EXPO E-15:
Fundamentals of Academic Writing
Harvard Extension School
Spring 2012
Instructor Information:
Course Information:
Allyson Boggess
[email protected]
(315) 333-0324 (messages only)
Skype ID: allysonkalea
CRN #23434 (Section 4)
M 5:30-7:30 pm EST
Meets Online with Elluminate
Skype Office Hours:
M 1:00-5:00 pm EST, and by appointment
Course Summary
This course is for students preparing for EXPO E-25 and students who want to improve their
skills in reading, writing, and critical thinking. You will read and analyze examples of effective
writing, develop and articulate your ideas about them, and learn how to use their strengths to
your advantage. You will produce long and short writing assignments that establish a clear thesis
and support it with strong evidence and analysis.
Required Texts
Hacker, Diana. The Bedford Handbook. 8th ed. (BH)
Wolff, Tobias. The Vintage Book of Contemporary American Short Stories. New York:
Vintage, 1994. (VB)
I’ll also be posting recent essays from The New Yorker (NY). We’ll be using these
texts with the Bedford and resources available online to study grammar, sentence
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structure, and punctuation, and to find effective examples. Read carefully, and come to
class with notes, ideas, comments, and questions. Participation is an important part of the
class, and an opportunity for you to articulate your ideas while developing critical
listening skills.
Stude nt Responsibilites
You will submit two analytical essays, 4-5 pages in length. The topics will be suggested by the
reading, but the specific direction of your essays will be up to you. The first essay will be in
response to one or more of the New Yorker essays. The second will be a close reading of a piece
from the Vintage anthology. Both will be argumentative: you’ll express an opinion, or make an
observation, and work to support your ideas with evidence from the text.
In developing these two essays, you will be writing several shorter pieces, and at least one draft
and revision of the complete essay. A successful essay does not appear overnight: it requires
extensive revision through multiple drafts. You’ll begin with rough sketches of your ideas,
figuring out what you think and how to articulate it. Through successive drafts you’ll refine this
work, until you are ready to write to an audience, anticipating and developing readers’ responses
to your ideas. Over the course of the semester we will move from helping you articulate your own
ideas to crafting work that is clear and meaningful to its readers. For each paper, you’ll hand in
brief “pre-draft” assignments, in which you brainstorm ideas and set down the basic parts of your
argument. Then you’ll complete and turn in a draft, which we’ll work on together. This draft
should not be your first attempt, but a complete, full-length essay. After receiving feedback, you’ll
respond with a revision that demonstrates substantial effort and re-thinking of your work. We’ll
discuss how superficial, editorial changes-- such as deleting a troubled sentence or merely
addressing errors in punctuation—are insufficient responses to the revision assignment.
Harvard Extension School’s website Division of Continuing Education offers an overview of
online courses. Because this class is taught in a participatory seminar format, there will be no
lecture videos, rather recordings of each class will be available to registered students. Students
will benefit from the classes conducted in Elluminate as well as our course website. Before
registering and attending our first class, students are expected to be familiar with Harvard
Extension School’s distance education policies. If you have questions about the technical aspects
of the course, need help with downloading the appropriate software or accessing our classroom
website link, please click here. And for answers to Harvard Extension School’s Frequently
Asked Questions, please click here.
This is a seminar class in which everyone’s active participation is not only encouraged, but also
expected. I hope that even if you are generally reserved, you will make an effort to participate in
discussions. Sharing ideas—especially those you may feel tentative about—is a mark of
intellectual generosity. Most importantly, registered students should begin the
course familiar with our online classroom before our first class; you should also
have a microphone so that you can participate in class discussions.
EXPO E-15 Fundamentals of Academic Writing
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Over the course of the semester, everyone’s writing will be workshopped in class. You will also
be responding regularly, in writing, to each other’s work. Since most writers—whether they are
neophytes or professionals—struggle with the same sorts of problems, you will find the
workshops and peer review exercises pertinent to your own work, even while you examine that of
your classmates. Indeed, responding to your peers’ work will help you become a sharper critic of
your own writing.
Writing courses at Harvard are rigorous and move along at a quick and steady pace. This means
that we must make the most of the time we have together each week. Class begins at 5:30;
you may log on as early as 5:00. You are expected to be logged on and to be fully prepared to
participate when class begins—that is, to have read and thought about whatever readings were
assigned and to have the required writing with you (including copies for your peer review group,
if necessary.) Although I am sympathetic to the exigencies of your hectic schedules and many
deadlines, lateness of any sort—in joining class or turning in work—will be penalized. Such
lateness is extremely disruptive to our schedule and discussions, and is unfair to the other
students who do log in, participate and hand their work in, on time.
