Cissel
RWS 100: The Rhetoric of Written Argument
San Diego State University, Fall 2012
Section 43, TT 11:00
Instructor:
Office:
E-mail:
Office Hours:
Professor Sean Cissel
To be determined
cissel@hotmail.com
Wednesday 9:30-10:30, and by appointment
Description of the Course
General Education Capacities/Goals & RWS Learning Outcomes
Our Learning Outcomes Reflect the Goals and Capacities of the General Education Program. RWS 100 is
one of several courses in the area of general education defined as “Communication and Critical
Thinking.” Focusing particularly on argument, this course emphasizes four essential general education
capacities: the ability to 1) construct, analyze and communicate argument, 2) contextualize phenomena,
3) negotiate differences, and 4) apply theoretical models to the real world. This course advances general
education by helping students understand the general function of writing, speaking, visual texts, and
thinking within the context of the university at large, rather than within specific disciplines. In addition to
featuring the basic rules and conventions governing composition and presentation, RWS 100 establishes
intellectual frameworks and analytical tools that help students explore, construct, critique, and integrate
sophisticated texts.
Within this framework of four general capacities, the course realizes four closely related subsidiary goals.
These goals focus on helping students
1)
2)
3)
4)
craft well-reasoned arguments for specific audiences;
analyze a variety of texts commonly encountered in the academic setting;
situate discourse within social, generic, cultural, and historic contexts; and
assess the relative strengths of arguments and supporting evidence.
Our student learning outcomes for RWS 100 are closely aligned with these goals and capacities, and
reflect the program’s overall objective of helping students attain “essential skills that underlie all
university education.”
Assignment Types: the following four outcomes describe the four main writing projects or "assignment
types" for the course. Students will be able to:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Describe and analyze an author’s argument, claims, project, support and rhetorical strategies.
Construct an account of an author’s project and argument and carry out small, focused research
tasks to find information that helps clarify, illustrate, extend or complicate that argument; use
appropriate reference materials, including a dictionary, in order to clarify their understanding of
an argument.
Construct an account of one or more authors’ projects and arguments and explain rhetorical
strategies that these authors—and by extension other writers—use to engage readers in thinking
about their arguments.
Construct an account of two authors’ projects and arguments in order to use concepts from one
argument as a framework for understanding and writing about another.
Outcomes across the semester: the following points describe outcomes to work on throughout the
semester, to be attained over the 15 weeks. Students will be able to:
5.
6.
describe elements of an argument--claims, methods of development, kinds of evidence,
persuasive appeals; annotate the work that is done by each section of a written argument;
use all aspects of the writing process--including prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and
proofreading;
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7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
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choose effective structures for their writing, acknowledging that different purposes, contexts and
audiences call for different structures; understand the relationship between a text's ideas and its
structure;
identify devices an author has used to create cohesion or to carry the reader through the text; use
metadiscourse to signal the project of a paper, and guide a reader from one idea to the next in
their writing;
effectively select material from written arguments, contextualize it, and comment on it in their
writing;
determine when and where a source was published, who wrote it and whether it was reprinted or
edited; understand that texts are written in and respond to particular contexts, communities or
cultures; examine the vocabulary choices a writer makes and how they are related to context,
community or culture, audience or purpose;
respond in writing to ideas drawn from various cultures and disciplines, using the activity of
writing to clarify and improve their understanding of an argument;
analyze and assess the relative strengths of arguments and supporting evidence
analyze and assess arguments made by visual texts; incorporate visual images into their
documents;
craft well reasoned arguments for specific audiences
edit their writing for the grammar and usage conventions appropriate to each writing situation;
assign significance to the arguments that they read;
reflect on how they wrote their papers, and revise arguments and findings based on critical
reflection.
Required Textbooks
Keys for Writers, Sixth Edition (2010). Ann Raimes and Maria Jerskey.
Outliers: The Story of Success (2008). Malcolm Gladwell.
Assignments
20%
20%
25%
15%
10%
10%
Essay One.
Essay Two.
Essay Three.
Quizzes.
Grammar Test.
Participation/shorter assignments.
