WR2 | Syllabus

Writing 2: Education and Authority

Course Description

Writing 2-3 is an introduction to academic writing and research. The course prepares you for work in a scholarly environment where you will be expected to engage in inquiry, perform analysis, and communicate clearly. We will cultivate these critical practices by reading and analyzing a series of demanding texts, discussing them together, and composing responses to them in the form of essays. Shorter writing assignments will focus on a number of skills that are important for taking part in academic conversations.

During the winter term we will turn our focus to academic research. Our libraries hold an impressive array of traditional and electronic search tools as well as millions of books, journal articles, and assorted media. Although navigating this vast sea of information is intimidating, it is important that you find your way: excellent research skills are fundamental to your undergraduate training, regardless of your chosen field of study. In consideration of its importance, we will spend a significant amount of time learning how to use our library effectively.

COVID-19 Policies & Resources

Required Texts

• Open Handbook, by Alan C. Taylor.
• Other course readings are embedded in the syllabus below.

Important Links

Academic Honesty

All work submitted in this course must be your own and be written exclusively for this course. The use of sources (ideas, quotations, paraphrase) must be properly documented. Please read the Academic Honor Principle for more information about the dire consequences of plagiarism. If you are confused about when or how to cite information, please consult the course handbook or ask me about it before submitting your work.

Attendance Policy

Regular attendance is expected. Bracketing religious observance, severe illness, or personal tragedy, no more than three unexcused absences in a single term will be acceptable for this course. This policy applies to regular class meetings, assigned X hours, and TA meetings. Four or more unexcused absences may result in repercussions ranging from significant reduction in GPA to failure of the course. If you have a religious observance that conflicts with your participation in the course, please meet with me beforehand to discuss appropriate accommodations.

Pandemic exceptions to the attendance policy:

There will be no penalty for missing class due to COVID-19 illness or its prevention.

If you miss a class or a TA session due to illness or its prevention, please email me to explain and receive makeup information.

Typical Weekly Workflow

Here is a list of the typical assignments and activities that we will do each week:

• Before we meet to discuss a reading as a class, each of you should carefully read and critically engage the text on your own—interrogating, analyzing, and questioning the arguments, ideas, and assumptions you discover there.

• As you read, I ask that you annotate the text—that is, mark up the text by adding meaningful symbols, marginal notes, and questions on the document itself. Note: this requires that you print out the text before you begin reading it. Bring this annotated copy of the reading with you to class to help you engage in the group discussion and analysis.

• After making your annotations, take critical notes on the text in a separate document. These notes will be valuable to you later, when you write your essays.

• After annotating and taking notes, contribute to Hive—our open-source repository of notes, ideas, and questions about our course readings.

The following three numbered sections explain these practices in more detail:

I. Annotating Texts

Rather than use a laptop or tablet to read our course readings, I ask that you print them out and annotate them as part of your preparations for class. Annotation refers to the process of marking up a text by adding your own words and symbols to the document itself. There is no right or wrong way to mark up a text, but you should develop a system that you are comfortable with and try to stick with it. Your objective in annotation is to flag the key elements of a piece of writing—the thesis, argumentative claims, and pieces of evidence. In addition, use the margins of the text to ask questions, make brief notes, indicate confusion, define unfamiliar terms, and make connections to other texts. This kind of work serves two purposes: first, it helps you maintain a critical focus as you read; second, it helps you later if the text must be used for study or your own writing. If you plan on being successful in college, the ability to rigorously annotate texts is perhaps the most helpful and important skill you can develop.

It is not required to print out and annotate readings from the Open Handbook.

Further advice and caveats about annotation may be found in the “Annotation and Critical Reading” chapter of the Open Handbook.

II. Critical Reading Notes

Create a document for composing critical notes dedicated to each reading. You may prefer to write by hand, although most students make notes using electronic means. (I presently use something called Obsidian to create my own personal knowledge base). Either way, take detailed notes on each of our course texts. Since you will write essays about these texts, these notes will be of significant help to you later. Your aims here should be to:

• Reduce the entire argument to its bare essentials using paraphrase, summary, and selective quotation—carefully documenting page numbers during this activity.

• Interrogate the text by asking questions, raising objections, and making observations.

• Connect and compare the reading to others we have read.

• Define any unfamiliar terms and link the text to any outside research you perform.

At the end of this rigorous process you should have a simplified version of the essay as well as a number of critical observations, questions, and ideas that emerged in the process of reading.

For more detailed information on the creation and purpose of these notes, read the chapter on “Critical Notes” in the Open Handbook.

III. Contribute to Hive

Hive is an open-source repository containing notes, ideas, and questions about our course readings and class discussions. We will build this resource together as a class—sharing the work of interpreting, analyzing, and questioning the complex course readings we encounter.

