Rhetoric and Writing Studies 200
The Rhetoric of Written Argument in Context
“Life's” Sciences
Professor Nicholas Schuur
MWF 11am-11:50am
MCN 105
Class Information:
 Class Website: sites.google.com/site/professorschuursclass
 Email: nickschuur@gmail.com
 Voicemail/Text: (619) 800-4823
 Office: TBA
 Office Hours: Friday, 12pm-5pm and by Appointment
*Be sure to include your name, the course, and all other important information in e-mails,
voicemails, and texts so that I can respond accurately and promptly.
Required Texts:
 Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Random House, 2010. Print.


Pirsig, Robert M. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Orlando: Harcourt Press. 2001.
A writer's style guide, such as an APA or MLA manual. Two common guides are:
◦ Hacker, Diana & Sommers, Nancy. A Writer's Reference. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins.
2011.
◦ Raimes, Ann. Keys for Writers. 6th Ed. United States: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2010
Course Description: Consider first the origin of the word “context”: it comes from Latin, contextus,
which means woven together. Everything we do, everything we say, has a past, a present, a future. We
are creatures of context – part of a narrative story that comes before our particular moment and follows
it. We are connected to our families, our cultures and histories, our physical sites and social settings.
This is how we design – or discover – our identities: who we are in the world, and how we imagine and
learn to speak and understand our names. In this course we will study visual and written texts that
invite us to consider our own discourses of identity.
Our “Learning Outcomes” reflect the goals and capacities of the General Education Program. RWS
200 is one of several courses in the area of general education defined as “Communication and Critical
Thinking.” Focusing particularly on argument, this course emphasizes four essential general
education capacities: the ability to 1) construct, analyze and communicate argument, 2) contextualize
phenomena, 3) negotiate differences, and 4) apply theoretical models to the real world. This course
advances general education by helping students understand the general function of writing, speaking,
visual texts, and thinking within the context of the university at large, rather than within specific
disciplines. In addition to featuring the basic rules and conventions governing composition and
presentation, RWS 200 establishes intellectual frameworks and analytical tools that help students
explore, construct, critique, and integrate sophisticated texts.
Within this framework of four general capacities, the course realizes four closely related subsidiary
goals. These goals focus on helping students
1)
craft well-reasoned arguments for specific audiences;
2)
analyze a variety of texts commonly encountered in the academic setting;
3)
situate discourse within social, generic, cultural, and historic contexts; and
4)
assess the relative strengths of arguments and supporting evidence.
Our student learning outcomes for RWS 200 are closely aligned with these goals and capacities, and
reflect the program’s overall objective of helping students attain “essential skills that underlie all
university education.”
Assignment Types: the following four outcomes describe the four main writing projects or
"assignment types" for the course. Students will be able to:
1. Construct an account of an argument and identify elements of context embedded in it, the clues
that show what the argument is responding to--both in the sense of what has come before it and
in the sense that it is written for an audience in a particular time and place; examine a writer’s
language in relation to audience, context and community;
2. follow avenues of investigation that are opened by noticing elements of context; research those
elements and show how one's understanding of the argument is developed, changed, or evolved
by looking into its context;
3. given the common concerns of two or more arguments, discuss how the claims of these
arguments modify, complicate or qualify one another;
4. consider their contemporary, current life as the context within which they are reading the
arguments assigned in the class; position themselves in relation to these arguments and
additional ones they have researched in order to make an argument; draw on available key
terms, concepts or frameworks of analysis to help shape the argument.
Outcomes across the semester: the following points describe outcomes to work on throughout the
semester, to be attained over the 15 weeks. Students will be able to:
5. Building on the work done in RWS 100, students will be able to: articulate what argument a text
is making; describe the work that is done by each section of the argument; describe elements of
the argument—claims, methods of development, kinds of evidence, persuasive appeals;
translate an argument into their own words;
6. understand and incorporate all aspects of the writing process--including prewriting, drafting,
revising, editing, and proofreading;
7. articulate what key terms, definitions, concepts, statements of a problem or issue are established
by a text;
8. investigate and articulate how an argument is positioned—based on certain kinds of
assumptions, located in a way of thinking and representing issues from a point of view;
9. work with multiples sources in a paper, deciding what to include and what to exclude, choosing
an effective structure, and creating significant relationships among sources;
10. analyze and assess arguments made by visual texts; incorporate visual images into their
documents;
11. craft a cohesive paper, and use effective metadiscourse to articulate the project of the paper and
guide a reader through it;
12. describe their own papers and reflect on how they wrote them; differentiate between the content
of their texts and the language and rhetorical strategies they employ;
13. assign significance to the arguments they read;
14. revise their own work effectively, re-reading previous work and re-envisioning it in the light of
reflection, feedback, further reading and new sources of information;
edit their writing for the grammar and usage conventions appropriate to the project.
Assignment Descriptions:
Attendance: Due to the discussion oriented nature of this class, attendance will be necessary for
successful completion of the course. Attendance will be given out “pass/fail,” with no points for any
students missing five or more meetings. If a student misses five meetings, they may make up the points
for one of those absences by writing a 3-5 page paper on why the student missed class and what lessons
were learned in the experience.
Participation: Participation will be based on whether or not the student contributes to class discussions
and group projects. The intention is to provide opportunities for everyone to engage with texts, peers,
and concepts in an open and thoughtful way. Students who disrupt, disrespect, or otherwise damage the
ability of others to participate fully, they will loose out on points in this category, and be subject to
disciplinary action according to the student code of conduct if the behavior continues.
Portfolio: Every student will complete a portfolio of major written works at the end of the semester. In
addition to points for the thee major papers, students will also receive points for a proposal outlining
their portfolio project and for a reflective essay that will be included as well. The three major
assignments are (1) an account of an text within a historical, social, or ideological context, (2) a
research paper exploring the context of an important concept in a scientific discipline, (3) An account
of two texts within the context of one another.
Group Responses, Discussions, and Workshops: The class will be divided into several reading,
discussion and drafting groups. They will be responsible for accounting for major texts in the course of
the class as well as leading discussions on various aspects of those texts. Members of the groups will
exchange and provide peer review during drafting workshops.
Reading/Discussion/Research Responses: Most class days, there will be a brief piece of writing due.
These short texts will respond to texts and discussions either as “free writings” or according to specific
instructions.
Drafting Responses: Every week, you will be asked to complete a written response that will help you
to develop your drafts for the final portfolio. These may be subsequent drafts of the same paper, or a
new draft responding to the readings and discussions from each class. Some will be open, others will
respond to specific requirements of format, content, and structure. Each week, one reading group will
be responsible for providing copies of drafts for the class to review and discuss.
Assignment Type
Percentage of Final Grade
Attendance
5.00%
Participation
5.00%
Portfolio
10.00%