Grading Scale
A
93-100%
A90-92
B+
87-89%
B
83-86%
B80-82%
C+
77-79%
C
73-76%
C70-72%
D+
67-69%
D
60-66%
F
Below 60%
Written assignments are due at the beginning of class on the dates listed on the syllabus. I do not
accept assignments via email, and I will not accept late copies of Essay 3. For assignments other than
Essay 3, I will subtract twenty points for every class date that an assignment is late. I will only accept
assignments on class dates; in other words, if an assignment is due on Thursday, and you put it in my
mailbox on Friday, I will not accept it until Tuesday anyway, so you might as well just give it to me on
Tuesday at class. Make sure you save your work frequently while composing it and after you finish, both
to the computer’s hard drive and to a disk. SDSU computer labs, especially, can easily erase your work if
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you do not save it to a disk. Sending a copy of your work to your own email address as an attachment is
also a good idea; doing so saves your work in cyberspace. Make sure the computer and printer you use are
in proper operating condition to avoid any last-minute disasters like crashed systems, infected flash drives,
broken or out-of-ink printers, et cetera. Computer problems and the like do not excuse late or
incomplete assignments.
Grading Rubric
I will give you a handout concerning the rules for writing in this class. Keep it; use it; bond with it.
An A essay contains a completely developed thesis or point of view and supports it throughout; is well
organized and coherently developed; clearly explains or illustrates key ideas; demonstrates variety in
sentence structure; clearly displays facility in the use of language; uses outside sources critically and
insightfully; and is nearly free from errors in mechanics and grammar. In short, an A essay makes the
reader say, “Dang! That’s really good stuff! Far superior to the writer’s peers.”
A B essay contains a well-developed thesis or point of view and generally supports it throughout; is
generally well organized and coherently developed; explains or illustrates key ideas; demonstrates some
variety in sentence structure; displays facility in the use of language; uses outside sources critically and
insightfully for the most part; and is generally free from errors in mechanics or grammar. A B essay makes
the reader say, “Hey, that’s pretty darn good. I thoroughly enjoyed reading it; it’s clearly better than the
average essay.”
A C essay contains an adequate thesis or point of view and generally supports it; shows some organization
and development; explains or illustrates some of the key ideas; demonstrates some facility in the use of
language; incorporates sources, but allows sources to dominate and/or restrict flow; and may display errors
in mechanics or grammar, but not a consistent pattern of such errors. A C essay makes the reader say, “Not
bad at all. It’s written by an intelligent student who put some work into it, but it doesn’t rise above the
average level of his or her peers.”
A D essay contains an underdeveloped thesis or point of view that is poorly supported; is inadequately
organized or developed; inadequately explains or illustrates key ideas; uses sources but poorly deploys
them; contains a pattern or accumulation of errors in mechanics or grammar; and has limited or
inappropriate word choices. A D essay makes the reader say, “Well, this is not particularly appealing. This
is not up to the level set forth by this student’s peers. Needs greater effort.”
An F essay has no thesis or clear point of view, a circular thesis or point of view, or a completely
unsupported thesis or point of view; is poorly organized or unorganized with very little development; has
little or no relevant detail; has no sources or uses sources uncritically; and has serious errors in mechanics
and/or grammar. An F essay makes the reader say, “I have serious doubts about this student’s level of
interest and about the effort he or she put forth. This is just not adequate.”
Essay Format: Please adhere to MLA style (see Keys for Writers, or the website
<http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/research/r_mla.html> for a fairly thorough discussion of MLA
style) throughout your essays, including cosmetic concerns (i.e., what your essay looks like). Please
purchase a small box of paper clips at the beginning of the semester, if you do not have any already.
Unacceptable Essay Topics: You will choose your own topic for Essay 2. Certain topics are unacceptable
to use for essay topics because they are overly simplistic and, frankly, played out. These topics include:
arguments for or against abortion, capital punishment, gay marriage, stem cells, and euthanasia. Please
review this list of topics before you decide what to write about.
Grammar and Punctuation Errors: This is not a class on grammar or punctuation, but grammar and
punctuation are necessary elements of written language. In your four essays, I will put a checkmark at the
end of any line in which a grammatical or stylistic error occurs and deduct one point for each error:
√c
= a misused, unnecessary, or missing comma.
√p
= a misused, unnecessary, or missing punctuation error besides a comma.
√g
= a grammatical error.
√pv
= a passive voice verb construction.
√e
= an empty expression, such as those that use “there” or “it” without a clear antecedent.
Two checkmarks at the end of a line means two errors, three checkmarks means three errors, and so on.
You may correct each error within a week of me returning the exam to you and bring it back to me on the
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check-marked copy to regain points, with the exception of Essay Three, where you can regain none of the
points. Again, you must correct your errors on the check-marked copy, or they will not count.
Someone correcting these errors for you is an honor code violation and will be treated as such. Someone
helping you correct these errors and/or using a handbook is okay.
