English Composition II
English 101
Southern Connecticut State University
Fall 2004
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Professor: Nicole Henderson
Office: END 256
Office Hours: Monday and Wednesday 9-10 a.m. and Thursday 1-3.
Additional times can be arranged by appointment.
Mailbox: English Department office
Telephone: 392-6196
E-mail: hendersonn1@southernct.edu
Required Materials:
Introduction to course:
The subject of this course is writing. In particular, we will be looking at writing as an act or, as Composition theorist David Bartholomae has claimed, ³a performance.² We will be exploring the choices writers make when they write, ranging from the general, ³Why does he/she choose to write?² to the specific, ³Why did this writer chose this sentence and not another?² Furthermore, in this course, you will be asked to see yourselves as writers and to explore the choices you make when writing. Why did you write? Why did you choose that sentence and not another? I like to see this course as a large conversation, one that takes place between writers and is about writing, one that allows us to ask questions and share our own experiences, all in an effort to better understand the way(s) each of us fits into the world(s) of people who write.
In this course, we will be looking at all the activities writers engage in when they write, including research. I don¹t know of a single writer who writes without conducting some kind of research. Research, as I think of it, is an essential part of ³the performance² of writing, a choice that writers make in order to understand something better, to know something more deeply, and to make connections between our own thoughts and the thoughts of others. We will be engaging in many kinds of research acts, acts that take place in the library, the world, and our own minds. We will be looking at research as an idea as well as an act and exploring the choices we make (and the questions we ask) when we search and re-search for knowledge.
In order to begin our conversation, I have selected (as our starting point) the notion of ³documentary work.² Although the term ³documentary² is most often associated with film, we will be mainly concerned with documentary writing. In other words, we will be looking at writing that attempts to or claims to accurately represent reality in non-fiction form. During the first part of the course, we will work on developing a long, critical researched essay that examines the way ³reality² may be filtered and shaped and, perhaps, altered, when we attempt, as writers, to represent others. After completing this essay on the topic of ³documentary work,² you will have achieved sufficient knowledge to move on to the next part of the course: producing a ³documentary² of your own. In other words, you will be asked to do the work you learned so much about in the first part of the course. After completing your documentary, you will be prepared to move onto the next part of the course, during which you will reflect upon and make connections between your claims as a critic of documentary work and your experiences as a producer of a documentary. Finally, we will end the course by arranging all your work (as critic, producer, and reflector) together into a thoughtfully arranged and bound mini-book that will represent your experiences in this course.
In this course, then, you will be working on individual pieces of writing, all of which will contribute to a larger project, one that, in the end, will be something to remember. You may, therefore, think of this course itself as a project as well as a process in which you will produce a tangible, readable, touchable memory.
Commitment to Process:
Writing requires a certain commitment. In this course, we will be writing a lot, and we will be reading a lot. We will also be engaged in exciting, and sometimes frustrating, research. In order to stay committed to the process and progress of this course, you will need to come to every class meeting prepared and willing to listen carefully, as well as contribute, when you feel ready, to the conversation(s).
Production:
You will produce many pieces of writing throughout the semester. You will complete informal writing in your journal which will eventually contribute to the larger, formal essays. In the end, these formal essays will be gathered to form an even larger project, the mini-book. In other words, you will be completing the mini-book all semester, simply by writing the essays. You will of course have to do some rearranging and revision to link each of the essays together, an essential part of the performance of writing a long piece.
Revision:
The first three essays that you write will include at least part, if not all, of the essay(s) that came before them. Therefore, throughout the entire first part of the course, you will be engaged in the act of revision. For instance, your second essay will most likely use your first essay as its introduction. You will, therefore, when completing the second essay, take my comments on the first essay into account, re-think and revise that essay before building on it to complete the second essay. In some cases, this will require small amounts of revision. In other cases, revision may require producing an entirely different piece. This process also makes it difficult to skip an essay. Even if you choose not to write an essay, you will be responsible for producing it later as part of the next essay. In other words, revision will always be taking place, along with the creation of new material.
You are not, however, permitted to revise an essay simply to raise the grade of that individual essay. The grade of each essay will be permanent. However, you will notice that the mini-book (which will include revised versions of earlier essays) is worth a significant percentage of your grade. The revision work that do throughout the course, therefore, will contribute significantly to determining your final grade.
Evaluation and Grading:
I will comment extensively on each essay you hand into me, either in writing or in an individual conference. In addition to extensive comments, I will assign each of the essays a letter grade. In the end, I will also assign your mini-book a letter grade. I will not grade the writing you do in your journal, but your participation and preparation grade is largely determined by completing journal assignments.
Your final grade will be computed based on the following percentages:
5%--First Essay (Step 1 of critical paper) 3-5 pages
5%--Second Essay (Step 2 of critical paper) 6-10 pages (includes Step 1)
10%--Third Essay (Completed critical paper) 9-15 pages (includes step 2)
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10%--Your written documentary 5+pages
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10% -- Last, reflective essay 3-5 pages
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40%-- Final Project mini-book (includes all of the above, plus an introduction)
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20% -- Preparation and Participation (includes journal work)
Late Papers:
I will not accept late papers unless arrangements have been made with me at least two days prior to the due date.
Midterm and Final Exam:
There will no exams in this course. In place of the final exam, you will complete your final project mini-book. We will meet the day of the final exam. This will be discussed further as the semester progresses.
Part One (8/30-9/20)
Writing, Representation, and Documentary: Theoretical Perspectives
Human and Impersonal Documents. Objective Representation and Subjective Interpretation. Facts and truth values. Proof and theory. Emotion and Information. Expressive power. Positivism and factual knowledge. Art and Expressive power. Images and Words.
Readings:
Stott, Selections from Documentary Expression and Thirties America.
Coles, ³The Work: Locations in Theory.²
Coles, Preface to Doing Documentary Work.
Shapiro and Godmillow, ³How Real is the Reality in Documentary Film?²
Essay #1 (3-5 pages) due: Monday, 9/20
Weeks