WRT 105
Practices of Academic Writing
Fall 2023
Instructor: Nick Ripatrazone
Office: B219
Office hours: by Appointment
Contact information: nripatrazone@lvhs.org
973-347-7600
Classroom #: Ripatrazone – B219
Course Description and Rationale
WRT 105 is an introduction to academic writing at the college level. In this class, you will write, revise, edit and reflect on your writing with the support of the teacher and peers. You will engage critically with the opinions and voices of others as you develop a greater understanding of how your writing can affect yourself and your environment. You will have regular opportunities not just to write, but also to reflect on writing situations and your own development as a writer.
In Writing Analytically 7th edition, Rosenwasser and Stephen note that their research indicates that faculty across the disciplines want “students to learn to do things with course material beyond merely reporting on the one hand, and just reacting to it” (2). And writing like this requires “locating a middle ground between passive summary and personal response. That middle ground is occupied by analysis” (2). Rosenwasser and Stephen go on to describe analysis as “a form of detective work that typically pursues something puzzling, something you seek to understand rather than something you believe you already know. Analysis finds questions where there seem not to be any, and it makes connections that might not have been evident at first” (2). You analyze when you think carefully enough to recommend a course to a friend, or explore why a particular college sports team is so dominant, or decide who you will vote for in the local election, or come to understand better how language and discourse shape our identities. So analysis is not a staid or dull endeavor; it requires imagination.
It takes imagination to understand more fully the things that surround us. It requires imagination to acknowledge and make meaning out of difference, to grasp the complexity of issues and experiences, and to avoid the impulse to reject the unfamiliar. Finally, it takes imagination to understand and adapt to how languages and conventions change from one cultural context to another: writing is culturally adaptive. We develop such an imagination by being willing to look closely and critically at the world around us, and to ask questions of what we see, experience, and assume.
Argument is important to academic writing. But you will learn that argument involves inquiry and analysis and engages others in ongoing conversations about topics of common concern. Evidence for your arguments comes from analysis, from discussion with others, from your personal experience, and from research in the library and on the web. In addition to being persuasive, arguments can be a means of sharing information, posing important questions, or even raising consciousness about issues.
WRT 105 Learning Outcomes/Course Goals
Writing as Situated Process
Students will practice a range of invention and revision strategies appropriate to various writing situations.
Writing with Sources
Students will be introduced to primary and secondary research, utilize various library resources, evaluate sources, and synthesize and apply research in accordance with citation, genre conventions and ethical standards.
Writing as Rhetorical Action
Students will gain knowledge of rhetorical principles and practice addressing different audiences and situations.
Writing as Academic Practice
Students will build their familiarity with values, strategies, and conventions related to a range of academic contexts and disciplinary conversations.
Writing as Social Practice
Students will analyze, reflect on, and practice the dynamic use of language in diverse contexts and recognize issues of power, difference and materiality.
Work of the Course
You will devote time, thought, and energy to a variety of informal and formal reading and writing practices. During the course you might be asked to annotate readings, keep a record of ideas and responses, jot down observations, take notes on class discussions, experiment with different styles and organizational choices, and engage in a variety of drafting and revision activities. All these activities are important and will have an impact on your development and success as academic writers (and your final grade).
As this course progresses, you will keep a portfolio of your work that will serve as a “window” to your development as a writer. Included in your portfolio will be exercises and informal writing that have helped shape drafts of your formal texts and final copies of your formal papers. Also included in your portfolio will be written reflections on the processes you’ve used as you’ve completed writing assignments and on your growth as a writer. These reflections are important texts that will help you understand and articulate your own learning progress.
Writing well depends upon reading well. The course texts will provide you with ideas and arguments, facts and statistics. They will prompt thought as you agree or disagree or qualify those ideas. They enlarge the context for our class discussion. And they illustrate choices other writers have made as they composed. Writing and reading are interdependent practices, and you will move between the two regularly throughout the course.
Required Course Texts and Materials
Rosenwasser, David and Jill Stephen. Writing Analytically, 7th ed.
Fitzsimmons, Anne and Margaret Himley, eds. Critical Encounters with Texts. (selected readings)
Howard, Rebecca Moore. Writing Matters: A Handbook for Writing and Research. (*Recommended but not required)
*You should also be prepared to provide copies of your work for peer review at various times throughout the semester.
What You Need
• Reliable internet access to the university library, and the web. You are expected to check your email DAILY. Course updates and other important information will be sent via email.
