University The of Maryland University College WRTG 391 A520 Advanced Expository and Research Writing INSTRUCTORS: Drs. Broudy and Murphy E-MAILS: [e-mail] & [e-mail] PHONES: (o) 946-1276 090.7586.0534 CAMPUS: Kadena Ed. Center SEMESTER: Fall Session 2 DATES: 10/27 - 12/17 DAYS: Mondays & Wednesdays TIMES: 20:00 to 21:15 REGISTRATION CODE: 87896 COURSE TEXT: Elements of Argument: A Text and Reader, 8th ed. Rottenberg and Winchell. ISBN: 0-312-43126-0 RECOMMENDED RESOURCES: The Little, Brown Handbook or other grammar reference COURSE DESCRIPTION: WRTG 391 (Fulfills the general education requirement in intensive upper-level writing) Prerequisite: WRTG 101 (formerly ENGL 101). Instruction and practice in methods of presenting ideas and factual information clearly and effectively. Emphasis is on developing skills fundamental to both workplace and academic writing. Published writings are discussed and evaluated. Assignments include composing a total of 6,000 words (approximately 25 pages). COURSE INTRODUCTION: This course is designed to help prepare students to write across the curriculum in the sciences, social sciences and humanities. The primary focus is on writing, the development of critical analysis skills and using outside sources to support arguments. Students will write three papers that demonstrate knowledge of the theories discussed. The course follows a workshop and portfolio format. The workshops are intended to help you hone your writing, editing and revising skills as to help you develop an ear for style and clarity. A combination of honesty, tact, and constructive criticism should make for lively and helpful discussions of techniques for writing argumentative papers. A secondary emphasis is on reading and responding to text chapters, sample essays and the responses of other students. This is a hybrid course, combining classroom sessions and distance education. Half of its contact hours, in two 75-minute sessions, are via face-to-face classroom sessions at the Kadena Education Center on Mondays and Wednesdays, where discussions of writing theory, practice writings, rough draft critiques, quizzes, and discussions of assigned readings take place. The remaining contact hours are via distance education (DE) on the
1
WebTycho class site. Here students will have access to Course Content material and complete exercises and/or write responses (generally 4 paragraphs) to weekly conference group topics. 35% of the course grade comes from these weekly postings. WebTycho experience is not necessary. In fact, this course could be considered an introduction to the distance education classes which are increasingly the format of choice for students whose work schedule or tempo may not permit attendance at face-to-face class sessions. In a sense, this course might offer the best of both worlds--the immediacy and camaraderie of face-to-face classes and the convenience of distance education via WebTycho. COURSE GOALS: After completing this course, you should be able to: + formulate an analytical thesis + compose an introduction that sets up the issue and thesis and draws readers into the body of the essay + compose conclusions that move beyond summary to provide closure for essays + construct paragraphs that are unified and coherent and developed + create graceful transitions linking paragraphs + read source material from humanities, sciences and social sciences, extracting relevant quotations and ideas to support your thesis + recognize logical fallacies in sources and your writing + construct sentences that use a variety of sentence patterns + use the conventions of standard written U.S. English and manuscript presentation + use APA and MLA documentation style and Works Cited pages + frame essay discussion so a general audience will comprehend the meaning + identify organizational modes and model them in essays ENGLISH PROGRAM GOALS & UMUC CROSS-CURRICUAR INITIATIVES: This course has been designed to meet not only the specific course goals but also the educational goals of the English Program as well as the UMUC cross-curricular initiatives. These objectives include: + increasing your knowledge of information technologies and their uses + enhancing your information literacy with models of critical analysis and appreciation + providing assignments that improve your effective writing skills + broadening your historical and international perspective on human events To meet these goals, the readings for this course have been carefully selected and the assignments carefully designed. Your successful completion of this course will indicate that you have demonstrated increased skills and knowledge in each of the above areas, as appropriate in a university class.
