COURSE FOCUSES
1. The process of writing–generating ideas, planning,
drafting, developing, revising, editing and proofreading.
2. Autobiographical writing.
3. Introduction to critical and argumentative
thinking, reading, writing, and speaking. Finding and integrating
sources to produce effective arguments. Making practically
compelling and intellectually responsible use of logical, ethical,
emotional, and stylistic appeals.
4. ‘Writing in the world’–exploring connections among
writing, reading, thinking, speaking, listening, acting, and
interacting in relations with a culturally diverse range of people
through engagement in a variety of social relations (i.e., relations
with others).
TEXTS
The following books are available for purchase at
Crossroads Books, 301 South Barstow Street, Eau Claire, Wisconsin; all three are required:
1. Kennedy, X. J., Dorothy M. Kennedy, and Marcia F.
Muth. Writing and Revising: a
Portable Guide. 2009 MLA Update Edition. Boston:
Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007. ISBN#: 978-0-312-62339-5.
2. Yang, Kao Kalia. The Late Homecomer: a Hmong Family Memoir.
Minneapolis: Coffee House Press, 2008. ISBN#: 978-1-56689-208-7.
3. Lazere, Donald. Reading and Writing for Civic Literacy:
the Critical Citizen’s Guide to Argumentative Rhetoric.
Brief Revised and Updated Edition. Boulder: Paradigm, 2009.
ISBN#: 978-1-59541-710-5.
Crossroads Books is a locally owned and operated
bookstore in downtown Eau Claire. Steadily more instructors at
UWEC are supporting companies like Crossroads rather than local
branches of international chain stores (the UWEC campus bookstore is
owned and operated by Barnes and Noble). Crossroads is open
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday from 10 am to 5:30 pm; Thursday
from 10 am to 7 pm; and Saturday from 10 am to 4:30 pm. The
store’s phone number is 715-831-9788; their email contact address is
CustServ@CrossroadBookStore.com;
and their website, including
information about the store as well as a map and directions for how to
get there, is available at: http://www.crossroadbookstore.com/.
You may go to Crossroads on your own to purchase your books, but we
will also be taking an initial class field trip (lasting approximately
two hours, from late morning to early afternoon), including a stop at
Crossroads, Saturday September 12; you may choose to purchase your
books at that time. You need to obtain these books in time to use
for class, as indicated later in the schedule section of this syllabus
(see below; I will make photocopies of the initial chapter we will
be working with ahead of the 12th available to you in class on the
2nd).
I will supply copies of all additional reading
materials we will use over the course of the semester.
SCHEDULE
KEY: WR=Writing and Revising:
a Portable Guide;
LH=Late Homecomer: a Hmong Family
Memoir; and
RWCL=Reading and Writing for Civic
Literacy:
The Critical Citizen’s Guide to
Argumentative Rhetoric.
Week One
M 8/31–10-11:30 am (HHH 316): Introduction and Orientation, Part One.
W 9/2 (From here on, in our regular classroom, HHH 226, and at our
regular time, 5-7:15 pm): Introduction and Orientation, Part Two.
Week Two
W 9/9: Introduction to and Overview of the Processes and Stages of
Writing.
Read
for Class, W 9/9: WR Chapter 1, 1-10.
Autobiographical
Essay Assigned in Class, W 9/9.
Week Three
M 9/14: Strategies for Generating Ideas.
Read
for Class, M 9/14: WR, Chapter 4, 41-59.
W 9/16: Strategies for Planning.
Read for Class, W 9/16: WR, Chapter 5, 60-82.
Week Four
M 9/21: Strategies for Drafting.
Read
for Class, M 9/21: WR, Chapter 6, 83-100.
W 9/23: Strategies for Developing.
Read
for Class, W 9/23: WR, Chapter 7, 101-136.
Initial
Finished Version of Autobiographical Essay
Due by 12 noon, F 9/25 in my English Department Mailbox, HHH 405.
Week Five
M 9/28: Discussion, The Late
Homecomer: a Hmong Family Memoir.
Read
for Class, M 9/28: LH, Prologue and Chapters
1-3, 1-52.
W 9/30: Discussion, The Late
Homecomer: a Hmong Family Memoir.
Read
for Class, W 9/30: LH, Chapters 4, 55-77, and
7, 115-128.
First
Learning and Contribution Reflection Paper
Assigned in Class, W 9/30.
