Class meetings  (week 1):  Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, & Friday, 9:00-12:00 & 1:30-4:00                             Location:    9:00-12:00, Embury 205;  1:30-4:00, Mead Hall 011                             Wednesday, July 4, 9:00-12:00 – LC 30                          (week 2-5):.  Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, & Thursday, 1:30-4:00                          Location:   Mon. & Wed., Embury 205; Tue. & Thurs., Mead Hall 011 Writing Center:  Monday evenings, individual meeting times to be scheduled  Office hours:  Mon. 4:00-8:00; Wed. 4:00-6:00.   S.W. Bowne Hall 118. Telephone:  Office: x3499.  Home: 908-757-1051 (please call between 10am and 9pm only!). E-mail addresses: <sjamieso@drew.edu>  & <jalmonte@drew.edu>

Course Description

This course is designed to provide students with a general introduction to academic writing by focusing attention on the forms of writing required for college and on the kinds of connections good students make between classes. We will discuss what it means to write in the academy--how our writing differs in purpose and form from other writing with which you may be familiar, why it differs, and what consequences those differences have. You will practice textual analysis, summary, comparison, synthesis writing, and argumentation as part of that process. You will also learn academic prewriting skills such as note-taking, idea generating, thesis writing, and organization. In addition to working on your academic literacy, this course is designed to increase your "civic literacy" by helping you to connect what you learn in college with the world outside of college, drawing on your experience, the internet, and on newspaper articles from The New York Times. For both your course readings and the newspaper stories, we will discuss the importance of background knowledge--and assumptions made by the authors about the knowledge their reader's possess. As your critical thinking skills strengthen, you will learn to generate specific research questions and to see connections between disciplines. You will also learn to read interactively, analyzing and evaluating what you read rather than simply learning it.

Because students come to college with different levels of preparation, we will work on issues oforganization, style, and developing & expanding ideas--both in class in the context of our readings, and in conferences and individual projects. Each student will help me to design an "Individual Writing Program" (IWP) which will build on areas of strength and develop two specific skills the student feels most concerned about. Each of you will work on your program at your own pace with assistance from the PC assigned to the class and the consultants at the Writing Center. You may use exercises and computer programs, and you will be graded on that work as part of the final portfolio for the course.

Finally, in this course you will learn how to make sophisticated use of the personal computer you will be given in the Fall. This means that you will leave the course knowing the basics of word processing and revision on a computer. You will also know how to use electronic mail (e-mail) and conduct academic Internet searches. Research shows that students using word processors revise more thoroughly and write more drafts. My own research indicates that students who communicate over e-mail learn to write more, and to increase their writing fluency.

Ground Rules

A seminar is only as strong as its laziest member, so it is essential that each member of the seminar accepts her or his responsibility to the other members. Thus:

1. You will be expected to attend every class prepared to participate and share your ideas and writing with your writing colleagues. If you are unprepared or refuse to participate, the workshop will not work, your colleagues will suffer, and you will be marked as absent. Three unexplained absences will result in your final grade being lowered by one letter;
2. You must participate in class. If you fail to share your ideas with your fellow students you deprive them of an opportunity to learn, and that is against the spirit of this class. Regardless of whether they agree with the ideas you express, your peers are engaged in a dialogue about those ideas as a result of your participation, and through such dialogue we learn;
3. You must respect your fellow writers. This means that you must take them and their ideas and writing seriously and comment constructively with sensitivity to their feelings. Failure to do this will result in a collapse of the trust necessary for a workshop and you will be asked to leave (marked as absent and reported to the director of EOS). Lack of respect ranges from discriminating comments (homophobia, racism, sexism, etc.), to yawns, the pulling of faces, drumming of fingers, asides to other members of the seminar, and so on.

Grades

The purpose of this class is to help you become more accomplished writers, thus I will grade your overall behavior as writers as well as individual pieces of writing.

The final grade will be based upon the following:

1. Participation in in-class writer's workshops and tutorials and conferences with me (attendance and preparation), oral presentations to the class, class participation and small writing assignments;
2. The effort at improving your writing I see reflected in your drafts, meetings with the peer tutor, writing center tutors, and myself; your homework, and in-class writing assignments;
3. The extent that you actually strengthen your writing and thinking skills demonstrated in revisions and your final portfolio of writing.

• Textbooks:
• Homer's Odyssey. 
• Plato's Republic
• The Longman Writer's Companion by Chris Anson & Robert Schwegler
• Check out the on-line site, too
• Photocopied readings (available from me)
• Other supplies
• Two folders for drafts, prewriting, notes, etc.
• A manila folder for your final portfolio.
• A notebook for class notes 
• A ring-binder to store the notes you take in my class and the vocabulary log pages
• Loose-leaf paper, a stapler, a highlighter pen.
• A computer disk.