Fall 2008

English 126B: Arguing Through Literature: Writing, Reading, Life, and Meaning

Welcome to the seminar, to the University, and to the beginning of your college career.

Some Basic Information:

Telephone: x3434 (my office number); x3235 (number of English-Department secretary).

Electronic Mail: ostrom@ups.edu . Electronic mail is a good medium through which to ask brief questions, including those about assignments and scheduling, but for more complicated questions, please talk with me before or after class or visit me during office hours. I prefer that you don’t send me papers or drafts via email, as attachments, unless I ask you to do so.

Home Page: www.ups.edu/faculty/ostrom/ A copy of this syllabus will be posted on the home page. Information about my academic background, publications, and other work also appears there.

The University’s Equal Opportunity Statement

The University of Puget Sound does not discriminate in education or employment on the basis of sex, race, color, national origin, religion, creed, age, disability, marital or familial status, sexual orientation, Vietnam-era veteran status, gender identity, or any other basis prohibited by local, state, or federal laws. This policy complies with the spirit and the letter of applicable federal, state and local laws, including Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, Sections 503 and 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Questions about the policy may be referred to the University's Director of Human Resources and Affirmative Action (253-879-3116) or the Office of Civil Rights, Department of Education, Washington, D.C. 20202.

OBJECTIVES OF THE COURSE

Your college studies will be composed mainly of arguments—making them, considering them, responding to them, placing them in contexts. As you know, the word “arguments” in this case doesn’t mean squabbles or shouting matches but refers to claims people make about something and support with evidence, information, reasoning, and thoughtful presentation.

Whatever you study, you will be encountering arguments of this kind. You will want to or be asked to analyze these, and you will want to or be asked to make your own arguments. After you complete college, you will of course continue to encounter such arguments in your chosen professions and vocations and in society at large; being a citizen involves considering arguments. Therefore, one objective of the course is to add to the experience you already have with rhetoric, as it manifests itself in argumentation. One of the books we will use, They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing, helps to demystify the world of academic arguments, in particular.

A second but by no means secondary objective is to improve your writing and speaking in an academic context. You’ve been going to school for at least 12 years already, so you have already written many essays and made many presentations. This course meets you at your current level of capability and provides a semester’s worth of work designed to sharpen your writing and rhetoric further.

The seminar will also get us thinking about significant topics connected to reading, writing, life, and meaning: work, love, loss, hope, logic, politics, identity, and power. A notion underlying this approach is that college should be a place to consider big ideas.

We will study works from several different literary genres, including poetry, short fiction, the novel, and nonfiction (essay and book). However, in constructing the course, I did not assume that you intend to become English majors or English minors; indeed, I assumed that most of you may focus your studies outside of English. A main objective, then, is to use literature as a lens through which to perceive questions, topics, problems, and crises that are important regardless of what major you intend to pursue. A second objective is to examine arguments that works of literature implicitly advance and to improve our own capacity to speak and write arguments—reasoned claims supported by evidence and tailored to an audience.

We will read a novel, a nonfiction book, essays, and many poems. Analyzing poems is an especially good way to prepare to analyze all kinds of intricate texts in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities, and we will approach poetry as a form of compressed, often complicated, but by no means inscrutable rhetoric.

Analyzing arguments and texts; writing and revising essays; developing and sharpening arguments; presenting material orally; looking at topics, themes, and questions from multiple perspectives: these endeavors are to the mind what regimens of strength and conditioning are to the body.

Learning to think critically and creatively, to write well, and to speak effectively is a lifelong process. This course is one episode in the process.

HOW THE COURSE WORKS

The word “seminar” springs from a word that means “seed plot” or “garden.” Probably we won’t get around to any gardening this term, but in a figurative sense we’ll work closely together to cultivate ideas, arguments, and interpretations. Regular attendance, productive participation, and cooperation are essential to a seminar and to college, as they are to gardening.

One of several myths I hope we can dispel, if need be, is that writing is a solitary act. Certainly, you are responsible for what you write and when you turn it in, but experienced writers know that their work involves collaboration: seeking advice and knowing what to do with it; testing ideas and altering them; taking a piece of writing through several revisions; keeping the process flexible. The same can be said of speakers and the processes that lead to effective presentations.

