The University of Colorado at Boulder
Program for Writing and Rhetoric
WRTG 1150-054, 055: First-Year Writing and Rhetoric Syllabus
Dr. Veronica House
Office Location: ENVD 1B50A (in basement of Environmental Design Building)
Office Hours: W (by appointment only), times TBA
Office Phone: (only during office hours) 735-4774
Email: Veronica.House@colorado.edu
Course Description: This section of 1150 is a service-learning section based on the theme of Conscious
Citizenship. Service-learning is a practice in teaching that combines class work with community work to
enrich your educational experience and help you begin to see connections between what you are learning in
the classroom and what is happening in the community. In this course you will choose a local non-profit
organization with which to volunteer 15 hours based on your own social/political interests. Your writing
assignments and readings will help you to substantiate your emotional responses to your “fieldwork,” but
of equal importance, your community work and your conversations with community coordinators, activists,
and the people the organizations aim to help are also research that will allow you to engage with the
academic world in a new way. All of these voices and texts will expand and shape your understanding of
the social issue you have chosen to investigate in your writing. You will spend a good part of the semester
proposing and then enacting a writing project that you will determine with your organization’s coordinator.
Through this process, you will gain an understanding of a social issue, community dynamics, problemsolving, and written advocacy. Your writing assignments will encourage you to challenge your engrained
ideas, to connect theories from the classroom with fieldwork, and to interrogate in your writing the social
and cultural forces that have led to the problem with which you are working. In the last part of the
semester, your service projects will inform your assignment in oral rhetoric: power point presentations in
which members of the class present their work, concerns, and ways in which fellow classmates can become
involved.
Goals: This course emerges from a series of state-wide education requirements established by the Colorado
Commission on Higher Education (CCHE). WRTG 1150 First-Year Writing and Rhetoric is a course in
argumentation that will enhance your knowledge of both academic and public rhetorical strategies and give
you practice in producing oral and written arguments. Rhetoric is “the art of persuasion.” In this course
you will examine and produce examples of oral, visual, and written rhetoric. You will learn how to:
produce different genres of writing for different contexts, purposes, and audiences
evaluate, construct, and organize effective arguments based on your content knowledge
determine the causes and effects of a social issue
develop critical reading, inquiry, and thinking skills
develop information literacy through library tutorials and research
produce a clean, efficient writing style through drafting and revision
edit and proofread carefully
address readers’ criticisms in your revisions
reflect critically on correlations between theoretical concepts and community experiences
produce a piece of writing that addresses a community need
The course will combine discussions, writing workshops, and individual conferences. The readings,
assignments, and workshops will help you to engage with rhetorical situations beyond the limits of the
course, to read critically, and to participate in multi-sided arguments through appropriate language and
research. We will focus on the communication strategies and forms that drive engaged citizenship—that is,
on shaping your writing and speaking so that your point is focused, compelling, persuasive, and supported
with evidence.
Peer Review Writing Workshops
You will not only be writing and revising multiple drafts of your own writing, but you will also participate
in peer writing workshops in which you will receive and give criticism on papers. Through your
participation in these workshops, you will broaden your intended audience, learn to anticipate reader
feedback as a vital part of the writing process, and look to the suggested revisions with the enthusiasm that
comes with an understanding of engagement in the continuous process of improving your writing skills.
You will also learn to strengthen your own writing by reading others’ work.
As peer-reviewers, you will have rough and final drafts from your partners’ previous papers with each new
draft so that you can watch for patterns of problems and address possibilities for revision.
Required Texts and Materials: For this class you will need:
Fast Food Nation: This text will serve as a model for you as you write your Rhetorical Analysis and Causal
papers. You will develop your critical reading and inquiry skills as you evaluate how Schlosser
uses different types of rhetoric, including counter-arguments, to create his causal argument about
the causes of the current state of the fast food industry and the effects that the industry has had on
subjects ranging from obesity, worker rights, politics, environmental issues, and animal welfare.
Everything’s an Argument (either red or blue edition is fine): This Rhetoric reader will provide
background for each of your written and oral assignments.
Knowing Words: This book, created especially for First-Year Writing at CU, will provide background
reading to several assignments, including the work you do with information literacy, or library research.
