Mason Topics: The Global Village
English
101:
Introductory Composition
Linked to History 100: Western Civilization
Fall 2004
Dr. Terry Myers Zawacki
tzawacki@gmu.edu
Office: RA 112a
Office
Hours: W 10:30-11:30 and by appt.
Phone: 993-1187
Engl 101-MT4: MW 3:00-4:15
Robinson A245
English 101 is
designed to
prepare you for college writing and thinking with an emphasis on
developing
critical strategies for working with texts, including the lived
"text" of everyday experience, and a habit of self-consciousness
about your own and your peers’ thinking and writing. Course goals also
include
helping you to understand how audience and purpose shape writing, how
to use
writing as a learning tool, and how to write effective and interesting
prose.
Two principles are central to this course. First, we will assume that
writing
is not a mere transcript of thoughts one has already worked out, but
rather a
way of discovering and transforming one's thoughts. Second, we will
consider
revision as a long-term process of fundamentally challenging and
developing
writing.
I
value risk-taking and challenge you to think in ways that go beyond the
"tried and true." Nothing, not even papers flawed by mistakes, is
worse than boring writing.
This class is
linked with
Dr.Kelly’s History 100, which means that much of our writing will be
framed by
historical concerns and methods. In
addition, we’ll be work with many of the same readings you’ll use in
History
100.
Required
Texts:
Lunsford,
A. The St. Martin’s Handbook
5. (StM) (www.bedfordstmartins.com/smhandbook)
We won’t be covering all of the information
in this
handbook, so, as you encounter writing assignments in other classes,
you may
find helpful the specialized chapters The
St. Martin’s Handbook offers on “Document Design” (chapter 8),
“Oral and
Multimedia Presentations” (chapter 10), “Considering Visual Arguments”
(chapter
256), and all of the chapters in Part 12 “Academic and Professional
Writing,”
which give advice on researching and writing in the disciplines. In
addition,
the handbook is a good resource for work on sentence structure,
grammar,
punctuation, and mechanics.
George
Mason Review (pick
up in bookstore)
Packet
of readings to be purchased
Course
Procedures:
· Course notebook—You’ll need a set of pocket folders and/or a
binder
for free writing, notes, and reading log entries. In your log, you’ll analyze what you’ve read and make connections
to other readings, to
personal experiences, and to what we’ve discussed in class.
· Finished Papers—You’ll
write five papers. Five papers may not sound like many to write in
fifteen
weeks, but you’ll see that each paper requires a great deal of
processing and
research, both primary and secondary.
We have designed paper assignments so that they build on one
another;
this means that each topic should inform the next. Important: Keep all
drafts that demonstrate significant revision.
Writing assignment One:
Summary of article TBA. 350-500 words. (5%)
Dual Submission
Writing
Assignment Two: One
Writer’s Beginning (in
“blog” format). # of words will vary. (20%) Note: this
assignment will
be done in two parts--a core story and researched hypertext links--at
two
different points in the semester.
Writing Assignment Three: Focused
Annotated Bibliography. 6 sources minimum (1800-2000
words) Dual Submission (20%)
Writing
Assignment Four:
Synthesis of History 100
Weblog Entries (10%) (900-1000 words)
Writing Assignment Five: Final
Essay. 1500-2000 words. (20%) Dual
submission.
· Participation—English
101 is a workshop course, so I do little lecturing. Instead you’ll be
working
with each other in pairs, in groups, and in larger group discussions. Attendance and active participation are
very important. (25% of final grade)
· Grading—Your final
grade will be based on your achieving the course goals, with particular
emphasis on your ability to write interesting and technically correct
essays
supported by primary and/or secondary research, and your thoughtful and
regular
participation. Approximate percentages are: essays and all accompanying
work =
75%; other work (reading logs, Mason Topics events and accompanying
logs,
in-class writing, contributions to class discussion, etc) = 25%.
Because the
re-visioning process is so central to this course, you will have the
opportunity to revise three of your writing assignments after a grade
has been
assigned, either one week after you receive your grade or in a final
portfolio.
You will earn the an average of the two grades. Note on final
grade: You
must achieve at least a "C" grade in order to receive credit for the
course. If your work is not at least a "C" average (not a “C-“), you
will earn an NC, which means No Credit and which does not affect your
GPA. You
will then be required to repeat English 101.
