First Year Writing and Rhetoric, PWR 1150, sections 74 and 90 http://www.colorado.edu/ArtsSciences/PWR/ Instructor: Sally Green Office: Stadium 266B Enter through Gate 11, go up stair 111, turn right, then enter the first door on your left into the 266 suite of offices Office Hours: T and R, 11-12:30 Phone: 303-492-7290 Email (generally faster replies than phone): [email protected]
Texts
Required
“RIOT” Library Tutorials http://ucblibraries.colorado.edu/pwr/tutorial/home.htm Knowing Words, PWR-CUBoulder This text, custom-designed for the 1150 course, we will use in every stage of the class. In particular, it provides thought-provoking examples of student work in a variety of assignments you yourself will complete in the class. Your papers, copied and circulated for class discussion.
These I will provide: or are linked to our D2L site: Extract from Everything’s an Argument, Lunsford, Ruszkiewicz, Walters, Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2010 This text will deepen our understanding of the persuasive use of the rhetoric. Markowitz, Ezra M. and Azim F. Shariff. Climate change and moral judgment. Nature climate change. March 28, 2012. This text will give us analytical tools to apply to other reading, to assess their rhetorical persuasiveness on issues related to climate change, and to apply to the persuasive website assignment. Animation of themes from Markowitz and Shariff and student videos from Inthegreenhouse.net. We will use this adaptation of the academic article to evaluate the impact of visual and auditory rhetoric versus print. The student videos will inform our discussion of visual persuasion, leading into the website assignment. Extract from Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion, Cline, Portfolio, 2012. This text will give us a preliminary example to examine together in light of the analysis of Lunsford, et. al, and Markowitz and Shariff’s maxims. Various readings from Grist website. Data Commentary chapter from Academic Writing for Graduate Students, Swales and Feak, Michigan, 2004 This chapter teaches the graceful and accurate integration of quantitative information in the form of charts and graphs into academic text. Various shorter handouts
Recommended
“Who Speaks for the Climate?” a lecture and discussion, Max Boykoff, UMC Aspen Rooms, Thursday, September 13, 3-4 p.m.
Rresources for writing conventions: The Purdue University OWL (on-line writing lab): http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/ The Colorado State University Writing Center: http://writing.colostate.edu The Oregon State Resource Center: http://cwl.oregonstate.edu/Webresourcespage.ht ml Silva Rhetoricae http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Silva.htm http://viz.cwrl.utexas.edu/ a website and blog about the study of visual rhetoric
Course Description
This section of 1150 is a service-learning section. Service-learning is an educational approach that combines class work with community work in order to deepen your educational experience and give you the opportunity to apply what you are learning in “real world,” community settings. In this course you will choose a local non-profit organization with which to volunteer 15 hours, based on your own social/political/community interests.
“Reflection is the hyphen in service-learning.” Janet Eyler Your written reflection assignments will help you to explore and express your personal responses to your “fieldwork” in a variety of creative and thoughtful ways, connecting your “gut reactions” to the experience of your service learning to the academic research you conduct about the same issues. In return, your community work will itself constitute research that will allow you to engage with your academic work in a new way, through the wide variety of voices and texts you will encounter. Your academic writing assignments will provide you with the opportunity to expand and clarify your knowledge and understanding, to connect academic research and theories from the classroom with fieldwork, and to interrogate in your writing the social and cultural forces that have led to the problem with which you are working. You will also write the plans for, design, and create a small website for a civic audience. In the last part of the semester, your service projects will inform your assignment in oral rhetoric: oral presentations in which members of the class present their community work and ways in which fellow classmates can become involved. In support of this wide variety of rhetorical tasks, we will address the basics of logic, including the analysis of logical fallacies and various modes of argumentation. In addition, you will learn fundamentals of visual rhetoric, including effective methods of communicating information through charts and graphics, and the basics of data commentary, the language used to elucidate those visual aids.
