English 110: Seminar in Academic Writing
Fall 2004 (T/Th)
Scott Campbell
Office: 222
Office Hours: 10-1 Tues. and by appt.
E-mail: scott.campbell @uconn.edu
COURSE INFORMATION
B artholomae and Petrosky, eds., Ways of Reading (6th edition)
Hacker, A Writer’s Reference (5th ed.)
TEXTS
GOALS
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To help you see yourself as a writer and as someone who can use language to examine,
develop, and communicate ideas. Through practice, trial, and revision, you will, I
believe, become more confident about your writing.
To help you discover, inhabit, and use the ideas of others (without, of course,
plagiarizing those ideas).
To emphasize the social aspect of writing. Writing is an act of communication, and I
want you to anticipate your audience and see your writing in a context of others’ reading
and writing.
To show how writing leads to discoveries about your topic and about you. I want to break
down the barrier you may see between personal and academic writing. All writing
reflects the interests and perspective of the writer.
To prepare you for further academic work.
REQUIREMENTS
You must complete several out-of-class essays (25-30 pages of revised writing). All papers must
be typed using reasonable fonts, double-spacing, and standard one-inch margins. Typed rough
drafts are required for all papers; a copy of each rough draft must be handed in to me. A rough
draft is due even if you are unable to attend class. ALL papers must be handed in for you to pass
the class. Late papers will be downgraded. In addition, required work for this course includes
regular homework assignments and in-class writing.
This is a seminar rather than a lecture course. Therefore, the success of this class depends on you
as well as on me. Thoughtful discussion is an essential part of this class, and you will frequently
work in groups of various sizes, which means you will need to be considerate of and attentive to
others. It is your responsibility to keep up with the reading, to contribute to class discussions in
the form of analytical comments or questions, and to attend class regularly and on time. See
attendance policy below
2
First Day Writing Sample
In “Imagination and Reality,” from the book, Art Objects, Jeanette Winterson has the
following to say:
Children who are born into a tired world as batteries of new energy are plugged into
the system as soon as possible and gradually drained away. At the time when they
become adult and conscious they are already depleted and prepared to accept a
world of shadows. Those who have kept their spirit find it hard to nourish it and
between the ages of twenty and thirty, many are successfully emptied of all
resistance. I do not think it an exaggeration to say that most of the energy of most of
the people is being diverted into a system which destroys them. Money is no
antidote. If the imaginative life is to be renewed it needs its own coin.
How well does Winterson’s statement reflect the world you’ve been living in? Using
her description as your point of entry, write an essay that responds to her point (or to some
aspect of it). Feel free to use your own examples and your own language. You do not have to
agree with Winterson. Just try to present your own perspective on the topic and do the best
you can in the time allotted.
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Working With Texts: Walker Percy’s “Loss of the Creature”
Choose a quote and examine it. Provide an “interpretation” of what Percy is saying. Take note
of any terms from the quote that seem significant to you. Comment on at least one term and
relate your “reading” (or interpretation) of the quote to the conversation we’ve been having
about Percy and the world around us. An example can always help.
1.) A man in Boston decides to spend his vacation at the Grand Canyon. He visits his travel
bureau, looks at the folder, signs up for a two-week tour. He and his family take the tour, see
the Grand Canyon, and return to Boston. May we say that this man has seen the Grand Canyon?
Possibly he has. But it is more likely that what he has done is the one sure way not to see the
canyon. (588-589)
2.) Instead of looking at [the Grand Canyon], he photographs it. There is no confrontation at
al l….He waives his right of seeing and knowing and records symbols for the next forty years.
