Instructor: Neil P. Baird                                                                                                                                                English 101 (sect. 015)

Office: FH 24                                                                                                                                                              M/W/F 10-10:50; MS 301

Home Phone: 673-6537                                                                                                                                          Fall 2002 Office Hours:

Campus Phone: 478-6709 x257                                                                                                                                    M/W/F 8-8:50

E-Mail: nbaird@unr.edu                                                                                                                                        (and by appointment)

English 101: Composition I

Shaping Experience Through Language

        "This looking business is risky."

         Annie Dillard, “Seeing”

One goal of this course is to help you become better writers, preparing you for more advanced writing in English 102 and other academic classes by moving from expository writing towards argument.  But this is also a course in seeing, a community of writers that uses reading and writing to explore and shape our perceptions of ourselves and the reality around us.  One of the ways that we become more effective writers is by writing, and this belief reflects the structure of this course.  Throughout the semester, you will be engaged in a series of writing workshops.  In these workshops, you will be given several writing situations and assignments which, if treated as opportunities to learn, will allow you to teach yourself writing.  Several workshops will be centered around group as well as whole class discussion, reflecting the assumption that language and ideas develop out of interaction with others and that only the unique relationship between writer and audience can provide you with the experience of what it means to communicate through writing.  This course will treat you as professional writers, individuals with words and ideas who own their own writing and have a need for an audience to develop these words and ideas, requiring only guidance to become more effective writers.  This course will also present you with a number of new writing choices.  Part of your success in the course will be based on not only your attempts to play with these writing choices thus allowing your writing and thinking to grow but your ability to reflect on why a particular choice made is the “best” choice given your purpose, writing context, and audience.

This course will teach you that writing in itself is easy.  Good writing and writing to an audience are what make writing difficult; therefore, you will experience several opportunities for private writing and chances to develop this private writing into public writing.  Not only will you be given opportunities to reflect upon the transformation of your private writing into public writing, several chances will be given for you to reflect upon the writing process itself and you as a writer.  We will study writing and develop critical reading and thinking skills through an examination of professional and student essays from such authors as Annie Dillard and Barbara Kingsglover to Gloria Naylor and bell hooks.

You will learn strategies for analyzing audience as well as invention, drafting, revision, and editing strategies.  You will discover ways to develop theses, organization, and support.  While this is not a grammar class per se, grammatical concepts will be taught as needed.  You will learn that writing is not a solitary task as you rely on me and each other to generate ideas and possibilities for revision.  However, because the conventions of writing are different across disciplines, suggesting that there is no single, magical, correct way to write all of the time, the most important objective of this course is that you develop the ability to question your own writing as well as the writing of others.

TEXTS AND MATERIALS:

Required: Reading Rhetorically by John C. Bean, Virginia A. Chappell, and Alice M. Gillam

                The Everyday Writer by Andrea Lunsford

                Been There, Done That by the UNR Core Writing Program

                Supplemental readings on electronic reserve (Instructions at Reserve Desk in Main Library)                     A bound composition notebook for your writer’s notebook

                A 9x12 folder or binder

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

5 formal essays of original writing (the average length will be four pages)

Responses to the work of your fellow students

Individual student conferences

Discussion board postings

Writer’s notebook          

Mid-term portfolio

Final portfolio

GRADING SUMMARY: (a +/- system will be used to determine letter grades)

Writer’s Notebook/Discussion Board                                15%

5 Formal Essays                                                           45%

Personal Essay                         5%

Analysis of Place                       5%

Biographical Essay                    10%

Collaborative Argument   10%

Argumentative Essay                 15%

Mid-term Portfolio                                                           15%

Final Portfolio                                                                25%

COURSE POLICIES:

Writer’s Notebook:

The writer’s notebook is a space for you to invent ideas for essays, develop rough outlines or drafts, study writing through workshop activities, and reflect upon your writing process.  Because the writer’s notebook represents private writing, it will remain relatively untouched by me, assessed only at various points within the course.  I will not announce when I will assess your writer’s notebook; therefore, be sure to keep up with your entries.  What I will be assessing is your active engagement in assignments and activities as well as critical reflection of your writing.

