First Year Writing Across the Disciplines (Undergrad)

Versions of this course have been taught on the semester system during Fall 2002, Spring 2003, Fall 2003, Spring 2004. This course was taught on the quarter system in Fall 2006, Winter, 2007, and Spring 2007. The materials below are from the latest iteration.

Syllabus

Writing 2: Academic Writing
Memory Across the Disciplines
Spring 2007

Catalog No. 45716
Meets: T, R 2 pm – 3:50 pm
Location: Girvetz 2115

Instructor: Kim Knight (kimberly_knight@umail.ucsb.edu)
Office Hours: Tuesday 4 pm – 6 pm in South Hall 2509

Course website
Course wiki

Course Description

Welcome! Writing 2–Introduction to Academic Writing is designed to help you successfully navigate the challenges of writing for college level courses. Our course theme is “memory” and we will read a variety of essays that will provide an introduction to the topic in the Sciences, Social Sciences, and Humanities, the three major divisions of disciplines in the university system. Although strengthening critical reading and writing skills will be our primary focus, you will also be evaluated on class participation and the contributions you make to group assignments.

Required Texts
(Available at the UCSB bookstore, unless otherwise noted.)

Hacker, Diana. A Writer’s Reference. 6th Edition. Boston: Bedford / St. Martin’s, 2007.

Course Reader available at Associated Students.

Required Accounts
(all required accounts are free-of-charge)

Assignments

Participation, including critical responses, homework, conferences, etc.: 25 points
Unit One: 25 points
Unit Two: 25 points
Unit Three: 25 points
Total: 100 points possible

Late critical responses will not be accepted. 1 point will be deducted from preparatory work, including drafts, for each day they are overdue. Late final drafts will be marked down 1/2 grade for each day the assignment is overdue. No late papers will be accepted for Unit Three.

Course Policies

Attendance:
This class is structured around workshops and in-class discussions and your participation is necessary for our success. Missing classes hurts your peers and inhibits their learning. Therefore, it is important that you come to every class prepared and on time. To be “prepared” means that you have thoughtfully engaged with the reading, completed any assignments, and that you are equipped with the supplies necessary to participate in class (books, paper, writing instruments, etc.)

Because your presence in class is important, three or more absences will impact your final grade. In most circumstances, six absences will result in failure. Two instances of tardiness will equal one absence.

Cell phones are to be turned off and kept out of my sight. If your phone rings during class, or if I see you text messaging or checking your messages during class, you will be marked absent. No exceptions.

In addition to attendance at scheduled class meetings, you are required to conference with me (during office hours or by appointment) at . We will discuss your progress on the current paper and in the class in general.

Email Policy:
Please be aware that I respond to most email messages within 24 hours Monday – Friday. If you send me an email and I do not respond during this time frame, chances are that I did not receive it. It is your responsibility to re-send the email or to contact me another way.

Online Etiquette:
As we will undoubtedly discover in class, the finer points of online communication can be tricky. Emotions are difficult to express and read. Our many online assignments will require vigilance to ensure that we are always preserving an atmosphere of mutual respect. Disagreements may arise and consensus may not be possible. We can, however, respect each person’s right to an opinion. Name-calling or menacing behavior will not be tolerated.

Academic Honesty:
From the UCSB General Catalog: “Materials submitted to fulfill academic requirements must represent a student’s own efforts. Any act of academic dishonesty, such as plagiarism or other forms of cheating, is unacceptable and will be met with disciplinary action.”

Plagiarism will result in a failing grade on the plagiarized assignment and possible disciplinary action by the university. We will review the proper way to use outside sources in order to avoid plagiarism; however, I encourage you to meet with me if you are at all uncertain about whether your writing could be misconstrued as plagiarism.

Late Work:
Late critical responses will not be accepted. 1 point will be deducted from preparatory work, including drafts, for each day they are overdue. Late final drafts will be marked down 1/2 grade for each day the assignment is overdue. No late papers will be accepted for Unit Three.

