ENGLISH 102, COMPOSITION II.

Spring 2005. MW 3-4:15 PM (sec. 3; Room 3202) or TuTh 4-5:15 PM (sec. 6; Room 3210)

Instructor:  Dr. J. Milicia.  Office: Room 5106. Office hours:  MW 1-2:45; TuTh 3-3:45 PM; or by appointment.  Office phone:  459-6647.  E-mail:  jmilicia@uwc.edu

 

Textbooks and other reading materials:

  • Axelrod and Cooper, eds.  The St. Martin’s Guide to Writing, Short 7th edition. 
  • A subscription to The New Yorker (15 issues): the instructor will collect $9.50 from each of you; issues will be handed out in class as they arrive.
  • Various handouts.

 

Course goals:  Essentially, the course is designed to assist you to become a better writer, especially of informative and argumentative prose, featuring clearly documented research.  The English Department has specified a number of goals in regard to clear and logical thinking and effective communication; this particular course is intended to help you to do the following:

·        Read and listen with comprehension and critical perception.

·        Write clearly, precisely, and in an organized manner.

·        Construct and support hypotheses and arguments, while recognizing fallacies and distinguishing among various facts, values, beliefs and opinions.

·        Gather and document information from printed and electronic sources, and from observation.

Grades:  Your final grade will be based primarily upon the grades received on various major essays (described below).  There will also be a number of short assignments and quizzes which will contribute significantly to your final grade.  In addition, active class participation will raise your final grade, while non-participation—and to a much greater extent, absences—will have the opposite effect.

 

Essay assignments:  An essay will be due at the end of each of the class units described below. 

·        Essays are to be a minimum of 600 words; in the case of the research paper, 1200 words plus an outline-and-thesis-statement page and a Works Cited page.

·        All work done outside of class must be typed, double-spaced.

·        You are encouraged to take advantage of the option of rewriting essays, and may raise your final grade by doing so.  For example, an essay which receives a C might become an A essay in its revised form, giving you a B for your final grade for the project; a C paper which becomes a B will average out to a B-/C+ for the project; if the second version is still a C, you will not get a higher grade just for turning in a revision. 

o       Note:  you must see me in my office to go over the comments/notations on your first version before turning in a revision of the essay. 

o       You need to see me within a week or so after you receive the graded paper back, and should turn in revisions about a week after that. All revisions and late work must be turned in by Monday, May 9, so that it can be returned to you on May 10 or 11 (the last days of class). 

 

Final exam schedule: to be announced.

 

Course Outline

 

Particular dates for assignments will be filled in as the semester progresses. A variety of pieces from The New Yorker will be assigned for reading throughout the semester, but the actual choices will of course depend upon what turns up in each issue.

 

UNIT 1:  Words, Style and Tone:

 

Within this unit we will discuss such topics as dictionaries; denotations and connotations; formal vs. informal English; regionalisms; sexist language, jargon and other undesirable word usage; figures of speech; tone of voice.

 

Readings: will include handouts from Guth’s The Writer’s Agenda (out of print).

 

Essay:  On the special vocabulary used by a particular group of people:  slang, shoptalk or regionalisms. As a first choice, you should base your essay on personal experience. Otherwise, if you use a book, article or website, you must give full documentation of your source(s)--the result of not doing so will be a failing grade.

 

UNIT 2:  Descriptive Writing.

 

The goal of the essay is clear, accurate and lively description supporting an overall thesis about the work being studied.

 

Reading in St. Martin’s:  Ch. 15, “Describing.”

 

Essay:  A description of a CD or LP album cover, with emphasis on development of a thesis.

 

Short research assignment (a pre-UNIT 5 essay): An essay comparing and contrasting an article in The New Yorker with another article on the same subject in another periodical (not a website).

UNIT 3: Writing a Review: an Essay of Opinion.

 

A  “review” may be defined as an essay which describes, summarizes and evaluates, with criteria for judgment clearly implied.

 

Reading in St. Martin’s: Portions of Chapter 8, “Justifying an Evaluation.”

 

Essay: a review--for example, of a new movie, book, concert, poetry reading, restaurant, building, or art exhibit. You must check out your topic with the instructor.

 

UNIT 4:  Argumentative Writing.

 

Emphasis is on how to apply logic and persuasive techniques in writing an effective argumentative essay.

 

Readings in St. Martin’s: Ch. 19, “Arguing,” and portions of Chs. 6, “Arguing a Position,” and 7, “Proposing a Solution.”