• Pens or pencils, letter or legal sized notepads, highlighters, stickies, and whatever else you use when you write and read.
• A neat and secure folder or portfolio to keep handouts.
• Lots of printer paper and ink.
• An open and critical mind, good listening and speaking skills, a decent sense of humor, and patience with technology, your colleagues, and us.
The topic of inquiry for this course is “How We See Things.” Through readings, class discussions, independent research, and writing we will explore the various ways that people are affected by visual images. We will consider what attitudes we bring to the things that we see and how what we see affects our attitudes. What does the way we view an image reveal about our own self-image? In what ways do the media shape our attitudes towards what we see and how we view ourselves? Does an historical context have to be considered when analyzing an image? How can we, as readers, writers, thinkers, and citizens, work to consider issues and ideas from a different, and sometimes unsettling, point of view? These are just a few of the ideas we will consider in our classroom community.
All due dates are listed on the course calendar. All due dates are tentative and subject to change as instructor deems appropriate.
The first formal paper will introduce you to the practices of generating an inquiry, synthesis, and critical reading. It will also introduce us to your skills as a thinker and writer.
In the second formal paper you will use your analytical skills to make a claim about a subject of your choice.
In your third formal paper you will build upon the analytic skills you developed in Unit 2 towards writing a documented argument.
*All papers must follow MLA format and be typed, double-spaced, have one-inch margins, and use a 12-point font – no larger or smaller.
The Portfolio
As this course progresses, you will keep a portfolio of your work that will serve as a “window” to your development. Included in your portfolio will be exercises and informal writing that have helped shape your formal texts, drafts of your formal texts, and final copies of your formal papers as well as any annotated printed materials used in your research. Also included in your portfolio will be written reflections on the processes you’ve used as you’ve completed writing assignments, and on your growth as a writer. These reflections are important texts that will help you understand and articulate your own learning process. (See Student Manual)
Each of the three units culminates in the production of a portfolio demonstrating your progression (and occasional regression) as a critical thinker, reader, and writer. The portfolio consists of two parts. First, a brief 1-2 page narrative description or outline will provide your reader an overview of the journey through the unit. This overview will include clearly referenced links to relevant exhibits from the actual work of the unit. Then a reflexive essay will analyze and explain the value (or lack of value) of the experience.
At the end of the semester, you will produce a final portfolio. The final portfolio looks at the work of the entire course and examines four areas: where you were at the beginning of the semester; how your thinking, reading, and writing changed in the course of the semester; where you are at the end of the semester; and a view to how you intend to carry your course experiences into the future. It will be constructed in the same fashion as the unit portfolios; however, the expectation for length will be much more substantial. The final course reflective portfolio counts 20% of the course grade.
Feedback
You will receive many different kinds of feedback during this course. Some will come from fellow students and some will come from me. Both are important; they tell you in various ways how your readers are responding to your writing. This feedback will also help you learn how to assess your own work.
Major Course Units and Assignments (these are projected percentages)
Unit Final Essays (polished work)
End-of-Unit Reflective
essays
Unit 1: Genre & Writing Situations
15%
5%
Unit 2: Analysis
20%
5%
Unit 3: Argument
20%
5%
Final Portfolio
20%
Invention work and other informal writing assigned throughout the course
10%
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*A late paper loses one letter grade for each day it is late. Please be sure to avoid such consequences by submitting all work on time.
Attendance and Participation
Writing studios are courses in language learning, and language is learned in communities; therefore, it is essential that you attend class and participate. Absences and lack of preparation for class will affect your classmates’ work as well as your own. The work you do in class, the work you do to prepare for each class, is as important as any polished assignment you turn in for a grade. In addition, our syllabus is only a projection and may be subject to occasional changes and revisions as it seems appropriate or necessary. That is another reason why your attendance is vital.
If you must miss a class, you are responsible for work assigned. Please realize, however, that class time cannot be reconstructed or made up, and that your performance, your work, and your final course grade will be affected by absences.
Participation includes active engagement in each course activity, both in and out of the classroom. This is a very demanding course, but it is also a very rewarding course for students who challenge themselves and work with intellectual curiosity, interest, and energy. Students who do not accept the challenges of this course will be frustrated often and likely disappointed in their work and the grades they receive on their work. Participation and preparation constitute 15% of the final course grade.
