ENGL 226 Writing About Writing: Policies
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Need to be in touch with me?
LEE TORDA 310 Tillinghast Hall Bridgewater State University 508.531.2436 ltorda@bridgew.edu lee.torda@gmail.com www.leetorda.com |
SPRING 2023 Open Hours for students (office hours):
M(in-person or Zoom) 3:15-4:15, W (in-person or Zoom) 11:00-12:00, T (in-person or Zoom) NOON-1:00, and by appointment . Click here to join my Zoom for Spring 2023. Let me know you want to meet by adding yourself to my google.doc appointment calendar by clicking here. |
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course serves as an introduction to the Writing and Writing Studies Concentration in the English major. During the course you will not only be learning about the histories and theories of Writing (as a practice and as an area of study), but you will also spend some time paying attention to your own writing practices—how you develop ideas, compose, draft, revise, challenge, edit and so on. You will also get a chance to explore different aspects of writing and what can potentially be a career in writing. While it will be impossible to cover everything in this one course, I hope to at least help you experience the vibrant field of writing and writing studies as well as provide you with an avenue to pursue through English Studies.
This course serves as an introduction to the field, one that should culminate in either the Seminar in Writing & Writing Studies or the counterpart to that course Advanced Portfolio Workshop. What you start in this class you will finish there; along the way you will develop as a reader, thinker, and, of course, as a writer.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
By the end of the course, student will have
Due to the varied nature of the kinds of reading we’ll need to do this semester, there is no prescribed text for this course. All reading will be available linked to the class syllabus on this website.
REQUIREMENTS
Attendance. It is important to me that you come to class as often as possible because the day-to-day work that we do as a class will contribute greatly to your success and improvement as a writer. I have an attendance policy to reward those students who take class and the work seriously. You have three absences to do with as you please. Use them wisely. After three absences, any and all absences will adversely affect your grade. After six absences, you will fail the course. Further, excessive tardiness will accumulate to at least one absence. Finally, absence is not an excuse for late work. If you anticipate problems with any part of this attendance policy, you should come talk to me.
In-Class Mask Mandate. While most of campus is mask optional, masks are still required in the classroom unless a faculty member determines masks aren't necessary. For our class, you don't have to mask up if we are working independently or if I am lecturing. But when we are doing group work or having group discussion, I ask that you were your mask (and wear it correctly). There is still Covid and Flu and all other nastiness out there. Let's keep each other safe.
Reading Journals. The readings (or videos or podcasts) are pivotal to this class. If you don’t do the reading we will not have very much to do in class. For every reading you have for homework, you are responsible for a 500 word typed response. It should answer a number of questions that gets at what the reading is about, first, and what makes this sort of writing different than other kinds of writing (see the complete assignment page on this website for details).
Late Work. I try to be reasonable about late work. However, late work makes it difficult for me to keep up with the paper load and to keep track of your performance in our class. During the first first five weeks of the semester--or a third of the semester--I will accept late work. After that, I will accept late work on a case-by-case basis. It is best if you ask me for an extension prior to the deadline rather than day-of. I will be more lenient about deadlines for major projects than I am for Reading Journals because reading is a central part of the day-to-day functioning of our class. Excessive lateness will impact your final grade in our class.
In-class Writer’s Notebook. One thing you can’t learn early enough in your career as a writer is discipline. Most writers will tell you that part of the job of writing is sitting your rear in a chair and actually writing—whether you want to or not. So we will spend part of every class doing some writing. I’ll collect and read it, but, more importantly, you’ll want to save it for projects in class, projects in future classes, and for inclusion in your portfolio now and later.
Blog226. A lot of students, past and present, either want to start a blog, have started a blog, and/or started a blog that they never kept up with. I’d like us to have the experience of writing and maintaining a blog this semester. We’ll take turns posting—so it’s a minimal commitment. The hardest part will be determining what the blog will be about—something we will do during our second class meeting.
Formal Writing: There are three formal pieces of writing this semester. You can find more information about all of them on this website.
