Required Texts

Ballenger, Bruce. The Curious Researcher: A Guide to Writing Research Papers, 3^nd ed. (Allyn & Bacon, 2000).

Glaser, Joe. Understanding Style: Practical Ways to Improve Your Writing (Oxford University Press, 1999).

Hacker, Diana. A Pocket Style Manual 3^rd Edition (St. Martin's Press, 2000).

Rose, Mike. Lives on the Boundary (Penguin, 1990).

Description

This advanced writing course is designed to help prospective English teachers better understand their individual composing processes while polishing their own writing styles. Class members will develop and use criteria for responding to other writers and practice revising their own writing for a variety of audiences and purposes. From time to time, class members will also be asked to lead a class activity. Further, since much of the fine tuning of accomplished writing requires a unique and readable style, we will spend time in class working on stylistic examples and exercises from Joe Glaser's Understanding Style: Practical Ways to Improve Your Writing.

Course Objectives

By the end of the semester you will demonstrate

1. An understanding of what educated readers mean by "good writing"
2. A familiarity with some of the ways writing can be used to enhance learning as well as to show that learning has taken place
3. An understanding of your own writing processes
4. The ability to give and receive constructive writing advice
5. Competence in writing in a variety of genres and for a variety of audiences
6. A personal writing style and level of editing skill appropriate for academic and professional writing
7. The ability to articulate some of your own strengths and weaknesses as a writer and to set writing goals for yourself
8. An increased understanding of school-sponsored writing from the dual perspective of student and teacher

Class attendance

This is a performance class, not a lecture class. Since much of our in-class work involves small and large groups, absences often create hardships for students other than the person who is missing. If you have a personal emergency or illness, please contact me as soon as possible so that I can make any necessary changes in the class schedule and help you remain actively involved in class activities. Whenever possible, please contact me in advance of an unavoidable absence. If you have two unexcused absences, you will lose points for class participation. With three or more unexcused absences your grade will drop one full letter grade.

Writing

1. One informal and three formal essays, with two word-processed drafts of each submitted, including
1. A literacy biography, done in class
2. A response to Lives on the Boundary (3-5 pages)
3. An analysis of a non-print media form (2-4 pages)
4. A final research paper on some aspect of education (8-10 pages)
2. One experimental piece
3. ILAS 201 final reflection piece
4. Revision exercises from Understanding Style
5. Frequent informal writings in class and on the class WebBoard
6. A final portfolio of two essays, one experimental piece, ILAS 201 observation piece, and self-assessment

All formal writing assignments, including rough drafts for in-class review, must be produced on a word processor, 8-1/2 x 11" paper, standard formatting in 12 point Times or Times New Roman font (my eyes thank you!). If your word processing skills are weak, start boning up in that area immediately. You can use the help files built into the Microsoft Word program, visit the Academic Computing Center for help, or purchase any number of "how-to" books on using this software. See me if you need further assistance in this area.  Except in an emergency, E-mailed assignments are not accepted.

Teacher Certification Portfolio

At the conclusion of English 300C you will turn in the beginning, rough copy of the portfolio of your work required by the Teacher Certification program. Please see the handout entitled “English Certification Portfolio, which has a yellow cover.  The sixth page, “Evaluation Sequence for Certification Portfolios,” tells you what you need to have completed at the end of English 300C. You will meet with me at the beginning of your next semester in the program to discuss your progress on the portfolio. Note: although it may contain items from English 300C class, this portfolio is different from the portfolio you turn in for credit in English 300C.

Technology

We will use the writing lab for some classes, and you will have access to a university lab for additional work if you do not have a personal computer. You must have a working login to the campus system and a working e-mail account. If we have time, I will show you how to begin your own electronic teaching portfolio. If you don’t know how to use the campus system or e-mail, please call or go to Academic Computing Services for help. In the computer lab, please sit near a more computer-literate class member if you feel that you may need help. For those of you who already know computers and the Internet fairly well, I expect you to help out other class members with computer and Internet-related tasks.

WebBoard Postings

Reflecting the migration of much writing to the Internet and networked environments, we will be using WebBoard for some class discussion and for exercises in the computer lab. Class members will be expected to observe the rules of netiquette and strive to communicate professionally and correctly in their postings. Superior performance on WebBoard postings will result in a check plus grade and increased class participation credit, while inferior performance will result in a check minus grade and decreased class participation credit.

Paper and disk management

Never give me your only copy of anything. Always keep a disk copy of your work, preferably both on a hard drive and on a removable disk such as a floppy, a zip disk, or writeable CD ROM. Don’t forget that your NIU login account includes space on the “F” drive (I’ll show you this) where you can and should back up your work. Throughout the semester, keep a folder or portfolio of your work, and include all notes, rough, and intermediate drafts, along with my comments, your peers’ comments, and your final documents. I reserve the right to ask to see this portfolio when determining your final grade.

Class Leadership

Prepare and lead the class in discussion of class readings and activities several times during the semester

Daily Preparation

You will come to all class meetings prepared to participate to the best of your ability.

Individual conference

Later in the semester (see the schedule) you will schedule an individual conference with me to discuss your research project and your progress in the course. I encourage you to come to office hours throughout the semester to discuss your projects and class matters.

Disabilities

If you have a disability or any other special circumstance that may have some impact on your work in this class, and for which you may require some type of accommodation, please contact me early in the semester so that appropriate arrangements can be made. The NIU Center for Access-Ability Resources (CAAR), located on the 4th floor of the University Health Service (753-1303), is the designated office on campus to provide services and accommodations to students with diagnosed disabilities. You need to provide documentation of your disability to that office.

