Writing Program - Fall 1998

Please come by if you have questions or just want to talk. Special appointments may be arranged if you can't make it to my regular hours.

Mailbox and message center are at the Kresge College Steno Pool, x9-2781, run by Betsy Wootten and Barbara Lee.

Sample Syllabus from Fall 1997

Participation in the class includes a required weekly section, or writing group, led by skilled re-entry undergraduates. Each student in the class will be scheduled into one of these groups, which will meet for two and a half hours. Section times will be announced at the first class meeting, and you will be asked to indicate your preference along with at least one alternative choice. Ability to commit yourself to an available section time is a prerequisite for enrolling in the course.

Carrie Curtis

Cynthia Manor

Pam Deegan

Janette Waters

Please bring these to each class meeting. The first two required texts and the optional texts should be available at the Bay Tree Bookstore. Please notify me immediately if the store has run out of a text you want.

• Friedman & Steinberg, Writing and Thinking in the Social Sciences
• Donna Hacker, A Writer's Reference
• A course reader, available at the second class meeting, to be purchased directly from the instructor. It should be less than $20. Please bring cash or a check to class that day.

OPTIONAL TEXTS:

No need to buy these unless you want to.

• Barney Pace, Family Papers
• Andrew Harnack, Online! a reference guide to using internet sources

Students will be expected to produce up to seven legible copies of each written assignment for distribution to instructor, TA, and writing group members. (Please recycle or reuse these papers efficiently.) If the total cost of books and photocopying or computer printing presents a financial burden, you may want to consider sharing texts with another class member. At the least, I recommend acquiring your own copy of the Writer's Reference.

Welcome to this class, which is designed especially for women who are coming to the university from community college or returning to school after a hiatus. The course starts with the premise that research-based writing in the social sciences and humanities is at its best a fruitful hunt for one's own knowledge--tempered and augmented by what others have said. Assignments help students identify their interests, choose worthwhile questions, find sources efficiently in the library and beyond, evaluate ideas, and develop carefully argued pieces of original writing. Class discussions and small group meetings foster the cultivation of a cooperative community of thinkers and writers.

The flexible theme of this quarter's course, "women and family," provides a focus for readings and a springboard for writing assignments. You may interpret and adapt this theme as broadly as you wish to suit your individual interests.

If the class is oversubscribed, I will try to give places to the students who need them most and can commit themselves to one of the available group-meeting times. I will collect information from each of you on the first day which will help me make this difficult decision. A class list will be posted outside Sarah's office (204 Kresge) by 2:00 on the first day of classes. At the second class meeting, we will give you the call number which you will need use to enroll via teleslug. If you are not admitted to the class, please feel free to confer with me about possible alternatives. You may want to consider taking Susan Kimoto's Writing 161 in winter quarter or Jude Todd's Writing 163 in spring.

You must come to the second meeting to secure your place in the class. Or, if you have been put on a waiting list and still want to try to be admitted, you may come to the second meeting to see whether any spaces have opened up. Wait-listed students who do attend the second meeting will be admitted in the order in which they appear on the list.

Please reserve the scheduled final exam time for this class: Monday, December 8, 8:00-11:00 a.m. There will be no exam, but we will meet from 9:00 to 11:00 for an end-of-quarter brunch. Children and partners will be welcome at that event.

Each project will be described in greater detail when it is assigned. Readings and shorter written exercises will be assigned in class.

Note: Keep all of your returned papers with my comments on them until the end of the quarter. You will need to refer to them in composing your self-evaluation.

1. Due Thursday, October 2. A personal exploration, in essay form, of an experience having to do with family. Bring seven copies to class. A revision of this essay will be due after you have had a chance to review it with your section.

2. Due Tuesday, October 21. A library exercise to familiarize you with library research methods and resources and to help you explore possible topics for research.

3. Due Tuesday, October 28. A short critical response to one of the texts you are using as source material for your research-based essay.

4. Due Tuesday, November 4. A prospectus, with annotated bibliography, for a research-based essay on an issue related to the subject of family, drawing primarily on the literature in a particular field (e.g. sociology, psychology, anthropology, political science, economics, literature and literary criticism). You may propose an alternate topic area and/or an interdisciplinary approach; discuss this with me. Roughly three (full) to four pages including annotated bibliography.

5. Due Tuesday, November 11. Two draft pages of your research-based essay.

6. Due Tuesday, November 18. Two more draft pages.

7. Due Tuesday, November 25. Research-based essay, with abstract, source citations, and list of works cited, plus cover letter. Ten to twelve pages.

8. Due Tuesday, December 10 (final exam date). Final course portfolio, including self evaluation, TA evaluation, and revision of research-based essay.

Revised 7/19/04.