ENGL 2201 – Writing About the Disciplines

ENGL 2201 – Writing About the Disciplines

Spring 2018

Instructor: Deborah ShoopOffice Hours: MWF 10-11:00,

Office: Bate 2123 12-1 p.m.and by appointment

Cell: (919) 394-4022Office Phone: (252) 737-2020

Course Description

Instruction in research-based writing in the context of academic disciplines; analytical and argumentative writing skills for university, professional, and civic life.

WRITTEN COMMUNICATION COMPETENCY

Courses in the writing competency curriculum focuses on student aptitudes rather than on a particular content because composing is a recursive process that depends not on specific knowledge but on fluent, flexible, creative thinking. To concentrate on the essentials of composing, the program explicitly treats stages of process such as discovery, drafting, etc. It concentrates on exposition and argument as the modes most useful for the student and the citizen. It teaches students how to use library resources so that students may expand their access to knowledge essential for informed discourse. The program emphasizes critical thinking as well as traditional rhetorical skills because only insight can generate substance for the writer’s craft to shape.

ENGL 2201 COURSE STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES

Students are expected to master the following Written Communication Competency, Course Specific and Writing Intensive, student learning outcomes: (Written Communication Competency = “WC,” Course Specific Competency = “CSC,” Writing Intensive Competency = “WIC.”)

Through an exploration of various genres and formats of research writing, this course will develop your abilities to

Recognize and explain the significance of variations in content, style, structure, and format across different writing contexts; (CSC1)

Formulate significant research questions and craft strong research proposals with feasible work plans and timelines; (CSC2)

Locate and critically evaluate a variety of sources, including field-based, print, and electronic sources; (CSC3)

Organize source materials and integrate them into your writing; (CSC4)

Apply research and use writing to achieve a variety of purposes in a variety of contexts; (CSC5)

Convey the results of research to a variety of audiences through a variety of genres and formats; (CSC6)

Use clear, appropriate language and grammar in writing about topics in different disciplinary contexts; (CSC their writing; (WC7)

7)

Understand the purposes of citation practices in different contexts; (CSC8)

Cite sources accurately and responsibly in order to avoid plagiarism; (CSC9)

Read critically to analyze the writing strategies of experienced writers; (CSC10)

Identify and explain writing strategies in your own work; (CSC 11)

Create, identify, and engage in significant research questions; (WC1)

Engage rhetorically and integrate a variety of appropriate sources to support a central claim; (WC2)

Select and use appropriate methods and rhetorical strategies that suit the purpose and audience of a specific context and discipline; (WC3)

Organize sentences and paragraphs to communicate central points with logical connections and a minimum of grammar and punctuation errors; (WC4)

Format documents and cite sources in accordance with the conventions in the individual disciplines; (WC5)

Demonstrate methods of inquiry and rhetorical strategies, including form, media and style relevant to the discipline; (WC6)

Identify and explain writing strategies used in their writing; (WC7)

Required Text:

Bullock, Richard et al. The Little Seagull Handbook (3e). New York: W.W. Norton & Co.,

2017. Print.

Attendance and Class Success

In order to be successful in this class your regular attendance is essential. You will get out of this class what you are willing to put into it. If you participate in the class, read the assigned texts, and do your best work, you will do well. Class meetings will be used to discuss readings, complete in-class writing assignments and group work, and to receive information about assignments and writing expectations.

*Ask questions if you do not understand something

*Complete reading assignments before the next class

*Attend class regularly

*Turn in assignments on time

There is no substitute for class attendance. Missing class frequently will negatively affect your overall grade; after 5 absences there will be a 10% drop and so on. Official University Absences will be recognized, although I do expect that you will hand in work prior to your absence unless we have discussed a different option. If you need to be absent for any reason, it is important that you advise me of your absence as soon as possible.

Assignments

As stated before, please keep all of your projects, including all drafts, all peer review comments, all research notes, and all feedback from me. You will need this material.

Evaluation

Assignment% of Course Grade

Literacy Narrative10%

Project 1: Career Study 20%

Project 2: Annotated Bibliography/Ethical Issue15%

Project 3: Ethical Issue Review20%

Project 4: Historical/Cultural Significance Project25%

Iwebfolio/Final Exam 5%

Attendance/Class Participation 5%

Late Work

I will not accept late work unless specific, documented emergencies prevent you from completing an assignment on time; OR you have made arrangements with me beforehand.

Plagiarism

The ECU student handbook defines plagiarism as “Copying the language, structure, ideas, and/or thoughts of another and adopting same as one’s own original work.” You may access the student handbook definition at HYPERLINK “http://www.ecu.edu/cs-studentlife/policyhub/academic_integrity.cfm” http://www.ecu.edu/cs-studentlife/policyhub/academic_integrity.cfm.