Thematically, we will begin the course by exploring challenges to the sustainability of the environment due to pressures from our consumption-based economy and culture, a contributing factor to many of the social issues you may encounter during your service- learning. Through this thematic lens, during the first weeks of class, you will learn about various kinds of written, visual, and oral rhetoric modes of persuasion. We will use class lectures and handouts to enable your acquisition of the vocabulary and concepts surrounding the study of rhetoric. We will examine and analyze websites, animations, short videos, infographics, and academic texts that address the challenges of sustainability. We will also read and discuss examples of rhetorical analysis of various of these texts.
Course Objectives
The aim of the course is to help you:
1. Write with fluency; to acquire a practical and reflective understanding of the writing process Throughout the semester, you’ll use a variety of strategies of writing—researching, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading—to help you refine your own writing process. One of the most important strategies that you’ll practice is workshopping each other’s writing. A regular part of our class time will be devoted to small- and large-group workshops in which you will read and critique each other’s work. The benefits of this workshop approach are two-fold: as a writer, you receive a range of responses to your work and, as a reader, you learn from reading and critiquing your peers’ writing.
2. Develop rhetorical knowledge, making informed choices as you adapt your writing to the needs of your audience, to a specific context and situation, and for a particular purpose We’ll begin by analyzing the rhetorical situation in a variety of texts— that is, we’ll ask questions about the relationships among the text, writer, audience, and context, and we’ll discuss how these relationships shaped the writer’s choices. Then you’ll apply this rhetorical knowledge by writing in different genres and for different audiences, adapting the voice, tone, format and structure of your writing to meet the needs of your audience. We’ll also discuss the ethical use of rhetoric—if rhetoric is a form of power, what are our ethical responsibilities as writers?
3. Become a proficient reader, approaching texts with a writer’s awareness of craft and a critic’s ability to interpret and respond to a text’s meaning and effects We’ll explore texts that come from a variety of sources (both scholarly and popular, for example) and from a variety of media (traditional print, video, websites, etc.). You’ll be asked to read critically: to recognize the rhetorical strategies an author has chosen—both in format and content—that invite the audience to interpret the text in a particular way. We’ll also discuss how the same text may be interpreted in different ways.
4. Develop strategies of research that will enable you to become an active investigator of your culture You’ll learn about research technologies available here at CU (on-line databases, electronic books and journals, bibliographic software, etc.) through a library seminar. More importantly, we’ll discuss how to evaluate a source for accuracy, relevance, credibility, reliability and bias by examining the source’s rhetoric and rhetorical situation. These skills are crucial for developing information literacy. In other words, as part of this course, you’ll learn how to seek, evaluate, use, design and share information for a variety of purposes. (See Knowing Words Chapter 3 for more information on information literacy.)
5. Understand and apply conventions of standard linguistic usage, including proper grammar, syntax, punctuation, and spelling as you compose, revise, and edit your writing across a range of rhetorical tasks and genres. Because this is an academic course, in most of your major assignments you’ll be expected to use a writing style and tone that is considered appropriate for a general academic audience. However, you’ll also write in a variety of civic genres for other audiences, so you’ll need to think carefully about how to adapt your writing for the rhetorical situation at hand. In addition, you will interact with each other on our course blog, which will require you to choose an appropriate style for an online, academic (not Facebook!) setting.
These five course goals express the PWR’s commitment to preparing you for the other kinds of reading and writing you will perform in your other classes. They also fulfill the course criteria given to all state institutions by the Colorado Commission on Higher Education, the governmental body that contributes to the policies for college education in Colorado. At the end of this class, you will be equipped with an understanding of the elements of the concept of rhetorical situation and its application to narrative, analytical, and persuasive writing for diverse audiences that you can carry with you into other writing and speaking situations, both in your academic and professional careers and your life as a citizen. Course Methodology
1. Attend class. Because much of this class is conducted as a participatory workshop, you must attend regularly. You may miss three classes with no harm to your grade. Each absence after three will lower your grade by one level (a B to a B-, for example). More than six absences will result in an F for the course. Students who miss two classes during the first two weeks will be administratively dropped. It is particularly important that you be here for your scheduled workshop time. You may not make up in-class work that you miss. Consistent late arrivals or early departures will be counted as absences. Enrolled students who do not attend first two classes will be dropped so that other students may enroll. Please note this attendance policy.
