RWS 100: The Rhetoric of Written Argument
Instructor:
Section:
Janet Tempelton
29
Office Phone: 594-5238
Office Number: AH 3111
Email: jtempelt@rohan.sdsu.edu
Meeting Times: MWF 12:00-12:50
Meeting Place: MCN-105
Department Phone: 594-6515
Office Hours: M/W 1:00-1:50
and by appointment
Prerequisites:
All RWS 100 students must have satisfactory completion of the Lower Division Writing
Competency Requirement.
Required Textbooks:
RWS 100 Course Reader (available at KB Books)
Raimes, Ann. Keys for Writers. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Course Description, General Education Capacities/Goals and RWS Learning Outcomes
“Rhetoric may be defined as the faculty of observing in any given case the available means of
persuasion.” Aristotle, Rhetoric
Our Learning Outcomes reflect the goals and capacities of the General Education Program.
RWS 100 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 100 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)
2)
3)
4)
craft well-reasoned arguments for specific audiences;
analyze a variety of texts commonly encountered in the academic setting;
situate discourse within social, generic, cultural, and historic contexts; and
assess the relative strengths of arguments and supporting evidence.
Our student learning outcomes for RWS 100 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.”
Learning Outcomes for RWS 100
The following four outcomes describe the four main writing projects or “assignment types” for
the course. Students will be able to:
1) Describe and analyze an author’s argument, claims, project, support and rhetorical
strategies;
2) Construct an account of an author’s project and argument and carry out small,
focused research tasks and find information that helps clarify, illustrate, extend or
complicate that argument; use appropriate reference materials, including a dictionary,
in order to clarify their understanding of texts;
3) Construct an account of two or more authors’ projects and arguments and explain
rhetorical strategies that these authors—and by extension other writers—use to
engage readers in thinking about their arguments;
4) Construct an account of two authors’ projects and arguments in order to use concepts
from one argument as a framework for understanding and writing about another.
The following points describe outcomes to work on throughout the course, to be attained over the
fifteen weeks. Students will be able to:
5) Describe elements of an argument—claims, methods of development, kinds of
evidence, persuasive appeals; annotate the work that is done by each section of a
written argument;
6) Use all aspects of the writing process—including prewriting, drafting, revising,
editing, and proofreading;
7) Choose effective structures for their writing, acknowledging that different purposes,
contexts and audiences call for different structures; understand the relationship
between a text’s ideas and its structure;
8) Identify devices an author has used to create cohesion or to carry the reader through
the text; use metadiscourse to signal the project of the paper, and guide a reader from
one idea to the next in their writing;
9) Effectively select material from written arguments, contextualize it, and comment on
it in their writing;
10) Determine when and where a source was published, who wrote it and whether it was
reprinted or edited; understand that texts are written in and respond to particular
contexts, communities or cultures; examine the vocabulary choices a writer makes
and how they are related to context, community or culture, audience or purpose;
11) Respond in writing to ideas drawn from various cultures and disciplines, using the
activity of writing to clarify and improve their understanding of an argument;
12) Analyze and assess the relative strengths of arguments and supporting evidence;
13) Analyze and assess arguments made by visual texts; incorporate visual images into
their documents;
14) Craft well reasoned arguments for specific audiences;
15) Edit their writing for the grammar and usage conventions appropriate to each writing
situation;
16) Assign significance to the arguments that they read;
17) Reflect on how they wrote their papers, and revise arguments and findings based on
critical reflection.
Course Requirements:
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Three formal essays. First drafts and revisions will be required, and the paper
grade will be lowered one full letter grade if there is no first draft included.
Final in-class critical reflection.
Selected readings from Course Reader.
Class participation in small group activities, class discussions, and writing
workshops.
Grade Breakdown:
Each paper will receive a letter grade based on the quality of work it contains, as will your final
exam paper. The value of the letter grade corresponds to the recommended values in the SDSU
catalog (A = 4.0, A- = 3.7, etc.). Participation will be assigned a letter grade that takes into
consideration both your attendance and your level of involvement in class discussions and group
work. Your final grade will be determined by weighting those letter grades as follows:
First Paper: 25%
Second Paper: 25%
Third Paper: 30%
Final Critical Reflection:
Participation:
10%
10%
Policies:
Late work: You may use one “Get Out of Jail Free” option, which allows you to turn in one of
the first three papers one class period late without any penalty. Once the option has been used,
no late work will be accepted. Note that the “Get Out of Jail Free” card may not be used with
either the final paper or the final Critical Reflection; they must be turned in on time.
Hard copies: All assignments are due during the class period and must be turned in as hard
copies.
Graded papers: Papers are generally graded and returned to you within an average of two weeks.
At times the turn-around time may be shorter and on occasion it may be longer, depending on the
amount of commentary I find it necessary to include on the returned papers.
