Professor: Benjamin C. Jenkins
Email: mrbenjamincjenkins@gmail.com
Office: SH116
Class Meets: Section 05, M/W/F 9am-9:50am, HH-222
Office Hrs: Mon. 12pm-1pm and by appointment
Section 33, M/W/F 11am-11:50am, SSW-2532
Wed. 12pm-1pm and by appointment
- “Rhetoric refers to the study and uses of written, spoken and visual language. It investigates how language is used
to organize and maintain social groups, construct meanings and identities, coordinate behavior, persuade, position,
perform, produce change, mediate power, and create knowledge.” (Werry)
- “Argument is the essence of education…[and] central to democratic culture” (Lasch)
- “Universities are houses of argument.” (Norgaard)
- “I can win an argument on any topic, against any opponent. People know this, and steer clear of me at parties.
Often, as a sign of their great respect, they don't even invite me.” Dave Barry
What is the Story of this Course?
You will practice interpreting, analyzing, evaluating and producing written argument, as argument is
central to academic literacy, critical thinking, professional and civic life. You will learn to write and revise
papers in which you address complex arguments effectively, use source materials responsibly and make
sound decisions about audience, context, structure, and purpose.
Texts and Materials:
1) RWS 100 Course Reader—found on Blackboard. Print a copy and bring it to class on
Wednesday, and every day thereafter.
2) Supplementary Readings—found on Blackboard. These must be printed out and brought to
class when each reading is due (see schedule below).
3) A notebook for in class assignments, a folder to keep copies of drafts in, and access to a printer.
Useful Resources
1. The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL): https://owl.english.purdue.edu/
2. SDSU Writing Center, Love Library, Room LA 1103 (next to the Circulation Desk).
The Center is open Monday to Wednesday 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., Thursday 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and
Friday 9 a.m. to 2 p.m (starting Sept. 2, 2014.) For more information visit
http://writingcenter.sdsu.edu/. Appointments can be made online.
REQUIREMENTS
Essays: You will write four formal essays of four to eight pages in length for this course. Most papers will
require at least one rough draft, and conferencing (meeting) with me.
Homework/Class Work: You will compose a number of informal, shorter texts - homework, in-class
writing, reflections, reading responses, and peer reviews. Most of this work will help you draft the 4
major papers.
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Presentations: You will occasionally be asked to give a brief presentation in class, either individually or
as part of a group.
Participation: Participation is important to your final grade. Much of the course involves in-class
discussion and, as such, requires you regularly contribute your insights. The participation grade includes
homework, preparatory reading, attendance, effort invested in class discussion and presentations, and
peer review. Since this is a discussion-based class, it is vital that you listen and speak respectfully to
others at all times. I encourage you to express your opinions, of course – they will help inspire good
discussions. Your participation in class, peer review and at scheduled conferences is important and
counts for 10% of your grade.
IF YOU ARE ABSENT you are still responsible for knowing what was covered in class, what the
homework is, and when it is due. Please exchange phone numbers and/or emails with at least two of
your classmates. In addition, check the course wiki regularly. If you miss class, contact a fellow student
for information, or come see me during office hours. If you still have questions feel free to email me.
Missing more than 5 class sessions will result in loss of participation points. Missing a conference with
the professor counts as one absence.
