McMahon Fall 2008 Syllabus English 1A; e-mail: jmcmahon@elcamino.edu
Website for students: http://herculodge.typepad.com/breakthrough_writer/
Sections 6368 and 6373 both meet in H308.
This course is designed to strengthen students’ ability to read with understanding and discernment, to discuss assigned readings intelligently, and to write clearly. Emphasis will be on writing essays in which each paragraph relates to a controlling idea, has an introduction and a conclusion, and contains primary and secondary support. College-level reading material will be assigned to provide the stimulus for class discussion and writing assignments, including a required research paper.
Student Learning Objectives:
1. Compose a clear introductory paragraph relevant to the topic.
2. Compose a clearly defined thesis statement that limits and focuses the topic of the essay.
3. Organize information to be used in the development of one's own thesis.
4. Write logically developed, organized paragraphs that support the controlling idea or thesis.
5. Develop and use varied sentence patterns effectively.
6. Use transitional words, phrases, and sentences to provide for coherence between and within paragraphs.
7. Choose and effectively use a rhetorical strategy appropriate to the topic.
8. Develop a conclusion that effectively closes the essay.
9. Paraphrase and summarize referenced material.
10. Incorporate direct quotes into one’s own exposition.
11. Use MLA documentation guidelines.
12. Avoid plagiarism.
13.Write an out-of-class writing task and find multiple sources related to a particular topic, write a research report, which shows the ability to support a thesis using analysis, to synthesize and integrate materials effectively from a variety of sources, and to cite sources in MLA format (including a works cited page). The report is organized, technically correct in paragraph composition, sentence structure, grammar, spelling and word use, and demonstrates thoughtful treatment of the topic.
Required Texts: Acting Out Culture by James S. Miller; The Overcoat by Gogol; Rules for Writers by Diana Hacker.
Grading:
Four Research Papers 240 maximum points, 960
Four Thesis and Works Cited, 10 each, 40 total.
Grand Total: 1,000 points.
Late Papers: Reduce one full grade ; no late papers accepted once new set of essays is due.
Research Papers should be approximately 1,200 words, 12 font, Times New Roman, page numbers, name, and essay title in upper right hand corner (headers in Microsoft View) and Works Cited should have minimum 3 sources and spacing using MLA format.
Revisions: You may revise ONE paper for 10-30 pts. depending on the quality of the rewrite. Revision must be turned in ONE WEEK after original due date.
Plagiarism Policy: If you plagiarize, steal previously written material and attempt to make it appear as if you wrote it, you will get ZERO points on the essay. You can do a rewrite if you wish but the HIGHEST POSSIBLE GRADE WILL BE A C MINUS, based on an A-level paper. A B paper will be a D, a C paper an F.
Attendance Policy: For 16-week semesters, students may be dropped after missing 6 classes for ANY REASON, including medical. For Summer and Winter sessions, students may be dropped after missing 4 classes for whatever reason, including medical.
Riding Policy: You cannot “ride” my class. A “rider” is a student who does nothing and tries to turn in papers all at once during the end of the semester. If by the third essay due date, you have turned in only one essay or none, I will drop you. I will be dropping “riders” on November 12 of this semester.
Etiquette Policy: If you’re text-messaging, receiving phone calls, privately conversing or studying for other classes during my class, you will be asked to leave.
Reading and Writing Schedule
8-25 Introduction
8-27 Cyberspace 380
9-1 Holiday
9-3 Desertion 358
9-8 Supermax 419
9-10 Being Strong 400
9-15 Essay 1 Due
9-17 Essay 1 Due
9-22 Baby Genius Industry 450
9-24 Wages of Sin 197
9-29 In Gorging, Truth 204
10-1 Organic 174
10-6 Add Cake, Subtract Self-Esteem 217
10-8 Never Say No 235
10-13 Essay 2 Due
10-15 Essay 2 Due
10-20 Patriarchy Gets Funny 114
10-22 Watching Torture in Prime Time 109
10-27 Webcams and Exhibitionism: 2 Essays: 144-146 and 150-155
10-29 Unspeakable Conversations 92
11-3 Frames of Reference 123
11-5 Cuteness 134
11-10 Holiday
11-12 Essay 3 Due
11-17 Essay 3 Due
11-19 Why I Won’t Marry 60
11-24 Do the Right Thing 46
11-26 Two Cheers for Materialism 28
12-1 The Overcoat
12-3 Consultations
12-8 Essay 4 Due
12-10 Essay 4 Due
Essay Guidelines (points deducted for not following these instructions):
