Syllabus
Course Description and Rationale
“Imagine that you enter a parlor. You come late. When you arrive, others have long preceded you, and they are engaged in a heated discussion, too heated for them to pause and tell you exactly what it is about. In fact, the discussion had already begun long before any of them got there, so that no one present is qualified to retrace for you all the steps that had gone before. You listen for a while until you decide that you have caught the tenor of the argument; then you put in your oar. Someone answers; you answer him; another comes to your defense; another aligns himself against you…. However, the discussion is interminable. The hour grows late, you must depart. And you do depart, with the discussion still in progress.”
–Kenneth Burke. The Philosophy of Literary Form: Studies in Symbolic Action. Berkeley: U of California P, 1973. 110-11.
Writing 205: Critical Research is structured with the aim of introducing writing based on academic research. We will commence this semester by investigating what “research” actually means in the context of academics. You will get to explore research topics of your interest in the first unit in the context of an endlessly shifting, complex terrain of information, from print texts to digital media and the numerous emergent, blended forms tugging us in multiple directions. In the second and third units, you will collectively engage in selected topics of inquiry.
When we say “research,” what do we mean? How does the term change when we partner it with “writing” as in “research writing”? What strategies are useful in researching a familiar topic? An unfamiliar one? How best can I “listen in” on current conversation and insert my own voice? How can I move beyond merely imitating past textual modes to creating future texts that produce new knowledge? Ultimately, how can I use all this knowledge to write persuasively on issues that affect humanity, affect me?
In order to streamline the course, we’ll use the discussions of the Internet and culture as a point of entry during the second and third units, whereby the texts will allow us to work collaboratively to explore our own interests concerning the issues like social software and networking systems, to examine diverse and divergent ideas about the ways in which society and culture have been affected by the advent of new media, and to discover and consider concepts and perspectives that exist outside our own scope of experience(s).
Course Goals for WRT 205
WRT 205 focuses on the rhetorical strategies, practices, and conventions of critical academic researched writing.
Students will compose texts that investigate a focused topic of inquiry that raises issues of diversity and community and that offers multiple points of entry based on their interest and expertise.
Students will develop a working knowledge of strategies and genres of critical research.
Students will learn critical techniques of reading through engagement with research-based texts.
Course Texts and Materials
Available at the campus bookstore:
Small Pieces Loosely Joined: A Unified Theory of the Web – David Weinberger
The Curious Researcher: A Guide to Writing Research Papers (3rd ed)– Bruce Ballenger
The Writer’s Harbrace Handbook Brief – Cheryl Glenn et al.
Select chapters available as handouts:
What Writing Does and How it Does It – Charles Bazerman and Paul Prior
Grading
There are four main units, each culminating in a major project or essay. For each unit, there will be constructive activities, both in and out of class, that will contribute to your unit grade as well.
The unit breakdown is as follows:
Unit 1: Learning to collect and synthesize.
(15%) The first assignment will plunge us into an intensive data-collecting two weeks. We’ll explore kinds of research, ways of getting our hands on it, and practice entering into Burke’s parlor through the Annotated Bibliography.
Unit 2:
Content Analysis.
(15%) Here, you will be given an opportunity to explore briefly the topic from unit one, resulting in a product in which you put into practice both basic and new research techniques (6-8 pages). Units 1 and 2 will be completed simultaneously.
Unit 3:
Advanced Content Analysis + Synthesis.
(30%)
A 10-12 page research essay that explores some aspect, concern, issue, concept, or other related topic stemming from our class work with Small Pieces Loosely Joined and related readings/lectures.
Unit 4:
Collaborating using genre and juxtaposition.
(30%) A multi-media group project in which group members create a sustained analysis or argument through the critical practices of sampling and juxtaposing sources. Unit work includes collaboratively written anthology as well as a multi-media group presentation. We will single-source topics from unit 3.
BLOG.
(10%) An electronic collection of all your informal work across all units, including a final reflective piece. I require that all invention writing, homework, and essays be posted on a weblog. We will set up the blogs in class during the second week.
Attendance & Participation
Attendance and active engagement in the course is critical. Your absences will affect your classmates’ work as well as your own; for this reason I will take attendance each day. Tardiness will be noted as well.
Each unit calendar will outline the following weeks’ assignments, but we may shift assignments around or change direction occasionally as it seems appropriate, necessary, or interesting. Assignments should be submitted on the date specified in the calendar or in class. There will be a penalty for late submissions. If you must miss a class, you are responsible for making up the work and getting yourself back on track. Please realize that you cannot make up class time, and work produced in class, including quizzes, may not be made up.
Statement on Plagiarism
The academic community requires ethical behavior from all of its participants. For writers, this means that the work we claim as ours must truly be ours. At the same time, we are not always expected to come up with new ideas; we often build our thinking on the ideas of others. We are expected, however, to credit others with their contributions and to clearly indicate the boundaries of our own thinking. Failure to do so in the University in general and in this course in particular will result in serious consequences for the offender, including penalties such as lowered grades, failure, or even dismissal.
Technology Requirements
All the work you do for this class will be handed in word-processed. Use 12 point Times font. Include one inch margins and follow the page layout used by the MLA format described in your handbook (see the sample beginning on page 226). Also double-space formatting for easy readability.
I expect you to have an syr.edu email account that you check frequently during the week for updates in the course schedule, announcements about class, and any other information I send out.
Also, as noted above, you will archive ALL of your writing for this class in a weblog. We will spend two class periods setting up and learning to use the weblogs at the beginning of the semester
Special Needs
If you require consideration for a special need or circumstance of any kind, please see me.
The Writing Center
According to a recent survey, most S.U. students who use the Writing Center have GPAs higher than 3.0; moreover, one in four have GPAs higher than 3.6. At the Writing Center (101 HBC; 443-5289) experienced, professional writing consultants will help you succeed on individual assignments and ultimately become a better writer. They work one-on-one to help you understand assignments, discuss your responses, revise your drafts, develop proofreading strategies, and more. Appointments are available in 25- or 50-minute sessions, Monday through Friday, and can be reserved up to seven days in advance via their online scheduling program: http://tutortrac.syr.edu. Drop-in appointments are welcome Monday through Thursday from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. This is a free resource to all students and highly recommended for every assignment you work on in this class.
