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Instructor: Dr. Russel Hirst Time: TTh 11:10–12:25 Place: HSS 209 Phones: 974-6952 (o); 5401 (sec); 6926 (fax) Office hrs.:TBA |
Required Texts
Having Your Say: Reading & Writing Public Arguments , Davida H. Charney & Christina M. Neuwirth
(ISBN-13: 9780321122308).
Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose, Flannery O'Connor, ed. Sally & Robert Fitzgerald (ISBN-13: 9780374508043)
Recommended Texts
Harbrace College
Handbook.
Note: Additional readings for the course may appear under the Hirst 255 link. I will announce any such readings and make clear your responsibility for them.
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Absenteeism
A course like this functions most
effectively as a community of thinkers and communicators. When members are absent
too often, the entire community suffers. To encourage good attendance, I have
established the following rules:
1) Everyone starts out the semester with five "participation points"; that's like getting a free "A" on a five-point quiz. You keep these points if you never log an unexcused absence.
2) You lose two points for every unexcused absence. This extends past the five-point range if your absences warrant. I will excuse you if you are absent for reasons of illness, personal tragedy/emergency, important professional opportunity, or jury duty. Please do not ask to be excused for any other reason.
Quizzes
You may make up quizzes only if you miss them for valid reasons
(family emergency, medical problem, important career opportunity). Email me in advance, if possible, to let me know when you must miss a quiz.
Schedule
for Public Writing
Spring 2008
Schedule may change as semester unfolds.
January
10 Meet in HSS 209. Course objectives, structure, materials, and policies.
Definitions of Argument, Rhetoric, Poetic.
Grammar & mechanics quiz (diagnostic; not graded. Due 1/15).
Optional Letter of Self Introduction to rkh@utk.edu.
15 Review of grammar & mechanics quiz.
Having Your Say 1, What it Takes to Have Your Say.
17 Having Your Say 2, Spans: Building the Segments of an Argument.
Having Your Say, Part I Readings: Chivers, 129-134.
Grammar & Mechanics, continued.
22 Having Your Say 3, Stases: Taking Standpoints Along a Path.
Having Your Say, Part I Readings: Castleman, 159-165.
Having Your Say, Part I Readings: Gomez-Pompa and Kaus 141-151.
24 Quiz #1 (5 points).
Assignment of paper #1 and Document Analysis Worksheet (DAW).
FORMAT:
• Line Spacing: double.
• Margins: 1.25" all around.
• Font: 12-point Times Roman (or similarly readable serifed typeface)
• Page order: Title page, Essay, DAW. (Title page should display a well phrased, descriptive title for your essay, then your name, then "English 255: Essay #1," then date.
• Binding: staple together the pages at upper left. DO NOT use any kind of cover binder.
Remember: length of your essay will be around 1,000 to 1,500 words, but that's just ball park. Don't stray into the vice of prolixity or of obscurity. Strive for Brevitas.
Having Your Say 4, Supporting Claims: Appealing to Logos, Ethos, and Pathos.
Having Your Say, Part I Readings: Shiftlett/Robinson, 151-158.
29 Bring to class thesis statement for paper#1.
Review of quiz.
Having Your Say 5, Junctions: Responding to Alternative Paths.
Having Your Say, Part I Readings: Easterbrook, 134-140.
31 Style Unit 3
Having Your Say 6, Style: Appealing Through Language.
Having Your Say, Part I Readings: Kleck, 165-170.
February
5 Style Unit 4.
Having Your Say, Part I Readings: Mears & Kahan, 170-179.
7 Paper #1 due (15 points).
Having Your Say 7, Entry Points.
Having Your Say, Part I Readings: Brooks/Kollin 182-184.
12 Discuss paper #1.
Having Your Say 8, Surveying the Terrain.
Having Your Say, Part I Readings: Shapiro, 185-195.
14 Having Your Say 9, Exploring by Responding.
Having Your Say, Part I Readings: Shapiro, 185-195.
19 Style Unit 7.
Having Your Say 10, Exploring and Constructing a Problem.
21 Quiz #2 (5 points).
Having Your Say 11, Exploring and Constructing Solutions.
Having Your Say 12, Mapping a Conversation.
26 Tuesday.
Having Your Say 13, Having Your Say on an Author's Argument.
Having Your Say 14, Having Your Say by Responding to an Author's Argument.
28 Thursday.
Having Your Say 15, Having Your Say on the State of the Debate.
Having Your Say 15, Having Your Say on the Problem.
March
4 Tuesday.
Punctuation, continued.
6 Thursday.
Paper #2 due (15 points).
Having Your Say 16, Having Your Say on the Solution.
11 Tuesday.
Mid-term exam (15 points).
13 Thursday.
Discussion of paper #2.
Assignment of paper #3.
18 & 20 Spring Break.
25 Discussion of mid-term exam and paper #2.
Story reading, assignment of paper #3.
27 Mystery & Manners: "Writing Short Stories," 87-106.
April
1 Read & discuss A Good Man is Hard to Find.
Mystery & Manners: "The Nature and Aim of Fiction," 63-86.
3 Mystery & Manners: "The Fiction Writer and His Country," 25-35.
Plato's Phaedrus: dialog as "philosophical fiction."
The Screwtape Letters: another kind of fiction.
8 Writing workshop. 1 page of fiction due.
Mystery & Manners: "Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction," 36-50.
Mystery & Manners: "On Her Own Work," 107-118.
10 Literary point of view. More options. More stories. Peer review.
15 Discussion of submissions.
17 Discussion of submissions.
22 Discussion of works in progress, final exam.
24 Assignment #3 due (fiction) if you want written feedback.
Final things. Life.
May
1 Final exam period: 10:15–12:15 p.m.
Last moment to turn in paper #3 (final paper).