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English
101.015:
WRITING AT GEORGE MASON Spring 2011 Professor Michals Robinson A107 TR 9:00-10:15 Office Hours: TR 12:00-1:00; W 4:30-5:30 and by appointment: Robinson A 428 993-1193 tmichals@gmu.edu Home page: http://mason.gmu.edu/~tmichals Course Overview: You are now a writer at George Mason University. This course aims to help you develop as one by getting feedback on your work from me and from each other, and by reading and discussing some of the most accomplished and most welcoming work by other writers in this community. Two principles are central to this course. First, we will assume that writing is not a transcript of thoughts one has already worked out, but rather a way of discovering and transforming one's thoughts. Second, we will consider revision as a long-term process of fundamentally challenging writing rather than merely polishing it up by eliminating mechanical errors -- although mechanical errors are a barrier between you and your audience, so they are definitely worth eliminating! In the amount of in-class time it devotes to working with drafts of student writing, this course is structured by these two principles. It also foregrounds writing as an active process by working with material from our local, living writers. Course Objectives: By the end of the semester, you should be able to develop your ideas more fully and to present them more powerfully in some of the most common academic forms of writing: the essay, the researched paper, and timed in-class work. You should be aware of your greatest strengths as a writer, and of the problems you will continue to work on in your college career. Laptop Alert: The composition program has won funding for a pilot program to support writing, revising, and researching with technology in class this semester. Tuesdays are our laptop days. To participate in Tuesday classes, you either you need to bring your own laptop computer, or you need to bring your GMU ID and check one out before class from the technology center across the hallway. Grades: Students in ENGL100/101 receive a final grade of A (4), A- (3.67), B+(3.33),B(3.0),B-(2.67),C+(2.33),C(2.0), or NC. These are the only university courses which have NC (No Credit) as a grade option. A grade of N/C reflects the idea that learning to write in an academic setting is a developmental process and that some students may require more time in this development. Since this grade does not appear on the student's transcript or affect the student's Grade Point Average, the student is not penalized for requiring additional time to meet the course requirements in ENGL 100/101. In ENGL 100, ENGL 101, and ENGL 200s, students receive a midterm letter grade based on the work of the first seven weeks of the course. The purpose of this grade is to help students find out how well they are doing in the first half of the course in order to make any adjustments necessary for success in the course as a whole. Instructors calculate letter grades based on the completed course assignments as weighted in the syllabus through the seventh week. The work in the second half of the semester may be weighted more heavily, and so the midterm grade is not meant to predict the final course grade. Students may view their grade online at Patriotweb. Required Texts: Hard-Copy: Kyoko Mori, Yarn: Remembering the Way Home Jack Censer, with the assistance of William Miller, On the Trail of the D.C. Sniper: Fear and the Media Diana Hacker, Rules for Writers 6th edition. On Electronic Reserve: The Stone Fields excerpt and any other readings listed in the syllabus as E-Reserve. Password: For further instructions, please see the E-Reserves on the University Libraries: http://library.gmu.edu/ COURSE POLICIES. Attendance and Participation: You are strongly advised to come to every class, on time, having read the assigned text more than once, having drawn stars, arrows, question marks, exclamation points or any other notation you find useful in the margins by striking or confusing passages, and having written down some questions or insights that you plan to bring up in class discussion. Help: I like talking to students about work in progress, so please come to my office hours or make an appointment to see me with a draft of a project. If you're having trouble getting started with an assignment, I advise you to get help from the Writing Center or from me in my office hours rather than flipping through a random and quite possibly overwhelming selection of electronic or print sources. If you do chose to look at some, you must cite all the articles, books, or electronic sources that your own final work quotes or draws on, however indirectly, using a standard citation format, including a bibliography. You are strongly encouraged to go to the Writing Center (Robinson A116) for help at any stage of the writing process: call 993-1200 to make an appointment in advance. PLEASE NOTE: Hand in your essays in person at the beginning of class on the day they are due. Essays left in my mailbox will be considered late at best and may never reach me at all; essays slid under my office door will be trampled on and considered late. Your work must be typed, double-spaced, proofread, use a reasonable font and have one-inch margins. Always keep a copy of the work you hand in. Unless you have discussed a problem with me before the due date and I have approved a late submission, I will deduct one grade increment for each class period that the assignment is late: for example, and A- essay would become a B+ if it is late one class. After two classes, it becomes a B. Plagiarism: It Can Happen Without Evil Intent: Taking words, phrases, ideas, or any other elements from another person's work and using them as if they were yours is plagiarism. Be sure to fully document