The Course
English 2 is designed as a writing workshop where you will learn strategies
for writing academic papers, conducting and writing up research, and improving
your overall writing skills. The course will focus on academic writing,
beginning with what academic writers must do before they write a research
paper: you will learn how to use the Internet to build a base of background
knowledge on a new subject; how to develop in-depth research questions
based on a general knowledge of a subject; how to read and annotate discipline-specific
texts; how to evaluate, summarize, synthesize, and analyze a range of different
print and electronic texts; how to analyze a topic/assignment and use all
that you know to respond to it; how to focus your knowledge and organize
your ideas; and how to focus a topic for research. You will select a research
topic, find sources, and practice the skills you learn in the course by
compiling an annotated bibliography and a background synthesis. Next you
will learn how to refine your relationship with your audience and structure
a piece of writing accordingly. As you read the texts you have selected
for your research, you will practice summary, analysis, classification,
synthesis, and comparison by writing about that material. This will lead
you to the major component of the course: a 10-page thesis-driven research
paper or a well developed hypertext document or web site on the subject
of your research.
At each stage of the process you will learn how to evaluate your own
writing and that of others, making you a more effective editor and writer.
As you become more of an expert writer, you will learn how to understand
the writings of others more fully: how to perceive their thesis, analyze
the assumptions they make about their audience and follow their overall
patterns of organization. This, in turn, will make you more able to understand
what you read and read more quickly. I hope it will also make you a more
confident and enthusiastic writer.
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:
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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,
the workshop will not work, your colleagues will suffer, and you will be
marked as absent. Three unexplained absences may result in your final grade
being lowered by one letter;
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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 (and marked
as absent). Lack of respect ranges from discriminating comments (homophobia,
racism, sexism, etc.), to yawns, the pulling of faces, drumming fingers,
laughter, asides to other members of the seminar, and so on.
Grades
The grades for this course are assigned on the basis of the distance each
writer travels during the semester in addition to the place each person
has reached by the end of the course. Specifically, grades will be based
on the following:
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Preparedness and contribution to class discussion and writer’s workshops
(10%). Obviously if you do not attend class, sleep through it, or otherwise
fail to participate I cannot assess the extent of your preparation, and
will be forced to assume there was none. Failure to attend conferences
with me will lead me to the same conclusion.
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Overall effort toward improvement (20%). I will judge this on the
basis of your notes, drafts, and general writing for the course, thus it
is important that you keep drafts and notes, bring them to class, and put
them in your final portfolio. I will also determine your effort from our
conferences and your visits to my office hours or conversations before
or after class.
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Application of the material covered in the class (70%). This will
be determined from the final portfolio of all of your writing for the term
(the notes, prewriting, and drafts for your synthesis paper, your annotated
bibliography, and the final research paper/web site).
Texts:
Please buy the following if you don't already own them:
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Anson & Schwegler. The Longman Handbook for Writers and Readers.
(Longman, 1997)
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LAN cables and a LAN card if you do not have them (if your computer does
not have the capacity to connect to the LAN please talk to me on the first
day of class!)
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a good dictionary—the heavier the better,
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pens of several colors (at least one green, purple or red),
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two plain loose paper manila folders to hold portfolio work, and for handing
in work,
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and a computer disk to back up your work for this class.
Our main text will be your writing, so you must bring all of the handouts
and homework assignments for Engl. 2 and all of the work you have done
on them to every class and conference. You must also save all of your computer
work on the LAN, on your hard drive, and on a separate disk (computer failure
is not an acceptable excuse for lost or incomplete work in this class.
Don't take any risks)
Class time
This class meets in a seminar room with LAN connections for good reason.
Classes will be spent writing, workshopping or discussing writing, writing
assignments and examples of writing produced by writers from a variety
of discourse situations, including this class.
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WARNING
Students get exactly the same amount of learning out of a writing
class as the amount of effort they put in. This puts the onus on you—if
you don't put anything in, you won't get anything out (except a bad grade).
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