Spelling, Proofreading, and Essay Format Errors: Any time you misspell a word, commit a
proofreading or typographical error (for example, omitting a word or writing a word twice in a row), or use
incorrect essay format (for example, incorrect spacing, font, or page numbers), I will deduct one point that
you cannot get back. I will, however, “spot” you three of these errors per essay. If you spend sufficient
time on your essay and revise it, you should not make any of these errors.
Attendance: Students are allowed three absences for any reason, although quizzes cannot be made up
except in cases of pre-excused, university-related absences. For each absence after three, your final grade
will drop one-third of a letter grade (i.e., your A will become an A-, your B will become a B-, your B- will
become a C+, etc.).
Arriving late (especially with a cup of coffee or food in your hand) or leaving early will likely result in
getting marked absent for that entire day. These behaviors are rude and distracting to everyone else in the
class.
Any class you miss counts as an absence. “Excused absences” do not exist, even for family
emergencies (even death) or personal illness. You have an important responsibility not to waste your
absences in case you become sick or encounter an instance in which you cannot come to class for personal
or family reasons. Attendance policy is only negotiable in cases of prolonged serious illness or
hospitalization. Hangovers, relationship problems, going out of town, oversleeping, colds, flues, and the
like do not fall into this category.
Electronics/Classroom Etiquette: Please do not use electronic devices in class. Fair warning: I will
deduct two points (nearly a third of a letter) from your participation grade any time your phone is in use
this semester, including during workshops and film viewing.
Communication with Me: Email and office hours are the best means through which to get in touch with
me. From time to time, I will need to email you regarding the class. Check your email at least twice a day.
You are responsible for keeping your email account active and making sure your inbox is not full. I will
only deal with the email address on file with SDSU Blackboard. Also, do not assume that I am “on call” to
answer your email at all hours or that the SDSU email system and the internet as a whole are immune from
technological problems or service outages. I usually try to end my workday at four or five o’clock in the
evening.
Academic Dishonesty: Everything you will do this semester must adhere to the SDSU Honor Code. Err
on the side of asking questions, especially concerning proper citation and quotation, before submitting
work of which you are unsure.
Turning in an essay you’ve written in the past or for another class this semester, even if you revise it, is a
form of plagiarism.
Other forms of academic dishonesty include the following:
Collusion – lending your work to another person to submit it as his or her own;
Fabrication – deliberately creating false information on a works cited or reference page;
Plagiarism – the presentation of another person’s work as your own.
I am well aware that several thousand websites offer (for sale or otherwise) downloadable essays for
students to use to cheat. Please resist the urge to cheat for a number of reasons: 1) You are paying good
money to learn here; 2) You have a conscience; 3) I will find out about it, take your offense seriously, and
pursue it with the Honor Council doggedly; 4) The late penalty is not that bad, really; and 5) I have internet
access and have not, as far as I know, had large portions of my brain removed with a soldering iron.
Access: If you have a disability (physical or learning) that you think may affect your performance in this
class, please see me during the first week of the term so we can discuss whatever accommodations may be
necessary to assure your access to all classroom activities. Student-athletes should also see me during the
first week of class regarding any time that they will have to miss for school-sponsored activities.
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Tentative Schedule
All readings and assignments must be completed by the beginning of class on the day they are due. This
schedule is subject to change.
Week 1
Course introduction, syllabus.
Week 2
Election/current events. Readings assigned via Blackboard.
Week 3
Election/current events. Readings assigned via Blackboard.
Week 4
Election/current events. Readings assigned via Blackboard.
Week 5
Election/current events. Readings assigned via Blackboard.
9/27: Full draft of Essay 1 due.
Week 6
Group conferences. No regular class meeting.
Week 7
10/9: Peer workshop.
10/11: Essay 1 due.
Week 8
Election/current events. Readings assigned via Blackboard.
10/18: Grammar Test.
Week 9
Election/current events. Readings assigned via Blackboard.
Week 10
10/30: Two copies of Essay 2 draft due. Peer workshop.
11/1: Essay 2 due.
Week 11
11/6: Gladwell intro, chapters 1-3.
11/8: Gladwell chapter 4, 5.
Week 12
11/13: Gladwell Chapters 6, 7.
11/14: Gladwell chapters 8, 9.
Week 13
11/20: Gladwell epilogue.
11/22: No class. Thanksgiving.
Week 14
Group conferences. No regular class meeting. Detailed Outline of Essay 3 due during conference.
Week 15
12/4: Peer workshop.
12/6: Essay 3 due. No late work accepted.
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