Week Six
M 10/5: Strategies for Revising.
Read
for Class, M 10/5: WR, Chapter 8, 137-154.
W 10/7: Strategies for Editing and Proofreading.
Read
for Class, W 10/7: WR, Chapter 9, 155-189.
Week Seven
M 10/12: Discussion, The Late
Homecomer: a Hmong Family Memoir.
Read
for Class, M 10/12: LH, Chapter 8, 131-151;
Chapter 11, 193-210; and Chapter 13, 232-238.
W 10/14: Discussion, The Late
Homecomer: a Hmong Family Memoir.
Read
for Class, W 10/14: LH, Chapters 14-15 and
Epilogue, 239-274.
First
Learning and Contribution Reflection Paper Due
by 12 noon, F 10/16 in my English Department Mailbox, HHH 405.
Week Eight
M 10/19: What is an Argument? What is a Good Argument?
Read
for Class, M 10/19: RWCL, Chapter 2, 32-53.
Argument
and Research Paper Assigned in Class, M
10/19.
W 10/21: From Cocksure Ignorance to Thoughtful Uncertainty: Viewpoint,
Bias, and Fairness–Culturally Conditioned Assumptions and Centrisms.
Read for Class, W 10/21: RWCL, Chapter 6, 125-152.
Week Nine
M 10/26: Logical and Rhetorical Fallacies.
Read
for Class, M 10/26: RWCL, Chapter 10, 211-221.
W 10/28: Uses and Misuses of Emotional Appeal.
Read
for Class, W 10/28: RWCL, Chapter 12, 242-264.
Week Ten
M 11/2: Thinking Critically About Political Rhetoric.
Read
for Class, M 11/2: RWCL, Chapter 13, 267-302.
W 11/4: Thinking Critically About Mass Media.
Read
for Class, W 11/4: RWCL, Chapter 14, 303-333.
Week Eleven
M 11/9: Deception Detection–Varieties of Special Interests and
Propaganda.
Read
for Class, M 11/9: RWCL, Chapter 15, 334-357.
W 11/11: Collecting and Evaluating Opposing Sources–Writing the
Research Paper, and Documentation of Research Resources.
Read
for Class, W 11/11: RWCL, Chapters 17-18,
384-392.
Week Twelve
M 11/16: Preparing for the Class Debate.
Second
Learning and Contribution Reflection Paper
Assigned in Class, M 11/16.
W 11/18: Preparing for the Class Debate.
Week Thirteen
M 11/23: Preparing for the Class Debate.
Argument and Research Paper Due in Class, M 11/23.
Week Fourteen
M 11/30: Preparing for the Class Debate.
W 12/2: Preparing for the Class Debate.
Week Fifteen
M 12/7: Class Debate.
W 12/9: Conclusion.
Final Exams Week
M 12/14: Class
Debate Team Self-Evaluations, and Second Learning and
Contribution Reflection Paper Due by 12 noon in my English Department
mailbox, HHH 405.
*
THIS SCHEDULE IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE *
** THERE IS NO FINAL EXAMINATION IN THIS CLASS **
ORGANIZATION AND CONDUCT OF CLASS
SESSIONS
Class will proceed primarily by way of discussion,
following a variety of formats. Throughout the semester you will be
actively engaged in educating yourself and the rest of the class
through what you have to say as well as share in written form. I
will often give relatively short presentations, especially at the
beginning of class, and here you will need to pay close attention, take
notes, and be ready to ask relevant questions. Many times you
will be working in groups or teams on specific exercises related to
concepts and practices you are learning, frequently involving creative
work. At times you may do some writing in class, individually or
as part of groups or teams, and, when you do, you will most often share
your writing with the rest of the class. On occasion, as useful,
we may watch, listen to, and discuss excerpts from videos, or the
internet, and on occasion, we may listen to and discuss musical
recordings. Other possibilities for extrapolation and application
exist as well. Ultimately, you will be working intensively for
three weeks, inside and outside of class, as part of teams preparing
for and engaging in a class debate.
Throughout the semester, I, along with your senior
student mentors, Nate and Zac, will be working to help you in every way
we possibly can. I will maintain ultimate responsibility,
authority, and control at all times, assisted by Zac and Nate, yet we
will aim to insure that everyone participates extensively in our
collective work. We will seek to enhance and develop your
preexisting strengths as writers, readers, thinkers, speakers,
listeners, and doers–and we will seek to help you in learning from each
other as well as from the three of us.
