Missouri Western State College

Liberal Arts and Sciences School

English, Foreign Languages, and Journalism Department

Spring 2003

11-12:20 TTH in JGM 106

Dr. Jane Frick, Professor & Director

Prairie Lands Writing Project

Email: frick@missouriwestern.edu

Faculty Web Page: www2.mwsc.edu/eflj/faculty/frick.html

Office: SS/C 201 (Prairie Lands Writing Project)

271-4315 (MWSC)

232-3695 (home)

Office Hours: TTH 9:30-10:30 & 1-2; W 1-3

Other Times By Appointment

 

Course Syllabus for ENG 10812 College Writing and Research

 

Class closed Web site at http://miranda.cailab.mwsc.edu:8080/~108frick

Departmental Course Description

ENG 108 students will complete three formal research based projects in addition to other graded and ungraded work. In these assignments, students will learn how to analyze, synthesize, and evaluate the thinking of others in order to discover, develop, and test their own points of view. Final drafts of all formal writing assignments must be word processed. All students are expected to be prepared for class and participate in class discussions related to reading and writing assignments. In addition, students will keep complete portfolios of all their writings. (See listing at the end of this syllabus and the Web listing at www.missouriwestern.edu/eflj/lg/eng108.html#Course for list of objectives and institutional competencies for this General Studies course.)

 

Required Text:

 

Lunsford, Andrea A., John J. Rusckiewicz, Keith Walters. everything's an argument: with readings. 2nd ed. Boston: Bedford, 2001.

 

Hult, Christine A. and Huckin, Thomas N. The New Century Handbook. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 2002.

 

Class listserv: You will be joined to eng10810@list.mwsc.edu

 

Course Grade:

 

Points will be awarded for all projects. At the end of the term, I will divide your points by the number of possible points and award grades on the basis of the following percentages:

90-99% Course Grade A

80-89% Course Grade B

70-79% Course Grade C

60-69% Course Grade D

Below 60% Course Grade F

 

I anticipate the following number of possible points for the term:

 

Up to 100 possible points for in-class discussions and out-of-class journaling/reflection, usually regarding our texts and/or other assigned readings, which will be allocated in 5 - 10 points per activity. No make-ups or late work will be accepted for these activities.

 

150 possible points for Research Project # 1 (an annotated bibliography)

 

250 possible points for Research Project # 2 (an evaluation)

 

250 possible points for Research Project #3 (a causal argument)

 

250 possible points for the Final Exam (developing a proposal based on a series of pre-assigned sources)

 

Attendance Policy:

Come to class. There are no makeup points for missing work completed in class.

 

Due Dates:

Papers and projects are due at the beginning of the hour on the assigned date. Late submissions will be lowered points equivalent to one letter grade per day late.

 

Students with Disabilities:

Any student in this course who has a disability that prevents or hinders the completion of class requirements must notify me immediately so that provisions may be made for any assistance which is needed.

 

Honesty Policy:

It is expected that all students will submit their own work and will document (MLA format) all sources and materials they research. Plagiarism or cheating on papers or quizzes is not acceptable. The first instance of plagiarism will result in a grade of 'F.' The second instance will result in an 'F' for the course.

 

VERY Tentative Course Plan

 

(Detailed assignments, handouts and materials will be available to you for downloading and printing from the O drive: English folder/Frick folder/ENG 108 Class Materials folder. Reading assignments (from everything's an argument unless Hult appears before the reading assignment) listed below should be completed prior to the class sessions on these dates.)

