Winter 2003

This information effective for Winter 2003. Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.

Writing

[WRIT-163] [WRIT-202]

163. Advanced Workshop in Expository Writing

Instructor: Virginia Draper
Office: 275 Stevenson, 459-2827
E-mail: vdraper@ucsc.edu

Course Description:

This is a course for students who, having mastered basic writing skills, wish to increase their effectiveness as rhetoricians, prose stylists, and editors. The central concern of the course is what makes writing effective given the writer's purposes and readers. Writing 163 satisfies the (W) component of the General Education requirements.

Prerequisites: Subject A and (C) requirement.

For this class, "expository prose" is defined as not fiction or poetry or plays, etc., though you may use techniques found in those kinds of writing to serve your purposes. Previous students have written in many different genres: essays of all kinds (personal and academic), senior theses, editorials, columns, opinion pieces, feature articles, graduation speeches, personal memoirs, funding proposals, stock prospectuses, academic papers for literature, history, economic, and biology, etc. We will also experiment with nontraditional prose styles and formats.

Required Texts (available at Bay Tree Bookstore)

• Elbow and Belanoff, Sharing & Responding
  
• Donald Murray, Read To Write, 3rd edition (May be out of print. If so, I'll put selections in a Reader.)
  
• Joseph Williams, Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace, latest edition
  
• Writing 163 Reader

Other Needs

Folder for turning in papers
$ for copying papers
Writer's notebook

Purpose: Inside and outside of class we want to help each other create the conditions under which each of you can develop, even flourish, as writers. I want this to be a course where you become more confident, purposeful, and skillful writers by experimenting and taking risks, by receiving supportive and helpful responses to your writing, and by expanding your choices both as you compose and as you craft for readers. I have designed the course based upon some assumptions. These are that you will become a more confident and purposeful writer when you:

Write regularly, write from abundance, and reflect upon your writing.

Get responses from a variety of readers.

Revise purposefully—that is, consciously make choices based upon your purposes.

Expand your range of choices—that is, the tools you have available to realize your purposes.

Develop your ability to read and respond productively to others' writing at various stages in the development of a piece.

Read and share stories about how you and other writers compose in order to expand your repertoire of composing processes and to decide which will be fruitful for you.

Read a variety of kinds of writing—both published and unpublished—paying attention to the choices writers make and asking yourself if these work or don't and sharing these with other reader/writers.

Procedures and Guidelines

1. Eight pieces of writing. You will turn in a piece of writing for eight of ten weeks of the quarter, beginning the second week of class. At least two, but no more than four, of the pieces you submit will be revisions of drafts I have commented upon. You are free to choose your topic, tone, style, and strategies. The only stipulations are that you write nonfiction, that you write with other members of the class in mind as your readers, and that one of your papers be in an "alternate style" (more on this later). The length of each piece is up to you, but it is hard to write anything significant in less than three pages, and it is hard for readers to deal with anything much longer than 6 pages.

I will read your pieces as if they are drafts—that is, open for suggestions and revisions. The pieces can be stumbling, awkward experiments; finished, polished pieces; or anything in between.

You may turn in pieces of works in progress you are working on for another course with these conditions: (1) You check with the instructor of the other course. (2) You get me the draft in time for me to respond to it and for you to make revisions before you turn it in to the other course. (3) You give me the draft and revision with reflections on what you've changed and why. This revision will not count as one of your eight pieces for this course.

2. Class Workshop. At least once during the quarter, each of you will have the chance to lead a discussion of your piece in class. If your writing is to be discussed on a Tuesday, you will put copies outside my office by Monday noon. If your piece is to be discussed on a Thursday, you will hand out copies of your piece in class the Tuesday before.

3. Writing Groups or Library Group. Everyone will read and carefully respond to at least three papers each week, in addition to those discussed in class. And everyone will receive comments from three other people. There are two possibilities for doing this task: (1) Participating in a weekly writing group with 3 others, or (2) Responding to papers placed in the Stevenson library, and putting your own papers there for responses. If you choose (1), you will meet with your group once a week at a time convenient for all of you. If you choose (2), you will put a copy of your piece in the Library before or after Tuesday's class. We will set up writing groups and library groups the second week of class.

4. Field Notes & Writer's Book: During the quarter, keep a writer's journal or field notes on your reading (in Murray, Williams, and any other readings you do) and on experiences that relate to you as a writer. These entries could include observations on how other writers pursue their craft, a collection of favorite passages and sentences, ideas for or about writing, freewriting we do during class or your own, insights into writing, etc.

5. Style & Editing: We will work through the advice, strategies, and selected exercises in J. Williams' Style. Williams has excellent insights on how to make your writing more clear and graceful at the sentence and paragraph levels. We will consult Trimble's advice on Readability (in Reader). And we will explore the possibilities of writing in what Winston Weathers calls "alternate styles," the best part of the course for some previous students in Writing 163.

6. Attendance. Your active participation is expected at every class meeting. Please make every effort not to miss class during the first four weeks of the course when we will develop our writing community.

7. End of the quarter. We will use the exam period for this class to celebrate ourselves as writers, so reserve that date.

8. Evaluation/Grading. To earn a passing grade, a student will complete all assignments and participate actively in class and in a writing or library group outside of class. In your narrative evaluation I will comment on your development as a writer and as a reader of writing and on the quality of your written work as a whole.

If you select a letter grade, please be advised that I will not give letter grades during the quarter, as I do not believe that grades provide you with useful responses to your work. Among other things, grades often discourage experimentation and taking risks. I am far more useful to you as a coach, critical reader, assistant, than as a grader. At the end of the quarter, when all your work is turned in, I'll determine the grade you have earned based on participation in class and in a writing or library group and on the quality of drafts, revisions, and self-reflections.

"A piece of writing is never finished. It is delivered to a deadline, torn out of the printer on demand, sent off with a sense of accomplishment and shame and pride and frustration." —Donald Murray

202. Writing and Learning Seminar (3 credits)

Wed 3:30–5:15 p.m.
Soc Sci 2, Room 141

Instructor: Virginia Draper
E-mail: vdraper@ucsc.edu
Phone: 459-2827

Please note: This seminar begins on Wednesday, January 22, and meets for six weeks, ending on February 26.

Course Description:

This is a seminar for current and future graduate teaching assistants from all departments. Participants will engage in shared inquiry about students' learning and academic writing in order to develop strategies and resources to help all students become effective writers and learners.

Topics include:

• What challenges do undergraduates face and how can we help them?
  
• How can we engage students in learning through writing?
  
• How can we help students understand the purposes of assignments and what's needed to succeed?
  
• How can we assist students with critical reading and research?
  
• How can we help students move from summary to analysis and creating an argument?
  
• What works best for students whose heritage language is not English?
  
• How do we evaluate writing in our fields?
  
• How can we respond to students' writing effectively and efficiently?
  
• What are the differences and similarities among writing processes and genres in various disciplines, and how can we help students understand and work with those differences?
  
• How can technology help us and our students?

Strategies we consider will include:

• peer reviews
  
• student self-assessments and reflections
  
• reading logs
  
• evaluation rubrics and checklists
  
• in-class and online writing to promote discussion and thinking
  
• ways of staging long assignments
  
• how to encourage drafts and revisions
  
• creating reader friendly writing assignments that engage students

Readings will include a course reader and V. Draper's Writing & Learning: A Handbook for UCSC Faculty.

For more information, contact instructor Virginia Draper, 459-2827; vdraper@ucsc.edu