Syllabus: Winter 2007

Syllabus: Winter 2007

ENGL 121 D (T, H 12:30-2:30)

Classrooms: MGH 82 A (T)

MGH 82 (H)

Instructor: Jason Morse

Office: Savery Hall 219

Office Hours: H 2:30-4:30 or by appointment

Class Description: Writing Urban Spatiality

On Academic Reading and Writing

This class is a first-year composition class in which you will learn to construct academic arguments using literature as a catalyst for your claims. The genre of academic writing at the university level is more complex, thought provoking and much more rewarding than high school. The writing and reading skills you have learned will be modified and enhanced into the skills necessary for critical, analytical and persuasive academic writing. Critical reading is integral to critical writing so we will also discuss the role of reading in crafting an argument. Most of our readings will be theorietical essays and your claims will involve analyzing those texts and your own experiences. We will read a variety of texts critically (thinking about the ideas they contain) and rhetorically (thinking about what devices authors use to convey those ideas). Since the ongoing process of revision is paramount to academic writing, class discussion, individual conferences and peer reviews will help you to revise your papers to prepare them for portfolios. Finally, this class will give you practical skills such as research; proofreading and editing; and MLA citation of sources. By the end of the quarter you will have learned how to create complex arguments defending your claims with researched textual evidence based on your own critical readings. The final result will be the ability to communicate your ideas persuasively in any academic environment.

On this Class

The service learning opportunities connected to this class all involve working in city parks or urban community gardens. Given that fact, our focus will be an investigation of urban spatiality and the complex of social relations that occur in and through urban space. This class will use tenets of critical geography to interrogate and explore how urban space produces certain social relations, including the fissures of racial, gendered, and class difference in America. As race is central to discussions of political, social, cultural and economic life in the United States, the urban geography of racial formation will be a touchstone for our class while we explore other modalities of difference, such as gender, ethnicity, and class. Since none of these categories work in isolation, we will also continually discuss their interconnectedness. While we may not arrive at many answers, our guiding questions will include: What makes a city? What role does space play in producing social relations and constructing racial, gender, and class formations? What defines a community and what makes one a member? Is community instructive and liberating or hegemonic and repressive? What is culture? Who owns culture and is culture instructive and liberating or hegemonic and repressive? What role does the state play in defining these social formations and categories? How do categories of difference become identities of resistance? Can one construct one’s own identity or are we only constructed by society’s definitions of our gender, race, class, sexuality, ethnicity? We will also explore how critical reading and writing skills can provide a framework for interrogating uncritical assumptions about social formation and can be a model for active citizenship.

These are all HUGE questions with many, many different possible answers – we purposely start with an overwhelming set of critical questions to begin the ways of critical thinking that will guide us throughout the class. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, there are, really, no right answers to our critical questions – academic inquiries are focused intellectual explorations. The texts we read will begin to focus our attention on specific aspects of these questions and your own interests, identities and intellectual curiosity will further focus your own explorations.

On Service Learning

Service learning provides students a unique opportunity to connect coursework with life experience through public service. Offered as part of many University of Washington courses, service learning provides students the opportunity to experience theories traditionally studied in the classroom in new ways through serving with community-based organizations. Choosing to engage in service learning is a way to demonstrate your commitment to your community and your ability to link your academic studies to your practical experience.

The Carlson Leadership and PublicServiceCenter, located in 120 Mary Gates Hall, facilitates contacts with community-based organizations and will help you to coordinate your service learning opportunity. A list of organizations and service learning positions matched with this course will be presented during the first week of classes and are listed at (go to “Calendar” then “Spring 2007” and then “ENGL 121 D”). You will register for your service learning opportunity through this website during the second week of autumn quarter. Registration will open at 8:00 AM on Thursday, March 29 and close at 5:00 PM on Monday, April 2. The CarlsonCenter staff will be available between the hours of 9:00 AM-5:00 PM Monday-Friday during the first and second week of the quarter. Feel free to e-mail, with any questions you may have, or to call the office at (206) 616-2885 if you are unable to come to Mary Gates Hall 120.

Class Outline: Sequences

This class is structured around two major reading and writing “sequences” which end with a major paper. I’ve split the quarter into two themes based on our interrogation of urban space and your service learning experiences. The readings are subject to change.

Sequence 1: Researching spatial social issuesSequence 2: Theorizing your spatial experience experience

Williams, Raymond from KeywordsZukin, Sharon “Whose Culture? Whose Foucault, Michel from Discipline and Punish City?”

