ENGLISH 110: INTRODUCTION TO COLLEGE WRITING
            Section 444, MW 11-12:50 pm and F 12-12:50 pm, HHH 222
                    

    PROFESSOR BOB NOWLAN
    Office: HHH 425,  Office Phone: (715) 836-4369
    Office Hours: MWF 1-1:30 pm, M 6:40-7:20 pm, T 9:50-10:30 pm,
    and W 5:40-6:20 pm as well as By Appointment.
    ranowlan@uwec.edu
    http://www.uwec.edu/ranowlan


    LUKE FISCHER, fischelk@uwec.edu,  PAULA HAGEN, hagenpc@uwec.edu,
    DAN JOHNSON, johnsodr@uwec.edu, and TAREK SHAGOSH, shagosth@uwec.edu,
    Senior Student Mentors  

   

COURSE DESCRIPTION

    
    English 110: Introduction to College Writing, beginning with First Year Experience Program (FYE) sections, are now conceived as ‘Liberal Arts Seminars in Critical Reading and Writing’.  Each FYE English 110 section maintains a specific thematic focus of its own, enabling new university students, working closely with a professor and with senior student mentors, to develop and refine your preexisting writing abilities through engagement with issues of significant intellectual interest–and social relevance.


    Writing is intrinsically interconnected with reading, speaking, listening, thinking, reflecting, acting, and interacting.  Writing is neither neutral skills nor empty forms; skills and forms must always be selected and adapted to what you are writing about, for whom, when, where, and why.


    English 110 emphasizes writing with a purpose.  At its best, writing with a purpose means, in turn, writing with conviction, passion, and, indeed, urgency. At the college level, students are no longer treated as children expected to write merely what others tell them, or merely what others think, feel, and believe.  Instead, you are addressed as adults, and that means you are invited–and in fact encouraged–actively to join together with UWEC faculty and with scholars working far beyond the scope of this single institution alone, as well as with college student-level peers, in thinking for yourselves, in advancing your own arguments, and in offering your own thoughtful takes on matters of serious intellectual–and broadly social–concern.  


    To make an impact through your writing you need to understand who you are writing for, so that you can determine what precise ways to write in order effectively to reach your target audience.  High school students most often write just for themselves, and just for their teachers; here you need to approach all writing assignments as if you are writing for a much broader audience, especially fellow members of this university community who are sincerely interested in what you are writing about, but who you have to work hard to interest, compel, and persuade.


    In order successfully to interest, compel, and persuade, through your writing, you need to be open to learning from people who are considerably different from who you are, as well as from those with whom you are already much alike.  You need, moreover, to inquire into how you are interconnected with myriad diverse others, including those (seemingly) most distant and different from you, in order better to understand yourself–and to recognize, in doing so, that understanding yourself, while a necessary and valuable end, is a complex, continuously ongoing process.  


    Understanding yourself requires rigorous self-reflection, and encouraging this habit of mind is a principal goal of FYE classes. You need persistently to ask yourself the following questions: who am I? what am I about?  where am I coming from?  how have I been shaped and formed to be who I am?  by what and by whom? how have I developed and changed and how am I developing and changing?  where am I headed as well as where do I want to head?  what can I be and what can I do? what do I want to be and what do I want to do? what should I be and what should I do?  And, you need to follow up, in the case of each of the preceding questions I have just elaborated, by further asking yourself: why so?  In addition, you need to ask yourself the following questions as well: how might I have been different as someone who was born and who grew up at a different place and in a different time? how might I have been different as someone who was born and who grew a member of a different socio-economic class, class fraction, or class stratum? how might I have been different as someone of a different race, ethnicity, nationality? How I might I have been different as someone of a different sex, gender, or sexuality? how might I have been different as someone of a different religion, culture, or politics? and how am I connected with all of these ‘other’ (seemingly ‘different’) people, including in ways that are not readily apparent?


    You will grow and change a great deal as a university student in many ways it is impossible to anticipate from where you are at, here and now.  Be humble enough to recognize, to accept, and to welcome this.  At the same time, keep in mind that UWEC aims, quite sincerely, to educate people capable of taking on roles as global leaders.  As daunting as that ambition might seem, in thinking of it as a description of yourself, you would not be here if we did not believe you are capable of eventually contributing as exactly that kind of person.   