GOALS OF THE BACCALAUREATE
These are the five most important, official goals
all UWEC undergraduate courses are designed to help you meet:
1. Knowledge of Human Culture and the Natural World
2. Creative and Critical Thinking
3. Effective Communication
4. Individual and Social Responsibility
5. Respect for Diversity Among People
These goals require your striving
to meet them. Striving means
learning actively and deliberately, completing assignments in a
thorough and timely fashion, participating in class discussion, and
making connections between what we do while meeting in class and what
you do when engaged outside of the classroom.
GENERAL EXPECTATIONS OF STUDENTS
I expect students in this course to strive to become
sincerely interested in learning about the subject matter of this
course, and to be consistently intellectually serious as well as
academically diligent in their pursuit of this learning. I
expect students to strive to bring actively and extensively to bear–in
your essays and contributions to class discussion–insights you gain
through your engagement with the texts and topics addressed as part of
this course, and I expect you to strive at the same time to relate
these texts and topics as closely and as fully as possible to subjects
of genuine interest and concern in your own lives, past and
present. And I expect you to let me know right away when and if
you have any questions or problems about any aspect of how you are
doing in and with the course, so that I can do whatever I possibly can
to help answer these questions and solve these problems.
Most important of all, and this certainly can be a
difficult adjustment for many first-year university students, is
recognizing that this is a university and not a high school course, and
that we here expect you to engage, always, as a mature adult. Of
course, this is a transition, which can take some time, for a number of
people in your position. It’s worth keeping in mind that many
people in your position are nowhere near as mature as they think they
are when they are still very young adults. So the transition to
success at this level requires more effort than many of you might
imagine. I strongly recommend you always maintain a certain
amount of humility as well as a persistent openness toward learning
many new concepts and new practices, inside and outside of class, often
including ones that you could not possibly anticipate beforehand.
In addition, you will often find that ‘we do things differently’ here,
at the university, and that what your high school teachers told you
that you ‘should or should not do’ no longer applies, even at times no
longer makes any sense at all. Be ready for that–it’s one thing
to write well when you are being addressed and treated as a child; it’s
quite another to write well when you are being addressed and treated as
an adult.
As first-year university students you will likely
encounter many new opportunities, and a significant amount of expanded
freedom. At the same time, you need to take much greater
responsibility for yourself, for what you do, how you do it, when,
where, and why; it is easy to mess up and even to fail because you are
not ready to assume that responsibility. If you behave in a
persistently immature manner as a university student, and especially if
you don’t take your classes seriously, you will suffer; there’s no
doubt about it.
A very important point to keep in mind is that we
who work at the university do not conceive this as a completely
"safe space" entirely separate from the rest of the "real world" where
you can expect to be sheltered from encountering anything and
everything you might ever find disagreeable or objectionable.
After all, disturbing positions and practices exist extensively outside
of the classroom as well as in what we read, see, hear, and otherwise
confront in and for class; what we confront in class is symptomatic of
positions and practices that operate beyond the confines of the
classroom, the course, and the university. You are here at the
university because you are now ready to engage with difficult,
challenging, and even disturbing positions and practices–and to make
your own contribution toward dealing seriously with them.
Therefore, if ever and whenever you find any text or topic upsetting,
you maintain the ethical responsibility, as a university student, not
simply to try to hide from but rather to engage with it in an
intellectually serious, responsible, mature adult way. On
occasion you will encounter ideas that you may find troubling, in this
UWEC course and in almost all others as well; within the UWEC English
Department we grant no right of exemption from engaging with these
ideas and offer no support for complaining (to any higher
administrative authority) about their inclusion. After all, great
works of art–including many great works of literature–are often created
with the deliberate aim of disturbing, even shocking many people who
will encounter these; often the intent here is to provoke strong
response, as well as thought–and action–that goes beyond what has
become familiar, conventional, commonsensical, and, especially, merely
“safe.”