2
EFFECTIVE WRITING CENTER: By working with you, the UMUC English faculty wants to help you achieve academic success and excellence. If you have any questions about proper citation formats or doubts about when it is appropriate to document your information, or questions about writing in general, your teacher and the staff of the Online Writing Center are available to assist you. [e-mail] GRADING INFORMATION: The grading scale, based on 1000 points, is as follows: A = 900-1000 points D = 600-699 points B = 800-899 points F = 0-599 points C = 700-799 points
Your final grade for the course will be determined as follows: * Paper 1 Paper 2 Paper 3 Mid-Exam Final Exam Participation Definition Claims of Fact/Policy Claims of Value 150 points 150 points 150 points 100 points 100 points 350 points 15% 15% 15% 10% 10% 35%
WebTycho
ATTENDANCE: Regular attendance is expected, and missing more than 4 class sessions is ground for failure. If you arrive after the role has been taken, check with me after class or during the break. Only signed medical or duty excuses will be accepted as valid reasons for absences or late papers. Insufficient responses to WebTycho assignments may be considered absence. NO MAKE-UPS OF EXAMS WILL BE ALLOWED WITHOUT PRIOR APPROVAL. EXCUSES: Excuses should be written by the student--the verifier need only sign the sheet you prepare. Required information includes the reason for the excuse, the date(s) covered by the excuse, the signature of the verifier, and a point of contact phone number. Copies of TDY orders or duty rosters may replace written excuses. LATE PENALTIES--PLAGIARISM--Turnitin.com: 10% of the grade will be deducted for each class that any essay is submitted late. 2% of the grade is deducted if the essay is handed in during the class session the essay is due but after it has been collected. Papers drop 10% if insufficient essay copies are provided for a workshop. Unexcused late class participation on WebTycho is not accepted after the due date. PLAGIARISM POLICY: Defined by simple syllogism: "The wages of sin is death" (Paul). Plagiarism is sin. Ergo, plagiarism causes death. If this is too vague, I offer the following: Plagiarism is the most despicable academic act--it is stealing someone else's work and then lying, passing it off as your own work. Plagiarism may result in failure in this course. I expect that the work submitted by you is done exclusively by you. Plagiarized essays will get a 0.
3
Plagiarism Prevention Assignment: No written work will be graded until you have taken the plagiarism tutorial located in the Course Content section of the WebTycho classroom and posted the cut-and-pasted certificate of completion to the conference site provided for that purpose. If you cannot post the certificate, you may hand in a printed version. Information regarding academic misconduct can be found at the following web address: http://www.umuc.edu/policy/policy_files/m15025.html. Please take the time to read these policies if you have not already done so. Lack of or inaccurate documentation may be construed as plagiarism. I will assign a plagiarized essay a zero and will place a note in your file, so PLEASE be careful. "The University has a license agreement with Turnitin.com, a service that helps prevent plagiarism from internet resources. I may be using this service in this class by either requiring students to submit their papers electronically to Turnitin.com or by submitting questionable text on behalf of a student. If you or I submit part or all of your paper, it will be stored by Turnitin.com in their database throughout the term of the University's contract with Turnitin.com. If you object to this temporary storage of your paper, you must let me know no later than two weeks after the start of this class. Please Note: If you object to the storage of your paper on Turnitin.com, I may utilize other services to check your work for plagiarism." "All work submitted must be written for this course during the term in which the course is being completed. Work from other courses or from other academic or non-academic settings, past or present, is not acceptable and will be subject to immediate failure. No opportunities for resubmission or revision will be granted." from UMUC syllabus checklist GUIDANCE FOR PAPERS: Considerations for essay #1 (definition)
Words are sometimes slippery creatures, even when explained in a dictionary. Some human sensations and experiences, for example, defy our using words to describe them. Good definitions help writers set the boundaries of an argument. A good extended definition helps writers show how connotation may depart from denotation, how abstract terms are manifested in the lives of people, in spite of what lexicographers may say about a word. Your goal here is simple: define. Do not argue that pornography, for example, should be banned or not, but define what pornography is. You might refer to the word's etymological roots, show how pornography has changed throughout the years, discuss how the denotation may not abide by the reality of pornography. Permit the members of your audience to determine for themselves whether pornography is a detriment, and discover the strength of definitions--how they are often indispensable in forming good arguments. Develop a full definition of one of the following concretes or concepts: 1. education 2. harassment 3. loyalty 4. crime 10. gender 11. integrity 12. adultery 13. freedom 19. democracy 20. happiness 21. jealousy 22. corporation 28. (cyber)space 29. (cyber)sex 30. pollution 31. chivalry 37. evil 38. sin 39. race 40. joy
