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RWS 101: The Rhetoric of Written Argument
San Diego State University, Fall 2014
Section 4, MWF 1:00-1:50, HH-150
Instructor:
Office:
E-mail:
Office Hours:
Professor Sean Cissel
Storm Hall 114A
scissel@mail.sdsu.edu
MW 2:00-3:00, TT 9:30-11:00, 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)
craft well-reasoned arguments for specific audiences;
2)
analyze a variety of texts commonly encountered in the academic setting;
3)
situate discourse within social, generic, cultural, and historic contexts; and
4)
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.
Describe and analyze an author’s argument, claims, project, support and rhetorical strategies.
2.
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.
3.
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.
4.
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.
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;
6.
use all aspects of the writing process--including prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and
proofreading;
7.
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;
8.
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;
9.
effectively select material from written arguments, contextualize it, and comment on it in their
writing;
10.
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;
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examine the vocabulary choices a writer makes and how they are related to context, community or
culture, audience or purpose;
11.
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;
12.
analyze and assess the relative strengths of arguments and supporting evidence
13.
analyze and assess arguments made by visual texts; incorporate visual images into their
documents;
14.
craft well reasoned arguments for specific audiences
15.
edit their writing for the grammar and usage conventions appropriate to each writing situation;
16.
assign significance to the arguments that they read;
17.
reflect on how they wrote their papers, and revise arguments and findings based on critical
reflection.
Required Textbooks
Keys for Writers. Ann Raimes and Maria Jerskey.
Thank You for Arguing: Revised and Updated Edition (2013). Jay Heinrichs.
Outliers: The Story of Success (2008). Malcolm Gladwell.
Assignments
15%
Essay 1
20%
Essay 2
20%
Essay 3
20%
Essay 4
15%
Quizzes (lowest two will be dropped).
10%
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%
RWS Fellow Component
Our class has been assigned an RWS Fellow to supplement instruction and help with writing on a more
personal level. Meeting with the Fellow is not optional. Failure to meet with the Fellow to work on an essay
will result in a 50% penalty on that essay’s grade.
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
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.
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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.
Grammar and Punctuation Errors: Competent grammar and punctuation are necessary elements of
written language. In your four assignments, I will put a check mark at the end of any line of text in which a
grammatical or stylistic error occurs and deduct one point for each error:
√p
= a misused, unnecessary, or missing punctuation mark.
√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 check marks at the end of a line means two errors, three check marks means three errors, and so on.
For Assignments 1, 2, and 3, you may correct each error within a week of my returning the assignment to
you and bring it back to me on the check-marked copy to regain those points. You must correct your errors
on the check-marked copy, or they will not count.
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. If
you
spend sufficient time on your essay and revise it, you should not make any of these errors.
Attendance: The expectation is that all students will be present and engaged in every class meeting.
Quizzes cannot be made up except in cases of pre-excused, university-related absences. Absences for peer
workshops will result in significant loss of participation points.
Electronics/Classroom Etiquette: Please do not use electronic devices in class.
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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. If you need to contact me, please try to
email me before five o’clock if you want a response that day.
Academic Dishonesty: Academic dishonesty will result in an F for the semester. I will also submit to the
university a formal complaint, which could result in expulsion. You will not get another warning from me.
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, or the presentation of work that you've
written for an assignment for a different class, even if you revise it.
Access: If you are a student with a disability and believe you will need accommodations for this class, it is
your responsibility to contact Student Disability Services at (619) 594-6473. To avoid any delay in the
receipt of your accommodations, you should contact Student Disability Services as soon as possible. Please
note that accommodations are not retroactive, and that accommodations based upon disability cannot be
provided until you have presented your instructor with an accommodation letter from Student Disability
Services. Your cooperation is appreciated.
Tentative Schedule
All readings and assignments must be completed by the beginning of the class day listed. This schedule is
subject to change.
Week 1
8/25: Course introduction, syllabus.
8/27: Course introduction.
8/29: Heinrichs (JH) chap. 13-14.
Week 2
9/1: Labor Day. Campus holiday.
9/3: Gladwell (MG) Introduction, chap. 1.
9/5: MG chap. 2.
Week 3
9/8: MG chap. 3.
9/10: MG chap. 4.
9/12: MG chap. 5.
Week 4
9/15: MG chap. 6.
9/17: MG chap. 7.
9/19: MG chap. 8.
Week 5
9/22: MG chap. 9, epilogue.
9/24: Reading from Blackboard.
9/26: Reading from Blackboard.
Week 6
9/29: Full draft of Essay 1 due. Peer workshop.
10/1: Essay 1 due.
10/3: Reading from Blackboard.
Week 7
10/6: JH chap. 1.
10/8: JH chap. 2.
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10/10: JH chap. 3.
Week 8
10/13: JH chap. 4. Group conferences. No regular class meeting.
10/15: JH chap. 5. Group conferences. No regular class meeting.
10/17: JH chap. 6. Group conferences. No regular class meeting.
Week 9
10/20: JH chap. 7-8. Full draft of Essay 2 due. Peer workshop.
10/22: Essay 2 due.
10/24: JH chap. 9.
Week 10
10/27: JH chap. 10-11.
10/29: JH chap. 12, 19.
10/31: Reading from Blackboard.
Week 11
11/3: Reading from Blackboard.
11/5: Reading from Blackboard.
11/7: Reading from Blackboard.
Week 12
11/10: Reading from Blackboard.
11/12: Full draft of Essay 3 due. Peer workshop.
11/14: Essay 3 due.
Week 13
11/17: Reading from Blackboard.
11/19: Reading from Blackboard.
11/21: Reading from Blackboard.
Week 14
11/24: Reading from Blackboard.
11/26: No class. Thanksgiving Break.
11/28: No class. Thanksgiving Break.
Week 15
12/1: Group conferences. No regular class meeting.
12/3: Group conferences. No regular class meeting.
12/5: Group conferences. No regular class meeting.
Week 16
12/8: Full draft of Essay 4 due. Peer workshop.
12/10: Essay 4 due.