Be aware that the writing you do for this course must be your work and, primarily, your words. It is okay to incorporate the words or ideas of others in support of your ideas, but when you do so, you should be sure to cite the source appropriately. We will talk about citation during the course.

Penalties for plagiarism are severe—if I become aware of any intentional attempt to plagiarize (e.g. knowingly submitting someone else’s work as your own, downloading a paper from the internet, etc.), you will be given a zero for the project with no chance to revise and a report will be filed with the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities, the office which maintains reports from all university faculty and staff regarding academic integrity violations. If you are caught cheating or plagiarizing a second time, in this course or in any other course while you are at ECU, you can be suspended or even expelled from the university. Be sure to see me if you have any questions about plagiarism before you turn in an assignment.

Accommodation of Special Needs

East Carolina University seeks to fully comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Students requesting accommodation based on a covered disability must go to the Department for Disability Services, located in Slay 138, to verify the disability before any accommodations can occur. Their telephone number is 737-1016, and their email is dssdept@ecu.edu.

Weather Emergency

In the event of a weather emergency, information about the status of classes at ECU is available through the ECU emergency alert website (http://www.ecu.edu/alert) and the ECU emergency information hotline (252-328-0062).

Continuity of Instruction During a pandemic or catastrophic event, and after all face-to-face instruction has been suspended, communication for our class will take place through ECU email and Blackboard. In the event of such an emergency, check your ECU email account for instructions.

Project 1 – Career Study (Category II)

This project will involve thinking about your place in school now and then projecting yourself 5-10 years into the future. Where do you see yourself then – when school is done and you are working, hopefully, in your chosen career? This project will involve both primary and secondary source research, which will be discussed at length in class, as well as a type of personal research. The project calls for you to interview at least one person who is either working or teaching in a workplace very similar to one you aspire to enter. The focus of your writing abilities will be both individual and in collaboration. It will be up to you to transcribe the interview, then decide what part of it is important to include in this project.

Spend time observing this “corporate” culture. Try to observe without actually participating, which allows for more actual observation. For example, if you aspire to be a dentist, see if you can quietly spend some time in a dental office observing the interplay between workers and patients, as well as the interactions between the dentists and the patients. If you aspire to work in Communications – you could talk to someone at the East Carolinian and see if you would be allowed to observe a reporter working on a story. For some types of careers – actors, actresses, rock stars, etc. – there may be no way to observe unless you work with the theater department or with a theater group in your home town. In this case, perhaps your best choice for an interview would be someone who teaches in the Theater program at ECU – you will be surprised at what you find out. Remember, Sandra Bullock graduated from the theater program here! (late but she did graduate!)

This particular project should be 4-6 pages in length and include a minimum of 3 outside sources — Guidelines will tell you 4-6 pages, 3-5 outside sources. Try to write this particular essay in your discipline of choice – MLA, APA, even the dreaded Chicago style. Since we will not have spent a lot of time discussing these styles there will not be a lot of deductions due to style. We will then be able to use these papers as texts to learn from as we move into the final projects.

Project 2 – Annotated Bibliography of Ethical Issues (Category II).

With this project, you will identify one ethical issue in your discipline/field. Read texts, watch newscasts, pay attention to what is going on around you to help you choose a particular issue. Where do you stand on the issue? After researching the problem, your stance may not be quite as cut and dried as you once thought. For instance, whenever I hear about a child missing, my first thought is “Where is the mother? Why isn’t she watching him?” But there are so many ways a child can go missing that to automatically put it on the mother is uneducated and childish. Perhaps your chosen profession is working with Forestry Rangers and you get this call from a family who was fishing in the lake – now what is your first thought?

For an Annotated Bibliography, you will find a minimum of 8 sources (preferably more) that may or may not fit into your project. Then, using some of the skills learned in Project 1, analyze these sources – are they as useful as they could be? Is there a lot of bias in these sources? Perhaps you will find that you have too many of the same types of source and you will need to ditch a couple. That’s fine – for an annotated bibliography, even sources that may not make the final cut, may still show up on the bibliography because you have done your homework, analyzed the source, then decided against it. You just need to say that in your annotations.

Objective: Remember, you are working to represent and discuss the divergent viewpoints on a particular issue so look at a varied type of sources.

Project 3 – Ethical Issue Report (Category I) (newspaper/magazine article)

Using the sources you have just been analyzing for your Annotated Bibliography, you will identify, investigate, report on, and respond to an ethical issue in your chosen discipline/field. This project should be 5-7 pages long and should responsibly represent divergent viewpoints on the issue and should be directed to/written for an audience on non-experts. If you imagine your audience to be readers from a particular publication, then you will need to consider how that publication shares knowledge with its readership. Remember, this can be in the form of a magazine article, a newspaper story, even a hot lead-in for the evening news. Pay close attention to your chosen field and your style of documents. Your document should be written in the same way.