    *****

    
    In this FYE section of English 110 our specific thematic focus will be “Argument, Drama, and the Problematics of Identity: Graphic Novels as Culture Critique.”  What will broadly unite all of the activities we will pursue together will be our continuous exploration of the ways diverse kinds of individual and social identities are formed and constituted.  We will consider ‘identities’ in both psychological and sociological terms, with particular emphasis on matters of growing up/coming of age, as well as relations with family and friends, along with the impacts of the following: media and consumer culture, leisure and recreational pursuit, work experience and career ambition, political and religious/spiritual values and affiliations, (socio-economic) class, religion, politics, race, ethnicity, nationality, regionality, locality, generationality/age, gender, sexuality, health/illness, and (dis)ability.   


    After an initial two days of introduction and orientation, we will, working with the book Writing and Revising: a Portable Guide, review stages of the writing process that many if not most of you have already learned about in high school.  Here we will particularly emphasize concepts, methods, techniques, and approaches that will prove especially useful at the college level–and which will help many of you in areas where people coming out of high school experience continued problems and difficulties.  We will move from there to discuss argument and research, which is of crucial importance at the college level.  As a way of actively applying what we will read and discuss concerning argument and research–and as a way of learning through doing (which is often by far the best way to advance in understanding and facility)–you will then divide into teams which will work to research and prepare for a class debate on an issue, to be announced, of topical interest and concern.  You will work on researching and preparing for this debate over the course of two weeks, while the actual class debate will then fill an entire class period.


    After the class debate, we will shift toward engaging directly with a series of four highly critically acclaimed graphic novels.  You will find these works the equivalent in complexity and sophistication of more traditional novels; scholars treat all four of them as serious ‘literature’.  At the same time, however, composed through combinations of words and pictures as they are, Maus, Persepolis, Blankets, and Fun Home maintain distinct qualities–while offering distinct challenges for interpretation as well as distinct opportunities for appreciation–versus novels written entirely in words alone.  Engaging with these four graphic novels will also enable us all the more readily to explore many connections with popular as well as elite culture, and for you to develop visual as well as verbal literacies (crucially important in today’s media age).  Maus, Persepolis, Blankets, and Fun Home all focus centrally on the same issues concerning identities that we are focused on in this course; exploring the stories they each recount will stimulate your critical–and creative–thinking–about the complexity and the dynamics involved in the formation and constitution of your own identity, as well as that of others who may well initially seem, once again, far different from you (but, as we proceed to work with these books over the course of multiple weeks, you will likely find considerably more in common with the protagonists of these four books than you might at first recognize).  


    We will begin work on each of these four graphic novels with two classes of ‘introduction and orientation’; during this period time you will read and we will discuss an initial series of chapters from Maus, Persepolis, Blankets, and Fun Home while I will help you get started in understanding what precise themes and issues, as well as what precise interpretations and arguments, you should explore over the course of each entire graphic novel, as well as how to do so.  Then, after we have held these initial discussions for Maus, Persepolis, Blankets, and Fun Home, you will divide into four groups.  Each small group will work with a senior student mentor, and together with your mentor you will, over the course of four additional class periods, discuss the remainder of two of the four aforementioned graphic novels.  In these small groups, you and your mentor will also discuss what you might write, and how so, in comparing and contrasting themes and issues, and interpretations and arguments, from your two graphic novels.  In these small groups you will, in other words, workshop not only on coming to grips with what happens–and what you make of this–in the remainder of the two graphic novels your group will be dealing with, but also on how to write an effective paper dealing with these same two graphic novels.  I will assign students to each of these four small groups.  All students will also have the option of writing an additional, extra credit, paper critically analyzing, including comparing and contrasting, the other two graphic novels if you wish to do so (i.e., the two your small group will not be dealing with).  