Discussion Board Postings and WebCT:

WebCT is a software program that gives instructors the ability to create course websites, send course-related e-mail, and use discussion boards and chatrooms to enhance the course.  To login to WebCT go to webct.unr.edu or from the UNR website (www.unr.edu), click on Students and then Login to WebCT under “Do It Online.”  All of you were given a username and password in Freshman Orientation.  Your username is the last six digits of your R-number, which is found on your student identification card.  For example, if your R-number is R000015205, your username would be “015205".  Your password is your social security number (no dashes)–unless you have changed it.  If you have changed your password and forgotten it, give me a call and I will give you a new password.  A welcome letter is waiting for you in Course Mail, and I invite you to spend time exploring the course website and WebCT in order to become comfortable with it as soon as possible.  See the help desk in the main library to activate your computer account, which will give you Internet access and your campus e-mail address.

Writing Workshops/Paper Exchanges:

Writing workshops and paper exchanges give you opportunities to make your drafts public, to actually see what your writing does to an audience.  Drafts of your formal essays will first be reviewed and critiqued in writing workshops by small groups of your peers.  Bring three, typed copies of your drafts to workshops for submission to members of your group.  After receiving more feedback by posting your drafts to the discussion boards and various comments from me, your final drafts will be submitted in your portfolio.  Paper exchanges occur right before portfolios are due and are your last chances to bring any draft your struggling with to be read and critiqued.  All drafts submitted for workshops, paper exchanges, and portfolios should be typed.

Mid-term and Final Portfolios:

Not only will the mid-term and final portfolios be a space to showcase the final drafts of the five formal essays, they will also be a collection of all invention strategies, drafts, peer comments, and reflective pieces leading to the final drafts.  The portfolio reflects the focus of this course; I am interested in not only the product (the final draft) but the process of how you get to that product.  As such, you should save everything that you do in this course.  Your grade for both the mid-term and final portfolio will be an average of the grade earned on each formal essay required for the portfolio and the grade assessed to process.  Portfolios should be submitted in a 9x12 folder or binder. 

Attendance/Late or Missing Work:

Much of your success in this course will depend on your active participation.  By missing class, not only will your own work suffer but the work of other students in the class who depend on you to read and respond to their writing.  Department policy allows you to miss three class sessions for any reason; on the fourth class session you miss, I can reduce your final grade for the course by one letter grade.  If you miss six class sessions, we will have a conference to discuss your future in the course.  Writing workshops, paper exchanges, and conferences are the most important days of this course; missing one of these days will count as two missed classes.  Fifty minutes is such a short time to meet; therefore, class sessions will start at exactly 10:00.  Being late to class three times equals one missed class.  Because WebCT acts as a virtual classroom, failure to post will also affect your grade–two missed posts equals one missed class.  All formal essays must be completed in order to pass the course.  No late work will be accepted.

The Writing Center:

The Writing Center is available to assist you with general and specific questions on particular essays.  They are not miracle workers.  Their job is to add another voice in response to your writing.  The one-on-one assistance available at the Writing Center is valuable for generating ideas, suggesting organization, and even working through grammatical issues.  Use their services as often as you can.  The Writing Center is located in room 206 of E. J. Cain Hall (EJCH).  Call for an appointment (784-6030).  Be sure to bring specific questions and a copy of your particular assignment.

Plagiarism:

Plagiarism is defined as representing another person’s words, ideas, data, or work as one’s own.  Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to, the exact duplication of another’s work and the incorporation of a substantial or essential portion thereof.  Other examples of plagiarism include the acts of appropriating the artistic or musical composition of another and Internet documents, or portions thereof, presenting them as your own.

The key to avoiding plagiarism is to give proper credit whenever the following are used:

·                      Another person’s ideas, opinions, or theories

·                      Facts, statistics, graphs or other drawings or any pieces of information that are not common knowledge

·                      Quotations of another’s actual spoken or written words

·                      Paraphrases of another’s spoken or written words

·                      Organization patterns or structures of another’s spoken or written work

Worth noting is the fact that ignorance does not excuse plagiarism.  Intentional plagiarism consists of knowingly copying or using another’s work without giving proper credit.  Unintentional plagiarism, on the other hand, may result from a lack of familiarity with citation standards, poor research methods, or careless “cutting and pasting” of Internet and other electronic sources.  In either case, both intentional and unintentional plagiarism constitute violations of the University of Nevada, Reno’s policy on Academic Dishonesty.  Please see me if you have any questions or concerns, for plagiarism results in a failing grade on a particular paper to failure of the course.

