EN101: Composition I

Reading Images
Fall 2012

Dr. Tonya Howe

thowe@marymount.edu 

http://thowe.pbworks.com

http://muwriting.wikidot.com  

 

Class Meetings: Tuesday, Friday – 2:00-3:15 – Gailhac G103
Final Exam: Saturday, December 8, 10:00-12:30 (Room TBA)

Office Hours: Gailhac 2011 – 703-284-5762 (x5762) – Hours TBA

 

“I will not be just a tourist in the world of images, just watching images passing by which I cannot live in, make love to, possess as permanent sources of joy and ecstasy.”

 

-- Anaïs Nin 

 

Thank you all for a wonderful term! It was my pleasure to get to know each of you, and I hope you feel as though you got something out of this course--stronger reading skills, a clearer sense of your writing style itsstrengths and weaknesses, ways to use technology to help you collaborate and revise, research skills, and more. Remember that our final exam is Saturday, December 8, at 10:00am, in Rowley G208! Please watch this final overview of our last class and the final exam format (Windows-formatted video), and give Alyce your full attention on Friday. Don't forget to fill out your final course evaluations, and I hope to see you all soon!

 

 

UNIVERSITY STATEMENTS

 

Academic Integrity

By accepting this syllabus, you pledge to uphold the principles of Academic Integrity expressed by the Marymount University Community. You agree to observe these principles yourself and to defend them against abuse by others.

 

Special Needs and Accommodations

Please advise the instructor of any special problems or needs at the beginning of the semester.  If you seek accommodation based on disabilities, you should provide a Faculty Contact Sheet obtained through the Office of Student Access Services, located in Rowley Hall.

 

Access to Student Work

Copies of your work in this course including copies of any submitted papers and your portfolios may be kept on file for institutional research, assessment and accreditation purposes. All work used for these purposes will be submitted anonymously. 

 

Student Copyright Authorization

For the benefit of current and future students, work in this course may be used for educational critique, demonstrations, samples, presentations, and verification.  Outside of these uses, work shall not be sold, copied, broadcast, or distributed for profit without student consent. 

 

University Policy on Snow Closings

Snow closings are generally announced on area radio stations. For bulletins concerning Marymount snow or weather closings, call (703) 526-6888. Unless otherwise advised by radio announcement or by official bulletins on the number listed above, students are expected to report for class as near normal time as possible on days when weather conditions are adverse. Decisions as to snow closing or delayed opening are not generally made before 5:00 AM of the working day. Students are expected to attend class if the University is not officially closed. 

 

 

1.          BROAD PURPOSE OF COURSE  

 

Instruction in the writing of the research essay with emphasis on the rhetorical situation, effective organization, and the writing of clear and vivid prose.  The course includes instruction in effective oral presentations.

 

Composition I introduces students to the research, writing, and oral communication skills necessary to succeed in college.  As the subject of their reading, writing, and research, students will focus on American society and culture in the 20^th century.  Through the use of primary and secondary sources, this study will provide the context for developing critical reading, writing, and research skills throughout the semester.

 

To explore these issues and facilitate communication and research in the class, the course has online resources devoted to its activities: a web site for the Composition I program and a Blackboard site for the individual section of the course.  The addresses are listed above.

 

 

 

2.     COURSE OBJECTIVES/LEARNING OUTCOMES: 

 

University Requirement Outcomes

 

Information Literacy

• Students will determine the nature and extent of the information needed and will access information effectively and efficiently.

 

Analysis and Critical Reasoning

• Students will practice analytical discourse, critical reasoning, and problem-solving in a variety of disciplines.

 

Course-Specific Outcomes

• Students will communicate accurately, clearly, and coherently through a variety of genres including focused personal essays, summaries, informative research reports, and oral presentations.
• Students will conduct research using both print and online sources to explore contemporary American society and culture.     
• Students will summarize, analyze, and interpret their research findings accurately through close critical reading and research writing.
• Students will use both print and online research sources efficiently, accurately, and honestly.
• Students will use resources in technology accurately, correctly, and effectively to conduct research and present their findings
  
  

 

3.     TEACHING METHOD  

 

lecture, audio-visual, discussion, conference, workshop, peer review, small group discussion, student presentations, and inter-disciplinary team projects

 

4.     GRADING POLICY 

 

Your final grade in the course will be calculated based on the following formula. 

 

Project I - Summaries and Critical Reading and related assignments*                     15%

Project II - Personal Essay and related assignments*                                            15%

Project III - Research Report (annotated bibliography and presentation) and related assignments*                                         30%

Project IV - Comparative Analysis of Two Articles and related assignments*                     15%

Midterm Exam                                                                                                  10%

Final Exam                                                                                                       15%

 

*Related assignments may include oral presentations, summaries, drafts, peer reviews, mini-essays, in-class activities, homework, annotated bibliographies, online activities, revision exercises, and/or visual aids. 5% of all projects, excluding project 3, will be devoted to related assignments. In the case of project 3, 15% of the grade will be devoted to related assignments.