Revision:
One round of revisions each is permitted for Units 1 and 2. Revision applies only to the polished draft and does not include the preparatory work. In order to qualify for revision, a student must meet both of the following two conditions: 1) all preparatory work, including drafts were completed on time. 2) the student must either conference with me or visit CLAS and must make a substantial effort to engage with my feedback. Revised papers will be due on dates announced in class. Grades on revised papers may improve as much as one full letter grade and will not decrease.

Other Important Information

  • The deadline to drop Writing 2 is Friday, April 6th at 2:45 PM.
  • If you are a student with a documented disability and would like to discuss special
    accommodations, please see me during the first two weeks of class.
  • Campus Learning Assistance Services (CLAS) offers help with any phase of the writing process (please note: they are not an editing service). Tutors are available on a walk-in or appointment basis.

Schedule

The weekly schedule is subject to revision – check the course website for the most up-to-date information. Sources for readings are abbreviated as follows: WR=A Writer’s Reference; R=Course Reader; O=Online. Bring books or a printout of online readings to each class meeting.

Because most of the work for Writing 2 will be turned in electronically, many due dates fall outside of our scheduled Tuesday and Thursday meetings.

For units one and two, each week is divided into two parts:Tuesdays we will workshop important writing skills and Thursdays we will discuss the content of the week’s reading in relation to writing skills and the current paper assignment. Although we may not discuss the content of readings in-depth until Thursday, you should still do the readings for each Tuesday as we will use this material for our skills workshops. For unit three, we will discuss materials and repeat skills workshops as necessary during each class meeting.

Unit One – The Sciences: The Workings of Memory
In unit one, we will attempt to understand some of the processes of memory – how it works, why it fails, etc. We’ll begin with Freud’s elementary metaphor for the workings of memory,The Mystic Writing Pad. From there we will examine some of the ways in which memory is complicated by disease and emotion. The goal of unit one is to synthesize the various ideas in a paper that summarizes and responds to the readings.

Tuesday, April 3 – Introduction and Class Overview
– Syllabus Review
– Class Introductions

Thursday, April 5 – Reading and Writing in College
– First Day Wiki Assignment due
– R – Writing In College, Part I
– R – Some Observations on the Teaching of Writing
– WR A1.a, A4
– Diagnostic Essay. Bring a Blue Book to class.

Tuesday, April 10 – Writing Summaries & Topic Exploration; Meet in Lab, Kerr Hall 2160
– WR C1 & A1.c
– R – Freud’s “A Note Upon the Mystic Writing Pad”
– Critical response due in course wiki. Bring one copy to class.
– Register for Google Documents at http://docs.google.com Record your username and password somewhere you won’t forget it.

Thursday, April 12 – Conceptualizing Memory
– R – Helen Phillips’ “Everyday Fairytales”
– Critical response due in course wiki. Bring one copy to class.

Tuesday, April 17 – Thesis Statements & Empirical Studies of Memory; Meet in Lab, Kerr Hall 2160
– WR C2
– Sharot, Delgado, & Phelps’ “How Emotion Enhances the Feeling of Remembering.”
– Critical response due in course wiki. Bring one copy to class.

Thursday, April 19th– No Class
– Summaries due in Unit 1 Portfolio in course wiki by 11:59 pm.

Tuesday, April 24 – Organization & APA Format; Meet in Lab, Kerr Hall 2160
– WR C4, APA-1, APA-4

Thursday, April 26 – Peer Review Workshop Meet in Lab, Kerr Hall 2160
– Full-length draft of Paper due in Unit 1 Portfolio in course wiki.
– Bring two copies of a full-length draft to class.
– An absence today will affect your Unit One score.

Saturday, April 28 polished draft due in course wiki at 11:59 pm.

Unit Two – Social Sciences: Collective Memory
In Unit Two we will explore the topic of memory from the perspective of the social sciences. We will begin by defining the notion of “collective memory.” We will then proceed to identify various “sites of memory,” such as archives, exhibits, and media representations. The goal of this unit is to conduct independent research in order to compare a site of memory with a historic or cultural event.

