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CAPP English 101—How Power Shapes Humanity
Summer Session 2014
Mondays and Wednesdays from June 16-August 6
Instructor: Professor Morgan Foster
Office: Radford Hall 312, 424-2265
Email: fosterm@uwosh.edu (this is the best way to reach me!)
Office Hours: Mondays 10 a.m.-12 p.m., or by appointment
Required readings:
Readings can be found on D2L under “content” and on Polk Library’s eReserves. Directions will be
given in class for retrieving these pieces.
Required text:
Rules for Writers, 7th edition. Eds. Diana Hacker and Nancy Sommers
About this course:
We will examine a variety of texts, including fiction, essays, nonfiction, and poetry, to explore how
power shapes humanity. This is a writing course, so the bulk of our work will be drafting, revising,
peer reviewing, and editing essays, though critical thinking and discussion will be an integral part of
our course as well.
This course is designed to be interdisciplinary, meaning we will discuss history, politics, music,
race, and gender issues. This course is also your introduction to a liberal arts education—in this
context, “liberal” means broad and varied. When you leave this course, it will be with knowledge of
power structures and how power has complicated issues of gender, race, government, politics, and
religion, and our course will examine that primarily through writing. A liberal arts education gives
you a foundation for success in any major or career path by helping you build important skills like
communication and problem solving.
Specifically, we will focus on the following questions:
 Where does the need for power originate?
 To what extent will people go to gain power?
 Why do people feel the need to have power over others?
 How do people maintain their power?
 Could society survive if there was no power, and everyone was equal?
There are 1,000 points possible in this course. Here’s the breakdown:
 Annotated Bibliography: 50 points
 Attendance/Participation, including daily written responses: 200 points
 ANVIL (6 modules total): 60 points
 D2L reflections (7 total): 70 points
 Essays (7 total): 500 points
 Final Reflection: 50 points
 Socratic Circle: 20 points
 Vocabulary: 50 points
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As a result of taking this class, you can expect to: Grow in your writing strategies, writing
experience, and information literacy—these are key features of the WBIS program (which is the
undergraduate equivalent of CAPP), as explained in the WBIS goals and objectives.
This means you’ll:
 Have strategies for reading sources carefully and brainstorming ideas so that you are well
prepared to write.
 Have a set of strategies for revising your writing, reworking everything from the overall
argument to the details of grammar, and ample practice with using them.
 Have practice with evaluating writing, including both writing in progress, like yours and
your peers’, and published writing. Evaluating can go far beyond “Is this good?” to
questions like “Is this convincing?” “Is this reliable?” or “Why did the writer do this and not
that?”
 Be familiar and comfortable with the research resources provided by UWO’s Polk Library
and with ways of integrating ideas from source material with your own ideas. (This ability to
explore, select, and use source material is called information literacy).
 Feel confident that you can represent sources accurately and ethically through
paraphrase, quotation, and citation.
Grading Scale:
A 93 and above
B- 80-82.9
D+ 67-69.9
A- 90-92.9
C+ 77-79.9
D 63-66.9
B+ 87-89.9
C 73-76.9
D- 60-62.9
B 83-86.9
C- 70-72.9
F 59.9 and below
Class Policies:
Attendance: I expect you to attend class regularly. Your presence in the classroom enriches your
thinking and writing skills and adds depth to your classmates’ experiences. Also, each day in class
you will receive credit for your active participation and any work you do or turn in; therefore,
missing a day means missing this credit. To truly get the most out of this class, you must be
present physically and mentally.
 Two tardies will equal one absence. Please be respectful to the instructor and your peers
and be prompt.
 You are expected to attend every class. However, I do realize that illnesses and other
unexpected events happen. Therefore, you get one freebie—that is, one missed class
without any effect on your final grade. However, for every missed class after one, your final
grade will go down a half letter grade. For example: if your grade is a B, and you missed 2
classes, your final grade will be a B-.
 One last point—this is a college-level course. That means you, the student, are expected
to notify the instructor when absent. It is your responsibility to ask a classmate for notes
and to see me for assignments.
Readings and homework: I will expect you to have read, highlighted, and annotated each reading.