(589)
3.) It is true that they longed for their ethnologist friend, but it was for an entirely different
reason. They wanted him, not to share their experience, but to certify their experience as
genuine. (593)
4.) A poor man may envy the rich man, but the sightseer does not envy the expert. When a caste
system becomes absolute, envy disappears. Yet the caste of layman-expert is not the fault of the
expert. It is due altogether to the eager surrender of sovereignty by the layman so that he may
take up the role not of the person but of the consumer. (594)
5.) It is only the hardiest and cleverest of students who can salvage the sonnet from this manytissued package. It is only the rarest student who knows that the sonnet must be salvaged from
the package. (596)
6.) The pupil at Scarsdale High sees himself placed as a consumer receiving an experiencepackage; but the Falkland Islander exploring his dogfish is a person exercising the sovereign
right of a person in his lordship and mastery of creation. (596)
7.) What is the best way to hear Beethoven: sitting in a proper silence around the Capehart or
eavesdropping from the azalea bush? (598).
8.) I propose that English poetry and biology should be taught as usual, but that at irregular
intervals, poetry students should find dogfishes on their desks and biology students should find
Sh akespeare sonnets on their dissecting boards. (599)
9.) [The tourist] carves his initia ls as a last desperate measure to escape his ghostly role of
consumer. He is saying in effect: I am not a ghost after all; I am a sovereign person. And he
establishes title the only way remaining to him, by staking his claim over one square inch of
wood or stone. (600)
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Assignment #1
Text: Walker Percy, “The Loss of the Creature”
Consider Percy’s idea of the “sovereign experience” and the examples he uses to
explore it. Use one or two of Percy’s suggestions to develop your own example of a
sovereign experience. Describe the obstacles that arise when one tries to have what
Percy refers to as an “authentic” encounter. Are we ever free of the “packaging” that
surrounds experience?
Your goal with this essay should be to engage with Percy—to meet him on his terms
and explore the consequences of his ideas. To do this you will need to quote the text and
show how you are reading or interpreting these quotes. What terms or phrases does Percy
use that seem valuable or useful to you? Are there places where Percy seems misleading or
confused? How well does his description of the world fit your own personal experience?
Think of your writing as a process of discovery, and use examples or ideas from both parts
of Percy’s essay.
Rough draft (onto page four) is due in class on Thursday, September 9th.
Bring three copies.
Final draft (onto page five) is due in class on Thursday, September 16th.
Attach a copy of the rough draft.
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Peer Review: Paper #1
Your name____________________ Writer's name_____________________
I expect that most papers can adequately grab a key term from Percy (such as
"sovereignty" or "symbolic complex") and apply it to an example in a general way. But I'd like
you to look carefully at the consequences of th is strategy. What does this paper accomplish by
using Percy? Here are three things to consider.
1. Does the writer adequately contextualize Percy (the "frame" of this paper)? That is, does
the paper explain what Percy means, defining terms, referring to examples from the text? In your
review of this paper, write a response below that describes the paper's use of Percy and what
might be done to strengthen that connection. Be specific. What words or phrases are "put to use"
here?
2. How useful is the example (the "case") th at the writer has provided? Does the writer have
an idea, an argument, that makes sense even without reference to the texts? That is, what is the
paper about (and it should not be Percy)? W h at is the main idea or thesis at this point? Write
th is out. Also, react to the example: is it a provocative one? Might it be strengthened in some
way? What details seem most relevant?
3. What are the consequences of this idea or argument? In other words, what new territory does
the argument reveal? Ask The Big SO WHAT? Question here. What are the goals of th is paper
and are they met by the examples and points with in the essay? Why does the writer write what
he/she writes? What new questions are raised by this essay? Use the back of this sheet if
necessary.
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Key Passages from Robert Coles’ “The Tradition: Fact and Fiction”
The heart of the matter for someone doing documentary work is the pursuit of what James
Agee called “human actuality”—rendering and representing for others what has been
witnessed, heard, overheard, or sensed. Fact is “the quality of being actual,” hence Agee’s
concern with actuality. (Coles 176)
All documentation…is put together by a particular mind whose capacities, interests, values,
conjectures, suppositions and presuppositions, whose memories, and, not least, whose
talents will come to bear directly or indirectly on what is, finally presented to the world in
the form of words, pictures, or even music or artifacts of one kind or another. (Coles 177)
Events are filtered through a person’s awareness, itself not uninfluenced by a history of
private experience, by all sorts of aspirations, frustrations, and yearnings, by those elusive,
significant “moods” as they can affect and even sway what we deem of interest or
importance, not to mention how we assemble what we have learned into something to
present to others. (Coles 177)
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The Waterbury Documentary Project
Our goal here is to discover something about the “human actuality” of Waterbury, and we
have to be sensitive to the complexity of this task. I will not tell you what you should be
finding. Rather, I would like you to use your reading of Robert Coles’ essay as your
inspiration for this “field trip.” Before you take any pictures, you should have an idea of
what you are trying to do. Are you more like Walker Evans or Dorothea Lange or William
Carlos Williams? What is your aim?