Argument in Context
10.00%

Research In Context
10.00%

Two Arguments in Context
10.00%
Group Responses/Discussions/Workshops
15.00%
Draft Responses
20.00%
Reading/Discussion/Research Responses
15.00%
Course Schedule:
Date
In Class
Homework/Readings
08/27/12

Intro to Course Materials

Discussion Response
08/29/12
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Discussion Response Due
Administrative Discussion
Go Over Syllabus
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Reading: Negy
Reading: Skloot, Prologue-Ch 2
Reading Response
08/31/12
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Reading Response Due
Administrative Business
Discussion: Reading
Critically
Assign Reading Groups
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Reading: Sagan (1997)
Reading: Skloot, Ch 3-6
Reading Response
Exchange Contact Information,
Group Contract, cc Professor
Schuur
09/03/12
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Labor Day, No Class
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Reading: Skloot, Ch 7-9
Multimedia: Sagan (1980)
Group Response
09/05/12
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Reading Response Due
Group Response Due
Administrative Business
Discussion: Sagan's Vision
of the Cosmos
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Reading: Katz, D.
Reading: Maher.
Reading: Skloot, Ch 10-11
Discussion Response
09/07/12
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Discussion Response Due
Administrative Business
Discussion of Sagan
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Reading: Darwin
Reading: Skloot, Ch. 12-14
Reading Response
09/10/12
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Reading Response Due
Administrative Business
Discussion of Darwin
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
Reading: Safina
Reading: Skloot, Ch 15-17
Discussion Response
09/12/12
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Discussion Response Due
Administrative Business
Discussion of Safina

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Reading: Skloot, Ch 18-20
Draft Response
09/14/12
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Draft Response Due
Administrative Business
Discussion of Writing
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

Reading: Watson and Crick
Reading: Skloot, Ch 21-22
Reading Response
09/17/12
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Reading Response Due
Administrative Business
Discussion: The Building
Blocks of Life and how to
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

Reading: Skloot, Ch 23-25
Reading: Pirsig, Ch 1-2
Research Response: Find and
respond to a primary source text on
Read about Them
a scientific concept of your choice
09/19/12
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Research Response Due
Administrative Business
Discussion

