This course is intended to improve your writing skills. These skills will be crucial to your success at the university and afterwards whether in your job or in the pursuit of further education. But writing skills are also important in less obvious ways: good writers are also good readers and good critical thinkers. And the ability to the read well and think critically will also be of great value to you at George Mason, in your future career and in your personal life. Accordingly, this course will consistently link the skills of writing with those of reading and critical thinking. This is what you'll get from the course. What you'll need to give is a readiness to treat writing like any other skill, such as piano-playing or tennis, that requires concentration, discipline, and practice, practice practice. And if you do so, you'll find that, besides being hard work, writing can be rewarding and fun.

About the link to Anthropology 114. This composition course is part of the Linked Courses Program, which associates courses so that you can more easily make use of insights in one course for the other. Thus I hope that on the one hand the reading and writing skills you learn in English 101 will help you to better understand the course material and concepts in Anthropology 114. And on the other hand, I hope that Anthropology 114 will provide us with interesting material to read and write about. It is important to note, however, that while this course will share readings with Anthropology 114, it is not an extension or section of that course. Our focus in this course is on writing, and we will generally be treating the readings from your anthropology courses as examples of writing to be read, emulated, and evaluated.

Course requirements: Reading responses, quizzes, in-class writings, four essays, a prospectus and an annotated bibliography.

Course Schedule (readings--and especially topics--are subject to change. I will give warning, however). Due dates are in boldface.

Note: the due dates for the readings from Anthropology 114 on this syllabus (AN, Thomas, Kingston and Belmonte) are the due dates for this course, not Anthropology 114. You may well need to re-read accordingly to accommodate the due dates for this course or for your anthropology course.

 

Date	Readings	Tentative topics, events, due dates
M Aug. 30		Course Introduction
W Sept. 1	AN, #s 1, 2, 3	What makes good writing?
W Sept. 8	BG, chp. 2, "Writing from Observation," pp. 33-50  AN, #s 4, 5 and 11	Telling a good story  In-class writing 1 (a story)
M Sept. 13	BG, "Strategies for Generating Ideas" pp. 360-374; "Grouping Your Ideas" and "Outlining," pp. 381-390, "Making a Start Enjoyable," pp. 392-395  Thomas, chps. 1-4	A writer's style  How stories make points  Brainstorming  Essay 1 assigned (narrative)
W Sept. 15	BG, "Cutting and Whittling," pp. 439-445; Elements, pp. 18-20 (II.14 and 15); 23-24 (II.17)  Thomas, chps. 5-7	Revision: sentences (eliminating wordiness; revising for "forms of "to be")  Revision technique  Handing in a college paper
M Sept. 20	BG, "Read Critically," pp. 120-123; also, BG, introduction to part two, pp. 98-108  AN, # 8; Thomas, chps. 8-9	Finding and making arguments (theses, paragraphs, topic sentences and transitions)  Note-taking in books  Note-taking in class  Essay 1 (narrative) exchanged
W Sept. 22	BG, "Paragraphing" and "Using Topic Sentences," pp. 395-99;  AN, #9 and 10; Thomas, chps. 10-12	Finding and making arguments (more on paragraphs; also, audience and tone)  In-class writing 2 (summarize an argument)
M Sept. 27	Thomas, chps. 13-14	Discussion of Thomas and The Gods Must be Crazy  The Gods Must be Crazy (video)  Essay 2 assigned (summary)  Essay 1 (narrative) due
W Sept. 29	BG, "Giving Examples" and "Providing Details," pp. 413-414; H-126 to 134; Elements, pp. 21-23 (II. 16) 71-72 (V.4); 76-78 (V.6-9)  Thomas, chp. 15 and Epilogue	How Thomas ends her book--and why  Revision: word choice  Studying for an exam
F Oct. 1	(No 101 class meeting; 114 meets)	Conferences (in Robinson A 422)
M Oct. 4	AN, #S 12, 13, 14 (No 101 class meeting; 114 meets)	Conferences (in Robinson A 422)  114 Exam
W Oct. 6	AN, #s 15, 16, 17 (No 101 class meeting; 114 meets)	Conferences (in Robinson A 422)
M Oct. 11	Fall Break
W Oct. 13	BG, "Finding a Research Question," pp. 668-672; "Generating Ideas," pp. 674-682; "Starting a Working Library," pp. 684-686  AN #s, 18-21	Library Research: GMU and Aladin electronic card catalogs  Prospectus assigned  Annotated bibliography assigned  Essay 2 (summary) due
M Oct. 18	BG, "Finding Sources in the Library," pp. 686-701; "Finding Sources on the Internet," pp. 701-707  AN #s 22-24	Library Research: Finding books in the library  Other library resources
W Oct. 20	BG, "Evaluating Sources," and "Taking Notes," pp. 717-727, "Avoiding Plagiarism," and "Incorporating Source Material," pp. 727-31; 737-745; "Citing Sources, APA Style," pp. 811-20  AN #s 25-26	Other library resources  Evaluating Sources  Using and Citing Sources: paraphrase, evaluation and synthesis
M Oct. 25	BG, "How to State a Thesis," pp. 378-379; "Revising for Structure," pp. 434-435; "Achieving Coherence," pp. 407-411  AN, #s 27-29; Kingston, chps. 1-2	More on research papers (quote integration)  Revision: theses, paragraphs, topic sentences and transitions  A writer's style  Prospectus due
W Oct. 27	BG, pp. H-106- 110; Elements, 26-28 (II.19)  Kingston, chp. 3	Literary critical analysis  Family and gender in Kingston  Revision: sentence structure (parallel structure)
M Nov. 1	Kingston: chp. 4	Literary critical analysis  Family and gender in Kingston  In-class writing 3 (on Kingston)
W Nov. 3	Kingston, chp. 5	Literary critical analysis  Family and gender in Kingston  Revision: developing your prospectus  Research paper assigned  Annotated Bibliography due
M Nov. 8	BG, pp. H-111-119; Elements, pp. 32-33 (II.22)	Revision: sentence structure (coordination and parallelism)  114 Exam
W Nov. 12	AN, #s 30-33	Rituals  In-class writing 4 (on rituals)
M Nov. 15	AN, #s 34, 35, and 6 (not 36)  Belmonte, chp. 1	A writer's style  Revision: theses  Strategies for reading difficult material
W Nov. 17	Belmonte, chps. 2-3	Belmonte's Naples  Essay 3 (research paper) exchanged
M Nov. 22	Belmonte, chps. 4-5	Belmonte's Naples  Revision: theses, introductions and conclusions
W Nov. 24	Belmonte, chps. 6-7	Belmonte's Naples  Revision: more sentence revision  Essay 4 (evaluative essay) assigned  Essay 3 (research paper) due
M Nov. 29	BG, chp. 11, "Evaluating," pp. 245-264)  Belmonte, chps. 8-9	Belmonte's Naples  In-class writing 5 (on Belmonte)
W Dec. 1	Belmonte, Epilogue	Revision: supporting arguments and evidence  Essay 4 (evaluative essay) exchanged
M Dec. 6	AN, #s 36-38	Belmonte's epilogue
W Dec. 8	AN #s 39-40	Essay 4 (evaluative essay) due  Wrap up
M Dec. 15		114 Exam