Some guidelines:
•Work with a partner.
•You are responsible for yourself, so act responsibly.
•Be respectful of the people and places you see. Do not intrude, confront, or disturb other
people or situations. In fact, it’s appropriate to ask people for permission before you take
photos of them.
•You may take photos of buildings, vehicles, or other physical structures; you are not
obligated to photograph people. You may find this much easier.
•If you decide to, you could include yourself or your partner in the pictures.
•Be creative. Experiment with ideas you have about how to best “document” your subject.
•Have a plan or goal that is as clear as you can make it.
•Do not stray into parts of the town you are unfamiliar with. You are not required to even
leave the building. After all, our building (and the people in it) is a part of Waterbury. If at
any point you feel uncomfortable or unsure, stop.
•If you wish, you may “relocate” this experiment to another place such as the town where
you live or another place you’re more familiar with.
The photos we take are part of an experiment, and it is quite possible that your results (the
pictures) will not be all you hope for. That’s okay. The real goal here is to feel what it is like
to be a documentarian and to reflect on that process.
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Waterbury Documents: Two Examples
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Assignment #2: Images
Choice #1
Texts: Robert Coles, “The Tradition: Fact and Fiction”
Walker Percy, “The Loss of the Creature”
The Waterbury photographs
Robert Coles seems to recognize the difficulty of “documenting” a life. His essay uses
several loosely connected examples to explore the complications that arise when one tries to
represent, assess, or interpret someone else’s experience. And yet Coles seems to never doubt
the value—you might even say need—for such documentaries. He suggests that his complex
rendering of these issues is not just an academic matter and that it relates to “what happens
every day when any two people talk to each other” (180).
Walker Percy is even more emphatic about his wariness of “experts” who sometimes
claim a kind of ownership over the things they know. But does Percy really think we do not
learn from the commentaries and analyses of others? For this essay I would like you to
move past “sovereignty” to consider the consequences of sharing experience. How does
your reading of Coles contribute to your understanding of the issues involved in really
knowing something (or someone)? Use your photographs of Waterbury as “evidence” of
this attempt at knowing. Consider your image or images in light of what Percy and/or Coles
argue.
This essay will need to demonstrate your ability to put Percy, Coles, and your own
ideas and work into a sustained conversation. It might be especially helpful to use Percy’s
language to discuss Coles’s examples or vice versa. Do not attempt to be comprehensive or
“complete.” Rather, choose moments in the texts which allow you focus on one main idea. Be
creative about the connections you see between Coles and Percy.
Rough draft (five pages) is due in class on Tuesday, October 5th.
Bring four copies.
Final draft (six pages) is due in class on Tuesday, October 12th.
Attach a copy of the rough draft.
10
Assignment #2: Images
Choice #2
Texts: Susan Bordo, “Hunger as Ideology”
Robert Coles, “The Tradition: Fact and Fiction” or Walker Percy, “Loss of the
Creature”
An additional image
In “Hunger as Ideology” Susan Bordo argues, “It is the created image that has the
hold on our most vibrant, immediate sense of what is, of what matters, of what we must
pursue for ourselves” (143). It’s a strong claim, and I’d like you to consider the consequences
of her position as you define, too, your own understanding of what’s at stake.
For this essay, you should illustrate a key connection between Bordo’s text and
one other reading (Coles or Percy) and use this detailed discussion as a context for the
examination of an image that you choose. Your image could be a published photo, an
advertisement, a personal photo, or anything that you think makes an interesting “subject”
for this essay. Your goal should be to show how the readings create a “lens” through which
we may view this “created image.” What do the readings provide that may help us see this
image in a different or new way? Remember that Bordo, Percy, and Coles do not agree in all
ways. It may be useful to point to distinctions as well as connections.
