SYLLABUS FOR ADVANCED COLLEGE WRITING IN ENGLISH STUDIES
CSU FULLERTON, SPRING 2014

*2023 Note. Links have been removed from this archival copy of the syllabus.

COURSE INFORMATION. English 307: Advanced Writing in English Studies, Course Code 18908, Section 3. Wednesdays 4:00 p.m. – 6:45 p.m., University Hall (UH) 337. Instructor: Alfred J. Drake, Ph.D. Office hours: MW 2:20-3:20 p.m. in University Hall (UH) 329. Email: e307_at_ajdrake.com. Catalog: “Prerequisite: ENGL/CPLT majors who have completed their lower-division writing requirements. Interpretive frameworks of communities within the discipline of English Studies (literary studies, creative writing, English education, composition, cultural criticism). Uses discursive conventions of these communities to produce formal and informal texts of various genres.” 3 Units. I will use +/- grading. The English Dept. may be reached at (657) 278-3163. Students who need special accommodations at the main campus should contact the Disability Support Services Office in UH 101 or call (657) 278-3117; for the Irvine Campus, see Student Affairs, IRVC-159 phone (657) 278-3112. One other required link: Emergency Preparedness Guidelines.

REQUIRED TEXTS AT TITAN BOOKSTORE

Austen, Jane. Persuasion. Norton Critical Editions, 2012. 2nd edition. ISBN-13: 978-0393911534.

Graff, Gerald and Cathy Birkenstein. They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. 2nd. ed. Norton, 2009. ISBN-13: 978-0393933611.

Kane, Thomas S. The New Oxford Guide to Writing. Oxford University Press, USA: Reprint edition, 1994. ISBN-13: 978-0195090598.

Shakespeare, William. The Tempest. Norton Critical Editions, 2003. ISBN-13: ISBN-13: 978-0393978193.

Wordsworth, Jonathan and Jessica Wordsworth, eds. The Penguin Book of Romantic Poetry. Penguin Classics, 2006. ISBN-13: 978-0140435689.

COURSE RATIONALE AND ACTIVITIES

FOCUS AND OBJECTIVES. This course will cover the rhetoric of academic writing as well as key points about style and grammar. We will also be reading and viewing Jane Austen’s Persuasion and Shakespeare’s The Tempest, along with reading selected British romantic poetry as a means of furthering students’ ability to analyze, discuss, and write about literary texts in a clear and compelling way.

CLASSROOM ACTIVITIES. In class, there will be a mix of lectures, student presentations, whole-class and smaller-group discussion, occasional quizzes, an essay, and a final exam. I encourage questions and comments—class sessions improve when students take an active part. Outside class, do the assigned readings before the relevant discussion dates, complete your journal sets as outlined below, start planning and drafting your essay early, and work on your presentation drafts. In literary studies, the aim is to read and discuss actively and thereby to develop your own voice in response to the texts you read. Insightful interpretation and the ability to make compelling connections are central goals. The essay, discussions, presentations, and journal-keeping should combine to help you work towards these goals.

HOW YOUR PERFORMANCE WILL BE EVALUATED

COURSE POLICIES. Please review the course policies page early in the semester. Key points: missing more than 20% of sessions may affect course grade; academic dishonesty may result in course failure. The four evaluative requirements outlined below must be substantially completed to pass the course. Since most assignments will be due by email, contact me promptly if you do not get an email verifying receipt.

PRESENTATIONS REQUIREMENT. At the beginning of the course, students will sign up to give a brief presentation on one assigned text of their choosing (if possible). The presentation will consist mainly in engagement with a scholarly article or other critical text dealing with the literary work on which you have chosen to present. So if you have opted to present on Jane Austen’s Persuasion, you will be categorizing, summarizing and constructively criticizing/building on what some other critic has written about some aspect of that novel. As your listeners, we will get a sense of what sort of criticism we are dealing with, what specific claims the author advances, and whether you find it valuable as something that furthers your own critical efforts. Several days after sign-up, I will post a schedule on the Presentations page. Once we arrive at the literature portion of the course, each session should feature several presentations. Required: At least five days in advance of your presentation, email me as full a draft as possible of what you intend to say in class. I will email you back with advice. If I suggest developing the remarks further, email me a revised version at least one day before your in-class presentation. I won’t judge presenters on their rhetorical skills, but rather on evidence of prior preparation and consultation as well as on the written draft. How to do well: Read instructions. Moreover, good critics challenge listeners and pose open-ended questions that invite discussion; aim for spontaneity and a personal touch; speak up; don’t rush. (20% of course grade.)