    Following this work in small groups, I will combine the four groups into two larger teams.  At this point, in your teams, you will be working, assisted by two senior student mentors in each case, to compose, produce, and ultimately perform–in class, on our next to last meeting of the semester–a short play based on, and inspired by, three of the graphic novels we will have taken up prior to that point of the semester.  I will give you detailed instructions for what to do and how to do this.  I will help you in preparing your plays (as I will likewise help you while you are working in your smaller groups, along with a single mentor, to discuss two graphic novels as well as your paper comparing and contrasting these two).

TEXTS

    I have ordered copies of all of the following books for purchase at the UWEC Bookstore in Davies Center; all are required:

1.    Kennedy, X. J., Dorothy M. Kennedy, and Marcia F. Muth. Writing and Revising with 2009 MLA Update. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2010.  ISBN#: 978-0-312-62339-5.  
    
2.    Spiegelman, Art. Maus: a Survivor’s Tale: My Father Bleeds History/Here My Troubles Began. [Box Set]. New York: Pantheon, 1993. ISBN#: 978-0-6797-4840-3.

3.    Satrapi, Marjane. The Complete Persepolis. New York: Pantheon, 2007. ISBN#: 978-0-3757-1483-2.

4.    Thompson, Craig. Blankets. Marietta, GA: Top Shelf Productions, 2003. ISBN#: 978-1891830433.

5.    Bechdel, Allison. Fun Home: a Family Tragicomic. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin/Mariner Books, 2006. ISBN#: 0-618-47794-2.

As of the start of the semester, additional copies of Blankets are still on order, but they should be available by the time we make use of this book in class.  Students should feel free, as you are able and interested, to acquire copies of these books from other sources (including from online outlets such as www.amazon.com) as long as you do obtain copies by the time you need to use them in class.  I will supply copies of any additional materials you may need to read over the course of the semester. 

 

SCHEDULE

M 8/30 (10-11:30 am) and W 9/3: Introduction and Orientation.

W 9/8 and F 9/10: Overview of the Writing Process, Strategies for Generating Ideas, and Strategies for Planning.

    Read for W 9/8: Writing and Revising, “Chapter 1: Writing Processes,” 1-10, “Chapter 4: Strategies for Generating Ideas,” 41-59, and “Chapter 5: Strategies for Planning,” 60-82.

    * Initial Paper Assigned, W 9/8 *

M 9/13, W 9/15, and F 9/17: Strategies for Drafting and Strategies for Developing.

    Read for M 9/13: Writing and Revising, “Chapter 6: Strategies for Drafting,” 83-100, and “Chapter 7: Strategies for Developing,” 101-136.

M 9/20, W 9/22, and F 9/24: Strategies for Revising and Strategies for Editing and Proofreading.

    Read for M 9/20: Writing and Revising, “Chapter 8: Strategies for Revising,” 137-154, and “Chapter 9: Strategies for Editing and Proofreading,” 137-189.

    * Initial Paper Due, M 9/20 *

    ** Learning and Contribution Reflection Paper #1 Assigned, F 9/24 **

M 9/27, W 9/29, and F 10/1: Strategies for Arguing and Strategies for Integrating Sources.

    Read for M 9/27: Writing and Revising, “Chapter 10: Strategies for Arguing,” 190-203, and [From] “Chapter 11: Strategies for Integrating Sources,” 204-232.  

    * Learning and Contribution Reflection Paper #1 Due, F 10/1 *
    

M 10/4, W 10/6, F 10/8, M 10/11, W, 10/13, and F 10/15: Work in Teams, Researching and Preparing for the Class Debate.

M 10/18: Class Debate.

W 10/20 and F 10/22: Introduction and Orientation, Reading and Writing About Maus: Themes and Issues as well as Interpretations and Arguments to Follow.

    Read for W 10/20: From Maus, Chapters and Pages To Be Announced.
        

    * Graphic Novels Critical Analysis/Comparison and Contrast Paper Assigned, W 10/20 *

M 10/25 and W 10/27: Introduction and Orientation, Reading and Writing About Persepolis: Themes and Issues as well as Interpretations and Arguments to Follow.

    Read for M 10/25: From Persepolis, Chapters and Pages To Be Announced.

