| Course Overview: The course focuses on skills in writing expository prose, with regular practice and evaluation supplemented by attention to professional prose and concepts of rhetoric and style. All lesson assignments are described on the website and submitted by e-mail. Four lessons are major writing projects, including one rewrite of an earlier project. In addition, students do short computerized exercises, many of which involve interaction with other students in the course. |
| Textbooks
and Supplies:
ISBN
0312412622 Hacker, Diana, A Writer's Reference,
5th ed., (with 2003 MLA updates), Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's
Readings from The Practice of Writing by Robert Scholes are available online. One current issue of Wired Magazine, purchased at a local news stand (don't buy it until you reach Lesson 7). ...available from EdMap's distance-learning online bookstore. | STUDENTS ARE STRONGLY ADVISED NOT TO BUY TEXTBOOKS UNTIL REGISTERED IN COURSES AS REQUIRED EDITIONS CAN CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE. | |
| Grading Criteria: Papers and critiques are not graded individually. This is meant to encourage experimentation, and to shift the "worth" of a piece of writing away from an associated grade to its perceived effect on readers, namely (for now), on myself and your fellow students. When given, a grade combines a sense of how your work compares with your peers and how it compares with your own previous work. Substantial improvement as measured against yourself counts for more than any pre-existing, static excellence at writing. You will be graded four times:
1. Lessons 1 to 3 = 20%
2. Lessons 4 to 6 = 20%
3. Research paper and
Lessons 7-8 = 40%
4. Lessons 9-10 and final
paper = 20%
Each grade is based on the quality of writing and evidence of improvement (roughly 70%), the completion of all assignments, readings, and exercises (15%), and active participation in discussion and critiquing (15%). You are entitled to a "B" for your final grade if you do all the work, do it with care, and if you are helpful to others in the group. Grades lower than "B" result from carelessness, lack of participation, casual/superficial thinking, and disregard for the value of rewriting. Note that attitude affects a grade of "C" or below more than writing ability. An "A" or "A-" can't be earned by effort alone. A few are given to reward superior ability and/or superior improvement, and must always be supported by active participation. Superior writing shows clarity, organization, polish, language skills, confidence, imagination, energy, and insight. An "A" student isn't afraid to experiment, and occasional disappointing results will not damage the grade. Rewrites may not always be better, but they must be different. |
