The Art of Composition
English 100
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Spring 2007
Instructor: M. Thomas Gammarino
Course Time: MWF 10:30 - 11:20
Course Location: Kuy 313
Email: mthomasg@hawaii.edu
Office hours: MWF 11:30 - 12:30, and by appointment
Course Description
Writing is one means by which human beings can give form to the primordial chaos inside their heads. It is, in other words, an art-and in this sense, all writing is creative writing: the short story, the argument, the grocery list, the syllabus. As with any art, writing emerges as a series of choices, and we’ll spend this semester looking at these critical junctures under a microscope. But first we’ll begin each class with ten minutes of freewriting; as Donald Hall observes, “Our minds are muscle-bound, not by intellect, but by formulas of thought, by clichés both of phrase and of organization,” and freewriting is one of the best tools I know of for breaking old habits. Each student will be required to freewrite at least three pages per week throughout the semester (five during the collage unit-all to be evaluated strictly in terms of quantity). Class time will be dedicated to lectures, readings, and discussion of the major paper for each of the four units (portrait, collage, exploratory essay, argumentative essay-each of which may require several smaller “feeder” assignments). We’ll also spend some time on more “nuts-and-bolts” matters of grammar and style (each student will give a five-minute presentation); as well as working together in groups. Writing is never a wholly solitary activity-we always write to some imagined audience and inside a whole ecosystem of influences-so students should be prepared to share their writing with the rest of the class (freewriting excluded). The major assignments will move from the personal towards the academic and culminate in a synthesis of the two. While our discussions will focus on writing as an art in itself, the first two major assignments-the portrait and the collage-will lend themselves to analogy with the visual arts, while the latter two-the exploratory essay and the argumentative essay-will invite discussion of the rhetorical arts of the ancient world. Each student will also be required to keep an ongoing “editing checklist.” By the end of the semester, students should have developed a facility in several different genres and a new level of critical self-awareness, which they’ll then be ready to bring to bear on most any situation they encounter, academic or otherwise.
Evaluation will be based on the following:
Scene #1, 2-3 pages
Scene #2, 2-3 pages
Portrait, 4-6 pages
Collage, 4-6 pages
Exploratory Essay, 4-6 pages
Argumentative Essay, 6-8 pages
Freewriting Journal, at least 40 pages-handwritten
Editing Checklist
Grammar Presentation
Oral Draft Presentation
NB: Each essay must be typed in Times New Roman, 12-point font, with standard margins.
Because students enter this course with varying degrees of experience, I will not ascribe grades to individual essays. Instead, I will evaluate them in terms of how well they fulfill the requirements of the assignment. It goes without saying that final drafts should be virtually free of spelling and grammatical errors. If an essay falls short for some reason, I will schedule a conference with the student and he/she may revise and resubmit it. If a student meets all of the requirements for the semester, including always having drafts on time, keeping up with the freewriting journal and editing checklist, handing in all preliminary work with each assignment, and not having more than three unexcused absences (being more than five minutes late will constitute an absence), he/she will have an automatic B for the semester. If a student in good-standing wishes to get an A for the semester, some extra work will be required, including significant revisions of three of the major assignments, peer revision, and a metadiscursive commentary on what was changed and why. If a student wishes to pursue the A option, he/she must commit by the midpoint of the semester.
NB: Papers are due on due dates, even if you are not present.
I don’t expect to have any problems with academic dishonesty, but just in case, I should point out that plagiarism will result in failing this course. The University Of Hawaii at Manoa defines plagiarism as follows:
Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to, submitting, to satisfy an academic requirement, any document that has been copied in whole or in part from another individual’s work without identifying that individual; neglecting to identify as a quotation a documented idea that has not been assimilated into the student’s language and style; paraphrasing a passage so closely that the reader is misled as to the source; submitting the same written or oral material in more than one course without obtaining authorization from the instructors involved; and “dry-labbing,” which includes obtaining and using experimental data from other students without the express consent of the instructor, utilizing experimental data and laboratory write-ups from other sections of the course or from previous terms, and fabricating data to fit the expected results.
Should you run into any confusion about how to properly credit your sources, please come talk to me.
TEXTS: Diana Hacker, A POCKET STYLE MANUAL, any edition. Bedford/St. Martin’s. ISBN: 0-312-40686-3; packet of photocopies.
