Instructor: Dr. Cynthia Jenéy
Office: JMG T-309 (temporary location for Fall 2000)
Phone: 271-4447
Email: jeney@griffon.mwsc.edu
Jeney-on-the-Web: http://www.missouriwestern.edu/~jeney/office/
Office Hours: MW 10:00-12:00 | T Th 2:00-4:00 | By appointment
E-Forum: http://www.egroups.com/group/jeney-301 [you must join and subscribe to view]

Required Textbooks:
1. Cialdini, David. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.
2. Norman, Donald. The Design of Everyday Things.
3. Spence, Gerry. How to Argue and Win Every Time.
4. Williams, Joseph. Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace.

Required Materials
- A working, steady email account to which you know the exact address.
- 3.5” PC-formatted floppy diskettes (2 or 3 at least, labeled with your name & Eng. 301)

Recommended:
- A good college dictionary
- A good style handbook (MLA, APA, AP)

Course Objectives:
· To study and practice the tools writers can use to adapt their texts to various purposes and audiences.
· To learn to analytically and critically respond to the written discourse of others.
· To practice revision with your writing and the writing of others.
· To improve your ability to write clear, graceful prose.
· To “take risks” and establish your voice as a writer.

About the course: This course will be conducted as a writing and critical reading workshop. We will do some writing for nearly every class period, using electronic forum. You should print and/or save on disk all of your posts to the electronic forum, as each class meeting will open with in-depth critique and commentary on posts made to the forum that are due that day. Always come with writing materials (including 3.5” floppy disks). We will be reading and commenting on each other’s writing both as a class, and in small groups.

Class meetings: Class meetings of upper division courses are conducted under the assumption that students are well-versed in the conventions of college classrooms and academic environments.  Come to class prepared, and plan to participate and remain engaged with the materials for the entire class  period. In the unlikely and unfortunate event that you find yourself unprepared, come anyway, but I expect you to arrive doubly-prepared the next time. Should the situation become chronic, you may wish to re-examine your priorities for the semester, as this is a writing- and participation-intensive course. In short: develop good academic habits now, or pay later.

This Syllabus: Read this syllabus very carefully, and refer to it often. All information presented here is regarded as part of your own knowledge. All answers to your questions about the class will be based on an assumption that you understand the syllabus and seek further clarification. The teacher reserves the right to alter this syllabus and to make announced changes as need arises during the course of the semester.

Due Dates: Dates for handing in all required assignments are listed in the course schedule attached. There is no room in the semester calendar for late papers. I do not plan to be accepting late papers, due to my current teaching load and conference schedule. Make a note of all due dates now, and plan accordingly.
Attendance: A student with more than 4 (T-Th) unexcused absences will automatically be given a failing grade for the course.  It is your responsibility to keep track of your own attendance in the class. Please see the student handbook for the definition of "excused absence" (i.e., I do not wish to see doctor's excuses or obituaries).  If you miss class it is your responsibility to contact a classmate (and of course refer to this syllabus) regarding announcements, assignments, changes, class notes, and additional readings or writing.
Students who consult with me in advance of known conflicts will be given the option of  pre-arranged make-up work on a case-by-case basis. DO contact me in the event of unforeseen hardships and illnesses. Serious efforts to complete the work for this class will be given fair consideration, especially in cases of earnest dedication and hard work.
Note: Weddings and trips to Baja do not constitute “hardships” or “emergencies.”

Electronic Forum: Each student will be required to post regularly (twice weekly) to the class electronic forum. Posts to the forum will be full-length critiques, summaries, analytical questions, and commentaries, based upon the reading and writing assignments in the class. All members of the class will have posting and reading access to the forum on the web, but may also choose the additional option of receiving posts via email (posts will always remain on the web site). Although the forum works technically like an email listserv and web-board, it is not to be used for “Yeah, man. I agree” type messages.

You must have a stable email account established in order to satisfy this writing requirement for the course. I strongly urge you to use your MWSC email account for this forum. Do not shift around with Yahoo and Hotmail account subscriptions, as this will confuse the moderator, and possibly cause her to delete your membership. As moderator, I will do my best to insure that you do not receive advertising or other unwanted messages in your account. Expect the usual glitches and snafu’s when first getting subscribed to the electronic discussion group. I tend to use different technologies as time goes by, and as internet services evolve. I will try to make it as painless and easy as possible for you, but there is a certain amount of meticulous attention required at the outset, in order to get the forum up and running efficiently for us all.

This course is an LAS Area of Focus class for writing. The course meets the objectives for an LAS writing course through formal writing assignments (the five essays) and informal assignments (short daily writing and the journal).

Through practice, students will improve their writing. Through the study of, and experimentation with, arguments, narratives, case studies, and published ideas, students will become familiar with the diversity of texts available to them as writers and as students of English.

Assignments: There will be five essays assigned during the semester. The final essay is a rather substantial research-based term paper.  Early in the semester, I will give fairly specific assignments, but later in the semester, you will have more freedom to choose your own topics. Grades will be weighted as follows:

10% Paper #1 (required)
10%  Paper #2 (required)
10% Midterm Exam (required)
10%  Paper #3 (required)
10%  Paper #4 (required)
20%  Paper #5 (required)
20% Electronic Forum (required)
10% Class presentations and participation (required)
100% Total

A note about the writing in this course: although we will all encourage each other to be open and to explore ideas, experiences, thoughts, emotions, and beliefs, essay assignments and the electronic forum posts shall be considered  public texts. Therefore I have a strict policy against writing about any un-prosecuted crime or suspected illegal activity which you have witnessed, or in which you have been involved. When in doubt, I will always err on the side of safety.
 