Because of the detailed daily course calendar and our class directory, there is no excuse for being unprepared for class, even if you have been absent. In the event of an absence, it is your responsibility to contact a classmate as soon as possible to discover what was missed. For example, missing Monday’s class does not excuse you from completing the homework due on Tuesday. All calendar updates are posted as soon as possible.
All assignments must be submitted on or before the specified due date (unless previous arrangements have been made through consultation with and permission by the instructor). Late work will lose one letter grade per weekday. If you are unable to give the late work to the instructor directly, you must arrange for another student to turn it in to the instructor directly or leave it in her box in the front office clearly labeled and bound in an envelope or folder. Absence does not exclude you from this policy except in the most dire circumstances.
Using Google Docs enables you to track revisions and edits to essays, which is essential for our course.
Punctuality is important. It shows respect for others and confidence in oneself; moreover, it is essential for establishing one’s credibility. Lateness is simply unacceptable.
Course Policies
Special Needs and Accommodations
Syracuse University welcomes people with disabilities and, in compliance with the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act, does not discriminate on the basis of disability. Students who require special consideration due to a learning or physical disability or other situation should make an appointment to see me right away.
Use of Student Academic Work
It is understood that registration for and continued enrollment in this course constitutes permission by the student for the instructor to use for educational purposes any student work produced in the course, in compliance with the federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA). After the completion of the course, any further use of student work will meet one of the following conditions: (1) the work will be rendered anonymous through the removal of all personal identification of the student(s); or (2) written permission from the student(s).
Academic Integrity
Syracuse University’s academic integrity policy reflects the high value that we, as a university community, place on honesty in academic work. The policy defines our expectations for academic honesty and holds students accountable for the integrity of all work they submit. Students should understand that it is their responsibility to learn about course-specific expectations, as well as about university-wide academic integrity expectations. The university policy governs appropriate citation and use of sources, the integrity of work submitted in exams and assignments, and the veracity of signatures on attendance sheets and other verification of participation in class activities.
The presumptive penalty for a first instance of academic dishonesty by an undergraduate student is course failure. When you provide your signature to register for a Syracuse University course, you are also indicating that you have read the online summary of the University’s academic integrity expectations and agree to abide by those policies.
For the full statement of Syracuse University’s Academic Integrity Expectations, excerpted from the SU Academic Integrity Policies and Procedures handbook, see http://academicintegrity.syr.edu/full-statement-of-sus-ai-expectations/.
Related links:
Summary of SU’s AI Expectations—Know the Code: http://academicintegrity.syr.edu/know-the-code-sus-ai-expectations/
Ten Questions—and Answers—Every SU Undergraduate Needs to Know about Academic Integrity: http://academicintegrity.syr.edu/10-qas-for-undergraduate-students/
Tools for Understanding the Use of Sources: http://academicintegrity.syr.edu/resources-for-understanding-use-of-sources/
Practices of Academic Writing
Fall 2023 Course Calendar
Note: Thoughtful, annotated readings of all texts must be completed before arriving in class on the days they are listed on the calendar. This calendar indicates major readings and paper/project dates. Additional reading and writing assignments will be added as the course progresses. This calendar is subject to change. Students are responsible for ensuring their calendars are up-to-date.
Unit One: 21st Century Literacies
Genre & Writing Situations
Wed 8/30: Introduction to the course. Summer work collected. Genre conventions + subversions (video). “The Rhetorical Stance” by Wayne Booth (excerpt): balancing argument/subject, audience/reader, and speaker/writer.
Thu 8/31: Pre-assessment. Distribute Writing Analytically (WA). Homework: Read Chapters 1 and 2 from Writing Analytically (WA) – complete assignment 1 on page 20. (Tue 9/5)
Fri 9/1: Revisit “The Rhetorical Stance.” Uncovering our assumptions about audience, genre, and purpose. Read “Re: Your Recent Email to Your Professor” by Paul T. Corrigan and Cameron Hunt McNabb. Discussion: How to identify/examine the audience, genre, and purpose of a text (view sample video texts). Homework: Read "The Language of Film" from Film Studies: The Basics by Amy Villarejo, pages 1-9 (Wed 9/6)
Mon 9/4: No class
Tue 9/5: Registration information. Due: Chapters 1 and 2 of WA, assignment 1 on page 20. Discuss chapters 1 and 2 WA. Discuss “The Method.” Read “Among Elms and Maples, Morgantown, West Virginia, August 1935” by Maggie Anderson (CEw/T). Apply The Method (WA) to Anderson and selected film trailers.