This means you have looked up unfamiliar words, phrases, or references and are prepared to
discuss each reading in class. While it may look like there are a lot of assignments, many of these
pieces are short; the focus is on your analysis and critical thinking skills. You will also be asked to
write about many of these pieces, so it is important for your success in this course to be prepared
and have discussion points ready.
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Due dates: I expect you to turn in your assignments on or before the assigned due date. Late work
will lose a letter grade for each calendar day late. If you know in advance that you’ll be unavailable
on the day something is due, make sure to submit it to D2L before the due date.
D2L submission: Most of our written assignments will be due electronically through D2L. In order to
ensure that I can read your submission and that you get credit for submitting it on time, I have two
requirements: First, you must submit your assignment in .doc or .docx format. This doesn’t mean
you have to have Microsoft Word; it just means that when you go to save your file you have to
make sure it saves in one of these formats (most word processing programs can do so with no
problem). Second, you must ensure that your submission was successful—this is your
responsibility, not D2L’s or mine. When you upload a file, not only should you be able to see it on
your screen and confirm that it’s there, but you should get a confirmation email from D2L saying it
was submitted successfully.
Plagiarism and academic misconduct: Plagiarism happens when someone reproduces another
person’s words or ideas without giving credit to the source—in other words, tries to pass someone
else’s work off as their own. This might take the form of cutting and pasting text from a website or
article into an essay, paying someone to write a paper or turning in a paper previously turned in by
a friend, or forgetting to make proper use of quotation marks and citation. We will spend time
learning about proper source use this semester, so I don’t anticipate any problems with plagiarism.
If, however, I have reason to believe that you’ve deliberately plagiarized an assignment, I will
penalize you according to University policy, which usually means a lower or failing grade for either
the assignment or the class (for details, see the Student Conduct policy, Chapter 14).
Classroom environment: Not only is participation part of your grade, it’s a key way in which you
learn. I expect to hear from all of you! Please leave at the door any sense that certain ideas or
questions are dumb, or that having ideas means showing off. And if anything happens in class that
makes you uncomfortable, please don’t hesitate to talk with me.
Campus Resources for Students:
Writing Center: The Writing Center offers free, confidential, one-to-one tutoring designed to help
beginning and advanced writers work through assignments and gain additional writing skills.
Trained peer consultants can assist writers at any stage of the composition process, from
brainstorming for topics before writing to fine-tuning a final draft. Writers can make an appointment
or drop in to see if anyone is available. The Writing Center is located in Suite 102 of the Student
Success Center, across from Reeve and Polk on Elmwood Avenue. Learn more at
http://www.uwosh.edu/wcenter.
Polk Library: Polk Library offers many professional librarians who can help you find library
resources for your research. Please familiarize yourself with uwosh.edu/library.
Notes on this schedule: It's tentative. I will give you updates if anything changes.
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Class Schedule
Week 1: Theme—power and government
Monday, 6/16: Introductions to class and each other; overview of D2L; campus tour;
overview of our theme: power and government control. In class—read and discuss
Before class: print and read the course syllabus
Wednesday, 6/18: Discuss and write responses to themes in readings—how does power
shape humanity in terms of politics and government?
Before class: Read the following:
 “Inaugural Address of President John F. Kennedy,” John Kennedy
 “On Cruelty and Pity, and Whether It is Better to Be Loved or to Be
Feared, and Vice Versa,” Niccolò Machiavelli
 “Shooting an Elephant,” George Orwell
 Complete “Understanding Academic Expectations” ANVIL module
Week 2: Theme—dystopian government and power (wrap up); race and power
Monday, 6/23:
Essay 1—Textual analysis
Begin drafting—focus on thesis statements and academic writing
Discuss dystopian governmental structures
Before class: Read the following:
 “Chapter 8” (from The Hunger Games), Suzanne Collins
 “Harrison Bergeron,” Kurt Vonnegut
 “The Pedestrian,” Ray Bradbury
 Complete “Citing Sources” ANVIL module
Wednesday, 6/25:
Essay 1—peer revisions
Begin race and power
Before class: Read the following:
 “The Case Stated,” Ida B. Wells-Barnett
 “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” Martin Luther King, Jr.
