Writing and Rhetoric I

English 151

Instructor: David Sharpe
Ohio University, Athens OH

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www.ohio.edu/sharpe/eng151

SYLLABUS

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In this class, you will practice and experiment with clarity, structure, fluency, and rhetorical control as we compose, critique, and revise our writing projects.  By looking carefully at style, you will improve your writing in ways that will help the rest of your university career.  To do so, we will blend traditional classroom discussion and exercises with computer-based writing, interaction, and rewriting.  You will be learning some valuable computer skills, but only as a bonus.  Your abilities at the computer will not be graded!

For a colorful, energetic source of ideas and content, we will turn to movies.  Movies are not only a treasured part of our culture, but they are also a native language that has a special appeal to our ideas and emotions.  As we uncover the ways in which film affects us, we will discover that they are often the same methods that writing uses to move and influence a reader.  As a result, we can use this familiar art to illuminate and improve our writing skills.  At all times, the discussion and treatment of movies will be a means to a greater end -- the ability to express yourself well in writing as your ideas become deeper and richer.

• During the quarter, you will produce twenty pages of strong, clear, polished writing in four formal projects and several in-class activities. Rewriting of each project is expected, though formal grading of those rewrites won't take place until the end of the quarter. In addition, you'll be writing short memos, and adding suggestions to papers by other students in the class.  A final rewrite of each paper takes the place of a final exam.
  • IMPORTANT: Projects are due at the start of the class -- in most cases, for Tuesday
  • All papers must be prepared with a word-processing program.  If this is a problem, please see me individually.
  • Because word-processing allows great variation in formatting, the number of pages is approximate and translates roughly into 300 words per page. Graphics and large fonts are disregarded in the word count.
     
• When asked as part of a class exercise, you will add constructive corrections and suggestions to examples of student work. In some cases, you will be asked to write a paragraph addressed to the writer that summarizes your reactions.
   
• In addition to the formal projects, you will complete a number of memos and in-class exercises.
   
• We will be studying four movies.  Each is on reserve at the library, and you'll be responsible for viewing each one on your own time.  Even if you have seen the film previously, please see it again for the class.
   
• In preparation for class discussion on the films, you will be asked to write short reaction memos that will be handed in.
   
• The readings in this course are essential, and short quizzes will show me that the reading has been done.  Readings for the next class will be listed in Announcements at the start of each lab in the course website.  Please note that announcements are NOT sent via Blackboard.
   
• If this class is scheduled in 2 1/2 hour blocks, the last half-hour of the class is reserved for individual conferences.  If the class schedule includes a Friday 1 hour block, the Friday time is reserved for conferences.  Some of the conferences may take place during my office hours.  On the day you are scheduled, attendance is required, and will count as a two-hour absence if the meeting is missed.
   
• Problems in grammar and usage must be worked on as they are pointed out. We will confirm your grammatical abilities with the help of The Everyday Writer by Lunsford. Continued grammatical errors will affect your grade.

Here are the required texts, in the order they are needed --

FIRST

• Lunsford, Andrea, The Everyday Writer, 4th edition.  Price: $29.95.  Required.  This text will be ordered as an eBook using a link in the Lab Instructions.
  • where?  Direct from the publisher only
  • when?  Follow instructions in the first lab

SECOND

• Barsam, Richard, Looking at Movies, 3rd edition.  Price for least expensive version: $26.25.  Required.  This is an eBook, ordered using a link in the Lab Instructions.
  • where?  Direct from the publisher only
  • when?  Follow instructions in the second lab (don't order until then)

ADDITIONAL TEXTS

• Apocalypse: Bright Future/Dark Future.  This is the Common Reader for freshman English.  Excerpts will be available as online readings to be printed out.  No charge.
   
• Occasionally, other online readings will be printed out.  No charge.

You will also need to view MOVIES from the library or personal sources:

• the four assigned films on DVD are available through the Alden Library.  Any of these can be viewed via other sources, including internet access, Netflix, copies owned by friends or yourself, or rental outlets.

The standard for word processing will be Word -- this is not optional.  WordPerfect, Works, TextEdit, and Open Office will not be adequate.  You can prepare drafts in any program, but final versions will need to be either done in Word (available in all labs on-campus) or saved in Word format.  Until Word 2007/2010 is standard on campus, please notice whether you need to save your work in Word 2003 format for use on your own computer (use File / Save As to convert your document, if necessary).  You will also need Word to open and review documents received from other students and the instructor.

• Word for both PC and Mac is available at special student pricing from the computer outlet in Baker Center.   If you don't already have Word on your computer, this is a much better solution than depending on labs or your friends' computers.

Use of a flashdrive is highly recommended.  You may use your own laptop in the lab instead of the lab computers, if you prefer.

