USFSP ENC 1102 "Sustainable Composition in the Community"
Fall 2009 Syllabus
Dr. Trey Conner
trey.conner@gmail.com
I.M. handle: "rhythmizomenoid"
Office: 119A Davis, M, T 10-11 AM, T 12:15-1:15 PM, R 12:15-1:15 PM
Section 602
CRN# 84603
where: Davis 240
when: M 11-1:50
Section 603
CRN#82979
when: TR 11-12:15
In an attempt to continue on with the theme that Dr. Conner was conveying I decided to "up the ante" a little bit with this video of Hubble Ultra Depth Field in 3D, which is one of the most humbling and profound images ever collected by man, for those who don't know and need a reason to watch the video the Hubble Ultra Deep Field was an image taken by the Hubble telescope by looking at a supposedly empty spot of the sky ,the size of a grain of sand held at arm's length, for ten days straight. What came back from that empty speck of sky was an image containing the light from over three thousand galaxies. - Alexander Snell
Richard Feynman on bongoes!
What follows is the Fall 2009 Syllabus for ENC 1102, Sections 602 and 603. Please read carefully, and post any questions at the bottom of the page.
The following WPA Outcomes for First-Year Composition provide the most compressed description of what you will learn and demonstrate by and through your writing during this semester:
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Students will demonstrate Rhetorical Knowledge by focusing on audience, purpose, context, medium, and message.
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Students will demonstrate Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing by developing writing over time through a series of tasks including finding, evaluating, analyzing, and synthesizing sources into their own ideas, and discussing language, power, and knowledge.
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Students will demonstrate Composing Processes through prewriting, drafting, revising, and editing individually and with peers in a range of composing media.
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Students will demonstrate Knowledge of Conventions by controlling tone, mechanics, and documentation in a variety of common formats and genres.
Gordon Rule Requirement. According to the Gordon rule, you must develop 6000+ words (24 double-spaced, 12 pt. font pages) of polished text in this class. To show that you have accomplished this requirement, at the end of the semester you will turn in a portfolio of a significant representation of your work throughout the semester. In order for you to be able to create this portfolio, you will need to keep every single piece of work you produce in this class. The detailed course description, below, will introduce you to the 1102 way of growing a portfolio.
Course Overview
Focus on Community: civic, university, and (trans)personal
Theme: discourses of sustainability
* Situating the Community: Analyzing, synthesizing, and composing
with sources (McGraw-Hill Guide Chapters 7 & 20)
* Composing the Community: Argument and Persuasion (Chapter 8)
* Adding to the Community: Visual Analysis and Composition (Chapter 18)
* Oral/Digital component (Chapter 17 & 18)
* Reflection (guided reflections appear at the end of every
chapter of McGraw-Hill Guide)
In this course, we will treat writing as a tool for learning and as a tool for communicating. Because we communicate with other humans, it is essential to have other humans respond to our writing—to give us feedback on how well we are communicating. In Composition II, we will focus on, discuss, and write about community along 3 primary lines of inquiry: civic, university, and (trans)personal.
We will treat writing as a process that takes time and feedback. Although I will offer you feedback on your writing, you and your peers will also provide feedback because writers need to hear from more than one person. Indeed, peer writing quickly becomes the "primary text" of the course. Together, we will learn how to tailor our writing for specific readers.
In this course you will write for persuasion - you will analyze and define ideas, texts, and issues, share useful information and novel ideas with specific audiences, and attempt to move someone to do something, such as change their mind. And you will write for inquiry - by putting ideas into different contexts and forms, you will explore problems, evaluate their components, and find (sometimes unexpected!) solutions. We will share our work in oral and digital presentations/compositions, and construct a course portfolio to demonstrate and reflect on the full range of what we learn in the course. Most importantly, you will learn how to build a rhythm and a process for a lifetime of composing.
The requirements of the class include but are not limited to:
Acquire and read the books for the course in time for our discussion of them.
Attend and Contribute to class. More than three unexcused absences will result in a failing grade.