 

Essay:  an argumentative essay, attempting to persuade the reader to agree with one side of a controversial issue, or to accept a controversial solution to a particular problem. Range of possible topics will be specified. A minimum of one source, from a periodical (not a website) published within the last month, is required; the article must be fully documented, and a copy of it must be turned in with your essay.

 

UNIT 5:  The Research Paper.

 

Emphasis will be on developing skills in library research and on incorporating material from several sources into a coherent and interesting essay. Note: although the essay will be due late in the semester, we will work in class on research skills at various times, beginning with the first weeks of class.

 

Readings in St. Martin’s:  Ch. 21, “Library and Internet Research”; Ch. 22, “Using and Acknowledging Sources.”  Plus handouts.

 

Essay (1200 words plus title page, outline/thesis statement page, and Works Cited page): 

 

Topic:  The only real limitation is that you must choose an article from The New Yorker as one of your major sources. The article could be on the arts (e.g., writers, painters, musicians, architects, filmmakers—and/or their works), politics, business, science, sports, etc.; your goal will be to tie the article in with other articles and books, to create an interesting essay, which could be primarily informative or argumentative.

 

In addition to the New Yorker article you will need to use a minimum of 3 other sources, not counting encyclopedias (book or CD-ROM), dictionaries, or brief Internet entries.  (You may use these, but not count them as any of the basic four sources.)  At least one of the basic four must be a book, and only one may be a Website (as distinguished from periodical articles that happen to be available online). You may not count more than one issue of any one periodical as one of the minimum four sources (though again, you may use them as additional sources).  All sources cited in the essay (except for the New Yorker article) must be turned in with the essay itself-- preferably, xerox copies of the pages you’ve used, along with any computer printouts, all arranged in an easy-to-follow order, with page numbers visible (even better, with quoted or paraphrased passages highlighted).

You must have the instructor’s approval of your topic before you go ahead with your project, and also approval of a tentative outline and thesis statement well before you complete your final draft.

 

UNIT 6:  Critical Writing: Analysis of Literature.

 

A study of some aspect of a short story from one of your New Yorker issues; emphasis is on developing/arguing a thesis.

 

Reading in St. Martin’s:  Portions of Ch. 10, “Interpreting Stories.” Also, a few short stories from the anthology Black-Eyed Susans will be studied.

 

Essay:  An analysis of some aspect of any piece of fiction in one of your issues of The New Yorker.

 

Final essay, to be turned in on the day of the final exam (or earlier): an analysis/review of some feature of The New Yorker, such as its profiles, editorials, financial page, reviews in one category (book, movie, art, theatre, classical or popular music, architecture, TV—as long as you have several examples to compare), cartoons, covers, or even typical advertisements.

 

(1) A colleague teaching ENG 102 on another campus has the following attendance policy:

 

Attendance Policy, or Saving You from Temptation

I understand that things happen and you have to miss class, even for a mental health day, so you may miss two classes, including those for doctor appointments, illnesses, court dates, weddings, road trips, hangovers, job interviews, inconvenient work hours, auditions and rehearsals, abandonment in strange cities, distressing break-ups, advisor meetings, registration, field trips, and any other reason. Beyond two absences, your final course grade will be reduced by 1/3 of a letter per absence (an A will be reduced to an A- on the third absence, to a B+ on the fourth...), so pop an aspirin and come to class with your sniffles, sore throats, watery eyes, headaches, and emotional baggage, even on your off days. Keep in mind that there’s no difference between an excused and an unexcused absence. In the case of a devastating event such as a funeral or hospital visit that will keep you out of class for a significant amount of time, one of your family members should contact Student Services, which will in turn contact your instructors. I make sure to reward perfect attendance, and I also expect you to take responsibility for your absences and inquire independently about announcements or missed work. I take attendance very seriously because the nature of composition courses is based on their workshop atmosphere, which is why I press you to come to class, contribute to class discussions, draft and revise, and participate in peer critiques.

 

Do you think such a policy should be adopted for this class? Why or why not?

 

(2) Are you looking forward to taking this course? If so, what do you most want to achieve as a result of taking it? If not, what strategies are you planning to use to make the course not just tolerable but meaningful and enjoyable to you?

 

Your response should be about one full page, double-spaced, total.

 

upcoming assignments for 102 –

 

Wed., Nov. 28. Discuss assigned short stories: “The Monkey Garden,” “The Story of an Hour,” “Araby,” and the two student essays on “Araby”; turn in a paragraph comparing the two essays. More assigned stories:  “The Bird Cage” and “Frankie Mae” in Black-Eyed Susans.

 

For Fri., the 30th:  (1) Also read the editor’s introduction to “Frankie Mae,” and “A Happening in Barbados.” (2) Turn in a paraphrase/summary of the paragraph on the history of the department store in your handout on the research paper; include at least one quotation, and add the proper citation.

