Syllabus
WRD 102
Basic Writing II
SYLLABUS
Instructor: Professor Lorelei Blackburn
E-mail: lblackbu@depaul.edu
Office Location: McGaw 150
Office Phone: 773.325.4588
Inspiration is wonderful when it happens, but the writer must develop an approach for the rest of the time…the wait is simply too long.
—Leonard Bernstein
Course Description:
WRD 102 prepares beginning writers for college-level work by examining the nature of composing processes and the roles played by writers functioning in a community of other readers and writers. By focusing specifically on these issues, reading and writing assignments in this course help students to increase the effectiveness of their writing practices and to develop a sense of confidence in themselves as writers.
Course Goals:
WRD 102 has the following specific goals:
1. Students should become acquainted with the idiosyncratic, recursive nature of writing processes and with some of the specific features of their own writing practices.
2. Students should understand the specific demands made by a writing assignment and should learn methods of finding material and developing ideas appropriate to the assignment.
3. Students should experience writing in a variety of contexts and forms. Writing assignments in this course will include a number of different genres—for example, personal narratives, response papers, analytical/critical writing, reviews/evaluations, interviews, and journals.
4. Students should develop a sense of audience for their written work through peer review of drafts of papers written for this course.
5. Students should become practiced in discovering opportunities for revising their writing to improve its focus, development, organization, and impact.
6. Students should develop their ability to write clear sentences, to use punctuation in conventional ways, and to edit for spelling and grammatical errors.
Required Text and Materials:
To facilitate lively classroom discussions, it is imperative that students remain current with the readings, which are due for the day on which they are listed. Students are required to purchase the following books:
Lunsford, Andrea. The St. Martin’s Handbook. 6th Ed. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008.
ISBN: 0-312-44317-X NEW EDITION
The bookstore will supply a package with Nedra Reynold’s Portfolio Keeping and an e-book version of the handbook.
Blau, Susan and Kathryn Burak. Writing in the Works: Rhetoric, Reader, and Handbook for College and Beyond. Houghton Mifflin, 2007.
ISBN: 0-618-22211-1
Attendance:
Attendance in the course is crucial, and repeated absences will affect a student’s grade. Students can miss three classes with no repercussions; however, for full credit, all assignments must be turned in via e-mail BEFORE the end of the class period missed. In-class work and quizzes cannot be made up. More than three missed classes will result in a point reduction of the final grade. Regardless of the quality of their work, students who miss more than five classes will not earn a passing grade. Promptness is also important, and late students will be marked as tardy. Three tardies equal one absence.
Classroom Etiquette:
Welcome to university. Please keep the following in mind:
1. Please silence cell phones before entering the classroom. Any cell phone use, including ringing, texting, or checking messages, will result in an immediate dismissal from class that day, which will count as an absence.
2. With everyone’s cooperation, we can create a classroom atmosphere that promotes learning and is welcoming, nonjudgmental, and nonthreatening. Behavior that is disrespectful—toward the instructor or toward fellow classmates—may result in dismissal from class that day, which will count as an absence.
Assignments and Evaluation:
Students will earn grades based on the following criteria:
Preparation 5%
Writing Workshop Assignments 10%
Writing Project 1 5%
Writing Project 2 5%
Writing Project 3 5%
Writing Project 4 5%
Mid-Term Portfolio 15%
Final Portfolio 50%
Preparation: The participation grade includes weekly quizzes, in-class participation, and discussion.
Writing Workshop Assignments: Writing workshop assignments will be small and frequent. Some will be in-class assignments such as peer reviews, and others will be homework assignments meant to help students engage in different parts of the writing process.
Writing Projects: Students will write five papers this quarter. Each assignment will be evaluated on the final product, as well as on evidence of multiple steps in the writing process.
Midterm Portfolio: This “mini-portfolio” requires students to select one piece of writing they have done and submit it with significant revision, along with a reflective essay.
