This English 306 course encourages you to form arguments in relation to other writers’ ideas, to consider how we know what we know while analyzing how well others explain what they know, and to examine the known and less known cultural stories affecting individuals and society. Additionally, emphasizing the interconnectedness between reading and writing, this course encourages you to view reading as a way of understanding your own and others’ thinking by reflecting on the moves that you make as reader, writer, and thinker. Finally, this course is designed to help you gain reading, writing, and thinking literacy and to help you in terms of thinking critically about the culture in which you live.

During this quarter, you will be asked to listen to the ideas and perspectives of your classmates as well as writers from Inquiry. After careful and thoughtful consideration, you will be asked to respond with your own ideas and perspectives. Through a variety of writings such as responses, reflective commentaries, and assessments about the assigned readings, as well as informal writings about your own opinions, longer essays developed out of your earlier writings, revisions, self-assessments, and peer reviews, you will develop your critical literacy in thinking, reading, and writing by questioning your own views and by considering the views of others. By the end of the quarter, you will have gained experience developing and revising critical arguments, organizing essays around a central theme, and revising and editing your own work as well as the work of others.

Course Objectives

You will write three papers totaling a minimum of 5,000 words. Two of these papers will be multi-draft. In addition, you will write two in-class essays.

Upon successful completion of this course, you will have learned to

1. Gain competence in the primary genres of the respective academic discipline of English.

2. Conduct meaningful research and to incorporate the relevant findings of that research in a properly documented paper that reflect the expectations of scholarly research.

As you write your papers, you will learn to

1. Establish and clarify your purposes, assess your audiences, and adopt rhetorical stances (such as tone, style, diction, and sentence structure) appropriate to the audiences and purposes you have selected.

2. Discover and develop appropriate content for given writing projects, and organize that content coherently and effectively.

Course Materials

Inquiry: Questioning, Reading, Writing. 2nd Edition by Lynn Z. Bloom, Edward M. White, and Shane Borrowman. Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2004. ISBN: 0-13-182371-X. Always bring this textbook to class. http://gettextbooks.com/search/?isbn=0_13_182371_X

Flash drive, CD, or floppy disk

A large notebook or folder in which to keep all of your writing you will do this quarter

A dictionary

Optional Materials

A Writer’s Reference, 6th Ed. By Diana Hacker. Boston: Bedford Books, 2007. ISBN: 0-312-45025-7. Buy this book if you need guidance with writing, grammar, and research skills. http://gettextbooks.com/search/?isbn=0_312_45025_7

You can also get free premium content in instruction on all parts of the writing process at http://www.dianahacker.com/writersref

Course Requirements and Grading Policies

This course is graded on an A, B, C, or No Credit.

A 95-100

A- 90-94

B+ 87-89

B 84-86

B- 80-83

C+ 77-79

C 74-76

NC 73 and below

You are guaranteed a "C" if you have 75 of the 100 points, all of which are based on the following:

Reading, Participation, and Attendance = 20 pts. (Each absence counts ten points against your overall grade; no missed classes guarantees all twenty points.)

Due dates for reading assignments are listed in the syllabus, so you need to complete these reading assignments before coming to class. Also, this type of active involvement will prepare you for our class discussions and paper assignments. If you are not prepared for, and therefore unable to actively participate in class discussions and workshop activities, you will be considered absent from class that day. Two absences (either from nonparticipation, from missing class, or from coming to class at least 60 minutes late) will result in a failing grade. Please note that in-class assignments can not be made up unless prior arrangements have been made.

Reading Response and Exploratory Writings

For reading response journals: After an assigned reading, you will reflect in an "evaluation free" writing journal about the moves that you made as a reader and a thinker. Designed to be an introspective approach to reading, this assignment helps you to understand your own and others’ thinking. During this writing, you should

Write a response to a text.

Construct a reflective commentary on the moves you made as a reader and the possible reasons for them.

Formulate an assessment of a particular text that your reading produced.

For exploratory writings: These include unannounced quizzes and informal writing assignments. Like your reading response journals, you will continue to explore the readings from multiple perspectives. You will also delve into critical questions related to your three multi-draft writing assignments. In other words, your informal responses in these exploratory writings will develop into your formal or academic essays.

Both reading response and exploratory writings are "evaluation free" writing zones in that they are meant as a space for you to think through the readings and writing assignments, in writing, without having to worry about grammar, organization, and other features characteristic to polished presentation final draft writing. Keeping this in mind, you will not turn in these assignments, but your completion of these writing assignments will help you satisfactorily complete this English 306 course.

