Theory and Practice of Writing
English 306
Tuesday Thursday 2:00-3:15
Bakeless 310
Teacher: Dr. Randy Cauthen Office hours: TTh 11-12; MWF 10-11
e-mail: ccauthen@bloomu.edu Office: Bakeless 206
COURSE GOALS
The primary goal of the course is to introduce contemporary writing theories with emphasis on their practice and the teaching approaches they require. Students will develop fluency and flexibility in their writing through a variety of formal and informal assignments.
Students will be required to:
1. study the Classical Rhetorical theory which has traditionally dominated writing instruction;
2. study and compare the major ideas of contemporary writing theorists, particularly the writing and teaching strategies they propose;
3. evaluate traditional assumptions about the teaching and practice of writing;
4. explore the interrelatedness of writing, reading and speaking;
5. become familiar with different methods of evaluating writing and the effectiveness of writing teachers.
6. analyze and solve rhetorical problems relating to audience, subject and authorial intention;
7. apply new methods and teaching practices in writing assignments;
8. show improvement in critical reading and writing skills;
9. participate in collaborative learning activities.
MATERIALSJames D. Williams. Preparing to Teach Writing, 2nd ed.
Corbett, Myers, and White. The Writing Teacher's Sourcebook, 4th ed.
Fishman and McCarthy, John Dewey and the Challenge of Classroom Practice.
Reserve readings. 4 copies of the reserve readings will be available in the Writing Center, BCH 206, during its regular hours.
GRADING
Your grade will be based on the following factors:
Class Participation — 15%
Listserv — 25%
Literacy Autobiography — 10%
Three Short Papers — 5% each
Annotated Bibliography — 15%
Multigenre Paper — 20%
CLASS PARTICIPATION
The person who's working hardest in a classroom is the person who's learning most. (You know this already.) I'll be working very hard. But my hard work can't produce your learning. So this won't be a class that relies on lecture or professor preparation. This will be a class that involves discussion, practice, small group work, independent reading, individual and collaborative writing, etc. In other words, it relies on you and your contributions. If you want to complete this class and be ready for teaching, you need to come to class expecting to talk. You need to be thinking from a teacher's perspective ("what can I do to make this more useful?") rather than a student's ("I wonder what the teacher's going to make us do next."). Part of this choice of pedagogy is about demonstrating what I believe, but most of it is driven by the fact that you'll be teaching very soon (hopefully) – I want us to do things that prepare you for that. The bottom line is that you need to be here, you need to be prepared when you come, and you need to participate. You'll learn what you need if all those things happen.
LISTSERV
You can think of this as a sort of collaborative journal — informal, "writing to learn" writing.
Two entries of approximately 200 words apiece (one screen +-) are required each week. I will occasionally give you prompts for your listserv entries, but for the most part you should write about whatever interests/moves/annoys/ confuses you in the texts we’re reading that week. The broadest possible prompt for a listserv entry might be: What ideas do you have about what you've just read? (I refuse to believe anyone ever doesn't have any ideas. And in normal conversation, we state them, unless they're rude; in academic conversation, we tend to stifle 'em till we know it's safe. Don't do this; you'll learn more.) Please have your entries posted to the listserv by noon on the day of class, so I have time to work with them a bit before the start of class.
LITERACY AUTOBIOGRAPHY
This is, to some degree, self-defining. It’s a piece of writing about your experiences with reading, writing, even electronic (i.e., computer) literacies. The purposes of this assignment are: to demonstrate and practice techniques for invention, arrangement, style, and delivery; to demonstrate and practice metacognitive (i.e., thinking-about-thinking) reflection. Three double-spaced typed pages (750 words) minimum. Due 9/24.
short papers
See separate handout for more details.
ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Working with a partner, you’ll find (with my help), read, and briefly describe articles having to do with a particular, narrow topic within the field of composition and rhetoric. Possible topics are described here. The purpose here is to familiarize you with scholarly journals about writing, and to provide you and your peers with a number of resources for your future teaching. For those of you unfamiliar with this genre, one example is in The Writing Teacher's Sourcebook, at the end of Horvath's "The Components of Written Response"; another is here. Two single-spaced typed pages (800 words) minimum; due 11/21.