 

Course policies:

Readings:

The readings for each class are due on the date listed above. It is essential for your work in this course that you approach each assignment actively by always reading with a pen or pencil in hand. Underline or note in the margins of your book any words, phrases, sentences or ideas that interest you, that seem significant in the context of the work, that provide examples of particularly good or bad writing, or that you have questions about. This practice will help you come prepared to discuss the reading in class and get the most out of class discussion; it will also help you become a more skillful reader of texts and a better writer.

Participation and Attendance:

One of the benefits of a composition class is that they are typically relatively small. If you are in other, larger classes that consist mainly of lecture, in this class you will be able to join in active discussion with other students. Additionally, we will often work together on our writing, either in pairs, groups or as a whole class. Class participation will not be formally calculated into grades, but I will take it into account for grades that are borderline. If you aren't in class, you can't participate, nor will active class participation wholly excuse excessive absences. Absences from class will also necessarily reduce your reading response, quiz and in-class writing grades (see below).

Reading Responses:

The reading responses are meant to help you to read carefully, to prepare for class discussion and to aid you in finding starting points for your essays. A reading response should either ask a question about or observe some aspect of the reading that is not answerable by a fact. For example, a question about what kind of tree Thomas describes the bushmen climbing would not be appropriate, since this question is easily and objectively answered, but why she is interested in writing about this tree-climbing, what in particular she focuses on when she writes about it, or the style in which she renders it would all be legitimate topics for your response. So too would objections to an argument or to a writer's style. You might also wish to speculate about how your question or observation would matter for other moments in the text, or why it seems an important matter to consider. A reading response of about a half page to a page will be required for each day's reading, and collected at the end of class (the responses need not be typed). I will frequently begin class by asking some of you to read out your responses. I will read all your responses and grade them on a credit/no credit basis. They will get credit if they are turned in at the end of class and meet the criteria above. Grading will be based on the number of no credits: 0-3=A; 4-5=B; 6-7=C; 8-9=D; 10 or more=F. I will also use responses to keep track of who was in class for a particular day, so if you were in class but did not do a response (say it's not so!) let me know you were there. If you are absent you may not make up a reading response.