JOURNALS REQUIREMENT. Keep a running journal on your thoughts about criticism pertaining to the assigned readings. Three separate journal sets (one for criticism on Austen, one for criticism on Shakespeare, and one for criticism on Romantic poems) will be due by email as specified below in the session schedule. At base, the journal entries (which should run to about 1 ½ or 2 pages single-spaced per article that you include, which would make each completed set run 5-6 pages) should be much like the content of the single presentation you will be giving: for each of three scholarly articles, you will want to categorize the type of criticism involved, summarize the argument, explain its strengths and weaknesses and, ultimately, how it fits in with your own view of the literary text being covered. Using commercial online notes is not acceptable: you must use scholarly sources from journals or books. Electronic format required. I will not mark journal sets down unless they are late (maximum grade = B), incomplete, or so brief and derivative as to suggest evasion of intellectual labor: they should consist of honest responses, not “yes-or-no” style answers, quotation of the assigned texts without further comment, or secondary material pasted from Internet sources. How to do well: read the instructions; complete entries as you go through each text; send sets on time, making sure I verify receipt; respond thoughtfully to the readings: use your own words and refer to the texts’ and critics’ specific language. (30%.)

8-10 PAGE ESSAY REQUIREMENT. By the beginning of Week 13 (Monday 4/14) a one-paragraph description addressing the general topic and specific argument of the projected paper, along with a brief description of at least one of the sources you think you will be referring to, will be due by email. (Full rough drafts are also encouraged.) Not providing this description on time may affect the final draft grade. Please read the term paper instructions carefully since they contain the general prompt and advance draft comments. I reserve the right to require proof of the final paper’s authenticity, such as notes or an early draft. Final draft (8-10 pages) due as specified towards the bottom of the syllabus page. The point of the essay will be to incorporate and work with at least three scholarly secondary sources on the assigned text of your choosing (these sources CANNOT consist of material from professional notes obtained online but must instead be journal articles or book-chapter-length critical studies), identifying the strengths and weaknesses of those sources while also establishing and presenting your own perspective. CSUF academic integrity policies apply (see UPS 300.021). See CSUF Library. How to do well: send required advance paragraph on time and incorporate advice I send; allow time for revision; proofread and follow MLA formatting and style guidelines; avoid exhaustive coverage and stale generalities: instead, develop a specific, arguable set of claims, demonstrating their strength by showing how they enhance our understanding of specific language, structures, and themes; document your online/print sources; read instructions and take advantage of our online guides. (30-35%.)

FINAL EXAM REQUIREMENT. The exam will consist of mix-and-match questions about some of the rhetorical concepts and style points we will have covered in the Graff and Kane texts as well as my own Grammar Guide (print out a copy); you will also be asked to identify the basic type of criticism represented in given passages from scholarly articles or other critical material; and finally, you will match key lecture points about the literary works we cover with substantive quotations from the assigned texts. No books or notes will be allowed during any portion of the exam. Exam date: see below. How to do well: read the online prep sheet; take good notes and ask questions/make comments; above all, enjoy the works rather than thinking of them only as test material, and be willing to “talk back” to the criticism you read rather than just accepting its premises. (15-20%.)

EMAILING ASSIGNMENTS TO E307_AT_AJDRAKE.COM. Email journals, presentations, and term paper as attachments. Don’t send more than one document in the same email. Label subject lines appropriately: “E307 Journal 1, Jane Rodriguez” etc. You can paste journal sets into a regular email and/or send them as an attachment. (Journal “sets” include responses to several critical studies. Do not send entries on each critic separately; entries for the set should be combined into one document.) Contact me if you don’t receive prompt email confirmation.

SCHEDULE: WORKS DISCUSSED ON DATES INDICATED

WEEK 1

Wed. 01/22. Course Introduction.

WEEK 2

Wed. 01/29. Graff/Birkenstein’s They Say, I Say Part 1, “They Say.” Ch. One, “They Say: Starting with What Others Are Saying” (19-29). Kane’s New Oxford Guide to Writing, Part II: The Essay, Ch. 8 “Beginning” (37-46).

WEEK 3

Wed. 02/05. Graff/Birkenstein’s They Say, I Say Part 1, “They Say.” Ch. Two, “Her Point Is: The Art of Summarizing” (30-41) and Ch. 3, “As He Himself Puts It: The Art of Quoting” (42-51). Kane’s New Oxford Guide to Writing, Part III: The Expository Paragraph, Ch. 12 “Basic Structure” (67-70) and Ch. 13 “Paragraph Unity” (71-78).

WEEK 4

Wed. 02/12. Graff/Birkenstein’s They Say, I Say Part 2, “I Say.” Ch. Four, “Yes/No/Okay, But: Three Ways to Respond” (55-67) and Ch. Five, “And Yet: Distinguishing What They Say from What You Say” (68-77). Kane’s New Oxford Guide to Writing, Part III: The Expository Paragraph, Ch. 14 “Paragraph Development: (1) Illustration and Restatement” (79-84) and Ch. 15 “Paragraph Development: (2) Comparison, Contrast, and Analogy” (85-92).