    * Class Debate Reflection Paper Due, M 10/25 *

F 10/29 and M 11/1: Introduction and Orientation, Reading and Writing About Blankets: Themes and Issues as well as Interpretations and Arguments to Follow.

    Read for F 10/29: From Blankets, Chapters and Pages To Be Announced.
    

    * Learning and Contribution Reflection Paper #2 Assigned, F 10/29 *

W 11/3 and F 11/5: Introduction and Orientation, Reading and Writing About Fun Home: Themes and Issues as well as Interpretations and Arguments to Follow.

    Read for W 11/3: From Fun Home, Chapters and Pages To Be Announced.

    * Learning and Contribution Reflection Paper #2 Due, F 11/5 *

    ** Small Groups Assigned for Workshop Discussions Over the Next Four Class Periods, F 11/5 **

M 11/8, W 11/10, F 11/12, and M 11/15: Small Groups’ Workshop Discussion of Remainder of Two of the Four Graphic Novels, Together with a Senior Student Mentor, Including in Connection with Writing a Paper Engaged in Critical Analysis, Emphasizing Comparison and Contrast, of These Two.

    Reading Schedule to Be Announced.

W 11/17, F 11/19, M 11/22, W 11/24, M 11/29, W 12/1, F 12/3, and M 12/6: Work in Large Teams, Composing, Producing, and Rehearsing Performance of a Short Play Based Upon and Inspired by Three of the Graphic Novels (To be Assigned).

    * Graphic Novels Critical Analysis/Comparison and Contrast Paper Due, F 11/19 *

    ** Learning and Contribution Reflection Paper #3 Assigned, W 11/24 **

W 12/8: Presentation (In-Class Performance) of Short Plays.

F 12/10: Conclusion.

    ** Learning and Contribution Reflection Paper #3 Due, F 12/10 **

     *** 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 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.  At times you will be working in groups on specific exercises related to concepts and practices you are learning, frequently involving creative as well as critical kinds of skills.  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, as mentioned in the course description section of this syllabus, you will be working intensively, in groups and teams 1.) for seven class periods, inside and outside of class, preparing for and ultimately engaging in a class debate; 2.) for four class periods, workshopping how to make sense of the remaining portions–and then how to write about–two graphic novels (this work may well also include meeting outside as well as inside of class); and 3.) for nine class periods, most definitely meeting periodically outside as well as working inside of class, in collectively composing, producing, and ultimately performing a short play.  As aforementioned, during each of these three periods I have just mentioned you will be working closely with a mentor or with mentors, as well as with me.  


    Throughout the semester, I, along with your senior student mentors, Paula, Luke, Tarek, and Dan, 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 Dan, Tarek, Paula, and Luke, 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 five of us.

UWEC MISSION AND GOALS OF THE BACCALAUREATE

    The following is the official mission statement of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, a mission which includes us all, and which each of us helps realize, bringing to bear our own distinct talents, abilities, knowledges, skills, backgrounds, and experiences:

    We foster in one another creativity, critical insight, empathy, and intellectual courage, the hallmarks of a transformative liberal education and the foundation for active citizenship and lifelong inquiry.

This is a mission to aspire to meet, and each of you has a vitally important role to play in helping us do so.


    The following, in addition, are the five most important, official goals all UWEC undergraduate courses are designed to help you meet, and this class aims to help you with all five:

    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 strive to engage in class as a mature adult.  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.


    Finally, you need to be ready to engage seriously, thoughtfully, and respectfully–at all times–with positions that you don’t necessarily agree with, and even with ones that you may find troubling.  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 is to provoke strong response, as well as thought–and action–that goes beyond what has become familiar, conventional, commonsensical, and, especially, merely “safe.”  You are capable of dealing with these kinds of challenges calmly and confidently–and I will expect you to do so. 

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 Paula, Luke, Tarek, and Dan; and by each other.