1. Essays should be typed, double-spaced, 5 pages, and use 12 font Times New Roman.
2. Essays should have headers in the upper right hand corner on every page.
3. Essays should have a minimum of 3 sources on an MLA Works Cited Page.
4. Essays should have a thesis paragraph with a STRONG THESIS 4 or 5 MAPPING STATEMENTS OR MAPPING COMPONENTS.
5. When you list your mapping statements or components, be sure to use CORRECT PARALLEL STRUCTURE.
5. Essays should be stapled in the upper left hand corner and should be free of food stains and such.
6. Ribbon should be fresh.
7. All your essays are research papers, which means about 80% is your writing and about 20% is quoted, paraphrased, or summarized from your research sources.
8. Paragraphs should be "meaty," a good 130-150 words.
9. You must use a variety of EFFECTIVE TRANSITIONS between paragraphs.
10. You must attribute your sources in order to AVOID PLAGIARISM.
11. You must turn in your paper on time to avoid losing 30 points.
12. You cannot "rewrite" a paper if you're simply incorporating my corrections. So be sure to proofread your essay.
13. Essays are worth a maximum of 240 points. The preliminary assignment, thesis with Works Cited, is 10 points. The grand total point in the class is 1,000.
14. The 5-page essay outlines below are merely suggestions. You can structure your essay however you see fit.
Writing Options for Essay 1
Option 1: “Love and War in Cyberspace” 380. 5-page outline: In the first 2 pages, analyze the causes of social dysfunction described in the essay. Then in about 3 pages, use research to show how the apartment complex is a microcosm for an emerging social dysfunction in our Age of Information. As such the thesis would like this: The apartment complex is a microcosm for an emerging social dysfunction emerging in our Information Age, which consists of __________________, ___________________, ___________________, and _______________________. You would flesh out the mapping components for the essay's last 3 pages.
Option 2: See Writing #5 on page 367 in which you refute Dobie’s harsh criticisms of the military’s policies. 5-page outline: In 1 page, summarize Dobie's essay. Then write a thesis: Dobie's argument is misguided because ________________, ___________________, __________________, and _____________________. In about 4 pages, flesh out your mapping components.
Option 3: See Writing #4 on page 427 in which you argue for or against the supermax’s most severe forms of punishment. 5-page outline: In about 1 page, summarize Abramsky's essay. Then write a thesis: The supermax's most severe forms of punishment are/are not [choose one] justified because ____________________, __________________, ___________________, and ________________________. In about 4 pages, flesh out your mapping components.
Option 4: See Writing #6 on page 418 in which you compare and contrast the make-believe worlds of Jones and Katy Vine (380). In first 2 paragraphs, summarize their essays. Then write a thesis that contrasts the good and bad of make-believe worlds.
Writing Options for Essay 2
Option 1: See Writing #1 on page 471 in which you critique the baby genius industry. 5-page outline: In 1 page, summarize Quart's essay. Then write a thesis. The so-called baby genius industry is wrought with all sorts of neuroses and pathologies, the most salient being ________________, _______________, __________________, and _____________________. Then in about 4 pages, flesh out your mapping components.
Option 2: See Writing #6 on page 203 in which you compare and contrast the ways Prose and Jason Fagone (204) address our cultural obsession with overeating. 5-page outline: Summarize Prose's essay in a page and do the same for Fagone. Then write a thesis: While Prose exposes our food obsession in terms of __________________, ____________________, and ___________________, Fagone takes an opposing angle by showing that our food obsession ________________________, _________________, and _________________. Your final 3 pages would flesh out these 6 mapping components.
