Composition I, English Tuesday & Thursday 9:30-10:45, Simpkins 315 (Professor Erika Wurth, office # 109)

Transcription

1 Composition I, English Tuesday & Thursday 9:30-10:45, Simpkins 315 (Professor Erika Wurth, office # 109) The texts required for this course are: Writing the Personal, Getting Your Stories onto the Page, by Sandra L. Faulkner and Shelia Squillante, and Best American Essays 2016, editor Jonathan Franzen (and normally, I wouldn t care which edition you bought, but, if you buy a different one, it won t have the same material so don t do that). My is et-wurth@wiu.edu. Please feel free to with any questions also try to reserve this time for any questions pertaining to your grade or questions specific to your particular projects. And let me know if you d like to meet with me one on one before or after class. This class will be partially online and partially physical. See day by day schedule below. My office is located in Simpkins 109 and my office hours are Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday & 2-3 online via FaceTime/Skype or in person. I m also available by appt online or in person Monday & Friday. Please feel free to come in (or ) with any questions or if you just want to chat also try to reserve this time for any questions pertaining to your grade or questions specific to your particular projects. The goal in this class is mainly to learn to move your writing up to the college level through reading and writing personal essays. We ll read a how-to book, and a number of essays, talk about them, then do some non-graded creative exercises in class in the style of the writer we re looking at and you ll turn in two short personal essays for peer review via during the online portion of the class. When it is your turn to be peer reviewed, your essays need to be ed to me the class date BEFORE it is to be peer reviewed. Then, I will it to the rest of the class by the next day, and I will expect everyone to me and the person who is being peer reviewed their feedback by the next class date the date they are technically workshopping. You must AT LEAST three or four sentences of typed comments speaking to grammar, organization and concept/idea. We ll read the books in the same order that you see listed above during physical class and I ll quiz every day. BUT. They re not trick quizzes in any way, they re only there to make sure that you re doing the reading, and to replace tests. This is a composition course, and I m much more invested in reading, writing and discussion vs. memorization. But because they are replacing tests, it is important that you do well on them.

2 We will be discussing some of the history and biography behind the texts and we will also explore issues of gender, race and sexuality. If this is uncomfortable for you, you may consider taking the course at another time. Because this is class is partially online, I do not want you to miss ANY physical classes, and I do not want any of your assignments during the online portion to be late as we will be on a schedule for peer review. Also, please do not ever get up and leave before I ve dismissed class. I never keep people over the assigned time limit, so if you need to leave early, tell me before class begins. If I see you look at your cell phone, once, I will ask you to leave class and I will consider it an absence. There will be no discussion, whatsoever. You will leave. If you do not have a physical book in class with you, the book that I have assigned for the day, I will also ask you to leave and will consider it an absence. There will be no discussion, whatsoever. You will leave. Your grades are mainly dependent upon your work but attendance, quizzes and especially participation affect your grade. Participation is why we re here and it s what makes a class effective. I don t expect you to be Shakespeare, just occasionally raise your hand and speak. Participation can change your grade. If your only goal in my class is to receive an A you may want to drop. There are only 2 ways to earn an A in my class; the first is to do very well on quizzes and attendance & receive an A on your work, the second is to do well on quizzes and attendance & participate nearly EVERY DAY & more than once per class period. A grade of A is supposed to reflect excellence, therefore, I must reflect that in my grading policies. The great majority of my students receive a grade somewhere in neighborhood of a B & very few receive an A. Your major projects in this course will be structured personal essays (only 2-3 pages each). You will turn in two, and they will be circulated for peer review you must read and give feedback for every one of them, but again they ll be two or three pages long. As for plagiarism, don t do it. I can t emphasize this enough. It isn t worth it as I don t expect that your work will be in the Hemingway category at least at this point. It is so easy to spot plagiarism and the consequences are dire. At the least I have to fail you and in the worst case scenario you can be expelled. If you re having a problem, please come and see me. You must do your own work. Any act of plagiarism will result in at least an F grade in this course. If you have any doubts about whether or not you are using your own or others writing ethically and legally, ask me. Work cannot be handed in for credit that is or was written for another class either here or elsewhere, even if it is much revised. Work you did in high school is best left there. The whole idea is to give you new occasions to write, for you to discover fresh ways to imaginatively deal with the world around you. Please submit

