ENGLISH 110: INTRODUCTION TO COLLEGE WRITING
Section 033: MW, 5
to 7:15 p.m., HHH 226
Spring 2008,
University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire
PROFESSOR BOB NOWLAN
Office: HHH 425,
(715) 836-4369
ranowlan@uwec.edu
http://www.uwec.edu/ranowlan
Office Hours:
T 2:40-4:30 pm, T 9:50-10:30 pm,
W 3-4 pm, and
By Appointment
JENNA KENNEDY,
ACADEMIC APPRENTICE
kennedja@uwec.edu
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.
4. Introduction to creative–and especially
dramatic–writing, production, and performance.
5. Thinking, reading, writing, and speaking
insightfully about visual culture texts, and, especially, about graphic
novels.
6. Working effectively in collaboration with peers on
critical and creative projects involving reading, research, writing,
discussing, debating, arguing, critiquing, producing, presenting, and
performing.
TEXTS
The following required
texts are available for
purchase at the UWEC Bookstore in Davies Center:
1. Kennedy, X.J., Dorothy M. Kennedy, and Marcia F.
Muth. Writing and Revising: a
Portable Guide. Boston:
Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007. ISBN#: 0-312-45458-9.
2. Moore, Alan and Dave Gibbons.
1986-1987. Watchmen.
New York: DC Comics, 1995.
ISBN#: 0-930-28923-4.
3. Auster, Paul, Paul Karasik, and David
Mazzucchelli. 1985, 1994. Graphic Novel Edition. City of Glass:
the Graphic Novel. New York: Picador, 2004. ISBN#:
0-313-42360-8.
4. Lutes, Jason. 1994, 1997, 2001. New
Drawn and Quarterly Edition. Jar
of Fools: a Picture Story.
Montreal: Drawn and Quarterly, 2003. ISBN#: 1-896597-72-6.
SCHEDULE
*** Please note
well: all reading assignments
indicated in the schedule below are due AHEAD of the class meetings in
which we will discuss these readings. You are responsible for
bringing the course book or books to class on the days in which we will
be discussing readings from this book or these books. Failure to
do so will negatively affect your learning and contribution
grade. Students who consistently fail to bring their books to
class, or who fail to come prepared to discuss the assigned readings,
will suffer the loss of one full letter grade per each half of the
semester. ***
Key: WR=Writing and Revising;
W=Watchmen; CG=City of Glass; and JF=Jar
of Fools.
1/23: Introduction and Orientation Part One.
1/28: Introduction and Orientation Part Two; Initial In-Class Writing
(Autobiographical Essay) Assignment.
1/30: An Introduction to and Overview of the Writing Process; Initial
Work on Peer Review and Critique of Autobiographical Essays.
Read for Class: WR, Chapter 1, 1-10.
2/4: Strategies for Generating Ideas; Practice and Application in
Ongoing Writing–as well as Peer Review and Critique–of Autobiographical
Essays.
Read for Class: WR, Chapter 4, 41-59.
2/6: Strategies for Planning; Practice and Application in Ongoing
Writing–as well as Peer Review and Critique–of Autobiographical Essays.
Read for Class: WR, Chapter 5, 60-82.
2/11: Strategies for Drafting; Practice and Application in Ongoing
Writing–as well as Peer Review and Critique–of Autobiographical Essays.
Read for Class: WR, Chapter 6, 83-100.
2/13: Strategies for Developing; Practice and Application in Ongoing
Writing–as well as Peer Review and Critique–of Autobiographical Essays.
Read for Class: WR, Chapter 7, 101-136.
2/18: Strategies for Revising; Practice and Application in Ongoing
Writing–as well as Peer Review and Critique–of Autobiographical Essays.
Read for Class: WR, Chapter 8, 137-154.
2/20: Strategies for Editing and Proofreading; Practice and Application
in Ongoing Writing–as well as Peer Review and Critique–of
Autobiographical Essays.
Read for Class: WR, Chapter 9, 155-189.
* First Learning
and Contribution Reflection Paper
Assigned *
** Friday,
February 22: Finished Version of Autobiographical Essay Due,
by 5 pm, either in my English Department mailbox, HHH 405, or as an
e-mail attachment (but not in
Microsoft Works, Microsoft Publisher, or
Word for Windows docx formats). **
2/25: Student Group Presentations and Discussion, Watchmen.
Read for Class: W, Chapters 1-3 (Through the End of
the Section Titled “Under the Hood).
