The Course:

Most of your college papers will ask you to make an argument--to take a stand. But where should one stand when one makes an argument for college? Where do other people stand? What different position do people occupy in different disciplines? What difference does it make where you stand? In this class we will explore the standpoint of authors and writers. We will read the New York Times and we will try to work out what position each writer writes from: what assumptions do they make about reading and writing? about their audience? about themselves? how do you react to those assumptions? how do they influence what you read and how much you trust it? How does it influence the kinds of things you might have to write about it? what stands might you take as you write responses to your readings? We will also read essays on writing and on research and ask the same questions. Then we will explore the stances you might make as an author of academic papers for different audiences and purposes. Finally you will write a research paper exploring the different stances adopted by academics and others on a specific topic. Your task is not to create one perfectly unified argument that might appear to be "truth." Rather, your purpose is to explore in writing the debate--the similarities, differences, and overlaps--between the authors you read to help the people who read your paper come to a fuller understanding of the complexity of the issue and the factors which influence one's position on it.

The Work:
The writing in this class will be frequent and varied, ranging from informal "dialoging" (see below), through exercises, to a formal research paper, with many small papers and writing work-outs in between. At times I will ask you to hand in two or more copies of a piece of writing so that we may evaluate it in class during workshops. In order for you to practice writing in response to a number of different stimuli, I will design some specific writing assignments that everyone musty complete, other assignments will be collectively designed by the class, and yet others will be of your individual choosing in response to what you have been reading and thinking over the course of the semester. Because students come to college with different levels of preparation, we will work on issues of grammar, style, and general language use both in class in the context of our readings, and in conferences and individual projects. Each student will help me to design an ?individual writing program? which will build on areas of strength and develop two specific skills of each student?s choosing. Students will work on their program at their own pace, and will be graded on that work as part of the final grade for the course.

INFORMAL WRITING--Research shows that frequent writing produces stronger, more fluent, and more comfortable writers. Writing is a skill, and all skills need practice, so I suggest that you practice writing by keeping a Writer's Journal. Most of you have already kept such a journal (see handout if you would like to know more about this valuable form of writing workout); however, for this class you are not required to keep a journal.

Instead of a journal, I will ask you to participate in weekly "dialogues" with me. Once a week you will write me a letter. In the first dialogue you will respond to class discussion, readings, and events on campus, in the state, the nation, or the world. I will reply to your letter, and you will then reply to my reply, introducing new topics or raising questions as necessary. Each student will converse in writing with me over the course of the semester, and in so doing will strengthen his or her critical thinking and overall writing skills. This is a different kind of "thinking-in-writing" than journals require, but it will help you to achieve the same goal.

You may send me your letters via e-mail or in paper form (handed in at the end of class), although I prefer e-mail letters (to either of the addresses listed above). If you send me more than one letter in any week, I will try to reply to each letter, although I may respond to all of them at once if they seem to be addressing the same theme.

COLLABORATIVE WRITING--in the world of the work place, and in many academic disciplines too, collaboration is the name of the game. Corporations organize workers into teams responsible for conducting necessary research, identifying problems, brainstorming solutions, and then writing up what they find. At first you may not like this kind of writing, and with some cause as it involves cooperation, trust, and some loss of ego--things we have learned to avoid if possible. Yet these team skills are also the very things that will make you successful in the workplace and, more important to me, in college. There are a number of ways to write collaboratively, and you will learn them in this class. There are also strategies to make it less painful, and you'll learn those too. The end result will be worth it. A well written collaborative paper is better than any of the individuals in the team could have written.

RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT #1--In the third full week of the semester (2/16-2/20) you will be assigned to work in the library in small groups (see the syllabus for 2/11). At a time convenient to all members of your group, you will meet with a reference librarian in a follow-up session to the one you had in your First Year Seminar last semester. For this assignment, your group must find the following:
1) at least four sources that provide background information on the news topic you have selected (this can include one encyclopedia entry if you like, and no more than one Internet source). Try to find material from the most academic sources you can find/understand;
2) at least four other contemporary perspectives on the topic (this can include one cartoon, one table or graph, and no more than two Internet sources). Your goal here is to find a range of opinion. Look for left-wing, right-wing, and liberal news media, academic and non-academic journals, and both reliable and questionable Internet sources.
You will write up your library findings by first summarizing and then synthesizing the background information and finally comparing the contemporary perspectives. The final paper you write will be a collaboratively written paper (see above) due on Monday March 2.

RESEARCH ASSIGNMENT #2--In the seventh full week of the semester (3/23-3/27) you will visit the library again in different groups. Your task this time is to find out the history of an education-related topic that has been raised in the Times or The Acorn (which you should also read every week). Looking back over old editions of The Acorn (yes, they are in the library) and other news media you will explore the history of your topic and take a stance on it. Your final paper will be a collaboratively written report with several parts. Part (i) will summarize the history of the topic you have selected; part (ii) will synthesize the opinions (stances) you have found on the topic; in part (iii) the group will take a stance on the topic and argue a position. This stance might take the form of a call for change, a claim about the significance of the event/topic, or a comparison of two reactions (an especially smart idea if the group members do not agree). Topics for research can range from school desegregation, campus activism, education reform, affirmative action, multiculturalism, or "political correctness," to education financing, the use of part time faculty, general education programs, curriculum revision, faculty salaries, codes of practice, Campus Judicial Boards and/or codes of conduct or whatever issue appeals to your group.
The paper you write as a result of this assignment can be the beginning of your final research paper (which will be written independently) if you like.