MULTIGENRE PAPER
This is a more interesting and valuable alternative to the "typical" research paper. You may research anything you choose (start thinking about it now), but you must convey the knowledge you gain through a number of different genres: narrative, biographical profile, project proposal, letters to the editor, poems, etc. A larger list of possible genres is here; feel free to give me further suggestions on it. We’ll be reading several examples of this type of writing before we start working on it — one excellent example, if you care to do some outside reading, is Michael Ondaatje’s The Collected Works of Billy the Kid. Eight double-spaced pages (2000 words) minimum; due 12/5.
MISCELLANEOUS POLICIES
Attendance: Since we all have occasional crises or last-minute conflicts, I'll allow you to miss class twice without a penalty. After the second absence, each additional absence will result in a deduction of 3% from your final course grade. If you're unable to attend class due to illness, family emergency or a university sanctioned event, please provide me with documentation to protect your grade.
Open Rewrites: After you get a grade on each the first three major projects, you'll have the chance to rewrite your paper and improve your grade, IF you have met all the deadlines for the project.
For your protection, never give me (or anybody else) the only copy of your writings; always keep a backup both on disk and hard copy.
Plagiarism: Unfortunately, this is getting more and more common because of the Internet. It's the worst of academic sins. Plagiarized papers will receive a zero, without the opportunity for revision. Students who plagiarize will also be reported to the University's administration.
If you believe you have a disability and think you need special accommodations, please advise me immediately. I will work with you and the University's Office of Accomodative Services to provide you with reasonable accommodations.
Public Writing: Writing for this course is public writing. You will be asked to talk about your writing in small and large groups as well as provide copies of drafts for small-group workshops. So, obviously, don't put anything in these writings that would mortally embarrass you if other people knew about it.
Any additional handouts or assignments given out in writing constitute a continuation of this syllabus. This syllabus is subject to revision by the instructor.
Extremely important: If you have any problems or questions concerning the class, let me know immediately. We can solve most of these problems, given time, but last-minute notification of them makes for an inconvenient crisis atmosphere. If you can't make my office hours, call, e-mail, or see me in class and we can make other arrangements.
COURSE SCHEDULE
Readings are due on the dates below; that’s the date we’ll discuss ‘em in class, and the date by which you should have completed your listserv writing about them. Reserve readings are starred(*).
8/29
* Nelson, "Language Back to Life"
Sommers, "Between the Drafts" (WTS)
* Stafford, “A Way of Writing”
9/3
Williams, Ch. 2
* Atwell, “Building a Dining Room Table: Dialogue Journals About
Reading”
9/5
Williams, Ch. 3
Elbow, "Embracing Contraries in the Teaching Process" (WTS)
9/10
Murray, "The Listening Eye" (WTS)
* Elbow, Writing With Power
Fulkerson, "Four Philosophies of Composition" (WTS)
9/12
* Rose, "I Just Wanna Be Average"
Shaughnessy, "Diving In" (WTS)
9/17
Workshop, Literacy Autobiography
9/19
Williams, Ch. 8
9/24
* Zinsser, Writing to Learn
Literacy Autobiography Due
9/26
Williams, Ch. 4
10/1
* Lindemann, "What Does a Writing Teacher Need to Know About
Linguistics?"
10/3
Corbett, "Rhetoric, the Enabling Discipline" (WTS)
10/8
Williams, Ch. 1
10/10
Matalene, "Experience as Evidence" (WTS)
Fahnestock and Secor, "Teaching Argument" (WTS)
10/15
* Welch, “One Student’s Many Voices”
10/17
* Romano, “The Multigenre Research Paper”
* Grierson, “Circling Through Texts”
10/22
Williams, Ch. 9
10/24
* Friere, “The Banking Concept of Education”
* Bolker, "Teaching Griselda to Write"
10/29
Williams, Ch. 10
* Camp, "Portfolio Reflections"
10/31
* White, "Responding to and Grading Student Writing"
Horvath, "The Components of Written Response" (WTS)
11/5
Williams, Ch. 5
Bartholomae, "The Study of Error" (WTS)
11/7
Fishman and McCarthy, John Dewey and the Challenge of Classroom
Practice, Intro, Ch. 1
11/12
Fishman and McCarthy, Ch. 2-4
11/14
Fishman and McCarthy, Ch. 5-6, 8
11/19
Fishman and McCarthy, Ch. 9-12
11/21
Workshop, Multigenre Paper
Annotated Bibs due
12/3
Multigenre Paper workshop
12/5
Review and reflection
Course evaluation
Multigenre papers due