SYLLABUS
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Need to be in touch with me?
Lee Torda, PhD Acting Dean of Undergraduate Studies Associate Professor of English 200 Clement C. Maxwell Library 508.531.1790 Teaching Website: www.leetorda.com |
OFFICE HOURS: By appointment. Email me at [email protected] with times/days you'd like to meet, and I will respond within 24 hours.
OR, on MONDAYS, Stop by: Student Accessibility Services 10-11:00 Commuter Services (RSU 007) Noon-1:00 The Pride Center (RSU 109), 1:00-2:00 LGCIE (RSU 101), 2:00-3:00 |
Week One
21 January 2026
First Day of Classes. IN-CLASS: class discussion archives or user experience research?
Week Two
28 January 2026
Class Canceled due to travel
Week Three
4 February 2026
IN-CLASS: work on classmate profile. Using archives to tell our story. Overview of Readers Notes, Discussion of terms relative to Archives. We will watch this video in class on what rhetorical analysis means. WORKSHOPPING: your draft of your classmate profile.
Week Four
11 February 2026
READ: Click here to access “A Rediscovered Tradition: European Pedagogy and Composition in 19th Century Midwestern Normal Schools.” IN-CLASS: first official set of reader’s notes posted to class discussion board. Time in class to compose and post. We’ll watch this video about what Rhetoric & Composition is (as a discipline in English Studies). Also, overview of Rhetorical Analysis Project. Working with materials for Rhetorical Analysis assignment. DUE: your draft of your classmate profile along with Images of your archive materials and you (can be a photo or other image to represent you on our class profile page).
We’ll use the following materials in our class:
18 February 2026
NO CLASS due to President’s Day holiday on the 16th, Wednesday is a Monday schedule of classes.
Week Six
25 February 2026
READ: click here to access “Archival Survival: Navigating Historical Research” Also, spend time with the sampling of the Comment (linked below). See what you might use as you formulate and dig into your idea for what you want to do for your rhetorical analysis. IN-CLASS: Mini-presentation on the focus of your Rhetorical Analysis. Reading Journal, time in class to compose and discuss.
For Use in class and for Rhetorical Analysis:
The Comment, November 1928
The Comment, November 1938
The Comment, November 1948
The Comment, March 1957
The Comment, November 1968
The Comment, November 1978
The Comment, November 1988
Week Seven
4 March 2026
GUEST SPEAKER : Dr. Maura Rosenthal, curator of We Learn by Doing, Leading, and Competing: Women in Athletics and Physical Education 1890- 1960. READ: visit the online exhibit We Learn by Doing, Leading, and Competing: Women in Athletics and Physical Education 1890- 1960. You can access the exhibit by clicking here. Please read the introduction and spend time with each of the sections of the exhibit. READ ALSO : Click here to access two interviews with archival researchers: “On Keeping a Beginner’s Mind” (Gold) and “I Had a Hunch” (Mortenson). IN-CLASS: Reading Journal posted to class discussion board on Women in Athletics discussion board. Work on deciding what you’ll do for your final project.
NOTE: On Monday, 2 March 2026, beginning at 10:00 AM until 2:00 PM, there will be a Women in Athletics mini-conference about the exhibit our guest speaker, Dr. Maura Rosenthal, authored. You are not required to attend, but, if you attend any part of the mini-conference, you can write about it in a special discussion board. Doing so will count as either one missed reading journal or one absence you need to clear off your record.
Week Eight
11 March 2026
NO CLASSES: SPRING BREAK
Week Nine
18 March 2026
READ: Click here to access “Invigorating Historiographic Practices in Rhetoric and Composition Studies. Click here to access “”compostion becomes Composition” in the Making of Knowledge in Composition: Portrait of an Emerging Field”. IN-Class: Reading Journal, time to compose and post. WORSKHOP: Rhetorical Analysis
Week Ten
25 March 2026
READ: Click here to access “Locating the Archives: Finding Aids & Archival Scholarship in Composition & Rhetoric”. Also, first 40 pages of H is for Hawk. IN-CLASS: Reading Journal, time to compose and post. Mini-presentations on your Archive Overview and its connection to your final project. Overview of Final Project. Overview of Archive Overview. Time in class to work on this project. DUE: mini portfolio.
