English 101: MTA & MTB
Draft Course Schedule
The schedule of readings will almost certainly change during
the course of the semester, depending on the interests in the class. We
may not discuss all readings in class, but you should be prepared to
discuss the readings if and when they come up in class discussions.
Week 1: Aug 29-31
Hacker section C1-3 (Planning, Drafting, Revising).
William Speed Weed "106 Science Claims" (271)
Week 2: Sept 5-7
Hacker C4 (Writing paragraphs) and S1-7 (Sentence Style).
Michael Specter "Miracle in a
Bottle" (228)
Week 3: Sept 12-14
Hacker G1-6 (Grammatical Sentences)
Jared Diamond "Twilight at Easter" (41)
Definition Essay due Sept 14
Week 4: Sept 19-21
Hacker P1-7 (Punctuation)
Bill McKibben "Crossing the Red Line" (143)
Week 5: Sept 26-28
Hacker R1 (Conducting Research). GMU Library databases.
Robert Kunzig "20,000 Microbes Under the Sea" (125)
Movie Night: March of the Penguins
Week 6: Oct 3-5
Hacker R2 (Evaluating Sources)
Timothy Ferris "Stumbling Into Space" (64)
Review Essay due Oct 5
Week 7: Oct 12
William Langewiesche "A Two-Planet
Species?" (141)
Ian Parker "The
X Prize" (202)
Week 8: Oct 17-19
Hacker R3 (Managing
Information; Avoiding Plagiarism)
Jeffrey O'Brien "To Hell and Back" (193)
Annotated Bibliography due
Week 9: Oct 24-26
Peer Review Oct 24
Hacker R4 (Documentation Styles)
Week 10: Oct 31-Nov 2
Research Assignment (joint assignment
with Bio 103) due Oct 31
Jennifer Kahn "The Homeless Hacker vs the New York Times" (115)
Movie Night: Grizzly Man
Week 11: Nov 7-9
Jenny Everett "My Little Brother on Drugs" (53)
Sherwin Nuland "Getting in Nature's Way" (174)
Week 12: Nov 14-16
Hacker C5 (Constructing reasonable arguments) and C6 (Evaluating arguments)
James McManus "Please Stand By While the Age of Miracles is Briefly
Suspended" (157)
Week
13: Nov 21
Connie Bruck "Hollywood Science" (8)
Thanksgiving Break
Week 14: Nov 28-30
Oliver Sacks "In the River of Consciousness"
Carl Zimmer "Whose Life Would You Save?"
Week 15:
Dec 5-7
Persuasive Essay peer review
Persuasive Essay due
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