4
5. woman 6. virtue 7. faith 8. wisdom 9. justice
14. forgiveness 15. prejudice 16. morality 17. masculinity 18. femininity
23. knowing 24. rudeness 25. patience 26. pornography 27. charity
32. marriage 33. privacy 34. hatred 35. reality 36. idolatry
41. love 42. life 43. evil 44.truth 45. man
Or, choose any newly-coined PC label and explicate its definition. A popular sociopolitical movement meant to encourage language users in public discourse to be much more aware of the power of labels, their meanings, and their effects on those so labeled. Political Correctness forces speakers to be reflective, not merely tolerant, but truly empathetic. womyn aurally inconvenienced morally different human animal human animal companion companion botanical companion visually impaired differently interesting differently able economically challenged differently advantaged cerebrally challenged chronologically gifted horizontally challenged vertically challenged actron chair melanin endowed melanin challenged for for for for for for for for for for for for for for for for for for for for woman deaf dishonest human pet wife or husband (girl- or boyfriend) plant blind boring handicapped poor poor stupid old fat short actor or actress chairman black, yellow, red white
Be sure to explore your topic deeply and remember your goal: to produce clear, unified, developed, grammatically clean prose. If cite you sources beyond those in a standard collegiate dictionary, document the sources using APA or MLA style. Include a Works Cited page. Remember to include at least two sources to back up claims you make.
Considerations for essay #2 (claims of fact/policy)
Reflect on any of the following analogies in either category. Think about how you can devise a thesis for any of the potential topics suggested by any of these analogies you will defend in a discussion. As you brainstorm, outline and draft your paper, please remember the needs of a claim of fact. Backing will serve your argument best when it is verifiable and when your claims are clear, concise and dispassionate. Political / The Military Industrial Complex republicans as swine democrats as serpents communists as viruses Socio-Economic / Personal college students as consumers human beings as numbers consumers as locusts
5
taxpayers as cogs in bureaucratic machinery service members as recyclable commodities Americans as global police officers politicians as patients in psycho therapy mass media as weapons of mass destruction mass media as propaganda model the international arms race as a manufactured myth oppressive regimes as divine tools political ideologies as bacteria (genetic predisposition) G8 Summits as group therapies war as diplomatic strategy corporations as citizens
hog farmers as heart-disease enablers tobacco firms as drug peddlers movie stars as court jesters welfare as heroin addiction (salvation) abortion as population control time as money (thief) mind as machine sex as caffeine
starvation as population control homosexuality as social pathogen marriage as expensive toll road privacy as illusion professional athletes as gods
If the analogies exercise doesn't help spark any ideas you might expound for this paper, you might consider the following approaches. For example, no one makes specific proposals unless in a position to do so. Therefore, rather than suggesting theses in various areas of knowledge, I offer roles that you, as a policymaker, might plausibly assume: student, citizen, and consumer. Under each role, I have suggested very specific topics, which may meet your interests or may stimulate you to think of others. Each role and topic also suggests several possible audiences. Of course, I cannot anticipate every stance you might legitimately assume, so in thinking of topics of policy, consider other roles (such as club-member, church-goer, hospital patient, or member of an organization) and potential audiences. Feel free to modify any of the following theses to help meet your own needs as a writer. Do not feel hemmed in. If you'd like to explore other areas, do so. The policymaker as student: 1. tuition at state universities should be free to state residents. 2. physical education courses should be graded on effort rather than performance. 3. campus police should not carry guns. 4. no lecture should have more than fifty students. 5. the math department should give show-all-work rather than multiple-choice exams. 6. no classes should be held on Saturdays 7. the sexist institution of Homecoming Queen should be abolished. 8. all colleges should have a twelve-credit foreign language requirement toward graduation. 9. teachers who are nonnative speakers should pass a spoken-language competency test. The policymaker as citizen of local, state, or national community: 1. the state should retest all drivers over sixty-five years every five years. 2. pay toilets should be outlawed. 3. known polluters of the environment should be publicly beaten. 4. bicyclists who break traffic laws should receive the same fines as motorists.