NOTE: Starting this week, we will do short book club journals each week so that folks keep up with the reading for H is for Hawk. We’ll talk about the memoir during our last class meeting (6 May 2026). This is set up so you are reading roughly 40 pages a week (320 pages total).
Week Eleven
1 April 2026
READ: Click here to access “Journeying in the the Archives: Exploring the Pragmatics of Archival Research”. Also, 40 pages of H is for Hawk. IN-CLASS: Reading Journal, time to compose and post. Discussion of STARS symposium. Explanation of Sutori. Watch this video about how to use Sutori. One-on-one meetings during class time to conference about your final project.
Week Twelve
8 April 2026
READ: Click here to access "The Personal as Method & the Place as Archives: A Synthesis". IN-CLASS: Reading journal, time to compose and post. Also, time in class to conduct supplmentary research (doing research in Writing Studies is different than doing research in Literary Studies). Also, 40 pages of H is for Hawk.
Week Thirteen
15 April 2026
NOTE: this class will be ASYNCHRONOUS. I will be away at a conference.
READ: Click here to access “Archival Research as Social Process” (Lerner). Also, 40 pages of H is for Hawk. I will put up the book club discussion board post. ON-LINE: Reading journal. And a “mini-presentation” post about the argument you are making in your final project: post an abstract for your project in the discussion board. Include the citation for three to five sources you will use for the final project. NOTE: as long as you have your abstract posted by class time on 22 April 2026, you are fine. We’ll be referring to these posts in that class.
Week Fourteen
22 April 2026
READ: Click here to access a series of interviews with researchers: Lynee Lewis Gaillet, Jessica Enoch, Kathryn Fitgerald, Kenneth Lindblom, Lindal Buchanan, Also, 40 pages of H is for Hawk. IN-CLASS: Reading Journal, time to compose and post. All Class workshop on your sutori presentation for STARS. DUE your draft of your final project presentation for All Class workshop: your presentation for the STARS platform.
Week Fifteen
29 April 2026
READ: 40 pages of H is for Hawk. IN-CLASS: Fun work on your flash fiction or nonfiction. All Class Workshop: your final paper on your final project.DUE: Your presentation ready for upload to the STARS platform. And a draft of the final paper part of your final project for workshopping in class.
Week Sixteen (Final Exam)
6 May 2026
READ: Also, last 40 pages of H is for Hawk. DUE: Final Portfolio. IN-CLASS: Reading our Flash fiction/nonfiction.
21 January 2026
First Day of Classes. IN-CLASS: class discussion archives or user experience research?
Week Two
28 January 2026
Class Canceled due to travel
Week Three
4 February 2026
IN-CLASS: work on classmate profile. Using archives to tell our story. Overview of Readers Notes, Discussion of terms relative to Archives. We will watch this video in class on what rhetorical analysis means. WORKSHOPPING: your draft of your classmate profile.
Week Four
11 February 2026
READ: Click here to access “A Rediscovered Tradition: European Pedagogy and Composition in 19th Century Midwestern Normal Schools.” IN-CLASS: first official set of reader’s notes posted to class discussion board. Time in class to compose and post. We’ll watch this video about what Rhetoric & Composition is (as a discipline in English Studies). Also, overview of Rhetorical Analysis Project. Working with materials for Rhetorical Analysis assignment. DUE: your draft of your classmate profile along with Images of your archive materials and you (can be a photo or other image to represent you on our class profile page).
We’ll use the following materials in our class:
- Normal School Creed
- Transcription of Expelled Students
- Images of original letters of Expelled Students
- This image of an early Normal School Graduating Class (1890)
- This Diary from a Normal School Student (circa 1861)
18 February 2026
NO CLASS due to President’s Day holiday on the 16th, Wednesday is a Monday schedule of classes.
Week Six
25 February 2026
READ: click here to access “Archival Survival: Navigating Historical Research” Also, spend time with the sampling of the Comment (linked below). See what you might use as you formulate and dig into your idea for what you want to do for your rhetorical analysis. IN-CLASS: Mini-presentation on the focus of your Rhetorical Analysis. Reading Journal, time in class to compose and discuss.
