ENG 105 / Fall 2012 Syllabus
Fall 2012 / MWF 1-1:50 PM / Harris Hall L04 Instructor: Garrett Morrison Office: University Hall 420 Office Hours: M 12-1, W 2-3, or by appointment Email:
[email protected] Our Purpose “Anyone can cook!” So says Chef Gusteau. (Ratatouille, anyone?) Given my own incompetence in the kitchen, I have trouble believing him—but I do believe that anyone can write. English 105 will therefore focus on a variety of attainable skills. In this course, you will read critically and write carefully. You will brainstorm ideas, gather evidence, formulate theses, organize arguments, anticipate counterarguments, and fashion clear, graceful prose. Above all, you will revise, revise again, and revise some more. No matter what you end up doing at Northwestern or in life, these skills will serve you well. Our Theme So you’ve made it to college. Does that mean you’re an adult? You can be tried as one. You can vote—and I hope you do. Perhaps you have had a quinceañera or a bar mitzvah. For about two years you have been (legally) allowed to drive, and in about three years you will be (legally) allowed to buy a sixer. But do you think of yourself as a boy? As a man? Or are you, in the immortal words of Britney Spears, “not a girl, not yet a woman”? In this version of English 105, we will explore the concept of “coming of age.” When does—or should—adulthood begin? What are its rights and responsibilities? What causes someone to come of age? Spoiler alert: you will discover that coming of age is a complex and ever-changing concept, not easily understood. The more you think about it and write about it, the more you will discover. Our Method This course requires three kinds of work: 1) Reading. Thematic readings will be about coming of age;; instructional readings will be about writing technique. 2) Discussion. During our class meetings, you will not only talk, but also—and especially—listen. We learn best when we consider unfamiliar points of view. 3) Writing. Emphasize process, not product. In this course, we will cycle through three rounds of planning, drafting, and revising.
1
ENG 105 / Fall 2012 Syllabus
Required Texts ● In order to remain in this course, you must possess hard copies of these books. ● You can purchase or rent all three at the Norris Bookstore. ● If you obtain the books elsewhere, make sure to get the right editions. ● On most bookselling websites, you can find a specific edition by copying-and-pasting its ISBN directly into the search box. Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams. The Craft of Research. 3rd ed. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008. - ISBN: 978-0-226-06566-3 Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. 1984. Introd. Sandra Cisneros. New York: Vintage, 2009. - ISBN: 978-0-679-73477-2 Graff, Gerald and Cathy Birkenstein. “They Say / I Say”: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. 2nd ed. New York: Norton, 2010. - ISBN: 978-0-393-93361-1 Required Videos ● You can acquire these movies in a few different ways: o I have a USB thumb drive containing all three in QuickTime-playable files. o For about three bucks a pop, rent them from Amazon or iTunes or any streaming service. o Find a classmate who owns or has rented one of the films and organize a viewing party. o The library might have copies, but don’t count on it. American Graffiti. Dir. George Lucas. Screenplay by Lucas, Gloria Katz, and Willard Huyck. Universal, 1973. Film. Dazed and Confused. Dir. Richard Linklater. Screenplay by Linklater. Gramercy, 1993. Film. High Fidelity. By Nick Hornby. Dir. Stephen Frears. Screenplay by D. V. DeVicentis, Steve Pink, John Cusack, and Scott Rosenberg. Touchstone, 2000. Film. Recommended Supplementary Texts ● These books are important and useful, but not required for this course. Garner, Bryan A. Garner’s Modern American Usage. 3rd ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009. - ISBN: 978-0-19-538275-4 Modern Language Association of America. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 7th ed. New York: MLA of America, 2009. - ISBN: 978-1-60329-024-1 Williams, Joseph M. and Gregory G. Colomb. Style: The Basics of Clarity and Grace. 4th ed. Boston: Longman, 2010. - ISBN: 978-0205830763 2
ENG 105 / Fall 2012 Syllabus
Course Website I have set up a private site for our course at Lore.com. Here I will post announcements, scheduling details, questions about readings, PDFs of readings, assignment sheets, and other important stuff. All Lore updates will be reported to you via email. Everyday Communication When we are not in class, email will be our official mode of communication, so keep track of everything I send to your “u.northwestern.edu” address. Feel free to email me anytime, but expect up to a 24-hour delay before I reply. Participation & Attendance I have five main expectations regarding your participation and attendance: 1) Show up a few minutes before every class and conference. Each absence or tardy, excused or not, will reduce your grade, and more than four absences will earn you a failing participation score. If you have to miss class for a personal or medical emergency, let me know as far in advance as possible. I may assign makeup work. 2) Like a scout, always be prepared. Arrive at each class ready to talk about the day’s readings. To receive a high participation score, you must consistently speak up. If you are hesitant to do so, meet with me to discuss strategies for contributing. 3) Bring hard copies of the readings to class. Buy the books and print out the PDFs. 4) Complete all informal writing assignments. Your performance on these will factor into your participation score. 5) Power off and put away phones and laptops during class. Occasionally we will use computers for special activities, but generally we will focus on old-fashioned face-to-face conversation. Guidelines for Assignments Good writers do far more than simply write. In this course, you will: 1) Plan, draft, and revise THREE papers. During each round of composition you will participate in brainstorming activities, define a topic, compose a first draft, give and receive a peer evaluation, attend a mandatory conference with me, produce a final draft, and complete a “Postmortem Checklist and Self-Assessment.” Your grade will be based not only on the quality of your final draft, but also on the effort you put into the whole writing process. 