Syllabus

Eng 414: Writing Inside-Out

Ian Latta

ianlatta@mail.sfsu.edu

TTH 1315-1715 09-JUL-12 - 10-AUG-12

Meeting Place Tuesdays: HUM 114                 Office Hours: M- Th Noon – 1pm, and by appointment

Meeting Place Thursdays: HUM 401 (PC Lab)            Office: Hum 128

Welcome to English 414! This will probably be the last English class any of you ever take, but you have already written your last five paragraph essay, because you won’t write one in this class. This does not mean that you will stop writing. I consider all of you experienced writers in your own discipline, and I expect and know for a fact that you are going to continue writing in one shape or another for your entire working lives. The question is: what will this writing look like? What will it sound like? It may have a thesis statement, it may not. Like all of you, I am here to find out.

Looking over the class roster, I see you are all experienced students, many of you about to graduate with your Bachelor’s in Accounting, Marketing, or Physiology. You have succeeded in your separate disciplines, and in this class, you will each represent your discipline as an expert, at least relative to the rest of us. You will teach us what it means to read, write, and think like, for example, a nurse, an entrepreneur, or a computer engineer. In so doing, each of you will learn more about writing in your own discipline, and will have to stretch the conventions of your discipline in order to translate it to the rest of us. By the end, I hope all of you will have a broader definition about reading and writing, and new ideas to bring with you as you become more and more expert in your own fields.  

This class is divided into two strands. The first is focused on reading. We will read Imagine: How Creativity Works and you will start a blog where you explore how the ideas in that book apply to your own field. I will expect you to read broadly and make presentations to the class showing us example texts from your field and teaching us how to skillfully read them. The second half of the class is more open-ended, because what you do and how we spend class time will depend on your own personal goals. By the end of the first half, you will have proposed to me a personal writing project for the semester and gathered a group of students around you to help one another complete your projects, and we will spend the second half of the course exploring how we can use class resources and the remaining class time to complete our projects.

Each week is divided into equal halves as well. Tuesdays will be focused on instruction, discussion of readings, and presentations. Thursdays, we will meet in the computer lab in Hum 401 and the work will be more individual. You will work on your writing, group projects, and individual conferences with me. We will also have two basic types of writing assignments, each reflecting a different mode of contemporary writing: On the one hand, frequent, informal, blog posts, and on the other, infrequent, graded, individual writing turned in physically and subjected to multiple drafts.

I think of these two halves as having a double-helix shape, like a DNA molecule, forming a spiral that goes both inward and outward while each line remains distinct. As in a DNA molecule, there will be frequent connections between each of the classes’ halves, hopefully joining in a complementary way. Like any good conversation, I’m not sure where we’re going to end up, but if we are engaged, attentive to one another, and open-minded, I think our time will not have been wasted.

How to Reach Me

·         Email is my preferred method of contact. If you do not plan to check your @mail.sfsu.edu account every day, please take steps to forward emails to your preferred account or let me know your preferred email address so I can reach you with class updates.

CLASS MATERIALS

·         Imagine: How Creativity Works, by Jonah Lehrer.

·         All other readings for this class are either on the Web or in MS Word, html, or portable digital format (pdf) in our iLearn site: http://ilearn.sfsu.edu. (You must use the EXTERNAL USER LOGIN, not the main login button) Please bring a printout of the day’s readings to class (Hey, it’s cheaper than a textbook!) or have access to the texts on a laptop or e-reader.

·         Regular access to a computer with high-speed internet for completing class readings and online writing.  Please be sure to compose your blog posts on a word processor like Pages or Microsoft Word before cutting and pasting the post into your blogging platform, so you can save your writing and will be less likely to lose it.

GRADES

·         Half of your grade will be based on your blog-based writing. You will create an online blog exploring creativity in a field of your choosing, hopefully related to your academic or personal interests and expertise. You will then write at least 8 posts that are coherent, relatively error-free, and relevant to your blog’s topic and post links to your writing on the class blog:  eng414summer2012.blogspot.com. You will post regularly throughout the semester (your blog must emerge over the course of the term, rather than appear, at the last minute, during the final week). Each of your posts should be between 200-750 words in length (longer is fine, but not necessarily better), and each post should link to (or reference) at least one external source. This means that, in order to write posts, you will need to read, on a continual basis, what others are saying about your topic. You may blog under a pseudonym, if you like, but the blog must be publicly accessible. At least two blog posts should be substantive, in-depth explorations of an issue or question that others are writing about in your field. At least half of your posts must be revised, with feedback from me, for considerations of audience, purpose, clarity, organization, and correctness. 