Space definitions (Lefebvre, Harvey, Massey, Harvey, David “Contested Spaces”

DeCerteau, and Soja)Omi, Michael and Howard Winant “Racial

Jacobs, Jane Death and Life of Great American CitiesFormation”

Hughes, Langston from The Best of Simple

Film (TBA)

Required texts for this class are:

Course Packet (this contains all other readings and handouts for the class and is available at AveCopyCenter at 4141 University Way, 633-1837)

Optional: CIC Student Guide (discusses CIC, available at the CommunicationCopyCenter).

Bring the Course Packet to class each day – we may refer to past readings and we will periodically go over the handouts in the reader. Any other readings I will hand out or put on Odegaard reserve. A suggested but optional text is The Everyday Writer by Andrea Lunsford, a writing reference book. In addition, you should buy a disk or a memory stick to back up your work.

Coursework and Grading

Assignment Format

Every assignment should be in:

• Times New Roman (or similar sized font)
• 12-point font, double spaced
• 1” margins all around
• in-text citations and MLA documentation of all sources

Your papers will be submitted electronically using E-Submit. However, you will need to hand in a paper copy of the two major papers and your portfolio.

Grading

Your grade for this class is based entirely on your end-of-quarter portfolio and on participation. The portfolios are 70% of your grade and participation is the other 30%.

Portfolio

In this course, you will complete two assignment sequences of several short assignments leading up to a major paper, all of which are designed to help you engage the course Outcomes. You will also revise the major papers significantly using my written comments, peer review feedback, and our one-on-one conferences. At the end of the course, you will submit a portfolio of your work with a cover letter discussing your writing in this class. The portfolio must include all of the sequence-related work you were assigned in the course. (A portfolio that does not include all of the above will be considered incomplete and will receive a grade of zero.) Along with one copy of each assignment, you must include: a revised version and all the drafts of one of the two major papers and four revised shorter assignments. The cover letter explains how your writing demonstrates a fulfillment of the four Outcomes. We will spend time at the end discussing how to ready your portfolio and cover letter.

Participation

Our specific goal is to learn together how to read and write in an academic setting. Everyone’s ideas are an important part of that goal. Participation includes constructively taking part in class discussions and your general investment in the class. Just bringing your body to our classroom space does not mean you are participating – talking while others talk, sleeping, doing crosswords or work for other classes, checking your text messages or email is disrespectful to everyone else and will be considered negative participation. Your participation grade also involves your engagement with your peers during group work and peer reviews as well as your attendance at our two required individual conferences. You are may also be responsible for a short collaborative presentation. A low participation grade will affect your final grade. I realize not everyone feels comfortable speaking in class and that everyone learns differently; however, I encourage everyone to take intellectual chances and express your ideas and ask questions in class.

Attendance is very important for several reasons: most of the skills you will need to complete your writing assignments will be obtained in class – we will cover a lot of material; we will have in-class assignments; you will miss the opportunity to learn from and share your knowledge with other students in group work; and you will seriously hinder peer review sessions. Obviously, if there are extenuating circumstances, little can be done to avoid missing class – do let me know if you will miss class. You are responsible for getting any notes from other students and any assignments due on the day missed must be handed in by the next class day.

Service Learning Requirement

You cannot pass this class without completing the volunteer aspect of this course. Firstly, it will be impossible to complete some assignments in this class without drawing on your experiences with your service organizations. Part of your participation grade depends on adequately completing your volunteer opportunity (your SLO will provide an evaluation of your work there for me.)

Late Work

In fairness to the others in the class who get work in on time, late work is unacceptable. If you miss an assignment deadline, there will be a deduction in your participation grade. Again, if there are extenuating circumstances or you are having extreme difficulty with the assignment, email me up to 24 hours before the assignment is due.

