LIT 3304.

501 Advanced Composition – Spring 2006

Claude Pruitt
CWPruitt@UTDallas.edu
972-883-2713
Office hours: Tuesday 3 - 5 pm and by appointment in JO 4.134

Giving oneself to writing means being in a position to do this work of digging, of unburying, and
this entails a long period of apprenticeship, since it obviously means going to school; writing is
the right school.
Hélène Cixous, Three Steps on the Ladder of Writing

The goal of this course is to teach strategies and techniques for effective academic
writing. Achievement of this goal requires the student to read actively, think critically,
share ideas openly, and write with the confidence and clarity fostered by such reading,
thinking, and speaking. As a community of writers, we will read, discuss, and react to
challenging texts; write short weekly reaction papers; and research, compose, and revise
two essays of substantial length. Workshop sessions will provide practical experience
in developing topics, conducting library research, writing drafts, meeting MLA format
requirements, critiquing drafts, and revising texts.

REQUIRED TEXTS and MATERIALS:

Bartholomae, David and Anthony Petrosky. Ways of Reading: An Anthology for Writers
(7th edition), ISBN: 0-312-40995-8

Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, (6th edition), ISBN: 0-873-
52986-3

Hopper, Gale, Griffith, and Foote. Essentials of English: A Practical Handbook, ISBN: 0-
764-11367-4

COURSE REQUIREMENTS/EVALUATION CRITERIA:

• A short written description of your writing process.

• 2-page reaction papers.
• One unscheduled in-class essay.
• One semester-long essay project.
• No make-up or extra credit assignments are available, and no assignments
will be accepted late.
• All work must conform to the submission guidelines.
• Submission dates, readings, and workshop topics are listed below.
 LIT 3304.501 SPRING 2006

Class attendance and participation = 20%

Weekly reaction papers = 10%
Essay Assignment #1 = 10%
#2 = 15%
#3 = 20%
Final draft essay = 25%

Your work will be judged against an admittedly arbitrary standard of “good writing.”
This standard should become clear to you over the course of the semester. In addition
to the quality of writing, evaluation criteria will include conformity to the submission
guidelines, conformity to the format and documentation standards of the MLA
Handbook, and accepted modern English grammar and usage, the standard for which
will be Essentials of English: A Practical Handbook by Hopper, Gale, Griffith, and Foote.

ATTENDANCE

You should attend every class. Much of the work, and all of the learning, in this class is done
collaboratively. If you miss two class meetings, your grade will be negatively affected; if you
miss three class meetings, you will be encouraged to drop the course; if you miss four class
meetings, you will fail the course. Chronic tardiness is unacceptable, as is the failure to prepare
for class. Please turn off cellular/mobile phones, pagers, and other personal electronic devices
during class.

EMAIL

When you need to contact me, please use email; telephone messaging in this environment is
haphazard at best. Per University policy, all email correspondence with students will be sent to the
student's UT-Dallas email address only.

IMPORTANT WEBSITE REFERENCES

UT-D Grading scale:

http://www.utdallas.edu/student/catalog/undergrad02/progress.html#Grading%20Scale

UT-D Scholastic Dishonesty policy: http://www.utdallas.edu/student/slife/dishonesty.html.

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Week Readings Writing Due

10 January Voltaire from On Toleration
Pruitt “All Along the Watchtower”
Week One.
Course Intro / On Toleration
17 January Adams The Education of Henry ¾ 2-page “My writing
Adams process”
Week Two. Freire The “Banking” Concept of ¾ Essay Project Proposal
The Aims of Education Education
Rich When We Dead Awaken:
Writing as Re-Vision
24 January Pratt The Arts of the Contact Zone ¾ 2-page reaction paper
Rosaldo Grief and a Headhunter’s “The Aims of Education”
Week Three. Rage
The Arts of the Contact Zone Anzaldúa Entering into the
Serpent: How to Tame a Wild
Tongue
31 January Baldwin Stranger in the Village ¾ 2-page reaction paper
Rodriguez The Achievement of “The Arts of the Contact
Week Four. Desire Zone” OR
Autobiographical Explorations Said States ¾ Essay Project Draft (see
submission schedule)
7 February Wideman Our Time ¾ 2-page reaction paper
Berger Ways of Seeing “Autobiographical
Week Five. Griffin Our Secret Explorations” OR
Writing with Style ¾ Essay Project Draft (see
submission schedule)
14 February Nietzsche On Truth and Lies in a ¾ 2-page reaction paper
Nonmoral Sense “Writing with Style” OR
Week Six. Phillips Houdini’s Box ¾ Essay Project Draft (see
Truth and Method Limerick Haunted America submission schedule)

21 February Griffin Our Secret ¾ 2-page reaction paper

Said States “Truth and Method” OR
Week Seven. Wideman Our Time ¾ Essay Project Draft (see
Experimental Readings and Baudrillard Utopia Achieved submission schedule)
Writings
28 February Gertz Deep Play: Notes on the ¾ 2-page reaction paper
Balinese Cockfight “Experimental Readings
Week Eight. Limerick Haunted America and Writings” OR
History and Ethnography: Rosaldo Grief and a Headhunter’s ¾ Essay Project Draft (see
Reading the Lives of Others Rage submission schedule)
Wideman Our Time
7 March Spring Break Spring Break