Writing in the Professions. Another title for this kind of writing is Technical and Professional Writing. This kind of writing covers all sorts of things like instruction writing and business reports to a greyer areas some public relations and social media (which can also be more like creative writing). Your first formal piece of writing will be an example of this kind of writing.
Writing Studies. This is a broad term that describes the work of scholars in the academy (faculty at Universities like Bridgewater), folks who work in the field of Rhetoric & Composition who look at various aspects of all kinds of writing (including Technical & Professional). Rhetoricians & Compositionists look at the effects of writing, communities of writers, the history of literacy instruction, how people actually write (composing processes), how they learn to write, the list goes on and on. We’ll look at samples of this kind of writing, and you’ll take on a modest writing study of your own.
Writing as Art. We end the semester with the part of “writing studies” that will seem most familiar to you: creative work. There is a lot more to creative work than novels or poetry—or even journalism. One semester won’t be enough to cover all of it, but we’ll do our best. You’ll have a chance to work on a creative project of your own design.
Portfolios. This class will use a portfolio system of evaluation. Portfolios are the way writers and artists collect work, and it is a very effective way of evaluating student writing (there is much research on the subject—some of which we’ll read). You’ll turn in a portfolio at the end of the semester that includes informal writing, formal writing, revision, and reflection.
Conferences & Workshopping. We will meet one-on-one at least once during the semester to work on your writing—the way an editor would meet with a writer. We will also have whole class workshops as well as small group workshops. This is the way professional writers—creative or otherwise—give and get feedback and revise their work. Too little of school involves this kind of work, and so it is important, as you enter the writing concentration, that you learn to participate in this kind of challenging conversation about writing.
EVALUATION AND GRADING
You will not receive letter grades on individual drafts and assignments in this class. This will make some of you nuts. It allows me the chance to give you credit for the things that grading individual papers will not let you do: this system, a portfolio system, allows me to count effort and revision and improvement. I think a system like that is particularly beneficial in a course like this because writing like this will be a new experience for many of you. A system like this makes room for you to develop as a writer—it makes room for failures and eventual successes.
Even though you will not be getting letter grades on everything you turn in, you will receive extensive comments on your writing that should both give you a sense of the quality of your work as well as a way to begin to revise and improve your writing. At midterm and the end of the semester you will receive a grade. These two letter grades will be based on the following criteria:
Comments on Reader's Notes are meant to help you read more thoughtfully and write better reader's notes. In order to earn a strong grade for your work on Reader's Notes, you will need to meet certain standards on a certain number of reader's notes. The details about your evaluation is available here, along with all of the details on my expectations for Reader's Notes.
Comments on informal writing shouldn’t be treated like evaluation but rather like an ongoing conversation between you and me: think of it as a talk between us, only in written form. If I’m not commenting, it means I’m bored.
Labor Based Assessment: Essentially, the way I evaluate students is based on their considerable labor in the course. There are several components for each assignment that you must complete in order to earn full credit--or a B grade. The B grade is earned by labor and not by quality of effort, though a B+ or B- is possible that could reflect lack of or extra effort. The requirements for an A and C grade are also spelled out (that's what makes it a grading contract). They are specific to each assignment. Read the specific assignment page for the requirements for each assignment either on this website .This form of evaluation is a combination of something called "spec" and "contract" grading and portfolio assessment. Spec grading allows me to value sheer effort while still leaving room for particularly excellent effort that yields an excellent product. It is particularly helpful for low-stakes writing and for work that requires substantial process (like drafting and revising papers). Spec grading values the labor of education. Portfolio grading allows me to take a step back and consider the entire student over time.