Post at least four significant blog posts per week to this wiki. This means you will need regular and reliable internet access.
Complete a proposal and a semester project in a timely fashion.
Contribute energy to class discussions, exercises, and workshops.
Open a tab for this wiki in your browser whenever you are online
Detailed Course Description
image sampled from the University of Maryland's campus sustainability page
Theme and Focus
Although our interests and interactions are likely to move into different topics, I find it helpful to start with a theme--a conversation starter. The discourses of "sustainability" are broad enough to allow us to pursue innumerable lines of inquiry, while at the same time offering as many opportunities to make connections, and form community. We will query the very idea of community from/through different vantage points: the civic arena, the realm of the university, and in terms of our personal (and transpersonal) experiences of community.
As a foundational course in your undergraduate composition curriculum, this course is intended to introduce you to a "problematic," a tangled set of problems for which the skills of writing and analysis are paramount. Our starting theme and topic create a focus the meets the standards for a worthy topic of discussion: all of us are stakeholders in the discourses responding to global ecosystemic crisis. You are being asked to analyze and contribute usefully to these discourses. Again, we are not strictly bound to this theme, nor will I lecture to you about sustainable thinking/living. Instead, I want you to consider this focus, and this class, as an opportunity to form a commons, a chance to rehearse engaged forms of collaborative writing facilitative of a sustainable composing practice in an interconnected infosphere.
What is sustainability? How does it relate to composition? As practices devoted to the mindful tuning of human habitats to the freedoms and constraints of ecosystems, sustainability begins with the deployment of rhetorical practices for visualizing, mapping, narrating, and advocating specific and informed responses to the issues and problems of any given ecosystem. Such an ecological framework begins with this premise: each one of us must become responsible stewards of life on our planet, and human beings must learn to work together to guarantee a healthy, sane existence for all, today and in the future. Wikia's sustainable community action page builds on this assumption, but also further insists that over-specialization is part of the problem. "Sustainability isn't just something for experts," they say. Rather, sustainability is "about everyone's quality of life and we all have a part to play." At the same time, "sustainability" has become a "buzzword," and a fair amount of critical thinking is required to analyze the rhetoric of sustainability, today. In order to engage the issues that cluster around the concept of sustainability, "non-experts" and experts alike read and write by a rhetorical process of learning and sharing what they learn, as they learn, in writing. In this way, participants change minds and have their minds changed as they form communities of practice. This course will review global definitions, concepts and increasingly noisy discourses of sustainability, and remix them into formal compositions concerning personal and transpersonal growth, problem solving, and practices of civic engagement. We will form groups and compose with new media rhetorical tools to help remix sustainability rhetoric into persuasive compositions, and browse for solutions to problems on our campus, in St. Petersburg, and in diverse communities across the increasingly informatic biosphere.
Graded Work
*process work and participation: weekly wiki'ing and in-class activity (all blogging, linking, tagging, planning, mapping, reflecting, feedbacking, participating in discussion, and peer-grading, in-class and on the wiki): 200 points
*5 polished and formal compositions: 100 points (20 points each)
*final project: 50 points
*portfolio: 50 points
Total possible points: 400
PROCESS WORK
Notice that process work (sustainable composition starts with daily wiki practice!) equals 50% YOUR FINAL GRADE! Of course we want to write and maintain focus on our writing, not simply document evidence of writing, so here's how we will account for and assess of our response-ability to each other as writers:
Daily practice: You will create your own page on our class wiki. Some blog posts will be assigned, while others will be up to you. Either way, you are responsible for 4 posts a week (200 words minimum), and it is best to "grow" these posts a little bit each day. When you blog in response to a particular idea or text, you should include a summary of the idea and/or text and your response. In addition to writing blogs, you will respond to one another’s blogs, and other texts across the world wide web. Response postings should be about 100 words and provide a link to your peer’s posting. After you receive peer feedback, you should then acknowledge this feedback with another post by responding to and working with a point or points that your peer presented. The purpose of this sort of "rehearsal" homework is to encourage you to engage more fully with assigned readings and to be prepared to discuss them in class. If we generate enough feedback, we'll be able to grow engaging and stimulating projects.
