1、XISU English Writing1Syllabus for Basic English WritingCOURSE DESCRIPTIONEnglish Composition I fulfills one third of the English Composition Requirement for the University of Cincinnati General Education program. It contributes to your developing competency in Effective Communication and Critical Th
2、inking. This first course in the first-year writing sequence is designed to provide the basis for your continuing development as a writer throughout the year and in subsequent academic courses. The writing we will do will help you understand how best to approach a variety of writing situations and t
3、o develop an understanding of yourselves as writers. In this course, we will approach writing in the spirit of inquiry, seeing each writing task as an opportunity to explore questions about content, as well as about audience and purpose. To emphasize the social nature of writing and reading, we will
4、 engage in dialogue with each other and with the various texts we read, allowing the various perspectives and viewpoints to increase our understanding. We will also engage in reflective activities, so that you may better understand your own reading, writing, and thinking processes. Required TextRama
5、ge, John D., John C. Bean, and June Johnson. The Allyn 1%)II. Reflective journals, class activities, and attendance = 15% of class grade Breakdown of the grade:(1) Reflective journals (10%)(2) Class activities and attendance (5%)Weekly ScheduleWeek OneM 3/29 Introduction to the course: syllabus, exp
6、ectations, and Letter of Introduction: assignment W 3/31 Assignment: Complete Letter of Introduction. Read A playing the “believing and doubting game”Peer response of posing a good subject-matter problemXISU English Writing9Week TwoM 4/5 Assignment: Read A Complete ObservationClass: Analysis of desc
7、riptionsF 4/9 Assignment: Complete draft of two descriptions and analysis for peer responseClass: Peer response of two descriptions and self-reflectionWeek ThreeM 4/12 Assignment: Prepare presentation draft of two descriptions and analysis due.Read A analyzing adsW 4/21 Assignment: Work on Ad Analys
8、is. Read A Read A shaping and draftingWeek SixM 5/3 Assignment: Prepare draft of Summary and Strong Response for peer responseClass: Peer ResponseW 5/5 Assignment: Prepare presentation draft of Summary and Strong Response. Read A 2. In you journal, a) respond to the stories; b) record your difficult
9、ies in understanding them, preparing at least three interpretive questions that you would like to be answered in class; and C) write a passage about your understanding of the author Leslie Silko by synthesizing the two stories.Week 2Discussion of the assigned readings- Starting with students respons
10、es: likes/dislikes and reasons- Answering students interpretive questions- Analyzing the setting, characters, conflicts, irony, symbols and themesSharing synthesis journal entries (comments)Assignment: 1. Read “An Interview with Leslie Marmon Silko”, “Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Per
11、spective” and “Story Telling: The Fiction of Leslie Silko”;2. Blend these essays into your knowledge of Silko, and write in your XISU English Writing14journal how they change or add to your understanding of her.Week 3Discussion of the assigned readings and your new understanding of Silko- What does
12、each essay say?- How well does it say it/them?- What does it add to your knowledge of the author? Does it change your understanding of the stories?- How do the contexts help with your meaning making process of the texts?Assignment: 1. Read “A Feminist Reading of “Storyteller”: Grandmother Spiders We
13、b”, “The Telling Which Continues: Oral Tradition and the Written Word in Leslie Marmon Silkos Storyteller” and “The Web of Meaning: Naming the Absent Mother in Storyteller” 2. Use your synthesizing skill, work these essays into your knowledge of Leslie Silko and her “Storyteller” and write two possi
14、ble research topics on the story in your journal.Week 4Discussion of the assigned readings.- What does each essay say about “Storyteller”?- Do you agree with the critics interpretations of story? Is there anything that you disagree with?- What social and ethical issues does the story address?- How w
15、ould you summarize Silkos view on the relationship between man and nature? And that between men and women, between the white and the natives?Comments on students possible research topics.Assignment: 1. Read “Sun Steals Yellow Woman” and “Whirlwind Man Steals Yellow Woman”; 2. Find on the Internet or
16、 in the library about Katsina Spirit; 3. Write on your journal how the two essays and your knowledge about the Katsina Spirit help you understand “Yellow Woman”; 4. Use your synthesizing skills and work out two possible research topics on the story.Week 5Discussion of readings.- How does the story o
17、f Katsina Spirit help with your understanding of “Yellow Woman”?- What does each of the two assigned readings say about Yellow Woman?XISU English Writing15- Compare and contrast the two readings with Silkos “Yellow Woman.” Did you see any connections among them? Comments on Silkos narratives in rela
18、tion to the oral tradition of her tribeComments on students research topicsAssignment: 1. Finalize your research topic; 2. Complete your prewriting worksheet;3. Complete your peer review draft.Week 6Peer review of Paper #4. (Peer review Worksheet)Assignment: Complete Presentation draft of Paper #4.W
