English 190.09, Spring 2004, Work

Advanced Strategies for Rhetoric and Research
The Practices of Memory
English 190.9
Spring 2004

Work

Conferences

Throughout the term you’ll be required to meet with me in one-on-one and/or small group conferences to discuss your work and your progress in the course. Missing a conference will count as if you missed a class. Likewise, you will be considered absent if you fail to come to the conference prepared to discuss your work.

Journals

As part of this course, you are required to keep a journal and write in it regularly. The idea behind these journals is for you to reflect upon this course, what you've read, your writing, etc. While some journal entries will be on assigned topics, typical journal entries may do any of the following (and it is fine if a journal entry does more than one of these at a time):

summarize or react to a reading
summarize or react to the material covered in class
draw connections between readings and/or discussion
reflect upon how you write
explore an idea related to class
serve as a log for an ongoing class project
reflect upon your strengths and weaknesses as a writer

The purpose behind these journals is to help you become a more reflective learner and will help provide material for your midterm and final portfolio essays. To this end, journal entries should be dated and given descriptive titles, and they should indicate whether or not they were on an assigned topic.

Journals will be collected regularly. They will not be graded for mechanics, selling, grammar, or content but for thoroughness (though I reserve the right not to give credit to journals which repeatedly violate the spirit of the assignment (i.e. journal entries which are just a few lines, journal entries which clearly have nothing to do with the course, etc.). Plan on spending 5-10 minutes of writing per entry. Journals which average 4 entries/week will receive a grade of B.

Participation

Regular and active participation in class is required and such participation presupposes you have prepared for class by completing both the reading and writing assignments and thinking about them. Your participation grade is made up of four components:

Discussion: I expect you to contribute to class discussion, which will require you to not only read but think about the reading writing assignments. Discussions will be conducted in class both face-to-face and online.
In-class work and simple homework: Such work will build off of reading and writing assignments. The work will often be collected to see that it was done and for comment. Simple homework is different than projects or writing assignments.
Quizzes: We will have a few quizzes throughout the term. Initially, I will use quizzes more as a means to gauge your understanding of course material and such quizzes will often be announced. If need be, unannounced quizzes will be used as a system to reward those who are prepared and punish those who are not. I do not like to use quizzes in this way but will if too few people come to class prepared.
Peer review: During peer reviews you will be responsible for critically reviewing others’ writing as well as having your own writing reviewed. The purpose of peer review is for you to practice critically analyzing writing and to receive feedback on your own work. Both purposes, ideally, will help you develop as a writer. Attendance at and participation in these peer review sessions are essential and will determine part of your grade.

Portfolios and Revised Writing Projects

Shortly before the midterm and the final periods, you will turn in a portfolio and revised writing projects for evaluation. Each portfolio will contain a cover letter and supplementary material. In the cover letter you will evaluate your development as a writer over the course of the term by referring to the supplementary material you include in your portfolio. Such supplementary material will likely include notes, exercises, early drafts, peer-reviews, writing assignments, revised projects, and whatever else you believe useful. Detailed guidelines for the portfolios and revised writing projects will be distributed closer to their due dates.

The midterm portfolio and revised writing projects will not be averaged into your final grade. The purpose of the midterm grade is to allow you a trial run for the final. See the comment on midterm grades.

Readings

You are responsible for all readings listed in the schedule on the date that they are due. You are expected to have read the material and to have a general understanding of the major points and issues. You are expected to bring the material with you to class for reference. This means that you will need to print out pages from electronic reserve, from Web sites, and from online handouts. I strongly recommend folder and a hole punch to keep your readings in order. While printing out readings will result in additional expenses ,our textbooks cost significantly less than the average ENGA-190 course.

Writing Assignments

In addition to the larger projects, you will be assigned a number of smaller writing assignments. Some times these writing assignments will be part of a project and some times they will stand alone. The writing assignments, while much more informal than the projects, are designed to help you explore various aspects of professional and academic writing. You should take them seriously as they are often low-stakes practice runs for larger writing assignments. Writing assignments will be graded on a scale of 1-10. Writing assignments turned in on time may be revised for a higher grade.

Writing Projects

Over the course of this term, you will engage in several projects of varying length. While only a few of these projects will ever receive formal letter grades, you need to complete each project and turn them in on time. Late projects will result in a 1%/day penalty to your overall writing project grade and projects more than a week late will not be accepted and will result in a 15% penalty to your overall writing project grade. Writing projects which do not meet the assignment guidelines or are deemed unacceptable will be returned without comments and considered late.

At the midterm and at the final you will turn in a number of projects for me to grade. While you are likely to have some choice in which projects you turn in for grading, I am likely to exert some control over which projects you'll turn in as well. I expect these projects to be revised based upon the feedback I've given you, and you are strongly encouraged to work with me to discuss and revise these projects throughout the term. The projects turned in at the midterm may be resubmitted at the final grading period. Whether you revise this resubmitted papers for a higher grade is up to you.

You will want to keep all your work, including notes, prewriting, drafts, printouts and photocopies, peer reviews, and process writing, to turn in with the projects, both at its due date and when you turn it in for a grade. Guidelines for specific projects will be distributed as the course progresses.

Last Modified: 10 January 2004

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