2/27: Student Group Presentations and Discussion, Watchmen.
Read for Class: W, Chapters 4-6 (Through the End of
the Section Including a Police Report as well as a New York State
Psychiatric Hospital Report on Walter Kovacs along with sections from
Walter Kovacs’ writings while in Charlton Home and from a doctor
evaluating him at that time).
* Friday,
February 29: First Learning and Contribution Reflection Paper
Due, by 5 pm, either in my English Department mailbox, HHH 405, or as
an e-mail attachment (but not
in Microsoft Works, Microsoft Publisher,
or Word for Windows docx formats). *
3/3: Student Group Presentations and Discussion, Watchmen.
Read for Class: W, Chapters 7-9 (Through the End of
the Section Including an Article from the Daily World, “Villains
Vie for Voluptuous Vigilante,” a handwritten letter on personal
letterhead from King Taylor to Sal and Larry, a letter from Captain
Metropolis to Miss Jupiter, a letter from Larry to Sally, a capsule
‘Screen Review’ of Silk Swingers of Suburbia, and a “Probe Profile”
interview with Sally Jupiter).
3/5: Student Group Presentations and Discussion, Watchmen.
Read for Class: W, Chapters 10-12 (Through the End
of the Book).
3/10: Strategies for Arguing.
Read for Class: WR, Chapter 10, 190-203.
3/12: Strategies for Finding and Integrating Sources to Support
Arguments.
Read for Class: WR, Chapter 11, 204-218.
3/24, 3/26, and 3/31: Work in Debate Teams (Pro, Con, and Judges) to
Prepare for Class Debate.
4/2: Class Debate.
* Second Learning
and Contribution Reflection Paper
Assigned *
4/7: Student Group Presentations and Discussion, City of Glass.
Read for Class: CG, 1-71.
4/9: Student Group Presentations and Discussion, City of Glass.
Read for Class: CG, 72-138.
* Friday,
April 11: Second Learning and Contribution Reflection Paper
Due, by 5 pm, either in my English Department mailbox, HHH 405, or as
an e-mail attachment (but not
in Microsoft Works, Microsoft Publisher,
or Word for Windows docx formats). *
4/14: Student Group Presentations and Discussion, Jar of Fools.
Read for Class, JF, Part One, 1-70.
4/16: Student Group Presentations and Discussion, Jar of Fools.
Read for Class, JF, Part Two, 71-142.
4/21, 4/23, 4/28, and 4/30: Work in Groups to Prepare (Write and
Produce) Short Plays.
* Monday, April
28: Third Learning and Contribution
Reflection Paper Assigned. *
5/5, 5/7: Presentations (Performances) of Short Plays Prepared by Each
Group Over the Course of the Preceding Two Weeks.
* Monday
May 12: Third Learning and Contribution Reflection Paper Due,
by 5 pm, either in my English Department mailbox, HHH 405, or as an
e-mail attachment (but not in
Microsoft Works, Microsoft Publisher, or
Word for Windows docx formats). *
*** THIS SCHEDULE
IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE ***
THE GOALS OF THE UWEC BACCALAUREATE
Education in the liberal arts represents the
historic and central commitment of what we do together on this UW
campus–not vocational
training and pre-professional development.
The university administration and faculty support this commitment so
strongly that they have asked that all syllabi include the official
goals of the baccalaureate, which all our courses aim to help you
achieve. Here they are (in their newly revised, updated, and
streamlined form):
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, 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.
ON INTELLECTUAL CHALLENGES, ACADEMIC FREEDOM, AND CURRICULAR INTEGRITY
The English Department would like to call your
attention right away to one key difference between high school and
college. In short, at this institutional level we will
consistently address and treat you as adults, not children. Our
aim as such is to provide you with an intellectually challenging
education. This means we will at times include texts and
introduce topics in our courses that may well run sharply counter to
your preconceived understanding, based upon high school experience, of
what is and is not “appropriate” for direct engagement in class.
We will, in short, candidly explore adult texts and topics, including
ones offering representations that may, on occasion, prove unsettling,
disturbing, and even offensive to some of you.