Tuesday, May 1– Conducting Research, Meet in Lab, Kerr Hall 2160
– WR R1

Thursday, May 3– Defining Collective Memory
– R – Rigney’s “Plenitude, Scarcity, and the Circulation of Cultural Memory.”
– Critical response due in course wiki. Bring one copy to class.

Tuesday, May 8 – Evaluating Sources, Meet in Lab, Kerr Hall 2160
– WR R2, A3

Thursday, May 10 – Collective Memory
– R – Leavy’s “The Memory-History-Popular Culture Nexus: Pearl Harbor as a Case Study in Consumer-Driven Collective Memory.”
– Critical response due in course wiki. Bring one copy to class.

Tuesday, May 15 – Paraphrasing and Quotations; Meet in Lab, Kerr Hall 2160
– WR R3, APA-2, APA-3
– Topic Proposal due in Unit Two Portfolio in course wiki.

Thursday, May 17 – Cultural Artifacts – Show & Tell
– Three source evaluations due in Unit Two Portfolio in course wiki.
– Bring a copy of your topic proposal to class.

Full-length draft Due Sunday, May 20 at 11:59 pm in the course wiki.
Peer review due Monday, May 21 at 11:59 pm in the course wiki.
Polished draft due Wednesday, May 23 at 11:59 pm in the course wiki.

Unit Three – Humanities: Representations of Memory
In Unit Three, we will examine the ways in which the arts represent memories. We will begin with attempts to visualize memory and move on to attempts to convey memory through text. The goal of this unit is to utilize outside research in a close reading and analysis of a text that addresses memory.

Tuesday, May 22– Film Screening; Meet in Girvetz 2115
– Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Thursday, May 24– Film Discussion
– Critical response due in course wiki. Bring one copy to class.

Tuesday, May 27– Memory in Digital Art; Meet in Lab, Kerr Hall 2160
– O – Michele Gauler’s “Digital Remains” –
– O – Zack Denfeld, et al.’s “Blue Puddle”
– O – Reiner Strausser & MD Coverley’s ” ii – in the white darkness: about [the fragility of] memory” (you must allow pop-ups from this site or it will not work; you’ll also need speakers)
– O – William Gibson’s “Agrippa: a book of the dead” View via The Agrippa Files. Focus on the “Deluxe Edition” and be sure to read Gibson’s poem (linked from the last medium-sized image in the deluxe edition)
– Two Critical Responses due in course wiki (Gibson and Strausser/Coverley). Bring one copy to class.

Thursday, May 29– Memory in Poetry
– R – Gwendolyn Brooks “The Bean Eaters”
– R – ee cummings “up into the silence the green”
– R – Siegfried Sassoon “Memorial Tablet”
– Critical Response in course wiki (Sassoon). Bring one copy to class.

Tuesday, June 5– MLA, Topic Proposals & Course Wrap Up; Meet in Lab, Kerr Hall 2160
– Topic proposal due in course wiki.
– WR MLA-2, MLA-3, MLA-4

Thursday, June 7 – Conferences
– Annotated Bibliography due in course wiki.

Wednesday, June 13 polished draft due in course wiki by 11:59 pm.

Friday, June 15 unit two revisions due in course wiki by 11:59 pm.

Assignments

Participation Assignments

First Day Wiki Assignment

First Day Wiki Assignment

1. Create an account for the course wiki.
2. Download and read the wiki instructions on the course website.
3. Create an article with the title “Your Name Introduction”
4. Divide your article into two sections.
1. Section I: Introduction
1.a paragraph or two telling us about you.
2. Section II: Class Goals
1.a short reflection (300 – 500 words, in well-organized paragraphs) describing your goals for this class. Your goals should not be centered on a letter grade, but rather should focus on skills or parts of the writing process you would like to improve.
5. Place your article in the categories “All Pages,” “Introduction,” and “Your Name.”

The First Day Wiki Assignment is part of your participation grade and is due before class on Thursday, April 5th.

