Course Description
ENC 2135 fulfills the second of two required composition courses at Florida State University. While continuing to stress the importance of critical reading, writing, and thinking skills emphasized in ENC 1101, as well as the importance of using writing as a recursive process involving invention, drafting, collaboration, revision, rereading, and editing to clearly and effectively communicate ideas for specific purposes, occasions, and audiences, ENC 2135 focuses on teaching students research skills that allow them to effectively incorporate outside sources in their writing and to compose in a variety of genres for specific contexts. This section of ENC 2135 uses contemplative writing practices to engage with genre and the writing process.
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The course is composed of three main units, each one focusing on helping students develop research skills and compose in a genre appropriate for a specific context. Students will choose an overarching topic or theme that they will pursue over the three units in order to best demonstrate how rhetorical analysis, research, and genre interconnect.
The first unit asks students to consider the ways in which various genres have shaped and continue to shape their lives, and then to compose a personal essay on that topic. Through multiple drafts, we'll analyze and employ the distinct rhetorical strategies and conventions found in creative nonfiction (which is itself a genre), while exploring how genre functions in contemporary Western culture.
The second unit asks students to compose in an academic genre: the researched essay. Again, we'll examine and employ the rhetorical strategies and conventions unique to this particular genre. Each student will research a topic chosen based on issues of particular interest to her or him, incorporating no fewer than ten sources. In addition to composing multiple drafts of the essay, students are asked to submit a research proposal and a research-in-progress report.
The third unit asks students to use the research conducted within their second project and re-present the argument they made in that essay across three genres—one of which will include a textual element, and another which will include sound in some capacity. In addition, students are asked to write a rationale that explains the rhetorical choices they made in each genre and how they see those choices as rhetorically effective for their context and audience, as well as a final reflection that explores what they learned about genre and rhetorical situation and how the project added to, challenged, or complicated their theories and practices of composing.
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Course Goals
By the end of the course, students will demonstrate the ability to:
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convey ideas in clear, coherent, grammatically correct prose adapted to their particular purpose, occasion, and audience.
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understand that strong writing skills are not some mysterious gift bestowed on a lucky few at birth, but are instead the result of a process involving reading, drafting, revision, editing––and above all, practice.
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analyze and interpret complex texts and representations of meaning in a variety of formats.
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gain experience reading and composing in several genres to understand how genre conventions shape and are shaped by readers’ and writers’ practices and purposes.
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develop facility in responding to a variety of situations and contexts calling for purposeful shifts in voice, tone, level of formality, design, medium, and structure
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locate and evaluate (for credibility, sufficiency, accuracy, timeliness, and bias) primary and secondary research materials, including journal articles and essays, books, scholarly and professionally established and maintained databases or archives, and informal electronic networks and internet sources
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use strategies—such as interpretation, synthesis, response, critique, and design/redesign—to compose texts that integrate the writer’s ideas with those from appropriate sources.
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gain experience negotiating variations such as structure, paragraphing, tone, and mechanics in genre conventions
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practice applying citation conventions systematically in their own work
Brief Semester Overview
WEEK 1: Introduction to course; review syllabus; theories of writing, mapping, Blog 1, Introduce Paper 1.
WEEK 2: Plagiarism Activity, Rhetorical situation; discuss discourse community, Paper 1 Draft 1 Due.
WEEK 3: CLASS CANCELED MON/WED FOR CONFERENCES, Peer Review Workshop, Paper 1 Draft 2 Due.
WEEK 4: Blog 4, Paper 1 Draft 3 Due.
WEEK 5: LIBRARY DAY! Blog 5, developing research questions, Research Proposal Due!
WEEK 6: Research Report Due, Annotated Bibliography, Evaluating Sources, Claims & Evidence Workshop
WEEK 7: Research-in-progress Due. Revisions and Editing Strategies.
WEEK 8: Paper 2 Draft 1 Due; Discuss arrangement; introductions and Conclusions.
WEEK 9: CLASS CANCELED MON/WED FOR CONFERENCES, Peer Review Workshop, Paper 2 Draft 2 Due.
WEEK 10: CLASS CANCELED FOR SPRING BREAK
WEEK 11: Paper 2 Draft 3 Due. Invention activities for Paper 3
WEEK 12: DS WORK DAY! Review the concept of genre; adapting messages for different audiences; multimodality, remediation, and multi-genre projects.
WEEK 13: Draft 1 Paper 3 Due. CLASS CANCELED WED/FRI FOR CONFERENCES.
WEEK 14: Draft 2 Paper 3 Due. Peer Review; DS WORK DAY!
WEEK 15: Genre conventions, revisiting theories of writing, journal 10, Project 3 Draft 3 Due. Peer Review. 4th Mapping Exercises.
WEEK 16: Presentations, Course Evaluations.
WEEK 17: FINALS WEEK. NO CLASS. EPORTFOLIO DUE 5.1.17 BY MIDNIGHT
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Blog Posts/In Class Writing
These posts provide a space for ungraded, less formal writing that focuses on exploring and developing ideas, along with critical writing about assigned readings and classroom discussions. These posts will vary from 100-250 words each. To receive credit, students must submit the journal assignment on time, meet the word requirement for the particular assignment, and demonstrate knowledge of and engagement with the assigned topic. These writings will not be taken through stages of drafting, peer review, and revision and will not count towards the course word count of a minimum of 6000 words. All Blogs will be due by midnight of the day that they are assigned.
Participation
Your participation in class counts for five percent of your final grade. I will grade your participation based on your performance in three areas: 1) completing in-class writing assignments, 2) actively engaging in class discussions, and 3) presenting your Composition-in-Three-Genres Project during the last week of class. However, I understand that not everyone participates in the same way, so this does not necessarily mean that you need to speak in every class. I do ask that you come to class prepared having read the assigned reading, listen attentively and, if you’d like, take notes.
Grade Calculation
ePortfolio: 80%
Preparatory Assignments: 10%
Journals/Participation: 10%
Each of the three major projects will go through at least three major drafts. Students’ grades for the course will be penalized for late submission of drafts. I reserve the right to deduct 5 points from the final grade of your project for each day a draft is turned in late.
A Note on Time
You can anticipate spending close to six hours outside of class a week on class assignments in addition to our meetings Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings. At times, this course will be intense, but ideally you will learn a whole lot in the process. Choose to embrace this now.
College Level Writing Req.
To demonstrate college-level writing competency as required by the State of Florida, the student must earn a “C-” or higher in the course, and earn at least a “C-” average on the required writing assignments. If the student does not earn a “C-” average or better on the required writing assignments, the student will not earn an overall grade of “C-” or better in the course, no matter how well the student performs in the remaining portion of the course.
Final Grades
A 93-100
A- 90-92
B+ 87-89
B 83-86
B- 80-82
C+ 77-79
C 73-76
C- 70-72
D+ 67-69
D 63-66
D- 60-62
F 0-59