ASSIGNMENTS
%
Points
Assignment 1: Constructing an Account
of an Argument
Assignment 2: Gathering Information and Managing
Sources
Assignment 3: Explaining Rhetorical
Strategies
Assignment 4: Evaluating & Comparing
Multiple Texts
Homework/Class Work
Participation
Total
15
150
Due
Date
09/25
20
200
10/21
20
200
11/13
20
200
12/14
10
15
100
100
150
1000
Grade
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD+
D
F
2
Points
%
930-1000
900-929
870-899
830-869
800-829
770-799
730-769
700-729
670-699
600-669
0-599
93-100%
90-92
87-89%
83-86%
80-82%
77-79%
73-76%
70-72%
67-69%
60-66%
Below 60%
IMPORTANT DUE DATES
Paper #1
Paper #2
Paper #3
Paper #4
Friday, September 25
Wednesday, October 21
Friday, November 13
Wednesday, December 16
MAJOR ASSIGNMENTS
1) Describe and analyze an author’s argument, claims, project, support and rhetorical strategies
(Thompson)
2) Construct an account of an author’s project and argument and carry out small, focused research
tasks to 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
an argument (Boyd)
3) Construct an account of one 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. (Carr)
4) Assess the relative strengths and weaknesses of multiple texts, including discussion of rhetorical
strategies, supporting evidence, audience, and text structure. (texts tba)
POLICIES & PROCEDURES
Attendance: There is no substitute for attending class. Since this is a discussion-oriented course, your attendance
is crucial, and key to doing the portfolio work. Regular attendance will greatly elevate your chances of performing
well. Simply showing up for class, however, will not be enough. I expect the class to be the site of lively
intellectual activity, discussion, debate and critical, respectful exchange.
If you are absent you are still responsible for knowing what was covered in class, what the homework is,
and when it is due. I suggest you exchange phone numbers and/or emails with at least two of your
classmates. In addition, check Blackboard regularly. Missing more than 5 class sessions will result in
loss of participation points. Missing a conference with the professor counts as one absence.
Essays: All essays are due on Turnitin through Blackboard. All essays must be typed and adhere to MLA
format. All papers will require at least one rough draft, and conferencing (meeting) with me, or an in
class peer review. If you don’t turn in the rough draft, then your essay will drop by ½ a letter grade.
Late papers will drop ½ a letter grade each day it is late up to 2 days.
Blackboard: I will sometimes ask you to access Blackboard to review/print materials to bring to class,
and to submit reading responses. The final drafts of your essays will be submitted to Turnitin through
Blackboard. Please check Blackboard regularly.
Electronics: Your active participation is required in this course. You can use your electronics to access
information pertinent to our discussions but please refrain from checking texts and accessing the web
for personal reasons. If you need to respond to an urgent personal text, email, or phone call, please step
into the hallway so that you do not distract those around you.
Turnitin Policy: Turnitin (integrated within Blackboard) will be used in this course for submission of four
essay assignments. Students in this course agree that papers are subject to submission for textual
similarity review to Turnitin.com for the detection of plagiarism. All submitted papers will be included as
source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism
of such papers. Students may submit their papers in such a way that no identifying information about
them is included. Another option is that a student may request, in writing, that his/her papers not be
submitted to Turnitin.com. However, this option requires the student to provide documentation to
substantiate that the papers are the original work of the student and do not include any plagiarized
material.
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Plagiarism: All work in this course must be original. Plagiarism will result in serious consequences
ranging from grade reduction to failure in the class to expulsion from the college. For more information
on the university cheating and plagiarism policy, please visit: http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/dept/senate/
policy/pfacademics.html. SDSU’s library also has an excellent tutorial on how to avoid plagiarism.
Respect: Since this is a discussion-based class, it is vital that you listen and speak respectfully to others
at all times. I encourage you to express your opinions, of course – they will help inspire good discussions.
Problems: If you run into problems or emergencies, talk to me as soon as possible
Office Hours: I encourage all students to attend office hours, but especially if you have any questions or
concerns about reading, writing, the course or college in general. Please make an appointment with me
in advance via email or after class. Please bring all of your pre-writing, drafts, and final drafts of your
essays with comments to office hours. It will assist me in answering any questions you may have on the
assignments.
Course Tutoring: I invite all students to attend office hours with questions on writing or the RWS 100
course. If you would like additional assistance and encouragement, SDSU has a Writing Center with an
excellent staff of tutors to assist students in all courses. The Writing Center is located in the Love Library,
Room LA 1103, which is in next to the Circulation Desk. For more information about hours and services
visit http://writingcenter.sdsu.edu/.