 

T 1/14               Course Introductions and Establishing a Writing Community

                       

Th 1/16             "Part 1 Introducing Argument" 1 - 45

 

T 1/21               Hult "Chapter 2: Critical Thinking and Reading," 9 - 28; and Hult, "Chapter 11: Using Sources, 224-242

                       

Th 1/23             "Mirror, Mirror . . . Images and the Media" 371-375

                        "Manchu on Naboo" 379-383

                        "The exaggeration of Despair" 383-315

 

T 1/28               "Sitcom Dads Rarely Know Best, Study of TV Laments" 385 - 388

                        "Shot on Ethnic Grounds and Side Streets" 388-391

                        "Taco Bell and Latino Stereotypes" 391-395

                        "Assessing and Using Sources" 334-342 

 

 

Th 1/30             "Who's the Fairest of Them All" 395-397

                        "It Begins" 397-398

                        "Study Finds TV Alters Fiji Girls' View of Body" 398 - 401

                        "Culture of Thin Bites Fiji" 404 - 408

                        "One Picture is Worth a Thousand Diets" 408 - 416

                                   

T 2/4                "Cutting Edge" 416-422

                        "Why Should the Epidermally Challenged Get Help?" 422

                        "Men Should Have Better Things to Do" 422-425

                         

Th 2/6               "Suck Out Your Gut" 425 - 428

                        "Turning Boys into Girls" 428 - 432

                        "Selling Men's Underwear Across the Decades" 432 – 436

 

T 2/11               Due: Research Project #1 (Annotated Bibliography)

 

Th 2/13             "Part 2 Lines of Argument" 49 - 89

                        "Structuring Arguments" 91 – 108          

 

T 2/18               "Evaluations" 135-161   

 

Th 2/20             Hult "Writing the Research Paper" 243-275

                       

T 2/25               "Documenting Sources" 342-367

                        Hult "Documentation Formats" 276-312

                       

Th 2/27            Research Project # 2 due (an evaluation)

                       

T 3/4                "Causal Arguments" 161-187

 

Th 3/6               ?Library tour/research

                       

T TH 3/11-13 Spring Break - NO Class

 

T 3/18               Hult "Chapter 9: Using the Internet for Research" 187-210

                        Hult "Chapter 10: Evaluating Electronic and Print Sources" 211-224

                       

W 3/19             Mid-term Grades Due

 

Th 3/20             ?? Possibly no class because Frick leaves for 4 Cs: Continue reading and taking notes for Research Project # 2

                       

T  3/25              Hult “Formulating Arguments” 127-152

                        "What Counts as Evidence" 297-312

 

Th 3/27             "Fallacies of Argument" 312-326

 

T  4/1               "Figurative Language and Argument" 239 - 251

                       

Th 4/3               "Arguments in Electronic Environments" 272 – 285

                       

T 4/8                Hult “Design Principles and Graphics” 427-450

 

Th 4/10             "Visual Arguments" 251 – 272

                       

T 4/15               Research Project # 3 is due  

 

Th 4/17             "Proposals" 198-215

 

T  4/22             

 

Th 4/24            

 

T 4/29               Last Day of Class

 

Th 5/1              Final Exam – 11:30 – 1:20 p.m.

 

DEPARTMENTAL GOALS FOR FIRST-YEAR COLLEGE COMPOSITION

 

English 104: College Writing and Rhetoric

 

Learning to write for different audiences and purposes

Students will…

·         make journal entries to explore their minds and to extend the range of their personal lives.

·         write essays to communicate ideas and impose order on their thoughts and experiences;

·         use organizational methods and genres appropriate for different purposes;

·         construct academic essays that meet criteria for thesis, rhetoric, organization, development, and language.

 

Learning to use active reading and critical thinking

Students will…

·         identify the main concepts and locate supporting details in written works;

·         read actively for greater understanding;

·         develop their ideas and concepts with specific details, examples, and explanations;

·         write summaries that accurately reflect the main ideas and supporting reasons of written texts.

·         explain the organization of written works;

·         analyze the needs of different audiences.

 

Learning to use writing processes

Students will…

·         practice various invention techniques;

·         use prewriting to recreate and reflect on their experiences;

·         use prewriting to generate information and discover ideas;

·         move easily from writing for self-expression to writing for readers;

·         write at greater length more easily, more quickly, and more usefully;

·         reread early drafts to rethink what they want to write;

·         revise for clear presentation of their ideas;

·         revise for depth of insight, clarity of organization, and suitability for different purposes.

·         identify and correct their own spelling, grammatical, and mechanical errors, especially in the final stage of the writing process.