Quizzes:

Quizzes will pose questions about the day's assigned reading that are objectively and readily answerable if you have read attentively. They will be given irregularly. If you are absent you may not make up a quiz.

In-class Writing:

In-class writings are short essays that I will occasionally ask you to write in class. They are meant to stimulate your thinking about the reading, to prepare you to write your essays, and to help you get used to doing the kind of in-class timed writing that you will likely find yourself doing in essay exams for other courses at George Mason. If you are absent you may not make up an in-class writing.

Paper Deadlines:

Each of the essays, with the exception of essay 2, will be due twice: the first time in class at the paper exchange scheduled one week after each paper is assigned, and the second time one week following that. During the exchange you'll have a chance to trade papers with fellow students and raise questions or give each other suggestions for revision. You'll have the second week to revise your paper, based on this input and on your own rethinking and rewriting. The second week after the paper is assigned both the revised and original version of the paper will be handed in to me. I hope that this system will build revision, so necessary to good writing, into the structure of the course.

I'll grade the paper on basis of the revised version only, but I will expect the original version to be your best initial attempt at the topic. Original versions not done, not typed or obviously incomplete will result in a half letter grade reduction in the evaluation of the final paper. It would not be fair for other students to have to read work that is not your best; additionally, it is in your interest to write as good an original version as possible, so that your second version is even better. Remember that because everyone has two tries at the paper, I will accordingly have higher expectations for the final version.

Please note that there will be no opportunity to revise the paper for a new grade after it is handed into me, so take advantage of the revision process and all the help you can get with it before you turn your paper in!

Late papers: You need to have your first paper done on time so that you can work on it in the paper workshop. I also expect that the final versions will be handed in on time. Late final versions will be graded down a half grade for each day late.

Paper Standards (final and first versions):

Each essay should be typed with standard margins, spacing and type size. It should be carefully proofread and neatly presented. Use a paper clip or staple to fasten the pages of your essay (never hand in loose pages or uncut computer paper). Do not hand your paper in in a folder or any kind of plastic cover or binder.

In addition to handing each assignment in on paper, I would also like an identical copy of all your assignments on computer disk. Having this copy will help me to reproduce selections of your writing for revision workshops in class. The disk can be either Windows or Macintosh platform. Use one disk with your name on it for the whole semester. See the handout "Saving Your Work to Disk for English 101" for further details on how to do this.

Paper Helps:

During the scheduled workshops, you'll have a chance to give and get advice on your papers. Additionally, I encourage you to come see me at my office hours or to make an appointment to see me. When we meet, try to have a draft of the paper you are working on. This will give us something more concrete to talk about. There is also available a Writing Center at Robinson A116 that can provide you with further individual attention to your writing. I encourage you to take advantage of this excellent facility.

I would also suggest that you give yourself plenty of time to work. Writing a paper at one sitting is, for most people, unpleasant, and the results are not likely to be satisfactory. Start early!

Plagiarism:

When consulting secondary sources for the research paper, you must cite, using the APA citation format, all the articles, books or other sources that your own writing draws on, either directly or indirectly. Most other assignments in this class will not require the use of secondary sources, but if you decide to consult them, you must cite them as described above.

Also note that uncited sources will constitute plagiarism even if they ended up in your work without your conscious knowledge (e.g. you forgot you read the material; you confused your own notes with notes on a source), since part of the scholarly responsibility that comes with using secondary sources is keeping track of which words or ideas were yours and which came from a source.

I will take all suspected cases of plagiarism to the Honor Committee.

Grades:

The final grade will be derived as follows:
 
 
 

Reading Responses	8 %
Quizzes	6 %
In-class writing	6 %
Essay 1	10 %
Essay 2	10 %
Essay 3	25 %
Essay 4	15 %
Prospectus	5 %
Annotated Bibliography	15 %

While I will gives grades of C- and below on your assignments, the lowest grade you can receive in this course and pass it is a C. If your final average is below a C, you will receive no credit for English 101 and will need to take it again.

Note: failure to complete any of the assignments, or missing more than 14 reading responses, will result in an automatic no credit for this course.

Please come see me if you have any questions about grading, the syllabus or the class. I look forward to having the chance to meet you. Best wishes for a good semester!