· Late Papers: Papers are
due
at the beginning of the class period
and automatically forfeit one-letter grade for each class period they
are late.
This includes papers put in my mailbox in lieu of your attending class.
Generally I do not accept an assignment once I have returned papers to
the
other students. Late papers may not be revised. I will not
accept a paper if I have not seen it through the drafting
stages. In no case will I accept a paper handed in with the explanation
that
you changed your topic at the last minute because you could not find
enough
information on the topic you had been working on.
Other Important Policies:
Accommodations
for Students with Disabilities: Students with documented
disabilities are legally entitled to certain accommodations in the
classroom. If you have a documented
disability, please give me your faculty contact sheet from the
Disability
Resources Center. If you do not yet have a contact sheet, please visit
the Disability
Resource Center in SUB I. 993-2474.
Plagiarism:
Plagiarism
means using the exact words, opinions, or factual information from
another
source without giving that source credit. Writers give credit through
the use
of accepted documentation styles, such as parenthetical citation,
footnotes, or
end notes; a simple listing of books, articles, and websites is not
sufficient. Plagiarism is the
equivalent of intellectual robbery and cannot be tolerated in an
academic
setting.
Student
writers are often confused as to what should be cited. Some think that
only
direct quotations need to be credited. While direct quotations do need
citations, so do paraphrases and summaries of opinions or factual
information
formerly unknown to the writers or which the writers did not discover
themselves. Exceptions to this include
factual information which can be obtained from a variety of sources,
the
writers' own insights or findings from their own field research, (what
has been
called common knowledge). What constitutes common knowledge can
sometimes be
precarious; what is common knowledge for one audience may be so for
another. In
such situations, it is helpful to keep the reader in mind and to think
of
citations as being "reader friendly." In other words, writers provide
a citation for any piece of information that they think their readers
might
want to investigate further. Not only is this attitude considerate of
readers,
it will almost certainly ensure that writers will not be guilty of
plagiarism.
The
George Mason Honor Code offers more detail on plagiarism and its
consequences:
http://www.gmu.edu/org/honorcouncil/guidelines.htm
Midterm
Grades:
In
ENGL 100, ENGL 101 and ENGL 200s, students receive a midterm letter
grad based
on the work of the first seven weeks of the course. The purpose of this
grade
is to help students find out how well they are doing in the first half
of the
course in order to make any adjustments necessary for success in the
course as
a whole. Instructors calculate letter grades based on the completed
course
assignments as weighted on the syllabus through the seventh week. The
work in
the second half of the semester may be weighted more heavily, and so
the
midterm grade is not meant to predict the final course grade. Students
may view
their grade online through Patriot Web.
Sharing
Your Work in Class:
I use students’ papers and passages from
papers as
positive models. Please let me know if you would not like a
particular
piece of writing to be used as a model. Please know, however, that
you’ll be
asked to share all of your writing for this class with your peers in
small
groups or reviews of drafts.
Useful URL’s
How to set up your own webpage:
http://www.gmu.edu/mlnavbar/webdev/masonclusterweb.html
and/or
http://mason.gmu.edu/%7Emontecin/create9.htm
STAR Lab Workshop Schedule (for help
on creating a webpage):
http://media.gmu.edu/workshops/default.cfm
University
Writing Center (with tons of on-line handouts and advice) – http://writingcenter.gmu.edu
GMU Libraries
--
http://www.gmu.edu/libresearch/
An array
of useful research and ‘how to’ sites:
http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/resources.htm
English Composition Program Resources
for Students:
http://www.gmu.edu/departments/english/composition/students/links.html
Mason Topics
Program: http://masontopics.gmu.edu
Tentative
Weekly Progression
Note: All reading
assignments come from St. Martin’s Handbook unless otherwise
noted.
Week One
·
8/30:
Overview of course, introductions, in-class writing on names.
·
9/1: In-class primary research exercise (using
name stories). Assignment: Read
StM Intro 1-25. You’ll be keeping a writing log similar to the one
described in
these pages.
Week Two
·
9/6:
Labor Day Holiday
·
9/8:
Practice paraphrasing and synthesizing using the quotes below. Read:
StM
Chapter One “Reading, Writing, and Research” and StM 367-76, 387-89,
394-400.