WEEK 5

Wed. 02/19. Graff/Birkenstein’s They Say, I Say Part 2, “I Say.” Ch. Six, “Skeptics May Object: Planting a Naysayer in Your Text” (78-91) and Ch. Seven, “So What? Who Cares?: Saying Why It Matters” (92-101). Kane’s New Oxford Guide to Writing, Part III: The Expository Paragraph, Ch. 16 “Paragraph Development: (3) Cause and Effect” (93-97).

WEEK 6

Wed. 02/26. Film of Jane Austen’s novel Persuasion. (BBC Production starring Amanda Root and Ciaran Hinds, approx. 1 hour 45 min.)

WEEK 7

Wed. 03/05. Jane Austen’s Persuasion, Chs. I-IX (Norton 3-58). Graff/Birkenstein’s They Say, I Say Part 3, “Tying It All Together.” Ch. Eight, “As a Result: Connecting the Parts” (105-20) and Ch. Nine, “Ain’t So/Is Not: Academic Writing Doesn’t Always Mean Setting Aside Your Own Voice” (121-28). Kane’s New Oxford Guide to Writing, Part III: The Expository Paragraph, Ch. 17 “Paragraph Development: “Paragraph Development: (4) “Definition, Analysis, and Qualification” (98-108).

WEEK 8

Wed. 03/12. Jane Austen’s Persuasion, Chs. X-XVIII (Norton 59-122). Graff/Birkenstein’s They Say, I Say Part 3, “Tying It All Together.” Ch. Ten, “But Don’t Get Me Wrong: The Art of Metacommentary” (129-38). Kane’s New Oxford Guide to Writing, Part IV: The Sentence, Ch. 18 “A Definition” (109-18).

WEEK 9

Wed. 03/19. Jane Austen’s Persuasion, Chs. XIX-XXIV plus Original Ending (Norton 122-88). Graff/Birkenstein’s They Say, I Say Part 4, “In Specific Academic Settings.” Ch. Eleven, “I Take Your Point: Entering Class Discussions” (141-44) and Ch. Twelve, “What’s Motivating This Writer?: Reading for the Conversation” (145-55). Kane’s New Oxford Guide to Writing, Part IV: The Sentence, Ch. 19 “Sentence Styles” (119-39).

JOURNAL SET 1 DUE BY EMAIL MONDAY 03/24. (Includes entries on three pieces of criticism about Austen’s Persuasion. I will verify receipt by email.)

WEEK 10

Wed. 03/26. Film of Shakespeare’s The Tempest. (Julie Taymor production starring Helen Mirren, approx. 1 hr. 50 min.)

WEEK 11

Wed. 04/02. Spring Break. No classes.

WEEK 12

Wed. 04/09. Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Acts 1-2 (Norton 3-41). Kane’s New Oxford Guide to Writing, Part IV: The Sentence, Ch. 20 “The Well-Written Sentence: (1) Concision” (140-46) and Ch. 21 “The Well-Written Sentence: (2) Emphasis” (147-62).

PARAGRAPH DESCRIBING ESSAY TOPIC AND ARGUMENT DUE BY EMAIL MON. 04/14.

WEEK 13

Wed. 04/16. Shakespeare’s The Tempest, Acts 3-5 (Norton 42-77). Kane’s New Oxford Guide to Writing, Part IV: The Sentence, Ch. 22 “The Well-Written Sentence: (3) Rhythm” (163-70) and Ch. 23 “The Well-Written Sentence: (4) Variety” (171-74).

JOURNAL SET 2 DUE BY EMAIL MONDAY 04/21. (Includes entries on three pieces of criticism about Shakespeare’s The Tempest. I will verify receipt by email.)

WEEK 14

Wed. 04/23. Kane’s New Oxford Guide to Writing, Part V: Diction, Ch. 24 “Meaning” (177-89). Selected Romantic Poems: To Be Announced.

WEEK 15

Wed. 04/30. Kane’s New Oxford Guide to Writing, Part V: Diction, Ch. 25 “Clarity and Simplicity” (190-202). Selected Romantic Poems: To Be Announced.

WEEK 16

Wed. 05/07. Kane’s New Oxford Guide to Writing, Part V: Diction, Ch. 26 “Concision” (203-12). Selected Romantic Poems: To Be Announced.

JOURNAL SET 3 DUE BY EMAIL ON DAY OF FINAL EXAM, WED. 05/14. (Includes entries on three pieces of criticism about selected Romantic poems; each of the three entries should be on a different poet. I will verify receipt.)

FINALS WEEK

Final exam date: Wednesday, May 14, 2014 from 5:00 – 6:50 p.m. Due by email by Sunday, May 18: Term Paper. (I must turn in grades by May 23, 2014.) For your other courses, check CSUF’s Final Exam Schedule.