Drafts and Conferences: You are asked to participate in oral, written, and electronic peer conferences in which you will read and critique one another’s projects. You will be asked to provide feedback to your colleagues in this class for each major writing assignment. To earn all available points, you’ll need to not only respond to others’ work and their commentary on your work, but also communicate with me about your work (drafts, responses, revisions). Each time a draft is due, you will link it to your course workspace in the class wiki. Members of the class will read and respond to the draft and to each other’s comments. The principle author(s) will make final changes to the draft.
H0mework: Section 602 meets once per week; section 603 meets twice. In order to generate the level of feedback necessary to create a sustainable composition itinerary, each of us will need to post a little bit of writing nearly every day--if we all wait until the hour before class to post our ideas, we will not be able to develop new compositional techniques or grow our projects beyond a basic level. See "Daily Practice," above.
In-Class Work and Participation: To earn full credit for class participation, you need to make a positive contribution to our face-to-face discussions, as well. Such contributions can take the following forms: Asking thoughtful questions and offering comments that move a discussion forward, showing respect for other members of the class—even if you disagree with them. We will frequently engage in small-group work in class so that everyone can benefit from multiple forms of feedback. Writers need thoughtful feedback on their writing if they are to improve their writing skills.
Participation Portfolio: However you decide to structure your wiki space, you will need to save, organize, and display "snapshots" of your wiki's emergence. Ultimately, this part of your wiki presence could consist of (but need not be limited to) daily writings, progress reports, online exercises and draft conferences as well as class discussion, preparation of reading materials, in class assignments, homework, conference preparation, process drafts (on time), oral and written comments from collaborative works, group evaluations, self-evaluations (reflective memos, mid-term assessments, etc.), electronic participation on discussion boards, and documentation of both individual and group presentations. All of this will comprise a significant portion of your final portfolio.
From time to time, we will take stock of our daily practice, and revise our informal work into polished compositions, "fit and finished" for specific readers with specific attitudes, understandings, values, and needs. Look ahead at these "unit assignments," and anticipate what they require.
Narrative/Definition/Remix
Writing to Explore*
Writing for College Scenario 1 (p. 133) or Writing for Life Scenario 4 (p.1 35)
Writing to Evaluate (Chapter 9)*
Writing for College Scenario 1 (p. 396)
Writing changes from situation to situation. For example, how do different disciplines define “good writing”? For this assignment, we will reflect on our work so far, and look for connections between our narratives and explorations. Then, we will devise, as a group, a narrow focus for this unit. Then, each of us will explore one academic discipline and discover its definitions of good writing. The most challenging task in this assignment is developing a list of criteria for evaluating whatever or whomever you are evaluating. It will be important to work with peers to develop the most appropriate evaluative criteria. Finally, we will work with these different evaluative criteria in action, bringing them to bear on the specific concepts, components, and issues that comprise our selected topic.
Writing to Solve Problems*
Working alone or with a group, create a solution to a community problem.
ReMEDIAtion
Remix your best work or the work of a peer into a different medium, or a different genre or format, or for a different audience.
Course Portfolio
(cf. McGraw Hill Guide Appendix A; Portfolio Keeping)
image sampled from FSI ENC 1101 wiki, tweaked slightly by ShareRiff.
During this semester you will assemble an electronic portfolio. Even though the final portfolio is not due until the end of the course, you will work on this project throughout the entire semester. Wiki allows infinite space for emergent composing processes; the portfolio is a way to make sure your writing and learning is available for people beyond our class. The portfolio will include a cover letter in which you analyze what you have learned this semester as measured against the aforementioned course learning goals. Essentially, your assertion in the portfolio cover letter is this: “Here are the skills and knowledge that I have learned this semester, and here’s the evidence that I have acquired these skills and this knowledge.” Note that the evidence will be crucial, and you should draw on all sorts of sources to find that evidence—for instance, your journal/blog/wiki-presence, excerpts from formal/unit assignments, notes from peer-group discussions, internet chats with the collaborators in your group, and any other record of your effort. You will turn in a draft of your portfolio at mid-term with a mid-term reflection to make certain that you’re on track.
