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Writing 20: Academic Writing / Fall 2007
Professor Keith Wilhite
American Dreams, Gothic Landscapes
Professor Keith Wilhite
Office Telephone: 660-7075
Office: 200Y Art Building (East campus)
Email: keith.wilhite@duke.edu
Section 24 MWF 1:30 – 2:20, Art 116
Section 21 MWF 3:05 – 3:55, Art 102
Purpose of the Course
This is a course in academic writing, and our primary goal will be to enhance your skills as an informed reader and writer of academic texts. The skills you acquire and develop over the course of this semester will pay dividends throughout your academic career. You will leave this course better prepared to engage in the critical reasoning and analysis necessary to write provocative and persuasive academic essays at the university level.
Towards that end, the goals
and practices of our Writing 20 course will include:
1. Reading closely and critically for the purpose of scholarly analysis
2. Responding to and making use of the work of others
3. Drafting and revising texts
4. Making your written texts public through workshops and presentations
As you can no doubt glean from this list, acts of reading and writing will inform each activity we perform and each intellectual move we make. We will ask questions about what it means to “read critically” and apply those reading skills to both published pieces of writing AND the essays that you and your peers produce. In addition to the more formal writing assignments, which I will address below, I will also ask you to write short responses to the assigned readings and the essays you read for peer workshops, as well as reflections on your own work in progress. The ability to engage with the work of others through writing and to assess your own development as a writer will be central to our work this semester.
I would ask that you review the complete Course Goals and Practices for Writing 20 before our next class. Please visit: http://uwp.aas.duke.edu/writing20/students/goals.html.
Course Content and Informing Questions
We will be approaching these writing goals and practices through the lens of U.S. suburban culture. According to the most recent census data, more Americans now live in suburbs than in rural and urban areas combined. And everyone, it seems, has an opinion about suburbia. Though suburbanization is often thought of as a recent—or at least post-World War II—phenomenon, owning a plot of land far from the crowding and blight of the urban center in a neighborhood of single-family homes has been a central part of “American Dream” narratives since the 1820s. Though horse-car and railroad suburbs have long since given way to the sprawling, automobile “megalopolis,” aspects of the suburban dream have remained consistent over time: family, home, land, privacy, and community. Perhaps not surprisingly, some of the critiques have remained consistent as well. Scholars and social critics have lambasted suburban conformity, highlighting the economic and racial exclusivity, gender politics, and environmental costs of suburban living. American literature and film have similarly focused on the dark underside of the suburban dream: murder, suicide, adultery, and sexual abuse. These popular works tend to depict the suburbs as cultural wastelands of SUVs and McMansions, as undifferentiated landscapes of violence, sexual repression or promiscuity, and interminable boredom.
I’d like us to keep all of these dreams, critiques, images, and ideas in play during our discussions. This course is not about defending or disparaging the suburbs, but we will ask questions about what the suburbs were, are, and could be. We will read a variety of perspective on U.S. suburban culture, and we will analyze how scholars, writers, filmmakers, and photographers “frame” their representations of suburbia for readers and viewers. What typically gets framed for viewing and reading—and why? What, or who, exists beyond the margins of the frame? We will begin with two informing questions:
1. What complexities, contradictions, and differences are obscured by popular representations of the suburbs, whether those representations are cheerfully optimistic or witheringly negative?
2. How can we use these complexities, contradictions, and differences to produce new, interesting writing about U.S. suburban culture?
Required Texts (available at the university bookstore)
Eugenides, Jeffrey. The Virgin Suicides. New York: Warner Books, 1993.
Harris, Joseph. Rewriting: How to Do Things with Texts. Logan Utah: Utah State Univ. Press, 2006.
E-Reserves
I have placed several essays and chapters on E-Reserves. These are also required texts for our course, and you are responsible for downloading, printing, reading, and bringing these texts with you to class on the date I’ve assigned these readings. Please refer to the course schedule and the appended course bibliography for further details.
Course Practices and Participation
The only way to become a better writer is through practice—not only through the revision of your own writing, which is critical, but through developing the practice of reading and responding to the written work of others. In one form or another, we will devote most of our class time to talking about your writing: the drafts and revisions of your major writing projects, your written responses to students’ papers for workshops, and your written responses to the published works we read. Whether discussing the day’s reading, responding to a student essay, conducting an in-class workshop, conferencing, or performing in-class writing activities, your writing will almost always be the subject of the day. The success of our class depends upon your participation in these activities, your enthusiastic responses to the works we read, and your commitment to revising your work.