Three absences (six hours total) will be permitted, but each absence thereafter will lower your final grade -- after all other factors have been counted -- by one-third (e.g., B to B-). Absences beyond three will be noted REGARDLESS OF THE REASON. You cannot do the work and participate in the class if you are not there, and even 'legitimate' reasons (illness, university functions, etc.) cannot replace what is missed. I would strongly advise you to keep your absences unused in case of unforeseen, future emergencies. Please contact me if you need to miss more than one class in a row.  If you must be absent, you are still responsible for whatever you missed, including finding out what is required and submitting any work that is due.  In particular, you will need to do any memos and exercises from the missed class, before the start of the next class.  A few exercises and projects will not be possible to do outside of the lab and outside of the time period used for the group activity -- if you are absent for those few exercises and projects, the missing work will be graded using the average grade you reached on your other coursework.

Classes begin promptly; three late arrivals will count as an absence. Assignments are due at the beginning of class, and late assignments will be graded lower. Excuses based on ill-planned use of computers will not be accepted:  leave enough time to respond to possible hardware/software glitches, and always make backups of both your document file and your disk.

Portable devices such as cell phones and music players (iPod, MP3) should be switched off during the lab portion of the class.  Please do not use earphones while working on exercises and projects.  Texting during the verbal portion of the class is not allowed -- not even a little!

The course will be conducted as a mixture of seminar, tutorial, and workgroup, with everyone expected to contribute to the betterment of each person's writing and computing skills.  Energetic participation in discussion and class activities, generous critiques of other student work, and a willingness to examine what may be normally unseen and unconscious -- all of these are surefire routes to better writing, a better class, and a better grade.

Projects and lab exercises 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 three times:

Each grade will reflect the following considerations: the quality of writing and evidence of improvement, the completion of all assignments and readings, and class participation.  Your four assigned papers, and their rewrites, account for 60% of the total grade, while participation (discussion, exercises, feedback, memos) accounts for 40%.

Each assignment that has been handed in later than the due date will lower the interim grade by one-third (e.g., B to B-). Each interim grade refers to its own time period and the final grade is calculated by addition of the points.

You are entitled to a B for your final grade if you do all the work, do it on time, do it with care, and if you are helpful to others in the class. Grades lower than B result from carelessness, lack of participation and/or attendance, 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.

You must work with your own writing. The ease with which text can be imported electronically brings temptations and dangers; use other writers only as support or points of departure for your own ideas and expression. Work which is copied directly from someone else's writing (or which has been altered in minor ways) must be identified, and must not overwhelm your own approach and your own voice. Sources used without acknowledgement ("plagiarism") will affect your grade, and could result in failure. In addition, writing which has been (or is intended to be) used for credit in another course is not permitted and could result in failure.

If you absorb the content and methods of the course successfully, at the end you should be able to --

Write Rhetorically:

• adapt writing to specific purposes, audiences, and situations;
• write in various formal genres (i.e. research-based argument, rhetorical analysis, classical argument, etc.);
• write in various informal genres (i.e. freewriting, journals, focused logs, etc.);
• show ability to quote, paraphrase, summarize, analyze, and synthesize effectively;
• practice writing as a recursive process; use a variety of methods to generate ideas (i.e. freewriting, group discussion, etc.); use feedback from readers at various stages of composing;
• draft and revise earlier writing, using both global and local revising strategies;
• compose original arguments drawing from a range of sources (i.e. research studies, expert testimony, written and/or visual texts, interviews, personal experience, observation, etc.);
• use rhetorical concepts to compose persuasive texts (ethos, logos, pathos, kairos);
• demonstrate control of the mechanics of writing, including formatting, documentation, grammar, punctuation, and spelling;
• compose a minimum of 20 pages of formal, graded writing.

Read Rhetorically:

• summarize, analyze, and critique written texts and, in some cases, visual texts;
• analyze and/or evaluate a text's rhetorical context (i.e. audience, purpose, etc.);
• use rhetorical concepts (ethos, logos, pathos, kairos) to analyze texts;
• see texts as part of an ongoing conversation among writers and readers;
• read texts rhetorically, as a series of choices an author makes to achieve certain goals.

Research Rhetorically:

• use effective strategies to search academic databases for appropriate sources (i.e. Academic Search Premier, Lexis Nexis, etc.) ;
• evaluate the quality and reliability of sources (i.e. online sources, journal articles, etc.);
• use specific criteria to evaluate source material, for example, evaluate the recency, relevance, impartiality, and sufficiency of the evidence;
• document sources correctly;
• understand plagiarism and how to avoid it.

Respond to and Assess Student Writing Rhetorically:

• understand writing as a collaborative and social act;
• read and consider peer feedback as a valuable tool for revising;
• provide specific and constructive feedback to peers' writing;
• read and respond to peers' drafts focusing on ideas and development;
• read and respond to peers' drafts focusing on structure and formatting;
• read and respond to peers' drafts focusing on style, persona, word choice;
• read and respond to peers' drafts focusing on documentation, punctuation, grammar, spelling.

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