ENGL 3059 Intro to Rhetoric and Professional Writing Fall Semester 2013

Professor: Office: Office Hours: Email: Teresa Cook 110G McMicken Tuesday & Thursday 8:30 9:30 a.m. and by appointment teresa.f.cook@uc.edu

Required Textbook
Smith, Herb J. and Kim Haimes-Korn. Portfolios for Technical and Professional Communicators. Pearson. 2007. ISBN-13: 978-0-13-170458-9 * Additional required reading will be made available through our Blackboard course page.

Course Description
This course focuses on answering your likely questions about what can you do with an English degree? Well also aim to create a working definition of rhetoric and, through theory and practice, draw connections between what were learning, and what we do as writers.

Learning Outcomes
understand rhetoric as a discipline (theories and practices) understand professional writing as a discipline (theories and practices) explain the relationship between rhetoric and professional writing define major concepts that are the foundation of both rhetoric and professional writing create documents and projects that apply principles of rhetoric and professional writing have a framework for subsequent classes in the RPW track And if you're not in the track, then this course will expose you to some principles and practices you can use anytime you're asked to write or communicate something. This course is required for RPW majors under semesters, and it can also be used as a general English elective.

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Attendance
Due to in-class lectures, activities, and critiques, attendance is critical for success. You are encouraged to attend EVERY class. Attendance also includes being on time. Tardiness (more than five minutes late) will result in the loss of participation points. Any absence will result in the loss of any participation points that day (quiz, critique, etc.). Remember, it is your responsibility to contact me as soon as possible should you have to miss class to make arrangements for anything due that day. After four absences, you will be asked to drop the course.

Homework and Assignments

To pass this course, you must complete each assignment on time and receive a passing grade. In addition, you must complete all in-class assignments and homework. In general, I do not except late work. If an emergency arises, I reserve the right to accept late papers and assign acceptance conditions.

Academic Misconduct
Please review the Universitys description of Academic Misconduct (http://www.uc.edu/conduct/Academic_Integrity.html). If any student is caught plagiarizing on any assignment at any stage (homework, draft, peer review, final), s/he will receive an F for the assignment and, possibly, the course. If in doubt, ASK ME!

Revisions
Students who complete an assignment in full and on time, but who struggle with the assignment, receiving a C- or below (72 or lower), may make one revision. The student must meet with me to discuss the revision and must turn in the original graded version and the revised version together, within one week of receiving the original graded version. Possible revision of up to one full letter grade is possible. Try for that A the first time around you will not be able to revise up to an A.

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Assignments
Assignment 1: What is Rhetoric (Ongoing) Assignment 2: Definition Handout Assignment 3: Midterm Exam Assignment 4: Document Analysis Assignment 5: InfoGraphic Assignment 6: e-Portfolio Participation (Attendance, Discussion, Critiques)

Grade Distribution
50 points 100 points 200 points 150 points 150 points 250 points 100 points

Total: 1000 points Grading

Major writing assignments will be graded on a point system that corresponds to a standard letter grade scale: A, B, C, D, and F (plus or minus may apply).The following will give you a good overview of what each letter grade means. 90-100 (A-/A): A supervisor would be very impressed and would remember the work when a promotion is discussed. In this course, that means work that is a pleasure to read, with excellent content, grammar, sentence structure, mechanics, and visual design. In addition, work is thorough, complete, coherent, well organized, supported sufficiently, and demonstrates a superior understanding of audience, purpose, and rationale. 80-89 (B-/B/B+): A supervisor would be satisfied with the job, but not especially impressed. This means that papers are well written and well produced with few language issues. Work is sufficiently developed, organized, and supported, and demonstrates a solid understanding of audience, purpose, and rationale. 70-79 (C-/C/C+): A supervisor would ask you to revise or rewrite sections before allowing clients and others to see the work. In other words, the paper may have clear but underdeveloped ideas or the paper might not engage or affect the reader. The paper may contain several errors in grammar, mechanics, or logic. 60-69 (D-/D/D+): A supervisor would be troubled by the poor quality of work and would ask you to rewrite entirely. This level of work forces the reader to work too hard to understand the main ideas. The paper may contain incomplete information, have serious grammar and mechanical problems, lack clear organization, or be conceptually unclear.

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Below 60 (F): A supervisor would start looking for someone to replace you. In particular, the work fails to address the tasks of the assignment, is so underdeveloped as to demonstrate incompetence, and is mechanically and grammatically incomprehensible.

Class Critiques
For most assignments, two students will post their drafted assignment to Blackboard Discussion Board for the entire class to access, typically by Monday at 5pm of the week of review (follow the syllabus; some class critiques are on different days). The entire class will print and critique each of the samples, and then in-class, the student volunteer(s) will open the draft, and lead the class in a critique of the work. ALL students must participate at least once in review (although students may volunteer more than once). Please print and mark-up each draft, to be given to the student after his/her class critique. Volunteers still have to review the other class critiques for that week.

The Academic Writing Center

Visit the Academic Writing Center for help on your writing at any stage of the drafting process. Check out their website for more information or to schedule an appointment. .

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