SYLLABUS

WRT 120-44—EFFECTIVE WRITING I Fall 2012: MWF 8-8:50am, Main Hall 300

                                                            Prof. Spring Ulmer

SULMER@wcupa.edu

Office: Main Hall 524

Office phone: (610) 436-2626

Office Hours: M-F 7:00a.m.-8:00a.m., and by appt.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course meets the Academic Foundations in English Composition component of the WCU General Education curriculum. This writing course is designed to encourage your growth as a writer. You will focus on honing your organizational skills and awareness of styles of writing, and you will become a critical reader of texts, audiences, and situations. Finally, you will emerge from this course a critically thinking, rhetorically-savvy writer. In other words, the course will enable you to recognize the nuances that make written communication most effective. This includes understanding the relationship of language and writing to a wide variety of contexts, including the university environment and the larger public sphere beyond campus. To become a successful writer, you need to read. In this course you will summarize readings and synthesize (and/or contrast) readings. You will also focus on the process of writing, rather than only on the final product. You will learn to draft, analyze peer writing, revise, and revise again. By doing this, you will engage in a deliberate composing process that includes considering rhetorical options and cultural influences. This course should enable you to be a successful writer in your university courses, as well as in your life.

This course meets three General Education goals that will help you learn to: communicate effectively (examine the uses and effects of various types of writing, noticing how different contexts for writing call for changes in tone, syntax and genre); respond thoughtfully to diversity (by paying careful attention to the language in which categories like race, social class, gender, sexual orientation, age, etc., are represented), and to think critically and analytically (to recognize and analyze patterns of argument).

COURSE OBJECTIVES AND OUTCOMES

In WRT 120, you will learn to:

• find your authentic authorial voice, and trust your ability to express significant ideas in your writing

• develop and support a meaningful and interesting thesis

• become a conscious user of writing technologies

• learn what plagiarism is and how to avoid it

• compose both informal and formal writings

• create texts in multiple genres and be able to recognize and analyze the differences among these genres

• engage in all of the recursive stages of the writing process: brainstorming, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading

• engage in peer-response sessions

• review grammar, punctuation, and spelling guidelines

• learn how to be critical thinkers, readers, speakers, and writers who can analyze a variety of cultural “texts”

• learn how to analyze a rhetorical situation: audience, purpose, context, and tone

• learn how to function effectively in different discourse communities; use appropriate language and vocabulary according to the different groups of people and situations

• learn to respond thoughtfully to diversity by paying careful attention and by becoming aware that language decisions are not simple surface choices; learn to recognize that language may reflect personal and/or cultural beliefs

• learn how to locate, evaluate, use, and cite sources

• write 20+ pages of finished writing

• compile a portfolio; compose a final Self-Assessment Questionnaire

• recognize your own strengths and weaknesses as a writer, and use support available to you to improve your writing

OVERVIEW

This writing course is organized around the theme of investigating where our nation’s energy comes from and what we will do without such nonrenewal resources in the future. We’ll focus on complex nuances related to the following questions: A. If we are economically indebted to the very energy sources we think we cannot live without, what do we do when we discover verifiable truths that lead us to question our environmental footprint? B. What does a person or community do when energy resources grow scarce? C. What is environmental racism? and D. How might we brainstorm what writing can do to captivate the next generation’s attention as concerns the exploitation of nonrenewal energy and its consequences? For this course, you will keep an energy journal/group blog. We will take fieldtrips. We will read and write, and make reading and writing fun, creative, interactive, and hopefully locally and globally meaningful. You’ll come away from the course having learned something about what it means to be human and what responsibilities we must assume so as to continue to ensure heterogeneous life on this planet continues. You’ll also come away having learned something about writing and what writing can do. We will function as a community, write collaboratively, and engage our senses toward defining what energy question most demands our attention. One of your individual challenges will be to undo much of what you have learned about how to learn, and to embrace a new pedagogy. As a group, we will decide what nonrenewable energy source most begs our attention, and how best to write about it. I believe that grade-based learning is not a communal endeavor; it sets one against others, and has little to do with what writing might be achieved, should a group decide to pool resources, draft and revise, and produce a final product, process, invention, seed bank, etc..., so I find myself less inclined to generously reward those who write solely for a grade and more likely to reward those who participate fully (Worriers, please see my rationale for grading below.) Of course, some of your work will be done alone. You will be asked to write both critical and creative reading responses, respond rhetorically, research and document and verify sources, etc... Ultimately the class will produce a public exhibit of some kind. At the end of the semester, you will each compile of all your work (some of it individual, some of it communal) into a 20-page document, and be asked to contemplate both your own and its existence.