19、riting Assignment 4: Texts and ContextsFor this assignment, you will read two short stories written by Leslie Marmon Silko, and choose to write about one of them. As you read, you are supposed to analyze the setting, characters, conflicts, point of view, irony, symbolism and theme of the stories. Yo
20、u will also read secondary sources to familiarize yourself with the discourse community that has been formed around Silko. Unlike Assignment 3 which asked you to address any interpretive question, this one requires that you raise a research question that has not been answered by previous critics. Im
21、agine all the critics of Silko and her works are having a party. You come in late and are about to join the conversation. You do not want to say what they have already talked about because it would be embarrassing if other guests excused themselves from you to talk to someone with a new topic. Then
22、how do you choose a topic that will interest your audience? You need to first of all learn what they have been talking about, that is, to read what have been writtenthe published essays on Silko and her works, and then come up with some new ideas. “But how am I supposed to do that?” you may ask. Don
23、t worry. For this assignment, you will learn a new trick, synthesizing, to help you do just thatproducing new ideas.Once you have a research topic, you determine a thesis and find reasons for them, gather evidence from the story and secondary sources to support your reasons, and organize these reaso
24、ns and supporting evidence in a logical way. Keep in mind that your essay is argumentative in nature, and your purpose is to convince your readers of your claims.Your essay should be 6-8 pages long, double spaced, using 12 pt. font and typeface Times New Roman. Use MLA documentation style.XISU Engli
25、sh Writing16Texts:Storyteller Yellow WomanContexts:1. An Interview with Leslie Marmon Silko2. Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective3. Story Telling: The Fiction of Leslie Silko4. A Feminist Reading of “Storyteller”: Grandmother Spiders Web5. The Telling Which Continues: Oral Tradi
26、tion and the Written Word in Leslie Marmon Silkos “Storyteller”6. The Web of Meaning: Naming the Absent Mother in “Storyteller”7. Sun Steals Yellow Woman8. Whirlwind Man Steals Yellow WomanHappiness is doing with a smile what you have to do anyway.Thinking and Writing by SynthesizingThinking by Synt
27、hesizingLike the other thinking strategies we discussed, synthesizing occurs naturally in everyday circumstances. You might, for example, have seen several movies starring a particular artist, say Meryl Streep or Tom Hanks. Each movie has its own plot and theme, and in each the actor takes on a uniq
28、ue character. However, after having watched the same actor perform in a variety of roles, you begin to form a unified idea of the style and talent of the performer. Your mind has synthesized the aspects into a whole mental picture. Likewise, perhaps you investigated several colleges or universities
29、before determining which one you would attend. Each campus manifested its own style and atmosphere, but after looking at many, you formed a mental image of what colleges are. In your literature class, you might have been asked to read several short stories by a single author and create a portrait of
30、 his or her themes and style.What Is Synthesizing?To help you gain a more complete understanding of the word synthesis, you might consider the meanings of a couple of familiar, everyday terms that are derived from the same root word (suntithenaiGreek for “to put together”). As you probably know, in
31、manufacturing, a synthetic material is one that does not appear in nature but is an amalgam of various fibers and chemicals, which results in an entirely new kind of material. Another related word, synthesizer, refers to a musical instrument that combines electronic circuitry to create sounds that c
32、annot be made by other XISU English Writing17instruments or sounds that duplicate the sounds of other instruments. These examples are analogous to the cognitive process of synthesis. Synthesis occurs when two or more things are combined to create something newwhether it be a new idea, a new fabric,
33、or a new sound.Writing by SynthesizingSynthesis is an important thinking and writing strategy to learn because it is the basis for writing papers that incorporate more than one outside source. When you write research papers, for example, you may need to use information from several books, periodical
34、s, interviews, and surveys. You will synthesize the information you find in these or other sources into one whole project with a single theme or focus. Each time you integrate information from two or more sources to arrive at your own conclusion, you are synthesizing.Design in SynthesizingLike other
35、 thinking and writing strategies, synthesizing is a natural mental activity. However, when you try to write down your synthesized ideas, you sometimes discover it is difficult to be orderly. But orderly you must be to help your readers understand how all the many pieces of information relate to each
36、 other. When you synthesize, you may have to resist the urge to simply summarize a source and go to the next and summarize again. Your job as a writer is to help your reader to see the connections that came to your mind as you studied the material. Readers will usually not see the connection without
37、 your help because they have not read or thought as much as you have about the subject. If you are writing to teachers, part of your job as writer is to convince them that you understand the connections, so you must state them.Your job is to bring order out of what may seem like a chaos of material.