Wed 9/6: Discuss “The Language of Film” pages 1-9 (mise-en-scène). Review Syracuse library resources. Homework: Read "The Language of Film" from Film Studies: The Basics by Amy Villarejo, pages 10-15 (due 9/8)
Thu 9/7: Continued discussion of “The Language of Film” pages 1-9 (mise-en-scène)
Fri 9/8: Discuss “The Language of Film” pages 10-15 (editing). Discussion: How do you watch films intentionally? What are the “layers” and “levels” of film (content, structure, style)?
Mon 9/11: Complete discussion of "The Language of Film," focusing on sound. View No Country for Old Men clip for analysis of speech, music, noise.
Tue 9/12: Assign film choice -- due Friday. Read “The Crowd at the Cinematograph” by Jules Romains.
Wed 9/13: Read “How to Read a Movie” by Roger Ebert. Apply Ebert’s “stop” method to Brothers clip.
Thu 9/14: “Stop” method continued. View film clips of various styles (Running on Empty, Mystic Pizza, Best in Show, Do the Right Thing) and apply the Ebert and WA method. How/when do these clips exemplify or subvert genre elements? What are the purposes of these filmmaking decisions?
Fri 9/15: Film choices due (scene specific). Read “Review of The Exorcist” by Roger Ebert. How does he pivot his stance from literal to metaphorical? Apply shot + editing analyses to examples. View opening scenes from Drive and Baby Driver. Individual and then comparative analysis
Mon 9/18: Review Unit 1 work to date. Prepare for Unit 1 prep work.
Tue 9/19: Complete unit 1 intensive scene notes for image and sound.
Wed 9/20: Begin viewing The Prestige as sample film for Unit 1 analysis.
Thu 9/21: Continue viewing The Prestige
Fri 9/22: Continue viewing The Prestige
Mon 9/25: Continue viewing The Prestige
Tue 9/26: Finish viewing The Prestige. Scene analysis for project practice via Ebert's "stop" method. Identify one distinct move/decision Nolan makes as a director that could be analogous to student’s chosen scene.
Wed 9/27: Return film notes. Assign Unit 1 draft, review guidelines, source material. Solicit student questions about assignment.
Thu 9/28: View sample scene and related sample student essay (The Terminator).
Fri 9/29: Assign Unit 1 draft. Works Cited template. Unit 1 draft work period.
Mon 10/2: Unit 1 draft work period.
Tue 10/3: Unit 1 draft due. Sent to instructor and peer editor. Intro to peer editing in SUPA, and full edit period. Day focus: CONTENT.
Wed 10/4: SUPA peer edit day 2. Day focus: LANGUAGE.
Thu 10/5: Students will review peer editing comments and begin drafting Unit 1 reflection.
Fri 10/6: Unit 1 reflection work.
Mon 10/9: No class
Tue 10/10: Unit 1 drafts returned. Work period.
Wed 10/11: Unit 1 portfolio work period.
Thu 10/12: Unit 1 portfolio work period. Due Friday.
Unit Two: Analysis
Examining Fandom
Fri 10/13: Begin Unit 2 work. Focused freewrite and discussion of the concept of “fandom”
Discuss chapters 3 and 4 in Writing Analytically (via essential points)
Mon 10/16: Read and discuss “Convergence? I Diverge” by Henry Jenkins
Tue 10/17: Read and discuss “Interactive Audiences? The ‘Collective Intelligence’ of Media Fans” by Henry Jenkins as introduction to scholarly reading.
Wed 10/18: No class.
Thu 10/19: Continue reading and discussing Jenkins. Introduce rhetorical sourcing summary heuristic. Deciphering assignment language and discourse modes from another professor. Nostalgia freewrite.
Fri 10/20: Apply summary heuristic to Jenkins source. Contemporary fandom issues: "old audiences" vs "new audiences," how medium creates environment for content, Vine vs. TikTok example. Begin to generate a list of fandom concepts. Continue fandom videos discussion as foundation for fan studies concepts.
Mon 10/23: Begin reading "The Drama of Celebrity" by Sharon Marcus as second unit 2 source.
Tue 10/24: Continue Marcus reading. Assign Unit 2 pre-proposal (subtopic choices).
Wed 10/25: Continue reading and analyzing Marcus source.
Thu 10/26: Complete and review Marcus source. Possible: synthesis with nostalgia fandom. Pre-proposals due at 2.
Fri 10/27: Introduction to Unit 2 proposal: identifying specific, narrow topics with abstract/conceptual reach. Work period: Unit 2 proposal.