REQUIRED TEXTS

Awiakta, Marilou. Abiding Appalachia: Where Mountain and Atom Meet. Bell Buckle,

Tennessee: Iris Press, 1995.

Burtynsky, Edward. Oil. Goettingen, Germany: Steidl, 2001

Butler, Octavia. Parable of the Sower. New York: Warner Books, 2000.

Iverson, Kristen. Growing up in the Nuclear Shadow of Rocky Flats. New York: Random

House, 2012.

• Flashdrive

• Two-pocket folder for end-of-semester portfolio

REQUIRED WORK

Additional details and expectations for each project will be provided before they are due.

• Rhetorical and creative reading and annotated notes: 20%

• Group field research, blog journal, project completion: 50%

• Attendance and participation: 10%

• Final portfolio + SAQ: 15%

• Final exam: 5%

CLASS POLICIES

Attendance and Participation

Absences in this class not only mean you miss crucial discussions, lectures on writing style and techniques you need to succeed in college, they are an insult to class community. We rely on one another for more than half of our grade, and for this reason it is imperative that you attend class, and that you arrive with work prepared and in hand. That said, only three absences of any kind are permitted. Serious medical situations or emergencies are considered exceptions to this rule, and if you find yourself in such a situation, it is your responsibility to contact the Office of Judicial Affairs and Student Assistance at 610-436-3511. Too many missed classes can seriously affect your final grade. The Office of Judicial Affairs and Student Assistance provides a notification service on behalf of students who missed classes for an extended period of time (three days or more) due to a medical situation or a significant family emergency. This notification does not serve as an “excused absence,” it simply alerts me as to why you have been absent. If you are absent for a period longer than a week, please know that passing this course will be extremely challenging for you, and that you must call (610) 436-3511 to request assistance from the Office of Judicial Affairs and Student Assistance.

Absences Policy for University-Sanctioned Events

You are advised to carefully read and comply with the excused absences policy for university-sanctioned events contained in the WCU Undergraduate Catalog. I will require a “fair alternative” to attendance on those days that you must be absent from class. I will designate such alternatives and their due dates prior to the event. This means that you must submit original documentation on university letterhead signed by the activity director, coach, or adviser detailing the specifics of the event in advance. You are also expected to turn in assignments due on days of the event prior to their due dates.

Diversity Fair Language

The writing for this course should not assume the gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, disability status, or sexual orientation of a person is a known.

Final Exam

There will be a final exam. This exam is worth 5% of your final grade.

Grades

The goal here is to fall in love with writing and to write as if your life and the lives of others depended on it (and you and they do!). To achieve this aim, I give you as much feedback and attention as I can. I will conference with you throughout the semester to discuss your writing and class progress. Half of your grade in this course is dependent upon communal work. Communal work will be graded P/F. Pass means that everyone worked together and succeeded in examining, writing, and producing a meaningful project. Fail means that one person shouldered other persons’ work, and that relatively little or nothing meaningful was experienced or produced. Should a class fail, your final individual grade (based on the 50% of your individual work) will be dropped one letter grade. I expect no class to fail. Final and individual grades will be based on traditional standards:

• A (93-100), A- (90-92)—Excellent: Work that presents original thinking or insight that is clearly, correctly, and gracefully written. The piece reflects a sophisticated voice, rhetoric, analysis, and language.

• B+ (87-89), B (83-86), B- (80-82)—Good: Work that fully satisfies an assignment’s expectations with clear competence. The level of sophistication of thought and writing that represents an A is absent, but the piece is well written in terms of argument, mechanics, support and structure, and choice of details.

• C+ (77-79), C (73-76), C- (70-72)—Fair: An adequate piece of work that minimally meets an assignment’s specifications and is generally correct in terms of mechanics and structure, but one that lacks thorough analysis or elaboration and sharp focus.

• D+ (67-69), D (63-66), D- (60-62)—Poor: Work that is inadequate in at least one way, including failure to maintain focus, skimpy or illogical development, and significant errors in writing mechanics.

• F range (0-59)—Failure: Work that fails to respond acceptably to an assignment or that fails to be submitted on time.