Attendance and Class Conduct

    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 three 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 verifiable 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 three 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.  Seven total absences will result in a loss of  two full letter grades.  Students who miss more than seven 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 regularly 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 repeatedly do any of this, it 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). *


    ** Cell phones should be turned off and put away during class time (unless I explicitly request you to take out and use your cell phone as part of a class activity).  It leaves a very bad impression to be using these during class time, and doing so will definitely negatively affect your course grade.  If you are literally addicted to using cell phones such that it is hard for you to stop doing so during class time, you can seek help for this addiction through University Counseling Services.  Students inclined to use cell phones in class almost always have excuses for doing so; rarely are these good excuses and rarely are they acceptable–so it does need to be a genuine emergency for me to grant an exception (not that you ‘need’ to be available should your mother, father, sister, brother, roommate, best friend, girlfriend, boyfriend, or boss want to contact you during class time–none of that, in and of itself, is acceptable as an excuse).  In the past I’ve taken full letter grades off of students’ overall grades who persisted in using their cell phones in class when asked not to do so, and I will not hesitate to do so again. **

Initial Paper (and Opportunity for Revision)

    The initial paper will provide you an opportunity to apply what we will be working with in discussing and reviewing chapters from Writing and Revising.  Specific details will be explained with the assignment.  This paper will be worth 12.5% of the course grade.  You will have an opportunity to completely revise this paper once, and to replace the grade you earned for your initial finished version of this paper with the grade you earn for the subsequent revision.  In revision, you can take into account my comments, critiques, suggestions, and recommendations for revision. 

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.  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.  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.  


    Contribution to the class certainly can extend 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 Luke, Paula, Dan, and Tarek 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 three learning and contribution reflection papers.  For these papers I will ask you specific 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 reflection paper to reflection paper.     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 one third of the semester period, while I will also take into account my, and Tarek’s, Dan’s, Paula’s, and Luke’s independent observations of how, and of how well, you have been learning and contributing.  Learning and contribution part one will be worth 7.5% of the overall course grade, learning and contribution part two will be worth 10% of the overall course grade, and learning and contribution part three will be worth 12.5% of the overall course grade–representing a total 30% of the overall course grade.

Class Debate and Class Debate Reflection Paper

    You will work in teams to research and prepare for our class debate, and then on Monday 10/18 we will hold the class debate, which will run for the entire class period.  This activity will allow you to learn–through direct, extensive, and intensive application–how to advance effective arguments, and how to do effective research to support these arguments.  Teams will be required to prepare precisely accurate bibliographies of works consulted in preparing to debate, which you will give me at the end of the class debate.  You will earn a grade worth 12.5% of the overall course grade in response to the quality of your contribution to the research, preparation, and conduct of the class debate; individual students will receive individual grades for this activity, even though you will be working as part of teams.  Specific details will be explained with the assignment.  In addition to participation in researching, preparing, and conducting the class debate, you will also write a subsequent class debate reflection paper, assessing how the process went, what you have learned from it, and what you ultimately think about the issue in contest here, as well as why so.  Once again, specific details for this paper will be explained with the class debate assignment.  The grade you earn for the class debate reflection paper will be worth 7.5% of the overall course grade. 

Graphic Novels Critical Analysis and Comparison/Contrast Paper
    

    With this paper you will engage in a critical analysis, with an emphasis on comparison and contrast, of select themes and issues as well as interpretations and arguments raised by two of the four graphic novels we will be working with this semester (Maus, Persepolis, Blankets, and Fun Home).  The two you will be writing about will be assigned on F 11/5.  Specific details will be explained with the assignment.  The grade you earn for this paper will be worth 20% of the overall course grade.  If interested, you can also earn up to 10% extra credit by writing a similar paper on the other two graphic novels.

Short Play Composition, Production, and Performance Project

    Together with a team of your peers, and the assistance of two senior student mentors, as well as myself, you will compose, produce, and ultimately perform–for the rest of the class–a short play based on and inspired by three of the four graphic novels we will be working with (Maus, Persepolis, Blankets, and Fun Home).  I will assign the specific three graphic novels each team will work with.  This activity, especially as a culmination of our work together, will provide you an opportunity to bring to bear, develop, and refine creative as well as critical abilities–along with further advance and enhance your abilities in working as part of a team.  As with the class debate, students always greatly enjoy working on this kind of activity, and gain a great deal from it.  This is true even for students with no prior theatrical experience, and I will not be evaluating you in that direction, as theatre arts students, so no need to worry about that.  The key here is your ability to come up with a compellingly creative and critically insightful adaptation–in the play that you compose and in your conception of how this might be produced and performed–of themes and issues, as well as interpretations and arguments, derived from three specific graphic novels.  Specific details will be explained with the assignment.  The grade you earn for your contribution to the composition, production, and performance of your team’s short play will be worth 17.5% of the overall course grade.  Once again, as with the class debate project, even though you will be working as part of a team, students will receive individuals grades for how they do in working on this project. 

