WR 121

"There is no royal path to good writing; and such paths as exist do not lead through neat critical gardens, various as they are, but through the jungles of the self, the world, and of craft."

--Jessamyn West

Anselm Keifer--"Winterlandschaft" (1970)

Mount Hood Community College

College of Arts and Sciences

Division of Languages and Literature

WR 121, sec 05, spring 2007—English Composition

MWF 12-12:50, AC 1506

Brandy McKenzie, instructor

email: mckenzib@mhcc.edu

website: http://mysite.verizon.net/res1ryso

office hours 11-11:50 MWF and by appt.

Prerequisite: WR 115 with a grade of C or better, or suitable performance on the writing placement test.

Required Texts:

Hairston, Maxine, John Ruszkiewicz, and Christy Friend. Scott Foresman Handbook,

Compact Version. New Jersey: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2005.

Kirszner, Laurie G., and Stephen R. Mandell. Patterns for College Writing, 10^th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006.

Welcome to Writing 121, the first in a series of required writing courses at MHCC. In this class, we will principally be focusing on the techniques of the writing process which best enable critical reading and critical writing. I will use the assigned readings to stimulate discussions not only on contemporary themes, but also concerning the mechanics of what makes written communication persuasive and powerful. Accordingly, our class meetings will require you to think and speak with a critical foundation, in response to a variety of selected readings and to the discussions they engender. In order to lay the groundwork for such a foundation, we will look at issues of audience, of example, of language, and of style, amongst others. Most of your out of class work will consist of essays and responses, exercising the skills you have learned in class.

Assignments will include:

4 long essays of at least 4 full pages each, 1 of which will be a revision.These essays are the fundamental projects of this class. You will have the opportunity to workshop the three original essays during scheduled peer review days in class, and you may choose which one to revise, but you must participate in all peer reviews. Please bring at least 3 copies of your first draft to these reviews; one copy will be for me, and the others for your classmates. Your revision grade is wholly separate from your grade on the original submitted paper.

2 personal essays at the beginning and end of the term. These will serve as a diagnostic and as your final. Both will be graded.

Freewrites and homework will be turned in weekly and will focus on one of the aspects of writing under discussion during that week’s meeting. Freewrites will have minimum lengths as set by me when giving the assignment, and may be handwritten.

Three peer reviews will be performed by the class to allow feedback on early drafts of papers.

Your grades will be tallied in the following manner, translated to a standard grading scale:

Long essays 50%

Freewrites, homework, etc. 25%

Short essays 10%

Peer Critiques 5%

Participation 10%

Please note that your participation is a separate issue from your attendance. The class will be structured around a discussion format, so every voice counts. Therefore, as this is a class which meets three times a week, you will only be allowed three absences; every absence after that will take 5 points off of your final grade. Any instance of tardiness longer than fifteen minutes will count as an absence. Late papers and assignments for which you have not received an extension from me before the due date will lose 10% of their grade--or one letter grade-- for every day they are late. Please note that points are taken off for every calendar day, not every class meeting, and therefore turning in a paper even one week late will give you a maximum score of 30 points.

A note on academic honesty: Failing to credit the ideas and words of others is a serious matter and may result in failure for the course or other disciplinary actions. To avoid these consequences, credit your sources carefully with in-text documentation and a bibliography. We will discuss the methods of doing so in class, but if you still need any clarification at all, please ask me.

I am available by appointment and by email for any questions you may have regarding the course.

Tentative schedule (subject to instructor’s discretion)

4/2--Introductions, syllabus, and discussion

4/4--Discuss: “Introduction: Reading to Write” (Patterns, pp.1-12)

“How Do You Read and Think Critically?” (SF Compact, 53-58)

4/6--Discuss: “Chapter One: Invention” (Patterns, pp. 13-35)

Thesis handout/workshop

4/9--Diagnostic essay due (Topic: What is the thing you have read which has held the most significance in your life? Why is it so important to you?)