Plagiarism and Academic Integrity

Plagiarism—passing off the work of another person’s as your own—is a serious offense. In the academic world, plagiarism is theft (and punishable). Information from sources, whether quoted, paraphrased, or summarized, must be given credit through citations. It is especially important that paraphrase be both cited and put into your own words. Merely rearranging a sentence or changing a few words is not sufficient. It is your responsibility to adhere to the university’s standards for academic integrity. Violations of academic integrity include any act that violates the rights of another student in academic work, that involves misrepresentation of your own work, or that disrupts the instruction of the course. In addition to plagiarizing, other violations include (but are not limited to): cheating on assignments or examinations; selling, purchasing, or exchanging of term papers; falsifying of information; and using your own work from one class to fulfill the assignment for another class without significant modification. Proof of academic misconduct can result in the automatic failure and removal from this course. For questions, refer to the English Department’s Undergraduate Handbook, the Undergraduate Catalogue, the Ram’s Eye View, and the University website.

No Grade, Violation of Academic Integrity, and Violation of Student Code of Conduct

For questions regarding Academic Dishonesty, the No-Grade Policy, Sexual Harassment, or the Student Code of Conduct, refer to the English Department’s Undergraduate Handbook, the Undergraduate Catalogue, the Ram’s Eye View, and the University website. Please understand that improper conduct in any of these areas will not be tolerated and may result in immediate ejection from the class.

Z Grade Policy

The ‘Z’ Grade designation will be given to a student who stops attending class, does not complete assignments, and fails to officially withdraw from a course by the 9th week of the semester. This grade has the same value as an F for all academic purposes, including computation of the cumulative average.

Informal Assignments

These will include keeping field notes, annotated bibliographies, and writing the Reflective Letter. Note that these minor assignments collectively will be worth more than 25% of your final grade.

Papers

You will draft and complete a number of formal writing assignments, totaling 20 pages of finished writing. These assignments will give you the opportunity to write in several different genres. You will be given opportunities to revise your writing with the benefit of feedback from the instructor and peers.

Paper Format

Always include your name, the date, and course number and section on the top right corner of the page. Number your pages. Double space the lines. Staple multiple pages. Use 12-pt Times New Roman font.

Assignment Policy

I will accept NO late papers. (The only papers that are handed in post-deadline that I may award passing grades to will be written by students with documented, excused absences.)  Papers must arrive in class on the day they are due, typed, and in paper form.

Portfolio

All students taking any level WRT course will complete a Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ), which asks questions about what you learned in the WRT writing class. All students taking any level WRT course will also compile a portfolio of formal writing completed in the course this semester. The portfolio will contain a portfolio checklist. The SAQ and portfolio help the Composition Program assess the effectiveness of our courses at meeting specific general education goals. In order to pass the course, this portfolio must be correctly assembled and submitted on time.

Writing Center 

Visit the University Writing Center! Lawrence 214: 610-436-2121.

Library Support

FHG Library offers services to help students, including advice on locating traditional and electronic sources, and interlibrary loan (free of charge).  Approach a reference librarian for assistance or visit the library web site for additional information.  

Students with Disabilities

If you have a disability that requires accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), please present your letter of accommodations and meet with me as soon as possible so that I can support your success. If you would like to know more about West Chester University’s Services for Students with Disabilities (OSSD), please contact the OSSD  which is located at 223 Lawrence Center. OSSD hours of Operation are Monday – Friday 8:30am - 4:30pm. Phone number: 610-436-2564. Fax number: 610-430-5860. Email address:  ossd@wcupa.edu  Web address: http://www.wcupa.edu/ussss/ossd/

APSCUF

I am a member of APSCUF, the Association of Pennsylvania State College and University Faculties. We uphold the highest standards of teaching, scholarly inquiry, and service. We are an organization that is committed to promoting excellence in all that we do to ensure that our students receive the highest quality education. For more on our organization, see www.apscuf.org.

EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS

You are encouraged to sign up for the University’s free WCU ALERT service, which delivers official WCU emergency text messages directly to your cell phone. For more information and to sign up, visit www.wcupa.edu/wcualert. To report an emergency, call the Department of Public Safety at 610-436-3311.

SCHEDULE

Bring required texts to respective classes on the dates (see below) they are scheduled to be discussed. Schedule is subject to change as needed.