The book also provides information on course policies and resources on campus. If you don’t find what
you need on this syllabus, check Knowing Words.
A folder in which you will submit papers
Daily access to email /knowledge of your identikey for library tutorials
Coursework: You will be graded on the following:
Rhetorical Analysis (5%)
Causal Analysis I (15%)
Proposal Letter (10%)
Causal Analysis II (15%)
Written Reflections (15%)
Service Work (15%)
Oral Presentation (10%)
Quizzes, library tutorial, annotated bibliography, peer reviews, drafts, group work (10%)
Attendance, participation, preparation (5%)
Grades: In addition to the final drafts, you are required to produce a first draft for each paper. We will do
peer editing of these drafts in class. You will be graded not simply on the final paper you turn in, but on
the quality of the entire writing process. Your grade on the final paper will take into account your
incorporation of comments and responses to your drafts. You will turn in all previously-commented-on
papers in your folder with each final paper.
Your final semester grade will be calculated according to the above percentages. Participation is based on
how much and how well you contribute to discussions compared with your classmates. Please note that if
you consistently fail to fulfill any of the class work assignments, you may fail the course. Do not throw
away any drafts, notes, papers or research materials you produce during the semester, until you receive a
final grade.
Your work with a non-profit organization is central to the course. I will call your coordinators periodically
throughout the semester to check on how things are working. Please recognize your responsibility to this
outside organization and the opportunity you have to transform your educational experience into one that
promotes involvement, experiential learning, and real change.
Late Assignments and Drafts: Papers, drafts, and other out-of-class assignments will be turned in at the
time they are due. Late final drafts turned in one day (24 hr. period) late will receive a loss of a full
letter grade, a class day late will be a loss of two letter grades. No work will be accepted more than
one class day late. No class work (including peer reviews) or quizzes can be made up! If you cannot
attend class on the date an assignment is due, arrange to have a classmate or friend drop it off during
scheduled class time.
Attendance: You are expected to be punctual, to attend class daily, and to participate in all in-class editing,
revising, and discussion sessions. If you have more than five absences, you will fail the course. Failure
to be prepared for class may also be counted as an absence. For your attendance grade, two absences is a
B, three a C, four a D, five an F. If you are absent, it is your responsibility to contact a classmate for the
information and assignments you missed. If you miss a documentary viewing, you are required to watch
the video on your own time and write a one-page response for me.
Conferences: At any point in the semester, you are welcome to schedule a conference to discuss any aspect
of your work. If you have signed up for a conference and find that you are unable to keep the appointment,
please notify me as soon as possible by e-mail. The conference schedule can be very tight, and another
student might be able to use the time if you have to postpone an appointment.
Cell phones and computers: Cell phones must be put on silent and put away during class, and texting is
not allowed. You will lose a percentage point from your final semester grade for every time you text in
class. No computers are allowed in class. Transcribe your notes onto a computer OUTSIDE of class.
Writing Center: If you want additional help with your writing, the Writing Center (Norlin Writing
Commons on first floor) is a great place to go to brainstorm ideas, improve your thesis or essay
organization, or work on writing skills. You need to make an appointment in advance (they suggest more
than a week ahead). Check the Writing Center website for information on hours and services:
http://www.colorado.edu/pwr/writingcenter.html
Scholastic Honesty and Plagarism: Turning in work that is not your own or any other form of scholastic
dishonesty will result in a major course penalty. If any part of a paper up to two sentences is plagiarized,
you will receive a zero on the paper with no possibility for a rewrite. If any more than two sentences is
plagiarized, you will fail the course and the incident will be reported to the Honors Council. All students of
the University of Colorado at Boulder are responsible for knowing and adhering to the academic integrity
policy of this institution. Violations of this policy may include cheating, plagiarism, academic dishonesty,
fabrication, lying, bribery, and threatening behavior. I will report all incidents of academic misconduct to
the Honor Code Council. Students who are found to be in violation of the academic integrity policy will be
subject to both academic and non-academic sanctions (including but not limited to university probation,
suspension, or expulsion). Additional information may be found at
http://www.colorado.edu/policies/honor.html and http://www.colorado.edu/academics/honorcode/ .