·         A portfolio of your two major formal, physical writing assignments will make up 25% of your grade. These will undergo multiple drafts, and you will turn in physical copies to me. Paper formatting should follow MLA guidelines available on iLearn site. Your portfolio is going to be evaluated partly according to your own goals and development towards those goals, but above all, I am going to be looking for depth of thought and analysis.

• ·         The remaining 25% of your grade will reflect your participation, which includes but is not limited to:

o   vocal participation and/or active listening during class discussion

o   Comments on other blogs and/or online forums-- These are comments you write on the blogs of other students in the class or on blogs, discussion boards, or forums related to your own topic.

o   Conferences and consultations with me: You are invited to seek specific writing feedback from me via email or during office hours. Please keep a record of these consultations; you will include them in your final portfolio.

o   Sign up 2 times for Bookmark presentation and Writer’s Chair. Each Tuesday, two-three of you will volunteer your blog for class discussion in order to get feedback on your writing, and each Thursday, two-three will present and lead discussion on an online text of your choosing.

If you fulfill all these requirements, including full participation as outlined above, you have a good shot of getting a “B.” To earn an A in the course, you must fulfill all of the above requirements, AND your blogging must be of exceptional quality: it must be thought-provoking; It should address the complexities inherent in your topic; it should be written in an engaged and engaging voice; it should cohere visually and rhetorically; it should be visually appealing; it should be in constant conversation with other writers who are working on your topic; it should be written in a mature style, and relatively free from proofreading errors.

CLASS COMMUNITY

·         Regular attendance and class participation are a major part of your grade. You should not miss class except for valid reasons, such as illness, accidents, or participation in university activities.

·         This is a fast class, so you are only allowed one excused absence for the whole summer, and you must contact me ahead of time or immediately after the class to excuse the absence and so you will be able to prepare for the next class. Every day missed after that may reduce your participation grade by an entire letter grade (i.e., an A would be downgraded to a B).

·         It’s not worth skipping class if you haven’t finished all the reading or if your writing is unfinished. Just come to class—if you miss a day of class, you will miss a great deal. If you really can’t make it to class, please let me know in advance if possible, and I will get you the materials from the day. If you cannot let me know in advance, it is your responsibility to let me know why you missed class and arrange to make up missed assignments and class work.

·         Other class decorum requirements: there will be zero tolerance for any use of cell phones or wearing of headphones in the class. You may be asked to leave, and will miss out on class work for the day.

CONFERENCES

·         An important part of the course will be individual conferences when we will meet to discuss your writing. There will be at least three rounds of one-on-one conferences this semester—at the beginning, middle, and towards the end of the course. Conferences are required. You must come with a substantial draft and hopefully with specific issues you would like to discuss. Additional individual conferences will also be scheduled as needed.

TUTORING RESOURCES

·         Links to tutoring resources such as the English Tutoring Center, the Learning Assistance Center are available on the class iLearn site. I have confirmed that this summer, the English Tutoring Center will have drop-in tutors on Tuesdays and Thursdays in the mornings before our class.

PLAGIARISM

·         Plagiarism occurs when a student misrepresents the work of another as his or her own. Plagiarism may consist of using the ideas, sentences, paragraphs, or the whole text of another without appropriate acknowledgement, but it also includes employing or allowing another person to write or substantially alter work that a student then submits as his or her own. Any assignment found to be plagiarized will be given an “F” grade. All instances of plagiarism in the College of Humanities will be reported to the Dean of the College, and may be reported to the University Judicial Affairs Officer for further action. (Quotation taken from “College of Humanities Plagiarism Resources, www.sfsu.edu/~collhum/plagiarism.html).

                                                                                                                                    

STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DISABILITIES

·         I wish to make this course as accessible as possible to students with disabilities or medical conditions that may affect any aspect of course assignments or participation. Please let me know at the outset of the course or at your discretion about any accommodations that will improve your experience of or access to the course. You can also contact the Disability Resource Center at 338-2472 (Voice/TDD).

RELIGIOUS HOLIDAYS

·         If you have a religious observance that requires you to miss class, that’s no problem. You just have to send me an email to let me know about the holiday in the first two weeks of the term. If the holiday falls in the first two weeks, just let me know at least three days in advance so I can get your work to you.