The items below establish the desired classroom-environment. If for some reason you think you cannot or do not want to adhere to any of them, then feel free to drop the class, and of course I won’t take it personally.

1. Come to class every session, and please come on time. Missing class can affect your grade severely and even result in dis-enrollment. This is simply the way things work at Puget Sound.

2. I prefer that you don't eat in class; every professor has his or her pet peeves; this happens to be mine. The occasional cup of coffee won't disturb me.

3. Before class starts, turn off and put away all electronic items, including cell phones and data-storage devices. Never send or receive text-messages in class. Unless you have a special reason for using a laptop in class, it’s probably best that you don’t use one to take notes, as the temptation to use the device for other purposes is often too hard to resist. If indeed you do bring a laptop to class, do not (or example) use it to get on the Internet.

4. This is a 50-minute class, so you should rarely need to leave the classroom. Sometimes leaving for a few moments is necessary, of course, but it should not be a routine practice, and you shouldn’t leave class just to leave or to use your phone. Similarly, you shouldn’t put your head on the table or otherwise nod off. In a seminar like this at a college like this, such behavior is decidedly not cool.

5. Listen well--to each other, to me, to someone whose ideas may be different from yours. You do not need to agree or even pretend to agree. Express opinions. But listen, too.

6. Keep up with the reading and contribute to class discussions. I can offer only so much inducement in the form of quizzes, tests, and making "participation" a significant determiner of your grade. The rest is up to you.

7. Make the most of essay assignments; temperamentally, some of you will like the earlier assignments more than the later ones, and vice versa. But one aim of the course is to give you the tools to negotiate kinds of writing with which you feel uncomfortable at first, so remain receptive. Take DUE DATES FOR DRAFTS as seriously as you take those for final versions. And take peer review seriously.

8. If you get behind in class, or feel overwhelmed by an assignment, or by your coursework in general, or if you do not understand something we have discussed, please see me sooner rather than later. Feeling confused or overwhelmed at college is not a weakness; in fact, it's fairly common, especially in the first semester. Missing class is one of the worst things you can do. Also, when you are under stress, do not allow yourself to be tempted to plagiarize.

THE WRITING CENTER

The Center for Writing, Learning, and Teaching (Howarth Hall) is a service for all Puget Sound students who are working on papers. Its purpose is to help you get started, organize ideas, revise, and think about the rhetorical situation. It is certainly not a remedial center for so-called "problem" writers; it exists because all writing-project have problems that need solving.

I expect all of you to use the Center to help develop each essay, and the Center will also have consultants available to help you with oral presentations. Make visiting the Center part of your college routine. Don't expect your first visit to work miracles. It may take several visits to get used to the consultations. To make an appointment, visit the Center or call X3404. Toward the middle and end of the term, call well in advance.

I strongly encourage you to familiarize yourself as early as possible with the library. Pay a visit to the reference section and chat with a reference librarian. Familiarize yourself with how to check out books and other materials. Learn how to navigate the in-house cataloging system (SIMON) and the system for getting materials from other libraries (SUMMIT). Go to the “research gateway” online and explore some of the databases. Practice different ways of searching, particularly by Keyword, Title, and Author. The library’s research gateway should be your main portal to online research. Google, et al., should not be your main portals to online academic research.

Often in class I will ask someone to read a passage or a poem out loud. Chiefly this is simply one way to focus our attention as we analyze a piece of writing and pursue a close-reading. It is not meant to put anyone on the spot, and we all understand that no one reads out loud perfectly. It’s just a task all of us, including me, will perform.

ASPECTS OF WRITING, SPEAKING, AND RHETORIC

As we build on what you already know and try to develop your writing, your grasp of rhetoric, and your oral presentations, we’ll spend time considering the following specific elements:

1. The need to consider interpretations, controversies, and issues from multiple perspectives—that is, to see complexities.

2. Persuasive strategies—including audience-analysis, solid reasoning, effective use of evidence, anticipating opposing arguments, and effective organization of ideas & topics.