Finally, students should understand that a professor
differs from a high school teacher in many respects, but one key
difference is that we maintain a principal professional, ethical
responsibility forthrightly to represent the most advanced knowledges
in our fields of expertise and to proceed from there to work toward
their further development and dissemination. (A professor is not
merely a ‘teacher of other people’s ideas’, and a professor maintains
many more responsibilities beyond teaching his or her
classes.) In short, professors must create, advocate for,
and profess these knowledges; you should expect that your professors
may from time to time take controversial positions on difficult and
challenging issues, refusing the pretense of disinterested
neutrality. To do anything less than assume this responsibility
would be to shirk our professorial responsibility and to render
ourselves unworthy of maintaining our professorial positions.
*
Cell phones should be turned off and put away
during class time. *
SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COURSE
GRADE
General Standards for Evaluation of
Student Work
In evaluating all work done for this course, I will
take account of how carefully, seriously, intelligently,
enthusiastically, and imaginatively students engage with the concepts,
issues, positions, and arguments addressed in the course and
represented by the texts we read, by me, by Nate, by Zac, and by each
other.
Attendance
This course cannot contribute effectively to
students' learning if students do not attend class. What happens
in class is an indispensable part of this course. Therefore, the
following attendance policy will apply for students enrolled in this
section of English 110, except for
students who must miss an extended
period of the semester due to an emergency for which they arrange an
officially authorized absence
from class (in the latter case, we will
work together to make arrangements to help you make up for what you
miss):
1.) Students who exceed a maximum of two
unexcused
absences will suffer a penalty of a loss of one full letter
grade for
each additional unexcused absence. An unexcused absence is one
where you offer no reasonable excuse for missing, but choose this to be
a day that you miss class.
2.) Students should provide me with written
confirmation of a debilitating injury or illness, or of any other
serious individual or family emergency, for the excusing of any further
absences beyond the maximum of two unexcused absences.
3.) In addition to the maximum of two unexcused
absences, students may miss a maximum of three
excused absences without
suffering a grade penalty. Six total absences will result in a
loss of two full letter grades. Students who miss more than
six classes total should withdraw from the course and enroll again in a
subsequent semester; otherwise they will most likely receive a grade of
F.
* Students are
expected to arrive for class on time and to stay through
the very end of class. If you don’t do so, you won’t be
counted
as attending class. In addition, you need to be awake, alert, and
attentive while in class; this means you can’t expect to sleep or rest
in class. Again, if you do so, this will count as an absence from
class. And the same is true of doing other school work in class
or attending to other–personal– matters irrelevant to what we are
focusing on at that point in time in class (e.g., you should avoid
text-messaging, or web-searching, or facebooking, or playing games on
your cell phone, or checking out youtube while in class–just to mention
a few common temptations). *
** In addition, IT IS VERY IMPORTANT IN THIS CLASS THAT YOU COME TO
CLASS HAVING DONE THE READING REQUIRED OF YOU PRIOR TO CLASS. The
quality of your own learning, and that of the rest of your classmates
depends upon you taking this seriously and carrying it out
conscientiously. **
Learning and Contribution/Learning and
Contribution Reflection Papers
My foremost aim in teaching this course is to help
you to learn something of significance and value. I will judge
you to a significant degree on what you learn, how–and how hard–you
strive to learn, and on how–along with how well–you contribute to the
learning for the rest of the class.
You cannot learn or help others learn if you do not
contribute. If you don't contribute to the work of this class not
only will you fail to derive as much gain from it as would be the case
if you did contribute, but also you will deprive everyone else of the
benefit of your thoughts, feelings, beliefs, values, knowledge, and
experience. In fact, to remain passively silent in class exploits
the work of others who actively engage.
Class participation represents an important
opportunity to learn, not just a place in which to demonstrate what you
have learned. By raising questions, testing and trying out ideas,
taking risks and making mistakes, you learn a great deal–and help
others learn a great deal as well. You learn through talking, not
just talk to show what you have learned. Don't hesitate to speak
forth in class if you have anything at all to throw into the mix.
At the same time, just talking a great deal does not necessarily mean
that you are making a quality contribution to the class by aiding the
learning that we aim to accomplish. Quality of participation is
much more important than quantity, although a sufficient quantity is
indispensable to insure quality. Still, I want to emphasize here
that I perceive talking which pulls us off on far-fetched tangents,
which remains disconnected from and disengaged with the reading and the
rest of the class, or which effectively silences others, to be negative
participation. Quality class participation does not, moreover,
involve merely asking questions of me and responding to my questions;
quality class participation requires you to work to advance a serious
and substantial discussion with your peers about the texts and topics
subject to discussion. Students should, therefore, be prepared to
engage with and respond to each other in class discussion, and I will
take particular note of how well you do so.