I use this kind of evaluation because I want to be able to consider all the parts of your performance in our class, not just how good your final drafts of your papers are. I want to consider where you started and how much you improved. I want to consider how hard you tried (or didn’t try) in class. I want to consider how you contribute to class on a daily basis--not by being the one who always talks, but by paying attention, contributing when you have something thoughtful to say, helping to make your group work go smoothly, really giving your all to our reading journals and in-class writing. I have found that this kind of grading rewards hard-working students as well as students that are just naturally good at something. And, for that reason, I think it is the most fair way to run a writing classroom. Further, research indicates that this kind of grading--sometimes called standards based grading--in an equity-minded classroom, turns out to support students often disenfranchised by traditional grading policies in the US classroom. I hope you’ll come to agree.
Breakdown of assessment percentages. Different assignments require different amounts of effort. The percentages that accompany each of the requirements in this class should give you an indication of the time and energy that each should take up in your student life.
Reading Journals 20%
Blog226 15%
In-Class Writer's Notebook. 10%
Writing in the Professions 15%
Writing Studies 15%
Writing as Art 10%
Midterm Portfolio &
Final Portfolio 15%
OTHER THINGS
Plagiarism. It's very difficult to plagiarize in a class like this; however, you risk failing the assignment or the course if you plagiarize in our course. Students who plagiarize should expect to be held to the student code of conduct and will be reported to the disciplinary board.
Students with specific needs. Students who need special accommodations due to a documented need should come talk to me about the accommodations they need to be successful in the course. I employ universal design that should support all learners, but you should still come talk to me so that we both know what our expectations of the course is. There is a new system in place that means that I get a letter automatically, but that should not mean that you don't have to talk to me about what you need.
Electronics Policy. I don't like competing with your phone for your attention. If we are using our computers, please use them for what we are supposed to be using them for. You don't need to turn your phone off, but, should you get a call, be thoughtful about whether or not you should really answer it. Also, please, no texting in class.
The Writing Studio. Located in the Academic Achievement Center, on the bottom floor of the Library, the Writing Studio is available to any and all students at whatever level of expertise you might be at.
Other Resources on Campus. There are a wide variety of services available on our campus that you might want to know about but also might just be too inundated with information to remember you have access to, so I'm including links to a variety of places on campus that I think you might want to know about. First and foremost is probably the counseling center and the wellness center. Other places you can go if you want to connect with folks: the LEGAC center for multicultural affairs, the Pride Center, the campus food bank, and Commuter Services. Making a connection to this campus is the number one way you'll get from day one to graduation.
Title IX and Sexual Violence. The Office of Equal Opportunity and the Title IX Coordinator work to ensure that all members of the campus community flourish in a supportive and fair climate. See https://my.bridgew.edu/departments/affirmativeaction/SitePages/Home.aspx to learn more.
Syllabus/Policies Check-in Assignment
Good for you. You got to the end of the policies. To reward you, you have the opportunity to earn one "A" for Acceptable for a reading journal grade simply by completing the following assignment by the third week of classes.
1. Send me an email at ltorda@bridgew.edu, CC me at lee.torda@gmail.com
2. In the subject line, write "Syllabus Check-in Email". Write it exactly as I've written it here.
3. In the body of the email, include a greeting: "Hello LT," "Hi Professor Torda," "Hey Dr. Torda." Whatever. But have a greeting.
4. Cut and paste this sentence into the email: "I've read through the policies and syllabus for the course, and I understand how to use the website to find out information about assignments, course policies, due dates, and classroom expectations." BUT: here is the thing, really seriously make sure you've actually done it. This email is like your signature on a contract. I won't be super patient with folks who tell me that "they didn't know" how some policy will affect them if I have that email.
4. Ask me any questions about any thing on my website for our class: policies, due dates, classroom expectations, assignments. If you honestly have no questions, okay, but I mean, really?
5. Include a meme of your choosing or design that sums up how you are feeling about the semester.
6. Sign off on your email, "best, so & so" "see you in class, your name here" "sincerely, John Doe." Again, whatever. But sign off on your email. Because you are a human and humans do that.
Make sure I get this email by the 3rd week of classes. If you don't send it to me, you lose this free "A". There will be a couple of these during the semester, and they can really help you out when you are in the thick of the semester.
