Harvard University Extension School
Expo E25: Academic Writing and Critical Reading
Fall 2015: Tuesday, 7:40 p.m. – 9:40 p.m.
Sever Hall 204
Instructor: Chris Walsh
E-mail: crobertwalsh@gmail.com
DRAFT SYLLABUS
Goals: This course aims to help you develop a variety of
skills essential for academic success. Among them are the
ability to read closely and write precisely, to analyze
challenging texts, and to argue with discipline and clarity.
Topic: We will sharpen these skills by exploring how
poets have observed, justified, glorified, and condemned
war since ancient times. We will each choose a poem to
recite from memory and add to the syllabus for class
discussion; we will explore some of the important
scholarship on the poetry of war, and we will meet (and
read) writers such as Fred Marchant1 and Jill
McDonough2, contemporary war poets.
Library of Congress
Participation—that is, regular attendance, thorough preparation for, and full engagement
in class discussions—is crucial to this seminar’s success, and to your success in it. Please
complete each assigned reading in its entirety by the class for which it is assigned. I also
expect you to revise drafts thoroughly and thoughtfully, and to be committed to the peer
review process, showing respect for your classmates and the academic setting. Official
Writing Program policy states that, “because courses proceed by sequential writing
activities, your consistent attendance is essential. If you are absent without medical
excuse more than twice, you are eligible to be officially excluded from the course and
failed.” Please email me if you’re going to miss class or be late.
Three essays (preceded by drafts and conferences) will account for your final grade. You
will write multiples draft of each essay and receive comments from me and your
classmates. Please always bring your latest draft to class in hard copy. Drafts do not
receive grades but they are required and must be turned in on time. You will only receive
useful feedback—and therefore produce a better finished paper—if you write a
substantive draft in a timely way. Essay #1 is worth twenty percent (20%) of the final
grade; Essay #2 thirty-five percent (35%); and Essay #3 forty-five percent (45%). Papers
are due at the beginning of class on the dates noted on the schedule. Half a grade will be
deducted if a student brings a paper late to class on the due date; a full-grade penalty will
be assessed for each day a paper is late. Late final papers cannot be accepted. Grading
standards (to be distributed in class) reflect the expectation that students will have already
mastered the fundamentals of grammar; we will, however, review grammatical matters as
they come up in your writing. Grading standards will remain the same over the course of
the semester, but the assignments will become more challenging in both complexity and
length.
EXPO E-25 The Poetry of War fall 2015 Walsh 2
Formatting: Unless otherwise noted, all assignments must be submitted in 12-point typeface, double-spaced, with one-inch margins. The first page should include your name, the
date, the course number, and the instructor’s name. The last page should specify the
works cited. Always number your pages and staple them together. Please keep a copy of
drafts of all work that you submit. No electronic submission without permission.
Required Reading
Please purchase the following texts in the following editions, available at the Harvard
Coop, textbook department:
Jon Stallworthy, ed., Oxford Book of War Poetry (Oxford Univ. Press; 1984) Please
buy this old, cheaper edition rather than the "New" 2014 edition.
Mary Oliver, A Poetry Handbook (Harvest/Harcourt, 1994)
Joseph M. Williams and Joseph Bizup, Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace, 11th ed.
(Longman, 2014)
Other documents will be distributed in class and posted on the class Canvas site:
Outside of Class Communications and Assistance
We will meet for conferences during the semester and I am also happy to communicate
via e-mail. All e-mails must be formally written and grammatically correct. I usually
respond within 24 hours. Please note that other than drafts we discuss in workshop, I will
not read documents you email me; I will however be glad to talk about them in person.
You should also know that the Extension School Writing Center, located in the Grossman
Library, has tutors available to help you with your essays for this and every other
Extension School Course. For information and to make an appointment visit the website:
http://www.extension.harvard.edu/resources/writing-center
Statement on Disability
The Extension School is committed to providing an accessible academic community. The
Disability Services Office offers a variety of accommodations and services to students
with documented disabilities. Please visit www.extension.harvard.edu/resourcespolicies/resources/disability-services-accessibility for more information.
Statement on Plagiarism
You are responsible for understanding Harvard Extension School policies on academic
integrity (www.extension.harvard.edu/resources-policies/student-conduct/academicintegrity) and how to use sources responsibly. Not knowing the rules, misunderstanding
the rules, running out of time, submitting "the wrong draft", or being overwhelmed with
multiple demands are not acceptable excuses. There are no excuses for failure to uphold
academic integrity. To support your learning about academic citation rules, please visit
the Harvard Extension School Tips to Avoid Plagiarism
(www.extension.harvard.edu/resources-policies/resources/tips-avoid-plagiarism), where
you'll find links to the Harvard Guide to Using Sources and two, free, online 15-minute
tutorials to test your knowledge of academic citation policy. The tutorials are anonymous
open-learning tools.