2) Submit your work on time. Turn in soft and hard copies of final drafts—the former on Lore and the latter in class. No extensions. Late papers will receive a penalty of one third of a letter grade (“A” “A-”) and an additional one-third penalty for each day that goes by. 3) Format your papers professionally. Use 12-point Times New Roman font, double spacing, one-inch margins, and page numbers. Come up with a title that communicates a sense of your essay’s topic and argument. When citing evidence, follow the rules of the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 4) Be honest. The work you turn in must be your own. Any plagiarism will be handled according to the Weinberg College Honor Code. 3
ENG 105 / Fall 2012 Syllabus
Writing Schedule 10/5 Essay 1: Worksheet 11/1 Essay 2: Topic 11/19 Essay 3: Topic Grading Breakdown Participation & Attendance Essay 2
10/15 Essay 1: First Draft 11/5 Essay 2: First Draft 11/30 Essay 3: First Draft 25% 25% *
Essay 1 Essay 3 *
10/22 Essay 1: Final Draft 11/12 Essay 2: Final Draft 12/10 Essay 3: Final Draft 20% 30%
*
ESSAY ASSIGNMENTS 1) Argument 1,000 to 1,250 words First Draft 10/15, Final Draft 10/22 First, find an article about a coming-of-age issue and summarize its argument. What does the author argue against? What does he or she argue for? Second, evaluate the article’s argument. What are the author’s underlying assumptions about the coming-of-age process? What are his or her data and conclusions? Do the conclusions align with the data? Are there any holes in the argumentation? Third, respond with your own argument. Do you agree with the author, disagree, or both? Why? You must complete all three steps, but not necessarily one at a time. Your summary may imply an evaluation, just as your evaluation may imply an argument. Organize your paper however you see fit—that is, however effectively you can. But remember your fundamentals. Your essay should have an introduction, a conclusion, and a few well-wrought body paragraphs. 2) Analysis 1,250 to 1,750 words First Draft 11/5, Final Draft 11/12 Select a coming-of-age narrative, or Bildungsroman, from the course syllabus and EITHER: Trace a formal pattern through the Bildungsroman and explain how the pattern contributes to the text’s representation of coming of age. You might examine a recurring plot element, or a type of imagery, or a reappearing symbol, or a syntactical quirk, or any distinctive formal structure. (Do not simply analyze “metaphors in The House on Mango Street”;; analyze a specific kind of metaphor, one that is indigenous to Cisneros’s novel.) Then comes the hard part: you need to connect your analysis of form to a claim about content. Think about what the formal pattern does, what meaning it makes. What does it help the Bildungsroman say about the coming-of-age process? OR: Pick a scene or a passage (no more than 750 printed words or five filmed minutes), preferably a significant one in a character’s coming of age, and subject it to a careful, sustained analysis. Work out how the scene/passage uses the tools of its medium: plot and language in literature;; in film, not only plot and language but also sound and image. Search for patterns, repetitions, ambiguities, conflicts, contradictions—anything that might lead you from textual detail to thematic meaning. Your goal is to make a claim 4
ENG 105 / Fall 2012 Syllabus
about how the scene/passage contributes to the Bildungsroman’s overall conception of the coming-of-age process. Whether you analyze a formal pattern or a scene/passage, you need to present a clear, original, and contestable argument about what meaning the text makes and how it makes that meaning. 3) Research 2,000 to 2,500 words First Draft 11/30, Final Draft 12/10 Study an ongoing debate about a coming-of-age issue and enter that debate by writing an argumentative research paper. This is an opportunity to pursue your own interests in relation to the course theme. You might investigate a cultural ritual, or a text we have not read in class, or a genre of literature, or an educational theory, or a political problem, or a news event, or a neuroscientific concept… you get the idea. After selecting a topic, evaluate what others have said about it: scour JSTOR and Google Books, locate reputable Internet sources, and haunt the halls of the Northwestern libraries. What questions have writers asked your topic? What problems have they identified? What positions have they taken, and what are the differences between these positions? From the raw material of these disputes, build your own clear, original, and contestable argument. When finished, your essay should respond to at least three secondary sources and analyze at least two primary sources. *
*
*
COURSE SCHEDULE UNIT 1: ARGUING COMING-OF-AGE ISSUES Week 1: What Is “Coming of Age”? F 9/28 Introductions Week 2: What Do “They” Say About Coming of Age? M 10/1 (A)1 “They Say / I Say”, Introduction & ch. 11 (B) Mary C. Waters, et al., Coming of Age in America, pp. 1-6, 9-14 W 10/3 (A) “They Say / I Say”, chs. 1 & 12 (B) Robin Marantz Henig, “What Is It About 20-Somethings?” F 10/5 (A) “They Say / I Say”, chs. 2-3 (B) Kay S. Hymowitz, “Where Have All the Good Men Gone?” Worksheet DUE: 1) Find an argumentative article (between 1,000- and 3,000-words long) about a coming-of-age issue. Make sure it was published in a reputable venue. 2) Print out the article. 3) Draw straight lines under the passages in which the author summarizes what someone else (“they”) said;; draw squiggly lines under the passages in which the author quotes what “they” said;; draw boxes around the verbs the author uses to introduce summaries and quotations. 4) Complete and print out the prewriting worksheet. Your The letter “A” designates instructional readings;; “B,” thematic readings.