2. Participate, with rhetorical sensitivity, both in writing and verbally. Be prepared at every class meeting to discuss your classmates’ work or assigned readings. Respond thoughtfully to blog post questions and post your carefully proofread responses in a timely manner. All students are expected to respond to every draft assigned to them for feedback, whether online or in face- to-face workshop. You will learn appropriate norms for this type of discourse and I will periodically evaluate your annotations. Notice that a participation grade reflects your mental rather than simple physical attendance, the quality of your blog posts rather than their simple existence. Please turn off and put away cell phones and other electronic devices as soon as class begins.
3. Reading Assignments. Post your response to readings in the time frame assigned. Print out, annotate, and bring to class all assignments to be discussed in class. Reading online and then “remembering” what you’ve read will rarely be adequate for the level of analysis in which we will engage. The cost of printing this course’s readings is far less than that of a typical university textbook.
4. Written Assignments. Assignments that are attached to the course D2L site should all be double-spaced, saved with your name in the title, in a format which can be readily opened. (Posts, of course, are single-spaced.) Printed-out work should be typed, double-sided, page-numbered, and double-spaced. Papers which are more than one page long should be stapled before being brought to class. Following these directions prevents a host of difficulties and wastes of time in class. Leave margins in which I can make comments. If you don’t turn in your work, we can’t workshop it. Late drafts will be given last priority; if you turn in your drafts late, you may miss your opportunity to receive help from the class. I do not accept final papers of which I have seen no rough drafts. I do not accept late final papers except under unusual circumstances.
Assignments
Visual Rhetorical Analysis (5%) Annotated Bibliography (5%) Causal Analysis I (10%) Website Assignment (15%) Causal Analysis II (15%) Written Reflections (10%) Service Work, all hours documented (15%) Oral Presentation (10%) Participation, written (includes discussion posts, in-class assignments, Data Commentary assignment, and RIOT tutorial) 10% Participation, verbal (5%)
Grading Guidelines
Grading guidelines are the same for all sections of PWR 1150. Remember that effort does count, because you invariably learn from your efforts to improve. However, your grade reflects the quality of your work, not the amount of time or effort you put into it. The difference between an A and a B paper is usually a matter of depth of topic, quality of analysis, and stylistic choices. Since excellence is rare, you should not expect an A unless you have earned one. All assigned work must be completed to pass the course, including early drafts.
Here are some general benchmarks:
Written work
90-100: Consistently insightful; opinions are clearly stated and backed up with sufficient evidence; style is graceful and error-free.
80-90: Some genuine insight here and there; opinions are mostly clearly stated and demonstrated, though there may be a place or two where more evidence or detail is needed; writing style is generally clear, though there may be minor, non-recurring grammatical issues. 70-80: There may be some insight here and there, but, generally the paper consists of ideas that have already been discussed by others or are self-evident; as a general rule, the evidence lacks detail and depth; there may be recurring grammatical or stylistic issues.
60-70: Only marginally meets the criteria for the assignment; lacks focus, and thus depth.
0-50: Formless, incoherent, or not turned in when due.
Participation
90-100: Excellent participants are always prepared for class and offer their insights freely. (This does not mean they dominate class discussion; they are more discreet than that.) Moreover, they understand the strengths and weaknesses of the paper at hand, and consistently suggest ways to make the author’s point clearer and/or more persuasive. As well as always being in class and turning everything in on time, they are noted as excellent critics by their classmates.
80-90: Above average participants are usually prepared for class. Regularly, they offer their insights. They often understand the strengths and weaknesses of the paper at hand and usually suggest ways to make the author’s point clearer and more persuasive. They are noted as good critics by their classmates. They rarely miss class and generally turn all assignments in on time.