3. Methods of evaluating arguments and texts. In many cases, using these methods will result in our having to change our minds. In other cases, we might be examining logical fallacies—intended or accidental mistakes in reasoning. And in still other cases, we will refine strategies for overcoming an initial resistance to a certain text. For example, what are some effective ways of analyzing a work that, initially, confuses or dissatisfies us?

4. Important conventions of standard written English—including a few aspects of grammar, punctuation, and diction (choice of words) that may still seem unclear to you.

5. Various oral and written composition strategies—ways of putting together successful essays and presentations. We’ll improve upon what you already know about drafting, revising, and editing. We’ll look at different ways to express a significant thesis or point of view, develop it clearly for a particular audience, and support it effectively using different narrative, expository, analytical, and persuasive modes. You’ve done much of this in high school already, so again, we’ll be moving from where you are now in your writing toward where you will need to be later in college.

6. Using source-materials in rhetorically effective ways and becoming more familiar

we determine which sources on the Internet are reliable and which ones aren’t? How

Please purchase a notebook that you will keep separate from your basic class-notebook. This writer’s/reader’s notebook will include short pieces in response to readings, pieces written in class (often exploratory or experimental), and pieces that are part of the process leading to essays. This notebook is evaluated on a Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory basis. Bring this notebook to class every day.

Participation: Attending class regularly and on time is a basic requirement of the class. Multiple absences and/or chronically arriving late to class may induce me to ask you to drop the course or to ask the Registrar to remove your name from the course-roster. After the second absence, absences will begin to erode your grade, and after two later arrivals, late arrivals will count as absences. If you need to miss class because you are ill, do so, but let me know you missed class because of illness. In most cases, I won’t ask for a health-professional’s note, but I’ll reserve the option of doing so. If you have a chronic illness, you are under no obligation to inform me about it, but if, in your judgment, your professors ought to know about it, then tell them.

Active participation of the sort expected in college also amounts to about 20 per cent of your course grade. Such participation includes contributing to class-discussion, working in pairs and small groups, coming to class prepared, and so on. The writer’s/reader’s notebook will contribute to this participation-grade.

Essays: The essays you write will constitute 50 per cent of your grade, total. I will give you a written assignment for each essay, but for now, please know that you will need to submit essays in a manila folder. You will need to include all your rough drafts and notes (a “paper trail”); otherwise, I will not read your essay. Appended to the syllabus are criteria I use to evaluate essays, but each assignment will include additional objectives.

Oral presentations: The oral presentations you create and deliver will constitute 20 per cent of your grade.

Tests and quizzes will constitute approximately 10 per cent of your grade.

You must purchase these books, complete the assigned reading in them on time, and bring them to class on the appropriate days.

Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein, They Say, I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing. New York: W. W. Norton, 2006.

Barbara Ehrenreich, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. New York: Owl Books, 2001.

Peter Shakel and Jack Ridl, editors. 250 Poems: A Portable Anthology. New York: St. Martin’s, 2003.

Please bring a copy of this syllabus to class each time, in case we need to make changes. Please bring the appropriate books and materials to each session, and always bring your Writer’s/Reader’s Notebook.

Wednesday, September 3. Overview of the course. Please read the syllabus carefully and begin to decide whether you want to remain in the course. Writing and discussion, in class.

Friday, September 5. Beginning today and continuing for a while, we will read some poems carefully, partly to pursue the practice of analyzing complex language, but also to examine the arguments that poems make. We will also look at how writers use comparison, analogy, and allegory to advance arguments. For today, in 250 Poems, please read “Sonnet 18” by William Shakespeare, “The Pulley,” by George Herbert, Andrew Marvell, “To His Coy Mistress,” Aphra Behn, “On Her Loving Two Equally,” Claude McKay, “America.”

Monday, September 8. Continue discussing poems. For today, also read, in They Say, I Say, the “Preface” and “Introduction.” Be able to summarize the main objectives of the book. Also read the essay by Graff in the book, “Hidden Intellectualism,” which begins on p. 142. What is his main thesis? What are his other points?

