Course Description
English 102 UW Baraboo/Sauk County
Come,
let us reason together.
Welcome to
English 102! I trust you’ll find this
an enjoyable and productive course--indeed, I hope you’ll find it among the
very most useful courses you take in college.
Every course has
its particular goals, and as a student in this course, you should know what our
goals are and how you’ll be showing me that you’ve achieved them. As a student in our course, you’ll be
expected:
1. to
continue to develop your ability to write clear, coherent, correct, concise,
and, above all, meaningful prose.
2. to
develop your ability to analyze and to construct valid and convincing logical
arguments--inductive, deductive, analogical, and dialectical--and to develop
your ability to analyze and to use non-logical appeals--ethical and
emotional--in persuasion.
3. to
develop your ability to do library research (and perhaps field research)
including defining a topic, locating relevant information, organizing and
integrating this information in support of a thesis, and documenting your
sources.
You’ll show that
you’ve achieved these goals by participating in class discussion, completing
frequent class exercises, answering questions on quizzes and exams, writing
in-class and out-of-class essays, and completing short research papers and
related assignments.
As a student, you
assume responsibilities, including coming to class regularly, preparing for
class, and finishing assigned work on time.
Students who fulfill these responsibilities faithfully almost invariably
succeed in achieving the goals of the course.
This is a course
in composition techniques, and particularly when you’re working on the research
papers, it’s important that you neither get ahead of the schedule nor fall
behind it in order to achieve the right sort of papers in the right way; if
scheduling is complicated for you, see me about it! The assignments leading to the research papers will count
significantly in your course grade.
Your various
assignments will carry point values. As
the semester goes on, the point values will increase so that as you gain skill,
you earn more credit. I’ll translate
your point total into a tentative letter grade at mid-term, and I’ll give you
periodic feedback about the distribution of point totals in the course so that
you can estimate your progress. In
addition, you should know that to pass this course you must demonstrate your
ability to write successfully in class as well as out of class, you must
satisfactorily complete both the research papers and the assignments associated
with them, and you must submit a satisfactory portfolio of your work at the end
of the course.
I want to help
you in any way I can to succeed in our course.
I’ll be glad to meet with you during my office hours:
Monday and Wednesday 3:00-4:00 pm
Thursday 4:30-5:30 pm
or at any other
mutually convenient time. My office is
room A171 in the new wing of the classroom building. If you’re at home, or if you can’t find me on campus, you can
call me at 356-5340 between 9 am and 11 pm.
If no one is available to answer, leave a message on the machine, and I
will get back to you promptly.
David Cole
Professor of English
Lunsford, Andres and Robert
Connors. The New St. Martin’s
Handbook, Boston: Bedford, 1995.
Rose,
Mike and Malcolm Kiniry. Critical
Strategies for Academic Thinking and Writing. 3rd Edition.
Boston: Bedford, 1998.
Students should
bring these texts to class on the days for which the Course Calendar indicates
assignments.
In addition, I
strongly recommend that every students own a recent edition of a standard
college desk dictionary.
Course Calendar
English 102 UW
Baraboo Sauk County
Unless and until I tell you something different in class, this will be our schedule of assignments for the semester. If a class should be cancelled, because of the weather or for any other reason, you should work ahead on this schedule so that we can complete our semester’s work without undue pressure.
September
6 In class: Theme
One, writing sample.
September
8 Read Chapter 1, “Defining” through page 36 of Academic
Thinking and Writing, and Chapter 2, “Considering Rhetorical Situations”
through the middle of page 27 in our Handbook.
September
11 Read Chapter 1, “Defining” from the bottom of page 36 to the
top of page 54 in Academic Thinking and Writing.
September
13 To be assigned. We
will be concentrating on writing with a purpose.
September
15 Read Chapter 5, “Thinking Critically,” through the top of
page 77 in the Handbook and the Argument Analysis handout.
September 18 To
be assigned. We will be concentrating
on the Toulmin model for reasoning.
September 18 is the last day to add a
course.
September
20 Read Chapter 2, “Summarizing” through page 94 of Academic
Thinking and Writing, all of Chapter 3, “Exploring, Planning, and
Drafting,” in the Handbook, and the “Territorial Behavior” and Thesis
Statement handouts.
September
22 Read the sections on Quoting, Paraphrasing and Summarizing in
Chapter 42 of our Handbook, pages 486-492.