70-80: More often than not, average participants are prepared for class. Occasionally, they will offer their insights freely, but usually they wait to be called on. These critics may have some trouble discerning the strengths and weaknesses of the paper in front of them; thus, they may not be sure how to make it clearer, more interesting, or more persuasive. They are noted as average critics by their classmates.
60-70: Below average participants are generally not prepared and generally do not participate in class discussion. They have difficulty determining the strengths and weaknesses of the work in front of them. They are noted as below average critics by their classmates.
0-50: These critics are not prepared and do not participate in class discussion.
Writing Center
We are fortunate on this campus to have a Writing Center which is nationally recognized for its leading-edge excellence. Invaluable one-on-one help with your writing is available. Please remember to make your appointments for assistance in a timely manner, as the Center is very popular with students, particularly in the last half of the semester. Do note that they do not provide a simple proofreading service, but are there to help you will all aspects of executing and refining your written work. http://www.colorado.edu/PWR/writingcenter.html
Academic Conduct
All students of the University of Colorado at Boulder are responsible for knowing and adhering to the academic integrity policy of this institution. Violations of this policy may include: cheating, plagiarism, aid of academic dishonesty, fabrication, lying, bribery, and threatening behavior. All incidents of academic misconduct shall be reported to the Honor Code Council. Students who are found to be in violation of the academic integrity policy will be subject to both academic sanctions from the faculty member and non-academic sanctions (including but not limited to university probation, suspension, or expulsion). Other information on the Honor Code can be found at http://www.colorado.edu/policies/honor.html and at http://www.colorado.edu/academics/honorcode/
Notes
If you speak English as a second language, you should contact me before the third class meeting so that I can better assist you in the course, advise you about special ESL courses, and/or refer you to appropriate services on campus.
If you qualify for accommodations because of a disability, please submit a letter to me from Disability Services in a timely manner so that your needs may be addressed. Disability Services determines accommodations based on documented disabilities. Contact: 303- 492-8671, Willard 322, or www.Colorado.EDU/disabilityservices.
Campus policy requires that faculty make every effort to deal reasonably and fairly with all students who, because of religious obligations, have conflicts with scheduled exams, assignments or required attendance. Please inform me within the first two weeks of class if you require alternative arrangements in order to complete coursework due to religious obligations. See University policy details at http://www.colorado.edu/policies/fac_relig.html . Students and faculty each have responsibility for maintaining an appropriate learning environment. Those who fail to adhere to such behavioral standards may be subject to discipline. Professional courtesy and sensitivity are especially important with respect to individuals and topics dealing with differences of race, culture, religion, politics, sexual orientation, gender, gender variance, and nationalities. Class rosters are provided to the instructor with the student's legal name. I will gladly honor your request to address you by an alternate name or gender pronoun. Please advise me of this preference early in the semester so that I may make appropriate changes to my records. See polices at http://www.colorado.edu/policies/classbehavior.html and at http://www.colorado.edu/studentaffairs/judicialaffairs/code.html#student_code.
The University of Colorado Policy on Sexual Harassment applies to all students, staff, and faculty. Any student, staff or faculty member who believes s/he has been sexually harassed should contact the Office of Sexual Harassment at 303-492-2127 or the Office of Judicial Affairs at 303-492-5550. Information about the OSH and the campus resources available to assist individuals who believe they have been sexually harassed may be found at http://www.colorado.edu/sexualharassment/.
All students of the University of Colorado at Boulder are responsible for knowing and adhering to the academic integrity policy of this institution. Violations of this policy may include: cheating, plagiarism, aid of academic dishonesty, fabrication, lying, bribery, and threatening behavior. All incidents of academic misconduct shall be reported to the Honor Code Council ([email protected]; 303- 725-2273). Students who are found to be in violation of the academic integrity policy will be subject to both academic sanctions from the faculty member and non-academic sanctions (including but not limited to university probation, suspension, or expulsion). Other information on the Honor Code can be found at http://www.colorado.edu/policies/honor.html and at http://www.colorado.edu/academics/honorcode/.