GENERAL FORMATTING REQUIREMENTS: PAPERS

     All papers should be typed, double-space, on 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.  I will expect you, furthermore, to observe the rules and conventions of Standard Written English to the best of your ability in writing these papers, including MLA format for citation and documentation of sources for research beyond the books we use in class. 

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.  Deliberate dishonesty in written work as part of this course will result in a failing grade.  In addition, plagiarism may result in further disciplinary action on the part of the University administration; it can ultimately lead to expulsion from the University.  If you are in doubt about whether you should give credit to someone else (or something else), it is a good idea to go ahead and do so.  Also, if you directly echo someone else’s thoughts from 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, 9/19/10).

LATE PAPERS

    Late papers will lose credit 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 Dan, Tarek, Luke, or Paula 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, but please try to keep up with deadlines; it only ends up hurting you if you fall behind.  Likewise, if you are experiencing so much frustration in the course of writing a paper that you aren’t ready to turn it in on time, arrange to meet and talk with us, as soon as possible, so we can help you; no one wants you to have to suffer any of this if it can possibly be avoided.  And it usually can.  

FIRST YEAR EXPERIENCE PROGRAM AND EXTRA CREDIT OPPORTUNITIES
    

    The goals of the First Year Experience Program are as follows:

1.)  Introduce liberal arts higher education and awaken intellectual curiosity.

2.)  Enhance skills needed for academic success, such as reading, writing, listening, thinking, inquiry, analysis, use of information technology, research skills, and time management.

3.)  Strengthen connections to the University.

4.)  Engage in meaningful academic and non-academic out-of-class activities.

5.)  Enhance students’ accountability for their own education.


    FYE classes are limited in enrollment to all first-semester, first-year students, at a considerably lower size than otherwise for the same course, where you will be assisted by senior student mentors as well as by a professor.  You will get a better chance to get to know us than you will most other instructors and most other senior students.  


    Beyond that, as a FYE course, you will be encouraged to participate in a number of class outings and recommended out-of-class activities. The mentors will work together with me, and with you, to determine what these will be.  Tentatively, we plan: 1.)  three outings, where we will participate together as a class, and for which you can earn 2.5% extra credit each time you come along; 2.) eight recommended activities, where you can attend, with other members of the class or not, and then discuss or write a short reflection paper on your experience, for which you can earn 1.25% extra credit each time you take advantage of this opportunity; and 3.) a final class party, at my house, which you can attend, along with friends beyond as well as part of this class, and earn 2.5% just for being there.


    Do take advantage of all the opportunities being a student in a FYE class provides you.  Students at UWEC are responsible for seeking out and worked to initiate these kinds of classes–and making sure they are available is something that you, the students at UWEC, have repeatedly agreed to pay extra for (in the form of differential tuition), 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.


    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.  And, as a further incentive, students who consult with me in conference on their work for classes I teach always do better, on average, than students who do not, often considerably better.  PLEASE DO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS OPPORTUNITY!


    Also, Tarek Shagosh, Dan Johnson, Paula Hagen, and Luke Fischer have joined this class as your senior student mentors because they want to work with and help you.  Luke, Paula, Dan, and Tarek will be helping me in conducting class sessions, projects, and activities; reviewing and evaluating your work; and in organizing and conducting 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.  Both your senior student mentors and I are ready, willing, and able to serve as a resources for you in relation to interests and needs beyond the focus of our class, as well, so remember this, and feel free to turn to us, as you need or want.
 

    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 as well as with a number of members of the university’s and the department’s professional academic staff.  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, site, and to look me up 4.) on facebook, http://www.facebook.com [If you are interested in becoming facebook or myspace 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!