 

MIDTERM EXAM DATE:      September 27 or 28

FINAL EXAM DATE:            Saturday, December 8, 10 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

 

*The composition final exam has been scheduled so as not to conflict with other classes.  Any student who has a scheduled course that conflicts with the final exam should report the conflict to his or her instructor immediately.

 

5.         IMPORTANT POLICIES

 

• Regular attendance is required in the course.  ABSENCE FROM SIX OR MORE CLASSES MAY, ALONE, RESULT IN FAILURE OF THIS COURSE. 
• Your participation, including essay drafts and other in-class and out-of-class assignments, is crucial to your learning and success in this course and will be evaluated as part of your grade for each project.
• Late assignments will be penalized one letter grade for every class day they are late. Late assignments will not be accepted more than two weeks after the due date.
• You will deliver oral presentations related to at least one of your  projects during the semester; If you are absent on the day you are scheduled to present to the class, you will not be able to make up the work and your grade will be an “0” unless you submit documentation for an excused absence.
• To pass this course you should score a minimum grade of C- on the final exam and you must have a C- in your overall average. A grade lower than a C- in the final exam may necessitate your retaking the course.  A grade lower than a C- in your overall average will necessitate your retaking the course.
• Much of our work in class will be collaborative. You will be working with each other on research assignments, oral presentations, and revision workshops. It is therefore particularly important that all of your work be completed on time. You will handicap not only yourself but your classmates if you are not prepared.
• All of the reading assignments must be completed by the assigned date.  Come to class prepared to discuss the readings.
• Students are required to have access to Blackboard and are responsible for keeping their e-mail addresses current in Blackboard.

 

                       

5.     CLASS SCHEDULE  (Subject to change!!)

 

Monday, August 27: Classes Begin

Tuesday, August 28: Diagnostic exercises, books, assignments. Seeing & Writing (129-141)

Friday, August 31: Project 1 overview. Seeing & Writing (1-25, 132-141). Composition handbook, browse contents through page 19.

 

Monday, September 3: Labor Day Holiday - University closed. Read: Dorothy Allison (260) and Guy Davenport (518)

[Tuesday, September 4: Last day to late register or add a class]

Tuesday, September 4: Active seeing (26-39, 60-61). Brainstorm observations for project 1 summary--turn in today. Who is the phographer? What is the subject of the image? Include at least 10 additional observations and three inferences. Use this handout.

Friday, September 7: Image summary workshop (draft due). Bring your laptop; have uploaded your draft, as per my instructions, to the google workshop space. Your draft should be at least three pages in length. Today is the deadline for RSVPing for the extra credit opportunity discussed in class. If you choose to complete the EC, you must RSVP for the film event, attend, and turn in a 1-2 page response in which you reflect specifically on how the director seems to understand the revision process. Feel free to include any personal reflections on revision that are appropriate.  

 

Tuesday, September 11: Image summary due; CTL visit. By midnight, on Saturday, have finished commenting on two (2) peer drafts, using the workshop guide and on google drive. Download/Save As to your own computer on Sunday, and when you open it in Word you should see all your peers' comments. Revise, and get rid of all the comments. Bring your final draft into class on your computer; we will finish the formatting in class, and you'll turn it in then. Please also re-read Dorothy Allison's essay (260).

Friday, September 14: Seeing gender (360-389). CTL visit. In-class writing: Summary. Essay summary assignment.

 

Tuesday, September 18: Seeing difference. Sante (409-414); Alexander (415-420); Riley (484-489). Freewrite (1pg, handwritten) on each: what is the thesis of each essay? Come prepared to turn in.

Friday, September 21: Bring your laptop: Essay summary workshop (3-page draft due to Google drive folder by Thursday, 5:00pm. Be sure you CONVERT to google docs format, and be sure you put it in the class folder! Read all of your peers' drafts and make ONE substantial suggestion for revision of content. Be sure this comment is there by classtime.).

 

Homework: Peer review three drafts for accuracy and completeness of content, using the rubric I provide (remember you have been put into peer review groups!). Peer review must be finished by Sunday, NOON. Read pages 50-59 in your Composition Program Handbook (plagiarism, quoting, and summarizing).