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
Reading: Skloot, Ch 26-28
Reading: Pirsig, Ch 3-4
Draft Response
09/21/12
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Draft Response Due
Administrative Business
Discussion of Writing
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
Research Response: Find and
respond to three articles on the same
subject.
Reading: Skloot, Ch 29-31
Reading: Pirsig, Ch 5-7
09/24/12
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Reading Response Due
Administrative Business
Discussion: Science and
Pseudoscience
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Reading: Skloot, Ch 32-33
Reading: Pirsig, Ch 8-10
Discussion Response
09/26/12
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Discussion Response Due
Administrative Business
Discussion



Reading: Skloot, 34-38
Reading: Pirsig, Ch 11-13
Draft Response
09/28/12
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Draft Response Due
Administrative Business
Discussion of Writing
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
Reading: Gandhi
Reading: Skloot, “Where are they
Now”- “Afterword”
Reading: Pirsig, Ch 14-15:
Reading Response
10/01/12
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Reading Response Due
Administrative Business
Discussion of Reading
Gandhi
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Reading: Pirsig, Ch 16-18
Discussion Response
Group Response to Skloot
10/03/12
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Discussion Response Due
Administrative Business
Discussion

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Reading: Pirsig, Ch 19-20
Group Response to Skloot
Draft Response
10/05/12
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Draft Response Due
Administrative Business
Discussion of Writing

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Reading: Pirsig, 21-23
Group Response to Skloot
10/08/12
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Group Response Due
Administrative Business
Discussion of Skloot
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Reading: Pirsig, 24-25
Discussion Response
10/10/12
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Reading Response Due
Administrative Business
Discussion of Skloot
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Reading: Pirsig, Ch 26
Draft Response
10/12/12
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Draft Response Due
Administrative Business
Discussion of Writing
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Reading: TBA
Reading: Pirsig, Ch 27-28
Reading Response
10/15/12
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Reading Response Due
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Reading: Pirsig, Ch 29


Administrative Business
Discussion of Skloot
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Discussion Response
10/17/12
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Discussion Response Due
Administrative Business
Discussion of Skloot


Reading: Pirsig, Ch 30-31
Draft Response
10/19/12
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Draft Response Due
Administrative Business
Discussion of Writing
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
Reading: TBA
Reading: Pirsig, “Afterword”
Reading Response
10/22/12
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Reading Response Due
Administrative Business
Discussion of Skloot


Group Response to Pirsig
Discussion Response
10/24/12
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
Discussion Response Due
Administrative Business
Discussion of Skloot


Group Response to Pirsig
Draft Response
10/26/12
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Draft Response Due
Administrative Business
Discussion of Writing

Group Response to Pirsig
10/29/12
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Group Response Due
Administrative Business
Discussion of Pirsig

Discussion Response
10/31/12
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
Discussion Response Due
Administrative Business
Discussion of Pirsig

Draft Response
11/02/12
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Draft Response Due
Administrative Business
Discussion of Writing

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Reading: TBA
Reading Response
11/05/12
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Reading Response Due
Administrative Business
Discussion of Pirsig

Discussion Response
11/07/12
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
Discussion Response Due
Administrative Business
Discussion of Pirsig

Draft Response
11/09/12
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Draft Response Due
Administrative Business
Discussion of Writing


Reading: Katz, S.
Reading Response
11/12/12

Veterans Day, No Class

Review Responses
11/14/12
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Reading Response Due
Administrative Business
Discussion of Pirsig

Select Drafts for Revision
11/16/12

Administrative Business

Portfolio Project Proposal

Discussion of Pirsig


Begin Revision of Portfolios


Portfolio Project Proposal
Due
Administrative Business
Portfolio Workshop
11/21/12


Administrative Business
Portfolio Workshop

Continue Revision of Portfolios
11/23/12

Thanksgiving Break, No
Class

Continue Revision of Portfolios
11/26/12
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
Administrative Business
Drafting WorkshopChecklists

Revise Drafts
11/28/12


Administrative Business
Drafting Workshop-Group
Editing Stations

Revise Drafts
11/30/12
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
Administrative Business
Drafting Workshop-1

Revise Drafts
12/03/12
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
Administrative Business
Drafting Workshop-2

Revise Drafts
12/05/12


Administrative Business
Drafting Workshop-3

Revise Drafts
12/07/12


Administrative Business
Drafting Workshop-4

Revise Drafts
Finals:
Time/Date TBA

Final Portfolio Due

Have a safe holiday and happy New
Year!
11/19/12