Disabled students: Every attempt will be made to offer reasonable accommodations for students with
disabilities in this course. Students with disabilities who may need accommodations in this class are
encouraged to notify the instructor privately and to contact Student Disability Services (SDS) as soon as
possible. SDS staff are available in the Capulli Center in Suite 3101 or by phone at (619) 594-6473
(voice) or (619) 594-2929 (TTD/TTY).
If you are a student with a disability and believe you will need accommodations for this class, it is your
responsibility to contact Student Disability Services. To avoid any delay in the receipt of your
accommodations, you should contact Student Disability Services as soon as possible. Please note that
accommodations are not retroactive, and that accommodations based upon disability cannot be
provided until you have presented your instructor with an accommodation letter from Student Disability
Services. Your cooperation is appreciated.
Counseling: There are many events and situations that put additional stress on being a student. SDSU
has an excellent center for Counseling & Psychological Services that is open to students Monday through
Friday from 8am-4:30pm. To set up an initial consultation, call (619) 594-5220. For immediate or
emergency help, you are welcome to use San Diego’s free 24-hour counseling access line at (800) 4793339. C&PS on campus also has a “Center for Well-Being” with multiple stations for relaxation if you are
feeling stressed during the semester. C&PS is located in the Capulli Center, Room 4401.
Student-athletes: Student-athletes have demanding, dynamic schedules. As an instructor, I am
committed to helping you succeed in the course. To do so, regular and effective communication is
needed. While exceptions will not be made for attendance, assignment deadlines, or exams, I’m happy
to work with all student-athletes in conjunction with Student-Athlete Support Services (SASS) to help
you excel in this course. For more information on SASS’ academic advising and tutoring services, please
call (619) 594-4743.
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COURSE OUTLINE AND READING SCHEDULE
Please note that the following schedule is approximate, as dates and topics may shift as the semester
continues. Please refer to the Blackboard for current information regarding your assignment due dates.
All readings are expected to be completed outside of class before the first class discussion date.
Week
Day/Date
Schedule
Mon.—8/24
Wed.—8/26
Wed.—9/2
Syllabus & Introductions
Reading Due: pages 1-7 of Course reader. Unit
1 introduction.
Reading Due: Jeremy Rifikin, “A Change of
Heart About Animals”
Reading Due: Clive Thompson, “Public
Thinking” pgs. 45-82 (on Blackboard)
Discussion of Thompson’s text
Fri.—9/4
Discussion of Thompson’s text
Mon. –9/7
NO CLASS-Holiday
Wed.—9/9
Fri.—9/11
Mon. –9/14
Wed.—9/16
Wed.—9/30
Thompson Discussion & Drafting paper #1
Thompson Discussion & Drafting paper #1
Thompson Discussion & Drafting paper #1
First draft of paper #1 due. Peer review
workshop. Bring 3 copies of your paper to class.
Conferencing – meet professor during your
individual time to work on your draft.
Conferencing – meet professor during your
individual time to work on your draft.
Conferencing – meet professor during your
individual time to work on your draft.
Paper #1 Due: By 5pm to Turnitin through
Blackboard.
Introduce Unit 2. MLA discussion.
Reading Due: Dana Boyd “Literacy: Are
Today’s Youth Digital Natives?”
Discussion of Boyd
Fri.—10/02
Discussion of Boyd
Mon.—10/05
Drafting paper 2
Wed.—10/07
Fri.—10/09
Mon.—10/12
Wed.—10/14
Drafting paper 2
Drafting paper 2
Drafting paper 2
First draft of paper #1 due. Peer review
workshop. Bring 3 copies of your paper to class.
Conferencing – meet professor during your
individual time to work on your draft.
Conferencing – meet professor during your
individual time to work on your draft.
Paper #2 Due: By 5pm to Turnitin through
Blackboard. Introduce Unit 3.