Mon 10/30: Unit 2 proposal due. View fandom documentary film Happy Valley
Tue 10/31: View fandom documentary film Happy Valley
Wed 11/1: View fandom documentary film Happy Valley
Thu 11/2: Complete film. Discuss.
Fri 11/3: Review Happy Valley. Discuss: who are the stakeholders? Context, quote, analysis method of integrating and embedding sources in college writing.
Mon 11/6: Work period: Unit 2 essay draft.
Tue 11/7: Work period: Unit 2 essay draft.
Wed 11/8: Work period: Unit 2 essay draft.
Thu 11/9: No class
Fri 11/10: No class
Mon 11/13: Unit 2 essay due. Peer edits. Day 1: content.
Tue 11/14: Unit 2 peer edits, Day 2: language.
Wed 11/15: Skill work based on observations of Unit 2 essay drafts (possible: how to construct an effective essay opening, transitioning to analysis)
Thu 11/16: Seeking complexity in analysis + practice working with sources. Read and discuss: "Let People Enjoy This Essay" by B.D. McClay: is it possible to be critical of fandoms in 2023?
Fri 11/17: Context, quote, analysis method reviewed + practiced with McClay source.
Mon 11/20: Revisiting Marcus + Jenkins as conceptual sources: thinking about the conceptual bridge, content differences, etc.
Tue 11/21: [Unit 3 pre-work] Intro to Unit 3, Argument. View episode of Crossfire (YouTube) Monty Python “The Argument Clinic.”
Wed 11/22: Unit 3 pre-work, continued.
Thu 11/23: No class
Fri 11/24: No class
Mon 11/27: Return Unit 2 drafts. Unit 2 portfolio work period.
Tue 11/28: Unit 2 portfolio work period.
Wed 11/29: Unit 2 portfolio work period.
Unit Three: Documented Argument
Cultural Resistance and Dissent
Thu 11/30: Unit 2 portfolio due. Provocative topics and argument: "This is America"
Fri 12/1: Read and discuss Stephen Duncombe’s introduction to The Cultural Resistance Reader in CEw/T. Generative/required source for Unit 3 essay. Knowing this conceptual source is required, how might we read it intentionally?
Mon 12/4: Complete Duncombe. Resistance + dissent: what are the literal + conceptual differences? Building Unit 3 topic list.
Tue 12/5: Revisit Duncombe in advance of research overview work (using 1994 NYT source about AIDS protests). Submit top research choices.
Wed 12/6: Complete Unit 3 research overview.
Thu 12/7: Second conceptual reading for Unit 3: “Of Courage and Resistance” by Susan Sontag.
Fri 12/8: Continue Sontag reading.
Mon 12/11: Complete Sontag discussion.
Tue 12/12: Return unit 3 overview. Planning our conceptual source integration for Unit 3: Duncombe + Sontag (using Marcus/Jenkins template + recognizing that we need to frame it via our own project!)
Wed 12/13: Applying Duncombe/Sontag to current event (“bridge” practice).
Thu 12/14: Assign Unit 3 draft. Work period.
Fri 12/15: Work period.
Mon 12/18: Work period.
Tue 12/19: Unit 3 draft due. Peer edit day 1: content.
Wed 12/20: Peer edit day 2: language.
Thu 12/21: Draft review: general observations.
Fri 12/22: Draft observations continued, as needed.
Mon 12/25-Mon 1/1: No class
Tue 1/2: Return unit 3 draft. Review common errors/points for revision (including: pivot from dissent hook to resistance, integration of conceptual sources, creating a robust argument of our own by responding directly to a claim from a source). View Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, Visual Artist: “Stop Telling Women to Smile” and collectively edit sample Unit 3 draft about subject.
Wed 1/3: Assign Unit 3 portfolio. Work period.
Thu 1/4: Work period.
Fri 1/5: Work period. Due end of day.
Final Project
Art as Resistance
Mon 1/8: Introduction to Final Project: what are the potential benefits and drawbacks of art as a form of cultural resistance? View Barbara Kruger source. Art proposal assigned.
Tue 1/9: View Waste Land
Wed 1/10: View Waste Land
Thu 1/11: View Waste Land
Fri 1/12: Finish Waste Land. Discuss and review. Possible Basquiat sample for discussion.
Mon 1/15: No class
Tue 1/16: Final project assignment review. Work period.
Wed 1/17: Final class. Survey. Work period. Final project due TBD.