The higher educational academy is not a “safe space”
separate from the rest of the “real world” where you can expect to be
sheltered from encountering anything you might find disagreeable or
objectionable. On the contrary, we expect you to take up the
challenge to confront these kinds of texts and topics in a mature,
responsible way, and that means bringing directly to bear your negative
reactions-including any reactions of shock, dismay, and discontent-into
class discussions and into your writings and presentations for
class. If you find a position or practice represented by a text
or topic included in the assigned readings for class to be
objectionable, it is therefore of crucial importance that you raise
your objections openly and honestly, not simply claim personal
exemption from having to talk, read, and write about these kinds of
matters. After all, disturbing positions and practices exist
extensively outside of the classroom as well as in what we read, and
otherwise confront in and for class; what we confront in class exists
in this institutional space as symptomatic of positions and practices
that operate beyond the confines of the classroom, the course, and the
university. If and when you find any text or topic
genuinely appalling, you maintain the ethical responsibility, as a
mature adult and as a responsible citizen, not simply to try to hide
from these positions and practices but rather to work to critique and
change them.
Students should expect therefore that you may well
on occasion encounter representations that you will find troubling, in
this UWEC course and in many others as well; within this Department you
will receive no right of exemption from engaging with these and
absolutely no welcome for simply complaining (especially to a higher
administrative authority) about their inclusion. Instead you
should bring your objections forthrightly to bear in your contributions
to class discussion.
Finally, to conclude this particular point of
discussion, 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. In short, we must create, advocate for, and
profess these knowledges; you should expect that your professors may
from time to time take strong and indeed controversial positions on
difficult and challenging issues, eschewing the pretense of
disinterested neutrality. To do anything less than assume this
responsibility, and to do so with alacrity, would be to shirk our
professorial responsibility and to render ourselves unworthy of
maintaining our professorial positions.
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 in fact occasionally 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; I regard making myself available for
conferences with you outside of class to be an indispensable 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. I enjoy meeting and working with students
outside as well as inside of class; I really do. 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; my office
hours are time that I have set aside to meet, talk, and work with
you. PLEASE DO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS OPPORTUNITY!
Also, Jenna Kennedy has joined this class as an
academic apprentice–a senior student mentor– because she wants to work
with and help you. Jenna will be helping me conducting class
sessions, and she will also hold regular office hours and be readily
accessible to assist you outside of class.
*
Any student who has a disability and is in need of classroom
accommodations, please contact the instructor and the Services for
Students with Disabilities Office. *
THE WRITING CENTER
The Writing Center provides free tutoring–provided
by advanced, trained, UWEC undergraduate and graduate students–to help
you with your writing for this and other UWEC courses. For more
information about this assistance, see the Writing Center webpage:
http://www.uwec.edu/english/Resources/writingctr.htm
ORGANIZATION AND CONDUCT OF CLASS SESSIONS
Class will proceed according to a variety of
discussion formats. I will, from time to time, make short,
relatively informal presentations (and even perhaps somewhat longer and
less informal ones on rare occasion, as need be). Yet, for the
overwhelmingly majority of class time, I plan directly to involve you
in actively participating as part of the work of educating both
yourself and the rest of the class through what you have to say as well
as share with us in written form. You need to work with me in
learning; students always learn better, in this kind of class, through
active participation and collaboration rather than by remaining quiet
and merely taking notes during the course of long lectures. Many
times you will be working in groups in class, and many times you will
be sharing your writing with the rest of the class, both as prepared
before class meets, and as prepared during class time
itself. At other points, you will be asked to do some
research and bring the results of this research to help with the work
we will be doing together. You will also be working outside of as
well as inside of class in groups to prepare for presentations on
Watchmen, City of Glass, and Jar of Fools, for the class
debate, and,
for your work together in writing, producing, and presenting a short
play. Throughout this process, and in all of these projects and
discussion formats, I will help you in every way I possibly can.
I want you to succeed.
I will maintain ultimate responsibility, authority,
and control for the direction of our class discussions, assisted by
Jenna, yet I aim to insure that we hear extensively from everyone
else. We will seek to enhance and develop your own preexisting
strengths as writers, readers, thinkers, speakers, listeners, and
doers–and we will seek to help you in teaching and learning from each
other as well as from yourself.
GENERAL
EXPECTATIONS OF STUDENTS
While I am providing you a framework to direct our
work together, I firmly believe that the success of any course I teach
depends as much–if not often in fact much more–on what my students
bring and give to the process of learning as what I do. I see
college teaching and learning as a collaborative project and this means
its success–or failure–depends upon the degree and kind of commitment
as well as the quantity and quality of contribution of everyone
involved. Some of the best teachers with whom I have ever worked
have insisted that they do not teach their students as much as they
teach their students how to teach themselves. It is impossible to
teach someone who does not sincerely want and who does not assiduously
strive to learn. I will always work equally hard and equally
seriously to help students who demonstrate this kind of effort succeed,
both within my courses and beyond.
