COMM 100W: Writing Workshop
Spring Semester 2008, Section #_____, San José State University
Class Meeting Day/Time/Location
Instructor: _______________________, Department of Communication Studies
Office Hours: ____________________ in Location, or by appointment
Phone #: (408) ________; Email: ____________________
Course Description
Welcome to Communication Studies 100W! This course is designed to help you develop advanced
proficiency in college-level writing, including appropriate contemporary research strategies and methodologies
to communicate effectively to both specialized and general audiences. In effect, this course builds upon the
skills and abilities you developed in earlier, writing-intensive courses (i.e., those courses you took to meet the
university’s Written Communication 1A & 1B requirements). In this course, we will explore writing as both a
means of developing knowledge (i.e., writing as a way of learning) and a means of expressing knowledge (i.e.,
writing as a way of showing that you’ve learned something). Furthermore, together we will pay particular
attention to processes and principles of effective writing that you may apply broadly: as a writer or a reader,
from the personal to the professional, from the classroom to the boardroom. While we will focus on writing as
communication in this course, we will frequently explore the links between spoken, performed and written
communication, as well as topics and readings that will help introduce you to the field of communication
studies.
Throughout the semester, you will engage in a variety of spoken and written assignments. You will write
three short essays (1,000-1,500 words each) and one larger work (3,000-4,000 words) for this course. You will
also engage in frequent self-evaluation of your own writing, as well as provide substantive feedback to your
peers. Also as a part of this course, you will learn to introduce, argue and support persuasive theses with good
reasoning, and appropriately documented evidence; we will find many occasions in this course to debate and
explore timely and, at times, controversial communication studies issues. We will also work together to
improve your competency with conventions of standard written English, including grammar, mechanics, and
word usage. Prerequisites: A grade of “C” or better in English IB, passage of the Writing Skills Test (WST),
upper division standing, and completion of Core GE.
Learning Objectives
Your successful completion of this course will help you:
* refine the competencies established in Written Communication 1A & 1B;
* express (explain, analyze, develop and criticize) ideas effectively, including ideas encountered in
multiple readings and expressed in different forms of discourse;
* organize and develop essays and documents for both professional and general audiences, including
appropriate editorial standards for citing primary and secondary sources.
Required Course Materials
Elbow, P. (1998). Writing with power: Techniques for mastering the writing process (2nd Ed.). New
York: Oxford University Press.
Kirszner, L. G. and Mandell, S. R. (2006). The Wadsworth pocket handbook (3rd Ed.). Belmont:
Wadsworth.
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O’Conner, P. T. (1996). Woe is I: The grammarphobe’s guide to better English in plain English. New
York: Riverhead Books.
***** You are also responsible for locating and reading the articles listed in the “Additional Readings”
portion of this greensheet. Each is available to you electronically through our library’s databases.
***** Please also reserve a modest photocopy budget (e.g., $15), so you can distribute copies of your
writing-in-progress for discussion.
Course Requirements
Final Project:
_____ out of 100 points possible
Annotated Bibliography:
_____ out of 15 points possible
Draft One (at least 2,000 words):
_____ out of 25 points possible
Final Version (3,000-4,000 words): _____ out of 60 points possible
Writing 1 (1,000 words):
Writing 2 (1,500 words):
_____ out of 20 points possible
_____ out of 40 points possible
Writing Exercises (500 words ea.):
_____ out of 100 points possible
Self-Evaluation & Conference:
Cover Letter:
Peer-Response:
Grammar/Citation Worksheet:
Proofreading Guide:
_____ out of 10 points possible
_____ out of 10 points possible
_____ out of 25 points possible
_____ out of 25 points possible
_____ out of 30 points possible (up to 10 X 3)
Exam #1:
Exam #2:
_____ out of 40 points possible
_____ out of 40 points possible
Oral Presentations:
Participation/Discussion:
_____ out of 30 points possible
_____ out of 30 points possible
Total:
_____ out of 400 points possible
Your final grade is, therefore, based on the following point scale:
A = 400-373 points
B = 347-333 points
C = 307-293 points
D = 267-253 points
A- = 372-360 points
B- = 332-320 points
C- = 292-280 points
D- = 252-240 points
B+ = 359-348 points
C+ = 319-308 points
D+ = 279-268 points
F = 239 & fewer points
Note: In order to receive general education credit for COMM 100W, you must earn a grade of C or higher.
