Philosophy and Literature East and West

English Composition 101 Syllabus Course Description:

English Composition 101 is a writing intensive course that prepares students for all levels of academic discourse. Emphasis is placed on the art of persuasion, on the development of students’ critical thinking skills, and on key rhetorical concepts such as audience, purpose and voice. Students learn the various steps to the writing process, from brainstorming to final revision, and learn the importance of writing coherent, unified organized essays that are fundamentally and mechanically sound. Though primarily a writing course, English Composition 101 also helps students see the connection between reading and writing. In addition, students learn the art of academic research and documentation.

Course Objectives:  To teach students various writing formats  To teach students the art of persuasion  To teach students how to form and develop a thesis  To teach students the various steps in the writing process, from brainstorming to final revision  To teach students to think critically  To teach students key rhetorical concepts, including voice, audience, and purpose  To teach students to collaborate and to review the work of peers  To teach students to see the connection between reading and writing  To teach students research and documentation skills  To teach students to write essays that are fundamentally and mechanically sound  To prepare students for most types of academic writing

Minimum Requirements:  6-8 compositions  Research paper  Close reading of at least 15 essays or short works of literature

Text: The Norton Reader, Twelfth Edition. New York: W.W. Norton, 2008.

Syllabus Structure: Great Ideas and Enduring Questions

Each of the six units below introduces a question central to human experience that has provoked response from writers and thinkers over many centuries. Each unit is designed to last two weeks. The first week concentrates on readings that can serve to sharpen critical thinking skills through discussion and response. The second week allows time for conducting workshops on the students’ essays and discussing additional essays that further reflect on the central question of the unit. To supplement the content of any unit, I may invite students to bring in newspaper or magazine articles or other readings that put the central question in a contemporary light. Weeks 1-2

Identity: What Does It Mean to Be Human? Wk Topics Readings Assessments 1  Personal Identity  Paul Theroux, “Being a Man” (223-6)  Gender  Scott Russell Sanders, “Looking at Women” (226-36)  Race  Anna Quindlen. “Between the Sexes, A Great Divide” (241-3))  Culture  Amy Cunningham. “Why Women Smile” (262-7)  Life & Death  Thomas Lynch, “The Bang and Whimper and the Boom” (317-23) 2  Introduction to  Sonia Shah. “Tight Jeans and Chania Chorris” (335-9) Essay one Rhetoric  Adam Goodheart. “9.11.01: The Skyscraper and the Airplane” (303-9)  Brent Staples. “Black Men and Public Space” (396-8)  Marjorie Agosín, “Always Living in Spanish” (532-4)  John Donne, “No Man is an Island” (596)  Elizabeth Kubler-Ross, “On the Fear of Death”

Weeks 3-4

Learning and Language: What is the Purpose of Education? Topics Readings Assessments 3  Literacy and Education Literacy  Frederick Douglass. “Learning to Read” (428-32)  Eudora Welty. “Clamorous to Learn” (432-7)  Richard Rodriguez. “Aria” (517-22)  Adrienne Rich, “Taking Women Students Seriously” (487-93)  Benjamin Barber, “America Skips School” (457-67) 4 Education Essay two  John Holt. How Teachers Make Children Hate Reading (449-57)  Caroline Bird, “College is a Waste of Time and Money” (467-75)  William Zinsser, “College Pressures” (481-7)  Maxine Hong Kingston, “Tongue-Tied” (513-17)  Plato. “The Allegory of the Cave” (1128-31) Weeks 5-6

Memory, Imagination, and Expression: Why and How Do We Interpret Experience? Activities Readings Assessments 5 Life and Sensation Personal Experience Essay three  N. Scott Momaday. “The Way to Rainy Mountain” (182-8))  George Orwell. “Shooting an Elephant” (852-7))  E. B. White. “Once More to the Lake” (93-8))  Alice Walker, “Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self” (69-75)  Nicholas Kristoff, “Saudis in Bikinis” (340-1) 6 Literature, Art, and Film  Terry Teachout, “The Beatles Now” (popular music) (1115-20)  John Updike. “Little Lightnings” and “Moving Along” (painting) (1085- 90)  Scott McCloud, “Understanding Comics” (1091-7)  Aaron Copland. “How We Listen” (music) (1121-5)  Katha Pollitt, “Does a Literary Canon Matter?” (1046-1053)

Weeks 7-8 Nature and Technology: How Should We Live in Our Environment? 7 Man and His Relation to Nature and Environment Midterm Exam Nature  Aldo Leopold. “Marshland Elegy” (643-7); “The Land Ethic” (733-40)  Mary Oliver, “Waste Land: An Elegy” (648-50)  Edward Abbey, “The Serpents of Paradise” (623-9) 8  Margaret Atwood. “True North” (199-209)  William Cronon, “The Trouble With Wilderness” (651-4)  Allison Wallace, “The Work of Honeybees” (629-36) Weeks 9-10 Freedom, Power, and Justice: What Is the Individual’s Relationship to Government? 9 Man and Government Classic Essays and Speeches  Machiavelli. “The Morals of the Prince” (865-71)  Stanton. “Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions” (879-81)  Swift. “A Modest Proposal” (858-64)  Twain. “A War Prayer” (1135-38) 10 Essays that reflect on or challenge existing forms of government Essay 6  Becker. “Democracy” (518)  White. “Democracy” (521)  Lincoln. “Second Inaugural Address” (881-3)  Whitman. “The Death of Abraham Lincoln” (803-10)  King. “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (892-905)

Weeks 11-12 Truth and Belief: How Do We Know Right from Wrong? 11 Life and Values Essays on ethics  Mark Twain. “Advice for Youth” (677-9)  Levin. “The Case for Torture” (689-91)  Rauch. “In Defense of Prejudice” (680-8)  Bai. “He Said No to Internment.” (831-3) 12  Writing Workshops Seeking a larger vision Essay 7 and Peer Review  Tisdale. “We Do Abortions Here: A Nurse’s Story” (747-57)  Gordon. “A Moral Choice” (740-7)  Arendt. “Deportations from Western Europe” (826-30)  Paul Fussell. “Thank God for the Atom Bomb” (763-75)  Gourevitch. “After the Genocide” (839-45)

Weeks 13-14 The Varieties of Religious Experience: Aspirations Toward the Divine 13 The Spiritual Life  Langston Hughes. “Salvation” (1139-41)  Jean-Paul Sartre. “Existentialism” (1209-18)  Annie Dillard. “Sight into Insight” (1190-1201) 14  Writing Workshops  Henry Thoreau. “Where I Lived and What I Lived For” (1164-73) Essay 8 and Peer Review  Martha Nussbaum. “The Idea of World Citizenship in Greek and Final Exam Roman Antiquity” (1174-88)  Gilbert Highet. “The Mystery of Zen” (1201-9)

Research Weeks 1-4

For a four-week block of time, we will do a research project on a current issue, to be determined.