Sophomore Composition & Conversation Section C
Tuesday Friday 14 :15-15:30 AV 212
Sherri Wei
SF 122
0916-031-071
wyc212@ms75.hinet.net
This two-semester course aims to improve students’ writing and oral communication skills
for upper-level academic works in the English department. Students who successfully
complete Composition II are expected to
 engage in interactive/ collaborative reading and writing activities.
 employ a repertoire of writing strategies to generate and select topics, plan,
organize and structure to develop a focus, and use specific and concrete evidence to
support.
 conduct introductory library and online research; integrate facts and opinion from
multiple sources appropriately.
Grading Policy
Your Composition grade = 10% Online Discussion + 20 % Journals + 40 % Two Essays
[2 drafts] (Article Review & Film Character Analysis) + 30% Synthesis [3 drafts]
Your Conversation grade = 20% Class Participation+ 40% Midterm & Final +
40%Presentations (Article Review + Grammar Review +)
Composition Requirement
1.
Plagiarism is strictly prohibited for all essays!
Article Review (3-4 pages; 900-1200 words; 2 drafts)
You would need to write a summary and critique based on the assigned article.
A
clear thesis statement must be provided at the end of the introduction; and the
summary and critique should support that thesis statement.
All paraphrasing and
quoting must conform to MLA style.
2.
Film Character Analysis
In this assignment you would need to demonstrate your critical thinking and analytical
abilities. Please choose from the following five films first and focus on one single
character for your analysis.
This essay should base totally on your own ideas, not
relying on any secondary sources.
Further guidance would be provided as we
approach this task.
Five Films to Choose from:
Marvin’s Room (1996) 98 min. byJerry Zaks 791.43 Z21 DVDe
The Aviator (2004) 170 min. by Martin Scorsese
Citizen Kane (1941) 119 min. by Orson Welles 791.43 W449
Little Miss Sunshine (2007) by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (Liberal Arts
Library) DVD 987.83 9472
Gorillas in the Mist 129 min. Michael Apted 791.43 Ap655g Ve (LD)
3.
Synthesis (3-4 pages; 900-1200 words; 3 drafts)
In this essay, you need to practice writing with various sources instead of merely
writing based on your own ideas and examples. You would be given a set of 3
articles to read and pull In order to put the emphasis on correct synthesis and citation,
rather than research, each teacher may choose to prescribe a set of 3 articles for the
students in his/her section to synthesize.
4.
5 writing journals (4 pages each time; 1000-1200 words)
Conversation Joint Activity
Christmas Exhibit. Tues. 12/18, 12:30-3:30. Topics selected by lottery on Tues. 10/02
Each section will work as a single group to “perform” its presentation, comprising of
whatever combination of drama, PowerPoint presentation, or other format the section
chooses, in front of the rest of the sophomore class.
Each section’s presentation will run
25 min., with 5 min. for Q&A.
Topics for Christmas Exhibition this year:
Origins of Christmas, Santa Claus, Chanukah (a Jewish holiday around
Christmastime), Origin/Analyses of Christmas Carols, Christmas and Technology
(Advances in Christmas cards, post-modern Christmas, virtual Christmas),
Christmas Trees (types, how to grow, when to harvest, marketing), Christmas in
Painting (Representations of the Nativity and Christmas story in Western art),
Comparison of Christmas Customs in Two Countries (e.g., Iceland and Australia),
Christmas in the Bible, Geography of Christmas (places mentioned in the Bible
accounts, then and now)
Tentative Schedule
Wk
Date
1
9/18
9/21
2
9/25
9/28
3
10/02
Topic
Reading
Assignment
Course Orientation
Article Review
Moon Festival Holiday
Teacher’s Day Holiday
10/05
Decide Christmas Exhibit Topic
More on Article Review
The writing process
4
10/09
10/12
Library Orientation SF 130
Summarizing & Responding to Reading
Journal 1
5
10/16
Thesis Writing
Article Review 2
10/19
Racial Segregation
6
10/23
10/26
Character Analysis I
Individual Conference I
Journal 2
7
10/30
11/02
Unity and Coherence
Survival Handbook Skit
Character Analysis 1
8
11/06
11/09
Grammar Review I
Grammar Review II
9
11/13
11/16
Writing Mid-term Exam
Oral Midterm Exam
10
11/20
11/23
Synthesis & Mixed Modes
Individual Conference II
11
11/27
11/30
Peer Editing on Illustration
Gender Roles
12
12/04
12/07
MLA Review I
Advertisement Analysis
Peer Edition on Draft 1
13
12/11
12/14
Mock Christmas Presentation
MLA Review II
Journal 4
14
12/18
12/21
Christmas Exhibit SF Theater
Movie
15
12/25
12/28
Christmas Holiday
Peer Editing on Clarity
16
01/01
01/04
New Year Holiday
Individual Conference III
17
01/08
01/11
Exam Writing Strategies Review
01/15
01/18
Final Writing Exam—12:30—15:30
Course Evaluation
18
Final Oral Exam
Ch 1 & 2
Article Review 1
Ch 4 P 169
Character Analysis 2
Ch 7 P 281
Journal 3
Synthesis Daft 1
Ch 6 P 229
Ch 10 P387
Synthesis Daft 2
Synthesis Final Draft
Journal 5
Article Review Guideline (about 900-1200 words)
Purpose. The purpose of an article review is to summarize and evaluate the argument and
method of an academic article.