I expect you to approach this course as one that you
sincerely want to take, and in which you sincerely want to learn.
I expect you to work hard in this course and to approach this course
with both diligence and enthusiasm. I expect you to become, and
to remain, interested in the subject matter of the course as an end in
itself and not merely as a means to achieve a passing grade and five
credits. A liberal arts undergraduate education means giving
priority emphasis to a broad–general–education, not giving priority
emphasis to a narrow–major–area of specialization. You will do
well at UWEC if you keep this in mind: this university values general
education courses as much as, if not in fact more than, specialized
courses within specific major fields.
I expect you to be actively engaged in class
discussion, in an intellectually serious manner. Some students
prefer courses in which teachers simply tell them what is right, what
is true, and everything that these students are supposed to do, so that
the students need merely repeat all of this back to their teachers to
obtain a good grade while not expending much of any intellectual energy
or demonstrating virtually any genuine intellectual growth. This
is definitely not that kind of course, and if you approach your work in
and for this section of English 110 as a passive learner you will do
very poorly.
I also expect that you will recognize that this is a
university, not a high school, class. At all times you need to
engage as a mature adult, not as an immature child. I maintain
zero tolerance for immature–and especially disruptive–behavior.
You must treat me, Jenna, your classmates, your self, and this class
with genuine respect–at all times. Anyone who doesn’t do so on a
consistent basis will suffer a serious grade penalty, making it
difficult to pass the course, and, as need be, will also be asked to
withdraw from the class.
If you experience problems at any point over the
course of the semester I expect you to contact me right away to discuss
these forthrightly with me; I am ready to do whatever I can to help you
if and when you experience problems in this course, or elsewhere, as
long as you are candid and sincere, but I can't help if you are not
upfront about what's going on and if you don't level with me. I
am a compassionate as well as a passionate person, so don't hesitate to
talk with me about problems if and when you experience them; we can
work past many of these, if you contact me in time and if we work
together. Likewise, please do seek out assistance from Jenna as
well if you should experience problems; Jenna is prepared to help and
committed to doing so.
SPECIFIC
REQUIREMENTS FOR THE COURSE GRADE
Introduction
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 Jenna, 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:
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.
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 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 the focus of what
we are about in this course (e.g., text-messaging, or web-searching,
facebook, or youtube [if you regularly bring a laptop computer to your
classes].). *
** 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. **
Autobiographical
Essay
Students will begin work on this essay in response
to an assignment for an in-class writing exercise you will engage with
at our second class meeting. You will then work to develop and
revise this essay over the course of the next four weeks. In
doing so, you will apply concepts and practices from your readings in
and our discussions of chapters from Writing
and Revising. You
will have the opportunity to work on this assignment both during our
class meetings (in class) as well as outside of class. Throughout
this period of time you will be working frequently in peer groups to
assist each other as you develop and revise your respective
essays. Jenna and I will assist and supervise the process
of peer review and critique. We will also be available outside of
class to help you work on writing your autobiographical essay. I
will give you more details with the initial assignment as well as
throughout the process of your working on writing this essay.
Your grade for your autobiographical essay–in finished form–will be
worth 15% of the
overall course grade.
Group Presentations–Readings from
Watchmen, City of
Glass, and Jar of Fools
As we read and discuss Watchmen, City of Glass, and
Jar of Fools you will be
responsible, as part of a group of your
classmates, for making short presentations in relation to particular
sections of these books to help initiate, generate, and focus our
discussion. I will give you instructions on what to prepare to
present when I give you the specific assignment, and I will also ask to
meet with you in a group conference prior to your presentation so we
can discuss what you will present ahead of the actual presentation–so I
can assist you in making this as useful and effective as
possible. Each student will participate in two of these
presentation groups–one for a section of Watchmen and one for a section
of either City of Glass or Jar of Fools. Each
presentation will
be worth 5% of
the overall course grade, for a combined total worth 10%
of the overall course grade. I will give you individual
grades
for your work on these assignments, although the grades may well turn
out to be the same for all group members, depending on how well you
work together and how equitably you each contribute to the overall
effectiveness of the presentation. All students should be
prepared to discuss each section of Watchmen,
City of Glass, and Jar of
Fools, as it comes up for discussion in class–not just on the
days you
will be making a presentation. Students who are not prepared to
engage with their peers’ presentations on sections from these graphic
novels as we discuss them in class will suffer a significant grade
penalty each time that this occurs.