3 work written only during the current term. Western Illinois University s official Academic Integrity Policy is found at Please read it, in its entirety. If you re having a problem, please come and see me. If you have a learning difference that requires accommodation or if, for any reason, you feel you need extra help in learning the material or demonstrating that you understand the material, please contact me. Schedule: *Tuesday Aug 22 nd. Go over syllabus & schedule. Sign up sheet for essays. *Thursday, Aug 24 th. PHYSICAL CLASS. Come in having read Chapters 1 & 2 of Writing the Personal. Quiz, discussion, & a creative exercise. *Tuesday, Aug 29 th. PHYSICAL CLASS. Come in having read Chapters 3 & 4 of Writing the Personal. Quiz, discussion, & a creative exercise. *Thursday, Aug 31 st. PHYSICAL CLASS. Come in having read Chapters 5 & 6 of Writing the Personal. Quiz, discussion, & a creative exercise. Those signed up to send have their essays read Sept 5 th, send me your essays. START FIRST ONLINE PEER REVIEW *Tuesday Sept 5 th, all, send feedback to those whose essay you read and cc me via . Folks who are giving others their essay for peer review Sept 7 th, send me your essay. *Thursday Sept 7 th, all, send feedback to those whose essay you read and cc me via . Folks who are giving others their essay for peer review Sept 12 th, send me *Tuesday Sept 12 th, all, send feedback to those whose essay you read and cc me via . Folks who are giving others their essay for peer review Sept 14 th, send me *Thursday Sept 14 th, all, send feedback to those whose essay you read and cc me via . Folks who are giving others their essay for peer review Sept 19 th, send me *Tuesday Sept 19 th, all, send feedback to those whose essay you read and cc me via . Folks who are giving others their essay for peer review Sept 21 st, send me *Thursday Sept 21 st, all, send feedback to those whose essay you read and cc me via . Next week, PHYSICAL CLASS come in having Francisco Cantù s Bajadas from The Best American Essays 2016.

4 PHYSICAL CLASS *Tuesday Sept 26 th,, PHYSICAL CLASS. Come in HAVING READ Francisco Cantù s Bajadas from The Best American Essays Quiz, discussion, creative writing exercise. *Thursday, Sept 28 th, PHYSICAL CLASS. March 21 st, send me your story. Come in HAVING READ Alexander Chee s Girl from The Best American Essays Quiz, *Tuesday, Oct 3 rd, PHYSICAL CLASS. Come in HAVING READ Jaquira Diaz s Ordinary Girls from The Best American Essays Quiz, discussion, creative writing exercise. *Thursday, Oct 5 th, PHYSICAL CLASS. Come in HAVING READ Richard Lange s Of Human Carnage from The Best American Essays Quiz, START SECOND ONLINE PEER REVIEW *Tuesday Oct 10 th, all, send feedback to those whose essay you read and cc me via . Folks who are giving others their essay for peer review Oct 12 th, send me *Thursday Oct 12 th, all, send feedback to those whose essay you read and cc me via . Folks who are giving others their essay for peer review Oct 17 th, send me *Tuesday Oct 17 th, all, send feedback to those whose essay you read and cc me via . Folks who are giving others their essay for peer review Oct 19 th, send me *Thursday Oct 19 th, all, send feedback to those whose essay you read and cc me via . Folks who are giving others their essay for peer review Oct 24 th, send me

5 *Tuesday Oct 24 th, all, send feedback to those whose essay you read and cc me via . Folks who are giving others their essay for peer review Oct 26 th, send me *Thursday Oct 26 th, all, send feedback to those whose essay you read and cc me via . Next week, PHYSICAL CLASS come in having read Joyce Carol Oates The Lost Sister, an Elegy from The Best American Essays Quiz, discussion, creative writing exercise. PHYSICAL CLASS *Tuesday Oct 31 st, PHYSICAL CLASS. Come in HAVING READ Joyce Carol Oates The Lost Sister, an Elegy from The Best American Essays Quiz, *Thursday, Nov 2 nd, PHYSICAL CLASS. Come in HAVING READ Oliver Sacks A General Feeling of Disorder from The Best American Essays Quiz, *Tuesday Nov 7 th, PHYSICAL CLASS. Come in HAVING READ Justin Philip Reed s Killing It Like They Do in the Movies from The Best American Essays Quiz, discussion, creative writing exercise *Thursday Nov 9 th, PHYSICAL CLASS. Come in HAVING READ Katherine E. Standefer s In Praise of Contempt from The Best American Essays Quiz, START THIRD ONLINE PEER REVIEW *Tuesday Nov 14 th, all, send feedback to those whose essay you read and cc me via . Folks who are giving others their essay for peer review Nov 16 th, send me *Thursday Nov 16 th, all, send feedback to those whose essay you read and cc me via . Folks who are giving others their essay for peer review Nov 28 th, send me *Tuesday Nov 21 st Thursday Nov 23 rd, Thanksgiving. *Tuesday, Nov 28 th, all, send feedback to those whose essay you read and cc me via . Folks who are giving others their essay for peer review Nov 30 th, send me ***Nov 29 th, Kiese Laymon, Writer in Residence. Reading at 5PM in the Sherman Hall Auditorium (3 rd FL), attendance is required.

6 *Thursday Nov 30 th,, all, send feedback to those whose essay you read and cc me via . Folks who are giving others their essay for peer review Dec 5 th, send me *Tuesday Dec 5 th, all, send feedback to those whose essay you read and cc me via . Folks who are giving others their essay for peer review Dec 7 th, send me your essay. *Thursday Dec 7 th, all, send feedback to those whose essay you read and cc me via . *Finals week: PHYSICAL CLASS. Come Tuesday, Dec 12 th at 9:30 and submit both essays, the original and revised versions.