Writing Assignments
Reading Responses: For each essay we read this semester, you will write a brief response in which you discuss a particular passage that you found especially provocative, challenging, vexing, or otherwise enlightening. These are informal responses: a place for you to grapple with issues and ideas and situate your own thinking in relationship to the work of other writers. I will use the following scale to evaluate these responses: √, √-, or 0.
Workshop Responses: For every paper you read for our peer workshops, you will compose a paragraph response to the writer to be delivered during the workshop. These responses will also be evaluated on the √, √-, or 0 system.
Major Writing Projects: I have structured our course work around three Major Writing Projects (MWPs), and you will receive a detailed assignment sheet for these individual projects. Each MWP will go through several stages: exploratory writing and/or topic proposals, initial draft, peer workshop and/or conferences, a revised draft that I will comment on and return to you, and then another round of revision before you submit a final or “archival” version of your essay for a grade. Not every MWP will necessarily go through all of these stages or in this rigid order, but you should expect to produce 2-3 drafts, offer and receive peer critiques, and receive written comments from me and/or discuss your draft with me before you submit the final version of your essay for a grade. The MWPs will each receive a letter grade on an A to F scale.
Writer’s “Memos” & Self-Assessments: At some point between the initial drafting of your MWPs and the final revisions, I will ask you to reflect on how your project has developed. You will comment on goals and strategies, specific revision moves, how your thinking has evolved, what comments on your work have proven helpful, and how you plan to carry out the next level of revisions on the paper. I will use the following scale to evaluate these reflections: √, √-, or 0.
Grading
This is a course in academic writing and, as such, the bulk of your grade will be determined by the quality of your written work. Only work that demonstrates innovative thinking and superior clarity in writing and delivery will earn above average grades. An essay that simply identifies and restates the main ideas of a text is unsatisfactory at this point in your intellectual life. A satisfactory essay will note passages or ideas of particular interest and/or complexity and offer an intelligent discussion of those passages. An excellent essay will articulate a strong and insightful position in response to the texts you’re reading and move beyond what has been said before. Here’s the breakdown for our course requirements:
MWP 1: 20% Panel Presentation (w/ MWP 3): 10%
MWP 2: 25% Reading & Workshop Responses: 10 %
MWP 3: 30% Writer’s Memos: 5%
Attendance
You are expected to be in the room, on time, and ready to participate every class period this semester. Missing more than 3 class sessions will have an adverse effect on your grade. Work missed as a result of an absence (i.e. workshops or in-class writing) cannot be made up at a later date.
Late Work
Informal writing and early drafts of the MWPs will not be accepted after the assigned due date/time has passed. There are no exceptions to this rule. I will accept a late final draft of an MWP, but ONLY IF PRIOR ARRANGEMENT HAS BEEN MADE. That means you would need to contact me at least 24 hours in advance and explain why your final draft will not be ready on time. The grade for the MWP will be lowered by one letter for each day it is late beyond the original due date.
Procedures and Format Requirements
I will post a detailed list of the technical and stylistic requirements for writing assignments on our Blackboard site in advance of the first MWP. As a general rule, however, I expect all the writing you do outside of class for this course to be typed and double-spaced. I expect you to read your work for, and correct, errors in spelling and grammar. All your work must be properly cited and documented. I prefer that you use MLA style, but APA and Chicago are also acceptable for this course. Style guidelines are available at: http://library.duke.edu/research/citing/index.html.
Plagiarism Policy
Plagiarism is the presentation of another person’s ideas or words as your own, whether in writing or speaking. Copying material from another source without using quotation marks and citing your source is plagiarism. Paraphrasing or summarizing information without citing your source is plagiarism. Presenting another student’s paper as your own is plagiarism. Duke University considers plagiarism a grave offense. If you plagiarize, you will receive an F for that assignment and possibly for the course.
We will discuss ways to avoid plagiarism and strategies for properly and productively including the work of other writers in your essays. Please remember that you are responsible at all times for meeting and upholding the Duke Community Standard.
Email is the best way to get in touch with me. I will do everything possible to respond to your inquiries within 24 hours, and I am happy to answer questions about the course, an assignment, or schedule a conference with you via email. Email is also a good way to let me know if you’re going to be absent from class. Email is not an appropriate forum for appealing a grade. Please schedule a meeting with me if you have questions or concerns about how I have evaluated your work.
A word of advice: Audience is an oft-neglected rhetorical consideration when writing emails. An email message between a student and a professor should be considered an official form of communication. That is to say, an email to a professor should not read like an email to a friend, or a text message, or an IM. I’d kindly ask that you keep that in mind before you hit the “send” button.
