English 104.010, Fall 2012, Weekly Assignments

Week 1 (8/27, 8/29, 8/31): Mon. Course Intro. re: conventions of Goucher classes, importance of the syllabus, readings, written assignments, workload, class participation, out-of-class preparation, taking responsibility for "ownership of the class you are taking"; Grammar quiz and diagnostic essay. 

Wed., analytical thinking--read Helen Rumbelow, "A Heavy Burden to Bear . . . ," The Times (London), 5 July 2012, 4-5, and Carl Bialik, “How to Be Sure You've Found a Higgs Boson,” The Wall Street Journal, 6 July 2012, A2 [available on GoucherLearn].  Terms of art for states of emotion, belief, and knowledge: 'I feel this is  right.'; 'I believe this is right.'; and 'I know this is right.'"  Thorough thinking, tolerance of creative disorder, & other factors affecting the success of an academic essay; the "Hand" exercise as an introduction to the academic notions of topics, subtopics, audiences and the process of analysis.  Academic "majors" as tools for thinking that work together or separately to analyze evidence.  Who is your "Best Reader" for a paper on your topic, arguing your kind of thesis or providing your kind of relevant evidence?

"Process Writing Friday": rhetorical tools of "discovery"--list-making, clustering, conceptual mapping, and free-writing on the topic.   Levels of claims in a thesis--which are easiest to prove, and which are most difficult?  PICK UP CASE #1 [photocopy] & SIGN UP FOR CONFERENCES.  Click here for the available conference times.  Click here for some basic rules that should govern your purposes in writing for college-level readers.   If you read and understand thoroughly the rules in these related pages, everything we will do for the next semester (and the next four years) will make more sense to you.  After you have picked up Case #1, but before you actually read it, read the rules on this hyperlinked page again and think about what they mean for how you should read this very brief, but very complex article.  Who are the "parties to the case"?

Week 2: ([9/3 Labor Day], 9/5, [9/7--no class meeting because of first-draft conferences])  Case #1: “Brain-absent Newborn Donates Heart.” Wed.  Be prepared to summarize the facts of the case--what happened?   Who are the parties to the "Brain-absent newborn" case?  What do the parties to the case have to say to each other?  Whose position do you feel most strongly about?  Who most needs to know what you have to say?  Free-writing and directed free-writing as tools of discovery.  How would each major discipline at Goucher analyze and understand this case?  FIRST DRAFTS OF Case #1 PAPERS DUE IN CONFERENCES on Friday.  Click here for conference schedule.   For some tips to help you get started, click here.

Week 3 (9/10, 9/12, 9/14): Case #1: “Brain-absent Newborn Donates Heart.” Second Draft.   Monday: Inventing a Writing Plan. Also, bring revised draft of "Baby G." case paper for writing plan  workshop.  Wednesday, peer editing workshop--bring your revised draft.   Click here at least two days before the deadline for the first paper for a basic rule that should govern whether you're ready to stop writing.

Fri. 9/14, a "Process Writing Friday:  In the previous "Process Writing Friday," we discussed how to use Freewriting, Directed Freewriting, and Interim Outlining to move from listing, clustering and conceptual mapping toward sentence-casting "flow." and using outlining between freewrites to move into paragraph-by-paragraph thinking.  But how should you organize what you have developed once you have cleaned out "the attic of your mind"?  Think about the typical schemes of organization that your readers will be familiar with.  This will help you understand the function of logical transition and functional redundancy for guiding readers at paragraph boundaries. Also, document format questions ("MLA style") typically tie students brains in knots.  Why do we have to worry about this stuff?  Document formats serve readers' needs by putting certain kinds of information they expect in exactly the place and shape they expect to find it.  Their needs may have changed, over time, but readers are strikingly conservative about what they demand from writers' document format.  This is all part of what bibliographers call "paratextual information," information other than the text that lives "beside" (para) the text.  Revised draft of paper on Case #1 due in class.    Click here for the grading criteria for papers written for this section of English 104.  Pick up Case #2 [photocopy]: "Gunshop Owner Kills Robber in Store."

