Syllabus for Rhetoric 1101, Section 008, Fall 2004

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Rhetoric 1101 | Writing to Inform, Convince, and Persuade

Identity and Multiculturalism | Instructor: Clancy Ratliff

Instructor: Clancy Ratliff

Department of Rhetoric

Office: Classroom Office Building, Room 69, St. Paul Campus

E-mail: ratli008@umn.edu

Office phone: 612.624.4933

Office hours: Monday 10:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., Friday 10:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m., and by appointment. I'm available anytime via email; you'll find that I answer emails very quickly.

Required Texts and Materials

A UMN e-mail account. You are responsible for reading any email I send to the class (If you use an email client other than UMN, such as Yahoo! or Hotmail, have your UMN email forwarded to the address you check most often.)

Hacker, D. A writer's reference. 5th ed. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's.

Ramage, J.D., Bean, J.C., and Johnson, J. (2004). Writing arguments: A rhetoric with readings (6th Brief Edition). New York: Pearson.

A U Card for printing out online articles

Course Description

From course catalog:
Rhet 1101, Writing to Inform, Convince, and Persuade. (A-F only; 4 cr.)

This course introduces the writing process and the types of academic writing you may be expected to complete in your college career such as research papers, argumentative papers, and literature reviews. The course is designed to help you develop a clear thesis in a written paper and support that thesis with appropriate sources. Time will be spent discussing rhetorical elements in writing such as audience, purpose, and argumentative structure. In addition, you will practice steps in the writing process such as invention, research, organization, drafting, revision, and editing. Your assignments will report, synthesize, and draw conclusions regarding the significance of what you read. Assignments may include 1) summary or abstract; 2) rhetorical analysis; (3) short thesis paper; (4) prospectus; (5) evaluation or review of literature; (6) research paper. Some courses are taught in a computer classroom and some in a traditional classroom.

Course Objectives

• To learn and become proficient in rhetorical concepts including argument, audience, ethos, pathos, logos, claim, rhetorical triangle, rhetorical strategy, and rhetorical context
• To read and analyze arguments critically, synthesize them with your own personal experience (including other arguments you have read), and evaluate their persuasiveness
• To understand the importance of audience in writing and write for a diverse academic audience with differing beliefs and values
• To learn the differences among writing to inform, convince, and persuade
• To learn the differences among various academic writing genres by writing in several, including a prospectus, abstract, weblog, annotated bibliography, long argumentative essay, and rhetorical analysis
• To understand clearly how to use sources in a way that complies with University standards of academic integrity

• To understand the ways in which writing—both the process and content of writing—is shaped to a large extent by context and audience

Responsibility

I take my responsibility as an instructor very seriously, and I expect you to do the same as students. Taking responsibility for your own learning means that you:

• Are in class every day, on time and prepared.
• Complete all assignments on time.
• Read this syllabus and any other handouts I distribute carefully to discern my expectations and requirements. Abide by and strive to exceed those expectations and requirements. It is your responsibility to ask me questions when expectations and requirements are unclear to you.
• Participate actively in class, not just when prompted.
• Put time, thought, and effort into each assignment, and turn in work that reflects these.
• Take advantage of resources here at the U of M, including the Writing Center, Online Writing Center, and library to improve your writing and research skills
• Always assess your own progress. Set high standards for yourself and your work, and work actively to strengthen any weaknesses you find.
• Take advantage of any opportunities I might offer, such as extra credit, revision of work, comments on drafts, and workshopping of drafts in class.
• Accept the consequences if you do not meet your responsibilities.
• Never go about your learning and coursework in an unethical and dishonest manner.
• Move from depending on me for prompts in responding to texts toward your own critical responses to texts we read.
• Understand not only that you have a responsibility to yourself and to me, but also to your classmates. Give them the best possible feedback on drafts during peer review and take an active role in any collaborative work.
• Adhere to standards of academic integrity (See section on Academic Integrity in syllabus)

To create an atmosphere of active engagement and learning, our classroom must be a friendly, courteous place. This is not to say we will never have conflict; in fact, conflict should be an important and educational part of our rhetorical situation. But to ensure that we have a safe space to discuss potentially sensitive issues, I expect you to be quiet when another student is contributing to the discussion or when I am talking. I also expect you to set your cell phones to quiet mode and put them away during class. If you disagree with something another student says, be tactful when you set forth your reasons for disagreeing. In other words, critique the argument, but do not attack the person making the argument.