September
25 Read the “Sitting Bull” handout and write out the answers to
the questions on the accompanying worksheet.
In class: Theme Two, Impromptu.
September 27 Read
Chapter 2, “Summarizing,” from the bottom of page 94 to the bottom of page 117
in Academic Thinking and Writing.
September 29 Read
the “Being at Two with Nature” handout.
In class we will discuss dialectical reasoning and Theme Three will be
assigned.
October
2 Read Chapter 3, “Serializing,” through page
210 of Academic Thinking and Writing.
October
4 Read Chapter 5, “Thinking Critically,” from the top of
page 76 to the bottom of page 88 in our Handbook. In class we will look at a couple of film
clips and concentrate on deductive and inductive reasoning.
October
6 Read the sections in Chapter 4 of our Handbook
that deal with focus and organization, from the middle of page 56 to the top of
page 59, and Martin Luther King’s “Letter from Birmingham Jail.” Write out the answers to the questions on
the accompanying worksheet.
October
9 Read Chapter 3, “Serializing,” from the top of page 211
to the top of page 231 in Academic Thinking and Writing. Theme Three will be due and there will be a
workshop in class.
October 11 Read the balance of Chapter 42 in our Handbook, pages 476-486, and all of Chapter 43. In class Theme Five, a mini-research paper, will be assigned and there will be a library orientation.
October
13 Theme Five topic working outline and working
bibliography will be due. In class we
will watch a film clip and discuss inferences.
October
16 Read the “Dry September” handout. In class:
Theme Four, impromptu and workshop.
October 18 Read
Chapter 4, “Classifying,” through page 325 in Academic Thinking and Writing. Working outlines and note cards for Theme
Five due.
October
20 There will be a workshop in class.
October
23 Read Chapter 5, “Comparing,” through the middle of page
444 in Academic Thinking and Writing.
October
25 Read Chapter 5, “Comparing,” from the middle of page 444
to the bottom of page 482 in Academic Thinking and Writing.
October
27 Read Chapter 4g,
“Examining Paragraphs, Sentences, Words, and Tone,” on pages 59 to 66 of our Handbook. Theme Five will be due. There will be a workshop in class.
October
30 Read Chapter 6, “Analyzing,” through the middle of page
586 of Academic Thinking and Writing.
November
1 Read Chapter 6, “Analyzing,” from the middle of page 586
to the top of page 623 in Academic Thinking and Writing.
November
3 Read Chapter 41, “Conducting Research,” in our Handbook. In class:
There will be a composition discussion and a second library orientation
session. Theme Six, another mini-research
paper, will be assigned.
November
6 There will be a workshop in the library instead of a
regular classroom meeting. At the end
of the class period a working bibliography and prospectus for Theme Six will be
due.
November
8 Instead of having a regular class meeting, we will meet
for conferences in small groups to discuss working outlines for Theme Six.
November
10 Read Chapter 3, “Thinking Critically,” from the bottom of
page 86 to the bottom of page 101 in our Handbook.
November
13 Note cards for Theme Six are due. There will be a workshop in class.
November
13 is the last day to drop a course without academic penalty.
November
15 Find out – in the reference section of our library and/or in
your psychology or sociology textbooks, or elsewhere – what 1) Sigmund Freud,
2) Carl Jung, 3) Alfred Adler, and 4) Abraham Maslow thought were the principle
motivating forces for human behavior, and write me a page or so summarizing the
views of these four psychological theorists.
November 17 To
be assigned. We will be concentrating
on ethical and emotional appeals in persuasion.
November 20 To
be assigned.
November 22 Read
Chapter 29, “Considering Others,” in our Handbook. Bring your Academic Thinking and Writing
books to class. There will be a workshop
in class.
November 24 is our Thanksgiving Break.
November 27 Theme
Six due. There will be a workshop in
class.
November 29 To
be assigned. In class we will focus on
coherence. The Course Portfolio will be
assigned.
December 1 To be assigned. In class we will focus on economy.
December 4 To
be assigned. In class we will focus on
readability.
December 6 There
will be a composition discussion in class.
December 8 There will be a workshop in class.
December 11 Course
Portfolios will be due.
Balance
of semester to be assigned.
____________ OUR FINAL EXAM WILL BE HELD IN ROOM A4
FROM
1:30 TO 3:30 PM.