The Writing Studio
The Writing Studio offers free help with drafting and revising any writing project associated with any course at Duke. Trained tutors are available to help not only students who are struggling with writing, but those who are confident writers in search of critical feedback to help them polish their work. You can meet with a tutor on a one-time basis to help with a particularly difficult assignment, or meet with a tutor on a regular basis. To learn more, or to make an appointment, please visit the Writing Studio website at http://uwp.aas.duke.edu/wstudio/.
Portfolio @ Duke
For information about Duke
Student Portfolio, visit: https://portfolio.oit.duke.edu/index.jsp.
WR 20 Course Schedule: American Dreams, Gothic Landscapes (Fall 2007)
(Reading Responses / Informal Writing TBA)
Week 2
M 9/3 Coontz, “What We Really Miss About the 1950s” (Bb)
W 9/5 Brooks, “Consumption” (Bb)
F 9/7 Reviews of Bobos in Paradise (Bb: External Links page)
Week 3
M 9/10 Spigel, “The Suburban Home Companion” (Bb)
W 9/12 Blaustein, “Counterprivates” (Bb)
F 9/14 Discussion: MWP 1—A Chance to Catch-up, Recap, and Regroup
Exploratory Writing/Topic Proposals for MWP 1 Due in Class
Week 4
M 9/17 Harris, “Forwarding” (34-53) and “Countering” (54-72)
W 9/19 Workshop: Full Class (Two Volunteers)
*** TH 9/20 Rough Draft MWP 1 (Posted on Blackboard by 6 pm) ***
F 9/21 Workshop: Peer Groups (Everyone participates)
Workshop Responses Due in Class
Week 5
M 9/24 Waldie, Holy Land: A Suburban Memoir (excerpt on Bb)
W 9/26 Writer’s Memo Due in Class
F 9/28 Discussion: MWP 2—Looking Ahead to the Research Project
*** Final Draft MWP 1 (posted on Blackboard by 5 pm, F 9/28) ***
Week 6
M 10/1 Class will meet in Lilly Library
W 10/3 Sontag, “In Plato’s Cave” from On Photography (Bb)
F 10/5 In Class: Visual Suburbia—Photograph
Week 7
M 10/8 FALL BREAK
W 10/10 The Two Parts of MWP 2: Writing Responses / Organizing the Review Essay
F 10/12 Research & Writing Day
*** SUN 10/14 Responses to Articles/Chapters 1 & 2 for MWP 2 (Posted on Bb by Noon) ***
Week 8
M 10/15 Workshop: Responses 1 & 2
W 10/17 Research Consultation – Review Databases / Discuss Problems with Research
*** TH 10/18 Responses to Articles/Chapters 3 & 4 for MWP 2 (Posted on Bb by 6 pm) ***
F 10/19 Workshop: Responses 3 & 4
Week 9
M 10/22 – F 10/26: MWP 2 Conferences
(Note: We will not meet for class! You will sign-up for a conference to discuss your Research Project, AND you will bring final drafts of your four Responses to that conference meeting, as well as an outline of your Review Essay.
*** SUN 10/28 Rough Draft MWP 2 Review Essay (Posted on Bb by Noon) ***
Week 10
M 10/29 Workshop: Review Essay (Full Class – Two volunteers)
W 10/31 Peer Group Workshop s of the Review Essay: “Color-Coded Maps”
Peer Responses Due in Class
F 11/2 Harris, “Revising” (98-123)
Writer’s Memo Due: “The Reverse Outline”
Week 11
M 11/5 Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides (3-35)
*** Final Draft MWP 2: Review Essay Due (Posted on Bb by 11:59pm) ***
W 11/7 Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides (35-115)
F 11/9 Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides (115-140) & Harris, “Taking an Approach” (73-97)
Week 11
M 11/12 Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides (141-171) & Laura Miller, “Family Togetherness and
the Suburban Ideal”
W 11/14 Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides (171-216)
F 11/16 Eugenides, The Virgin Suicides (217-249)
Topic Proposals for MWP 3 (presented in class)
Week 13
M 11/19 1st Draft of MWP 3 due for Peer Workshops
W 11/21 THANKSGIVING BREAK
F 11/23 THANKSGIVING BREAK
Week 14
M 11/26 “Tracking Influences” In-Class Exercise: Sanger, “Out of the Dark: Exploring Female
Friendships in Woolf and Morrison” (essay from ’06 Deliberations)
W 11/28 Full Class Workshop of Review Essay (Two Volunteers)
*** TH 11/29 2nd Draft MWP 3 (Posted on Blackboard by 6 pm) ***
F 11/30 MWP 3 Peer Workshops Pt.2
Peer Responses Due in Class
Week 15
M 12/3 – F 12/7: Panel Presentations
*** Final Draft MWP 3 Due Friday 12/7 (Posted on Bb by 11:59pm) ***