Respect

During the quarter we may encounter sensitive topics dealing with cultural, social and political themes that are often difficult or uncomfortable for people to discuss. There are going to be differences in opinions, beliefs, and interpretations as we question the texts and larger social issues. You need not agree with the arguments in the texts or with what others have to say – in fact, it is important to think critically and question the texts but you must do so with respect. Healthy debate is the keystone of academic inquiry and critical thinking; verbal violence is not. Respect is instrumental in creating a comfortable, safe classroom in which ideas can be exchanged and differing points of view can be explored. Respect means not just distractedly listening while you formulate what you’re going to say when it’s your turn to talk but actually listening to others and thinking about what they have to say. So, I will not tolerate any kind of discrimination, attacks, epithets, grunts, sighs, or any other harmful or dismissive language based on race, class, sex, gender, culture, nationality, sexuality, ability or disability, or political orientation. If this occurs, you will be asked to leave. If you have any of these problems, come see me or email me immediately.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism of any kind will not be tolerated. Plagiarism, or academic dishonesty, is presenting someone else's writing or ideas as your own. In your writing for this class, you are encouraged (in fact, required) to refer to other people’s writing and ideas – but you must cite them. This means citing direct quotes from the texts you use as well as citing paraphrased ideas or any information that is not general knowledge. As a matter of policy, any student found to have plagiarized any piece of writing in this class will be reported to the College of Arts and Sciences for review. (As an aside, with the web-based technology now available and how well I will come to know your writing, it’s as absurdly easy to recognize plagiarism as it is to write it.)

Accommodations

Please let me know if you need accommodations of any sort. I will work with the UW Disabled Student Services (DSS) to provide what you require. I am very willing to take suggestions specific to this class to meet your needs. For instance, this syllabus is available in large print, as are other class materials. The DSS can be contacted at or by phone at 206.543.6450/V, 206.543.6452/TTY.

Complaints/Concerns/Help

If you have any concerns about the course or me, please see me about them as soon as possible. If you are not comfortable talking with me or are not satisfied with the response that you receive, you may contact the following Expository Writing staff in Padelford, Room A-11:

Anis Bawarshi (Director Expository Writing Program)

Padelford A11 – 206.685.3804 –

CarlsonCenter(for questions about service learning)

Mary Gates 120 – 206.616.2885 –

Student Writing Resources

There are several places on campus that can help with your writing. These are not remedial writing services but are useful for all skill levels at any point during the writing process (from brainstorming to writing more complex sentences to final editing suggestions). Most of these centers focus on how to construct an argument rather than on editing and grammar. They are all free!

EnglishDepartmentWritingCenter

This center located in Padelford B-12 is a peer tutoring service (tutors have extensive training) offered by the English Department. The service is by appointment Monday through Friday 10:30-5:30. The first time takes about an hour and ongoing tutoring is then available. For an appointment, email wcenter@ u.washington.edu or go to depts.washington.edu/wcenter.

Odegaard Writing and ResearchCenter

The Odegaard Writing and ResearchCenter in Room 326 in Odegaard Undergraduate Library is a peer tutoring center (these tutors are undergraduates who’ve taken classes like ENGL 111). It is available by appointment (depts.washington.edu/owrc) or you can drop in Sunday through Thursday, 1:30-4:30 and 7:00-10:00. This center will help with writing but can also help with research.

CLUE

CLUE is in MaryGatesHallGatewayCenter a tutoring center (these tutors are graduate students, some of whom have or are teaching first-year writing classes like this one). It offers tutorial sessions for most freshmen lecture courses (not just writing); skills courses; computer labs; and drop-in centers for math, science and writing from Sunday through Thursday, 7:00 PM-midnight.

My Office

Come to my office hours any time to discuss any aspect of your writing or this class. I’m here to help and I am glad to discuss not only problems with writing but also any of the texts we read; any questions concerning coursework; any other problems you are having with/in the class or any questions you want to ask. I can be reached by email and we can schedule office time outside my office hours.

The Outcomes

These are the four major areas and related concepts that all first-year English composition classes take as their goal. All of the work we do and all of your assignments will focus on one or more of these Outcomes. Your portfolio should target your growth in these specific areas. If there are any questions at any time, ask me. At the end of the course, you should be able:

1. To produce complex, analytic, persuasive arguments that matter in academic contexts.

• The argument is appropriately complex, based in a claim that emerges from and explores a line of inquiry.
• The stakes of the argument, why what is being argued matters, are articulated and persuasive.
• The argument involves analysis, which is the close scrutiny and examination of evidence and assumptions in support of a larger set of ideas.
• The argument is persuasive, taking into consideration counterclaims and multiple points of view as it generates its own perspective and position.
• The argument utilizes a clear organizational strategy and effective transitions that develop its line of inquiry.

2. To read, analyze, and synthesize complex texts and incorporate multiple kinds of evidence purposefully in order to generate and support writing.