 

Learning written conventions

Students will…

·         use thesis statements, topic sentences, and transitions;

·         apply all types of common developmental and organizational forms;

·         identify the main qualities of effective sentences;

·         practice active sentence style and rich, efficient modification;

·         practice systematic approaches to editing sentences;

·         craft more effective paragraphs.

 

 

Missouri Transfer and Articulation General Education Standards

English 104 is also a primary site for students to work toward the following statewide General Education goals.

 

Communication:

·         A. analyze and evaluate their own and others' speaking and writing;

·         B.  conceive of writing as a recursive process that involves many strategies, including generating material, evaluating sources when used, drafting, revising, and editing;

·         C. make formal written and oral presentations employing correct diction, usage, grammar, and mechanics;

·         D. focus on a purpose (e.g., explaining, problem solving, argument) and vary approaches to writing and speaking based on that purpose;

·         E.  respond to the needs of different audiences and choose words for appropriateness and effect.

 

Higher-Order Thinking

·         B. formulate questions for clarifying issues and solving problems;

·         C. use linguistic, mathematical, or other symbolic approaches to describe problems, identify alternative solutions, and make reasoned choices among those solutions;

·         E.. defend conclusions using relevant evidence and reasoned argument;

·         F. reflect on and evaluate their critical thinking processes.

 

Managing Information

·          E. present information clearly and concisely, using traditional and contemporary technologies

 

English 108: College Writing and Research

 

Students will add the following abilities to those presented in the objectives for English 104.

 

Learning to write for different audiences and purposes

Students will…

·         focus particularly on academic audiences and scholarly purposes

 

Learning to use active reading and critical thinking

Students will…

·         classify and define objects, events, data, ideas, and terms discovered through research;

·         make judgments based on criteria that can be supported and explained;

·         ask questions to clarify issues and solve problems;

·         identify explicit and implicit meanings in a text;;

·         recognize problems and find workable solutions.

 

Learning to use writing processes

Students will…

·         apply pre-writing strategies to discover what they already know and what they want to learn through research;

·         write summary notes in the process of doing research;

·         write drafts in which they reconstruct their beliefs on the basis of the wider experience they gain through research;

·         revise for an organization appropriate to their specific main purpose and audience.

 

Learning written conventions

Students will…

·         practice documentation conventions for styles such as MLA and APA;

·         [quoting one]

·         learn important grammatical concepts used for analyzing sentence correctness and style;

·         correctly incorporate language, information, and ideas from sources;

·         use advanced editing resources like dictionaries and writing handbooks.

 

 

Missouri Transfer and Articulation General Education Standards

 

English 108 is also a primary site for students to work toward the following statewide General Education goals.

 

Communication:

·         A. analyze and evaluate their own and others' speaking and writing;

·         B.  conceive of writing as a recursive process that involves many strategies, including generating material, evaluating sources when used, drafting, revising, and editing;

·         C. make formal written and oral presentations employing correct diction, usage, grammar, and mechanics;

·         D. focus on a purpose (e.g., explaining, problem solving, argument) and vary approaches to writing and speaking based on that purpose;

·         E.  respond to the needs of different audiences and choose words for appropriateness and effect.

 

Higher-Order Thinking

·         A. recognize the problematic elements of presentations of information and arguments;

·         B. formulate questions for clarifying issues and solving problems;

·         C. use linguistic, mathematical, or other symbolic approaches to describe problems, identify alternative solutions, and make reasoned choices among those solutions;

·         D. analyze and synthesize information from a variety of relevant sources and use the results to address complex situations and problems;

·         E. defend conclusions using relevant evidence and reasoned argument;

·         F. reflect on and evaluate their critical thinking processes.

 

Managing Information

·         A. access and/or generate information from a variety of sources, including the most contemporary information services;

·         B. evaluate information for its currency, usefulness, truthfulness, and accuracy;

·         C. organize, store, and retrieve information efficiently;

·         D. reorganize information for an intended purpose, such as research projects;

·         E. present information clearly and concisely, using traditional and contemporary technologies.