Take notes on the meaning of synthesis, paraphrasing and summarizing.
“Increasingly,
Americans are a people without
history, with only memory, which means a people poorly prepared for
what is
inevitable about life—tragedy, sadness, moral ambiguity—and, therefore,
a
people reluctant to engage difficult ethical issues. Consumer culture
is mostly
about denial, about forgetting the past, except insofar as the past is
pleasant
and, thus, marketable. As historians, we occupy one tiny space where
the
richness of the past is kept alive, where its complexity is
acknowledged and
studied, where competing voices can still be heard. One of the most
important
things historians do is to bear witness to the past, including its
horrors, in
order to battle the amnesia that would sweep away all this is difficult
or
repugnant. The distinction between history and memory—that is, the
distinction
between knowledge of painful things, painfully arrived at, and notions
of the
past that flatter us with easy myths or cheap emotions—is at the heart
of our
enterprise.” –Elliott J. Gorn
“Memoir must
be written because each of us
must have a created version of the past. Created: that is, real,
tangible, made
of the stuff of a life lived in place and in history. And the down side
of any
created thing as well: we must live with a version that attaches us to
our
limitations, to the inevitable subjectivity, of our points of view. We
must
acquiesce to our experience and our gift to transform experience into
meaning
and value. You tell me your story, I’ll tell you my story.
… If we refuse to do the work of creating
this personal version of the past, someone else will do it for us. This
is
a scary political fact. “
Patricia Hampl
Week
Three
Week
Four
·
9/20: Meet in computer room (place TBA). Assignment
One Summary Due. We’ll also discuss Writing Assignment Two “One
Writer’s
Beginning” and look at “Bystory,” a “Mystory” webpage by Byron
Hawk at: http://mason.gmu.edu/~bhawk/bystory/bystory.html. You’ll see that Hawk has a “core story” and
digressive links to explain his key terms, just as you will. This week
you’ll
work on your core story; later you’ll work on your researched
(digressive)
links.
·
9/22:
Discussion of “Memory and Imagination.” (Handed out in class.) Take
notes in
reading log of her main argument and how she organizes the essay
digressively
to support that argument. Be thinking about your writing assignment
“One
Writer’s Beginning” and what kinds of digressions you may want to take.
We’ll
talk further about “Bystory” and Hawk’s digressions later in Week
Twelve.
Week
Five
·
9/27: Read: selections from Eurdora
Welty’s memoir One Writer’s Beginning and Richard Rodriguez’
memoir Hunger
of Memory.Also read student Mary Gonnelli’s “Writing My ‘Memory
Drawer’.”
All are in packet. In log: Take notes in log of how their
stories are
organized, the details each includes, and of any ideas you get for your
own
story. Free write about your experiences as readers and
writers: What’s
your first memory? What’s your best memory? What’s interested you and,
perhaps,
helped you become a college student? All time favorite books? What
books are on
your personal bookshelves? The best thing you’ve ever written? Next
you’ll
consider what larger contexts and/or theories about cultural values and
social
practices (e.g. family/community literacy, education, what it means to
be
“civilized,” the “classics”) your stories might reflect?
·
9/29: Discussion of free writing and themes
that occur
in your stories of your writer’s beginnings.
The different values of digressive and focused writing.
Week Six
· 10/4: Draft of core story for mystory webpage “One Writer’s Beginnings” due. Read: StM on “Developing Paragraphs” pp 113-138.
· 10/6: Mystory “core story”--“One Writer’s Beginnings”--due (on blog or wepage). Meet in computer lab.
Week Seven
Note: Columbus Day Holiday is Oct 11 so we meet on Tuesday, October 12, instead of Monday. Classes that regularly meet on Tuesday do not meet this Tuesday.
·
10/12:
Discussion of Writing Assignment Three:
Annotated Bibliography, which will emphasize researching
and
using your research to address a very focused question. (Research
always begins
with a question.” Read: StM
Chapter 14: “Preparing for Research.” Note especially pp 315-17 on
annotating
sources. Both prepare you for assignment three.
· 10/13: Focusing your research question. Read: “Chapter 19 “Writing a Research Project” for advice on how to focus and organize your research, pp 403-407. We’ll also visit Fenwick Library.