Disability Policy

If you have a documented disability, I am happy to work with you as long as you let me know during the first week of the semester. You will need to get set up with Disability Services, fill out any paperwork they require, and bring me any letters and documents from Disability Services detailing the accommodations I am to make. Visit their Web site for more information.

Attendance Policy

We have a limited number of class meetings, and a portion of your grade will be devoted to in-class participation; therefore, attendance is crucial. If you are aware of dates that you must miss, let me know as soon as possible. Excessive absences, whether excused or unexcused, may result in a grade reduction.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a serious breach of academic integrity. It is passing off someone else's work as your own, whether it is an entire paper or a section of a paper that is not cited properly. If you are caught plagiarizing, I will first require that you meet with me in my office. Then I will notify the Rhetoric 1101 Course Coordinator and fill out a Report of Scholastic Dishonesty form with the Office for Student Academic Integrity recommending disciplinary action. If I suspect that you have plagiarized, I will ask to see you in my office. You will need to bring copies of all the sources you used and demonstrate that you have used the sources in an ethical manner. If you want to use information from a source and do not know how to give proper credit to the author, find out how to cite the source in the Hacker handbook, or just ask me. If you are tempted to plagiarize because you do not understand the assignment or are under a lot of stress, talk to me or e-mail me, and I will most likely give you an extension on the assignment. For more information on plagiarism, see the Quick Tips Web site from the University of Minnesota's Center for Writing.

Late Papers and Missed Assignments

In order to pass the course, you must turn in all the major assignments. I am flexible when it comes to deadlines if you let me know in advance that you will need an extension. If you turn in an assignment late without arranging a deadline change in advance, I will lower the grade by one step (B- to C+) for each day late.

Assessment of Writing

Grading criteria will vary with each assignment. Students will find those specific criteria included with the assignment sheet handed out as each new assignment begins. Across the assignments, average (C level) papers will:

• Have a clear and focused thesis statement and/or question you are attempting to answer in your research
• Have very few grammatical and mechanical errors
• Comply with the conventions of the writing genre (for example, annotated bibliography, abstract, prospectus)
• Show that you, the writer, are carefully considering all sides of the topic at issue
• Meet length guidelines
• Have a compassionate, credible, and thoughtful ethos
• Present persuasive evidence from credible, current sources to undergird your argument
• Demonstrate that you have internalized the topic and have a desire to engage with the material
• Demonstrate that you have gone through the writing process, including brainstorming, drafting, peer review, and revision

Please note that I adhere to the University Grading Policy, which states that a grade of A "represents achievement that is outstanding relative to the level necessary to meet course requirements," a grade of B "represents achievement that is significantly above the level necessary to meet course requirements," a grade of C "represents achievement that meets the course requirements in every respect," and a grade of D "represents achievement that is worthy of credit even though it fails to meet fully the course requirements." So let's say you turn in a paper that is worth 15% of your grade. If you have a considerable number of, for example, comma splices, enough so that it distracts me as a reader, I would probably take one letter grade (15 points) off. I have an overall grading rubric that I use for every assignment with these categories:

• Content: About 50% of the paper's overall grade. This includes but is not limited to clarity of content, appropriate scope (not too broad), proper use of credible sources, persuasiveness of argument, quality of evidence presented, presentation of all sides of the issue to show thoughtfulness, and analysis of audience (for example, for an academic audience, you should not use religious texts such as the Bible as evidence).