Student Decorum:

Because University course work requires focused study and open exchange of ideas, the classroom, discussion boards, chatrooms, and e-mail correspondence are expected to be spaces of courteous interaction.  The demonstration of mutual respect between teachers and students includes arriving and leaving class (and chatrooms) at the designated times, participating in classroom activities, and adapting to new and varied learning styles and tasks.  Academic communication requires that all of us listen carefully to each other (whether we agree or not) and to state our positions with clarity and our disagreements with tact.

Students with Disabilities: 

The English Department is committed to equal opportunity in education for all students, including those with physical disabilities or learning disabilities.  If you are a student with a documented disability, it is your responsibility to contact me during the first week of the semester so that we can discuss appropriate accommodations.

"It is a point of principle with us to treat students as writers: people who deserve to be in charge of what they write, who already know a lot about discourse (even if it sometimes doesn't look like it)-and whose greatest need is readers."

Peter Elbow and Pat Belanoff, A Community of Writers

Schedule: All readings and assignments must be completed by the class meeting on the day for which they are assigned.  This schedule is subject to change; look to the course website for updates and links to assignments and discussion board postings.

READING AND WRITING AS SHAPING EXPERIENCE

M, 8/26               Course Introduction                       Inventions Strategy: Freewriting W, 8/28               Introductions                       Past Writing Experiences F, 8/30               Begin Essay #1 M, 9/2                Labor Day–No Class W, 9/4                Prepare David Updike’s “A Word with the Boy” (RR p. 195-200)                       Description F, 9/6                Prepare Rita Ayers’ “Minnows and Worms” (BTDT p. 14-16)                       Narrative Organization M, 9/9                Prepare Annie Dillard’s “Seeing” (Electronic Reserve)                       Narrative Focus W, 9/11               Writing Workshop (Complete Draft of Essay #1 Due) F, 9/13               Why Grammar?-Editing Strategies                       What is “Good” Writing?                       *Post Draft of Essay #1 to Discussion Boards                        under Essay #1 by 5:00 p.m.

COMING TO TERMS WITH PLACE

M, 9/16               Essay #1 Due                       Begin Essay #2 W, 9/18               Prepare Chapter 2 of Reading Rhetorically (p. 13-26)                       Academic Reading F, 9/20               Prepare Chapter 3 of Reading Rhetorically (p. 27-41)                       Prepare Kyoko Mori’s “Language” (RR p. 159-168)                       Strategies for Reading Rhetorically M, 9/23               Prepare Chapter 4 of Reading Rhetorically (p. 45-67)                       Prepare Ka’ula Rowe’s “Childhood Memories” (BTDT p. 21-23)                       Listening to a Text W, 9/25               Prepare Chapter 5 of Reading Rhetorically (p. 69-88)                       Prepare Barbara Kingsglover’s “Going Home” (RR p.151-158)                       Questioning a Text F, 9/27               Developing Thesis Statements (Type and Placement) M, 9/30               Writing Workshop (Complete Draft of Essay #2 Due)

UNDERSTANDING THE “OTHER”/UNDERSTANDING OURSELVES

W, 10/2               Begin Essay #3                       Prepare Margaret Atwood’s “Homelanding” (Electronic Reserve)                       *Post Draft of Essay #2 to Discussion Boards                        under Essay #2 by 5:00 p.m. F, 10/4               Prepare Annie Dillard’s “Fundamentalists” (RR p. 212-220) M, 10/7               Essay #2 Due                       Prepare Becky Coyle’s “The Teacher” (BTDT p. 25-26) W, 10/9               Prepare Sandra Cisnero’s “Barbie-Q” (RR 483-485) F, 10/11              Student Conferences (Essay #2)-No Class

"No method nor discipline can supersede the necessity of being forever on the alert.  What is a course of history, or philosophy, or poetry, or the most admirable routing of life, compared with the discipline of looking always at what is to be seen?  Will you be reader, a student merely, or a seer?"

Henry David Thoreau, Walden

Download an RTF version of Baird Syllabus 1