Portfolios and Program Assessment
Please be aware that all portfolio materials should be considered public writing. Electronic portfolios will be collected and used to assess USFSP's first-year composition program. Although these documents are public, individual students will not be identified in the program assessment. In addition, electronic portfolios may be used in composition research. Please review and complete the Student Permission Form for Portfolio Research. Although you may opt-out of the portfolio research via the student portfolio permission form, all portfolios will be collected for program assessment. If you have any questions about this form, your portfolio, or who will have access to your work, please let me know.
Grading Policies
Not all work in this class will receive a grade. For some work, you will merely receive participation points; for others, you will receive feedback. Your final grade for this class will be determined by the quality of the portfolios you turn in at the end of the semester. However, you should be prepared to turn in all work you have done on any given project at any time, especially when you are asking for a tentative grade in the course.
A and B are honor grades, and they reflect active class participation, leadership in your own education, and attention to detail. I believe everyone is capable of A work, but it is work that takes both time and resources.
Attendance. You are expected to be in class because much of the significant work for the course is done during class--planning, drafting, group work, discussing samples, and practicing a variety of strategies—and missing class hurts not just you, but the entire class. Please read the section on Student Rights and Responsibilities, below, for exact numerics of the attendance policy. You must be in class to turn in papers, and you must have your work to participate in class activities. You have a responsibility to participate fully in your own education.
Information Management. All of your work in this class must be available to be posted electronically. Please back up everything you write for this course. Information technologies carry a trace of instability, so it is always good to have redundancy in your writing process: make copies and put them in different places! If you need more information about backing up, please see me or talk with your classmates.
Computer Labs. To find a place to work on campus, consult Campus Computing.
Formal Compositions. Formal assignments will be graded on a rubric like the basic one below. Each major assignment will have additional criteria underneath each main heading.
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Grading Criteria
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0—No attempt
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1—Incomplete Attempt
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2—Needs Attention
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3--Satisfactory
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4--Effective
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5—Highly Effective
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Rhetorical Knowledge
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Critical Thinking, Reading and Writing
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Composing Processes
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Knowledge of Conventions
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Peer-calibrated grading
In order to create and sustain a livable writing practice, writers need thoughtful feedback on their writing. In order to guarantee this "critical mass" of meaningful interaction, we will rigorously pursue an evaluation process known as peer-grading for select unit assignments. Response-able and consistent interaction in wiki will help us create rubrics for each assignment, and each student will do an evaluation of each group assignment. We will be well-prepared for this response-ability, as we will frequently engage in small-group work in class so that everyone can benefit from multiple forms of feedback. This "swarm" approach will ensure a steady and ample rate of useful and ongoing feedback on our projects. The professor will, in turn, grade the evaluations, and pay special attention to the written rationales detailing and justifying each evaluation performed. Also, wherever necessary and at his discretion, and in order to protect our commons from both uncritical (and therefore unhelpful) feedback or ad hominem/malicious feedback, the professor will override any "off-the-mark" peer-assigned grades.
These standards build on the WPA outcomes listed above and will help us produce accurate, consistent, and rhetorically-informed assessments of the 4 polished compositions and final projects.
Course Portfolios. The final course portfolios will be graded holistically by a team of writing instructors in a blind review. They will be scored on the following criteria, and the score for the portfolio will count toward your final grade for the class.
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Beginning (1)
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Developing (2)
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Competent (3)
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Mature (4)
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Exemplary (5)
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Rhetorical Knowledge
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Critical Thinking, Reading, Writing
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Composing Processes
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Conventions
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Overall score
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Incomplete Grade Policy. An “I” grade indicates incomplete coursework and may be awarded to an undergraduate student only when a small portion of the student’s work is incomplete and only when the student is otherwise earning a passing grade.
