Course description: This is a college writing course, and you are expected to be enrolled for college credit unless your intended college does not transfer the credit or unless you have over a 670 on the verbal SAT (in which case IU exempts you from W 131). You should check these criteria with your instructor. This course is designed to help you develop critical reading, writing, and thinking skills and to experience the varied range of academic writing. It will stress the writing process, various organizational and developmental patterns, and fluency to match the purpose of the individual assignment. The course will prepare you for the demands of academic college writing, including analyzing, summarizing, synthesizing, evaluating, researching, and documenting. It is also designed to prepare you with skills useful in the world beyond your academic pursuits. Upon application and acceptance by Indiana University through the Advance College Project Office and the payment of appropriate fees, you will receive three hours of college credit through Indiana University and fulfill the general writing requirement at that institution. The IU fee is $113.30 a credit hour; this course is a three-credit course. This cost is less than half of the cost of taking an IU course on campus. If you enroll for credit, you will receive a bill from the bursar’s office. Once the ACP office accepts your application, withdrawal is not an option. Credit can be transferred to most institutions, but you need to take the responsibility of contacting the admissions office and/or the English department of the schools where you apply to determine transferability.

Required texts: Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum: Brief Edition (2^nd edition), Behrens and Rosen; also Writing Analytically, Stephens and Wasserman (4th edition). Other material will be provided in handouts or as classroom references.

Required materials: You must have a loose leaf notebook in which all course materials are kept including reading notes, handouts, class discussion notes, and drafts.

This site contains the syllabus, assignment sheets, and links to some out-of-class readings.

Participation expectations: You will need to have your text and notebook each day. Your notebook is an important tool for you to use in responding to your reading. It will also be worth a significant percent of the class grade. You will hand in the annotated articles and notes at the same time you hand in the paper for the unit. The annotations/notes are due, though, as soon as the article/chapter is assigned and will be checked throughout the semester. When you take notes from the articles in WRAC, please use the following format (sometimes referred to as the Cornell method)

You should expect a few reading quizzes. We will have some regularly scheduled conferences for certain papers, but you are always encouraged to visit with your instructor. It is your responsibility to contact us if you are confused about any aspect of the course or the assignment, and it is our responsibility to try to help you become a stronger, more confident student. We are available most days after school except for Tuesdays, or we can meet before school if you let us know in advance. Our prep periods are 4^th period, and Mrs. Hansen is also available (sometimes) 5^th period during her department chair period. This 5^th period slot particularly pertains to Mrs. Prince’s class from the beginning of the trimester until she returns in January. Her students will have open access to Mrs. Hansen during 5^th period during her absence. Mr. Shoup is, of course, available during the class for questions of any sort. In any case, please make an appointment to see us so that we can be in our room – even if it is our prep.

We can be best reached by email.

Read all assignments carefully before class and have completed the note-taking process outlined above when you come to class. Again, this is a rigorous course and should receive its due focus and allotted time from you. Work and extra-curricular activities do not excuse your lack of preparation.

Grading: Students will be graded on the process as well as the final product. Grading is sequential and continuous throughout the semester. The early assignments will be worth low point totals (10, 20, 50), and these values will increase with the increasing difficulty of the assignments. The notebooks will count between 10% and 20% of your grade. You will be graded on the process as well as the final product. Rough drafts will be graded on their due dates; no credit will be awarded for late rough drafts, as they will be a necessary component of the lesson on the due date. Your notes will accompany your final paper, peer editing comments, and rough draft(s). A paper must have all rough drafts attached in order to be accepted. No paper will be accepted without a rough draft. No points will be awarded for a late rough draft. All your work will be kept in a classroom portfolio. To receive full credit, your paper must be submitted during the class in which it is due. If you come to school during any part of the day, your work is still due; if you turn it in the next day, it will not count. I am accepting no late work for credit. You will not be able to make up missed daily work so regular attendance is important. Contact your instructor if you will be absent for a prolonged period of time. Omitting a paper will cause you to fail the course.

As you know, plusses and minuses DO count into your GPA. Further, the grade you earn in this course will be the starting grade for your college academic career. Thus, if you do not earn higher than a C, you will not receive credit and may likely enter college on academic probation! Hence, you should be ready to work in this class!

TurnItIn.Com: Part of the work in this class will involve this website. I will sometimes ask you to submit papers to the site; the final paper must be submitted there. We will also use this site as a place for discussion. You must also "join the class." Go to the website and join the following class:

(for Hannah-Hansen) T2 W131 Comp H

The class ID is  2062121. The enrollment password is "critique."