CALENDAR*
Monday 1/8 Introduction
Wednesday 1/10 Discussion of readings: “Shitty first drafts.” Begin scene #1- personal narrative
Friday 1/12 Discuss “Writing an Autobiographical Narrative”
Monday 1/15 Holiday: Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Wednesday 1/17 Draft Day for scene #1
Friday 1/19 Scene #1 due (2-3 pages); begin scene #2 - fictional narrative
Monday 1/22 Discuss readings: “Seeing is Believing,” “Forever Overhead,” “Hills Like White Elephants”
Wednesday 1/24 Draft day for scene #2
Friday 1/26 Grammar Presentation; Scene #2 due (2-3 pages); begin portrait
Monday 1/29 Discuss “Missing a Grandfather”; work on portrait
Wednesday 1/31 “ ”
Friday 2/2 Grammar Presentation; Draft day for portrait
Monday 2/5 Portrait due (4-5 pages); begin collage
Wednesday 2/7 Discuss Elbow 21-29, 87-98
Friday 2/9 Collage Day
Monday 2/12 Loop writing
Wednesday 2/14 Discuss “Our Secret”
Friday 2/16 Grammar Presentation; Draft day for collage
Monday 2/19 Holiday: Presidents’ Day
Wednesday 2/21 Collage essay due (4-5 pages); begin exploratory essay
Friday 2/23 Grammar Presentation; Research and documenting sources
Monday 2/26 “ ”
Wednesday 2/28 Proving the Impossible
Friday 3/2 Grammar Presentation; Discuss “Exploring Theory: The Essay,” “To the Reader,” and “Writing an Exploratory Essay”
Monday 3/5 “ ”
Wednesday 3/7 “ ”
Friday 3/9 Grammar Presentation; Draft day for exploratory essay
Monday 3/12 Exploratory essay due (4-5 pages); begin argumentative essay
Wednesday 3/14 Discuss “Writing a Classical Argument”
Friday 3/16 Grammar Presentation; “ ”
Monday 3/19 “ ”
Wednesday 3/21 Begin summary
Friday 3/23 Grammar Presentation; Draft day for summary
Monday 3/26 Spring recess
Wednesday 3/28 “ ”
Friday 3/30 “ ”
Monday 4/2 Summary due (1-2 pages); begin polemic
Wednesday 4/4 Work on polemic
Friday 4/6 Holiday: Good Friday
Monday 4/9 Draft day for polemic (1-2 pages)
Wednesday 4/11 Polemic due; begin rebuttal
Friday 4/13 Grammar Presentation; Draft day for rebuttal
Monday 4/16 Rebuttal due (1-2 pages); Discuss “Exploring Theory: Nonadversarial Argument, Reasoning, and Grammar”
Wednesday 4/18 Discuss “Footstools and Furniture”
Friday 4/20 Oral drafts
Monday 4/23 “ ”
Wednesday 4/25 “ ”
Friday 4/27 Grammar Presentation; Draft day for argumentative essay
Monday 4/30 Argumentative essay due (6-8 pages)
Wednesday 5/2 Concluding remarks
*Please note: this schedule is tentative. A syllabus is a contract and as such I will not alter the due dates of the major papers without class approval. However, since I do aim to make the course as organic as possible, it is likely that some of the schedule will shift with our needs.
English 100
University of Hawaii at Manoa
Spring 2007
Instructor: M. Thomas Gammarino
Course Time: MWF 10:30 - 11:20
Course Location: Kuy 313
Email: mthomasg@hawaii.edu
Office hours: MWF 11:30 - 12:30, and by appointment
Course Description
Writing is one means by which human beings can give form to the primordial chaos inside their heads. It is, in other words, an art-and in this sense, all writing is creative writing: the short story, the argument, the grocery list, the syllabus. As with any art, writing emerges as a series of choices, and we’ll spend this semester looking at these critical junctures under a microscope. But first we’ll begin each class with ten minutes of freewriting; as Donald Hall observes, “Our minds are muscle-bound, not by intellect, but by formulas of thought, by clichés both of phrase and of organization,” and freewriting is one of the best tools I know of for breaking old habits. Each student will be required to freewrite at least three pages per week throughout the semester (five during the collage unit-all to be evaluated strictly in terms of quantity). Class time will be dedicated to lectures, readings, and discussion of the major paper for each of the four units (portrait, collage, exploratory essay, argumentative essay-each of which may require several smaller “feeder” assignments). We’ll also spend some time on more “nuts-and-bolts” matters of grammar and style (each student will give a five-minute presentation); as well as working together in groups. Writing is never a wholly solitary activity-we always write to some imagined audience and inside a whole ecosystem of influences-so students should be prepared to share their writing with the rest of the class (freewriting excluded). The major assignments will move from the personal towards the academic and culminate in a synthesis of the two. While our discussions will focus on writing as an art in itself, the first two major assignments-the portrait and the collage-will lend themselves to analogy with the visual arts, while the latter two-the exploratory essay and the argumentative essay-will invite discussion of the rhetorical arts of the ancient world. Each student will also be required to keep an ongoing “editing checklist.” By the end of the semester, students should have developed a facility in several different genres and a new level of critical self-awareness, which they’ll then be ready to bring to bear on most any situation they encounter, academic or otherwise.
Evaluation will be based on the following:
Scene #1, 2-3 pages
Scene #2, 2-3 pages
Portrait, 4-6 pages
Collage, 4-6 pages
Exploratory Essay, 4-6 pages
Argumentative Essay, 6-8 pages
Freewriting Journal, at least 40 pages-handwritten
Editing Checklist
Grammar Presentation
Oral Draft Presentation
NB: Each essay must be typed in Times New Roman, 12-point font, with standard margins.