1
5
ENG 105 / Fall 2012 Syllabus
performance on this assignment will be assessed as part of your Essay 1 score. Week 3: What Do “You” Say About Coming of Age? M 10/8 (A) “They Say / I Say”, chs. 4-5 (B) Bella DePaulo, “About Those 20-Somethings…” (B) Derek Thompson, “What’s Really the Matter with 20-Somethings” W 10/10 (B) Jessica Grose, “… Nothing Wrong with Extended Adolescence for Men” (B) Stephen Frears, dir., High Fidelity F 10/12 (A) “They Say / I Say”, chs. 6-7 (B) Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, pp. 43-71 UNIT 2: ANALYZING COMING-OF-AGE NARRATIVES Week 4: First Narratives M 10/15 (A) Northwestern Department of English Style Sheet Draft DUE: First draft of Essay 1 W 10/17 (A) “They Say / I Say”, chs. 8 & 10 (B) Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, pp. 71-106 Th 10/18 Conferences (NO CLASS) F 10/19 Conferences (NO CLASS) Week 5: Revised Narratives M 10/22 (B) Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, pp. 106-131 Paper DUE: Final draft of Essay 1 W 10/24 (B) Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street, pp. 3-42 (B) Julia Alvarez, “My English” F 10/26 (B) Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street, pp. 43-78 Week 6: Miscellaneous Narratives M 10/29 (B) Sandra Cisneros, The House on Mango Street, pp. 78-110 W 10/31 (B) George Lucas, dir., American Graffiti Th 11/1 Topic DUE: By 11 AM, submit on Lore a few sentences about your topic for Essay 2. Which narrative are you writing about? If you are tracing a formal pattern through the text, briefly describe the pattern. If you are analyzing a scene or a passage, tell me which one, and exactly where it begins and ends. You need not present a thesis statement—just an area of inquiry. Your completion of this assignment will be assessed as part of your Essay 2 score. F 11/2 (B) Richard Linklater, dir., Dazed and Confused UNIT 3: RESEARCHING COMING-OF-AGE TOPICS Week 7: Launching Your Research Project M 11/5 Jules Law, “Notes Toward Writing a Good English Paper” Draft DUE: First draft of Essay 2 6
ENG 105 / Fall 2012 Syllabus
W 11/7 Th 11/8 F 11/9
(A) The Craft of Research, pp. 31-33 & chs. 3-4 Conferences (NO CLASS) Conferences (NO CLASS)
Week 8: Sourcing Your Research Project M 11/12 Paper DUE: Final draft of Essay 2 W 11/14 (A) The Craft of Research, ch. 5 & pp. 249-255 (B) Robert Epstein, “The Myth of the Teen Brain” 11/16 (A) The Craft of Research, ch. 6 & pp. 255-260 (B) Lesley Speed, “Tuesday’s Gone: The Nostalgic Teen Film” Week 9: Planning Your Research Project M 11/19 (A) The Craft of Research, ch. 12 & pp. 260-266 (B) Julia Alvarez, excerpt from Once Upon a Quinceañera W 11/21 Topic DUE: By 11 AM, submit on Lore a paragraph describing your progress on Essay 3. State your topic, the question you are asking about that topic, and the significance of your investigation. (Follow the models in chapters 3 and 4 of The Craft of Research.) Also provide an MLA-style list of two primary sources and three secondary sources. At least two of your secondary sources should come from scholarly, peer-reviewed journals. Your performance on this assignment will be assessed as part of your Essay 3 score. NO CLASS (Celebrate Thanksgiving early!) F 11/23 NO CLASS (Continue to celebrate Thanksgiving!) Week 10: Drafting Your Research Project M 11/26 (A) The Craft of Research, ch. 13 W 11/28 (A) The Craft of Research, chs. 14 & 16 F 11/30 Draft DUE: First draft of Essay 3 Reading Week M-W 12/3-12/5 Conferences Finals Week M 12/10 Paper DUE: Final draft of Essay 3
7
ENG 105 / Fall 2012 Syllabus
8