PLEASE NOTE
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* In a participation-intensive course such as this one, your consistent and active participation is crucial.
Not only is your on-time, focused and engaging presence a portion of your grade, it will also make you a better
learner and community member in this class. However, should an emergency arise, please do everything in
your power to contact me prior to missing class so that we might try to make alternate arrangements. Please be
aware that I will only accept late work in cases of extreme personal emergency; furthermore, such work may be
subject to a fifty percent grade penalty or additional, elaborative assignments.
* If you need course adaptations or accommodations because of a disability, or if you need special
arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please make an appointment with me as soon as possible,
or see me during office hours. Presidential Directive 97-03 requires that students with disabilities requesting
accommodations must register with DRC to establish a record of their disability.
* Your own commitment to learning, as evidenced by your enrollment at San José State University,
and the University’s Academic Integrity Policy requires you to be honest in all your academic course work.
Faculty members are required to report all infractions to the Office of Student Conduct and Ethical
Development. The policy on academic integrity can be found at http://sa.sjsu.edu/student_conduct
You should, therefore, submit your own, original work for this course. I will uphold San José State University’s
policy on academic honesty. Consequently, an instance of academic misconduct (e.g., plagiarism, cheating,
taking credit for others’ work, submitting work for another course as work for this one, etc.) will likely result in
a failing course grade.
Revision Policy
We will commonly develop final, polished writing from works in progress; however, in this class, you
are also welcome to revise either of the two shorter writing assignments in light of my (and your peers’)
feedback, for additional feedback and perhaps a revised grade. In order to resubmit your work, you must
engage in substantive re-vision (or re-conception) of that work. Remember, editing and simple changes to style
or grammar do not constitute global reconsideration of writing processes and techniques. Your revised work
must be turned in to me within one week of the day I returned the earlier draft to you unless we arrange
otherwise.
On the importance of works in progress
Our success in COMM 100W, as a writing workshop, relies on each of us coming to class prepared and
ready to engage each other in thoughtful conversation about our own and others’ written works. This means
bringing your works in progress (i.e., copies of drafts, your proofreading guide, etc.) to class every time; while
your draft writing does not need not be perfect, it does need to be present. Failure to bring a draft of a particular
writing will result in a 25% reduction to that particular assignment grade.
The proofreading guide
This semester we will work together to improve our proofreading skills; as part of that effort, you will
maintain a “proofreading guide,” a place for you to note your most common errors and how to correct them.
Guides will be collected three times (with each major writing assignment) and should consist of 3-5 patterns of
error you’re working to edit from your writing (e.g., collection one will note 3-5 patterns, collection two will
note 6-10 patterns, and so on). Notation of a pattern includes: the name of the error pattern, an incorrect
instance, a correct instance, and the “rule” in your own words.
Tentative Course Calendar
Meeting
Date
Description
Assignment
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1
____
Introductions
Getting Started
Elbow, intro, chap. 1 & 2
2
____
Some Essentials
(Media Criticism)
Elbow, chap. 3-6
Spiegel
3
____
On being writers
(Literature Reviews)
Writing #1/PG due!
Warren
4
____
Library Research
Invention
(Book Reviews)
Elbow, chap. 7-11
Fassett, Simpson
5
____
Feedback
(Manuals)
Elbow, chap. 21-24
Dept. of Communication Studies
Writing #2/PG due!
6
____
Audience
(Autoethnography)
Elbow, chap. 17-20
Holman Jones
Writing #2 Peer Response due!
7
____
Grammar & Source Citation 1
O’Conner, chap. 1-5
Grammar/Source Citation Worksheet due!
