” (Hacker (24-37)
11/7 / PEER REVIEW
Essay 1 Peer Draft due
Journal: Answer one or more of the questions at the end of “Wonder Woman”
Week 3
Required: Marina Warner, “Fantasy’s Power and Peril” (Shrodes 281-285)
Roger Ebert, “Great Movies” (Shrodes 296-298)
Recommended: “C5: Designing Documents” (Hacker 37-54), “MLA 1: Supporting a Thesis” and “MLA 2: Citing Sources; Avoiding Plagiarism” (Hacker 355-362)
11/12 / RESPONDING TO CULTURE & LITERATURE
Journal: Answer one or more of the questions at the end of “Fantasy’s Power and Peril” /
Required: Lahiri, Chapters 1-3
Mortimer Adler, “How to Read Stories” (handout)
Recommended: “A1: Writing about Texts” (Hacker 57-66) and “MLA 3: Integrating Sources” (Hacker 362-369)
11/14 / ENGAGING WITH CHALLENGING TEXTS
Essay 1 Instructor Draft due
Journal: Choose a scene of cultural transition in Ch 1-3, and describe the role that food and/or clothing have in the scene.
Week 4
Required: Lahiri, Chapters 4-5
Recommended: “A3: Evaluating Arguments” (Hacker 77-85) and “MLA 4: Documenting Sources” (Hacker 370-381)
11/19 / PEER REVIEW, & THE NOVEL

Essay 2 Peer Draft due

Journal: Describe Gogol’s expectations or desires for love and intimacy and in what ways they might differ from those of Ashima and Ashoke. To what extent do you believe your own ideas of love and marriage conform to or are shaped by your culture?
Required: Lahiri, Chapters 6-8
Recommended: “R1: Conducting Research” (Hacker 318-332)
11/21 / NO CLASS (Thanksgiving)
Journal: Compare a meal in Chapters 5-8 to a meal you eat this week. Identify commonalities.
Week 5
Required: Lahiri, Chapters 9-12
Recommended: “A2: Constructing Reasonable Arguments” (Hacker 67-76)
11/26 / THE NOVEL, CONTINUED
Journals due for mid-semester evaluation
Journal: Did the novel the Namesake allow you to think of America in a new way, and if so, how? How did it change your idea of India?
Required: Doctorow, “Ultimate Discourse” (Shrodes 394-397)
Italo Calvini, “Why Read the Classics?” (Shrodes 860-865)
Recommended: “R1: Conducting Research” (Hacker 318-332)
11/28 / LITERATURE AND CULTURE
Essay 2 Instructor Draft due
Phone message/podcast: Identify a story that has done for you one of the things Doctorow claims in the last 3 paragraphs of “Ultimate Discourse.” Leave a phone message of 3 or 4 sentences saying what the story is and how it connects to Doctorow’s ideas.
Week 6
Required: Nikolai Gogol, “The Overcoat” (Gogol 79-103)
Recommended: “R2: Evaluating Sources” (Hacker 333-341)
12/3 / INDIVIDUAL AND WORLD
Journal: Apply what Italo Calvini says about the worth of reading the classics to “The Overcoat”
Required: Orwell, “The Principles of Newspeak” (Shrodes 611-621)
Recommended: “R3: Managing Information: Avoiding Plagiarism” (Hacker 341-349)
12/5 / PEER REVIEW; INDIVIDUAL AND ANGUAGE

Essay 3 Peer Draft due

Journal: Answer one or more of the questions at the end of “Newspeak”
Week 7
“The Individual in the New Age” by Andrew Grosso (Shrodes 545-549)
Recommended: “MLA 5: Manuscript Format; Sample Paper” (Hacker 404-412)
12/10 / INDIVIDUAL AND “BIG BROTHER”
Journal: Answer one or more of the questions at the end of “The Individual in the New Age”
Required: “Introduction to Poetry” by Billy Collins (handout)
Auden, “The Unknown Citizen” (Shrodes 758-760)
Recommended: “W1: Glossary of Usage” (Hacker 123-137)
12/12 / RESPONDING TO POETRY
Essay 3 Instructor Draft due
Journal: Answer one or more of the questions at the end of “The Unknown Citizen”
Week 8
Required: “Leading Beyond the Nation-State” by Howard Gardner (Shrodes 711-715)
“I Have a Dream” by Martin Luther King (Shrodes 572-275)
Recommended: “W2: Wordy Sentences” (Hacker 137-140)
12/17 / PEER REVIEW; LEADERSHIP

Essay 4 Peer Draft Due

Journals due for evaluation
Journal: Answer one or more of the questions at the end of “Leading Beyond the Nation-State”
Required: Baldwin, “The Discovery of What it Means to Be an American” (Shrodes 730-735)
Faulkner, “Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech” (Shrodes 609-610)
Recommended: “W5: Exact Language” (Hacker 151-156)
12/19 / REDISCOVERING IDENTITY
Essay 4 Instructor Draft due
Phone Message: Describe in two or three sentences what you believe the individual’s responsibility to his or her community is, and what you think society’s responsibility to the individual is.

How to Complete Phone Message/Podcast Assignments

Call 1-800-749-0632

Enter Channel Number 12483

Enter Password 3848

Speak

Press # when done speaking

At the prompt, select 1 to listen, or 2 to publish

Select 2 to publish. You're done!

Summary of Essay Assignments

Essay 1: Reality Television

Essay 2: Persuading Readers to Act

Essay 3: Literary Analysis: The Namesake (What doe the novel show us about the world as it really exists?)

Essay 4: The Individual and Community