Rough draft (five pages) is due in class on Tuesday, October 5th.
Bring four copies.
Final draft (six pages) is due in class on Tuesday, October 12th.
Attach a copy of the rough draft.
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Analyzing, Interpreting, and Using Quotation
1. Bring the quotation into your paper. Decide what parts of the text need to be featured
in your essay, and set up your paragraph wit h enough information and context so that
the quotation is understandable and grammatically correct. You may need to introduce
the author or text, briefly summarize an argument or example, or include a signal phrase
before placing the quote into the paper. (See Hacker pp. 334-340 for more on signal
phrases and quotation.)
2. Analyze its parts, identifying at least one word or phrase that resonates with your
larger purpose. Later in your paragraph or paper, refer directly to this word or phrase.
Build links between your ideas and the ideas of the text you’re analyzing. Think of the
quote as a “specimen on the table.” You are taking it apart and showing us what you see
in it. If the quotation is particularly rich or complex, you will need to spend more time
“unpacking” its significance.
3. Interpret the significance of the work you’ve done. Tell your reader what meaning you
find in the quote and its analysis. Explain how your analysis of this passage relates to
what you take to be author’s central idea and how it helps you advance your idea as
well. Simply put, ask yourself how your paper is improved by this engagement with
text.
4. Use this material in some visible way. Your essay should be your essay, and it is
therefore necessary to more than simply observe and interpret someone else’s writing.
Be sure that your paper is not just “about Percy” but that it is about something you’ve
chosen to talk about (education, freedom, breaking the law, etc.). By taking your
analysis and interpretation forward—through an example or a new, related idea—you
establish your own position, you “weigh in” on the topic at hand.
5. A final note. Not all of these procedures are necessary each time you quote a passage or
phrase in your essay. Sometimes a quote simply provides support, reference, or
information. But this kind of careful, deliberate interaction with texts is the key to
success in academic writing. Each of your papers should have at least a couple of these
moments in them.
Example:
In a passage expressing exasperation with the complicated thought processes
that come between us and our experiences, Wa lker Percy imagines a couple experiencing
a vill age corn dance and thinking far too much about the experience. “Their
consciousness of the corn dance cannot escape their consciousness of their consciousness”
(594). Percy’s repetition of the key word “consciousness” comically echoes the repetiti ve
patterns that influence us all and affect our ability to truly experience our lives in a
fresh way. But Percy’s pointing out of this fact—his attempt to make us “conscious” of
th is cycle—suggests that he, too, is an expert working to implant ideas into his reader.
We need, then, to think about the relationship between educating ourselves (reading,
l istening, etc.) and our own consciousness. Are we in danger of living in a cycle similar to
that of the corn dance couple?
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Grammar Worksheet: Examples from Student Papers
Instructions: Please examine each passage below and make corrections as needed. Some passages
may not need corrections. Mark these passages as “okay.”
1. It may appear that the fork is to the left of the person sitting in front of the table,
however it may look like the fork is to the right to the person on the other side of the
table.
2. Now the problem with this is maybe the readers do not want to read something that
the writer has cut or changed around to their individual standard, the reader may
want raw facts and nothing more or less.
3. This photo was chosen because of how personal it was, how up close she was to the
camera. Her face is bleak and hopeless; exactly what Lange is looking for to convey
the message of the great depression.
4. Documentarians are individuals “who have discovered the balance between fiction
and non fiction.”
5. In other words, anyone who takes their ideas and presents them to an audience can
be considered a documentarian, even if they are as familiar as ones vacation.
6. Coles has the idea that everything should be presented to a consumer, to reveal the
truth to them.
7. Much like the changes of then and now in how we like our music and the videos
attributed to them, a picture of someone in the situation like “Ditched, Stalled, and
Stranded” seems much like a depressing time to us, but to people who lived during
that time, they could only hope they were as well off as the couple depicted in the
photo.