Because students enter this course with varying degrees of experience, I will not ascribe grades to individual essays. Instead, I will evaluate them in terms of how well they fulfill the requirements of the assignment. It goes without saying that final drafts should be virtually free of spelling and grammatical errors. If an essay falls short for some reason, I will schedule a conference with the student and he/she may revise and resubmit it. If a student meets all of the requirements for the semester, including always having drafts on time, keeping up with the freewriting journal and editing checklist, handing in all preliminary work with each assignment, and not having more than three unexcused absences (being more than five minutes late will constitute an absence), he/she will have an automatic B for the semester. If a student in good-standing wishes to get an A for the semester, some extra work will be required, including significant revisions of three of the major assignments, peer revision, and a metadiscursive commentary on what was changed and why. If a student wishes to pursue the A option, he/she must commit by the midpoint of the semester.
NB: Papers are due on due dates, even if you are not present.
I don’t expect to have any problems with academic dishonesty, but just in case, I should point out that plagiarism will result in failing this course. The University Of Hawaii at Manoa defines plagiarism as follows:
Plagiarism includes, but is not limited to, submitting, to satisfy an academic requirement, any document that has been copied in whole or in part from another individual’s work without identifying that individual; neglecting to identify as a quotation a documented idea that has not been assimilated into the student’s language and style; paraphrasing a passage so closely that the reader is misled as to the source; submitting the same written or oral material in more than one course without obtaining authorization from the instructors involved; and “dry-labbing,” which includes obtaining and using experimental data from other students without the express consent of the instructor, utilizing experimental data and laboratory write-ups from other sections of the course or from previous terms, and fabricating data to fit the expected results.
Should you run into any confusion about how to properly credit your sources, please come talk to me.
TEXTS: Diana Hacker, A POCKET STYLE MANUAL, any edition. Bedford/St. Martin’s. ISBN: 0-312-40686-3; packet of photocopies.
CALENDAR*
Monday 1/8 Introduction
Wednesday 1/10 Discussion of readings: “Shitty first drafts.” Begin scene #1- personal narrative
Friday 1/12 Discuss “Writing an Autobiographical Narrative”
Monday 1/15 Holiday: Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Wednesday 1/17 Draft Day for scene #1
Friday 1/19 Scene #1 due (2-3 pages); begin scene #2 - fictional narrative
Monday 1/22 Discuss readings: “Seeing is Believing,” “Forever Overhead,” “Hills Like White Elephants”
Wednesday 1/24 Draft day for scene #2
Friday 1/26 Grammar Presentation; Scene #2 due (2-3 pages); begin portrait
Monday 1/29 Discuss “Missing a Grandfather”; work on portrait
Wednesday 1/31 “ ”
Friday 2/2 Grammar Presentation; Draft day for portrait
Monday 2/5 Portrait due (4-5 pages); begin collage
Wednesday 2/7 Discuss Elbow 21-29, 87-98
Friday 2/9 Collage Day
Monday 2/12 Loop writing
Wednesday 2/14 Discuss “Our Secret”
Friday 2/16 Grammar Presentation; Draft day for collage
Monday 2/19 Holiday: Presidents’ Day
Wednesday 2/21 Collage essay due (4-5 pages); begin exploratory essay
Friday 2/23 Grammar Presentation; Research and documenting sources
Monday 2/26 “ ”
Wednesday 2/28 Proving the Impossible
Friday 3/2 Grammar Presentation; Discuss “Exploring Theory: The Essay,” “To the Reader,” and “Writing an Exploratory Essay”
Monday 3/5 “ ”
Wednesday 3/7 “ ”
Friday 3/9 Grammar Presentation; Draft day for exploratory essay
Monday 3/12 Exploratory essay due (4-5 pages); begin argumentative essay
Wednesday 3/14 Discuss “Writing a Classical Argument”
Friday 3/16 Grammar Presentation; “ ”
Monday 3/19 “ ”
Wednesday 3/21 Begin summary
Friday 3/23 Grammar Presentation; Draft day for summary
Monday 3/26 Spring recess
Wednesday 3/28 “ ”
Friday 3/30 “ ”
Monday 4/2 Summary due (1-2 pages); begin polemic
Wednesday 4/4 Work on polemic
Friday 4/6 Holiday: Good Friday
Monday 4/9 Draft day for polemic (1-2 pages)
Wednesday 4/11 Polemic due; begin rebuttal
Friday 4/13 Grammar Presentation; Draft day for rebuttal
Monday 4/16 Rebuttal due (1-2 pages); Discuss “Exploring Theory: Nonadversarial Argument, Reasoning, and Grammar”
Wednesday 4/18 Discuss “Footstools and Furniture”
Friday 4/20 Oral drafts
Monday 4/23 “ ”
Wednesday 4/25 “ ”
Friday 4/27 Grammar Presentation; Draft day for argumentative essay
Monday 4/30 Argumentative essay due (6-8 pages)
Wednesday 5/2 Concluding remarks
*Please note: this schedule is tentative. A syllabus is a contract and as such I will not alter the due dates of the major papers without class approval. However, since I do aim to make the course as organic as possible, it is likely that some of the schedule will shift with our needs.
Image by George Hardie, from the New York Times online, 1/7/2007