This course serves as an introduction to the Writing and Writing Studies Concentration in the English major. During the course you will not only be learning about the histories and theories of Writing (as a practice and as an area of study), but you will also spend some time paying attention to your own writing practices—how you develop ideas, compose, draft, revise, challenge, edit and so on. You will also get a chance to explore different aspects of writing and what can potentially be a career in writing. While it will be impossible to cover everything in this one course, I hope to at least help you experience the vibrant field of writing and writing studies as well as provide you with an avenue to pursue through English Studies.
This course serves as an introduction to the field, one that should culminate in either the Seminar in Writing & Writing Studies or the counterpart to that course Advanced Portfolio Workshop. What you start in this class you will finish there; along the way you will develop as a reader, thinker, and, of course, as a writer.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
By the end of the course, student will have
- Developed a strong understanding of what constitutes writing and writing studies;
- Begun the process of becoming a professional rather than student writer through interrogating your process and practice of writing;
- Begun to understand the kinds of research one does in composition and rhetoric;
- Begun to develop a portfolio that can be used as you continue to explore the field of writing and writing studies.
Due to the varied nature of the kinds of reading we’ll need to do this semester, there is no prescribed text for this course. All reading will be available linked to the class syllabus on this website.
REQUIREMENTS
Attendance. It is important to me that you come to class as often as possible because the day-to-day work that we do as a class will contribute greatly to your success and improvement as a writer. I have an attendance policy to reward those students who take class and the work seriously. You have three absences to do with as you please. Use them wisely. After three absences, any and all absences will adversely affect your grade. After six absences, you will fail the course. Further, excessive tardiness will accumulate to at least one absence. Finally, absence is not an excuse for late work. If you anticipate problems with any part of this attendance policy, you should come talk to me.
In-Class Mask Mandate. While most of campus is mask optional, masks are still required in the classroom unless a faculty member determines masks aren't necessary. For our class, you don't have to mask up if we are working independently or if I am lecturing. But when we are doing group work or having group discussion, I ask that you were your mask (and wear it correctly). There is still Covid and Flu and all other nastiness out there. Let's keep each other safe.
Reading Journals. The readings (or videos or podcasts) are pivotal to this class. If you don’t do the reading we will not have very much to do in class. For every reading you have for homework, you are responsible for a 500 word typed response. It should answer a number of questions that gets at what the reading is about, first, and what makes this sort of writing different than other kinds of writing (see the complete assignment page on this website for details).
Late Work. I try to be reasonable about late work. However, late work makes it difficult for me to keep up with the paper load and to keep track of your performance in our class. During the first first five weeks of the semester--or a third of the semester--I will accept late work. After that, I will accept late work on a case-by-case basis. It is best if you ask me for an extension prior to the deadline rather than day-of. I will be more lenient about deadlines for major projects than I am for Reading Journals because reading is a central part of the day-to-day functioning of our class. Excessive lateness will impact your final grade in our class.
In-class Writer’s Notebook. One thing you can’t learn early enough in your career as a writer is discipline. Most writers will tell you that part of the job of writing is sitting your rear in a chair and actually writing—whether you want to or not. So we will spend part of every class doing some writing. I’ll collect and read it, but, more importantly, you’ll want to save it for projects in class, projects in future classes, and for inclusion in your portfolio now and later.
Blog226. A lot of students, past and present, either want to start a blog, have started a blog, and/or started a blog that they never kept up with. I’d like us to have the experience of writing and maintaining a blog this semester. We’ll take turns posting—so it’s a minimal commitment. The hardest part will be determining what the blog will be about—something we will do during our second class meeting.
Formal Writing: There are three formal pieces of writing this semester. You can find more information about all of them on this website.
Writing in the Professions. Another title for this kind of writing is Technical and Professional Writing. This kind of writing covers all sorts of things like instruction writing and business reports to a greyer areas some public relations and social media (which can also be more like creative writing). Your first formal piece of writing will be an example of this kind of writing.