Contribution to the class certainly can extend far
beyond mere speaking in class: it may include a variety of ways in
which you can bring to bear your insights to help yourself as well as
the rest of us gain from the experience of this course. Excellent
writing can help make up for any limitations as far as participation in
class goes. At the same time, listening carefully, respectfully,
and thoughtfully in class discussions is yet another important means of
contribution. And meeting and working with me, with Nate, and
with Zac outside of class can be an important means of contributing as
well.
Learning and contribution will constitute a
significant proportion of your overall course grade. As part of
this grade, you will write two learning and contribution reflection
papers. For these papers I will ask you specific questions
related to texts and topics we will have been working with in class, as
well as general questions prompting you to reflect on how, along with
how well, you have been contributing to your own learning, and to that
of others in the class. I will provide you specific
directions in the assignments I give you for each of these papers;
please note well that the questions you address will change from the
first to the second reflection paper.
The assignment for the first learning and
contribution reflection paper will ask you to focus to a considerable
extent on Kao Kalia Yang’s The Late
Homecomer: a Hmong Family Memoir,
and issues this book raises for our consideration. The Late
Homecomer is the 2009-2010 English 110 ‘Common Book’, which
means most
sections of English 110 at UWEC this year will be working with it, and
it also means a number of adjunct events, including a presentation and
discussion with the author herself, will take place during the fall
semester, outside of class, in conjunction with all of us in English
110 reading this book. I will share details of these events when
I have them.
The second learning and contribution reflection
paper will ask you to focus primarily on issues prompted by our work
with Reading and Writing for Civic
Literary: The Critical Citizen’s
Guide to Argumentative Rhetoric, your individual work in writing
an
argument and research paper, and your collective work as part of a team
preparing for and participating in the class debate.
These papers provide you a useful opportunity to
communicate with me how you are doing with the course, as well as why
so, and to demonstrate your critical self-reflexivity, the hallmark of
a liberal arts education. As you are assessing your own learning
and contribution, you may include thoughts in reaction to issues raised
in class discussion that you did not have the opportunity or did not
feel comfortable enough to share in class; these additional reflections
will help me get a better sense of what you have been thinking about
and how you have been responding to class discussions, as well as to
the readings.
I will take into account what you write in
determining your learning and contribution grade for the preceding
half-semester period, while I will also take into account my, and
Zac’s, and Nate’s independent observations of how, and of how well, you
have been learning and contributing. Learning and
contribution
will be worth 15% of the overall course grade in the first half of the
semester, and an additional 15% in the second half of the
semester–representing a total 30% of the overall course grade.
Autobiographical Essay
At the beginning of the second week of the semester
you will be assigned an autobiographical essay. Details will be
explained with the assignment. The initial finished version of
this assignment will be ungraded. I will however respond to what
you write by offering extensive comments and critiques, as well as
suggestions and recommendations for revision. You then will take
all of these into account in revising this paper. The revision of
the autobiographical essay will be due approximately two weeks after I
return the initial finished version of this paper to you, and will be
worth 25% of the
overall course grade.
The work we will be doing throughout the first half
of the semester, in conjunction with Writing
and Revising and The Late
Homecomer: a Hmong Family Memoir, will provide you with helpful
ways of
making sense of and approaching writing your autobiographical
essay. Writing and Revising deals
with all of the stages in the
process of writing from generating ideas through editing and
proofreading, while The Late
Homecomer is an award-winning example of
highly compelling autobiographical writing (what a consensus among
critics has found to be impressively perceptive, thoughtful, strong,
fresh, honest, and moving). You do not need to share the specific
background and experiences of Kao Kalia Yang, and of her family, to
draw useful connections (as well as contrasts) with what she has
written. You should be able to use what she has written as an
encouragement to reflect upon who you are, what you are about, where
you are coming from, and where you are headed–as well as, especially,
to reflect upon how all of this is affected, has been affected, and
will be affected by your relations with family, friends, community,
society, and culture. In addition, Yang’s writing style provides
a useful model for developing and articulating your written account of
yourself.