Week One

Aug 26 Introduction to course and each other and rhetorical analysis. Homework: Read Butler 2-

85. Blog.

Aug 28 Rhetorically analyzing Butler. Fiction and its energy. Homework: Read Butler 86-125.

Blog.

Aug 30 Imagining the future: how personal is it? Homework: Read Butler 126-195. Blog and

respond thoughtfully to someone else’s blog entry.

Last Day to Drop: Saturday August 31

Last Day to Add/Course Withdraw: Begins Sunday September 1

Week Two

Labor Day - No Classes: Monday September 2

Sept 4 Critiques of Butler. Homework: Read Butler 196-244. Blog.

Sept 6 Talk of community. What is it? How to form one? Homework: Read Butler 245-end. Blog

and respond to someone else’s entry.

Week Three

Sept 9 Building an idea of ourselves. Grammar questions. Homework: Read Iverson Chapter 1.

Blog.

Sept 11 Where did you grow up? What does place mean? Remembering your childhood.

Homework: Read Iverson Chapter 2. Blog.

Sept 13 Rhetorical analysis of Iverson’s text. Nonfiction and its energy. Homework: Read

Iverson Chapter 3. Blog and respond to someone else’s entry.

Week Four

Sept 16 Beginning to discuss defense, secrets, and denial. Homework: Read Iverson Chapter 4.

Blog.

Sept 18 Brainstorming and researching ideas of what it important, energy- and other-wise in and

around West Chester, PA. Homework: Read Iverson Chapter 5. Blog.

Sept 20 Forming a group project. What is a thesis? Homework: Read Iverson Chapter 6. Blog

and respond to someone else’s entry.

Week Five

Sept 23 Writing a proposal. Homework: Read Iverson Chapter 7. Blog.

Sept 25 What does it mean to uncover the often dirty secrets of a place? A people? A person?

Homework: Read Iverson Chapter 8. Blog.

Sept 27 Questions. Homework: Read Iverson Epilogue. Blog and respond to someone

else’s entry.

Week Six

Sept 30 Making plans for Group project. Revision of proposal. Grammar overview. Homework:

Read Awiakta. Blog.

Oct 2 Rhetorical analysis of Awiakta. Poetry and its energy. Homework: Read Oil. Blog.

Oct 4 Rhetorically analyzing Oil. Genres: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and photography.

Differences, similarities, discussion about why to employ one genre over another. What about the hybrid? Homework: research one photo. Blog extensively on this image and what you learn about it/the work/the place/photography, etc…

Week Seven

Fall Break - No Classes: Monday - Tuesday October 7-8

Oct 9 Fieldtrip. Document the trip.

Oct 11 Fieldtrip. Document the trip.

Week Eight

Oct 14 Group discussion. Thesis revision and proposal revision. Citation information.

Oct 16 Library trip. Homework for Oct 14: blog your summary, opinion, and bibliographic

citation for one text you determine relevant to the class project.

Oct 18 Class discussion, overview, organization, in text citation, and how to proceed with

blog and project. Homework for Oct 23: Draft five pages of formal writing in which you

synthesize the data you’ve gathered and begin to discover a shape to your part in the class project, citing references as appropriate. Work Cited page mandatory.

Week Nine

Oct 21 Fieldtrip. Gathering more material.

Oct 23 Peer Review. Discussion. Homework for Oct 25: Revise your work.

Oct 25 Five pages due.

End of course withdrawal period: Friday October 25

Last day to submit work for NG grades and arrange for P/F or Audit: Friday October 25

Week Ten

Oct 28 Conferences. Bring your folder with all your writings thus far.

Oct 30 Conferences. Bring your folder with all your writings thus far.

Nov 1 Conferences. Bring your folder with all your writings thus far.

Week Eleven

Nov 4 Group project. The goal is to generate at least two pages of writing per day from now

through Nov 18.

Nov 6 Group project. The goal is to generate at least two pages of writing per day from now

through Nov 18.

Nov 8 Group project. The goal is to generate at least two pages of writing per day from now

through Nov 18.

Week Twelve

Nov 11 Group project. The goal is to generate at least two pages of writing per day from now

through Nov 18.

Nov 13 Group project. The goal is to generate at least two pages of writing per day from now

through Nov 18.

Nov 15 Discussion.

Week Thirteen

Nov 18 Group project. Revision.

Nov 20 Group project. Revision.

Nov 22 Group project due. Presentations.

Week Fourteen

Nov 25 Presentations. Understanding the portfolio, checklist, and SAQ, and prep for final exam.

