Course Description:

The goal of this course is to work toward an understanding of academic discourse conventions necessary to succeed in graduate school. These conventions are often different from other convention, such as writing an editorial for a newspaper, writing a letter to your family, writing a shopping list, writing a note to your family telling them where you are, where the food is, and when you will be back. And although all these writing activities are important and necessary in today's society, we will concentrate on writing academic papers. Like any other writing, academic writing is a process that improves with practice. Writing is also a way for you to learn more about yourself and your academic field. We will start this learning process by strengthening our critical reading and thinking skills. We will also discuss how to organize a well-written paper in your areas of study.

Here are some of the questions we will try to answer:

• How do we become critical readers and writers?
• How can we use writing to learn?
• What does it mean to write well in college?
• What are some of the academic discourse conventions?
• What are the conventions in your discipline?
• What are the attributes of a well-written paper?
• How do you go about doing research in your discipline?

Required Readings:

Rieke & Sillars (1997), Argumentation and Critical Decision Making

Rockas (1992), Style in Writing: A Prose Reader

Elements of a Good Grade:

Active participation in class discussions (5%)

This is a course where we are not all in the same room during class times. This means that we need to work especially hard to make this a successful experience for everybody. For this reason, participation in class discussions is especially important. I expect everybody to provide frequent input that will further our understanding of each other, of texts that we read, and of the writing that we will do.

Discussion leader for in-class discussion (5%)

Understanding and learning takes place in all kinds of environments but especially when you are actively engaged in the process. To provide you with opportunities for active learning, you will lead a class discussion on one of the readings for class.

Oral Presentation (10%)

Reading, writing, and speaking are closely connected. It'll be important for you to be able to express yourself clearly and convincingly not only in writing, but also when you give a talk. Your oral presentation will be connected to your final project and will be part of this learning process.

Collaborative project (15%)

You'll be working with one or two other people on a writing project that is important to all group members. This is intended to help you work with others, do research in a variety of fields, and collaborate on a writing task.

Various writing projects (20%)

We'll do a lot of writing in this class. Some of it will be in response to readings that we will be doing, others will be responses to your explorations of issues important in your field. All of them are intended to increase your understanding of literacy practices in a variety of settings.

Reaction papers (15%)

Part of the formal writing assignment will be two papers in response to the books/articles we'll be reading in this class. You can choose which articles you want to use for your reaction papers. It should be about 3-4 pages long.

Paper based on research in your field of specialization (30%)

This is one of the fun parts of the class. For this paper, you'll need to do library research and field research, which means that in addition to going to the library you need to interview and talk to people about a specific issue which you will choose. You'll need to choose your topic based on issues important in your field of specialization. This paper should be about 10 pages.

Attendance Policy

This class can only be successful if you participate and attend. For this reason, you are expected to be in class every time we meet. If you miss more than three classes, it will affect your grade.

Grading

A: Outstanding work (90-100 %)

B: Above average work (80-89%)

C: Average work (70-79%)

D: Below average work (60-69%)

F: Failing Grade (0-59%)