any source you use, including introductions to editions of the text or study aids such as Cliffs Notes, following a standard citation format. We will discuss plagiarism in class. If you are ever unsure about this issue please discuss the work in question with me immediately, before you hand it in, because if someone else's words or ideas end up in your writing without being cited you have committed plagiarism, whether or not you intended to deceive. Grading Breakdown: One-page response to Reading by Maxine Hong Kingston (Monday, Feb. 7, 7 p.m., the Meese Room of Mason Hall): 5% Drafts and other work-in-progress: 5% Graded In-Class Essays (analysis of readings): 15 % Family story modeled on “No-Name Woman” (a story a family member told you on purpose) or The Stone Fields (a family story you discovered on your own), with reflection. If you don’t want to write about your family, then please talk to me about adapting this assignment. 3 - 4 pages (900 words): 15% Summary of one chapter from On the Trail of the D.C. Sniper. Do not underestimate the fiendish complexity of the apparently-simple summary! 3 pages (900 words): 10% Research project modeled on The Stone Fields, Yarn, or On the Trail of the D.C. Sniper. This is your goal: to use research to develop a thesis about a connection between your family history and public history, or a thesis about a connection between different generations of your family (The Stone Fields, Yarn) or a thesis about a connection between a specific, quirky activity and some larger experience (Yarn), or a thesis about how the media represented a contemporary event (On the Trail of the D.C. Sniper), not merely to report on what you have learned. Topic Submission 2 pages (600 words): 5%. Bibliography in MLA Format and 3-Page Overview of Sources: 10 %. Working Draft 5 pages minimum: 5% Final Draft 6-7 pages (1800 words): 20% Reflective essay on yourself as a writer. 2-3 pages (750 words): 10 % Since you should think about this one as you go along all semester, here’s the prompt: Choose three aspects of your writing this semester, both in this class and in other classes: something you have done pretty well on from the start, something you have learned to do better, and something you are still struggling with as a writer. In an organized essay, supported by specific examples and quotations from your own writing, describe how each of these elements is visible in your writing, and draw conclusions about how you will proceed as a writer from this point forward. You may write this essay in either the first or the third person. A Note on Grading Standards for Essays: An "F" paper does not satisfy the purposes of the assignment. A "D" paper makes a visible effort to satisfy the purposes of the assignment, but still reads like a draft because of difficulty with writing clear sentences, developing and organizing an argument, and / or using textual support. A "C" paper shows fairly consistent mastery of the mechanics of organization and grammar, and uses textual evidence to support a thesis. A "B" paper shows very consistent mastery of mechanics, and a more thoughtful use of textual support. An "A" paper makes me smile as I read it – it announces that someone has both developed a compelling voice as a writer, and has something to say. |
| Jan. 25: | Introduction.
Diagnostic in-class speaking, listening, and writing:
“Where are you from?”
Ask this question of the person next to you. Get as much detail as possible (Does this question have a simple answer or a complicated one? Where is he or she from geographically? Culturally?). Take notes. Then write one and a half to two pages that answer this question about the other person. |
| Jan. 27: | Discuss
Maxime Hong Kingston, “No-Name Woman”:
This piece
has been hugely influential since its publication in 1975.
What makes it work? What can you steal from
Kingston about writing narrative, description, or analysis?
Answer three questions about the syllabus. Start in-class work on family story project |
| Feb. 1: | Workshop on
family story project – bring at least two possible family
stories. How to tell a story; how to figure out why a story matters. Discuss The Stone Fields: Prologue and first section Concrete description: what specific object or objects do you remember from these sections of The Stone Fields? |
| Feb. 3: | Discuss The
Stone Fields: last
section
|
| Feb. 8: | Discuss
Kingston reading. One-Page
Response Due.
* Last day to drop with no tuition penalty * |
| Feb. 10: | Workshop on family story project – bring at least 5 typed pages; freewriting is fine. |
| Feb. 15: | Workshop on summary of In Pursuit section – bring a draft, at least 2 pages |
| Feb. 17: | Summary of
In Pursuit section is due
Discuss In Pursuit |
| Feb. 22: | First In-Class Essay |
| Feb. 24: | Discuss In
Pursuit
Family story project is due |
| Mar. 1: | Discuss In
Pursuit
2-page topic submission for researched project is due |
| Mar. 3: | No class meeting – individual conferences |
| Mar. 8: | No class meeting – individual conferences |
| Mar. 10: | Second In-Class Essay |
| Mar. 14-20: | SPRING BREAK |
| Mar. 22: | Discuss Yarn |
| Mar. 24: | Discuss Yarn |
| Mar: 29: | Workshop on Bibliography in MLA format for researched project |
| Mar. 31: | Bibliography in MLA format for researched project is due |
| Apr. 5: | Researched project workshop |
| Apr. 7: | Third In-Class Essay |
| Apr. 12: | Researched project workshop |
| Apr. 14: | Working draft of researched project is due |
| Apr. 19: | No class meeting – individual conferences |
| Apr. 21: | No class meeting – individual conferences |
| Apr. 26: | Final Workshop on researched project |
| Apr. 28: | Researched
project is due.
Begin in-class work on reflective essay |
| May 3: | Workshop on reflective essay |
| May 5: | Conclusion Reflective essay is due. |