Reading Due: Nicholas Carr “Is Google Making
Us Stupid?”
Week 1
Fri.—8/28
Mon.—8/31
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Fri.—9/18
Mon.—9/21
Wed.—9/23
Week 5
Fri.—9/25
Mon.—9/28
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Fri.—10/16
Mon.—10/19
Week 9
Wed.—10/21
Fri.—10/23
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Week 10
Week 11
Week 12
Week 13
Week 14
Mon.—10/26
Wed. –10/28
Fri.—10/30
Mon.—11/02
Wed.—11/04
Fri.—11/06
Unit #3 Discussion
Unit #3 Discussion
Drafting Paper #3
Drafting Paper #3
Drafting Paper #3
Conferencing – meet professor during your
individual time to work on your draft.
Conferencing – meet professor during your
individual time to work on your draft.
NO CLASS-Holiday
Paper #3 Due: By 5pm to Turnitin through
Blackboard. Introduce Unit 4.
Unit 4 – analyzing and evaluating responses to
Carr
Analyzing and evaluating responses to Carr
Analyzing and evaluating responses to Carr
Drafting paper #4.
NO CLASS-Holiday
NO CLASS-Holiday
Drafting paper #4.
First Draft of Paper #4 Due: Peer Review
workshop. Bring 3 copies of your paper to class.
Conferencing – meet professor during your
individual time to work on your draft.
Conferencing – meet professor during your
individual time to work on your draft.
Final Class. Review, final questions for paper
#4.
No Class
No Class
FINAL Paper (#4) Due by 5pm to Turnitin on
Blackboard.
Mon.—11/09
Wed.—11/11
Fri.—11/13
Mon.—11/16
Week 15
Week 16
Wed.—11/18
Fri.—11/20
Mon.—11/23
Wed.—11/25
Fri.—11/27
Mon.—11/30
Wed.—12/02
Week 17
Fri.—12/04
Mon.—12/07
Week 18
Wed.—12/9
Week 19
Fri.—12/11
Mon.—12/14
Wed.—12/16
RWS 100 Student Learning Outcomes
General Education Capacities/Goals & RWS Learning Outcomes
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) 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
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4) 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.”
Assignment Types: 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 to 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 an argument.
3. Analyze and evaluate an author’s project and argument and explain rhetorical strategies that
this author—and by extension other writers—uses to engage readers in thinking about her
argument.
4. Assess the relative strengths and weaknesses of multiple assigned texts, including discussion of
rhetorical strategies, supporting evidence, audience, and text structure.
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. 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 a 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.
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Classmate Contact Info
Please write down the email address and/or phone number of three of your classmates. If you
miss class, or can’t remember what was assigned for homework, contact your classmates before
asking me.
NAME:________________________________CONTACT:____________________________
NAME:________________________________CONTACT:____________________________
NAME:________________________________CONTACT:_____________________________
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Agreement on Plagiarism
I understand that teachers are required by SDSU policy to report cases of plagiarism. I
understand that I must clearly mark other people's ideas and words within my paper. I understand
it is unacceptable to do any of the following:
 Submit an essay written in whole or part by another person, and to present this as if it
were my own.
 Download an essay from the internet, then quote or paraphrase from it, in whole or in
part, without acknowledging the original source.
 Reproduce the substance of another writer's argument without acknowledging the source.
 Copy another student/person’s homework and submit this as the product of my own
work.
I understand that the consequences for committing any of the above acts can include failure in
the class, a note on my permanent record, and even expulsion from the university. I will not
plagiarize or cheat.
Name (Print Legibly): ______________________________
Date ____________________________________________
(Signature) _______________________________________
Use of Student Work
I may occasionally wish to share sample student writing in class. For example, it may be useful
to show an example of a strong introduction, or discuss ways of revising a conclusion. Is it OK to
use your writing in this way?
YES
NO
Name: ______________________________
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