(for Prince/Shoup) T3 W131 College Comp P

Absences: Because you have all due dates in front of you on this syllabus, all large papers are due on the due date, regardless of absences accrued prior to the due date. If you are not at school, you must email me your paper by the start of the period in which it is due – even if the absence is excused. I will not grade the paper, though, until I have a hard copy from you along with your rough drafts. If you are absent when a rough draft or some other assignment from the writing process is due, I will not be able to look at that work unless you email it to me by the end of the school day.

Tardies: Tardies will be addressed using the school policy—on your 4^th, a Saturday School Detention will be assigned. Please sign clipboard in back of room if you are tardy.

Format: All out-of class writing must be typed, and all in-class writing must be done in pen (blue or black ink only.

Existing: Basic decency and respect will be modeled by everyone in every case. This course is very much centered on discussion, as well as open consideration of various interpretations of works. Thus, you must respect the contributions of your classmates or you will be removed from the classroom. Self-control should not be an issue by your senior year, but if there are behavioral issues, I will speak to you on an individual basis so as to correct the problem.

Fire Drills: This class meets by the flagpole in the event of a fire drill or actual fire. Exit the room and turn right. Continue until you come to the staircase across from the library and descend there. Our place is a few places to the left of the flagpole; you must meet me there. If our exit is blocked by a fire, we will either backtrack or continue down the counseling hallway to exit at the doors at the bottom of the ramp.

You must submit all assigned work. An estimated general breakdown of the grading is as follows:

Draft points Final Points

#1 Summary 5 50 points

#2 Critique 11 75 points

#3 Comparative Critique 10 100 points

#4 Comparative Analysis 15 150 points

#5 Review of Sources/Writing Plan 50

#6 Researched Trend Paper 20 200 points

Reading and Writing Notebook 100 points

Quizzes and other in-class activities 125 points

9011 Points (points for quizzes and other activities may alter total.

Assignments: You will receive a separate assignment sheet for each major writing assignment. This guide will provide objectives, grading criteria, length of assignment and due date as well as your instructor's suggestions.

Students will:

Readings: "The Difference Between High School and College"

Selected Readings from WRAC; focus on Chapter 1 & Chapter 7

Writings: Practice summary of selected article

Draft and final summary of another selected article

Due dates: (Work should be completed by date listed)

Objective: The purpose of the critique is not to persuade the reader to any particular belief or action, nor is it a forum for the writer to merely express agreement and/or disagreement with the author of the essay. Instead, in order to increase the reader’s understanding of an article, a critique simultaneously summarizes as well as analyzes one article by focusing on and evaluating the rhetorical strategies, logic, evidence, underlying assumptions, biases, and reasons that the author explicitly or implicitly conveys in forwarding his or her perspective/interpretation.

Students will:

11/27 In-class reading day: WA Chapter 1, pp. 24-34, "The Basic Analytical Strategies."

11/28 WRAC, Chapter 2 pp. 22-44, "Critical Reading and Critique" (Notes due 8/30) Summary

12/11 Reading Day, WA Ch 6 pp. 164-178, "Making a Thesis Evolve"

Objective: In this unit you will build on summary as well as critique skills in order to comparatively analyze two source articles. The goal of a comparative critique is to analyze two sources that perceivably address the same issue and to evaluate and compare how each author establishes a position by focusing on their arguments, evidence and underlying assumptions.

Students will:

Due dates: (Work should be completed by date listed)

Objective: The goal of a comparative analysis is to perform an analysis of "something out there" through the theoretical lens provided by 2-3 source texts that analyze similar objects. Thus, a comparative analysis applies viewpoints expressed in various texts to analyze a third text or what might be called a test object. In other words, what happens when the view of one author is used as a lens with which to interpret/view another text? Ultimately, a comparative analysis focuses on the object of analysis, not on the sources; and it engages the reader in a deeper sense of discovery about the object of analysis.

1/24 Work Day

1/25 Rough Draft Due Comparative Analysis (Two copies)

Objective: This unit incorporates all the skills of the previous units. Yet, unlike the previous units, this is an open source paper. Students will be required to critically analyze a trend in contemporary American culture in order to come to a greater understanding of the meaning of the trend, what statement(s) this trend might be making about modern American culture and how this trend reflects and/or refutes and/or creates myths, values, ideologies, etc. in modern American society. Students should be able to find visible manifestations (if possible) of the trend to share with class to verify its existence in modern culture. In addition, I will ask that students present their findings to the class in a 3-5 minute in-class presentation. (These presentations will take place during our final exam period – more information will be given in class about presentation requirements as the time draws closer)