Make-up, Missed Work Policy. We will stipulate deadlines in our class meetings. While in-class work cannot be made up, if you must miss a class, let me know in advance so that we can rearrange draft deadlines. You are responsible for obtaining any handouts or assignments for that class session. Late work will not be accepted.
Examinations. In lieu of a final examination, we will complete course portfolio and particate in a 1101/1102 student showcase.
Student Rights and Responsibilities
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You have the right to do well in this class. You are responsible for earning the grade you want; grades are not “given,” or “deserved,” or “received.” You earn your grade by your performance not only on final drafts but also by participating in groups, drafting and revising documents, and making connections to work outside this class. Please make sure that you ask any questions you have.
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You are responsible for being in class and being in class prepared. It is your right to choose to attend class. If you choose not to attend, there are certain consequences. After the third absence, you will fail the course. If you are more than 15 minutes late to class, you will be considered absent for that day.
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You have the right to a full class period of work. If I am unexpectedly delayed at the beginning of class, you are asked to wait 15 minutes from the beginning of class. If, after 15 minutes, a designated member of the English department has not otherwise notified you, class is dismissed.
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You have the right to prompt feedback. This feedback will come not only from your instructor but also your peers.
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You are responsible for showing all work (from notes to emails to presentation-ready material) you have completed over the course of the semester. Please keep all work (from handwritten notes to email to final drafts) until you receive your final grade at the end of the semester. Delete nothing (especially email) and throw nothing away. Make frequent back-ups of your electronic documents. Failure of technology is not an excuse for late or missing work.
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You are responsible for completing all assignments for the class. You must complete all major assignments and turn in complete portfolios in order to be eligible to pass the class. All presentation portfolio material must be turned in at least twice—as drafts seen by your classmates and me, to meet this requirement.
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You are responsible for finding out what you missed when you are not in class. Get the names, phone #s, and email addresses of at least 3 classmates. Daily agendas are posted on the class wiki with homework assignments. Be sure that you check your email and the wiki page on a regular basis before class, in class, and between classes.
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You are responsible for contacting me when you are absent, have questions, or want to discuss your standing in the class. You may do so during office hours or by email or phone. Emergencies happen, but I can’t do anything to help unless I know about your situation.
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You are responsible for making sure you know what is due when. If you are unsure, ask.
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Because we will be moving at the pace set by the class, some dates may change. Any changes will be announced in class and on the course wiki.
University Policies
Religious Preference Absence Policy. Students who anticipate the necessity of being absent from class due to the observation of a major religious observance must provide advance notice of the date(s) to the instructor in writing.
Accommodation Policy. Students with documented learning and/or physical disabilities in need of accommodation are strongly encouraged to work with Student Disability Services and inform the instructor about any special requirements they may have regarding note taking, reading assignments, and test taking.
Academic Dishonesty Policy. (from USF Undergraduate Catalog
http://www.stpete.usf.edu/ugc/documents/MicrosoftWord-Gr.pdf)
Students attending USF are awarded degrees in recognition of successful completion of coursework in their chosen fields of study. Each individual is expected to earn his/her degree on the basis of personal effort. Consequently, any form of cheating on examinations or plagiarism on assigned papers constitutes unacceptable deceit and dishonesty. Disruption of the classroom or teaching environment is also unacceptable. This cannot be tolerated in the University community and will be punishable, according to the seriousness of the offense, in conformity with this rule.
Penalties for Academic Dishonesty. Penalties for academic dishonesty will depend on the seriousness of the offense and may include assignment of an “F” or a numerical value of zero on the subject paper, lab report, etc., an “F” or an “FF” grade (the latter indicating academic dishonesty) in the course, suspension or expulsion from the University.
Disruption of Academic Process. Disruption of academic process is defined as the act or words of a student in a classroom or teaching environment which in the reasonable estimation of a faculty member: (a) directs attention from the academic matters at hand, such as noisy distractions; persistent, disrespectful or abusive interruptions of lecture, exam or academic discussions, or (b) presents a danger to the health, safety or well being of the faculty member or students.