Class Debate
On this assignment you will work in teams to prepare
for, and then actually debate a significant and controversial issue
connected with–sparked by–our reading and discussion of Watchmen.
Here you will also make use of lessons learned from our immediately
prior week’s discussion focused on strategies for arguing and on
strategies for finding and integrating sources to support
effective arguments (chapters 10-11 in Writing and
Revising). The class will divide into three
teams–one pro
(arguing for the proposition), one con (arguing against the
proposition), and judges (responsible for researching and thinking
through the best possible arguments for both sides, as well as
preparing criteria for evaluating the pro and con sides, as they
prepare and perform, and, finally, for judging the debate all the way
through–including determining a winner). The proposition
will be included in the specific assignment for the class debate.
This assignment will also provide considerably greater and more precise
detail on exactly what you should do in preparing–as well as on exactly
how the debate itself will run. You will have three whole class
periods to work to prepare for the debate, while the debate itself will
take place over an additional entire class period. Your teams
will also need to do further work preparing for the debate outside of
class. Preparation for the debate will include research as well
as critical analysis, synthesis, and judgment, the building of a
logical case with strong rational appeal, the supporting of this case
with effective ethical and emotional appeal, and the effective
anticipation and refutation of opposing points. Your grade for
your preparation and performance with the class debate assignment will
be worth 15% of
the overall course grade. Students will be graded
individually even as you will be working as part of a team, and you
will have the opportunity to evaluate yourself and each other member of
your team to help determine these grades. The grades may turn out
to be the same or similar, depending on how effectively you work
together as a team and on how equitably you each contribute, both in
preparation and performance. Jenna and I will be working
extensively to assist you throughout the entire process of preparation
and will moderate the actual debate itself.
Group
Project–Preparation and Presentation (Writing, Production, and
Performance) of a Short Play
Over the course of the last three weeks of the
semester you will be working to prepare and present a short play as
part of a group of classmates. You will be responsible for
writing, producing, and ultimately performing the play (in class, for
the rest of the class). The play will be based upon–and inspired
by–your readings and our discussions of City of Glass and Jar of
Fools. You will be extrapolating ideas from both of these books,
combining them, and adding your own to the mix. You will be
drawing on elements of content, form, and style from both of these
graphic novels. I will give you precise instructions and detailed
assistance on how to proceed in this work with the specific assignment
for this project. You will have four class periods to work in
writing, producing, and preparing to stage and perform your short play;
you will also be expected to work to prepare for the presentation of
your play outside as well as inside of class. During our last two
class meetings of the semester, groups will present their plays in
class. Throughout the process of preparing your plays,
Jenna and I will work extensively to assist you. Your grade for
your preparation and performance with this assignment will be worth 15%
of the overall course grade. Students will be graded
individually
even as you will be working as part of a group, and you will have the
opportunity to evaluate yourself and each other member of your group to
help determine these grades. The grades may turn out to be the
same or similar, depending on how effectively you work together as a
group and on how equitably you each contribute, both in preparation and
performance.
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 as assiduously as you
can 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 writings for and in response to class 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.
Learning and contribution will constitute a
significant proportion of your overall course grade. As
part of this grade, you will write three learning and contribution
reflection papers. For these papers I will ask you to reflect on
what you have been learning as a student enrolled in this course, and
to assess how, along with how well, you have been contributing to your
own learning, and to that of others in the class.
As I see it, these papers provide you a useful
opportunity to communicate with me how you believe 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 semester period; performance on these papers
represents a vital component of your learning and contribution grade.
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 with each reflection paper.
Each learning and contribution grade (for which each learning and
contribution reflection paper constitutes a substantial component) will
be worth 15% of
the overall course grade, for a combined total worth
45% of the overall course grade.
Late Papers
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.
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, 9/17/07).
CONCLUSION
In the interest of accountability–me to you–I am
here providing you links: 1.) to my statement of philosophy as a
college teacher: http://www.uwec.edu/ranowlan/philosophy.htm;
2.) to my
autobiographical profile: http://www.uwec.edu/ranowlan/PROFILE_.htm
and
http://www.myspace.com/insurgentseanmurphy
(if you too are on myspace
feel free to contact me to become myspace friends); and 3.) to my
professional vita (the academic equivalent of a resume):
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!