Wednesday, September 10. Conclude the discussion of poems assigned on August 30. Essay assigned, discussed, begun. A discussion of the Center for Writing, Learning, and Teaching, and a discussion of plagiarism. For today, go to The Logger, on-line, and read the section on Academic Honesty, focusing especially on the Plagiarism section.

Friday, September 12. For today, in They Say, I Say, please read pages 15 through 27. Bring in several pages of material for your essay—notes, free-writing, mind-mapping, lists of topics, and/or possible thesis statements. Between now and next Wednesday, start and continue to write a draft of your essay. Feel free to visit me in my office and/or to visit the Writing Center as you develop your draft.

Monday, September 15. For today, in They Say, I Say, please read pages 28 through 48. Also read the essay by David Zinczenko, “Don’t Blame the Eater,” which begins on page 139.

Wednesday, September 17. For today, please bring a complete rough draft of your essay, word-processed, double-spaced.

Friday, September 19. For today, please read the first five chapters of Fledgling. Questions to consider: To what extent does Butler disrupt the myths and conventions of vampire literature, at least as you understand them? To what extent does she disrupt perceptions of how we should behave? We might consider this question in terms of right vs. wrong, but also in terms of what behavior is consider customary or conventional. Third question: What questions do you think are important to ask about this novel?

Monday, September 22. First oral-presentation assigned. First essay due in class, at the beginning of class. Remember to include your rough draft(s) and notes in the folder. For today, please read the poems “We Wear the Mask,” by Paul Laurence Dunbar, and “The Road Not Taken,” by Robert Frost. Regarding Frost’s poem, here is a hint: It is a widely misinterpreted poem. Look carefully at what the speaker of the poem is actually saying, especially at the end of them poem, and set aside what you may have been told repeatedly about “roads taken” vs. “roads not taken.”

Wednesday, September 24. For today, please read chapters 6 through 12 of Fledgling. What intrigues you so far about the novel”? In They Say, I Say, please read pages 49 through 63.

Friday, September 26. For today, please read two sections in A Writer’s Reference: Handbook: “Constructing Reasonable Arguments,” 67-73, “Evaluating Arguments,” 77-83, and “A Glossary of Usage,” 124-137. A review of ethos, pathos, and logos, and a review of common logical fallacies. I am going to give you a quiz on the material discussed today.

Monday, September 29 Three presentations today. Please continue reading Fledgling.

Monday, October 6. For today, please finish reading Fledgling, and choose at least three sections, chapters, or passages you would especially like to discuss. Be ready to make a case for why we should pay special attention to these sections.

Wednesday, October 8. For today, in They Say, I Say, please read pages 64-89. Also read the essay, “The Empire of Images in the World of Our Bodies,” by Susan Bordo, which begins on page 149. Be ready to provide a detailed assessment of Bordo’s argument, including the following: her sense of audience; the different ways she negotiates the process of “They Say/I Say”; her thesis; her other claims; her logic and reasoning; the evidence she offers; how she organizes the essay; how she anticipates objections to her views.

Friday, October 10. Essay assigned, discussed, begun. Photocopy of “Letter From Birmingham Jail” distributed. Quiz on material from September 26.

Monday, October 13. For today, please read “Letter From Birmingham Jail.” Analyzing King’s essay and his argument in detail, paragraph by paragraph. Photocopy of Barack Obama’s speech distributed.

Wednesday, October 15. Continue analyzing King’s essay, discussing his sense of audience, his rhetorical strategies and tactics, his process of reasoning. For today, please also read Barack Obama’s speech and analyze its use of rhetoric, particularly in contrast to King’s essay.

Friday, October 24. The sentence, a quick overview: For today, please read—at a very brisk pace—pages 166 through 215 in A Writer’s Reference. When you run into a heading (a topic) you don’t know much about and/or when you come across an item with which you’ve struggled in your writing, make a note. Remember: a) read quickly b) find topics of interest. You will be quizzed on the material between pages 166 and 155.

Monday, October 27. For today, please read through page 49 in Nickel and Dimed. Pay close attention to the rhetoric in the introduction.