Option 3: See Writing #6 on page 216 in which you compare and contrast the ways Fagone and Caroline Knapp (217) connect eating to larger cultural phenomena. 5-page outline: Use the same format as in Option 2.
Option 4: See Writing #6 on page 231 in which you compare the shame of eating as it is analyzed in Knapp’s and Prose’s (197) essays. 5-page outline: Summarize both Knapp's and Prose's essays for a page each. Then write a thesis: Both essays show that the power of shame informs our eating obsessions by ___________________, _____________________, _____________________, and _______________________. Your last 3 pages would flesh out these mapping components.
Option 5: In the context of Michael Pollan’s essay “Big Organic” (174), analyze the fraud and deception the food industry uses to market foods that are allegedly “organic” and “natural.” 5-page outline: In 2 pages, summarize Pollan's major points. Then write a thesis. As my research and Michael Pollan's essay show, the idea of "organic" is a marketing fraud evidenced by _________________, _____________________, ___________________, and ______________________. Your last 3 pages would flesh out these mapping components.
Option 6: See Writing #6 in which you compare the idea of “naturalness” in Grescoe and Pollan (174).
Writing Options for Essay 3
Option 1: See Writing #4 on page 113 in which you write an extended definition of “happy violence.” 5-page outline: In 1 page, summarize the major points of Cusac's essay. Then write a thesis: Happy Violence, as we see in Cusac's essay and the research examples I will provide, can be characterized by ________________, _______________, _______________, and _________________. Your final 4 pages will flesh out these mapping components.
Option 2: See Writing #6 on page 113 in which you compare the ideas of Cusac and Naomi Klein (114) in the context of the way the entertainment media inculcates us with often harmful effects. 5-page outline: Summarize Klein and Cusac, a page each. Then write a thesis: Both writers show that the entertainment media inculcates us with _____________, ______________, and ________________, which results in _________________, _______________, and ___________________. Your final 3 pages would flesh out these mapping components.
Option 3: See Writing #5 on page 122 in which you argue if marketing campaigns are cynical or play more positive social roles. 5-page outline: Show the arguments that support the idea that marketing campaigns play positive social roles in 1 page. Then show the arguments that they are cynical and manipulative in 1 page. Then write a thesis: Marketing campaigns are cynical and manipulative/or play positive social roles [choose only one position] because of _______________, _________________, __________________, and ____________________. Your last 3 pages will flesh out your mapping components.
Option 4: See Writing #6 on page 108 in which you compare stereotyping in Johnson and Michael Eric Dyson (123).
Option 5: See Writing #5 on page 143 in which you create a thesis that defines “anti-cute.”
Writing Options for Essay 4
Option 1: See Writing #6 on page 147 in which you compare the motives behind self-exhibitionism as it is analyzed by Levy and Brooke A. Knight (150). In a page each, summarize the major points in Levy and Knight. Then write a thesis: Self-exhibitionism is the result of __________________, ______________________, ____________________, and __________________________. Your last 3 pages will flesh out your mapping components.
Option 2: See Writing #6 on page 157 in which you analyze the “camgirls” in the context of Ariel Levy’s essay (144) and Knight’s essay. 5-page outline: In a page each, summarize the major points of Levy and Knight. Then write a thesis: In the context of Knight, we can see that the "camgirls" emerge in a society that __________________, ___________________, ____________________, and ___________________. Your last 3 pages will flesh out your mapping components.
Option 3: Defend or refute Newman’s argument not to marry.
Option 4: Develop a thesis that addresses Saxe’s essay about the connection between science and morality. See pages 46-59.
Option 5: Analyze Gogol’s “The Overcoat” in the context of James Twitchell’s essay (28), which argues that consumerism has a great transformative power: “We live through things. We create ourselves through things. And we change ourselves by changing our things.” 5-page outline: In a page each, summarize Gogol's story and Twitchell's essay. Then write a thesis: "The Overcoat" is a salient example of Twitchell's assertion that consumerism "has a great transformative power" evidenced by _____________________, ________________________, _________________________, and ________________________. Your final 3 pages will flesh out your mapping components.
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