Disabilities: If you qualify for accommodations because of a disability, please submit to me a letter from
Disability Services in a timely manner so that your needs may be addressed. Disability Services determines
accommodations based on documented disabilities. Contact: 303-492-8671, Willard 322, or
www.Colorado.EDU/disabilityservices .
Religious holidays: Campus policy requires that faculty make every effort to deal reasonably and fairly
with all students who, because of religious obligations, have conflicts with scheduled assignments or
required attendance. Let me know in the first two weeks of class if you will miss any scheduled
classes/assignment due dates because of religious observances. See policy details at
http://www.colorado.edu/policies/fac_relig.html .
Discrimination and harassment: The University of Colorado Policy on Discrimination and Sexual
Harassment applies to all students, staff, and faculty. Any student, staff or faculty member who believes
s/he has been discriminated against or sexually harassed should contact the Office of Discrimination and
Harassment at 303-492-2127 or the Office of Judicial Affairs at 303-492-5550. Information about the OSH
and the campus resources available to assist individuals who believe they have been harassed may be found
at http://www.colorado.edu/odh
***Offered through the Program for Writing and Rhetoric, WRTG 1150 is designed to fulfill
curricular requirements established by the University of Colorado at Boulder and the Colorado
Commission on Higher Education.***
University of Colorado at Boulder Core Requirement
WRTG 1150. Rhetorically informed introduction to college writing. Focuses on critical analysis,
argument, inquiry, and information literacy. Taught as a writing workshop, the course places a premium on
invention, drafting, and thoughtful revision. Approved for the Arts and Sciences core curriculum: written
communication.
The Colorado Commission on Higher Education (CCHE)
WRTG 1150 also meets CCHE criteria for a First-Year Writing Course in the Colorado system of higher
education:
Rhetorical Knowledge: Rhetoric is the art of persuasion, or of shaping words and images to move a
particular audience to a particular purpose. An advanced knowledge of the rhetoric used within specialized
disciplines sharpens the ability of a communicator to choose the most effective evidence, reasoning, and
communication strategies for a professional audience and purpose.
Writing Processes: Writing—including the writing involved in speaking—is an ongoing process that
requires multiple drafts as well as a range of strategies for developing, revising, and editing texts.
***Workshops and conferences provide opportunities to develop skill in giving constructive feedback
as well as incorporating feedback into the development of your own work.
***Research in Norlin library exposes you to specialized sources that connect you to the issues,
language, and modes of analysis relevant to literary studies.
***Repeated examination of evidence and reasoning in the development of your research project will
give you practice in evaluating sources for accuracy, relevance, credibility, reliability, and bias.
Writing Conventions: The sequence of assignments will give you practice in analyzing and developing
arguments about a social issue of your choice. You will learn about form, interpreting and using the
language of argument and analysis, and designing writing to meet the expectations of particular audiences.
You will also become aware of elements of your own writing that can be improved, including syntax,
grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
Content Knowledge: The range of assignments as well as exposure to the work of your peers will heighten
your awareness of the relationship between the library research you do and the fieldwork you perform.
This awareness will translate into facility in adapting content and communication strategies to the expertise,
needs, and expectations of a particular audience.
Daily Reading, Assignment, and Work Schedule
Unit One: Rhetorical Analysis
During this unit, you will learn about various kinds of oral, visual, and written rhetorical arguments.
While you familiarize yourself with the academic vocabulary surrounding the study of rhetoric
through your reading of Everything’s An Argument, we will use a documentary about food and a
journalistic book to apply your new knowledge and determine how and why arguments are
constructed for particular audiences, and the power they have to change perceptions.