Argument and Research Paper
During the course of our work with Donald Lazere’s
Reading and Writing for Civic
Literacy: The Critical Citizen’s Guide to
Argumentative Rhetoric, over the second half of the semester,
you will
write an argument and research paper. In this paper you will
advance an argument, supported by research, in relation to a
controversial issue of contemporary significance and urgency,
affecting you and/or (others you know and are close to in) a community
of which you are a member and which is important to you. The
assignment will relate directly to specific concepts and practices from
Lazere’s book that you will have been reading, studying, and discussing
in class. I will likely ask you to submit a ‘prospectus’ near the
beginning of work on this assignment, explaining what issue you intend
to focus on, what stance you provisionally expect to take, and why
so. Nate, Zac, and I will help you as you narrow and focus, as
you find sources and seek ways to incorporate these, and as you strive
to make your argument as persuasive as possible. Details will be
explained with the assignment. The argument and research paper
will be worth 25%
of the overall course grade.
Class Debate
Toward the end of the semester you will be given an
assignment to participate in a class debate organized in response to a
proposition on an issue, or nexus of issues, to be determined (although
this may well be related to issues sparked by our reading and
discussion of The Late Homecomer
and by Reading and Writing for Civil
Literacy). You will work in teams (pro, con, and judges)
extensively preparing, including researching, ahead of the actual
debate itself. At the end of the debate itself you will have an
opportunity to evaluate your own performance, as well as those
participating on your team in terms of everyone’s contribution to the
success of your collective effort. We will work on the class
debate over the course of the last four weeks of the semester.
Zac, Nate, and I will work closely with you to help you as you prepare,
and we will then moderate the actual debate.. Details will be
explained with the assignment. Preparation for and performance in
the debate will be worth 20% of the overall
course grade.
General Formatting Requirements: Papers
All papers should be typed, double-space, on
single sides of standard white letter-sized (8" X 11") typewriter,
computer printer, or photographic paper. You may use any standard
font you wish but your print size must remain between 10 and 12
points. Pages should be numbered, and your name should be at the
top of the first page. The pages of your paper must be stapled
together and you are responsible for doing so; I do not bring staplers
to class.
You are also responsible for proofreading your
paper before you turn it in; if you catch any typographical errors, you
should neatly cross these out and write your corrections on top of
these with a pen (but not a pencil).
I will expect you, furthermore, to observe the rules
and conventions of Standard Written English to the very best of your
ability in writing these papers, including MLA format for citation and
documentation of sources for the argument and research paper.
Plagiarism and Academic Honesty
Plagiarism, cheating, and other forms of academic
dishonesty are serious offenses. They not only undermine the goal
of learning but also are exploitative of the work of others.
Dishonesty in written work as part of this course will result in a
failing grade. In addition, dishonesty may result in further
disciplinary action on the part of the University administration;
dishonesty can ultimately lead to expulsion from the University.
Also, if you directly echo someone else’s thoughts as articulated in
the course of class discussion you should add the last name, followed
by the letters CD (for class discussion), followed by the date, in a
parenthetical citation right after the end of the sentence, viz:
(Nowlan, CD, 9/19/09).
Late Work
Late papers will lose 1/3 of a letter grade per day
late unless you have made arrangements ahead of the time with me to
turn in these papers late due to a serious personal or family
problem. Alternately, if you provide a reasonable explanation why
you are late (again, due to a serious personal or family problem)
shortly after the paper is due, you won’t suffer any grade
penalty. It is best to talk with me directly about this, or
alternately to talk directly with Nate or Zac if I’m not available, and
to make sure to do so within a week’s time of the due date at the
absolute latest. I do understand that at times real problems come
up for all of us, no matter what we might intend or prefer.
