English 210: Advanced Composition
Fall 2005
Class: English 210, Thur. 7:00-9:45, LW 106
Instructor: Prof. Nathan Leslie
Office hours: 4:00-6:30 Tues., Thurs., Room 312 in the old building.
Phone: 703-450-2646
E-mail: nleslie@nvcc.edu
My Website: http://www.nvcc.edu/home/nleslie/
Our class WebBoard: http://loudoun.nv.cc.va.us:8080/~ENG210Leslie
Important Administrative Notes:
1. Please make sure you have paid for the course right away. After a period of days, NovaConnect will boot you from this course if your payment is not resolved!
This course is designed to help students advance their writing abilities. We will focus on three units in this class—one on technology, one on pop culture, and one on travel writing. To this end, we will read and discuss (and philosophize about) numerous essays and articles, view images, and watch and discuss three films and two television shows. However, the ultimate goal of this class is to advance your writing abilities so that by the end of the class you will be ready and able to seek publication.
This last bit may seem like a potentially lofty goal at this point, but by the end of this sixteen week course, I hope that the majority of students in this class will believe themselves to be fully capable of writing an essay that could appear in a magazine, on a website, or in a newspaper.
Required Texts:
Dwight’s House by Meredith Sue Willis
Signs of Life eds. Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon
Rules for Writers by Diana Hacker
Shadow Boxing ed. Kristen Iversen
Required Films (rentals):
The Minority Report
Swingers
Oh Brother Where Art Thou?
Graded Assignments:
(See separate handouts that fully describe each writing assignment):
Response Papers: 20%
Essay 1: Technology Essay: 15%
Essay 2: Pop-Culture Essay: 15%
Essay 3: Travel Essay: 15%
Class Participation: 15%
Class Journals (WebBoard): 15%
Quizzes/Presentations: 5%
Bring a copy of relevant texts to each class.
MLA Format:
All papers must be typed, double-spaced, and submitted with the entirety of the writing process included. In addition, all essays must be written in MLA format with proper MLA documentation. Essays not in the proper format will need to be redone. I will not accept or read e-mailed assignments (except in the case of medical emergency). I must have a printed copy so that I can line-edit your assignments.
Attendance:
I take student attendance very seriously. If you miss one or
two classes it could seriously affect your overall class participation grade.
Students are expected to miss no more than four classes for any reason,
including illness. I make no distinction between “excused” or “unexcused”
absences. Missing even one or two classes could affect your overall class
participation, of course. I take attendance for each class in the first ten
minutes, and if you are late you will not be counted as present. In addition, if
you decide to leave class after break you will not be counted as present for the
entire class. You are counted as present if you attend the entire class.
Otherwise, you are not counted as present.
Disabilities:
If you have a documented disability please come see me during the first three weeks of the semester. Only documented disabilities will be acknowledged.
Conferences:
I highly recommend for you to make an appointment with me to discuss your writing. First, I consider this a sign of commitment and interest on your part. More importantly, it will help your writing in this class. I am also always open to e-mail “conferences.” You can always e-mail me your essays and ask for feedback, provided that you grant me at least 2 days time to respond. I just need some advance warning.
The Writing Center:
The Writing Center is a very helpful resource for your advancement as a writer since it provides personal one-on-one tutorials. You will be required to take one essay to the writing center this semester. I will have a form that you will need to have one of the writing center tutors complete regarding your essay. For information on The writing center, please see the link on my website under “Helpful Student Links.” Please call 703-450-2511 to set up an appointment. The Writing Center is located in the front of the main building on the right hand side (it has moved and is no longer in 268) and the WC is generally open from 9:30-2:30, though it also has evening hours on Tues. and Wed., I believe. Until the move is completed the
Essays are due at the beginning of class on the day for which assigned unless otherwise noted. However, I will accept late work though there will be a deduction. Grades on late papers will be lowered one letter grade after one class, two letter grades after two classes, etc.
Students are expected to submit only original work. Using another’s ideas, oral or written, without documenting is considered plagiarism. Plagiarism is academic stealing. If you are unsure of how or when to document, ask questions before submitting your work.
Important note: It is very easy for me to spot a plagiarized essay. My policy is simple: if you plagiarize an essay you will fail the course! In addition, I will refer you to the appropriate administrators for expulsion from NVCC.
For this class you have the additional responsibility of comprehensively revising one of the major essays you write. I will not require an additional portfolio for this class. Toward the end of this class I will talk about publication options, and essentially I will help you gear yourself towards publication if you are interested. In addition, if you are interested in revising additional essays (or response papers) you have the option to do so to help boost your grade on your work. You can revise as much as you like. For all revisions I will reconsider the grade for the entire essay. For instance, if you receive a C on the technology essay, you could conceivably still earn an A on the essay by revising it. Essay grades in this class are not final until the last day of class! If you receive a “redo” on any response paper or essay, you must revise it or receive a 0 for the assignment. A “redo” is my way of helping you see your essay as a work in progress, and nudging you towards revising it.
Class Journal:
In addition to the more comprehensive response papers and essays, you will be required to contribute to our class journal for many classes this semester. Our class journal will be a public series of postings and discussions on WebBoard, an on-line bulletin board that you can access on campus and at home. A typical journal entry will consist of a one-two paragraph response and a response to another student’s posting. In a sense it is a way in which we can extend the class discussion beyond the bounds of the physical classroom. I will also occasionally ask that you post individual reflections from time to time.