38、 One effective way to be sure you do so is to step back from your material and try to get an overall idea, a main point that struck you as tying the various material together, a main point that you want to share with your reader. Write this in a working thesis statement, and determine several minor
39、ideas that could support such a thesis. Organize your writing around those minor points and weave elements from your various sources into paragraphs or blocks of text under each of those minor points. A sketchy design of your paper might look like this:I. ThesisII. Point or Reason #1A. Summarized, p
40、araphrased, or quoted material in support of the reason from oneor more sourcesB. Your discussion of the materialIII. Point or Reason #2A. Summarized, paraphrased, or quoted material in support of the reason from oneor more sourcesB. Your discussion of the materialXISU English Writing18IV. Point or
41、Reason #3A. Summarized, paraphrased, or quoted material in support of the reason from one or more sourcesB. Your discussion of the materialV. Point or Reason #4A. Summarized, paraphrased, or quoted material in support of the reason from one or more sourcesB. Your discussion of the materialVI. and so
42、 on . . .VII. ConclusionAs you write, remember that your goal is to help your readers understand and become interested in your ideas without confusing or boring them. Therefore, you should probably keep your direct quotes to a minimum. A good rule of thumb is to quote only those phrases that are so
43、well said by the original author that your summary or paraphrase of them would not do the ideas justice.Practice in Thinking by SynthesizingLets look at the synthesizing processes of Tirzah, a student in a world religions class, as she studies the creation myths of several cultures.Tirzahs teacher h
44、as assigned students simply “to read accounts of the origin of the universe from several cultures and write a paper on them.” The assignment seemed straightforward enough until Tirzah began reading. The accounts seemed so different that she wondered what she could possibly do besides summarize each
45、one in turn. She reread each one carefully, beginning with the account with which she was most familiar, the Bibles story of the Creation. This time, as she read, she took notes. She was looking for connections, trying to find something about each of the accounts that seemed similar to the others, s
46、omething she could write about. At the same time, she didnt want to be too hasty in finding the creation myths too much alike. She might like to write her paper about how different they were, so she made notes of the unique features of each, too. Some of her notes looked like this:GENESISIn the begi
47、nningheaven and earth without formSpirit moved on watersGod spokelight appearedLight and dark dividedEach day a different creation by Gods commandMan and woman made in Gods imageGod said his creations were “very good”Winnebago Indians of Connecticut“Father” came to consciousnessHis tears became the
48、watersXISU English Writing19What he thought of and wished for happenedTook a piece of earth and make something like himselfBreathed life into itPolynesiaNoncreated creator in the immemorialSky was like a broken shellAll was dark endless spaceMaidu Indians of CaliforniaAll was dark and only waterA ra
49、ft with turtleThree beingsturtle, earth-initiate (face covered, was never seen) and Father of the secret societyA rope came from nowhere and let down earth-initiateTurtle dove to get some earth to create manFather of the secret society shouted loudly whenever earth-initiate made somethingThey answered “it is good”Coyote became a liarAfricaBumbaaloneIn painvomited up the sun, moon, animals, man like BumbaBeasts created more (Like evolution?)TsetsetroublemakerlightningCommand to behold, creations belong to the peopleJapanHeaven and earth togethe