 “Campus Racism 101,” Nikki Giovanni
**paper 1 and reflection 1 due by midnight in D2L on Friday, 6/27**
Week 3: Theme—race and power in African American poetry
Monday, 6/30:
Essay 2—drafting
Discuss race and power
Poetic devices—vocabulary
Before class: Read the following:
 “On Being Brought from Africa to America,” Phillis Wheatley
 “We Wear the Mask,” Paul Laurence Dunbar
 “The Weary Blues,” Langston Hughes
 “Still I Rise,” Maya Angelou
Wednesday, 7/2:
Vocabulary quiz
Group poetry presentations
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Protest poetry
Peer revisions of paper 2
 “If We Must Die,” Claude McKay
 “Strange Fruit,” Abel Meeropol
 “A Change is Gonna Come,” Sam Cooke
 “two dreams (for m.l.k’s one),” Clarence Franklin
 “poem at thirty,” Sonia Sanchez
 “The Revolution Will Not Be Televised,” Gil Scott-Heron
**paper 2 and reflection 2 due at midnight on 7/3**
Week 4: Theme—race and power
Monday, 7/7:
Paper 3—drafting
ANVIL and introduction to Information Literacy
Before class: Read the following:
 “The Apartheid of Children’s Literature,” Christopher Myers
 “Text to Text: A Raisin in the Sun and Discrimination in Housing Against
Nonwhites Persists Quietly,” Susan Chenelle and Audrey Fisch
 find one scholarly source related to the readings; annotate and be
prepared to discuss“
 Complete The Information Cycle” ANVIL module
Wednesday, 7/9:
Peer revisions
Instructor conferences
Introduction to MLA
Information Literacy, continued (guest: Ted Mulvey—to be confirmed)
Workshop in Polk Library
Before class:
 Find and annotate 3 scholarly sources
 Complete “Searching for Information” ANVIL module
**paper 3 and reflection 3 due at midnight on 7/9**
Week 5: Theme—Islam and power
Monday, 7/14:
Paper 4—focus on scholarly research
Discuss Islam
In-class writing responses to readings
Prepare for Socratic Circles
Before class: Please read the following:
 “A Precarious Time for Afghan Women,” David Zucchino
 “Christians Get Little Protection from Egypt’s New Government,” Nancy A
Youssef
 Complete “Locating Information” ANVIL module
Wednesday, 7/16:
Socratic Circles
Peer revisions
Conferences with instructor
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Before class:
 Bring 2 copies of completed draft to class
 Complete “Evaluating Information” ANVIL module
**paper 4 and reflection 4 due by Friday, 7/17, by midnight in D2L**
Week 6: Theme—Islam and religion
Monday, 7/21:
In-class writing response
Discuss readings (TBD)
Paper 5
Before class: Please read the following:
 “Chapter 11” (from The Kite Runner), Khaled Mosseini
 Reading TBD
 Reading TBD
Wednesday, 7/23:
Introduction to annotated bibliographies—look at samples
Annotated bibliography assignment—brainstorm topics for final research paper
Peer revisions of paper 5
Thesis statements
Conferences of paper 5
Before class: Please read/complete the following:
 Bring tentative thesis statement for final research project
 Bring 4 scholarly sources related to tentative thesis statement
**paper 5 and reflection 5 due by Friday, July 25**
Week 7: Research project
Monday, 7/28:
Review research—guest Ted Mulvey
Peer revisions of annotations
Paper 6
Before class: Please read/complete the following:
 Find 3 additional scholarly pieces
 Complete draft of annotated bibliography
Wednesday, 7/30:
Peer revisions of paper 6
Course synthesis
Class discussion—big picture look at theme. How are these ideas connected?
Troubleshoot final research project issues
Before class: Please complete the following:
 Bring a completed draft of paper 6
 Be working on final paper—gathering research, drafting
 Annotations due in D2L dropbox
**paper 6 and reflection 6 due on Thursday, 7/31, by midnight in D2L dropbox**
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Week 8: Final research project; final reflection due; course wrap-up
Monday, 8/4:
Course evaluation
Final reflection
Peer revisions of final paper
Conferences of final paper
Before class: please complete and bring 2 copies of final paper to class
Wednesday, 8/6:
Presentations of final project
Final reflection due
Before class: final reflection due in D2L dropbox; work on presentation for class
**final paper due in D2L dropbox by midnight on Wednesday, 8/6**