Our objective for Hive is to explore meaning, discover argumentative structures, evaluate supporting evidence, ask probing questions, connect to other readings, link to relevant resources, and think critically about the implications of a text. The “hive mind” is capable of discovering and creating far more than any one individual. With luck, Hive will become a central resource in our class discussions and an indispensable aid to you as you craft your essays.

You might contribute to Hive by doing some of the following tasks:

• Help create a simplified version of the text’s argumentative structure by presenting an ordered list of claims, reasons, and evidence.

• Ask a question about a difficult passage in the text or offer an answer to one posed by another student.

• Define difficult vocabulary.

• Flag a key portion of the essay that seems worthy of discussion or analysis and explain why it seems significant, or build on the thought of another student who has done so.

• Make a connection between an idea found in one text with others we have read in class (or elsewhere).

• Constructively question, respond, or correct the ideas or work of another student.

We will use a shared Google drive and Google docs to create the Hive resource. Each reading in the syllabus has a corresponding Google document within the shared drive which we will use to collectively explore and interrogate the text.

When you make your contributions to Hive, please ensure that you post in the Google drive associated with your course section. To make this easier, I have flagged the links to each section with an exponential notation, as in the example below:

• ¹ : Hive page for section 1 @ 11 hour
• ² : Hive page for section 2 @ 12 hour

You must use your Dartmouth login credentials to access the drive, not your personal Gmail account. Please authenticate using this G-Suite link: https://google.dartmouth.edu/

Formal Papers

Students will submit three formal essays and several smaller writing assignments in response to our readings and class discussions. The formal essays focus on core features of academic writing: argumentation, synthesis, close reading, and theoretical analysis. You must compose a minimum of 20 total pages for these formal essays; however, in most cases you will decide the number of pages to turn in for each assignment. The exact nature and objective of each assignment will be explained in greater detail throughout the course of the term.

• Formatting: During the fall term papers must be submitted in the MLA style; in the winter term we will transition to the Chicago style. Information on these styles may be found in the Open Handbook.

• Revisions: It is my practice to return essay drafts to you within one week. Afterward, you will have a minimum of one week to revise your writing. During this two-week revision cycle please feel free to drop by my office hours (or make an appointment) to go over your writing or discuss your ideas.

Grading

Decades of research on grading concludes that it is counterproductive, even harmful, to the process of education. If you care to examine it for yourself, Alfie Kohn has conveniently summarized the key findings of this scholarship.

For the reasons described by Kohn (and other ones we will explore together), this class will not feature traditional letter grades for evaluation. To be sure, I will evaluate your writing and give you rigorous feedback on how to improve. You will receive similar feedback from your colleagues in the class. And you will also perform reflective self-evaluation of your writing and thinking. But at no point will this complex, important work be reduced to a percentage or letter grade.

At the end of the term we will reflect together on your progress, effort, participation, and performance; we will decide together what final grade to enter into Banner. This discussion about your performance in the class will involve our mutual reflection on the following topics:

• Participation
• Attendance
• Collaboration and sharing
• Late, incomplete, missing work
• Growth
• Effort

This list was partially inspired by the grading contract in Asao B. Inoue’s Labor-based Grading Contracts.

To earn this right (and pass the course), all assignments must be completed and a solid attendance record must be kept.

Help With Your Writing

There are many sources of help for your writing assignments. I am happy to meet with you all term during my office hours or by appointment. Each of you will meet with our TA for 45 minutes per week to go over your writing and plan revision.

If you require further help, the Dartmouth Writing Center is a free support service that is dedicated to helping students through all stages of the writing process and at any point in their undergraduate careers. In one-on-one appointments, peer tutors use facilitative approaches to engage students in active dialogue about writing and help them grow as writers. Tutors can help students develop strategies for generating ideas, find and evaluate research sources, outline and organize information, and revise completed drafts. Students may schedule an appointment with a peer tutor by visiting Dartmouth Writing Center website.

Students With Disabilities

Students requesting disability-related accommodations and services for this course are required to register with Student Accessibility Services (SAS; Getting Started with SAS webpage; student.accessibility.services@dartmouth.edu; 1-603-646-9900) and to request that an accommodation email be sent to me in advance of the need for an accommodation. Then, students should schedule a follow-up meeting with me to determine relevant details such as what role SAS or its Testing Center may play in accommodation implementation. This process works best for everyone when completed as early in the quarter as possible. If students have questions about whether they are eligible for accommodations or have concerns about the implementation of their accommodations, they should contact the SAS office. All inquiries and discussions will remain confidential.

Mental Health & Wellbeing

The academic environment is challenging, our terms are intensive, and classes are not the only demanding part of your life. There are a number of resources available to you on campus to support your wellness, including:

• Your undergraduate dean
• The Counseling Center
• The Student Wellness Center
• The student-led Dartmouth Mental Health Union
• The student-led Sexual Assault Peer Alliance (SAPAs)

Please make me aware of anything that will hinder your success in this course.

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Schedule of Readings and Assignments