M January 11: Introductions
***Begin Super Size Me
Read Knowing Words pgs. 7-11
Read Fast Food Nation Introduction and Ch. 1 pgs. 1-28
Read Everything’s An Argument Ch. 1 (blue and red editions)
W 13: ***Show Super Size Me
Read Everything’s An Argument Chs. 2-4 (blue); Chs. 4,6,7 (red)
Read FFN Chs. 2-3 pgs. 31-88 (think about the rhetorical devices he’s using)
W 20: Discuss readings and video
Discuss types of rhetorical arguments
Work in groups on FFN’s rhetoric
Read Everything’s An Argument Ch. 5 to p.122 (blue); Chs. 2-3 (red)
Read FFN Chs. 5-6 pgs. 111-147
M 25: Group presentations / discussion of FFN
Paper #1 assignment: Rhetorical Analysis
Discuss non-profit options
Read Knowing Words pgs.21-32
Read Everything’s An Argument Chs. 14, 17 (blue); Chs. 15, 19 (red)
Paper One: Rhetorical Analysis : Follow the assignment handout I provide.
(over the next week, you’ll need to contact your non-profit to make sure what they need matches
what you’ll need in terms of work, hours, and your schedule)
Unit Two: Causal Argument
Fast Food Nation and Super Size Me are extended sociological and political causal arguments and
will serve as models for you as you construct your own cause/effect paper, an assignment that will
emphasize critical reading and thinking, as well as information literacy. In many courses across
disciplines, you may be asked to research and determine causes or effects of a particular problem or
issue. This research paper will give you the skills to take the broad social issue with which you are
working with your non-profit, determine a specific problem that the organization addresses, and
then research causes or effects of that problem. Not only is this excellent practice in conducting
research on a national and local level and constructing an academic paper, but it will also give you a
deepened knowledge about the cause for which you are volunteering. You will also write your first
critical reflection on your experience and what you have learned.
W 27: Discuss your non-profit choices and questions you have
Possible visits with community partners
Assign Paper #2 Causal Argument, Annotated Bibliography, and explain library tutorial
Rhetorical Analysis due
Finalize your choice for a Boulder non-profit organization to work with for the semester.
Read EA “Causal Arguments” Ch. 10 (blue); Ch. 11 (red) and come up with a possible cause/effect
claim
Read Michael Pollen article “Power Steer”
Read FFN Ch. 7-9
Monday, February 1: At-home Fast Food Nation and “Power Steer” test
W 3: Apply cause/effect argument to FFN Chs.6-9
Turn in your service-learning choice and start service-learning work this week! Ask about the “main
issue.”
Read EA Ch. 16 (blue); Ch. 18 (red)
Read KW pgs.35-37
Do Library Tutorial, all modules – a grade for each module will be sent to me and will factor into
your quiz grade for the semester. The address is below and is available starting today. This tutorial
takes a few hours, so plan accordingly. http://ucblibraries.colorado.edu/pwr/tutorial/home.htm
A note from the library: “If any of your students have difficulty logging in, please have them email
pwrhelp@colorado.edu with their name, identikey username, and course number.”
M 8 : Library orientation day—meet in Norlin Library
Begin research and work on Annotated Bibliography
Read EA Ch. 19 (blue); Ch. 21 (red)
W 10: ***Show video
Bring Annotated Bibliography with proper MLA Works Cited format to next class
Read EA Ch. 18 (blue); Ch. 20 (red)
M 15: ***Finish Video
Collect Annotated Bibliography
Hand out revision checklist—remember this is not a persuasive paper
continue working on rough draft (USE REVISION HANDOUT!)
Bring 5 copies of your thesis paragraph to class
Read KW pgs.39-45
W 17: Peer review workshops with introductory paragraphs
Write First Draft of Causal Paper
M 22: Full-Class Peer Review Workshop (with classmate’s Causal Paper)
Revisions of Causal Argument based on Revision Checklist
Bring two copies of your paper to next class
W 24: In-class peer review workshops of drafts
Hand out Written Reflection #1 prompt
Your first 4 hours of community work are due next Monday (email and phone contact for your
volunteer coordinator, and your reflection)
Read FFN Ch. 10
Monday, March 1: CAUSAL PAPER DUE IN CLASS WITH ALL DRAFTS, Annotated
Bibliography, and Works Cited Page
In-class activity with reflections and reading
Assign Paper 3: Proposal Argument
Read EA Ch. 11 (blue)“Proposals”; Ch. 12 (red) – bring both books to next class!
Read FFN Epilogue and Afterword
Read “No Bar Code” by Michael Pollan
Unit Three: Proposal Letter
This unit is about applied knowledge. You have been conducting library research on your issue and
working with your non-profit. Now what do you do about the problems you have encountered?