Week 4 (9/17. 9/19, [9/21--NO CLASS DUE TO CONFERENCES]):  Case #2: "Gunshop  Owner Kills Robber in Store." Monday, audience analysis and  narration of the case (narratio) as crucial stages in persuasion--what is the real "story" of what happened that night?  How would each major discipline at Goucher analyze and understand this case? Wednesday, apply the "best reader" strategy to see the parties to the case and each one's "other side" of the narration in the "Gunshop" case.    FIRST DRAFT OF PAPER ON Case #2 DUE IN CONFERENCES FRI.    Click here for conference schedule. For some tips to help you get started, click here.  Be sure to follow the instructions for next Sunday to be ready for class on Monday!

Week 5 (9/24 [National Punctuation Day!], 9/26, 9/28): Case #2: "Gunshop  Owner Kills Robber in Store." Second Draft.  Monday  Click here by noon on the previous Sunday and follow the instructions.  This will prepare us for a discussion of current theses on Case #2 and their best audiences' response to their initial claims: growing the paper's argument by asking questions your best reader likely would ask.  Wednesday, workshop on your paper's address of issues important to your best reader.  

Fri. 9/28, a "Process Writing Friday": Take a break from sentence- and paragraph-casting to build paragraph logic by creative experiment; inventing new ideas by creating logical paragraph transition at paragraph boundaries; constructing an introductory "forecast" based on the paragraph transition logic.  "Brazilian  Fisherman" exercise: paragraph orders, paragraph transitions, and logical forecasts.  Click here for a basic rule for using creative paragraph reorganization, logical paragraph transition and an introductory forecast to guide your readers in the last stage of revision.  Revised draft of paper on Case #2 due in class.

Week 6, a "Working Holiday" on professional research (10/1, 10/3, [10/5--NO CLASS DUE TO CONFERENCES]): Click here to read the instructions for the Research Project.  Monday, Research Project  introduction. Research questions must be mailed to me by the day before the bibliographic research instruction class. Wednesday, MEET AT THE LIBRARY FOR BIBLIOGRAPHIC RESEARCH INSTRUCTION.  Friday, first draft of research project paper due in conferences.  Minimum content, a description of your research question, an explanation of what it will do for your paper's argument, a description of your search methods and tools, and a preliminary list of sources you have found so far.  A preliminary answer to the question would be excellent!   Click here for conference schedule. Click here for solutions to some problems you might encounter in this project. 

Week 7, a "Working Holiday" on professional research (10/8, 10/10, [10/12 no class for MSB]):   Mon. writing plan and draft of short Research Project discussed in class; short reports on research project findings, problems, strategies.  Introduction to Case #3, "Who Controls Intellectual Property?: 'Harry Potter and the Copyright Lawyer" and Blumenfeld, "Dissertation Could Be Security Threat: Student's Maps Illustrate Concerns About Public Information" (photocopied handout in class).  Wed., development of Case #3 analysis and logical arguments with "parties to the case," audience analysis, writing plan, and logical tests of completeness.  For some tips to help you get started on Case #3, click here.  Mon.. 10/15, final draft of Research Project will be due in class (1/24th of final grade).  Click here for a description of the report's essential parts.  Click here for the specialized criteria I will use to evaluate your research process and your research project report.

Mid-Semester Break, Fri., 10/12-Sun., 10/14. 

Week 8 (10/15, 10/17, [10/19--NO CLASS DUE TO CONFERENCES]):  Case #3--Who Controls Intellectual Property?: Cha, "Harry Potter and the Copyright Lawyer," and Blumenfeld, "Dissertation Could Be Security Threat: Student's Maps Illustrate Concerns About Public Information" [available on GoucherLearn] Mon., Research Report due in class, and we will brainstorm the possible theses, best readers, and counter-theses for Case #3.  Verge: The Goucher Journal of Undergraduate Writing--who owns the copyright to these articles?  For some tips to help you get started on Case #3, click here.  Wed., Bring a rough draft of your "Intellectual Property" case paper for peer-review editing and development of arguments using "parties to the case,"  "best reader" audience analysis, writing plan, and logical tests of organization and completeness.  First draft of Case #3 paper due in conferences, Friday.     Click here for conference schedule.

Week 9 (10/22, 10/24, 10/26): Case #3--Who Controls Intellectual Property?: Cha, "Harry Potter and the Copyright Lawyer," and Blumenfeld, "Dissertation Could Be Security Threat: Student's Maps Illustrate Concerns About Public Information" [available on GoucherLearn]  Second Draft.  Monday, read-aloud workshop for style; Wednesday, peer editing workshop to improve the papers' introductions, discovering what knowledge and beliefs you share with your best readers.