Download a .pdf file with step-by-step instructions for using the course wiki. Wiki User’s Guide

Critical Response Assignment

Writing 2 has a minimum writing requirement. To help fulfill that requirement and to help prepare you for class discussions, you are required to complete a critical response on each of our assigned readings (excluding readings from Diana Hacker’s A Writer’s Reference).

Critical responses should meet the following minimum requirements:

  • a minimum of 100 word response, plus one discussion question.
  • posted in the course wiki in the appropriate article prior to the beginning of class.
  • each entry should include the student’s automatic signature via the wiki (see the Wiki User’s Guide on the course website).
  • bring one copy to class for your reference; this may be typed or handwritten.

To post your critical response in the course wiki, find the appropriate article listed in the sidebar. Then follow the instructions for editing a page.

Avoid summarizing the text – we’ve all read it, therefore summary is unnecessary. If you are having trouble coming up with a response, let the text guide you:

  • Focus on a part of the text you found interesting. Why does it interest you?
  • Was there anything you found yourself in strong agreement or disagreement with?
  • What parts of the text confused you?
  • What questions would you like to ask the author?
  • How does this text relate to other texts we’ve read? Etc.

Critical responses are recorded as part of your participation score.

Unit 1 Paper Assignment

Unit One: Sciences – The Workings of Memory
Summary & Response Paper
Our memory functions separate us from other life forms and contribute to the formation of our identities as individuals. As such, memory is one of the fundamental criteria by which we define “the human.” An exceedingly complex biological and psychological process, there is still much we do not know about it. In fact, memory is still the subject of study for contemporary science. For paper one, we will explore early conceptualizations of memory as well as more contemporary scientific studies of how it works.

For paper one, you will have two tasks:

1.Summarize each of the readings.
This may be part of the larger paper or it may be its own section. Either way the summaries should not be a series of unconnected paragraphs, but a coherent overview of the reading for this unit.

2.Respond to the readings.
1.Your response should include a thesis and evidence.
2.Possible topics for the response may include, but are not limited to:

  • An analysis of one of the readings in relation to your personal experience.
  • A comparison of two ideas about memory.
  • An analysis of “science writing” based upon these three essays.
  • Use a pop culture text (movie, television show, song, etc) to illustrate the theories in one of the
    readings.

Requirements:

  • 4 – 6 pages, double spaced; 12-point Times font; 1-inch margins all the way around
  • APA-style in text citations and references list.
  • All work submitted on time in an electronic portfolio.

Time line & Due Dates:
April 19 – A summary of each work is due in the course wiki.
April 26 – A full-length draft is due in the course wiki.
April 26 – In-class peer review; Bring two copies of your full-length draft.
April 28 – Polished draft due in the course wiki by 11:59 pm.

Grading Breakdown (25 points possible):
Preparatory Work (5 points)
Final Draft (20 points); See grading rubric on the course website.

Full-length Draft: A full-length draft is not a “rough” draft. In other words, you should bring in a properly formatted, typed essay with a title, introduction, body, and conclusion. You may omit the references list for this draft.

Electronic Portfolio: As you complete preparatory activities and drafts, you will be building an electronic portfolio in the course wiki. Before posting your summaries, you should create a wiki article entitled “Your Name Unit One Portfolio.” The article should be sub-divided into sections: Summary #1, Summary #2, Summary #3, Drafts. Additionally, the article should be placed into the categories “Your Name,” “All Pages,” and “Unit One.” By the time the final draft is posted, your portfolio will show the genesis and evolution of your paper, from start to finish. For information on how to create an article, add sections, or add categories, see the Wiki User’s Guide on the course website.

Download a .pdf file of the Unit One Assignment Sheet.
Download a .pdf file of the Unit One Rubric.

Unit 2 Paper Assignment

Unit Two – Social Sciences: Cultural Memory
Comparison Paper
As we discovered in Unit One, memory is an important factor in the the way that we as individuals relate to our own past. Additionally, memory has an important social function. Collective, or cultural memory, as defined by Ann Rigney (2005), is a social construct that has important consequences for the way we conceptualize historical events and for our relations to those around us. No longer viewed as a naturalized phenomena, we now think of cultural memory as the product of “mediation, textualization, and acts of communication” (Rigney p. 14).