6
5. the United States should have a law against spanking children, just as Sweden does. 6. our community needs an ordinance banning the hanging of laundry outside. 7. the state should not control liquor sales. 8. our national anthem should be changed to Twisted Sister's "Come On Feel the Noise" 9. attaching numbers to any human is inherently sinister, so Social Security Numbers should be abolished. 10. the I.R.S should be abolished. The policymaker as consumer: 1. travel agents should guarantee that any airline ticket they sell is at the lowest possible cost. 2. the actual manufacturer of any generic brand product should be accessible public information. 3. advertising for beer and wine should be banned from television. 4. paper and plastic grocery sacks should be outlawed. 5. fresh vegetables should be marked for their freshness. 6. fast-food restaurants should offer free refills on soda pop. 7. cigarette smoking should always remain a freedom, regardless of the ill effects it causes smokers and those around them. Be sure to explore your topic deeply and remember your goal: to produce clear, unified, developed, grammatically clean prose. If you cite sources beyond those in a standard collegiate dictionary, document the sources using APA or MLA style. Include a Works Cited page. Remember to include at least two sources to back up claims you make.
Considerations for essay #3 (claim of value)
Reflect on your knowledge of and/or interest in any of the following subject areas and topics. Choose one. Recall the needs of a claim of value, and develop a paper that supports a thesis that includes your position on one of the topics that can be defended. Citizens handicapped elderly child woman man transvestite transsexual disabled veteran ex-convict rapist / murderer Relationships failed marriage golden anniversary newlywed broken vow adulterer Occupations tax collector garbage collector lawyer brain surgeon plastic surgeon beautician undertaker spy computer scientist psychiatrist Sports fan professional athlete new stadium season-ticket holder tailgate party The Arts performing cinema Hollywood Cannes music sculpture graffiti beat poetry Hummel figurines glass blowing Mass Media newsprint television radio compact discs DVDs Religion cults jihad crusades Islam Buddhism Judaism Hinduism Catholicism Pantheism Christianity Science Hubble Tele. supercollider scanners forensics pathogens
7
enemy backstabber acquaintance teacher / preacher best friend business associate
Super Bowl party soccer match K1 match rock climber diver chess player
cable SATCOM magazine journal non-fiction think tank
robotics cell biology aerospace nanotechnology CO2 quantum mechanics
Be sure to explore your topic deeply and remember your goal: to produce clear, unified, developed, grammatically clean prose. If you cite sources beyond those in a standard collegiate dictionary, document the sources using APA or MLA style. Include a Works Cited page. Remember to include at least two sources to back up claims you make.
WEB TYCHO PARTICIPATION: (350 points). Conferences and Exercises: On the Course Conference section of the WebTycho class site, you should find several topics related to each reading assignment in the Elements text. Respond to each as assigned on the syllabus, often with paragraphs of about 5-6 sentences per topic. Deadlines remain the same--material associated with each class session must be poste...