Grading: I expect papers to have a clear thesis, reasonable organization and development, focused paragraphs, and sentence-level competency. During the course of the semester you should integrate the stylistic features we have been practicing. I also reward experimentation. If you want to try an unconventional approach to the essay, please do so. It is a good idea to see me with a draft and to explain what you are attempting, so I will know that when I grade your paper.

Academic honesty:  “Since honesty in the classroom is required, cheating, plagiarism, or knowingly furnishing false information to the college constitutes a violation.” Policy Guide II, B, C. In short, the work you turn in should be your own.

Disabilities: Any student in this course who has a disability that prevents the fullest expression of abilities should contact the MWSC Special Needs Office as soon as possible so that we can discuss alternative ways to satisfy class requirements: Coordinator:
Lois E. Fox
Location: SS/C Building, Room 202
Office Hours: 9 a.m.-5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday
Phone: (816) 271-4330

TENTATIVE COURSE SCHEDULE

January
T   16 Introduction; syllabus; email; intro to e-groups.
 
Th 18 Introduction & Overview. Practice E-groups. Assign E-Forum post for Williams, Lesson One.
Assign Paper #1 (Literacy Narrative); example literacy narratives (handouts/URL’s).

T   23 Williams, Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace Lesson One 3-13.
E-Forum post due (bring hard copy printout of your post). Assign E-Forum post for
Williams, Lesson Two. Discuss Literacy Narrative.
Sign-up sheet for Williams presentation groups. Workshop time for groups.

Th 25 Williams, Lesson Two 14-37. E-Forum post due (bring hard copy printout of your post). Assign E-Forum post for
 Williams. Workshop time for groups. Groups give assignment for Williams 3 & 4 E-forum post.

T   30 Williams, Three & Four Group presentations. E-Forum post due (bring hard copy printout of your post). Groups
give assignment for Williams 5 & 6 E-forum post.

February
Th 1 Williams, Five & Six Group presentations. E-Forum post due (bring hard copy printout of your post). Groups
give assignment for Williams 7 & 8 E-forum post. Hard copy printout optional.
 

T   6 Williams, Seven & Eight Group presentations. E-Forum post due (bring hard copy printout of your post). Groups
give assignment for Williams 9 & 10 E-forum post. Hard copy printout optional.
Paper #1 Due.

Th 8 Williams, Nine & Ten Group presentations. E-Forum post due. Hard copy printout optional.
 Assign Essay #2 Case Study.

T   13 Cialdini. Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion. Introduction (ix-xiv); Chapter 1 (1-16)
[Read ahead—the next sections are long]. E-Forum posts due. Hard copy printout optional.

Th 15 Cialdini. Chapters 2 & 3 (17-113). E-Forum posts due. Hard copy printout optional.
 

T   20 Cialdini. Chapters 4 & 5 (114-207). E-Forum posts due. Hard copy printout optional. Discuss Midterm.

Th 22 Cialdini. Chapters 6 & 7 (208-272). E-Forum posts due. Hard copy printout optional.

T   27 Paper #2 Due. Cialdini. Epilogue (273-280). Assign Paper #3.

March
Th 1 MIDTERM EXAM

T   6 Spence. How to Argue and Win Every Time Note-Chapters 1, 2, 8 (1-31; 113-134).
 Sign-up sheets for group presentations on Spence chapters (7, 9, 12, & 13 MUST be done, other 4 are optional)
 Bettelheim’s struggle for meaning (handout). Connecting contemporary social problems with ancient stories.

Th 8 LIBRARY DAY (meet in Library): Gathering Folk Tales [hint: they are UPSTAIRS]
 Assign E-forum post: find the “argument(s)” in your myth / folk tale / fairy tale.

T   13 SPRING BREAK

Th 15 SPRING BREAK

T   20 Folk Tales. Looking for the Argument in the stories. E-forum post due. Bring hard copy print out.
 Spence. Chapter 6 (74-99) prejudice. Group workshop, as time allows. Assign working draft of Paper #3 as
E-forum post.

Th 22 Spence. Group workshops a) read & respond to drafts, b) plan presentations. Working draft E-forum posts due.
Groups 7 & 9 assign E-forum post.

T   27 Spence. Chapters 7 & 9 Group presentations. Groups 12 & 13 assign E-forum posts.
 Paper # 3 Due.  Assign Paper #4 (E-Zine)

Th 29 Spence. Chapters 12 & 13 Group presentations. Groups assign E-forum posts.

April
T   3 Spence. Group presentations. E-forum post due.
Assign E-forum (URL collections of e-zines on the web, and descriptions of them)

Th 5 Spence. Group presentations (if needed). E-forum URL collections due.
Norman. The Design of Everyday Things. Preface. Chapter 1.
Web-surfing and e-zine reading, if time allows.

T   10 Norman. Chapter 2. E-forum post due. Discuss term paper.

Th 12 Norman. Chapter 3. E-forum post due.
 Paper #4 Due.

T   17 Norman. Chapters 3& 4. E-forum post due.

Th 19 Norman. Chapter 5. E-forum post due.

T   24 Norman. Chapter 6. E-forum post due.

Th 26 Norman. Chapter 7. E-forum post due.

May
T   1 Last Class Meeting – Open.
T   8 FINAL 11:30 – 1:20 Paper #5 Due