EXPO E-25 The Poetry of War fall 2015 Walsh 3
SCHEDULE
Writing and reading assignments must be completed by the beginning of class on the day
noted. Be sure to look up all unfamiliar words in a good dictionary. The numbers
following OBWP (The Oxford Book of War Poetry) denote not page numbers but poem
numbers. You will notice some blank spots on the schedule below. These will be filled in
with your names and the titles of the poems you choose to write about for the second
essay. On your assigned day, you will help me lead discussion of the poem.
Unit I__________________
September 1 Introduction
In-class writing diagnostic
OBWP 24, 103, 139; Ricks handout
September 8 Summary, quotation, interpretation
W1 (see page 6 of this syllabus) and First Draft of Assignment #1 due (see page 7)
Style preface and Lesson 1; Winn 1-37 (handout); Dickey, “The Firebombing”; Bly, “The
Collapse of James Dickey”; Oliver 1-29
September 15 Introducing motive and thesis
W2 (see page 6 of this syllabus) and Complete Draft of Essay #1 due (see page 7)
Dickey, "Self-Interview"; Style Lessons 2 and 7; Oliver 30-75; OBWP 227 and 243
September 22 Analysis and Argument
Revised Draft of Essay #1
Style Lesson 3; Oliver 76-108; OBWP 129, 113, and 207
Please visit “Using Sources, Five Scenarios” and email results to me at
crobertwalsh@gmail.com
September 29 Structure
Final Version of Essay #1 due
Style Lesson 4; Stallworthy xix-xxxi; OBWP 48, 62, 64, 70, 111, 112, 122
Unit II___________________
October 6 Cohesion and Coherence
Essay #2 Stage 1 due
Fussell (handout); Style Lesson 8; OBWP 67, 89, 214, and 224
POETRY RECITALS
_____________ & ______________
October 13
Essay #2 Stage 2 due
Style Lesson 5;
_____________ & ______________
EXPO E-25 The Poetry of War fall 2015 Walsh 4
October 20 Emphasis
Fully revised draft of Essay #2 due
Style Lesson 6; OBWP 35, 73, and 250
_____________ & ______________
October 27 Concision
Final Version of Essay #2 due
Style Lesson 9
_____________ & ______________
Unit III__________________
November 3
Style Lesson 7 revisited; OBWP 225 and 229.
Please visit “Using Sources, Five Examples” and
crobertwalsh@gmail.com
_____________ & ______________
email
results
to
me
November 10
Style Lesson 10; OBWP 27, 218, and 242
_____________ & ______________
November 17
1400 Words of Essay #3 due
Style Lesson 11; OBWP 119, 124, 163
_____________ & ______________
November 24 Complications
Complete Draft of Essay #3 due
Style Lesson 12; OBWP 145, 244, and 259
_____________ & ______________
December 1
Conclusions
December 8
Peer review reading
Last class meeting
December 15
No Class: Final version of Essay #3 due emailed to me at crobertwalsh@gmail.com
at
EXPO E-25 The Poetry of War fall 2015 Walsh 5
Biographies of Fred Marchant and Jill McDonough, who will visit the class
1
Fred Marchant's most recent book of poetry, The Looking House (Graywolf Press,
2009) was named by Barnes & Noble Review as one of the five best books of poetry in
2009. Marchant is also the author of Tipping Point, winner of the 1993 Washington Prize
in poetry, and Full Moon Boat (2000). A new and selected volume, House on Water,
House in Air, was published in 2002. He has co-translated (with Nguyen Ba Chung)
From a Corner of My Yard, poetry by the Vietnamese poet Tran Dang Khoa, published in
2006 in Ha Noi, Viet Nam. Marchant is also the editor of Another World Instead: The
Early Poems of William Stafford, 1937-1947 (2008), a selection that focuses on the work
done while Stafford was a conscientious objector during World War II.
He is a longtime teaching affiliate of The William Joiner Center for the Study of War and
Social Consequences at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, and was himself a
conscientious objector within the military during the Viet Nam War.
2
2014 Lannan Fellowship and three-time Pushcart prize winner, Jill McDonough’s
books of poems include Habeas Corpus (Salt, 2008), Oh, James! (Seven Kitchens, 2012),
and Where You Live (Salt, 2012). The recipient of fellowships from the National
Endowment for the Arts, the Fine Arts Work Center, the New York Public Library, the
Library of Congress, and Stanford’s Stegner program, she taught incarcerated college
students through Boston University’s Prison Education Program for thirteen years. Her
work appears in Slate, The Nation, The Threepenny Review, and Best American Poetry
2011. She teaches poetry at UMass-Boston and directs 24PearlStreet, the online writing
program at the Fine Arts Work Center.