• Genre: About 15% of the paper's overall grade. You can think of a genre as the package your information is contained in. Academic audience have certain expectations that come along with each genre. For example, in a long argumentative essay, readers expect to see a clear forecasting statement in the introduction that explains how the essay is structured. I will explain these expectations to you and evaluate how well you met or exceeded them.

• Process: About 15% of the paper's overall grade. Here I will evaluate your participation in the process of writing: brainstorming, drafting, peer review, and revision. With all papers, you must turn in your final draft, rough draft, peer reviews, and a paragraph of reflection on how you revised your paper after getting peer feedback.

• Presentation: About 20% of the paper's overall grade. This includes but is not limited to assessment of grammatical and mechanical proficiency, use of MLA/APA style, paragraph development, transitions between paragraphs, and visual design—fonts and headings.

Class Participation

Class participation will make up 15% of your final grade. For our purposes, class participation includes

• Participation in class discussions and in-class group work
• Contribution to peer review groups
• In-class presentations on readings (each student will do two reading presentations)
• Average of grades on reading quizzes

I will assign each of you the names of three other students in the class. You will write a paragraph for each student evaluating his or her participation in class. I will do this at midterm and again at the end of the semester. At midterm, I'll provide each of you with a summary of your peer feedback so that you can improve on your level of participation.

Weblog Component

You will be expected to write at least two posts per week in a community weblog on themes related to what we're doing in class. We will talk more about weblogs in class, but the basic definition of a weblog is a Web site with links and commentary that is updated frequently, consisting of posts in reverse chronological order. It is similar to a journal that one would keep, but is public. In order to get you familiar with the software, during the first few weeks of the semester, some class time on Fridays will be devoted to composing weblog posts. I intend for the weblog to be a space where you can continue the discussion from class and reflect on topics we discuss in class. Write them with the assumption that your words will be public.

Peer Review

For each major assignment, we will devote some class time to peer review. On those days, I will expect you to have exchanged drafts with your assigned partner in advance. You must come to class with a copy of your peer's draft and a one-page memo responding to the draft. I will provide guidelines on how to respond to drafts. I also encourage you to submit your drafts to me and to the Online Writing Center, especially if you are seeking to improve your grade. The students I know who have submitted drafts to the Online Writing Center have all said that their experience with it was great and that the tutors' comments were tremendously helpful.

Grading System

I use a thousand-point system. When grading your papers, I think in terms of letter grades, but I use this slightly more quantitative system so that you can have a better idea of what your final grade will be—you just add up your points at the end. In accordance with the University of Minnesota's plus/minus final grading system, final averages will break down this way:

A 1000-980
A- 940-970
B+ 900-930
B 860-890
B- 820-850
C+ 790-810
C 750-780
C- 710-740
D+ 670-700
D 650-660
F 640-0

Midterm Alerts

If there is cause for concern about your performance in the course, I will be complying with the University's policy of sending Midterm Alerts. University policy states that these alerts are to be sent out around the sixth to the eighth week of the semester. I will submit a Midterm Alert if your grade at midterm is a C- or below, and I will explain what you need to do to raise your grade; for example, I will alert you if you are behind on your weblog posts, if you have a problem with attendance, or if your class participation or writing needs improvement. These alerts will be sent to your UMN email account and to your advisor's. In extreme cases in which you are too far behind in the work, I will recommend that you drop the course. The drop/add deadlines this semester are: September 20 (deadline to drop with no approval required), November 1 (“W” recorded on transcript), December 15 (Scholastic Committee approval required; “W” recorded on transcript). Note also the tuition refund drop/add deadlines.

Assignments and Weighting of Assignments

Schedule of Assignments

This schedule is subject to change at my discretion; it almost surely will change at some point. Be vigilant in noting changes when I announce them in class, and check the syllabus periodically.

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