Week Eight
October 17 – Trip to National Gallery of Art
·
10/18
– 10/20: Conferences on research and annotations. No formal
class
meeting.
Prepare for conference: Bring draft of paper three. Read:
StM Chapter 16 “Evaluating Sources and Taking
Notes”; Chapter 18
“Acknowledging Sources and Avoiding Plagiarism”; Documenting
Sources: Survey documentation/citation styles Chapters 20-23
and review
carefully Chapter 23 on Chicago documentation, which is what you’ll use
for
this assignment.
Week Nine
· 10/25: Writing Assignment Three: Annotated Bibliography Due. Bring: photograph from your, your family’s, or your community’s past. We’ll work with these in class, drawing on your experience in the National Gallery.
·
10/27:
Synthesizing opinions on an historical issue: writing assignment four. Be
prepared to discuss the web log entries your peers have been
making in your
history class. You’ll report on, synthesize and evaluate peers’ web log
entries
to inform your English 101 teachers about discussions in History 100.
·
11/1:
Read: StM Chapter Two “Considering Rhetorical Situations” and
Chapter 17
“Integrating Sources” pp 380-389. Review Chapter 16, pp 367-8.
·
11/3: Draft of writing assignment four due.
Week
Eleven
·
11/8: Writing
Assignment Four Due.
·
11/10: We now return to “One Writer’s Beginnings,”
your “mystory” webpage.
You’ll
research at least three of the key words from your core story. Begin
mapping your core story to determine what key words you want to
research. See also StM pp 192-201 on writing for
the web.
To practice finding definitions, work with
one of
these key words related to assignment two: “memory,” “diary,”
“journal,”
“log,” “blog,” “history,” “autobiography,” “memoir.” You may decide to
use one
of these terms as a key word for a hypertext link. Review:
StM Chapter 15 “Conducting Research.” Note what is meant by
primary,
secondary, and tertiary sources. Bring: definition of one of
the key
words above. Directions: before class, visit the Fenwick Library
reference room
and consult a specialized encyclopedia to find the meaning of one of
the key
words above. You may also begin looking for other key words of interest
to you.
See StM pp 897-900 for lists of encyclopedias and/or ask the reference
librarian
and/or look at http://library.gmu.edu/research/handouts.html
on general research guides. Write down a full bibliographic entry in
MLA or
Chicago format for the encyclopedia and a summary of the discussion of
the
word.
Week Twelve
·
11/15:
Reread Byron Hawk’s “Bystory.” Bring a hard copy draft
of your
core story and your three links. Revise core story as desired.
Draft
should clearly indicate links.
·
11/17:
Mystory webpage with links due. Meet
in computer room (TBA) to read and comment on “mystory.”
**
November 20 – Trip to Holocaust Museum **
Week Thirteen
·
11/22:
Begin work on final essay. Review: StM Chapter Three
“Exploring,
Planning, and Drafting,” pp 57-75; Chapter Eleven “Analyzing
Arguments”;
“Chapter Thirteen “Constructing Arguments,” pp 264-86.
·
11/24:
Thanksgiving Holiday
·
11/29: Draft of Paper Five due
·
12/1:
Final Essay Due
Week
Fifteen:
·
12/6: Review and optional revisions of assignments
1-4. Note: You may revise two assignments. If you choose to
revise, you
will include a Writer’s Memo explaining what you revised and why. You
will need
to persuade me that you made substantive revisions that merit my
rereading your
assignment. The two grades will be averaged.
·
12/8: Optional revisions due and Last Writes.
Note: There will be no final
exam in this class.
What Final
Grades Mean
A = work far
exceeds minimum
requirements, shows initiative, originality, intelligence, and well
developed
critical thinking and writing skills.
B = work exceeds
minimum
requirements, shows high quality critical thinking and writing skills.
C = work meets
minimum
requirements, shows effort and progress.
NC = work shows
lack of basic
skills and critical thinking. Writer did not adequately meet the goals
and
requirements for the course.
Format
for papers: Name and date in top right corner.
No cover sheet or folder of any
kind. Please staple your paper
together. Give paper a title.
Double space. Proofread carefully. Make
last minute corrections, if necessary, with black ink.