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 www.leetorda.com On Zoom: https://bridgew.zoom.us/j/3806648927 |
Fall 2021 Open Hours for students (office hours):
MW (in-person or Zoom) 1:30 to 2:30 T (Zoom only) 10:00 to 11:00 R 1:45 to 2:45 (in-person or Zoom) And by appointment Make an appointment, either face to face or on zoom, during office hours or at another time: Let me know you want to meet by adding yourself to my google.doc appointment calendar here: https://goo.gl/3CqLf. If you are meeting me on zoom, I will send you a zoom link for the time you sign up for. |
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 new 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
Our goals and objectives are, but not limited to, the following:
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.
Covid-19 and attendance. We are all tired of hearing how these are unprecedented times--but they are. Attendance matters a lot to me. And I think you will quickly figure out that if you miss class you miss a lot. And this isn't high school. I will not, and am not required to, re-teach the class or classes you missed. So, I want to say that: come to class. It's the most important thing you can do to insure your success in this class. But if you test positive for Covid, you need to stay away from class for the required number of quarantine days and/or until you test negative. I would very much like for us to not be a super spreader event on campus. If you need to be absent due to Covid or a family member's Covid, let me know and we will work out how you will stay a part of a class. I seriously don't know how that will work, but we will figure it out--as we would for any illness that kept you out of class for an extended period of time.
In-Class Mask Mandate. When we are inside together, we are required to wear a mask and to wear it correctly: snug and over the nose and under the chin. I will inform this mandate in our class. For the safety of everyone in our class and for myself, I am authorized by the administration to do so. Here are the guidelines I have been given: "If a student, who does not have a mask exemption, refuses to wear a mask, a faculty member should inform the student that they are required to do so. If the student continues to refuse to wear the mask, the unit member can dismiss the student from class and instruct the student to leave the immediate area. If the student continually refuses to leave the teaching area while still refusing to wear a mask, the unit member shall have the right to dismiss the class and shall report the incident to the university’s student conduct officer. Student refusals to wear a mask shall be treated as a student conduct violation and addressed through the code of conduct mechanisms at the university."
Reading Journals. The readings 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 or Reader's Notes 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.
WEEKLY UPDATE: As a way to help us make connections across conversations we have in class and in your reading journal posts, I will post an update each week that brings together your ideas in one place. Sometimes this will be a letter or a video. In any case, I will highlight really excellent points that you make in class.
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.
Reader’s Notes 20%
Blog226 15%
Writing in the Professions 15%
Writing Studies 15%
Writing as Art 10%
Final Project 15%
Midterm Portfolio &
Final Portfolio 10%
OTHER THINGS
Plagiarism. Plagiarism is taking other peoples words and ideas and claiming them for your own without giving the people who did the writing and the thinking the credit they have earned. It is dishonest and unethical. If you are caught plagiarizing in this class, you will fail that paper without possibility of making it up; you’ll be sent before the disciplinary board of the college, and you will fail the class.
Students with specific needs. Students who need special accommodations due to a documented learning disability must come to see me with written documentation of the specific disability and suggested accommodations before the end of the drop add period. We can discuss specific accommodations at that time.
Electronics Policy. I'm not against technology at all, but there is a time and place for it. 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, no texting in class. The first time I catch you using technology inappropriately, I will make fun of you. The second time I catch you, I'll count it as an absence.
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.
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 new 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
Our goals and objectives are, but not limited to, the following:
- 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.
Covid-19 and attendance. We are all tired of hearing how these are unprecedented times--but they are. Attendance matters a lot to me. And I think you will quickly figure out that if you miss class you miss a lot. And this isn't high school. I will not, and am not required to, re-teach the class or classes you missed. So, I want to say that: come to class. It's the most important thing you can do to insure your success in this class. But if you test positive for Covid, you need to stay away from class for the required number of quarantine days and/or until you test negative. I would very much like for us to not be a super spreader event on campus. If you need to be absent due to Covid or a family member's Covid, let me know and we will work out how you will stay a part of a class. I seriously don't know how that will work, but we will figure it out--as we would for any illness that kept you out of class for an extended period of time.
In-Class Mask Mandate. When we are inside together, we are required to wear a mask and to wear it correctly: snug and over the nose and under the chin. I will inform this mandate in our class. For the safety of everyone in our class and for myself, I am authorized by the administration to do so. Here are the guidelines I have been given: "If a student, who does not have a mask exemption, refuses to wear a mask, a faculty member should inform the student that they are required to do so. If the student continues to refuse to wear the mask, the unit member can dismiss the student from class and instruct the student to leave the immediate area. If the student continually refuses to leave the teaching area while still refusing to wear a mask, the unit member shall have the right to dismiss the class and shall report the incident to the university’s student conduct officer. Student refusals to wear a mask shall be treated as a student conduct violation and addressed through the code of conduct mechanisms at the university."
Reading Journals. The readings 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 or Reader's Notes 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.
WEEKLY UPDATE: As a way to help us make connections across conversations we have in class and in your reading journal posts, I will post an update each week that brings together your ideas in one place. Sometimes this will be a letter or a video. In any case, I will highlight really excellent points that you make in class.
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.
Reader’s Notes 20%
Blog226 15%
Writing in the Professions 15%
Writing Studies 15%
Writing as Art 10%
Final Project 15%
Midterm Portfolio &
Final Portfolio 10%
OTHER THINGS
Plagiarism. Plagiarism is taking other peoples words and ideas and claiming them for your own without giving the people who did the writing and the thinking the credit they have earned. It is dishonest and unethical. If you are caught plagiarizing in this class, you will fail that paper without possibility of making it up; you’ll be sent before the disciplinary board of the college, and you will fail the class.
Students with specific needs. Students who need special accommodations due to a documented learning disability must come to see me with written documentation of the specific disability and suggested accommodations before the end of the drop add period. We can discuss specific accommodations at that time.
Electronics Policy. I'm not against technology at all, but there is a time and place for it. 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, no texting in class. The first time I catch you using technology inappropriately, I will make fun of you. The second time I catch you, I'll count it as an absence.
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.