Homework for Dec 2: Portfolio construction, SAQ drafting.

Thanksgiving Break - No Classes: Wed. - Friday November 27-29

Week Fifteen

End of term withdrawal period: Monday December 2

Dec 2 Questions, celebration. Homework for Dec 4: Finish readying portfolio.

Dec 4 Portfolio Due. Drawing names for goodbye gifts. Homework: Make gift.

Dec 6 Gift exchange. Last questions, remarks.

Reading Days: Saturday - Sunday December 7-8

Final Examinations: Tuesday - Saturday December 10-14

FINAL for this class: TBA

SELF-ASSESSMENT QUESTIONNAIRE

FOR WRT COURSES

Type your responses to the following questions.  Some questions contain choices, so please consider your options carefully before beginning your response.  Your answers should be 7-12 sentences (or so) long.  Please return your completed questionnaire to your instructor in your portfolio at the end of the semester.

Genre Question

Look back over your writing for this course.  Choose one paper that you wrote that you believe represents a good example of its genre.  (Genre is the type or form of the paper.)  Identify the genre of that paper and describe the specific characteristics that make it a good example of that type of writing.  Optional: If you like, you may compare or contrast this paper to a less successful paper in the same or another genre.

Content Question

Pick a paper from this class in which you feel you have clearly made a claim, presented an idea, described an experience, or made an argument successfully.  Identify the specific types of evidence and/or support (details, anecdotes, descriptions, data, etc.) that you provided to help make the paper successful.  Optional: If you wish, you may contrast this assignment with a less successful effort from another assignment.

Expression Question

Review the papers you wrote for this course.  Choose one in which you feel you expressed your thoughts, ideas, or position most effectively.  Describe the decisions you made regarding vocabulary, style, tone, syntax, and audience that made your expression work well.  Optional: If you want, you may draw comparisons with other papers you wrote for this class in which you feel your expression was less successful.

Correctness Question

Identify two areas of correctness (grammar, punctuation, spelling, citations, etc.) that you worked on in your writing this semester. Provide a specific example from your writing of each error and explain how to correct it.  Also discuss how you came to recognize these errors and the steps you took in learning to correct them.

Diversity Question

One of the stated goals of the WRT courses is to help students respond thoughtfully to diversity.  In part, this means careful attention to the language you and other writers use and the assumptions you and other writers make when talking about categories like age, disability, ethnicity, gender, nationality, race, religion/spirituality, sexual orientation, socioeconomic class, etc.  That is, language choices are not simple, trivial alternatives, but reflect deeper societal ideas about various groups and individuals.  Reflect back on this course and the writing you did for it, and answer one of the questions below:

Explain how at least one choice in your writing is an example of your awareness that language decisions are not simple surface choices, but reflect deeper societal ideas about diverse social categories.

or

Explain how you have increased your understanding of and ability to respond to diversity through one or more of your writing projects this semester.

Open Question

Describe one thing that you have learned about writing this semester that you are really proud of or that you thought was especially important.  Talk about how you came to identify this issue and the process you went through to learn it.

PORTFOLIO CHECKLIST

WRT120 Effective Writing I and WRT 200-level Courses

Instructions: Please fill out this sheet completely and return it with your portfolio at the end of the semester. Your portfolio should contain (1) all of your finished essays for the semester (typed with your teacher's comments and grades, whenever possible), (2) a completed portfolio checklist, (3) a completed self-assessment questionnaire. Your portfolio should be in a two-pocket folder or large manila envelope and your name should be written clearly on the outside.

Course and section number ___WRT _120_________________________________

Instructor’s Name____Hannah Ashley____________________________

Student’s Name_________________________________________________________

1.   Completed Essays

In the spaces provided below, please list the titles or assignment names for the formal essays included in your portfolio. Please list them in the order you completed them for your class (first, second, third, and so on). If you wrote more than six formal essays for your class, then continue the list on the back of this sheet.

Order	Title of Essay or Assignment
No. 1	Annotated Bibliography
No. 2	Community documents (list here all documents created for/with your organization):
No. 3	Final reflection paper:
No. 4	Reflection Journal
No. 5
No. 6

2.   Did you include your completed self-assessment questionnaire? ____ (check for yes)

3.   Did you put your portfolio in an appropriate folder or envelope ____ (check for yes)

4.   Include this checklist in your portfolio. ______ (check for yes)