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03/28/06 -- Note changes to Assignment #10

Required Texts and Supplies

• Bailey's Café, Gloria Naylor, paperback, ISBN 0679748210
• The Famished Road, Ben Okri, paperback, ISBN 0385425139
• A college-level dictionary approved by the instructor
• An email account and computer access to the Internet
• A "Collected Works" portfolio for turning in final assignments

Weekly Syllabus

(Subject to revision to meet changing conditions, or at the discretion of the instructor)

Week 1: 1/11-1/13

• Meet in Boyer Bldg., Room 303
  Introduction: course philosophy, requirements, texts, etc. Go over syllabus and expectations for class

• Writing Assignment One
  
  Pick three different places that can be on or off campus. Write about the same subject in each place for 15 minutes. The subject can be anything that you are thinking about. Then in one paragraph analyze how this exercise went for you: were some places better than others for writing; what was the experience like; how is writing connected to place?
  
  
• Last day to add or drop a course (Fri.)

• Writing Assignment Two (length: 2 pages)
  
  Read Dr. Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech and Shakespeare's St. Crispin's Day speech. Your assignment is to write a speech that draws on similar uses of language for a similar purpose.
  
  Both of these speeches are to inspire. King's speech to inspire those working for racial equality in America to hold to their vision of a more just future. Henry V, speaking to his soldiers before battle, is trying to inspire them to fight well against a much larger foe on the day of St. Crispin's (500 English against 8,000 French).
  
  Your speech should work to inspire people to believe something that you yourself believe. The subject is up to you. What you will want to do is
  • use repetition of language to inspire, like King's "I have a dream" and King Henry's "this day" and "St. Crispin's).
  • Be able to explain how you use language particularly for this purpose and this audience.

• Writing Assignment Three (length: 1 page)
  
  Do a google search for an art image. In order to do this, click on the Images tab, and then write a subject heading. I would suggest trying some periods in art history: Impressionism, Renaissance, Abstract Expressionism, Pre-Raphaelite, Harlem Renaissance (not a technical term, however)
  
  Or try some artists. Painters: Edward Hopper, Jacob Lawrence, Michaelangelo, Raphael, Dante Rossetti, Roland Beardson, Jacob Pollack; Photographers: Ansel Adams, Gordon Parks, Diane Arbus, Marguerite Bourke-White, Alfred Steiglitz
  
  Pick out a painting that you like and describe in words what you see when looking at the painting. Try to use language that is as precise as possible. DON'T describe your RESPONSE to the painting, describe exactly what you see.

• Writing Assignment Four-A
  
  For this assignment, write a one-page description of an experience that you had in which SOUND played an important role. You may write it as a story or as description or in any form you can imagine; the important quality is to bring sound into your paper through the use of language.
  
  Before you begin, you might imagine various ways in which sound affects you and brainstorm two or three situations in which sound has had an impact that you can write about.
  
  Some possibilities: being in deep thought in the caff and slowly having the sound of people talking reach your consciousness; being in a natural place and being aware of the sound of machinery (cars, traffic) in the distance; being at a musical event; having someone shout at you either to warn you or to display anger... Those are only a few possibilities to help you if you're not sure what I mean. Good luck! Have fun!
  
  
• Writing Assignment Four-B
  
  For this assignment, pick one of the following words, look up its definition in the dictionary, and write a short piece that riffs off of the word and its meaning: mellifluous, lachrymose, somniloquent, diaphanous, loquacious.

• Writing Assignment Five
  
  Read the poem "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" [audio] through the stanza that begins "The yellow fog..." Note the simile that begins the first two lines in English and the use of metaphorical language in the first stanza. How does this type of language shape your perception of the poem's theme (alienation)? Its tone?
  
  Then, read the second stanza again and note the extended metaphor that unifies it. What is Eliot comparing the fog to? How does the metaphor affect the way you perceive the fog?
  