Readings:

  • Leavy, P (2005). The memory-history-popular culture nexus:Pearl Harbor as a case study in consumer-driven memory. Sociological Research Online, 10(1).
  • Rigney, R (2005). Plenitude, scarcity, and the circulation of cultural memory. Journal of European Studies, 35(1), 11-28.
  • Three outside sources on the topic of the cultural event being documented. These should be obtained through your independent research.

The Assignment:
1.Identify a “site of memory” (Rigney p.18) that in some way attempts to capture or represent a cultural event
2.Using the concepts in Rigney and/or Leavy, compare this “site of memory” to your research on the actual cultural event. It is not enough to point out similarities and differences, you must analyze the impact and possible reasons behind them.

Requirements:

  • 4 – 6 pages, double-spaced, Times font, 1-inch margins all the way around.
  • Paraphrasing or quotation of at least two separate outside resources. At least one o these must be from your independent research. The “site of memory” does not count toward the two-source minimum.
  • APA-style in-text citations and references list.
  • All work submitted on time in an electronic portfolio.

Timeline and Due Dates:
Tue, May 15 – Topic proposal due in course wiki before class begins.
Thu, May 17 – Three source evaluations due in course wiki before class begins; bring copy of topic proposal to class.
Sun, May 20 – Full-length draft due in course wiki by 11:59 pm
Mon, May 21 – Online peer review due in course wiki by 11:59 pm
Wed, May 23- Polished draft due in course wiki by 11:59 pm

Grading Breakdown (25 points possible)
Preparatory Activities = 3 points possible
Polished Draft = 22 points possible (see grading rubric on the course website)

See the Unit One assignment sheet for guidelines on the full-length draft and electronic portfolio.

Source Evaluations: Complete the source evaluation worksheet on the course website (located in the “Tools” section) for each of your three outside sources.

Download a .pdf file of the Unit Two Assignment Sheet.
Download a .pdf of the Unit Two Rubric.

Unit 3 Paper Assignment

Unit Three – Humanities: Representations of Memory
Close Reading and Research
As life becomes increasingly digital, our cameras, our televisions, even our coffee makers have memory. As computerized memory becomes ubiquitous, how do we creatively connect to our own memories? Your challenge for paper three is to perform a close reading of a text that represents memory in one form or another. Your goal, as a cultural critic, is to analyze the component parts of the film/story/poem/art installation/object and to support your analysis with outside research. Your argument itself does not have to be about memory, although this is a convenient entry point for approaching any of the assigned texts.

Option 1: Write a 4 – 6 page analysis of any one of the assigned digital artworks or poems, based upon close reading and outside research.

You may also choose to perform a close reading of a film similar to the one we performed of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Films that are off-limits are: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Notebook, 50 First Dates, Memento. Additionally, you may choose a different artwork or piece of literature. For any text that was not on the schedule, you must clear your choice with me via email, before topic proposals are due.

Option 2: Write a 3 – 4 page short story and 3 – 4 page analysis of your story. The story should address the subject of memory and should incorporate the themes that have surfaced during readings and in-class discussion. The accompanying analysis should explain how the story connects to the themes and readings and should also reflect on the medium of the short story as a means of communication. You are not graded on the literary merit of your short story so much as how well it captures themes from the course.

Readings: See the online course schedule

Requirements:

  • For the essay: 4 – 6 pages; For the story/analysis: 6 – 8 pages; Both options should be double spaced; 12-point Times font; 1-inch margins all the way around
  • Use a minimum of two outside sources to support your analysis.
  • MLA-style in-text citations and works cited list.
  • All work submitted on time in an electronic portfolio. No late work will be accepted.

Grading Breakdown (25 points possible):
Polished Draft: 25 points (See the grading rubric on the course website).