Fri., 10/26, a "Process Writing Friday": writing conclusions--how to do more than summarize, or "tell 'em what you just told 'em."  What are the consequences of successful persuasion for your topic, for your reader, and for other writers about this topic?  What happens next, or what else happens, if your thesis is accepted?  Second revision of Case #3 due.    This weekend, go to the University of North Carolina Writing Center Web page on logical fallacies, and be ready to discuss logical reasoning, and logical fallacies, on Monday.  Click here for some advice about how to write effective conclusions.

Week 10 a "Working Holiday" on formal logic and logical fallacies (10/29, 10/31, 11/2): Monday, make sure you have carefully read the University of North Carolina Writing Center's Web page on logical reasoning and  logical fallacies; Syllogisms and Enthymemes.  Wed. 11/1, logic quiz on fallacy types in statements based on the intellectual property case (1/24th of final grade).  Friday, 11/2 review logic quiz.  H/O Case #4: "A Dose of Genius" (available on the course's public folder).  Click here for tips on how to use logical tests to examine your paper's deep structure for fallacies that would hurt your readers' trust.  logicSyll

Week 11 (11/5, 11/7, [11/9--NO CLASS DUE TO CONFERENCES]):  Mon., and Wed.,  Case #4, Joel Garreau, "A Dose Of Genius: 'Smart Pills' Are on The Rise. But Is Taking Them Wise?"   Monday, start case analysis; Wednesday, complex causation/effect grid and thesis development workshop; first draft due in conferences Friday.  Click here for conference schedule.  The Onion's "Cheat to Win" bracelet spoof.

Week 12 (11/12, 11/14, 11/16):  Case #4, Joel Garreau, "A Dose Of Genius: 'Smart Pills' Are on The Rise. But Is Taking Them Wise?"  Second Draft. Mon. and Wed.,  revision work using "Serious Best-Reader Dialogue" Conferences. 

Fri., 11/16, a "Process Writing Friday" on academic titles, final-draft copy editing, and reading aloud as a "performance of the document."  Click here for some introductory advice about titles for academic papers vs. novel or poem or song titles.  Second draft revision of Case #4 paper due Friday   Click here for advice about the final stages in copy editing a paper before submitting it for a grade.

Week 13, (11/19  Mon., discuss how to pick a paper for a final portfolio revision (see Week 15 and Required Graded Work), how to repair its weaknesses and improve its strengths, and how to be a good workshop partner by giving pertinent advice.  Click here for the final portfolio revision evaluation criteria.  Pick up Barber, “The Origins of Language.”[photocopy]  An in-class exam on Barber, for 1/24th of the final grade is scheduled for Wednesday of next week.  [Wed., 11/21-Sun., 11/25, Thanksgiving Vacation]):

Week 14, a "Working Holiday" on test design and in-class essay writing  (11/26, 11/28, 11/30):  Mon.  discuss in-class impromptu exam construction and writing strategies, and discuss Barber's article's typography and page layout as clues to how to study his essay.  Wed., in-class essay exam on Barber, “The Origins of Language.”  Friday,  review the in-class exam answers, preparation and writing strategies--what worked and why, and what could you do better next time you have to study for and write an essay exam?  

Week 15 (12/3, 12/5: Monday, Revision workshop for the Final Portfolio Paper--bring a revised draft of the paper you are considering for  the final portfolio.  As you work on the revision, and as you serve as a peer editor for your classmate, keep in mind these criteria for evaluation.  They are what we have been studying all semester.   Wednesday, last class: self-evaluation & course evaluations.  Final Portfolio:  1 REVISION AND ALL ITS DRAFTS, due Monday, 12/10 by 9 AM in my Inbox as an attached MS-Word or Rich Text Format (".rtf") document..   Give me a copy of your drafts (including workshop sheets) by the previous Friday afternoon.

Please remember to fill out an online course evaluation for this section of English 104. 

    For students who will earn an A- or an A, and whose writing can with some confidence be said to meet the CWP Criteria, the option exists to submit a portfolio of three papers during the final exam period.  I will announce the deadline in the last class, by which time the Writing Program will have announced it.  If you have questions about whether your writing is now good enough to meet the CWP criteria, please ask me!  But also, you should be able to test it yourself by consulting the College Writing Proficiency Criteria.