Kirszner & Mandell
8
____
Exam #1
www.caseplace.org
Final Writing #2/PG due!
conferences
(Case Studies)
9
____
Grammar & Source Citation 2
O’Conner, chap. 6-10
Kirszner & Mandell
Annotated Bibliography due!
conferences
10
____
Revision
Elbow, chap. 12-16
workshops/Draft Final Projects due!
11
____
workshops/Draft Final Projects due!
12
____
workshops/Draft Final Projects due!
13
____
Voice
Elbow, chap. 25-29
workshops/Draft Final Projects due!
Meeting
Date
Description
Assignment
14
____
workshops/Draft Final Projects due!
4
15
____
Finals
Date
Final Projects/PG due!
Time
Exam #2
Assignments
General Information
All of your assignments for this course should be formatted as follows: Typed or word-processed (using
a dark ink), double-spaced, 10 or 12 point easy-to-read font (e.g., Times New Roman), one inch margins on all
sides. Please also remember to include your name and your title for the assignment, as well as label each draft
(when appropriate). Always include any and all rough drafts of a particular assignment, as well as any peer or
instructor comments/feedback. You are always welcome to submit your reflections on writing a given
assignment (i.e., what you think you did well, what frustrated you, etc.) on a separate sheet attached to the body
of drafts for that assignment.
On grading: You should strive for five qualities in your writing: (1) your writing should be
COMPELLING (i.e., it should articulate a claim—make a point, be purposeful—and an audience for that
claim), (2) your writing should be COMPLETE (i.e., it should address all aspects of the assignment, it should be
sufficiently developed), (3) your writing should be COHERENT (i.e., your argument should logically progress
from one paragraph to the next), (4) your writing should be CONCISE (i.e., it should be richly developed, but
not meandering or repetitive), and (5) your writing should be CORRECT (i.e., it should be free of grammatical,
typographical and source citation errors, as well as fallacious reasoning). I will look to these five criteria as I
read and respond to your written work in this course. You should know that, while I will always read your
papers for your argument, your paper is only as strong as the sentence-level choices you make to create it (in
other words, never underestimate the power of careful proofreading).
You’re encouraged to discuss each of your written assignments with your peers. Moreover, if you have
questions, concerns or would just like to talk with me about your writing, you’re very welcome to stop by my
office hours or arrange an appointment.
IN ORDER FOR AN ASSIGNMENT TO BE CONSIDERED ON TIME, STUDENTS MUST
FIRST SUBMIT THEIR WORK TO TURNITIN.COM. WE WILL DISCUSS THIS ON OUR SECOND
CLASS MEETING; PLEASE CONTACT ME IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT THIS
PROCESS.
Writing #1
My History as a Writer (due _______)
In this brief (1000 word) essay, describe a person, event or experience that you believe affected (either
positively or negatively) how you understand yourself as a writer. Do you think of yourself as a writer? How
did you come to think about writing in the way(s) that you do? What sorts of advantages and challenges do you
foresee in your future as a writer. You may choose to think of your audience as your classmates or, if you
prefer, you might choose to address a different audience—for example, the readership of a particular magazine.
In order to pass this assignment, you may have no more than fifteen grammatical, typographical or source
citation errors.
Writing #2
(draft due: ________; peer response due: ________; final draft due: ________)
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In this brief (1500 word) essay, synthesize and analyze a journal article from any peer-refereed journal
in communication studies. Consider exploring journals such as: Communication Education, Critical Studies in
Media Communication, Quarterly Journal of Speech, Western Journal of Communication, etc. Take care in
your selection: (1) remember to choose an article you find interesting/meaningful/relevant; and (2) make sure
that you’ve selected an article (and not a book review or a review essay).
Because this assignment is an analysis, it is not sufficient to give a “book report” on the article—your
reader is not likely to be interested in a re-hash of the article or whether you “liked” the article. While you
should briefly summarize the article for your readers, please do not feel as though you need to excerpt the entire
article all over again in your essay. Offer your reader a quick overview of the article, and then begin to explore:
(a) the article’s potential usefulness to that reader, and (b) the author’s assumptions, limitations, and
misconceptions as they are relevant to that reader.