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Week Readings Writing Due

14 March Foucault Panopticism ¾ 2-page reaction paper
Baudrillard Utopia Achieved “History and
Week Nine. Bordo Beauty (Re)discovers the Ethnography: Reading
On Difficulty Male Body the Lives of Others” OR
¾ Essay Project Draft (see
submission schedule)
21 March Berger Waysof Seeing ¾ 2-page reaction paper
Bordo Beauty (Re)discovers the “On Difficulty” OR
Week Ten. Male Body ¾ Essay Project Draft (see
Reading Culture Foucault Panopticism submission schedule)
28 March Rosaldo Grief and a Headhunter’s ¾ 2-page reaction paper
Rage “Reading Culture” OR
Week Eleven. Pratt Art of the Contack Zone ¾ Essay Project Draft (see
Taking a Position Bordo Beauty (Re)discovers the submission schedule)
Male Body
4 April Berger Ways of Seeing ¾ 2-page reaction paper
Said States “Taking a Position” OR
Week Twelve. Nietzsche On Truth and Lies in a ¾ Essay Project Draft (see
The Uses of Reading Nonmoral Sense submission schedule)
Walker In Search of Our Mothers’
Gardens
11 April Berger Ways of Seeing ¾ 2-page reaction paper
Bordo Beauty (Re)discovers the “The Uses of Reading”
Week Thirteen. Male Body OR
Ways of Seeing ¾ Essay Project Draft (see
submission schedule)
18 April Adams The Education of Henry ¾ 2-page reaction paper
Adams “Ways of Seeing” OR
Week Fourteen. Anzaldúa Entering into the ¾ Essay Project Draft (see
A World Elsewhere: Language, Serpent: How to Tame a Wild submission schedule)
History, and Identity Tongue
Jacobs Incidents in the Life of a
Slave Girl
Tompkins "Indians": Textualism,
Morality, and the Problem of
History
25 April Course final ¾ Final essay due
5 May No class meeting ¾ Grades available online
Grades

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SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Submit all manuscripts in hardcopy stapled in the upper left-hand corner. Manuscripts should
conform to guidelines provided in Chapter 4 of MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers
(Sixth Edition) with the following additions/clarifications. Manuscripts must be typed on white
8½-x-11-inch paper in either New Times Roman or Book Antigua typeface (12 point type). Do
not use a title page. Minor corrections or insertions may be made neatly and legibly in ink
directly above the line(s) involved. Source documentation shall be in MLA style; citations and
List of Works Cited shall conform to Chapters 5 and 6 of MLA Handbook for Writers of
Research Papers (Sixth Edition); use italic type to indicate book and publication titles. If notes
are required for clarity, they should be formatted as footnotes and consecutively numbered
throughout the manuscript. No electronic submissions will be accepted, nor will submissions be
accepted after the due date, unless late submission is approved by the instructor before the due
date. All written work shall include a short, descriptive title.

For "my writing process," and reaction papers, and essay proposal, submit one copy. For drafts
of your essay project, prepare five (5) copies, one to turn in to me and one for each member of
your writing group.

ASSIGNMENT DESCRIPTIONS

“My Writing Process”

This is a two-page (500 words minimum, no maximum) personal essay describing your writing
process. A sample will be provided. Use as much detail as necessary to adequately describe
what you do to select a topic, conduct research, plan an essay, write the initial draft, revise, and
finalize the essay. Be brutally honest and minutely observant; there are no right or wrong
processes--the purpose here is not to criticize your process, but to make you aware of it.

2-Page Reaction Papers

These are formal excursions into scholarly writing; treat them seriously. For each reaction paper,
the topic will be one or more of the readings from the previous week, and the previous week’s
discussion topic is an adequate title for the paper. The editors of Ways of Reading have provided
some assistance: consider their “Questions for a second reading,” “Assignments for writing,”
and/or “Making connections.” You may, of course, develop your subject independently. In any
case, seriously engage the chosen topic. The required minimum length is 2 pages (500 words),
there is no maximum. YOU ARE NOT REQUIRED to submit a reaction paper if you are
submitting an essay project draft.

Essay Project Proposal

The Essay Project is a semester-long writing exercise. This essay will be based on a paper that
you have previously submitted in a college course. By the second class meeting, you will submit

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a copy of a previously written essay AND a one-page proposal stating how you intend to revise,
enlarge, and improve the essay. Ideally, this will be an essay for a literature course, or a course
paper within your major. If the professor from the original course has made comments or
suggestions, you may incorporate them into this “first” draft or reserve them for incorporation
into a subsequent draft. You need not feel required to show me those comments.

Essay Project Submissions

You will revise your original essay in a series of drafts throughout the semester. Each student
will submit three interim drafts during the semester and a final draft at the end of the semester.
By stages, you will expand your argument—conducting in-depth research of the topic, develop
and write an effective introduction and thesis, writing a précis or problem statement, review
relevant secondary literature, argue your point, and conclude the essay. There are no pre-set
page requirements or limitations; but, you should be prepared to make substantial improvements
on the original essay and to increase its length by 50- to 100%.

The class will be divided into four-member writing groups, and one member of each group will
submit a draft each week (so that, in a four-week period, each member will have submitted one
draft of the essay project) on the following schedule. Provide review copy for each member of
your group (typically, a total of five (5) copies of each essay submission).