EN 111-05: College English

English 111: College Reading and Writing Winona State University Fall, 2006

Section 19 (001898) M&F: 9:00-9:50, W: 8:00-9:50 Minné 362 Instructor: Rob Brault E-mail: [email protected] Phone: 457-5449, home: 452-5993 (8 am - 9 pm, please) Office: Minné 315 Office Hours: Mon, Wed, & Fri: 10:00-11:00 a.m., noon-1:00 p.m.; and by Tues & Thurs: 8:30-9:30 a.m.; 2:00-3:00 p.m. appointment This course satisfies four s.h. of the University Studies Basic Skills: College Reading and Writing Requirement.

Course Description and Outcomes The purpose of College Reading and Writing is to help WSU students increase their critical reading, thinking, and writing skills. The course will help students develop a mature writing style and an ability to integrate material from multiple sources with their own writing. The course will further emphasize writing as essential to academic learning and intellectual development. This class is designed to establish a foundation for the reading and writing done in later college courses, supporting a larger writing-across-the-curriculum educational experience; therefore, students should take it as soon as possible, preferably in their first year and certainly no later than their third semester. This class must include requirements and learning activities that promote students’ abilities to… 1. read challenging texts that reflect important cultural themes and demand critical thinking; 2. analyze the rhetoric and structure of their own and others’ arguments; 3. summarize and critique examples of mature expository and argumentative prose; 4. revise through multiple drafts and critical readings to create and complete successful essays; 5. formulate intelligent claims and make purposeful, appropriately documented use of authoritative sources as supporting evidence; 6. make use of basic tools of research, such as general indexes, periodicals, and on-line databases; 7. construct coherent essays based on reading, interpreting, analyzing, critiquing, and synthesizing texts; 8. adapt the structure, content, and tone of their writing to the knowledge and attitudes of their audience; 9. use vivid, concrete language; concise, varied sentences; unified, cohesive paragraphs; gender- inclusive English; and a college-level vocabulary; and 10. proofread, edit, and correct their final copy for common errors of spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and usage. Course Content: We will be practicing the steps in the writing process in four major assignments. These revised papers will increase in complexity, requiring you to expand your knowledge and to refine your techniques of presenting that knowledge to a critical (resistant) reader, culminating in a research paper for an academic audience. Much of your reading will be of drafts produced in this class (yours and other students’), as we will be using a workshop approach. Course Materials: textbooks, photocopies of drafts, handouts, printouts, calendar, file folders, laptops, software (MS Word, etc.) access to internet, etc.

Texts: 2 /Brault / ENG 111: College Reading & Writing Hacker, Diana. A Pocket Style Manual. Bedford St. Martins, 2003. Nerburn, Kent. Neither Wolf nor Dog: On Forgotten Roads with an Indian Elder. rev. ed. Novato, CA: New World Library, 2002. Verburg, Carol. The Environmental Predicament: Four Issues for Critical Analysis. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s P., 1995. Wilhoit, Stephen W. A Brief Guide to Writing from Readings. 3rd ed. Pearson Longman, 2004. supplemental readings from the instructor Course Requirements: Three major writing assignments will be graded. Brief descriptions of these assignments are listed below. Each assignment will be discussed in detail in handouts and in class. You must turn in rough drafts and final drafts for each of the assignments in order to pass the course. Other writing assignments, such as reading responses or commentary on conference papers, will also be required. Meeting deadlines is absolutely essential to the course. Especially crucial are the conferences and the deadlines for drafts. If you miss a deadline for submitting a draft, you’ll receive (a) no feedback and (b) only partial credit for your efforts. If you miss a conference, it is nearly impossible to re-create this process outside of the class. Late final drafts will be graded down one full grade for each day late. Short of a life-threatening illness or emergency, to turn in a paper late without penalty you must request permission before the due date. Because of the workshop nature of the course, you can’t just get the lecture notes later on; regular attendance is required, expected, and necessary. I expect that you will attend on time and be well- prepared for each day’s work—material read, assignments completed, and brain fully engaged. If you should miss a class session, consult a classmate for the material you missed, do the work required of you, and return well-prepared for the next session. Be aware that neither your classmates nor I can reproduce the content of a class session for you. If for some emergency—mental, physical, familial—you must miss consecutive class sessions, let me know about it in advance. I may be able to give you your assignments in advance or (in rare circumstances) extend course deadlines, but I’m obligated to do neither if I’m notified only after the fact. Chronic absenteeism virtually guarantees failure in the course—just as regular, purposeful participation virtually guarantees higher learning. All papers must be word processed and double-spaced, with one-inch margins. On the first page, provide your own title and a heading with your name, the course number, my name, the date, and your word-count. Provide a header on the following pages (your last name and a page number) and staple the pages together. Show paragraph breaks by indenting the first line; please do not skip a line. When you turn in your final drafts, you will need a file folder to contain all of the drafts (your own and others’) on which you worked. Submit all of your drafts as a hard copy and as an MS-Word attachment via e-mail. Make sure the attachment bears your name as its title. Always keep copies, always back up your documents, and always make hard copies of works in progress. Keep all papers and responses with grades or comments. Grading: Your grade in this course will be based on two components. The product component, about 75% of the final, will include the three grades (A-F) you receive on your finished drafts. The process component, about 25% of the final, will include your responses to readings, the completion of in-class writing, your participation in class, and your performance in writing workshops. Incompletes will be given only in genuine emergencies, and must be arranged before the last day of class. Class Procedures: Much of the reading you do for this class will be of your own texts and the texts of other students. We will be using students’ papers to discuss various elements of the writing process and various writing techniques. You will be developing and taking responsibility for an informed position on various issues, and members of your conference group will be coming to their own unique positions. People will disagree Brault / ENG 111: College Reading & Writing / 3 about conclusions, but the respectful discussion of differing arguments can enrich understanding of the issues we face. We will be using a workshop approach to writing in this class. For this reason, any time a rough draft is due, you will need to bring multiple copies to class. I will set up groups in class on that day. Therefore, if you are absent or do not bring a draft to share, you may not be able to participate in a peer conference. I hope to spend as much time as possible this quarter in writing workshops, because this is when writers learn what the audience understands. English 111 assumes average abilities in spelling, sentence formation, punctuation, and mechanics; we will not emphasize these elements of writing. Make sure that you carefully proofread essays for spelling and mechanical errors; essays filled with such errors hurt your credibility and will affect your grade. If you would like more help in these areas, see me during office hours or check out the Writing Center in Minné 348. From time to time I will ask you to write brief responses to the readings. This will serve two purposes: to encourage you to read and to help me understand where you are in relation to what you need to know. Since you have your time and money to be here, I expect you to take an active role in the class; this means participation. Your absence will be felt. Your presence will be intellectual, responsive, often verbal, and always active. If you have questions, comments, even an argument, speak up; this course exists for your sake, not mine. Papers: these papers will be graded: Comparison: For this three-page assignment (word limit = 800), you will compare (and contrast) ideas from two essays in “What Is Our Responsibility to Other Species?” This will provide practice in summarizing, quoting, and paraphrasing, which will be crucial for later assignments. Selection and organization of important ideas and details will be important elements of this assignment. Critical Analysis: In this four-page paper (word limit = 1200) you will evaluate one of the essays in “What Should We Do About Our Garbage?” After explaining the essay’s thesis, you will analyze how and how well the essay presents justifications for its position on a specific aspect of our garbage situation. This will provide practice in using specific evidence for your own rhetorical purposes. Research Argument: In this eight-page paper (word limit = 2000), you will select a debatable issue and present an argument, with documented evidence, which will convince a critical reader of the validity of your stance. This synthesis of multiple sources is a common college-level task and will combine previously practiced skills such as describing, summarizing, comparing, organizing, analyzing, and synthesizing material you gather through research in and outside of the library. Revision Paper: In lieu of a final exam, you may select any previously graded paper (except the research argument) and revise it. If your paper earns a higher grade, it will replace your previous grade for that paper.

