Fall 2002
MWF noon–1:10
Library 115

 Professor Ruth Feingold
MH 103
x4441 		rpfeingold@smcm.edu
www.smcm.edu/users/rpfeingold

Objectives

My goal for this class is not to teach you how to write.

As you probably already know, writing is neither a concrete bit of knowledge to be absorbed, nor a skill that you master and are more or less done with. It's an ongoing, complex process—one that's highly personal, but that requires an understanding of conventions.

I hope, then, to help you learn how to become better writers at the end of the term than you were at the beginning—and to teach you techniques and ways of thinking that you can use as you continue to work on your writing throughout your college career and beyond.

The first major component in learning to become a better writer is practice—and you'll be practicing a lot. Every Friday, you'll be turning in written work, and by the end of the term, you should have a portfolio containing some 20 pages of polished work, and perhaps twice as many pages of drafts and in-class assignments.

The second major component in writing is reading: careful, close reading of other writers' texts, done with an attention to those writers' rhetorical techniques. Every Monday, we'll be discussing published essays in close, sometimes excruciating, detail. Sometimes these essays will be closely linked to the week's written assignment; sometimes they won't. Either way, they're an important part of your writing education.

In between, on Wednesdays, we'll be discussing and practicing specific writing techniques, either as a class, or in small groups.

Some of you may be wondering about the scientific component of this course. This class will not focus on how to write lab reports or scientific papers. Rather, we'll be using science as a general rubric: the essays we're reading are about science (by and large, biology), and many of the writing techniques we'll be practicing are particularly relevant—although by no means exclusively so—to science. For those of you who plan to become scientists, I hope this class will help you see how critical the practice of good writing is to the practice of good science. For those of you who wouldn't dream of making a life in the lab, I hope you'll not only improve your writing, but also learn something about the pleasures of scientific thought. Taken as a whole, I'd like to break down some of the extremely artificial barriers people tend to erect between the sciences and the humanities.

 

 

 

Texts

 The Everyday Writer, Andrea Lunsford
Photocopies, available in class

For extra assistance, see
The Writing Center

 

 

A few warnings:

1) This syllabus is, like all written documents, a work in progress. Expect it to develop and change as the term goes on, in response to the needs of our particular group. Check this website regularly for updates.

2) Much of the work we do in class will involve writing that class members have turned in. This means that you may find one of your drafts passed around as part of an in-class exercise. Having one's writing publicly dissected can be unnerving, even mortifying. It can also be extremely educational for everyone involved.

In the interest of preserving privacy, and protecting both the innocent and the guilty, I will always remove names from any student work I hand out. You, in your turn, should remember to respond to your classmates' work freely and critically, but not cruelly. Remember: you'll also have to grin and bear it when your own writing is on the table

 

Syllabus

week monday wednesday friday

1 2–8 Sept


Introduction:
what kind of writer are you?

 Group writing projects
first draft of description paper—2 pp.
2 9–15 Sept reading:
excerpts from field guides & Field Guide (Hass)		 Why revise?
 revised draft of description paper—2pp.

Individual conferences
3 16–22 Sept reading:
from Nature's Numbers (Stewart)+ Quammen octopus essay
 


Ordering information

 first draft of explication paper—3 pp.
4 23–29 Sept reading:
from The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (Kuhn)
 


Re-ordering information

revised draft of explication paper—5 pp
5 30 Sept–6 Oct reading:
from The Origin of Species (Darwin)
 


Getting startedógenerating ideas

 freewrite & image map for argument paper

Library research session
6 7–13 Oct No class—Fall Reading Days
 


What's an argument?

detailed thesis & outline for argument paper
7 14–20 Oct reading:
from On Becoming a Biologist


Yes, Virginia, you have to write in paragraphs

first draft of argument paper—5 pp.

Individual Conferences
8 21–27 Oct reading:
from The Unexpected Universe (Eiseley) 


Vary your style

revised draft of argument paper—5 pp.
9 28 Oct–3 Nov reading:
"The Sperm & The Egg"
 


Paying attention to language

first draft of analysis paper—4 pp.
10 4–10 Nov reading:
from Arcadia (Stoppard), The Moral Animal (Wright), and Darwin for Beginners.
 


Writing about ideas

 second draft of analysis paper—5 pp.
11 11–17 Nov reading:

 


Introductions and Conclusions

final draft of analysis paper—5 pp.
12 18–24 Nov reading:
from Naturalist (Wilson)
 


Who's the audience?

three short audience/mode pieces—1–2 pp. each

Individual conferences
13 25 Nov–1 Dec
reading:


Thanksgiving Break

 Thanksgiving Break
14 2–8 Dec reading:
Imitating styles
 revised draft of mode piece—5 pp.
15 9–15 Dec reading:
essay on writing tba
 



portfolio outline
16 17 Dec   final portfolio—due 4:00 p.m.  

 

how this all works

All out-of-class written work should be submitted to me electronically, either via Blackboard or e-mailed to me directly.

All electronic submissions should be in Microsoft Word. If you use another word-processing program, and you're unsure how to convert a document to Word—or how to send it— ask a computer lab monitor for help. I'd strongly suggest that you try a dummy mailing some time before you need to do the real thing, just so you don't get caught by a deadline.

Papers must be turned in on time. This means don't wait until the last minute—because, inevitably, a server will go down, and you'll be left up a creek. If—and only if!—you run into systemic computer failure(s) that bars e-mail, you may turn in a hard copy as an interim measure. Hard copies should either be presented to me in person, or turned in to the Arts & Letters Division secretaries in Monty Hall. If this becomes necessary, thank them nicely.

On each draft and each revision, I'll give you a provisional grade. This helps you know, in the case of the drafts, how much revision I think is necessary for the essay to be really polished. In the case of the revised essays, it'll give you a rough sense of how you're doing for the term. Ultimately, though, your grade for the term will be based on your final portfolio of work. This portfolio will contain:

your drafts and revisions for all 5 course units (description, explication, argument, analysis, and mode);
a second, even more polished, revision of one unit paper of your choice;
all in-class writing exercises;
a final self-assessment for the semester.

It is extremely unlikely that your final course grade will end up lower than your provisional grades indicate. In all likelihood, it'll be higher. If, however, you:

miss class more than twice,
turn in any papers late, or
don't actively participate in class discussion,

then your grade will be lowered in proportion to the severity of the problem(s).

Throughout the term, I'll be trying to help you both in class and through my written comments on your work. If at any time you'd like me to clarify or expand on my feedback, please come and see me outside of class. If my advice isn't working for you, we need to find out together—and soon—what will.

I encourage you, too, to go to the campus writing center. Trained peer tutors are there to help you at any stage of the writing process. Don't wait until you're in crisis mode—go early in the term, and get to know a couple of the tutors.

Finally, it can be awfully helpful to work on your writing with one or more of your classmates. Part of what we'll be doing in class is reading and revising one another's writing; if you want to continue this outside of class, it might be one of the best things you've ever decided to do. You'll benefit from the suggestions people make about your work, but also—assuming you read it carefully—from the example (both positive and negative) of theirs.