8. Robert Cole’s quotes that our ideas of things will “bear directly or indirectly on what
is, finally, presented to the world.” (pg. 177)
9. The image that I chose to represent this essay is a picture from a movie.
10. Susan Bordo argues that in many advertisements “women’s cravings” are depicted as
“a dirty, shameful secret to be indulged in only when no one is looking” (165).
Meaning that women have to hide their real desires.
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Research Paper Checklist
I. Presentation
Do not forget to include the following:
• a title (centered but not bold or underlined)
• a staple
• page numbers on all pages except the first
• seven complete pages of writing (and no more than twelve)
• page note citation for every quote (and name of author if needed)
• a Works Cited page (in MLA format) at the end of the paper
• four or more sources (including two of our course texts)
• a copy of your Rough Draft
• a separate bibliography of works related to the topic (in MLA form as well)
II. Argument
As you read and revise the body of your paper, think about whether your paper has the
following elements:
• an introduction that sets up the topic and prepares the reader for the moves you will make
in the paper
• a thesis that is apparent to the reader and developed or explored throughout the paper
• moments of sustained analysis of quotes (in which you take a couple sentences and even
perhaps a paragraph to interpret and explain a quote)
• moments where you clearly explain how a text you are using impacts on your idea
• an illustrating example (or “artifact”)
• reasonable paragraph length (not more than 2/3 of a page)
III. What not to do
• plagiarize
• write a report or a history
• write extensive material that does not refer to or respond to sources
• minimize your contact with scholarly sources (or the course texts)
• use quotes without providing a context
• turn in sloppy or mistake-laden work
***The Final Paper is due on Tuesday, December 14***
I have read this sheet and revised my work accordingly:___________________________
(your signature here)
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Final Exam Essay
From “I Stand Here Writing” by Nancy Sommers
Please read the following passage by Nancy Sommers and the assignment directions
and then spend approximately 10-15 minutes brainstorming and outlining your ideas. After
you read it (and mark key words and sentences), write an essay which discusses the place of
the personal in academic writing. Choose Sommers and one other text we have read this
semester to examine what might be meant by “personal experience” and “academic,” or
analytical writing. Try to focus somewhat on your own writing process in the class this
semester to consider what new intersections you may now see between academic writing and
personal experience. These essays we’ve read include those by Walker Percy, Susan Bordo,
Robert Coles, Susan Griffin, and John Berger.
If I could teach my students one lesson about writing it would be to see themselves as
sources, as places from which ideas originate, to see themselves as Emerson’s
transparent eyeball, all that they have read and experienced—the dictionaries of their
lives—circulating through them. I want them to learn how sources thicken,
complicate, enlarge writing, but I want them to know too how it is always the writer’s
voice, vision, and argument that create the new source. I want my students to see
that nothing reveals itself straight out, especially the sources all around them. But I
know enough by now that this Emersonian ideal can’t be passed on in one lesson or
even a semester of lessons.
Many of the students who come to my classes have been trained to collect facts; they
act as if their primary job is to accumulate enough authorities so that there is no
doubt about the “truth” of their thesis. They most often disappear behind the weight
and permanence of their borrowed words, moving their pens, mouthing the words of
others, allowing sources to speak through them unquestioned, unexamined.
At the outset, many of my students think that personal writing is writing about the
death of their grandmother. Academic writing is reporting what Elisabeth KublerRoss has written about death and dying. Being personal, I want to show my
students, does not mean being autobiographical. Being academic does not mean
being remote, distant, imponderable. Being personal means bringing their judgments
and interpretation to bear on what they read and write, learning that they never leave
themselves behind even when they write academic essays. (Sommers 456)
Keep in mind as you write that the writing goals of this essay include a central idea that
makes and then later develops connections between two texts and also shows your own
engagement with the ideas they present. You may also want to draw upon an example of
how you used personal experience effectively as a text in an essay you wrote for this class.
Allow ten minutes for proofreading to make sure that you correct any significant sentencelevel errors.