“How do I know what I think until I see what I say?” E.M. Forster 4 /Brault / ENG 111: College Reading & Writing English 111-19: College Reading & Writing 001898 Rob Brault M & F 9:00-9:50; W 8:00-9:50 Fall Semester, 2006 Course Calendar Minné 362

Aug 28 Aug 30 Sept 1 week introductions, syllabus Verburg 1-17, land ethic; Verburg 17-38, endangered 1 e-mail assignment Wilhoit 1-28 species; Wilhoit 69-82 Sept 4 Sept 6 Sept 8 week Verburg 39-63, biodiversity Mississippi readings: see e- Labor Day 2 bring laptops mail; Hacker 113-23 Sept 11 Sept 13 Sept 15 week Comparison pre-writing RD – Comparison Nerburn ix-20 3 Wilhoit 39-56 Wilhoit 57-68 Hacker 127-36 Sept 18 Sept 20 Sept 22 week 4 Nerburn 21-81 Conference – Comparison Nerburn 83-142

Sept 25 Sept 27 Sept 29 week FD – Comparison Nerburn 143-196 Verburg 83-92, plastics 5 Wilhoit 191-98 Oct 2 Oct 4 Oct 6 week Verburg 109-131, Verburg 131-145, Verburg 93-108, landfill 6 recycling, toxic wastes incineration Oct 9 Oct 11 Oct 13 week Verburg 145-155, politics of Wilhoit 95-126 Student Fall Break Day 7 trash, Mississippi readings Library 102 Oct 16 Oct 18 Oct 20 week preliminary draft of critical 8 RD – Critical Analysis Nerburn 197-266 analysis Nerburn 17th-18th Oct 23 Oct 25 Oct 27 week Conference – Critical Nerburn 267-336 Wilhoit 127-155 9 Analysis Oct 30 Nov 1 Nov 3 week Verburg 229-241, rad. ecol.; Library 102 FD – Critical Analysis 10 form research teams Nov 6 Nov 8 Nov 10 week Verburg 241-7, rad. ecol. Verburg 248-259, env. Veterans’ Day 11 preliminary works cited racism, prelim. works cited Nov 13 Nov 15 Nov 17 week Verburg 260-273, green Verburg 286-316, carrying Verburg 314-325, 12 economics; arg. outline capacity, conservation government’s role Nov 20 Nov 22 Nov 24 week 13 RD – Research Argument Thanksgiving Day Holiday

Nov 27 Nov 29 Dec 1 week Conferences on Research Conferences on Research Conferences on Research 14 Argument Argument Argument Dec 4 Dec 6 Dec 8 week Conferences on Research Conferences on Research FD – Research Argument 15 Argument Argument course evaluations

Final Exam (Revision Option): Tuesday, Dec. 12, 8:00-10:00 a.m. Brault / ENG 111: College Reading & Writing / 5