Audience. Your imagined audience should be educated readers in the academic community
who want a clear, objective summary of an article, plus some reflections on the value and
quality of the article by someone who has taken time to think about it.
Structure. Like other writing modes, a review can take a number of possible forms. To
review a book, you might summarize and evaluate each chapter or section separately. For
an article review, it might be better to summarize the entire article first, then do the
evaluation. In either case, a review should begin with an introduction and end with a
conclusion.
Following is a recommended structure for the article review (word counts are only general
guidelines and don’t need to be followed strictly):
I.
Introduction (about 150 words). Give some perspective on the significance of
the article. Begin with a brief overview of Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” (not a
detailed plot summary, but basically what it’s about) and your response to it.
Then make a transition to Fetterley’s article as an example of a professional
scholar grappling with this story. End with a thesis statement summarizing your
overall view of the article, positive and negative.
II.
Summary (about 300 words). Objectively summarize the argument (what the
author argues, and how she structures the argument). The summary should be
mostly paraphrasing, with a few strong quotations mixed in, cited in parentheses
according to MLA style.
III.
Evaluation (about 600 words)
A. Positive. What do you like about the article? What aspects of the article are
most interesting and successful? Here you can consider such elements as
logic, method, evidence, structure, and clarity; and other dimensions: Is the
article insightful? Is it useful? As evidence of the positive aspects, discuss a
couple of persuasive or insightful interpretations (by Fetterley) of passages
in Faulkner’s story—that is, interpretations that help you understand
something in the story that you didn’t understand before.
B.
Negative. What don’t you like about the article? What aspects of the article
seem least interesting or successful, or most open to question? Here you
can also consider logic, method, evidence, structure, clarity, as well as
other dimensions like insight and usefulness. Are there places where the
logic seems questionable? Where the author doesn’t provide enough
evidence, or where you would want a different kind of evidence? Where
the language is not clear? If you take issue with a particular statement
Fetterley makes, then quote the statement first, then discuss it. As evidence
of the negative aspects, discuss a couple of problematic interpretations (by
Fetterley) of passages in Faulkner’s story—that is, interpretations you find
unconvincing or open to dispute. Demonstrate, through specific reference
to Faulkner’s text, where exactly Fetterley’s interpretations have problems
and how your interpretation of Faulkner’s story differs from hers.
Throughout this “negative” section, your tone should be scholarly and
respectful.
IV.
Conclusion (about 100 words). Now after “taking apart” the article and
criticizing it in detail, you should make some effort to “put it together again.”
Remind the reader of the article’s general significance and accomplishments,
summarize your overall response to the article, and conclude with an interesting
statement, insight, or question arising from your analysis.
Format. List your name and other information in the upper left, as indicated in the syllabus.
Cite page numbers according to MLA style. Instead of a title, list the bibliographic
information as indicated below. In your article review you should make reference to
Faulkner’s story “A Rose for Emily” and quote from it using MLA style. Therefore, list the
story in MLA format in a Works Cited list at the end. (Do not include Fetterley’s article in
the Works Cited list because you will put that information on the first page.)
John Doe 592201999
Sophomore Composition and Conversation
Teacher’s Name
Essay 1.1
Date
Review of Judith Fetterley. “A Rose for ‘A Rose for Emily.’” The Norton Introduction to
Literature. Ed. Jerome Beaty et al. New York: Norton, 2002. 252-58.