You may choose to write your essay for other communication scholars—i.e., those people who are most
likely to readily read and incorporate your article into their own work. However, I recommend writing your
essay for someone who might not ordinarily read that article, but who might find value in it nonetheless. Be
sure that you write in a style that is appropriate for your chosen audience, while still grabbing their attention and
sharing the article’s insights.
In order to pass this assignment, you may have no more than five grammatical, typographical or source
citation errors.
Peer-Response (due ________)
Please draft a concise (approx. 500 word) response to your peer’s rough draft of writing #2. Remember,
this is a rough draft, so your peer may not have had a chance to dot all her/his i’s and cross her/his t’s. You are
to help her/him create a stronger and more engaging essay. This means that you should focus on helping the
writer find her/his purpose or argument, rather than forcing your own agenda. In order to do this, you will have
to explore what you find to be strengths and not-so-strengths in the document (rather than simply what you like
and don’t like, though there’s space for that in this response too). Here is a series of steps that should help you
write a useful response for your peer.
1. Read the draft twice. Do not write on your peer’s draft. (Sit on your hands, if you must).
2. It may help you to write your response as a letter to the author (but you’re not required to do this). Type and
format this response as you would any written assignment for this course.
3. Begin with a positive response to the draft. Start by describing at least two things you enjoyed in the draft;
be sure to include why you enjoyed them. If this essay evoked positive memories or examples for you, this may
be a good place to share them with the writer.
4. Describe the author’s goals in your own words, and then quote the portions of the piece that led you to define
these as the author’s goals. If the author seems uncertain of her/his argument, note that here, and provide
examples of where you need clarification.
5. Describe the author’s audience, and then state how you know this is the author’s intended audience. If the
author is unclear in identifying an audience, note that here, and provide examples of where you need
clarification.
6. To what extent does the author address the requirements for the assignment? Is anything missing? If so,
what?
7. Pay careful attention to how the author transitions between each idea. Does each paragraph consist of one
idea or a jumble? Does each paragraph support the thesis? Does each paragraph contain a topic sentence
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(something that serves as a thesis for the paragraph)? Please note any of the author’s strengths in relation to the
above questions. Also note whether there are areas for improvement. Share with the author what you perceive
to be her/his most effective transition. Now, share the least effective transition with her/him. Describe what
you think makes the strong transition strong and the weak transition weak.
8. Address any general readability questions not discussed above. For example, do you feel as though you
understand the article? Do you need more or less summary? Does the author seem to go off on tangents? This
is a good place to address any strengths or not-so-strengths that you haven’t yet had a chance to address.
9. Proofread two paragraphs from the draft. This is the ONLY time/way you will write on the author’s draft.
In pencil, line edit these two paragraphs, focusing on correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, word usage, etc.
From this, please share two patterns of error you find in these paragraphs. These two patterns should be
something the writer appears to do frequently in her/his writing. Help the writer by explaining how you
understand the relevant rules/guidelines to reduce these sorts of errors.
10. Recap what you perceive to be the writer’s strengths—end on a positive note!—and conclude the response.
If you’re so inclined, invite the writer to speak with you at length regarding any questions s/he might have about
your comments. Remember that the writer is more likely to take your comments seriously if your own writing
is clear and engaging (and proofread).
NOTE: PLEASE BRING TWO COPIES OF YOUR RESPONSE WITH YOU TO CLASS ON THE DUE
DATE!
Exams
You will take two exams in the course; each is an opportunity for you to demonstrate your
understanding and application of course concepts (as gleaned from discussions, readings and assigned writings).
You will also need to demonstrate upper-division mastery of English grammar and source citation.
Mid-semester Evaluations
At mid-semester, you will arrange to meet with me for a brief conference. Prior to this meeting, you
will complete a brief self-assessment of your progress in 100W. You will receive more information on this
process around week 7.
Oral Presentations/Participation
Effective participation in this course consists of preparing for each class (including completing assigned
readings prior to class), offering helpful and tactful feedback to your peers, making productive contributions to
our discussions, and preparing brief, informal in and out of class writings. At times, you will also present your
work to the class, provide feedback to one another orally and publicly (as in your workshops), or engage in
other oral communication activities as appropriate.