Writing Studies. This is a broad term that describes the work of scholars in the academy (faculty at Universities like Bridgewater), folks who work in the field of Rhetoric & Composition who look at various aspects of all kinds of writing (including Technical & Professional). Rhetoricians & Compositionists look at the effects of writing, communities of writers, the history of literacy instruction, how people actually write (composing processes), how they learn to write, the list goes on and on. We’ll look at samples of this kind of writing, and you’ll take on a modest writing study of your own.
Writing as Art. We end the semester with the part of “writing studies” that will seem most familiar to you: creative work. There is a lot more to creative work than novels or poetry—or even journalism. One semester won’t be enough to cover all of it, but we’ll do our best. You’ll have a chance to work on a creative project of your own design.
Portfolios. This class will use a portfolio system of evaluation. Portfolios are the way writers and artists collect work, and it is a very effective way of evaluating student writing (there is much research on the subject—some of which we’ll read). You’ll turn in a portfolio at the end of the semester that includes informal writing, formal writing, revision, and reflection.
Conferences & Workshopping. We will meet one-on-one at least once during the semester to work on your writing—the way an editor would meet with a writer. We will also have whole class workshops as well as small group workshops. This is the way professional writers—creative or otherwise—give and get feedback and revise their work. Too little of school involves this kind of work, and so it is important, as you enter the writing concentration, that you learn to participate in this kind of challenging conversation about writing.
EVALUATION AND GRADING
You will not receive letter grades on individual drafts and assignments in this class. This will make some of you nuts. It allows me the chance to give you credit for the things that grading individual papers will not let you do: this system, a portfolio system, allows me to count effort and revision and improvement. I think a system like that is particularly beneficial in a course like this because writing like this will be a new experience for many of you. A system like this makes room for you to develop as a writer—it makes room for failures and eventual successes.
Even though you will not be getting letter grades on everything you turn in, you will receive extensive comments on your writing that should both give you a sense of the quality of your work as well as a way to begin to revise and improve your writing. At midterm and the end of the semester you will receive a grade. These two letter grades will be based on the following criteria:
- Meeting all of the requirements described above;
- The quality of your written work, including how successful your revision work is;
- The quality of your effort in the class, in workshops, in class discussion, in your groups, in conferences, and in general;
- Your demonstration of a willingness to try new things, think in new ways, and explore different perspectives as both a reader and a writer.
Comments on Reader's Notes are meant to help you read more thoughtfully and write better reader's notes. In order to earn a strong grade for your work on Reader's Notes, you will need to meet certain standards on a certain number of reader's notes. The details about your evaluation is available here, along with all of the details on my expectations for Reader's Notes.
Comments on informal writing shouldn’t be treated like evaluation but rather like an ongoing conversation between you and me: think of it as a talk between us, only in written form. If I’m not commenting, it means I’m bored.
Labor Based Assessment: Essentially, the way I evaluate students is based on their considerable labor in the course. There are several components for each assignment that you must complete in order to earn full credit--or a B grade. The B grade is earned by labor and not by quality of effort, though a B+ or B- is possible that could reflect lack of or extra effort. The requirements for an A and C grade are also spelled out (that's what makes it a grading contract). They are specific to each assignment. Read the specific assignment page for the requirements for each assignment either on this website .This form of evaluation is a combination of something called "spec" and "contract" grading and portfolio assessment. Spec grading allows me to value sheer effort while still leaving room for particularly excellent effort that yields an excellent product. It is particularly helpful for low-stakes writing and for work that requires substantial process (like drafting and revising papers). Spec grading values the labor of education. Portfolio grading allows me to take a step back and consider the entire student over time.