Objectives: to acknowledge the many ways people within your discipline respond to issues; to learn how to synthesize information fluidly and gracefully, to share research with peers, to link static document to another medium. Be creative and get the information out there!

There will be the Peer Review option for this project as well, so just remember, if you miss a Peer Review event, you will lose a minimum of 5 points.

Project 4: Historical Context and Cultural Significance Project (Category I)

Building on the research skills learned throughout the semester, for this final project, your goal will be to write an academic article that might appear in an educator’s guide to the library’s resources. In other words, you should imagine that the audience for this guide is educational professionals (teachers, school administrators, educational policy makers) who are interested in locating resources to further students’ understanding of historical research and how the chosen item relates to the broad context of a global community. Many writing assignments required a student to analyze, criticize, or persuade, however this project asks you to read widely and thoroughly about a specific chosen topic and then write an informative report/article sharing with your readers what you have learned. This article should be approximately 8-10 pages, should include a visual (which is not part of the page count), and should explain the item and its significance to you, specifically, and to society in general. Appropriate items for research include, but are not limited to, the following:

Newspaper article, clipping, or letter to the editor

Magazine or other periodical article

Yearbook

Personal letter

Diary

Map

Governmental record/document

Rare book/broadside

Pamphlet

Piece of equipment (farm, medical, etc.)

Other types of item approved by the instructor (before you can get my approval, you must provide me with either a copy or a detailed written description of the item!)

Your analysis might begin with posing questions such as the following:

Where, how, and by whom was this object produced?

What purpose(s) did it serve when it was first produced?

What does it indicate about the place in which it was produced?

What does it suggest about its author or maker?

Why is this item significant and thus worth preserving and studying?

What does this item suggest about the local and, if appropriate, national climate

at the time in which it originated?

How does this item/event impact its home culture and/or the global culture of

which it is a part?

For this project, you will complete and submit the following items:

Your article about the item you have chosen, along with all draft materials.

Also, include any peer review comments, or comments made in conference with me.

As with other projects, work that is incomplete will begin with a full letter grade drop.

University Course Portfolio/iwebfolio – (This final project will be considered your final exam and will be graded as such, though you may write and upload the self-reflective letter earlier than the exam time stated in the Academic Calendar) Upload the description and assignment as well as self-analysis

If you are extremely pleased with the way something turned out, then by all means, use that particular project as the one to upload to the University Writing Portfolio. For this final assignment, you need to first choose which project to upload. Then, upload your best and cleanest copy of the project, with a copy of the Project Guidelines.

There will also be several questions posted on the Portfolio to help reflect on the semester and particularly on ENGL 2201 and how it has helped prepare you for writing in your discipline. Especially consider the various metacognitive activities you have been doing throughout the semester in creating and developing your own texts. When you write, then post this reflective letter, be sure to include any specific examples that may have truly helped you through a particular project.

Finally – be sure to post a minimum of 4 documents to the course iwebfolio found on Blackboard. That would be the description of the projects, the 2 projects themselves, and then your self-analysis. Think about how you have worked throughout the semester to revise and re-develop your various projects. If you feel that you have a particularly strong revision, then by all means, please upload the first submitted copy (graded) of that project, then the revised copy with the new comments and grade.

====================================================================================

ENGL 2201 – Partial Schedule (subject to change)

JANUARY

8Introduction to the Course; Discussion of iwebfolio; Writing sample

READ: in text, pages 76-77 for Friday; Skim pages 613-625

10Professional Profiles – what do you bring to the table?

Intro to Project 1 – Career Study

READ: pp. 7-14 with close attention to the Literacy Narrative section

12Is Research Really Necessary?

READ: pages 54-57; 101-102 (field research)

15Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday – no class

17Developing Thesis Statements and Creating an Abstract

READ: pages 9-11; pages 79-82

Literacy Narrative Due Today!!!

19Structuring your essay; Incorporating interview responses

READ: pages 11-12; 17-20; 25-29; 107-108

22Quoting and Paraphrasing – What’s the difference? APA Stye

READ: pages 109-118

24What does Revision mean to you?

READ: pages 13-15

26PEER REVIEW (bring rough draft to class)

29Career Study Due Today!

31Introduction to Project 2 – Annotated Bibliography

READ: pages 74-78

FEBRUARY

2Deciding on a topic – ethical issues in the workplace

READ: handouts

5 Library Work (class will meet in Joyner Library today)

…….definitely more to come…….