McGuire E101.018

Fall 2008

Unit One:What's Your (Writing) Story?

A quick note about unit assignment sheets like this one: You need to hang on to these so you can refer back to them if you have any questions.Please bring this to class every day!

Overview:

How did/do you learn to write?We’ll start by really thinking about your experiences with writing—what you have done and can do: how you work, what you can do and how you do it, what you want to learn and explore. Yes, that's right: we'll work from the assumption that you are, in fact, a writer. This unit focuses on how you became the writer you are today. You’ll consider many questions about your own literacy:

  • What kind of reader/writer/thinker are you?
  • What are your habits, processes, and interests?
  • What do you read/write, and why?
  • Who do you write for?
  • What specific events affected your literacy practices?

We’ll do several in-class activities and writing “explorations” to help us get started contemplating these questions.

Readings:

For each unit, we’ll read to help us think in different ways about what we’re exploring.We’ll read in a variety of ways and for a variety of purposes.

WC, WL:

Ballenger, "The Importance of Writing Badly" (pgs. 1-16)

Jackson, "Past Experiences and Future Attitudes in Literacy" (49-56)

Lu, "From Silence to Words:Writing as Struggle" (57-69)

Other Selections, from Writing True:

Perl and Schwartz, “10 Ways to Draft” (in class and posted on Blackboard)

Perl and Schwartz, “Scene, Summary, and Reflection” (handout)

Explorations:

Explorations are informal, and, well, exploratory. They give you space to think through ideas and ponder options and questions—and then you have time to let that Exploration “sit” a bit before you return to the ideas later(if you do) for your main project for that unit.

Homework is to be posted to Blackboard before class on Wednesday, September 3:

Exploration 1: Can You Successfully Write Badly?

600-800 words

  • In class, we’ll take a few minutes and make a deliberate effort to write badly. We’ll begin with the idea of exploring yourself as a writer and take a few minutes to use the strategies we’ve learned so far to get messy—freelisting, clustering, etc.
  • Then, for your exploration, you’ll get down to more serious business—In your Blackboard post, reflect on your own writing process.How was it to write badly? Did anything useful or surprising come out of it? Do you usually begin by writing badly?Should you?Describe the kind of journey you take to create a polished piece of writing.Some questions you might consider:Where do you begin? What kind of environment do you write in? How do you proceed?Where do you end? Do you have someone proofread your paper? Do you close your eyes and hand it in and hope for the best?

To be done in class on Monday, September 8:

Exploration 2: Create Detailed Scenes.

600-800 words

  • Pick a few literacy momentsto describe in more detail.You should have many possibilities from our in-class freewrites and other brainstorming activities. Choose moments such as—a time in school ora non-academic setting where you wrote something you were proud of, or a moment when read something that inspired you in some way, orwhenyou felt discouraged by the written word. Focus on creating several brief vivid scenes.

Unit Writing Project:

Your unit writing project is an extended, more formal piece of writing, often in essay form (but not always).Your Explorations should help generate ideas for your unit project, and while you may be able to draw from them, you’ll need to reorganize and reframe the material for your longer writing project.

How did you become the writer you are today?Your Unit 1 project is a literacy essayin which you will describe and reflect on an event, or a few related events, when writing and/or reading had a lasting affect on you.Your paper should have a clear focus, exploring a central idea or theme as you describe events in your writing life and include commentary that reveals the significance of these events.Review your work for overall effectiveness and clarity, and, most importantly, take the time to really reflect and explore.

Within your literacy essay it is key to:

  • Describe.Create vivid scenes to capture your experience and draw your readers in.
  • Reflect.Why did these moments make an impression on you? What did you learn? How has your experience contributed to your approach to writing now?

1200-1500 words (4-5 pgs)

Due Friday, September 12th:

In a stapled packet, turn in the following:

A cover letter, addressed to meand discussing some/all of the following:the processes involved in writing this essay, challenges (and how you overcame them), discoveries, and responses to this project.This is a great opportunity to let me know what worked for you and what didn’t. Also, revisit the strategies (see below) that we worked on this unit.What strategies did you especially gain confidence in, do you think?What made that happen? (400-600 words)

  • Your Writing Project
  • The reader response sheets from you response group
  • Explorations 1 and 2
  • Any in-class work connected to this unit project

Writing Strategies We’ll Be Working On This Unit:

  • Generating ideas by writing, organizing material, and drafting
  • Incorporating specific detail to add richness and depth
  • Producing writing that has a center focus.
  • Actively reading and responding as a reader/writer
  • Providing effective writerly feedback and learning from the feedback of others (What is useful feedback?).
  • Using writing to explore and deepen our understanding (What do you know now that you didn’t before writing this piece?).

Format:

Explorations, Unit Projects, Cover Letters, and the Portfolio will follow a standard MLA format. Format documents following these guidelines:

  • Use black, Times New Roman 12 point font.
  • Double space the entire document.
  • Your last name and the page number should be in the header on the top, right of each page.
  • The first page should have your name, class and section number, the assignment, my last name, and the date—each on its own line—on the left side of the page.
  • Use justify left for the entire document—except in the header.
  • Indent each paragraph.
  • Title each document something original and appropriate for the topic.
  • The title should be centered at the top of the first page (no title page).
  • Staple the pages together (do not use any sort of report cover).
  • If you use any research, follow MLA format for in-text citations and the Works Cited page.

See pages 93-98 and 403-412 of The Everyday Writer for examples of MLA formatted papers.

Unit One:

Date / Due / Do in class
Week One
Monday August 25 / First day
Wednesday August 27 / Reading: Syllabus / “Are You a Writer?”
Friday August 29 / Reading: “The Importance of Writing Badly” / Strategies for Writing Badly
Week Two
Monday September 1 / NO School; Labor Day
Wednesday September 3 / Due: Your Exploration 1 should be posted on Blackboard.
Reading: “Past Experiences and Future Attitudes in Literacy” / Literacy Moments
Friday September 5 / Reading: “Scene, Summary, and Reflection” and“From Silence to Words: Writing as Struggle” / Adding Words to Silence

* * Monday September 8:Last day to add or drop classes without a W* *

Week Three
Monday September 8 / Do Exploration 2: Create Detailed Scenes
Wednesday September 10 / How to Workshop
Friday September 12 / Unit 1 essay due / Response Workshop

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