Attendance: No more than three absences, either excused or unexcused, are allowed without
penalty during the semester. Absences beyond this will be reflected in a lower participation
grade—clearly, you cannot participate if you have not attended. The higher the number of
absences, the greater effect there will be on the participation part of your grade, and it is possible
to receive a failing grade in the participation portion of your overall grade based on lack of
attendance. Note that students who leave during class will be marked absent. Also, three tardies
will be counted as one absence.
Cell phones: Please be sure cell phones are turned off and put away before entering class.
Having a phone go off in class is distracting to all and interrupts the train of thought and
discussion. Students who are attending to their cell phones during class, or who get up and leave
class to answer cell phones, will be marked absent. Clearly, you are not here participating in
class if you are attending to your cell phone.
E-mail: This course is not taught via e-mail. If you miss class, please come see me during office
hours to discuss what you missed. I cannot teach a fifty minute class via e-mail. Also, it is not
necessary to notify me if you will be missing class on a particular day, though if something has
come up that will result in you missing several classes, you will want to let me know. Finally, I
do not respond to e-mails at night or on weekends.
Special arrangements: If you are registered with Student Disability Services and require special
arrangements to be made in order to accommodate your learning needs, I am happy to work with
you in conjunction with SDS. Please let me know of your situation so that we can work together
to ensure you have every opportunity to do your best work in this class.
Student athletes: If you are a student athlete with away games scheduled during the semester,
please let me know by the end of the first week of class, and present me with a copy of your team
travel schedule. I am aware of your multiple obligations as student athletes, and we will make
appropriate scheduling arrangements—this may include turning assignments in early.
Plagiarism: According to the policy file, “Plagiarism shall be defined as the act of incorporating
ideas, words, or specific substance of another, whether purchased, borrowed, or otherwise
obtained, and submitting same to the university as one’s own work to fulfill academic
requirements without giving credit to the appropriate source. Plagiarism shall include, but not be
limited to: a.) submitting work either in part or in whole completed by another; b.) omitting
footnotes for ideas, statements, facts, or conclusions that belong to another; c.) omitting
quotation marks when quoting directly from another; d.) close and lengthy paraphrasing of the
writings of another.” Plagiarism is a breach of academic codes of conduct. Refer to the General
Catalog for the potential consequences of plagiarism, which may include failing the course
and/or possible expulsion from the university.
ASSIGNMENT SCHEDULE
RWS 100, FALL 2013
Monday, August 26:
Syllabus, Assignment Schedule, Introductions
Wednesday, August 28:
Basics of argumentation
Friday, August 30:
Rhetorical analysis.
Monday, September 2:
Labor Day – No classes.
Wednesday, September 4:
Prior to class, complete reading Chapters 1 and 2 from
Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring in the Course Reader.
Friday, September 6:
Silent Spring continued.
Monday, September 9:
Prior to class, complete reading Stille’s “The Ganges’ Next
Life” in Course Reader.
Wednesday, September 11:
Stille continued.
Friday, September 13:
Stille continued.
Monday, September 16:
Organization and development of Essay 1.
Wednesday, September 18:
First draft Essay 1 due. Workshop.
Friday, September 20:
Conferencing.
Monday, September 23:
Conferencing.
Wednesday, September 25:
Conferencing.
Friday, September 27:
Peer Review.
Monday, September 30:
Essay 1 due. Discussion of essay 2.
Wednesday, October 2:
Prior to class, complete reading “The Self as Hero” in
Course Reader.
Friday, October 4:
Discussion of claims and evidence in “The Self as Hero”
continued.
Monday, October 7:
“The Self as Hero” continued.
Wednesday, October 9:
Students bring in research to discuss in their papers.
Friday, October 11:
Discussion of research continued.
Monday, October 14:
Organization and development of Essay Two.
Wednesday, October 16:
Incorporating Sources.
Friday, October 18:
First draft essay 2 due. Workshop.
Monday, October 21:
Conferencing.
Wednesday, October 23:
Conferencing.
Friday, October 25:
Conferencing.
Monday, October 28:
Essay 2 due. Discussion of Essay 3.
Wednesday, October 30:
Prior to class, complete reading Plato’s “Allegory of the
Cave” in the Course Reader.
Friday, November 2:
Plato continued.
Monday, November 4:
The Matrix
Wednesday, November 6:
The Matrix
Friday, November 8:
The Matrix make-up.
Monday, November 11:
Veteran’s Day – No classes.
Wednesday, November 13:
Using Plato as a lens.
Friday, November 15:
Using Plato as a lens.
Monday, November 18:
Plato as a lens.
Wednesday, November 20:
Developing lens discussions.
Friday, November 22:
Organizing and developing Essay 3.
Monday, November 25:
Organization and development of Essay 3.
Wednesday, November 27:
:
Friday, November 29:
Optional conferencing.
Thanksgiving Break – no classes.
Monday, December 3:
Conferencing.
Wednesday, December 4:
Conferencing.
Friday, December 6:
Conferencing.
Monday, December 9:
First draft of Paper 3 for peer review.
Wednesday, December 11
Essay 3 due. In class critical reflection.