  Then, try your hand at writing an extended metaphor. T.S. Eliot does it for eight lines. Try seven in your writing.
  
  AFTER you've written, go ahead a finish the poem. Is it good? Why or why not?

• Writing Assignment Six
  
  Using the ideas developed from the in-class writing, develop a short story that uses imagery, word choice, and syntax to create a particular tone.

• Writing Assignment Seven (length: 2 pages)
  
  For this assignment, describe something that has happened to you using a combination of poetry and prose to describe conflicting feelings about the subject. While the paper should be primarily prose, the poetry should have a definite place to mark a definite break in TONE by showing a connected, yet different voice. In order for this assignment to work well for you, you will have to be sure that your subject is one about which you have a complex attitude.

• Writing Assignment Eight
  
  For this assignment, use a combination of regular and italicized font to express two different states of mind. The essay can be a nonfiction event, a fictional story, or a meditation on some issue that you are currently experiencing in a personal way. In the first chapter of "Bailey's Cafe" we read, the narrator tells most of his history in regular font, but then changes to italics to indicate a greater level or trauma and personal anguish (among other things). You may use italics to communicate many different states of mind or levels of intimacy with the reader. You may also use them to show inside/outside kinds of experiences, i.e. where you are presenting a calm face to the world and doing one thing while inside something very different is going on.
  
  Portfolio due: best five of the first eight projects
  
  
• No class (Thurs.)

Week 10: 3/20-3/24

• Writing Assignment Nine (length: 1.5 pages)
  
  Write a letter to the President or to your Senators explaining your position on the war in Iraq and why you, as a citizen, feel this way about your government's action. In other words, I should be able to tell something about what you think the relationship/responsibilities of the individual to the state are from this letter.
  
  
• Last day for withdrawing from course without penalty (Fri.)

• Writing Assignment Ten (length: 2 pages min.)
  
  Write a two-page (mininum) short story from a point of view that is opposite to your own gender, sexual preference, and class distinction. The idea is to imagine characters that are different from yourselves as a way to stretch as a writer. The focus of the story should be on a traumatic event, and must incorporate fantastical elements.

• Final Project -- Research Paper or Short Story (length: 15 pages)
  
  Your final project is a paper that combines creative writing and research writing to analyze a subject in which you have a strong interest. You will want to give some careful thought to choosing a subject that is appropriately focused for a 15 page paper, and one that you can use personal narrative, visual and sensory description, play with form, and exploration with voice in order to explore.
  
  This paper comes out of the writing that you’ve been doing all semester; the assignment asks you to employ research writing skills you should already have developed with creative and/or personal writing that we’ve been exploring. This assignment insists that you be the knowing author of your work, not only in terms of content, but of form. You are encouraged to meet with the professor often to receive feedback on your progressing work.
  
  Recent approaches have included: male bodybuilding and the culture of individualism in America; materialism and black culture; feminism and being a black female in the professional world; child abuse and sociological theories of childraising and society.
  
  OR
  
  You can choose to write a 15-page short story that incorporates the techniques we've discussed over the semester. Make sure to leave enough time so that you can do at least one revision/rewrite before the final draft is due.
  
  
• One page proposal for a paper AND a list of four potential other topics in which you are interested in researching and writing.
  
  
• Discussion of potential research for your project. Individual meetings.

• Research day. Email the professor by 5 p.m. with a 200 word description of the research performed.
  
  
• Good Friday (no class on Thurs.)

• List of 15 research sources, with at least two-sentence description of each. Five sources from NCLive, five sources from JStor, five sources from places of your choice. Discussion and exercises on incorporating research.
  
  
• Five page draft due.

• Ten page draft due.
  
  (Portfolio revisions from earlier papers due)
  
  
• Fifteen-page draft due.

• Final paper due.
  
  
• Reading Day (no class on Thurs.)