 

For Mon., Dec. 3: Turn in your tentative thesis statement and outline for your research paper.

 

Wed., the 5th: (1) Turn in your critical essay (see syllabus for specifics). (2) Instead of a regular class, I will have you meet with me individually in my office to discuss your progress on the research paper. I’ll have a signup sheet for you.

 

Fri.: Works Cited page and other details of the research paper.

 

Mon., the 10th: research paper due. You may have until Mon., the 17th, to turn in a revision. (No class, but you can leave the revision in my mailbox.) All other work (late papers, revisions) must be turned in by the beginning of the last day of regular class, the 14th.

Short (1½-2 pages) assignment to prepare you for the longer research paper:

 

Compare and contrast two articles on the same topic: one article taken from one of your New Yorker issues, the other from some other periodical (magazine or newspaper). The articles could be on any sort of topic: something in current events, a famous person, a development in science, sports, etc., or they could be reviews of the same movie, book, art exhibit, etc. You can compare the handling of the topic, the author’s tone or opinion, the depth of the coverage, or many other matters. Don’t choose any article under 300 words long. (Remember that an “abstract,” available online for many articles, is not the article itself.)

 

For guidance, make use of your session in the Library on how to conduct a search. For the non-New Yorker article, you must use one discovered through one of the Library’s databases, not via an Internet search. You may, however, use an article from a magazine or newspaper that you happen upon.

           

When you turn in the essay, please list the issue and the page numbers of the New Yorker article. For the other article, you must turn in the periodical itself, or a copy of the pages, or a print-out of the online version.       

 

This assignment is due at the beginning of class October 14.

 

Short (1½-2 pages) assignment to prepare you for the longer research paper:

 

Compare and contrast two articles on the same topic: one article taken from one of your New Yorker issues, the other from some other periodical (magazine or newspaper). The articles could be on any sort of topic: something in current events, a famous person, a development in science, sports, etc., or they could be reviews of the same movie, book, art exhibit, etc. You can compare the handling of the topic, the author’s tone or opinion, the depth of the coverage, or many other matters. Don’t choose any article under 300 words long. (Remember that an “abstract,” available online for many articles, is not the article itself.)

 

For guidance, make use of your session in the Library on how to conduct a search. For the non-New Yorker article, you must use one discovered through one of the Library’s databases, not via an Internet search. You may, however, use an article from a magazine or newspaper that you happen upon.

           

When you turn in the essay, please list the issue and the page numbers of the New Yorker article. For the other article, you must turn in the periodical itself, or a copy of the pages, or a print-out of the online version.       

 

This assignment is due at the beginning of class October 14.

 

The Research Paper.

 

Emphasis will be on developing skills in library research and on incorporating material from several sources into a coherent and interesting essay.

 

Readings in St. Martin’s:  Ch. 21, “Library and Internet Research,” Ch. 22, “Using and Acknowledging Sources.”  Plus handouts.

 

Essay (1200 words plus title page, outline/thesis statement page, and Works Cited page): 

 

Topic:  The only real limitation is that you must choose an article from The New Yorker as one of your major sources. The article could be on the arts (e.g., writers, painters, musicians, architects, filmmakers—and/or their works), politics, business, science, sports, etc.; your goal will be to tie the article in with other articles and books, to create an interesting essay, which could be primarily informative or argumentative.

 

In addition to the New Yorker article you will need to use a minimum of 3 other sources, not counting encyclopedias (book or CD-ROM), dictionaries, or brief Internet entries.  (You may use these, but not count them as any of the basic four sources.)  At least one of the basic four must be a book, and only one may be a Website (as distinguished from periodical articles that happen to be available online). You may not count more than one issue of any one periodical as one of the minimum four sources (though again, you may use them as additional sources).  All sources cited in the essay (except for the New Yorker article) must be turned in with the essay itself-- preferably, xerox copies of the pages you’ve used, along with any computer printouts, all arranged in an easy-to-follow order, with page numbers visible (even better, with quoted or paraphrased passages highlighted).

You must have the instructor’s approval of your topic before you go ahead with your project, and also approval of a tentative outline and thesis statement well before you complete your final draft.

 

Timeline for the research paper:

 

Wed., Nov. 20: (1) turn in paraphrase/summary of “department stores” paragraph, including at least one quotation, plus proper citation. (2) tell in class what topic you have chosen, in connection with which New Yorker article, and have with you at least one other source.

 

Fri., Nov. 22: turn in tentative outline and thesis statement.

 

Mon., Dec. 2: research paper due.