During the next month you will propose and then enact a project that you determine with your
organization’s volunteer coordinator. Here are two examples from previous students: One student,
Lauren, volunteered with an animal rescue organization. Her proposal letter urged the head of
programming at a local news station to include a “Pet of the Week” segment in the 5:00 news
featuring an animal from the rescue site to help encourage adoption. Another student, Evan,
volunteered at a homeless shelter. He noted how difficult many of the homeless found it to eat the
food provided because of their need for dental care. He sent out letters to twenty-four dentists in
Boulder County proposing that they partner with the shelter and provide one day of free dental care
each year. You will be able to put your project together because you have been in the field and seen
firsthand what your non-profit needs. This is a critical exercise in transforming your new knowledge
into action. You can think of this process as “What? So what? Now what?” You have determined
what the problem is and why it matters. Now determine what you will do about it and who the
appropriate audience is for your plan of action.
W 3: Discuss reading, ideas, examples
Writing Issues—determine appropriate audience and project feasibility
Come up with Proposal ideas – talk with your organization director about options and needs before
next class!!!
Follow EA guide to “Defining a Need or Problem” and “Making a Strong and Clear Claim”
M 8: One-on-one workshop with your letter
Write first draft of Proposal paper—bring 3 copies of your proposals to class
W 10: One-on-one workshop with your letter
Revise proposal and get approval from your non-profit coordinator! They must see and okay what
you are planning to submit. Revise AGAIN based on their concerns and suggestions.
Read E.A. Ch.15 “Presenting Arguments” (red Ch.17 “Spoken Arguments”)
M 15: PROPOSALS DUE IN CLASS
Assign power point presentations
Talk about presentation strategies
Watch The Office – “Dwight’s Speech”
Units Four and Five: Oral Rhetoric and Causal Revision
You will be learning about some difficult and sometimes depressing issues this semester. We will
need ways to process and then address these subjects that you encounter in your course readings and
research. This is where your project in oral and visual rhetoric comes into play. When you form
relationships with community members and learn how to create localized change for a specific issue,
and then reflect upon your successes with your peers, the collective result is extraordinarily
empowering. You represent a student body prepared for the world beyond the campus grounds!
You will be speaking to yet another kind of audience—your classmates—incorporating technology
and reflection in your power point presentations to the class.
The final act of integration between research and reflection is in your major revision of your causal
paper. In the first version of this paper, you did strictly library research. Now you are revising the
paper based on your experiences with the non-profit. You will conduct interviews with volunteers,
activists, and the people the organizations aim to help, constituting research that expands and shapes
the ways in which you conceive of the social issue you are investigating in your writing. These endof-semester revisions of the causal paper allow you to articulate how your understanding has
deepened over the semester as you interrogate the cultural and political forces that have led to the
problem with which you have been working.
W 17: Individual conferences with me.
I’ll return your proposal papers and speak with each of you individually
Assign Reflection Two
Revise proposal and get approval from your non-profit coordinator!
Once you’ve revised AND gotten approval, hand in a final version that I will grade.
This is the one you should now send out or deliver! Send it out or deliver it BEFORE the break!
Bring your first GRADED causal paper to next class along with a revised draft based on my
comments.
***************SPRING BREAK*****************
M 29: Final, revised proposals due in class.
Back to the Causal Paper – documentary or video clip, personal observations/experience, and interview
additions
Full class Peer-Review Workshop (with classmate’s Causal Paper)
Your next 4 hours of community service are due by next class (contact info. and your reflection)
Schedule your interview and type up about 10 questions to ask
W 31: Work with passive voice, wordiness, “to be” verbs, “strong” verbs, and parallel structure
Monday, April 5: ***Show video or in-class reflection
W 7: oral presentations
M 12: oral presentations
W 14: oral presentations
M 19: oral presentations
Final Reflection Assigned
W 21: oral presentations
Course evaluations
M 26: oral presentations
Your final 7 hours of community service are due by next class (with a signed letter)
Final Causal Papers due next class with previous graded draft and 3/29 draft
W 28: LAST DAY – final reflections due
Loose ends