The Writers Workshop 102  Fall 2003 Monday 12-2:50 ic2015 

Tammie Bob, instructor                                     e-mail   bobtam@cdnet.cod.edu  

phone: 942-3327          website: www.cod.edu/people/faculty/bobtam/website/index.htm

office: ic3129b  office hours

ARE YOU confused, uncertain, or just in the mood to discuss something relative to the course? Call, e-mail, or stop by during my office hours.  I am always happy to talk to you.

TEXTS:   Elbow, Peter. Writing Without Teachers (twenty-fifth anniversary edition.) Oxford Univ. Press

           Miller, Robert Keith. ed.  Motives for Writing (fourth edition.) McGraw Hill.

About the course:

English 102 enhances student experiences with the kinds of reading, writing, and thinking that happen in the college community.  Students  read various essays and  write in ways that speak back to the authors, extend their projects, or make use of the essays ideas for their own purposes. This course aims to engage college writers in learning to learn, learning to think about what they are learning, and learning to express their ideas even as they figure out what those ideas might be. Through Writers Workshop, writing is not only an end product-something that people read or produce-but also an activity that allows an individual or a group of individuals to think through a set of complicated issues, an activity that catches the mind at work even as it allows the mind to do its work. In the process, students will learn something about the ways that scholars think through complicated issues, write about their work in order to examine their thinking more carefully, share their ideas and experiences with others, and make different kinds of arguments based on their perspectives and understandings, and the response of others in the group.

This is, then, not simply a course in learning to "write well." It is, instead, practice in academic discourse, a course that through writing seeks to teach you the habits of mind that people in academic communities share and value. We will read texts that represent some of these habits of mind. In struggling with this oftentimes difficult material you will begin to think in new ways, to write in ways you may be unfamiliar with, to question, to doubt, and to create.

At the end of this course, you should be able to:

COURSEWORK: During this course, you will produce three finished essays and a variety of drafts and responses to readings that lead up to the finished essay.  All drafts and reflections may be submitted for critique to the workshop, although responses to specific readings may be workshopped within the 102 cohort only.  In addition, two (2) of your drafts will be submitted to the larger group for critique.  In order to accomplish that, you must bring enough copies of the draft for the group or get the draft to my office (3129b) by the Thursday before it is scheduled to be workshopped so that I have time to have it copied.  The three essays may take a variety of forms and subjects, but must fit into the following categories:

Essay 1. Writing to interpret information

Essay 2. Writing to either a.evaluate or b. analyze images

Essay 3. Writing to either a. move others  or b. persuade others or c. amuse others.

Obviously, there is a lot of room for creativity and pursuit of personal interests here.

GRADES:

3 essays at 25% each- 75% (includes all drafts and written responses.)                                                    Participation             25%

Attendance:  In a once a week class based on peer interaction, attention is mandatory.  More than two absences will negatively affect your grade.  If you run into problems, let me know so we can head off any misunderstandings.