Grading

Grades will be determined by the following:

• 40% -- A portfolio of original and revised short assignments written through the first part of the semester. Students will turn in five of eight projects during the midterm week for evaluation by the professor. They may revise their portfolio once for a higher grade

• 50% -- A research essay project that includes a long paper, several short prewriting assignments, and drafting activities. The paper will display a mastery of
  1. the six characteristics of good writing
  2. appropriate focus of subject
  3. use of research
  4. MLA style
  5. creative and critical handling of the subject

• 10% -- Class discussion

Course Descriptions and Goals

Every writer creates his or her own process of writing. Every writer grows to understand and appreciate his or her style, even as he or she is constantly trying to improve through practice. Every writer reads other writers. Every writer understands that talent is only one part of what makes him or her a writer -- that it's the work and the time and the focus that turns someone who has to write into a writer.

Advanced Composition is designed to enrich your essay and research paper skills by allowing you to experiment with form and voice and structure in writing, and to improve writing skills through a close focus on the writing process, the concerns of audience, purpose, and subject, the development of ideas, argument, essay structure, and voice. The course is centered on a series of exercises designed to create new ways of thinking about your own writing and to experiment with form in ways that enable you to connect with research and personal writing. To focus our work, we will center our reading on two texts: Bailey's Café by Gloria Naylor and The Famished Road by Ben Okri.

We will emphasize creativity throughout the entire course. Each writer is encouraged to pay attention to the creative ideas he or she brings to each project and to develop a creative approach to the writing process.

Course Objectives

1. To understand the mechanics of writing a research paper.
2. To experiment with narrative structure, voice, memoir, mixing creative and analytical writing in order to develop a more complex understanding of the writer's role.
3. To analyze the relationship between writer and audience and deploying different writings as strategies of persuasion.
4. To enhance understanding of the writing process and its benefits.
5. To use peer criticism as a means to develop verbal analytical skills.

Attendance and Coursework Policy

1. According to college policy, students are allowed four unexcused absences for the course. Upon the fifth unexcused absence, the student will be dropped from the class. Absences that are verified as excused will not result in any penalty. Student athletes must provide a schedule of practices, away games, etc. that might interfere with their attendance in class, or any absences will count as unexcused.

2. Students are expected to be in their seats when the class starts. If you arrive over ten minutes late to class, you will be counted as tardy. Three tardies will equal one unexcused absence.

3. It is the responsibility of the student to see the instructor about make-up options if you miss in-class quizzes or tests.

4. Students are expected to turn in all work on the due date. If an assignment is going to be late, you must discuss the situation with the instructor ahead of time. Each day late that an assignment is turned in, it will be automatically reduced a letter grade; after four days, it will automatically receive an F.

5. If a student must leave class early, he or she must let the instructor know at the beginning of class.

6. Students are expected to be both attentive and respectful of their classmates and instructor. Attentive and respectful behavior includes the following:
   • Listen attentively to both the instructor and questions/comments by students.
   • Give the class your full attention; do not work from other classes; do not listen to CD/MP3 players; turn off all cell phones and/or beepers; do not talk with other students.
   • Do not leave and return while the class is in progress. If you need to use the bathroom or get a drink of water, do so before you walk in the door.
   • Food is a distraction and will not be allowed. You may bring in water to drink, but no sodas or sports drinks; other classes have to use the room after us, and we need to keep it as clean as possible.

The Writing Center

Please use the Writing Center in Boyer 306. It is there to help you, and there are student tutors who can give you additional help with grammar and writing topics that are difficult for you. Each of you should take advantage of this free service, but if a special note is made on your assignment that you need to go to the Writing Center on a regular basis, it is because the instructor is concerned that you will not be successful in this class without some additional one-on-one assistance, and it is a requirement for your success. All you do is go to Boyer 306 and set up an appointment time. If you do not take advantage of this opportunity, then you may have problems passing this class with a grade of C, which is necessary to proceed to your next required English class.