The question.

Why and how does language affect the way people communicate?

Meeting times.

Mondays and Wednesdays: 10-1115

Writing Workshop Wednesdays: 1120-1220

Class is held Mondays and Wednesdays with an additional hour on Wednesday after class. This extra hour is a valuable block of time to work on the readings and/or writings where you can get help if you need it.

Contact information.

myemail@myemailaddress

123-4567

Office Hours: Mondays 9-10 and Wednesdays 1230-130 or by appointment

Background.

We’ve all experienced miscommunications whether it’s through spoken words or reading a text, so we know how confusing and frustrating it can be when the meaning of a message isn’t correctly conveyed.

This course will help you to examine a text – written, spoken, visual – rhetorically by examining author motives, author purpose, word choice, the message, and intended audience with the purpose of “be[ing] prepared to participate in the ongoing discourse of the communities that matter to you, [including] the academic community” (Dr. Victor Villanueva).

Throughout our time together, we will examine written, spoken, and visual texts as well as compose a variety of texts while practicing to view each through a critical lens with a focus on the author, audience, and message.

With hard work and a good attitude, you will be able to objectively view almost any text which will greatly help you in both your program of study and the workforce. I am excited to see the progress you will make and witness the greatness you will achieve!

Texts.

Writing : Guide for College and Beyond – 4th edition by Lester  Faigley (ISBN13: 978-0321993809)

Other readings will be available on our course website.

 

Learning outcomes.

By the end of our time together, you will be able to demonstrate competency in the following as suggested by the department and the Writing Program Administrators Outcomes Statement:

Rhetorical Knowledge

• Learn and use key rhetorical concepts through analyzing and composing a variety of texts
• Gain experience reading and composing in several genres to understand how genre conventions shape and are shaped by readers’ and writers’ practices and purposes
• Develop facility in responding to a variety of situations and contexts calling for purposeful shifts in voice, tone, level of formality, design, medium, and/or structure
• Understand and use a variety of technologies to address a range of audiences
• Match the capacities of different environments (e.g., print and electronic) to varying rhetorical situations

 

Critical Thinking, Reading, and Composing

• Use composing and reading for inquiry, learning, critical thinking, and communicating in various rhetorical contexts
• Read a diverse range of texts, attending especially to relationships between assertion and evidence, to patterns of organization, to the interplay between verbal and nonverbal elements, and to how these features function for different audiences and situations
• Locate and evaluate (for credibility, sufficiency, accuracy, timeliness, bias and so on) primary and secondary research materials, including journal articles and essays, books, scholarly and professionally established and maintained databases or archives, and informal electronic networks and internet sources
• Use strategies—such as interpretation, synthesis, response, critique, and design/redesign—to compose texts that integrate the writer’s ideas with those from appropriate sources

Writing Process

• Develop a writing project through multiple drafts
• Develop flexible strategies for reading, drafting, reviewing, collaborating, revising, rewriting, rereading, and editing
• Use composing processes and tools as a means to discover and reconsider ideas
• Experience the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes
• Learn to give and to act on productive feedback to works in progress
• Adapt composing processes for a variety of technologies and modalities
• Reflect on the development of composing practices and how those practices influence their work

 

Knowledge of Conventions

• Develop knowledge of linguistic structures, including grammar, punctuation, and spelling, through practice in composing and revising
• Understand why genre conventions for structure, paragraphing, tone, and mechanics vary
• Gain experience negotiating variations in genre conventions
• Learn common formats and/or design features for different kinds of texts
• Explore the concepts of intellectual property (such as fair use and copyright) that motivate documentation conventions
• Practice applying citation conventions systematically in their own work

The course.

The course is divided into two sections: participation and final portfolio.

Participation is 40% of your grade and includes the following:

Discussion board postings

Pre/Post reading discussions

Reflections

Journal – select part of text and discuss/react to it

Respond to classmates’ postings

Classwork

Homework

Projects #1, #2, #3

Final Portfolio is 60% of your grade and includes the following:

Introduction to contents

Reflection on course

Revisions of Projects #1, #2, #3

What grade you think you earned and a detailed explanation supporting it

 

 

 

Projects.

You will complete three projects that require you to use and examine language in a variety of ways; the purpose of these projects is to help you to explore language and conventions to determine the language you should use to best communicate your message to your primary audience.

PROJECT #1 Literacy reflection – Narrate and reflect on a specific language event in your life

Visual (films and photography), spoken, read, song lyrics

What did you learn about yourself?

What can others learn from your experience(?)

Reflection letter

 

PROJECT #2 – Article summaries – articles focus on language and society with emphasis on the relationships between literacy, culture, social class, education, and politics

Part 1: summary of article

Thesis/Main idea?

Major points?

Conclusion?

Part 2: rhetorical summary

Author’s motive/purpose – what is the author trying to accomplish

What is the author’s bias?

Word choices made by author?

Intended audience?

Reflection letter

 

PROJECT #3 – Research Project: Oral History

Interview someone older

Record and transcribe interview

Determine angle and follow up questions

Background research

Create profile using interviews, descriptions, and research

Reflection letter

 

Schedule.

Weeks 1-3: Project #1, Literacy Reflection

Weeks 4-8: Project #2, Article Summaries

Weeks 9-14: Project #3, Research Project: Oral History

Weeks 15-16: Revisions for portfolio

 

 

Policies.

Attendance

You are expected to attend all class meetings; however, I understand that life happens, and you may need to miss class. Please communicate with me and your classroom contact so you don’t miss assignments and due dates. If you are absent when something is to be turned in, you are expected to turn it in when you return. “I wasn’t here!” is not an excuse for being unprepared. You are in college and you are responsible for your learning and your work.

 

Academic Honesty

According to the student code of conduct, any work which is submitted that is not yours without proper acknowledgement of the source is considered plagiarism. Plagiarism is a serious issue and can result in being dropped from this course and, in repeated instances, this college. Please consult the student code of conduct for additional information.

 

Disabilities

If you have ever received any accommodation, or if you have any disability that may affect your classroom performance, make sure you have spoken with someone in the Office of Disabilities in order to ensure you can receive the assistance you need to be successful.