FINAL RESEARCH PAPER--this paper will be individually written but may develop from either of the first two research assignments if you wish. A third possibility is that you read The New York Times for the day you were born (see the assignment for 3/2) and conduct research on the background of one story from that paper. What do you need to know to understand the event in question? What do you learn about the U.S. of your birth year that this story made the news? Would we consider it newsworthy today? Is the issue still of concern to us today, or has it been resolved? You may use the paper you wrote for 3/11 to help you think about this topic if it seems helpful. Instead of these options, you may elect to conduct similar background research for an event that is in the news this semester. We will discuss possible topics as the semester proceeds.

• Summary portfolio. Due Friday 2/13 in class.
• Synthesis portfolio. Due Monday 2/23 in class.
• Collaborative Paper #1 Due Monday 3/2 by noon.
• Comparison Portfolio Due Wednesday 3/11 by noon
• Collaborative Paper #2 Due Monday 4/6 by 9pm
• Annotated Bibliography Due Friday 4/24 by noon
• Final Research Paper Due Wednesday May 6 by 9pm.

Course structure and goals
English 1 is designed as a writing workshop where you will learn strategies for writing academic papers and improving your overall writing skills. We will work on the basic skills of effective college-level writing, especially how we can use style, grammar, and word choice to create specific effects in written prose. In this section of the course you will practice writing definitions, summaries, classifications, and comparisons. We will analyze the prose of others, imitate their writing strategies and prose styles, and summarize their points in a few sentences. You will practice several expository forms including description, narration, and comparison. In the second section of the course we will focus on academic writing itself, beginning with what academic writers must do before they begin to write: you will learn how to analyze a topic/assignment, how to use all that you know to best respond to it, how to focus your knowledge and organize your ideas, and how to focus a topic for research. You will select a research topic, find sources, and practice the skills learned in these first two segments of the course by compiling an annotated bibliography. Next you will learn how to refine your relationship with your audience and structure a paper accordingly. As you read the texts you have selected for your research, you will practice comparison, critique, and synthesis by writing about that material. This will lead you to the final component of the course: a thesis-driven research paper. You will strengthen your ability to focus a topic, write a research proposal, conduct additional research, formulate a thesis, plan a paper, and write an 8-10 page thesis-driven research paper.

At each stage of the process you will learn how to evaluate your own writing and that of others, making you a more effective editor and writer. As you become more of an expert writer, you will learn how to understand the writings of others more fully: how to perceive their thesis, analyze the assumptions they make about their audience and follow their overall patterns of organization. This, in turn, will make you more able to analyze questions and understand what you read.
 

• Preparedness and contribution to class discussion and writer's workshops (10%). Obviously if you do not attend class, sleep through it, or otherwise fail to participate I cannot assess the extent of your preparation, and will be forced to assume there was none. Failure to attend conferences with me will lead me to the same conclusion.
• Overall effort toward improvement (20%). I will judge this on the basis of your weekly dialogues and the notes, drafts, and homeworks, thus it is important that you keep drafts and notes, bring them to class, and put them in the relevant portfolios when you hand them in. I will also determine your effort from our conferences and your visits to my office hours and the writing center.
• Application of the material covered in the class (70%). This will be determined from the portfolios you will prepare at the end of each segment of the course, as follows:
• Summary portfolio: 5%
• Synthesis portfolio: 5%
• Collaborative portfolio #1: 10%
• Comparison portfolio: 10%
• Collaborative portfolio #2: 10%
• Annotated bibliography: 5%
• Final Research paper: 25%

Our main text will be your writing, so you must bring all of the handouts and homework assignments for English 1 and all of the work you have done on them to every class and conference. You must also save all of your computer work on at least two separate disks (make two backups of especially good work-- when using a computer there is no such thing as TOO careful!)

Writing Center:
Drew is blessed with an excellent Writing Center and an On-line Tutoring service (OWL). Both are free, so there is no excuse for not using them except your own folly. Professors ask other people to read drafts of their papers and articles; books are edited by professional editors before being published; and graduate students regularly take papers to the Writing Center. Some foolish undergraduates think they "don't need any help." Don't be one of them. Think smart: get a second opinion!!

SCHEDULE
Jan. 30 (Fri): Introduction to the course, texts (The Longman Handbook, and The New York Times), the focus of the class, and the weekly written dialogues.
Homework: (Due Monday) Writing sample & individual writing program outline:
--describe yourself as a writer, include a narrative of your writing process (what you do before and during the time you are working on a paper) and how you feel about writing.
--in one sentence describe two aspects of your writing with which you are satisfied, then, in a second sentence, describe two aspects of your writing that you would like to strengthen this semester. 

No final exam.
That's it.
You're done.
BYE. . .