Punishment Guidelines for Disruption of Academic Process. Punishments for disruption of academic process will depend on the seriousness of the disruption and will range from a private verbal reprimand to dismissal from class with a final grade of “W,” if the student is passing the course, shown on the student record. If the student is not passing the course, a grade of “F” will be shown on the student record. Particularly serious instances of disruption or the academic process may result in suspension or permanent expulsion from the University.
Resources for this Class
Each Other. Successful communicators compose for other people. They write or sketch things out for themselves, muddle about in ideas for a while, and eventually they realize what their main point is in communicating. At some point in this process, they begin to shape their communications for others. If others are to understand what you compose and be attentive to all your fine points, then you have to think about how you shape your text for the particular people you most want to understand your compositions. In this class, we will try to test your texts with the particular audiences you identify, but we will also test them out with each other. This process requires that in this class we develop respectful and thoughtful ways of listening and attending to each others’ communications: I want you to be able to work in the safest of contexts to get feedback on your work in order to make it as effective as possible. Therefore, you will have to get to know others in class and give their work the same respect and attention you would like for your own. Sieze this this opportunity to take chances, to experiment with your writing, and form a creative commons by and through your writing!
My hope is that you will all be invested in the course and the ideas we explore and discover. Investment always involves a certain amount of passion, and therefore, there will be a great deal of give and take in our discussions. As I am sure we will not all share the same views, different opinions should be expressed in a manner that facilitates communication. Because writing is often a personal experience, and explores personal situations, it is imperative that we develop an atmosphere of respect and safety in this class. If at any time you are uncomfortable with the class material and/or discussions, let me know. I expect you to 1) come to class prepared and take pride in the work you do, 2) offer support and encouragement to your classmates, 3) listen to others carefully before offering your opinion, and 4) talk to me outside of class if anything that happens during class bothers you. In order to maintain a productive work environment, I expect you to turn off your cell phone or pager before each class period and refrain from eating, sleeping, reading the newspaper or your personal email, talking outside of group discussion or lectures, and entering the classroom late or leaving early without permission.
The Professor.People who come regularly to office hours usually get better grades in class because they give their work more attention and also are more engaged with it. When you come to office hours, you don’t need to make any special preparations: just come with a question or something on which you’re working. (And if you can’t come during my scheduled office hours, talk to me after class or send me an e-mail to make an appointment.)
Freedom of Speech and Cognitive Liberty. As you will see, classrooms are spaces devoted to free inquiry. This is a rhetorical space, one where composers are response-able to each other: they think and write in response to each other, and not to a preconceived notion of each other. Assume the best in those you study with and be generous with your respect, and you will teach them to respond in kind.
The First Amendment of The United States Constitution
Gender and Pronoun Reference. It is no longer customary to use the masculine pronoun for cases of indefinite pronoun reference, for example, “When a professor grades papers, he is often swayed by a student’s degree of effort.” Instead, style books recommend changing pronouns to the plural form, for example, “When professors grade papers, they are often swayed by a student’s degree of effort.” Some call this practice “gender-fair language.” Others just call it good sense. Regardless of the reason, it is required in this course, so bring your gender-bender sentences to class so we can figure them out together.
Contacting Me. The quickest and most reliable way to reach me is to post to this wiki! You can also find me quickly through e-mail (trey.conner@gmail.com). I check it often. You can even add me as a buddy on AIM--"rhythmizomenoid" is my handle. In an emergency, dial "ShareRiff" on skype and I'll pick up. You can also call my office at 873-4783. If you do leave a message, please leave a number where I can reach you.
Required Texts
The McGraw Hill Guide: Writing for College, Writing for Life Roen, Glau, Maid
ISBN: 978-0-07-249647-5
Portfolio Keeping: A Guide for Students Reynolds and Rice
Additional readings (web links and electronic files) as assigned throughout the semester
Peer Writing
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