Please note that excuses related to computer or printer failure, collapse, theft, damage (or any
other mishap) won’t be accepted. Be sure your technology is in good working order, that you
keep your work backed up and have extra hard copies, and that you know where you can turn for
help should any of the aforementioned tragedies befall you. All assignments must be turne d
in to the Instructor’s Dropbox in our class iSite prior to the start of class (5:30
pm EST) on the assignment’s due date—no late assignments are accepted, unless
I tell you otherwise.
Attendance & Participation
Despite being an online course, student attendance and participation are required and essential.
If you are absent from class without valid excuse more than twice, you are
required to withdraw from the course. A student who is regularly late by even a few
minutes can expect to see his or her final grade suffer as a result. Any student who is more
than 15 minutes late in joining class will be counted as absent. A missed
conference appointment also counts as an absence from class.
If you must miss a class, please notify me by email in advance, and consult our class website for
recorded classes and any missed materials. Please watch the recording of the class you
missed instead of emailing your instructor with the question “What did I miss?” It is your
responsibility to stay on top of missed work (both in-class and out-of-class).
In order to keep track of attendance, you are expected to sign in on the class whiteboard upon
entering our Elluminate classroom. We will go over how to complete this at our first class
meeting. If you have not signed in during the first 15 minutes of class, you will be marked absent.
EXPO E-15 Fundamentals of Academic Writing
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Procedures for Submitting Work
Submit all drafts and final versions of essays typed or word-processed, double-spaced,
titled, paginated, with 1-inch margins on the sides, 1-inch margins top and bottom. Each
submission should have your name, the day’s date, and an indication of the unit and essay’s
version (e.g., Project 1 First Draft or Project 2 Revision) on either a cover page or the
submission’s first page. Please use a standard, 12 pt. font. Times New Roman is a good one.
For this course, please use the MLA in-text citation style. (Although we’ll discuss
academic citations in this course, I’d like you to learn how to use this citation style on your own
time. Refer to The Bedford Handbook, pp. 586-666).
All written assignments, whether pre-draft assignments or essays, must be
PROOFREAD before you turn them in. Error-ridden essays will be marked
down. A word about proofreading: spell-checkers on word-processing programs are wondrous
devices, but they are no substitute for carefully moving your eyes over the printed page. Things
spell-checkers do not catch (but you and I do) include homophones (e.g., the accidental
rendering of the correctly spelled “their” for the correctly spelled “there”); punctuation and
grammar errors; missing words, paragraphs, or pages.
Every draft and revision must be accompanied by a brief cover letter to me in
which you reflect on the writing process for that particular draft. The letter should explain what
the idea of the essay is, what you enjoyed or found painful about writing the essay, and what its
strengths and weaknesses are as you see them.
Keep all your work from the entire semester (including early drafts of essays).
Your portfolio will reveal your growth as a writer over the course of the semester. You should
also include feedback you receive from other readers: peers, friends, relatives, writing center
consultants, etc. You’ll be able to point to specific instances of improvement—strategies or
suggestions you’ve tried that worked.
Grading
I will grade only the final version of each project but comment on each first draft. Unlike your
essays, your writing exercises will be evaluated only with 10 points (full credit), 5 points (partial
credit for incomplete or incorrect work), or 0 points (no credit). In grading each of your two
revised essays, I will check to see that you’ve addressed comments that I (and your peers) have
made. I adhere to the following criteria: “A” means exceptional, “B” means good, “C” means
adequate, “D” means deficient, and “E” means unacceptable. Always submit your written work on
time—late work is marked down by one-third of a grade for each late day. You must complete all
major assignments to pass the course.
Project 1 (30%)
Project 2 (40%)
EXPO E-15 Fundamentals of Academic Writing
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Writing exercises, drafts, and discussion board posts (15%)
Class participation and attendance (15%)
Academic Integrity
The following statement about Plagiarism appears in the Harvard Extension School Catalogue
and website. Please read it carefully.