FIRST-YEAR EXPERIENCE PROGRAM
The aim of the first-year experience (fye) program
is to help you in your transition from high school so that you start to
make an effective connection to UWEC and what we are about, as well as,
prospectively, to Eau Claire beyond the UWEC campus. Most of all,
the aim of the program is to help you ‘get serious’ about being a
university student. As the draft vision statement of the FYE
program declares, “First-Year Experience (FYE) at the University of
Wisconsin – Eau Claire fosters the development of connected student
scholars; connected to the people around them, the places they engage,
and the academic purpose to which they aspire.” In practical
terms, the most immediate way in which FYE courses work to help you in
this way is that these are limited in enrollment to all first-semester,
first-year students, at a considerably lower size than otherwise for
the same course, and where you will be assisted by a senior student
mentor or several senior student mentors as well as by a professor or
instructor. Beyond that, as a FYE course, we will engage in
several informal field trips or outings together, primarily focused on
introducing you to helpful resources and interesting opportunities in
the area, to getting to know one another better, and to having
fun. You will be expected to participate in these field trips or
outings as much as you can in order to earn full learning and
contribution credit. It may not always seem like it right away,
but these kinds of activities, and the connections made, or
strengthened, by participating together as part of these activities,
can, in the long run, make a lasting positive difference for
students. So take advantage of this opportunity–it is one that
you, the students at UWEC, sought out and worked to initiate–and it is
one that you, the students at UWEC, have repeatedly agreed to pay extra
for, even in difficult economic times.
CONFERENCES/EXTRA HELP
I encourage you to meet with me in conference during
office hours or at another mutually convenient time to discuss any
issue of interest or concern related to what we are doing in this
course. Learning that takes place in conferences can at times be
equally as important, and at times even more important, than what takes
place in class. Please do not hesitate to meet with me during
office hours or to ask for an appointment at any time you think this
might be helpful; making myself available for conferences with you
outside of class is part of my responsibility as your teacher.
Moreover, I always sincerely do welcome getting to know and work with
my students outside as well as inside of class. I am ready to do
whatever I can to help you in your understanding of issues addressed in
discussions and readings, as well as to help you in your writing for
and participation in this course. I want to make sure that I do
all that I can to help you succeed in this course and I want to help
you, as far as I can, to gain as much out of it as possible through
your participation in and work for it. You may also feel free to
write me via e-mail, and to call me–or leave a message for me on the
answering machine–at my office. Keep in mind–“my office
hours” are for you, and I would rather talk with you during my office
hours than do anything else, so please do not worry about “disturbing”
me in coming to talk with me. These office hours are time
that I have set aside to meet, talk, and work with you. And also,
even though I’ve only designated three regular office hours a week, I
can arrange to meet you at other times as well, if and when you need or
would like to do so. We will meet in my office, HHH 425, except
on the occasion another venue proves more convenient or useful to us
both.
This is one of the advantages of attending a
university like UWEC as opposed to a place like UW-Madison or
UW-Minneapolis: you maintain much readier and more extensive
opportunity to meet and work with professors, from your first semester
onward. PLEASE DO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS OPPORTUNITY!
Also, Nate Betz and Zac Carlson have joined this
class as your senior student mentors because they want to work with and
help you. Zac and Nate will be helping me in conducting class
sessions, reviewing and evaluating your work, and in organizing
out-of-class activities; they will also hold regular office hours of
their own and otherwise make themselves available to assist you outside
of
class.
Finally, you may seek help in writing assignments
for this class, and others you are taking, through the University
Writing Center, in Old Library 1142. Tutors in the Writing Center
are English majors, minors, and graduate students, working with English
Department Composition Director, Professor Shevaun Watson. For
more information on the University Writing Center, check out its
webpage: http://www.uwec.edu/Writing/index.htm.
*
Any student who has a disability and is in need of
classroom accommodations, please contact both the instructor and the
Services for Students with Disabilities Office, Old Library 2136; for
more information on the services the latter office provides you, check
out their webpage: http://www.uwec.edu/ssd/index.htm *
CONCLUSION
In the interest of accountability–me to you–I am
here providing you weblinks: 1.) to my statement of philosophy as a
college teacher: http://www.uwec.edu/ranowlan/philosophy.htm
and 2.) to
my autobiographical profile:
http://www.uwec.edu/ranowlan/PROFILE_.htm.
You are also welcome
to check out 3.) my myspace page,
http://www.myspace.com/insurgentseanmurphy,
and to look me up 4.)
on facebook, http://www.facebook.com,
where I just started a page this
past summer under ‘Bob Nowlan’. [If you are interested in
becoming myspace or facebook friends, feel free to contact me about
that.] In addition, you can find 5.) my professional vita (the
academic equivalent of a resume) at:
http://www.uwec.edu/ranowlan/VITA.htm. I encourage you to
check
these sites out; it is useful for you to know who your teacher is, what
he’s about, and where he’s coming from–and I like to be very open,
honest, and forthright with you about all of that. I look forward
to a great semester working together with you!