Syllabus:

This is a copy of the syllabus handed to you at the beginning of the year.

SYLLABUS Jeff Gundy

English 120-02: Advanced College English Cent. Hall 318

Spring 2002 3283 or gundyj@bluffton.edu

“Writing is a process of dealing with not-knowing, a forcing of what and how.”

-Donald Barthelme, “Not-Knowing”

“So here we are, imagining students working shoulder to shoulder with Geertz and Rich and Foucault, even talking back to them as the occasion arises. There is a wonderful Emersonian optimism in all this. But such is the case with strong and active readers. If we allow students to work on powerful texts, they will want to share the power.”

-Bartholomae and Petrosky, Ways of Reading

Some beginning ideas and assumptions

1. You already know a lot about “how to write.” You can (I’ll bet) produce prose that is largely free of errors, has a clear structure, and states and supports one central idea. These abilities are very helpful; they will allow us to concentrate on the more challenging and interesting business of deciding what we really think, and what we might really have to say, about this messy, over-complicated, confusing world.

2. Writing well is, like anything worth doing, never completely mastered. Is Tiger Woods so good at basketball that he doesn’t need to practice? The world is too big and complicated a place for any of us to really “understand” it. Surely there’s no risk of learning to do anything too well; all we can hope, really, is to become less inept and ignorant than we were.

3. The most important use of writing is to discover things you don’t know, and won’t know until you write about them. The second most important use is to convince other people that they ought to pay attention to what you think. The third is to convince other people that you are capable of thinking.

4. Real discovery requires all the attention, effort, and willingness to take risks we can muster. To write well, in addition, we must read well: not just for information or main ideas, but to analyze and critique challenging and difficult materials, often written by people with more knowledge and skill than we have.

5. No one learns to read and write in a vacuum. (According to Edgar Rice Burroughs, Tarzan was an exception. But according to Edgar Rice Burroughs there is an elaborate underground civilization on Mars.) The best writing is almost always done in a supportive community which provides models, interaction, and feedback.

What follows

I can almost guarantee that, if you give this course your time, energy, and attention, you will become a more efficient, effective, and alert writer. I can also almost guarantee that the amount you learn and grow as a writer will be directly proportional to how much effort and intensity you bring to the course.

The best writers are invariably very skilled readers--not only in their ability to “understand” complicated and challenging texts, but also in their ability to reflect on and respond to such readings. The main text for the course, Ways of Reading (5th edition), was chosen for its diverse and challenging essays, and for the ways it suggests responding to them. As we study, discuss, and write about and out of these materials, we will explore the connections and disparities between our own experience and understanding and the readings. We will seek to understand more clearly how we are shaped by culture, and how we can attempt to resist or shape it ourselves--if we want to.

The second text, The Bedford Handbook, provides a thorough guide to the mechanics of writing and research, including Internet research. We will discuss some sections in class, and you will need it for the research paper; its primary use will be as a desk reference, a resource as you work and a place to find answers to those nagging little questions about details.

The other “text” for the course will be your own writing. We will often work in groups to offer feedback your writing in progress. Keep your essays and drafts, even after they are returned; you will revise and resubmit most of them in a final portfolio. If you do not usually work on a computer or word processor, now is a good time to begin; saving your papers electronically will make the process of revision much smoother and less time-consuming at the end.

We will use online discussions to help us find our way into these texts, making use of the Jenzabar Forum and Chat functions and possibly other online tools as well. We will also try out possibilities for on-line submission of papers and feedback.

Grading

Regular attendance, thorough preparation, active participation, and completion of assignments on time are among the best indicators of class performance. In other words, again, how well you will do depends largely on how much sustained and systematic effort you put in. Grades suffer from absence; I say this as a matter of fact, but I reserve the right to lower your grade if you miss class more than two or three times in a term.

The fact that this class takes place at 9 a.m. is not a valid reason for missing it, or for attending in a weary stupor. Your sleep schedule, or lack of one, is your responsibility, not mine. Moderate doses of caffeine are a legal and mainly benign aid to alertness. I expect that everyone will take an active part in class activities, including participating in small and large-group discussions, sharing your work with others, and offering feedback and comments on others’ work.

I will ask for a portfolio of your work at midterm and for a portfolio of revised essays at the end of the course. Given the active participation in the work of the class described above, your final grade will be based largely on the final portfolio and the extent and quality of your presence in the class. I will not routinely put grades on your writing, but will discuss your progress at any time you like. A final essay exam will also be part of your portfolio.

Final grades will be based 80% on the portfolio, 10% on your participation in the online discussions, and 10% on class participation and attendance.

Like all aspects of life at Bluffton, this course takes place under the Honor System. We will discuss the particulars of plagiarism along the way. For now, two reminders: all use of sources must be credited clearly, and research and writing done for this course must not be used for another course without the prior consent of both instructors. Depending on their severity, violations may result in lowered grades, failing the course, or expulsion. If you have questions about proper use of sources, I will always be glad to discuss them.

About Scheduling

Like all courses, this one has certain parameters, partly created by college and departmental expectations, partly by my own ideas and biases, and partly by your needs, abilities and expectations. We need to work carefully with a number of essays in the text; to write and revise five or six essays of various sorts, including a research paper and an essay exam at the end; to leave about two weeks at the end of the course for revising as the main writing activity.

Ways of Reading provides other parameters, especially the series of “Assignment Sequences” at the back of the book. I propose that we begin by reading the introduction (1-18) and the essays by Pratt and Emerson, both of which are discussed briefly in the introduction, and write essays in response to each of theirs. This (along with a short introductory writing assignment) will take us through the first three weeks or so of the course. We will then decide as a group which assignment sequence we wish to follow, or whether we wish to create our own. Research topics will also quite likely emerge from the assignment sequences as well. Within this general framework, I will set particular assignments and due dates as we go along, with the understanding that major essays will be assigned at least a week in advance.