Time line and Due Dates:

Topic Proposal, due Tue 6/5: The proposal should indicate which text(s) you plan to analyze, which outside sources you intend to utilize, etc. The proposal may or may not include a tentative thesis but at the very minimum it should give the reader a robust understanding of what your paper will be about. Why have you chosen a certain text(s)? Which aspects of a text will receive your focus – characters, themes, etc? Topic proposals should be written in well-organized paragraphs and should fall somewhere between 300 – 500 words. The topic proposal will be recorded as homework and thus part of your participation score.

Annotated Bibliography, due Thu 6/7: Five secondary sources, in MLA works cited format, followed by brief annotations (75 words minimum). No more than two of your secondary sources may be from assigned readings. Please note that the text you are analyzing (poem, artwork, or film) is a primary source and should not be included in the annotated bibliography. The annotated bibliography will be recorded as homework, and thus as part of your participation score.

See the Unit One assignment sheet for guidelines on the electronic portfolio.

Polished draft due Wednesday, June 13th. Post in class wiki by 11:59 pm.

Download a .pdf file of the Unit Three Assignment Sheet.

Download a .pdf file of the Unit Three Rubric.

Other Resources

APA Checklist

The following is meant as a quick reference guide for APA formatting. For more detailed information, consult your writing handbook.

In the Body of your Paper

  • Author names: last name only. Always followed by the year of publication in parentheses. Example: Freud (1925) argued…
  • Verb tense: past tense when referring to writing, arguing, etc. Present tense for results of studies. Example: Phillips (2006) discussed the ways in which the OFC affects confabulation.
  • Book titles: used rarely. Capitalize the first letter of titles and subtitles only. Italicize. Example: How we became posthuman: Virtual bodies in cybernetics, literature, and informatics.
  • Essay titles: used rarely. Do not use quotation marks. Capitalize the first letter of titles and subtitles only. Example: Everyday fairytales: Once upon a time if you believed your own fantastical stories it was a sure sign you were away with the fairies.
  • Journal titles: used rarely. Capitalize all words except prepositions and articles. Italicize. Example: New Scientist
  • Citation page numbers: required for quotations only. Lower case p followed by a period, then a space and the number. Use paragraph numbers or the name of section headings when page numbers are unavailable. Examples: (p. 4) (para. 4) (discussion)
  • Headings: should be short and descriptive. Center them (not required for our wiki)
  • Line spacing: double (not required for our wiki, although please do double space between paragraphs).
  • Title page: not required for our wiki. Full title of the paper centered on page. Student name, course name/number, Professor’s name, and date, each on its own line, centered at the bottom of the page. Title is repeated on the first page of the paper.
  • Page numbering: not required for our wiki. Short title and page number in upper right hand side of page (use the “header” function in your word processing program). Use page “i” for the title page and page “ii” for an abstract page.

References Page

  • Order: Arrange entries alphabetically, according to the last name of the author. If you have more than one book by one author, list the oldest first.
  • Hanging Indent: first line is aligned with left margin. Subsequent lines are indented fives spaces.
  • Line spacing: double space throughout (not required for our wiki, although please do double space between each entry).
  • Titles: all titles follow the conventions listed above.
  • Book: LastName, F. (year). Book title. Place of Publication: Publisher.
    Example: Hayles, K. (1999). How we became posthuman: Virtual bodies in cybernetics, literature, and informatics. Chicago: U of Chicago P.
  • Essay in a book: LastName, F. (year). Essay title. In F. EditorLastName (Ed.), Title of book (pp. ##-##). Place of Publication: Publisher.
    Example: Stein, S. (2002). A cyberroom of one’s own. In M. Flanagan and A. Booth (Eds.), Reload: Rethinking women and cyberculture (pp. 148-157). Cambridge: MIT Press.
  • Journal article: LastName, F. (year). Article title. Journal Title, Vol#(Issue#), ##-##.
    Example: Sharot, T., Delgado, M., Phelps, E. (2004). How emotion enhances the feeling of remembering. Nature Neuroscience, 7, 1376-1380. *note that the example does not have an issue number.