Final Portfolio: The cornerstone of FWY is the student writing portfolio, which provides the opportunity for students to demonstrate the degree to which they have achieved the program’s learning outcomes. Writing portfolios necessitate that students keep track of their work (collection), take responsibility for selecting pieces of their writing that represent their achievements (selection), and reflect on their own work in the course (reflection). In this way, students are accountable for their choices; they must consider what they have and haven’t learned; and they must accept responsibility for their role in this learning. This project will be discussed throughout the quarter.
The University Center for Writing-Based Learning
The Center, formerly known as the Writing Center, is an important resource for the first-year writing program. Students will be required to visit the Center twice this quarter—once during the brainstorming process, and once during a later stage in the writing process. When possible, the Writing Center accepts walk-in requests, but the best way to line up help is to use the Center’s online scheduler, which confirms appointments in real time. You may schedule standing weekly appointments or schedule appointments (30 or 50 minutes) on an as-needed basis, scheduling up to 3 hours worth of appointments per week. The Centers’ locations are 250 McGaw Hall (Lincoln Park) and 1620 Lewis Center (Loop).
Disabilities Accommodations
Students who feel they may need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact either of us privately to discuss their specific needs. All discussions will remain confidential.
To ensure that you receive the most appropriate accommodation based on your needs, contact us as early as possible in the quarter (preferably within the first week of class). If you are a DePaul students, make sure that you have contacted the:
• PLuS Program (for LD, AD/HD) at 773-325-4239 in SAC 220, or
• The Office for Students with Disabilities (for all other disabilities) at 773-325-7290 Student Center 307
DePaul University Academic Integrity Policy
DePaul University is a learning community that fosters the pursuit of knowledge and the transmission of ideas within a context that emphasizes a sense of responsibility for oneself, for others and for society at large. Violations of academic integrity, in any of their forms, are, therefore, detrimental to the values of DePaul, to the students’ own development as responsible members of society, and to the pursuit of knowledge and the transmission of ideas.
Violations include but are not limited to the following categories: cheating; plagiarism; fabrication; falsification or sabotage of research data; destruction or misuse of the university’s academic resources; alteration or falsification of academic records; and academic misconduct. Conduct that is punishable under the Academic Integrity Policy could result in additional disciplinary actions by other university officials and possible civil or criminal prosecution. Please refer to your Student Handbook or visit http://studentaffairs.depaul.edu/homehandbook.html for further details.
Miscellaneous
In the unlikely event that class is cancelled, I will send out an e-mail and will have a notice posted, in university letterhead, outside the classroom. Students are still responsible for all work due that day.
Grading Standards
In developing the current First-Year Writing Program, the English Department has specified the features of a C-, or minimally acceptable, first-year essay. Such an essay must demonstrate the competence in both composition and mechanical skills.
Composition Skills
1. Responsiveness. To earn a grade of C- or better, an essay must respond to the assignment. An essay is not acceptable it if avoids or fails to address the subject and issues of the assignment.
2. Coherence. To earn a grade of C- or better, an essay must develop a coherent position or point in both its overall structure and its separate parts as appropriate to the particular genre a student is writing in. An essay is not acceptable if it merely reports data pointlessly or if it lacks a structure that is appropriate to its purpose and genre.
3. Support. To earn a grade of C- or better, an essay must support its positions with clear, convincing evidence. An essay is not acceptable if it fails to present clear, specific, and accurate evidence in support of its main ideas.
4. Appropriate Diction. To earn a grade of C- or better, an essay must use language that is appropriate to its audience. An essay is not acceptable if its language repeatedly ignores or fails to take into account its readers.
Mechanical Skills
1. Mechanics and Spelling. To earn a grade of C- or better, students must be able to write prose that is clear and easy to follow. This means it should be relatively free of errors in spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Given the availability of electronic spell-checkers, an essay is not acceptable if it contains more than a very few spelling errors.
2. Sentence Structure. To earn a grade of C- or better, a student should be capable of writing sentences that are complete and lucid. An essay is not acceptable if it uses sentenced so convoluted that the sense is garbled.