I use this kind of evaluation because I want to be able to consider all the parts of your performance in our class, not just how good your final drafts of your papers are. I want to consider where you started and how much you improved. I want to consider how hard you tried (or didn’t try) in class. I want to consider how you contribute to class on a daily basis--not by being the one who always talks, but by paying attention, contributing when you have something thoughtful to say, helping to make your group work go smoothly, really giving your all to our reading journals and in-class writing. I have found that this kind of grading rewards hard-working students as well as students that are just naturally good at something. And, for that reason, I think it is the most fair way to run a writing classroom. Further, research indicates that this kind of grading--sometimes called standards based grading--in an equity-minded classroom, turns out to support students often disenfranchised by traditional grading policies in the US classroom. I hope you’ll come to agree.
Breakdown of assessment percentages. Different assignments require different amounts of effort. The percentages that accompany each of the requirements in this class should give you an indication of the time and energy that each should take up in your student life.
Reading Journals 20%
Blog226 15%
In-Class Writer's Notebook. 10%
Writing in the Professions 15%
Writing Studies 15%
Writing as Art 10%
Midterm Portfolio &
Final Portfolio 15%
OTHER THINGS
Plagiarism. It's very difficult to plagiarize in a class like this; however, you risk failing the assignment or the course if you plagiarize in our course. Students who plagiarize should expect to be held to the student code of conduct and will be reported to the disciplinary board.
Students with specific needs. Students who need special accommodations due to a documented need should come talk to me about the accommodations they need to be successful in the course. I employ universal design that should support all learners, but you should still come talk to me so that we both know what our expectations of the course is. There is a new system in place that means that I get a letter automatically, but that should not mean that you don't have to talk to me about what you need.
Electronics Policy. I don't like competing with your phone for your attention. If we are using our computers, please use them for what we are supposed to be using them for. You don't need to turn your phone off, but, should you get a call, be thoughtful about whether or not you should really answer it. Also, please, no texting in class.
The Writing Studio. Located in the Academic Achievement Center, on the bottom floor of the Library, the Writing Studio is available to any and all students at whatever level of expertise you might be at.
Other Resources on Campus. There are a wide variety of services available on our campus that you might want to know about but also might just be too inundated with information to remember you have access to, so I'm including links to a variety of places on campus that I think you might want to know about. First and foremost is probably the counseling center and the wellness center. Other places you can go if you want to connect with folks: the LEGAC center for multicultural affairs, the Pride Center, the campus food bank, and Commuter Services. Making a connection to this campus is the number one way you'll get from day one to graduation.
Title IX and Sexual Violence. The Office of Equal Opportunity and the Title IX Coordinator work to ensure that all members of the campus community flourish in a supportive and fair climate. See https://my.bridgew.edu/departments/affirmativeaction/SitePages/Home.aspx to learn more.
Syllabus/Policies Check-in Assignment
Good for you. You got to the end of the policies. To reward you, you have the opportunity to earn one "A" for Acceptable for a reading journal grade simply by completing the following assignment by the third week of classes.
1. Send me an email at ltorda@bridgew.edu, CC me at lee.torda@gmail.com
2. In the subject line, write "Syllabus Check-in Email". Write it exactly as I've written it here.
3. In the body of the email, include a greeting: "Hello LT," "Hi Professor Torda," "Hey Dr. Torda." Whatever. But have a greeting.
4. Cut and paste this sentence into the email: "I've read through the policies and syllabus for the course, and I understand how to use the website to find out information about assignments, course policies, due dates, and classroom expectations." BUT: here is the thing, really seriously make sure you've actually done it. This email is like your signature on a contract. I won't be super patient with folks who tell me that "they didn't know" how some policy will affect them if I have that email.
4. Ask me any questions about any thing on my website for our class: policies, due dates, classroom expectations, assignments. If you honestly have no questions, okay, but I mean, really?
5. Include a meme of your choosing or design that sums up how you are feeling about the semester.
6. Sign off on your email, "best, so & so" "see you in class, your name here" "sincerely, John Doe." Again, whatever. But sign off on your email. Because you are a human and humans do that.
Make sure I get this email by the 3rd week of classes. If you don't send it to me, you lose this free "A". There will be a couple of these during the semester, and they can really help you out when you are in the thick of the semester.