Annotated Bibliography (due ________)
Develop an annotated bibliography (5-7 pp.) of the sources you will use for your Final Project. For each
source: (1) provide the full bibliographic citation, (2) briefly summarize the source, and (3) discuss how you
will use this source to develop your final project. Conclude with a one–page narrative description of how your
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chosen sources, taken as a group, are helping to shape your purpose, audience and voice for the final project.
In order to pass this assignment, you may have no more than five grammatical, typographical or source
citation errors.
Final Project
Rough Draft Due: _________________; Workshop: _________________; # Copies: _____
Final Draft Due: ________
You will have six different options for your final, and somewhat more lengthy (i.e., 3,000-4,000 words),
work:
1. A Literature Review: Read 6-7 peer-reviewed articles on a particular topic/research question in
communication studies. Write a scholarly essay that helps your reader understand how that topic/question is
important, how communication studies scholars/researchers have approached that topic (i.e., what is helpful and
what is still limited or lacking), and what s/he should do, given this new information/insight.
2. An Autoethnography: Read 6-7 peer-reviewed articles on a human cultural phenomenon that
intrigues you. Write a creative, performative essay that demonstrates how you help to create that phenomenon
and how that phenomenon helps to create you (in other words, how is communication functioning to make this
phenomenon possible), and with what consequences (and for whom).
3. A Manual: Read 6-7 peer-reviewed articles on some aspect of communication studies you think a
professional body should consider. For example, if you could teach your co-workers something about
communication, what would you teach them and how would you go about it? Use your insight into this issue to
write a pragmatic manual for others so that they might develop more effective attitudes toward communication
or communication behaviors.
4. A Book Review Essay: Read a scholarly book in communication studies that you’ve always wanted
to read and never before had the chance. Write a review essay that assesses the strengths and limitations of that
work for a particular audience (e.g., communication studies scholars), citing at least three or four other peerreviewed sources, where appropriate, to support your case.
5. A Media Criticism: A critical media analysis examines the cultural implications of a communication
artifact. This may take the form of an interpretive textual analysis that includes semiotic (symbols or signs),
rhetorical, ideological or psychoanalytic approaches. These types of analysis seek to get beneath the surface
(denotative) meanings and examine more implicit (connotative) social meanings. You should choose a cultural
media artifact that has some meaning to you, and evaluate its significance based on theoretical writings that lend
understanding to the questions addressed. Ground your analysis in your reading of 6-7 peer-reviewed articles in
communication studies.
6. A Case Study: Develop a case study for use with some professional body. Write the case itself, then
analyze it in such a way as to illuminate the nuances of the case for that professional reader. Ground your
analysis in your reading of 6-7 peer-reviewed articles in communication studies. You can find sample cases at
http://www.caseplace.org, however you should develop your own original case for this project.
In order to pass this assignment, you may have no more than five grammatical, typographical or source
citation errors. We will discuss these projects (and examples of each option) during the course of the semester,
as well as during your individual, mid-semester conferences.
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Additional Readings
Media Criticism
Spiegel, L. (2004). Entertainment wars: Television culture after 9/11. American Quarterly, 56, 235-270.
Literature Review
Warren, J. T. (1999). Whiteness and cultural theory: Perspectives on research and education. The Urban
Review, 31, 185-203.
Book Review
Fassett, D. L. (2001). Review of B. M. Franklin’s (Ed.) When children don’t learn: Student failiure and the
culture of teaching. Communication Education, 50, 83-85.
Simpson, J. S. (2005). Review of J. T. Warren’s Performing purity: Whiteness, pedagogy and the
reconstitution of power. Quarterly Journal of Speech, 91, 330-332.
Autoethnography
Holman Jones, S. (2005). (M)othering loss: Telling adoption stories, telling performativity. Text and
Performance Quarterly, 25, 113-135.
Manual
Department of Communication Studies. (2007-2008). Guide to graduate study.
Case Study
http://www.caseplace.org
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