Assignment One: Multi-Draft Critique Paper (3-4 pages) = 10 points

Evaluate Didion’s article "On Self-Respect."

To recognize the strengths and weaknesses of Didion's approach to defining self-respect and to give you a standard of comparison on which you can base your judgment, you may want to compare her to Douglass, Rose, Rodriguez, Walker, King, or Murray, all of whom view self-respect from varying dimensions. You may also use your personal knowledge of self-respect as a basis of comparison.

Do you agree with her that self-respect is more important than reputation? Why or why not?

Assignment Two: Multi-Draft Analytical Paper (5-6 pages) = 25 points

Write a review of Goodall's, Kuhn's, and Asimov's essays, after which you should elaborate on the following:

Jane Goodall had some difficulty being taken seriously by other scientists. To what degree does Goodall follow Kuhn’s pattern or Asimov’s pattern for scientific creativity?

What might be added to Asimov’s or Kuhn’s descriptions to allow for Goodall’s kind of science to be more readily accepted?

Assignment Three: Research Project (7-10 pages) = 35 points

To make sense of ourselves and of society, we story our pasts, our presents, and our futures; out of these emerge dominant stories that have power in shaping our collective lives. Moreover, our participating in these stories empowers the storytellers be they politicians, commentators, or regular folk. Additionally, subjugated knowledge may also exist, which is especially true with past events. However, with present events, cultural stories are still in the making, thus making unsure what will become dominant and subjugated knowledge.

Choose a topic from the following list: Iraq War, Hurricane Katrina, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center, 9-11 Commission Report, immigration reform, welfare reform, ozone depletion, or global warming. If you have a topic in mind and it is not on the list, you may discuss this alternative topic choice with me before class, after class, or during office hours.

Investigate the event to suggest the story that you now believe should be the story we tell.

Consider outlining two possible stories or substories that are now being circulated. How are these positions present in the language of politicians, commentators, and regular folk? What are people debating about? Of course, it will be easier if you identify one angle or substory about the event you investigate.

Then research to determine which version is, in your opinion, the better, fairer story. To help make your case, you can critique the representations of the event that you find less worthy, as well as find evidence in support of the story you prefer. Make sure to provide your reasons for choosing and writing the story you would promote.

So that you get a broad picture of the evolving scene, you should consult journalistic resources from the left, the right, and the center. If you narrow your substory well, it may be possible to use three good resources: each one from the left, right, and center, from which you can show the different evolving stories and either to suggest which is preferable or to create a possible fourth version.

**To receive a passing grade, you must hand in all three of the out-of-class writing assignments.**

In-Class Impromptu Writing = 10 points (Five points each)

You will take two impromptu essays, each worth five points. These writing assignments will ask you to respond to one of the assigned textbook readings. Using a large CSUSB bluebook during the completion of this writing assignment, you will have two hours.

Self-Assessments and Peer Responses

These assignments, the successful completion of which will count toward your overall grade in your out-of-class essays, are important activities to help you to revise your essays in substantive ways and to help you become more aware of the strengths and weaknesses of your own writing processes.

Assessment of Written Work

Three out-of-class writing assignments and two in-class essays will be assessed in the following areas: meeting the assignments' requirements, exploring the issues thoughtfully and in depth, coherently and logically organizing ideas supported by apt reasons and well_chosen examples, and being generally free from errors in mechanics, usage, and sentence structure.

Writing Center Visits

Per my recommendation, you may be required to discuss your writing with a tutor at the writing center located in UH387, or you may choose to go on your own. Many knowledgeable, interested, and friendly tutors in the center are ready to help. If you are required to go, get a signed slip from a tutor documenting your visit.

Late Paper Policy

All papers are due at the beginning of class on the day they are due. I will not accept late papers unless you’ve made arrangements with me in advance. If your extenuating circumstances warrant an extension, I will give you one. However, you do need to talk to me about it; therefore, we can work out an acceptable plan together, in advance, that will allow you to successfully complete the assignment. Avoid the following unacceptable scenarios:

Submitting paper after the due date without having made prior arrangements

Missing class and then submitting paper the next class

Sliding paper under office door on the day it is due or after

Giving paper to English Department administrative assistant and having the paper placed in my box on the day it is due or after

Submitting the paper by E-mail on the day it is due or after

Making excuses for why the paper is not submitted on time (i.e., file cannot be retrieved from hard drive or was somehow mistakenly deleted or infected by a virus)