 

Tuesday, September 25: Essay summary due (bring laptops; we will work on the essay in class, and you'll email it to me at the end of the period--see homework rubric handout!); midterm overview

Friday, September 28: Midterm exam

[Friday, September 28: Last day to drop a class or withdraw without academic record]

 

Tuesday, October 2: Make an appointment to meet with me this week. Alvarez (198-201). Browse Newseum online gallery and supporting pages: http://www.newseum.org/exhibits-and-theaters/permanent-exhibits/pulitzer/videos/pulitzer-prize-photos.html. Select one image that strikes you for some reason, and write (freewrite--by hand) about it. What personal associations do you have with the image? In class: wordiness, paraphrase exercises.

Friday, October 5: Canin (242-244). Momaday (252-254). Personal essay overview. Wordiness and paraphrase activities due.

 

[Monday, October 8-9: Fall Break] Browse Newseum online gallery and supporting pages: http://www.newseum.org/exhibits-and-theaters/permanent-exhibits/pulitzer/videos/pulitzer-prize-photos.html Select two images, and read all materials completely. Draft your personal essay (either: description of image, or your story). Read Allende (590-592)

Friday, October 12: Due: 1 hard copy of your draft personal essay. Discussion: Allende. In-class writing. Cliches, Concreteness, Specificity.

[Friday, October 12: Midterm grades due]

 

Tuesday, October 13: Personal essay workshop DRAFT DUE to Google Doc workshop space by class time to: https://docs.google.com/a/marymount.edu/folder/d/0B5Pznh5YP1aiSk1LTUZXR09NSVE/edit (NOTE: You can also SEARCH FOR THIS FOLDER, in google drive. Look for the folder "Personal Narrative Workshop Space"). Have read in Comp Program Handbook, pages 146-end of chapter nineteen (sentence structure). Bring your laptop.

Friday, October 19: Personal essay workshop (revised draft due—change point of view, tense, and/or structure).

 

Tuesday, October 23: Revise your draft. Run spell, grammar, and style check. Insert your image. Bring in 2 hard copies of your draft next class.

Friday, October 26: Personal essay due, electronically, BEFORE CLASS. Meet in the Library (first floor, big open room beside the reference desk). Complete the self-guided library tour, before class today, by picking one up at the Library Reference Desk. Read Sontag, "Regarding the Pain of Others." Look up information about Kevin Carter and his Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph. Start here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5241442

[Friday, October 26: Last day to withdraw from a class with a grade of W]

 

Tuesday, October 30:  Read Sally Stein, "Passing Likeness: Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother and the Paradox of Iconicity."  Research! Bring in three records of sources for your research project: 1 book (Aladin catalog), 1 journal article (database), 1 encyclopedia entry (database). These records can be printoffs of the catalog or database page--not the whole thing! Find INTERESTING resources, even if we don't have them in MU library... Bring your laptop!

 

Friday, November 2: Group research. Library visit 2.

 

 Tuesday, November 6: Read Sally Stein, Passing Likeness: Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother and the Paradox of Iconicity. Bring in: 1-2 pages where you show at least two places where Stein has used research (use evidence from her essay!). Group research discussion. Bring 2 more sources--remember to find sources that cover different aspects of the topic or the image!

Friday, November 9: Annotated bibliography overview. READ all your sources, and take detailed notes. Bring in: all your sources (the real thing, or copies of them) and draft summaries of all of them. Turn your draft summaries in with your group members' names on them.

 

Tuesday, November 13: Annotated bibliography due. How to present.

Friday, November 16: Presentations due. Team work on presentations. Bring laptops!

 

Tuesday, November 20: Future project proposal due, tentative bibliography, outline, timeline. PRESENTATIONS DUE. Email your presentation (or a link to it online) by Monday, 5:00pm. If you don't send me the link or the presentation by then, I will have to deduct a portion of the grade--we need to be able to present in a timely fashion, and spending time to open up email accounts will not work.

[November 21-25: Thanksgiving Holiday] "Looking Closer: Altering Images" (663-686). Read carefully, reread, and take extensive notes. You will turn in a 1-page summary of each essay next class.

Friday, November 23: No Class

 

[Monday, November 26: Classes Resume]

Tuesday, November 27: Three 1-page summaries due. Summarize each of the three essays in "Looking Closer: Altering Images"

Friday, November 30: Comparative analysis workshop (Bring 2 copies of your complete draft--you may single-space and duplex print to save paper). We will examine the comparative thesis structure and organization. Turn in your similarity/differences in-class worksheet!

 

Tuesday, December 4: Bring your laptop and an electronic version of your revised comparative analysis draft. Workshopping individually for style and language. Comparative analysis due at end of class.

Friday, December 7: Final exam overview. Comparative analysis due in hard copy. 

 

Saturday, December 8: Composition final exam

 

 

6.     REQUIRED TEXTS

 

McQuade, Christine and Donald McQuade, eds. Seeing & Writing 4. McQuade New York: Bedford St. Martin’s. 2012.

 

Marymount University Composition Program Handbook.