Response Papers:
Response papers are short 1 ½-2 page responses to material we cover in class. Over the course of the semester we will have a series response papers to reflect upon what we read for class, the films we see, the images we analyze, etc. Some response papers will help you practice techniques for the larger essays.
Quizzes:
I will occasionally give pop-quizzes. These will draw from the readings and will help initiate discussion.
A list of possible extra credit assignments will be handed out early in the semester. Each thoroughly accomplished extra credit assignment can add one letter grade to an assignment of your choice. Extra credit cannot, however, make up for poor attendance or quizzes. Unless stated otherwise, you may only do a maximum of one extra credit assignment. I also like to offer extra credit for attendance at NVCC cultural events.
This is one of the keystones of this class. This is not a class in which I will lecture for an hour every time we meet. We will discuss each essay that we read, however, to hopefully bolster your understanding of critical thinking and the world around you. Since this class is based on discussion, I am requiring each student to individually lead a ten-fifteen minute discussion on one essay or article that we read in class. I will grade your “presentation” as three quiz grades. I will hand out a sign-up sheet early in the semester and detail the expectations for this grade at that time.
Reading:
As this is a 200 level class, you are expected to have read the assigned articles, essays, stories, and so on and we will try to discuss each one at some point. As you will discover, often the work we read will help strengthen your writing.
Films:
This class will feature three films. Obviously we will not be watching all three films during class time. Instead, I will ask you to either (1) rent a copy of the film from your local video store or, if available, (2) view the on-reserve copy in the library.
Workshop:
Because the number of enrolled students in this class is at such a manageable level, this will allow us to do some things that normally I couldn’t do. For instance, I’d like to hold a workshop during the last few weeks of the class where students in the class look at each other’s work and provide feedback on it. The purpose of this will to strengthen the travel essay for revision. However, it will also be an opportunity to share work with your peers and get helpful feedback.
Introduction to course and meet the class. Student Expectations. Introduction to technology unit. Handouts—articles on technology.
Week 3
Thur 9/8:
Handouts—articles on technology. Response paper #1 due.
Week 4
Thur 9/15
Handouts—articles on technology. Class journal #2 due.
Week 5
Thur 9/22
Handouts—articles on technology. In Signs of Life: read Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Science of Shopping” 403-9. Read Lynnell Hancock’s “The Have and the Have-Nots” 623-626. Discussion of FILM The Minority Report. Response paper #2 due.
Week 6
Thur 9/29
No class.
>>>Instead, on Saturday 10/1 meet at 12:00-3:00 to see The National Museum of American History to view the exhibits on Engines of Change, America on the Move, and American Popular Culture. Also see at least ONE of the following: Inventing Ourselves (on technological body parts), Information Age, Disneyland. In Signs of Life read “The Semiotics of Home Décor” by Joan Kron 101-111 and “Careful, you may Run out of Planet,” by David Goewey 112-121. Class journal #3 due.
Week 7
Thur 10/6: Pop-culture unit begins. ***Technology essay due.*** In Signs of Life: photograph on page 598. Read “What Makes Superman So Darned American?” by Gary Engle 738-746, “Lara Croft, the Bit Girl” by N’Gai Croal and Jane Hughes 761-765, “Snap! Crackle! Plot!” by Roy Rivenburg 780-783 and “Larger than Life” by Jenny Lyn Bader 785-794.
Week 8
Thur 10/13: In Signs of Life read “Boob Tube” by Amanda Fazzone 255-257, “You Can’t Say That” by Tad Friend 258-265, “The Not-So-Big hit Single” by Robert Hilburn 281-284, and “American Television in Europe” by Marnie Carroll 288-295. Response paper #3 due.
Week 9
Thur 10/20: Watch and discuss episodes of Seinfeld and The Simpsons. In Signs of Life read 299-307 and “Creating the Myth” by Linda Seger 316-325, “So You Wanna Be a Gangsta?” 343-354. Class Journal #4 due.
Week 10
Thur 10/27: Discuss Swingers. In Signs of Life read “The Postmorbid Condition” by Vivian Sobchack 377-382, “Braveheart, Babe, and the Contemporary Body” by Susan Bordo 333-342, “Class and Virtue” 373-376, advertisement for Reservoir Dogs. Response paper #4 due.
Week 11
Thur 11/3
***Pop-culture essay due.*** Travel writing unit. Read handouts. Readings from Shadow Boxing 1-13, 40-51.
Week 12
Thur 11/10
Readings from Shadow Boxing 52-64. In Dwight’s House read “Attack” 120-126 and “Tales of the Abstract Expressionists” 169-186 by Meredith Sue Willis. Handouts. Class Journal #5 due.
Week 13
Thur 11/17
Handouts. Readings from Shadow Boxing 89-103. Discuss Oh Brother Where Art Thou?
Week 14
Thur 11/24: No Class—Thanksgiving.
Week 15
Thur 12/1: Workshop 1 ***Travel essay due.***
Week 16
Thur 12/8: Workshop 2 ***Travel essay due.***
Week 17
Thur 12/15: Turn in final revisions. Discuss publication options. Class party.