Requirements: Regular attendance, no more than three unexplained absences; completing reading assignments before coming to class; submitting themes on designated dates; writing 7-9 brief quizzes; writing the final examination.

Objectives: See Composition Course Guide (online at http://www.missouriwestern.edu/eflj/genstud.asp

Evaluation: Quizzes 20%; notebooks 25%; themes 30%; final writing 25%

Students with Disabilities: Those students with any disability that will prevent their fullest expression should contact me as soon as possible so that we can discuss class requirements.

Attendance Policy: Consideration will be given to students in the case of genuine illness, emergency, or when acting as representative of MWSC. It shall be the responsibility of the student to notify the class instructor prior to the absence, and if possible, meet with the instructor on the student’s return to discuss the materials missed.

Academic Honesty Policy: Cheating, plagiarism, or knowingly furnishing false information to the college, constitutes a violation. A grade of zero may be assessed in the evaluation instrument.

Assignments:

August

T 21 Orientation; Bio-data

Syllabus review; writing sample

"The Story of an hour"; "Rape and Modern Sex War"; discussion

Th 23 Hemingway: "Hills Like White Elephants"; Shaw: "The Girls in Their Summer Dresses"

Quiz samples

Popular Writing in America (hereafter PWA): Narration, "Fifteen," p. 289; "Now You Take ‘Bambi’ or ‘Snow White,’" p. 285

Bring notebooks.

T 28 "Forbidden Words on Campus," p. 237

"A&P," p. 612

"Dillinger Gets His," p. 128

Th 30 Theme preparation (in class)

"Atomic Bombing of Nagasaki...," p. 140

"Rambos of the Road," p. 296

Suggested topics

September

T 4 Theme #1 due.

Description

"We Do Abortions Here: A Nurse’s Story," p. 298

"The Fraying of America," p. 352

Th 6 "How to Win Friends...," p. 393

"The Hidden Persuaders," p. 415

T 11 "Blue Highways," p. 442

"Death of a Maverick Mafioso," p. 268

Th 13 Comparison and Contrast (Patterns)

"The Parable of the Ring...," p. 96

"The Next Great moment...," p. 165

T 18 Theme #2 due

"Settlement of America," "Feting the Lindbergh of the 15^th Century," p. 244

Th 20 "Redskins, Braves...," "Names Debate Off Target," p. 247

"The Senate and Sexism," p. 241

T 25 "The Joy Luck Club," p. 471; Back Lash...,p. 478

Handouts

Th 27 Open

October

T 2 Theme #3 due; Classification

"The Closing of the American Mind," p. 682

Th 4 "Fighting the War on Cigs," p. 199

"On Kids and Slasher Movies," p. 197

T 9 Process Analysis

"How to Write Potent Copy," p. 88

"The World’s Biggest Membrane," p. 659

"The Little Store," p. 670

Th 11 Cause/Effect

"Mr. Welles and Mass Delusion," p. 136; see also p. 690

"Who’s on First," p. 692

T 16 "Youth’s Despair Erupts," p. 182

"Adolescents and Their Music," p. 317

Th 18 "The Western: The Legend and the Cardboard Head," p. 264

"How to Tell a Story," p. 530

"Hooray for This...," p. 206

"Much More Nasty Than They Should Be," p. 207

October (cont.)

T 23 Theme #4 due

Argument – "Is There a Santa Claus," p. 126; Heywood Brown, p. 127

"Rapping Garbage as ‘Art,’" p. 192; See also p. 211

"Shaken Survivors Witness Pure Fury," p. 194

Th 25 "Hooray for This...," p. 206

"Much More Nasty Than They Should Be," p. 207

T 30 Open

November

Th 1 "Censorship in America," p. 225

"The Declaration of Independence," p. 496

T 6 Election Day

"Civilization and Its Malcontents," p. 330

"Antihero," p. 337

Th 8 "Born on the Fourth of July," p. 436

"Arctic Dreams," p. 457

T 13 Theme #5 due

"Columbus and the Moon," p. 494

"Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas," p. 510

Th 15 "Walden," p. 514; "A First American..." p. 210

"Old Times on the Mississippi," p. 525

T 20 Open Thanksgiving vacation begins 4:00 p.m.

T 27 Open

Th 29 Open

December

S 1 Last day of classes.

Conferences

T 4 Final Examination 11:30-1:20 p.m.

December 11: Final grades due