ADA Information

If you are in need of accommodation due to a documented disability, please let me know and also contact Services to Students with Disabilities (SSD), located in UH 183 (909-880-5238 or 909-880-5242-TDD)

Plagiarism

The university has strict guidelines regarding this issue: "Plagiarism is the presentation as one’s own ideas and writings of another. Students must make appropriate acknowledgment of the written source where material is written or compiled." Keep in mind the following forms of plagiarism and the consequences for each offense:

1. Cheating: Borrowing, buying, or otherwise obtaining writing composed by someone else and submitting it under your name. Minimum penalty is "F" in the course; the maximum penalty is suspension from the university. Dean of students is notified of the offense.

2. Non-attribution: Writing your own paper but including passages from another work without providing parenthetical notes citing the source and quotation marks or block indentation to indicate exactly what has been copied from the source. Minimum penalty is subsequent revision of the paper to avoid an "F;" depending on the degree of deception, another penalty may be "F" in the course; the maximum penalty may result in suspension from the university. Dean of students may be notified of the offense.

3. Patchwriting: Writing passages have not been copied exactly but have been borrowed from another source. Even though parenthetical notes citing the source have been provided, you have paraphrased the source’s language too closely. Though patchwriting may appear in your preliminary drafts, it is not acceptable in final draft academic writing. Minimum penalty is a subsequent revision of the paper and mandatory tutorial instruction before a grade is assigned to the essay. Dean of students is not notified of the offense.

Final Note

Welcome to English 306! Together we can make this a great class, and I will do everything I can to help you reach the high expectations set forth for this writing class. If you have questions, please contact me before or after class, by E-mail, or in my office. We can work out any questions or concerns that you may have relating to matters of instruction.

Tentative Schedule

June 19: Introduce class. Complete exploratory writing for essay one.

Homework: Begin drafting essay one. Read Douglass page 48, Rose page 53, and Didion page 61

June 24: Bring one copy of essay one and complete self-assessment. Bring three copies of essay one and complete peer reviews (three readers). Complete reading response journal. Discuss Didion.

Homework: Continue drafting essay one. Read Rodriguez page 108, Walker page 328, King page 388, and Murry page 497

June 26: Bring a copy of essay one and complete final draft editing workshop. Complete exploratory writing for essay two. Complete reading response journal. Discuss King.

Homework: Continue drafting essay one; begin drafting essay two. Read Asimov page 142, Goodall page 177, and Kuhn page 193

July 1: Submit essay one portfolio at beginning of class: final draft, exploratory writings, self-assessment notes, peer reviews (three readers), and editing notes. Complete reading response journal. Discuss Goodall, Asimov

Homework: Continue drafting essay two. Read Darwin page 163, Tannen page 203, and Klass page 216

July 3: Bring a copy of essay two and complete self-assessment. Bring three copies of essay two and complete peer reviews (three readers). Discuss Kuhn.

Homework: Continue drafting essay two. Read Gould page 169 and Whorf page 209

July 8: Bring a copy of essay two and complete editing workshop. Complete exploratory writing for essay three. Complete reading response journal. Discuss Gould. In-class essay one. Hint: Writing prompt is based on Goodall page 177

Homework: Continue drafting essay two; begin drafting essay three. Read Singer page 248, Young page 295, and Jefferson page 359.

July 10: Bring a copy of essay two and complete final editing workshop. Bring a copy of essay three and complete self-assessment. Bring two copies of essay three and complete peer reviews (two readers).

Homework: Continue drafting essay three. Read Lincoln page 366, Fitzgerald page 587, and Mead page 654.

July 15: Submit essay two portfolio at beginning of class: final draft, exploratory writings, self-assessment notes, peer reviews (three readers), editing, and final editing notes. Bring one copy of essay three and complete peer review (one reader). Discuss Fitzgerald.

Homework: Continue drafting essay three. Read Milosz page 661, Juergensmeyer page 665, and Annan page 698

July 17: Bring one copy of essay three and complete editing workshop. Complete reading response journal. Discuss Juergensmeyer. Conferencing.

Homework: Continue drafting essay three.

July 22: Bring one copy of essay three and complete final editing workshop. Complete reading response journal. Discuss Mead. Conferencing.

Homework Continue drafting essay three.

July 24: Submit essay three portfolio at beginning of class: final draft, exploratory writings, self-assessment notes, peer reviews (three readers), and editing, and final editing notes.In-class essay two. Hint: Writing prompt is based on Mead page 654