Derivation of Final Grade

(You must earn a B or A in the course to proceed with teacher certification.)

Three polished essays (evidence of academic writing competence)

• analysis of some aspect of Lives on the Boundary (first draft S/U, second draft 10%)

• analysis of non-print media form (first draft S/U, second draft 10%)

• One research-based paper dealing with some aspect of education (first draft S/U, second draft 20%)

1. Experimental piece ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- S/U
2. ILAS 201 final reflection piece ------------------------------------------------------------------- S/U
3. Final, formal portfolio including self-assessment of progress as a student ------------------ 40%
4. Class participation, including leadership, Style exercises, and WebBoard postings ------- 20%

This is your opportunity to try some kinds of writing you have never done before--to play with language, to vent your emotions, to write for yourself. Almost anything goes. Try some poetry, a radio play, humor, a children's story, whatever. Experiment with a genre you have never attempted or invent a genre of your own. Your experiment may start as required in-class freewriting, but you will want to generate some ideas on your own out of class. One caution: don't get involved in a long piece (i.e. a short story). Instead, write a scene or a riveting piece of dialogue; you can always turn it into a longer piece once this class is over. Your experimental piece should not be longer than three pages, and will probably be shorter.

ILAS 201 Final Reflection Piece

Do a two-page (minimum) piece of descriptive writing based on something you observed on one of your ILAS 201 classroom visits.

End of Semester Assessment

Self-Assessment of Your Progress as a Student:

Review all the work you have done for the semester, and then write a letter to me (two to three pages, typed, double spaced pages) explaining what your collection of daily work and class participation reveals about you as a student. You should include answers to the following questions within your letter, but you should not just answer these questions as if they were a series of short answer questions. In other words, re-order them as you wish, and if you answer one question within the context of discussing something else, that is fine.

• What have you learned this semester and how have you learned it?

• Have you seen any changes in your writing or in your attitude toward writing? What are these changes, and why do you think they have occurred?

• Have any assignments or course requirements (including work done in the computer lab) been particularly frustrating or counterproductive for you? This is the time to discuss the effect of any missing, late, or misunderstood assignments.

• Please remember that part of your work as a student this semester has been your interaction with other students in peer reading, collaborative writing, and response groups, so be sure to comment on this element of the class experience. Have any particular students been especially important to your development as a writer? If so, how? Has any student been harmful to you as a developing writer?

• Is there anything I could or should have done that would have helped you make greater progress this semester?

• What do you see as your greatest strength as a writer? What one aspect of your writing process would you most like to continue strengthening? How do you plan to do this?

• At the end of your reflection, you may give yourself a grade as a student and justify that grade in terms of the information you have supplied in the body of your letter. This grade should not reflect your perception of your writing ability; it should be your assessment of your performance as a student in this specific class. If you have not already reviewed the course objectives in the syllabus (what you should know and be able to do by the time your finish 300C), now is a good time to do this.

Formal Portfolio

Look through the writing you have done for 300C and assemble a formal presentation portfolio that demonstrates who you are as a writer. Your portfolio should reveal the depth and range of your writing competence. In other words, your portfolio should include examples of your best, most polished work, but it should also include as wide a range of pieces as possible.

Once you have selected the pieces you want to use, organize them and write a cover letter (approximately two typed, double spaced pages) to your readers (your colleagues and me) explaining the pieces we are going to read and why you have selected them. In this letter, you should explain what this collection indicates about you as a writer and as a future writing teacher. You must include your nonprint media paper and one of your academic essays in your portfolio (either the research-based piece or the piece based on Lives on the Boundary), but you cannot include more than two of the required essays. You must also include your descriptive piece based on an ILAS 201 observation, your experimental piece, and your self-assessment.

One piece of writing must include all evidence of process from first glimmer to final draft. This piece must be accompanied by a cover sheet discussing why and how you developed the piece, who helped you and how, and what you found particularly interesting, exciting, satisfying, and/or frustrating about the experience of writing it. Please indicate what you learned from writing this piece (You may have learned something about the subject, your writing process, this particular genre, and/or yourself).

You may design a cover for your portfolio or use a plain folder.

Assessment Criteria for Formal Portfolio

A B level collection will be complete and well organized. It will demonstrate that the writer is willing to take risks in order to grow as a writer and is able to write effectively in several different genres for several different purposes. It will demonstrate that the writer can generate interesting ideas and use effective revision strategies to develop them for various types of readers. It will demonstrate that the writer is able to articulate how and why these creation and revision strategies are effective. It will demonstrate that the writer can use various stylistic devices effectively and can edit well enough so that there are no more than two or three minor distractions per full page. The cover letter will be clear, informative, and effectively revised and edited to match the quality of the rest of the portfolio.

An A level collection will be complete and well organized. It will demonstrate that the writer is willing to take risks in order to grow as a writer and to keep working at challenging tasks until those challenges result in sophisticated and unusual pieces of writing. It will demonstrate that the writer is able to write creative and intellectually challenging pieces in a variety of genres for a variety of audiences and purposes. It will demonstrate that the writer can use effective revision and editing strategies to produce polished pieces of writing that are consistently engaging and skillfully edited. It will demonstrate that the writer has a thorough understanding of his or her individual writing processes. The cover letter will be of the same high quality as the rest of the portfolio.