Discuss: “Chapter 5: Description” (Patterns, pp. 143-150)

“Ground Zero” (Patterns, pp. 162-165)

4/11--Discuss: “Chapter 4: Narration” (Patterns, pp. 83-93)

“Finishing School” (Patterns, pp. 101-105)

4/13--Freewrite due; Homework due, description or narrative (Either choose a photograph and write a one page description of that image or write a brief narrative about your first job. If you choose the description, please include a copy of the image with your homework. 1 page.)

Discuss: “Shooting an Elephant” (Patterns, pp. 125-131)

4/16-- Discussion: Choosing a Topic, How to Peer Review

“How Do You Find and Explore a Topic?” (SF Compact 8-15)

4/18--1^st Long essay due; peer review (Choose one of the essays we have read and

write a persuasive response to one of the ideas we brought up in discussion. Further details will be discussed in class. These are the same basic instructions to be used for all the long essays, with variations noted. For this first long essay, you may also choose to further develop one of your homework assignments.)

4/20--Discuss: “Chapter 9: Comparison and Contrast” (Patterns, pp. 387-406)

4/23-- Discuss: “Swollen Expectations” (Patterns, pp. 425-431)

4/25— Discuss—“Chapter 8: Cause and Effect” (Patterns, pp. 327-343)

4/27— Freewrite due Discuss “Thirty-Eight Who Saw Murder Didn’t Call the Police”

(Patterns, pp.120-123)

4/30— Discuss: “Chapter 12: Argumentation” (Patterns, pp. 555-581)

“How Can You Write Powerful Arguments?” (SF Compact, 59-68)

5/2— Discuss: “Debate Casebook: Does Media Violence Cause

Societal Violence?” (Patterns, pp. 669-694)

5/4— Freewrite due; 2^nd Long essay due; peer review (Using a thesis and evidence as

your tools, evaluate the cause and effect or comparison present in one of the

essays we’ve read since your last essay was due.)

5/7— Media discussion (television)

5/9—Homework due (bring in recording and lyrics of a song of your choice; make

enough copies of the lyrics to distribute to the class)

Media discussion, cont. (music)

5/11-- Discuss: “Organization in Visual Texts” (Penguin, pp. 17-25); “Critical

Viewing/Visual Fallacies” (Penguin, pp. 70-73)

Freewrite due

5/14— Media discussion, cont. (advertisements) (movie)

5/16—Homework due (Bring in a copy of an advertisement which is

selling more than simple its ostensible product. On a separate sheet of paper, note the company, the product, where you found the advertisement, what audience it is geared for and efforts are made to appeal to them, and what else the advertisement might be selling.)

5/18— Freewrite due; ; Homework due (Choose one side in a debate currently in the

news and bring in an article which you feel supports your point of view)

5/21— Documentation workshop

Discuss: “How Do You Use MLA Documentation? “ (SF Compact, 405-458)

5/23— Discussion: “Strange Tools” (Patterns, 743-747)

5/25— Freewrite due; Discuss: “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (Patterns, pp. 570-584)

5/28—No Class; MLK Day

5/30— Homework due (Identify specific passages in “Letter from

Birmingham Jail” which employ inductive reasoning and deductive reasoning)

6/1— Discuss: “A Modest Proposal” (Patterns, pp. 676-685)

6/4— Discussion: Satire/ “Modest Proposal,” cont.

6/6— 3^rd Long essay due; peer review (The third essay should again be a thesis essay written in response to the discussions held and essays read since Long Essay #2, but should also include some sort of support from outside the essays themselves.)

Freewrite due

6/8— Discuss: Revision strategies

Final revisions are due on Wednesday, 6/13, between 12 and 12:50 in AC1506. Please include peer reviews and the original graded version of the essay.

LINKS

---A site dedicated to watching out for egregious images of women in advertising--

http://www.about-face.org

---Another site about gender and advertising--

http://www.genderads.com/