Plagiarism is the theft of someone else's ideas and work. Whether a student
copies verbatim or simply rephrases the ideas of another without properly
acknowledging the source, the theft is the same. A computer program written as
part of the student's academic work is, like a paper, expected to be the
student's original work and subject to the same standards of representation.
In the preparation of work submitted to meet course requirements, whether a
draft or a final version of a paper, project, take-home examination, computer
program, or other written assignment, students must take great care to
distinguish their own ideas and language from information derived from
sources. Sources include published primary and secondary materials, the
Internet, and information and opinions gained directly from other people.
Whenever ideas or facts are derived from a student's reading and research, the
sources must be properly cited. (188)
PLAGIARISM IS A SERIOUS OFFENSE. Any attempt to submit work that is not your
own could lead to some very unpleasant consequences.
TENTATIVE COURSE SCHEDULE – SUBJECT TO CHANGE
Unit 1 Class Schedule
Note: Work listed should be completed prior to the class meeting it is listed under
Week 1
1/23 – Welcome
•
Introductions & getting to know each other
•
Syllabus review/class logistics
•
In-class writing diagnostic
Week 2
1/30 - Summarizing a Text
•
In-class discussion on reading for the main idea/reading for knowledge
•
Read TBA essay
•
Complete Ex. 1.1 (submit via dropbox prior to class);
•
Post discussion post to class blog and comment on 2 of your peers’ posts
EXPO E-15 Fundamentals of Academic Writing
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Week 3
2/6 – Aristotle’s Three Appeals
•
Introduction and discussion of logos, ethos, and pathos
•
Read all assigned New Yorker essay selections
•
Complete Ex. 1.2 (submit via dropbox prior to class);
•
Post discussion post to class blog and comment on 2 of your peers’ posts
Week 4
2/13 – Integrating quotations; Organizing Your Rhetorical Analysis
•
Examination of essay structure; discussion on the differences between summary and analysis
•
Complete Ex. 1.3 (submit via dropbox prior to class);
•
Post discussion post to class blog and comment on 2 of your peers’ posts
Week 5
•
2/20 – President’s Day (NO CLASS)
First Draft of Project #1 due with accompanying Cover Letter (submit via dropbox)
Week 6
2/27 – Peer Review
•
In-class peer review work with drafts
Week 7
3/5 – Individual Conferences
•
Meet with instructor at appointed conference time
•
Come to conference prepared with questions
Week 8
•
3/12 – Spring Break (NO CLASS)
Revision of Project #1 due with accompanying Cover Letter (submit via dropbox)
Unit 2 Class Schedule
Note: Work listed should be completed prior to the class meeting it is listed under
Week 9
•
•
•
•
3/19 – The World of the Short Story
Familiarize yourself with the Literary Terms and Writing about Literature sections on the
Purdue OWL website (http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl)
Read Dorothy Allison “River of Names” as well as Joyce Carol Oates “Where Are You
Going, Where Have You Been?” in Vintage Book
Complete Ex. 2.1 (submit via dropbox prior to class)
Post discussion post to class blog and comment on 2 of your peers’ posts
Week 10
3/26 – Focusing a Literary Analysis
EXPO E-15 Fundamentals of Academic Writing
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•
•
•
Read Denis Johnson “Emergency” and Raymond Carver “Cathedral” in Vintage Book
Complete Ex. 2.2 (submit through dropbox prior to class)
Post discussion post to class blog and comment on 2 of your peers’ posts
Week 11
•
•
•
4/2 – Integrating Quotations; Generating Ideas
For next class, read Tim O’Brien “The Things They Carried” in Vintage Book
Complete Ex. 2.3 (submit via dropbox prior to class)
Post discussion post to class blog and comment on 2 of your peers’ posts
Week 12
4/9 – Structure and Conclusions; “Elements of the Essay” revisited
•
First Draft of Project #2 due with accompanying Cover Letter (submit via dropbox prior to
class)
Week 13
4/16 – Peer Review
•
In-class peer review work with drafts
Week 14
4/23 – Individual Conferences
•
Meet with instructor at appointed conference time
•
Come to conference prepared with questions
Week 15
•
•
•
4/30 – Where do we go from here?
Revision of Project #1 due with accompanying Cover Letter (submit via dropbox)
How do we continue to grow as writers?
Discussion of Final Reflection assignment
Week 16
5/7 – Conclusions & Goodbyes; Final Reflection Paper Due
EXPO E-15 Fundamentals of Academic Writing