For Use in class and for Rhetorical Analysis:
The Comment, November 1928
The Comment, November 1938
The Comment, November 1948
The Comment, March 1957
The Comment, November 1968
The Comment, November 1978
The Comment, November 1988
Week Seven
4 March 2026
GUEST SPEAKER : Dr. Maura Rosenthal, curator of We Learn by Doing, Leading, and Competing: Women in Athletics and Physical Education 1890- 1960. READ: visit the online exhibit We Learn by Doing, Leading, and Competing: Women in Athletics and Physical Education 1890- 1960. You can access the exhibit by clicking here. Please read the introduction and spend time with each of the sections of the exhibit. READ ALSO : Click here to access two interviews with archival researchers: “On Keeping a Beginner’s Mind” (Gold) and “I Had a Hunch” (Mortenson). IN-CLASS: Reading Journal posted to class discussion board on Women in Athletics discussion board. Work on deciding what you’ll do for your final project.
NOTE: On Monday, 2 March 2026, beginning at 10:00 AM until 2:00 PM, there will be a Women in Athletics mini-conference about the exhibit our guest speaker, Dr. Maura Rosenthal, authored. You are not required to attend, but, if you attend any part of the mini-conference, you can write about it in a special discussion board. Doing so will count as either one missed reading journal or one absence you need to clear off your record.
Week Eight
11 March 2026
NO CLASSES: SPRING BREAK
Week Nine
18 March 2026
READ: Click here to access “Invigorating Historiographic Practices in Rhetoric and Composition Studies. Click here to access “”compostion becomes Composition” in the Making of Knowledge in Composition: Portrait of an Emerging Field”. IN-Class: Reading Journal, time to compose and post. WORSKHOP: Rhetorical Analysis
Week Ten
25 March 2026
READ: Click here to access “Locating the Archives: Finding Aids & Archival Scholarship in Composition & Rhetoric”. Also, first 40 pages of H is for Hawk. IN-CLASS: Reading Journal, time to compose and post. Mini-presentations on your Archive Overview and its connection to your final project. Overview of Final Project. Overview of Archive Overview. Time in class to work on this project. DUE: mini portfolio.
NOTE: Starting this week, we will do short book club journals each week so that folks keep up with the reading for H is for Hawk. We’ll talk about the memoir during our last class meeting (6 May 2026). This is set up so you are reading roughly 40 pages a week (320 pages total).
Week Eleven
1 April 2026
READ: Click here to access “Journeying in the the Archives: Exploring the Pragmatics of Archival Research”. Also, 40 pages of H is for Hawk. IN-CLASS: Reading Journal, time to compose and post. Discussion of STARS symposium. Explanation of Sutori. Watch this video about how to use Sutori. One-on-one meetings during class time to conference about your final project.
Week Twelve
8 April 2026
READ: Click here to access "The Personal as Method & the Place as Archives: A Synthesis". IN-CLASS: Reading journal, time to compose and post. Also, time in class to conduct supplmentary research (doing research in Writing Studies is different than doing research in Literary Studies). Also, 40 pages of H is for Hawk.
Week Thirteen
15 April 2026
NOTE: this class will be ASYNCHRONOUS. I will be away at a conference.
READ: Click here to access “Archival Research as Social Process” (Lerner). Also, 40 pages of H is for Hawk. I will put up the book club discussion board post. ON-LINE: Reading journal. And a “mini-presentation” post about the argument you are making in your final project: post an abstract for your project in the discussion board. Include the citation for three to five sources you will use for the final project. NOTE: as long as you have your abstract posted by class time on 22 April 2026, you are fine. We’ll be referring to these posts in that class.
Week Fourteen
22 April 2026
READ: Click here to access a series of interviews with researchers: Lynee Lewis Gaillet, Jessica Enoch, Kathryn Fitgerald, Kenneth Lindblom, Lindal Buchanan, Also, 40 pages of H is for Hawk. IN-CLASS: Reading Journal, time to compose and post. All Class workshop on your sutori presentation for STARS. DUE your draft of your final project presentation for All Class workshop: your presentation for the STARS platform.
Week Fifteen
29 April 2026
READ: 40 pages of H is for Hawk. IN-CLASS: Fun work on your flash fiction or nonfiction. All Class Workshop: your final paper on your final project.DUE: Your presentation ready for upload to the STARS platform. And a draft of the final paper part of your final project for workshopping in class.
Week Sixteen (Final Exam)
6 May 2026
READ: Also, last 40 pages of H is for Hawk. DUE: Final Portfolio. IN-CLASS: Reading our Flash fiction/nonfiction.