English 1304 at the University of Houston is a course devoted to the analysis and production of written argument. The goal of the course is to enhance your ability to consider how writers try to shape the opinions, attitudes, and actions of their various target audiences and, in that process, enhance your abilities to make better choices among them. The indirect goal, but we hope inevitable consequent of this study, is to enhance your abilities in your efforts to shape the opinions, attitudes, and actions of those you choose or are assigned to write to.
Texts: (RW) Reading Writing: An Argument Rhetoric and Reader (Harcourt, 2001), bundled with (RT&C) Rhetorical Terms & Concepts: A Contemporary Glossary (Harcourt, 2000). You will also need a dictionary (the American Heritage Dictionary of the American Language is highly recommended) and access to a recent handbook detailing MLA citation style, and specifically the MLA style for citation from electronic sources.
Web addresses: www.reading-writing.com; for 1304 specific information http://www.uh.edu/~englin/
Course Requirements are 1) submission of each of the in-class papers and its revision (in the case of absence for in in-class assignment, a paper is still required on the day the next in-class paper is written. At the time of the final, the course folder will be submitted with the portfolio. Without at least one version of each paper, the course requirements have not been met and a grade will not be assigned.
The research paper is a requirement of 1304. There is a separate document dealing with the options for satisfying this requirement.
Absences are not "excused" for any reason, and being absent on a paper writing day does not excuse you from the day's assignment. In the case of an in-class paper, you miss the opportunity to use the exercise as preparation for the first hour of the final exam, and must write the paper out of class. Frequently it will already have been discussed, so you will lose the opportunity to try to react to the assignment as you would at the final. On a Tuesday/Thursday schedule anyone who misses more than a total of three classes is subject to being dropped. You are to bring both textbooks to each class and may be marked absent if you do not.
Course Folder: This is a manila folder, with a one-third or one-fifth cut tab on which you will print your name (last name, followed by first name), followed by the time the class meets. Each in-class paper will be turned in in this folder, as will each revision of each in-class paper (along with the original paper which is being revised).
Portfolio: This is a second manila folder bearing your name, student number, and the section number of the course, as above. It will be submitted at the time of the final examination inside the complete course folder. It will contain the final version of your research paper, the formal revision of any in-class paper, and the final exam itself.
In-class Paper: Each of these is essentially the first part of an exercise in preparation for the three-hour final exam. Each in-class paper will either be a rhetorical analysis of an essay from the readings section of RW or from a handout, which, like the final, will be on one side of a regular sheet of paper. The in-class papers will be marked, but not graded.
Revision: As the second part of your preparation for the final (the second hour of the three hours), you will revise each paper after it is returned to you and submit that revision along with the original paper in the course folder at the time the next in-class paper is written.
Research Paper (Paper #4), Research Paper Final (Paper #8): This is the final version of the research paper, originally submitted as paper #4, and which, along with papers 9 and 10 will make up the portfolio that will determine your final grade
Formal Revision: A formal revision is a typed MLA-formatted revision of one of your regular revisions which you have selected to include in the portfolio as representative of your best work. Unlike your in-class papers where spelling and neatness don't count, in the formal revision everything counts.
The Final Exam (paper #10): The final will be over a one page essay that you will have three hours to write a rhetorical analysis of. It is expected that you will spend about one hour reading and drafting your analysis, the second hour revising and developing, and the third hour completing your paper. Thus the final resembles the process of writing an in-class paper, writing a revision of it, and then doing a final revision. The examination is completely open book and you are expected to bring a dictionary (not so much for your spelling as for being sure that you understand all the words used by the essayist you are analyzing). The essential difference is that you will not have my commentary on your first draft.
AUGUST
Th.23: Introduction to the course, introduction to the texts; roll (research ideas).
Tu.28: Judy Brady, RW 18-45; roll (research ideas).
Th.30: Library.SEPTEMBER
Tu.4: Paper #1, in-class. Bring Course Folder, dictionary, texts.
Th.6: Gilbert Highet, RW 46-80.Tu.11: Return Paper #1, discuss
Th.13: Paper #2, in-class. (Paper#1 and Paper#1 revision will be submitted in the folder with paper #2.)Tu.18: Return paper #2, discuss.
Th.20: George Orwell, RW 81-102.Tu.25: Continue Orwell discussion.
Th.27: Paper #3 in-class.OCTOBER
Tu.2: RT&C and RW, as appropriate.
Th.4: Return Paper #3, discuss; Paper #4 (formal 1st version research paper) due.Tu.9: Paper #5 in class.
Th.11: Discuss Paper#5 subject essay.Tu.16: Return #5, continue discussion, begin Lester C. Thurow, RW 103-139.
Th.18: Continue Thurow.Tu.23: Paper#6 in class.
Th.25: Discuss Paper #6 subject essay, begin RW 140-163.Tu.30: Return #6, continue discussion, continue RW discussion.
NOVEMBER
Th.1: Paper #7 in class.
Tu.6: Discuss subject essay.
Th.8:Tu.13:
Th.15:Tu.20:
Thanksgiving Holiday
Tu. 27:
Th.29: Last day of class.DECEMBER
Th.13: 7:00 Class-Final Exam 8-11. Submit course folder and portfolio. The folder will contain an index and each in-class paper with its revision. It will also contain the portfolio which will hold the formal revision of any in-class paper except #1, the final revision of the research paper, and the final itself, submitted with the hard copy of the final subject essay.