Friday, October 31. For today, please read and analyze Chapter Two of Nickel and Dimed. Identify (by page number) several topics you want to discuss.

Monday, November 3. For today, please finish reading Nickel and Dimed. Make a list of the book’s strengths and weaknesses, from your point of view. Essay assigned, discussed.

Wednesday, November 5. Some poems about the use of language. In 250 Poems, please read e.e. cummings, “pity this monster,manunkind,” Simon J. Ortiz, “Speaking,” Mark Halliday, “Functional Poem,” Alberto Rios, “Nani,” Allison Joseph, “On Being Told I Don’t Speak Like a Black Person.”

Friday, November 7. Second oral-presentation project/assignment introduced. For today, please read They Say, I Say, pp. 99-133. Please bring a copy of an earlier essay from this class. Some practice in “meta-commentary.” Meta-commentary assigned.

Wednesday, November 12. Generating oral-presentation topics, based on reading we have done in class.

Monday, November 17. For today, in Gwynn, please read the stories “A & P,” by John Updike, and “Shiloh,” by Bobby Ann Mason. There might be a quiz on the reading. Essay assigned, discussed.

Wednesday, November 19. For today, pick two poems from Gwynn that we have not read before (for class) and that you like.

Friday, November 21. Preparing for the presentations. A check of the notebooks. Meta-commentary due.

Monday, November 24. Presentations. During this week, feel free to come to my office hours to discuss the progress of your last essay, and feel free, of course, to visit the Writing Center.

Please note that these are general criteria. More specific criteria spring from each assignment.

A This essay is exceptional. It is well focused immediately, but the thesis, argument, or main claim is also contextualized; that is, the essay prepares the reader for the thesis. Not only is the essay well organized, but its organization is also easy to grasp without being formulaic. The essay offers support for the claims it makes, and the support is logical, orderly, and effective, with good use of examples, such as references to a text, to specific events, or to particular definitions. The essay demonstrates a good sense of its audience, including what readers might expect and what counter-arguments might be on the reader’s mind. The essay has almost no technical errors in grammar, punctuation, standard usage, phrasing, and other conventions of language. The essay is sophisticated and polished. Very likely it has gone through several revisions.

B This essay is successful. It has a clear focus that is well stated early on, and it is generally well organized. The paragraphs are well developed, even if the analysis, explanation, evidence, and/or logical development may be imperfect. The essay fulfills the assignment but in some places is less developed, polished, sophisticated, or sharply revised than it might have been. It has a good sense of audience but may, for example, miss an opportunity to anticipate an important counter-argument or supply necessary support in the form of evidence, details, or examples. There may be several technical errors in grammar, punctuation, standard usage, phrasing, and other conventions. Cumulatively, these errors undermine the effectiveness of the essay.

C This essay shows a basic understanding of the assignment and demonstrates some notion of the need to focus the topic and thesis and present ideas in an orderly way. One or more paragraphs may be problematic in their development or organization, and the organization itself may break down significantly at least once. The sense of audience may be skewed, and there may be numerous errors in punctuation, grammar, usage, and other conventions of language. Insufficient evidence, confusing support, or gaps in logic may hold the essay back significantly. This is an acceptable essay but may still seem to be more of a rough draft than a finished essay.

D This essay may be badly organized, or it may fall well short of fulfilling the assignment. It may read as a very rough, early draft, and it may be plagued with errors in punctuation, grammar, usage, and other conventions. It may have an inappropriate sense of audience, use language inappropriate to the rhetorical situation, or suffer from a breakdown in logic. Its claims may be hard to grasp or self-contradictory.

F The essay may be fragmentary, or it may miss the point of the assignment almost entirely. Or it may be non-existent or plagiarized.

* Thanks to Professor Stephanie Johnson for ideas and phrasing that influenced this statement of criteria.

Fall 2008

Professor Ostrom

Some Basic Information:

The University’s Equal Opportunity Statement

OBJECTIVES OF THE COURSE

HOW THE COURSE WORKS

ASPECTS OF WRITING, SPEAKING, AND RHETORIC