English 101: Community and Spatial Analysis

Section 079, TR 9:30 10:45AM, BIO W 210 Instructor: Ms. Harris Office: CCIT 236, Pod S1 Office Hours: R 11:00AM 12:00PM *Office Hours will be held @ Bookend Cafe E-mail: seharris@email.arizona.edu Course Web Site: u.arizona.edu/~seharris/engl101/fall12.html Telephone: 520-626-9093 Mailbox: ML445 (sign ledger, leave work in basket)

Course Description
This course emphasizes close reading and written analysis of a wide range of texts. Through both formal and informal writing assignments, you will practice a variety of methods for examining these texts. For example, you will consider how the language of a text reflects the values of a particular community, and how a writer can use language to create different kinds of communities, both imagined and in the real world. Along the way, you will make careful use of research to examine connections among texts, and for the final unit, you will use the analytical skills youve learned to think critically about and revise your own writing, reflecting on the specific and practical applications of what you learned over the course of the semester. Embracing the process of writing is a major emphasis for this course. Class activities may include forms of prewriting such as brainstorming or outlining. Workshopping drafts of your essays will be an integral feature of each unit as you practice strategies for revising and editing your essays according to academic expectations. Each of you will have a draft examined and discussed in whole-class workshops, and each of you will be responsible for discussing the drafts of your peers.

Course Texts
Alvarado, Beth, and Barbara Cully, eds. Writing as Re-vision, 4th ed. Needham Heights: Pearson Custom, 2011. Hacker, Diana, and Nancy Sommers. Rules for Writers. 7th ed, revised. Boston: Bedford, 2012. Rodriguez, Caitlin, Jerry W. Lee, and Gina Szabady, eds. A Students Guide to First-Year Writing, 33rd ed. Plymouth: Hayden-McNeil Publishing, 2012.

Writing Assignments
Please note that rubrics and assignment sheets will be provided for each assignment as we approach each unit in the course calendar.

Essay 1: Textual Analysis: Making Community* (due Sept. 25)

Sarah E. Harris University of Arizona October 2012

20%

For this essay, you will compose a 4 5 page analysis focused on how a writer uses his/her text as a way of making community. The idea of community has been defined in a number of different ways: by outcomes (as a group working toward common goals), by action, by discourse (the distinct language or ways of communicating a group uses), and by demographics. As you think about how a writer creates community, you will also need come to some conclusions about how community is defined, and why a writer might use certain techniques to describe or define a particular community of readers. Well also begin to create our own community of writers, as you compose workshop drafts and work together with your peers to refine your ideas. Essay 2: Textual Analysis: Community Spaces* (due Oct. 23) 20% Where spaces are geographical or physical, places are shaped by interaction: they become infused with meaning, sometimes in new or surprising ways, but often in ways that reveal something about the values of those who inhabit the space. Both the way we choose to talk about a space and our physical interactions within that space can create place; a sense of lived community tied to location. In the first essay, youll focus on the idea of communityparticularly the ways communities are formed, defined, and described in written texts. In this assignment, we move from that idea to consider the ways communities shape, and are shaped by, another kind of text: the public spaces that surround them. For this assignment, you will write a 4-5 page essay analyzing a public space on the University of Arizona campus. As with the previous assignment, you will compose workshop drafts and work with your peers to revise and shape your essays.

Essay 3: Contextual Analysis: Digital Place (due Nov. 20)

30% After looking closely at physical spaces, in our third major assignment you will consider the ways digital space is shaped by and for communities. Though you may have used some of the texts we read to help compose your previous analysis, it was not a requirement for that essay. This assignment, though, asks you to use a lens text to analyze a digital space. I will provide a list of lens texts to choose from specific to this assignment, but you may also choose any text weve read over the course of the semester (including those from both units, so bell hooks, but also Diaz, Boully, etc.).

Final Essay Exam: Revision & Reflection (Due Dec. 7) 15% For the final exam, youll apply the skills of analysis youve learned over the course of the semester to your own work. You be asked to choose one of the three previous essays and compose a revision, then to explain the choices youve made in a short reflective essay. Both documents will work together to showcase what youve learned over the course of the semester about key course concepts, such as revision, analysis, and the writing process. Reading Responses 10%
You will complete a total of five reading responses over the course of the semester, and each will be assigned on the course calendar. For each response, you will be asked to provide a short summary of the reading, and a thoughtful and thorough response. A thoughtful response is one that engages honestly with a reading, taking into account a writers purpose and audience. You are encouraged to use your experience as a way of responding to readings, but should always keep in mind that negativity without thoughtful critique is inappropriate. In other words, it is okay to dislike a reading, but never to just dismiss a writer out of hand. If you dislike something, youll need to provide a thorough explanation for why you think that might be happening.

Workshop Responses

5% At the beginning of the semester, each of you will sign up to have the draft of an essay of your choosing workshopped by the full class. You will also sign up to complete workshop responses for two of your peers. Workshop responses should, like your reading responses, be specific and thorough. Always,

Sarah E. Harris

University of Arizona

October 2012

always, be respectful of the writer. We will be tough on the prose sometimes, but never on writers. Frame your critiques respectfully, or dont expect anyone to pay attention to them. Be kind. *Workshop drafts of all major essays are required for full credit

A Note on Essay Grades and Credit:

An E is assigned to an essay that has been completed but that falls short of acceptable collegelevel work. This grade earns points (determined by assignment percentage) toward your course total. A zero is recorded for work not handed in at all. Always submit your work even if it is so late that it will earn an E. Failure to hand in a major assignment automatically results in a failing grade for the course. You are required to keep hard copies of all of your work to file a grade appeal at semesters end (see Guide Appendix A) or in case an assignment is misplaced and you are asked to resubmit it. I will not evaluate an essay or assign credit for it without first seeing the required drafts. Late workshop drafts are penalized just as heavily as late final drafts.

(Selected) Course Policies

. Requirements for Writing Assignments
In-class and out-of-class writing will be assigned throughout this course. Even if you are not in class when writing is assigned, you are still responsible for completing the assignment and submitting it on time. So check the course schedule regularly. Late work will not be accepted without penalty unless you make arrangements for an extension before the due date. Workshop and final drafts of the three major essays must be submitted on D2L no later than11:59pm on the evening they are due. After that time, I will deduct 5% from the final essay grade for each day the assignment is late, including weekends. Workshop responses are due in hard copy at the beginning of class on the day you are assigned as a respondent. Late workshop responses will be penalized 1 point for each day they are late. I will not accept late reading responses. You are required to keep copies of all drafts and major assignments until after the end of the semester. I recommend saving these in more than one place. Drafts must be turned in with all essays. Drafts should show significant changes in purpose, audience, organization, or evidence between the workshop and final drafts. Final copies of all assignments should be typed, with numbered pages and a title. Follow the formatting instructions provided on the assignment sheets.

Grades: Students often ask how they can earn a good grade in this course. Aside from submitting
complete work for each assignment on time, the best advice I can give is to do your best work for each draft, and to be open to feedback from your peers. They will have valuable things to say, and so will you. When I respond to your drafts, my comments will usually consider, in the context of a particular assignment, the following aspects of writing: purpose, audience, content, expression, organization, development, mechanics, and maturity of thought. Note that you cannot receive a passing grade in first-year composition unless you have submitted drafts and final versions for all major assignments and the final exam. Incompletes are awarded in case of extreme emergency if, and only if, 70% of the course work has been completed at the semesters end.

Sarah E. Harris

University of Arizona

October 2012