Imagine that you enter a parlor. You come late. When you arrive, others have long preceded you, and they are engaged in a heated discussion, a discussion too heated for them to pause and tell you exactly what it is about. In fact, the discussion had already begun long before any of them got there, so that no one present is qualified to retrace for you all the steps that had gone before. You listen for a while, until you decide that you have caught the tenor of the argument; then you put in your oar. Someone answers; you answer him; another comes to your defense; another aligns himself against you, to either the embarrassment or gratification of your opponent, depending on the quality of your ally's assistance. However, the discussion is interminable. The hour grows late, and you must depart. And you do depart, with the discussion still vigorously in progress.

• your own "voice" in writing;
• a repertoire of writing styles appropriate to your purpose, audience, and occasion for writing;
• your ability to compose sentences and paragraphs in a variety of syntactic patterns and with sufficient specific details;
• your skill in reading, analyzing, and assessing longer pieces of expository prose by professional writers and peers;
• your sensitivity to the impact of language on differing readers and listeners;
• your ability to use appropriate research methods and materials efficiently, clearly, and effectively for all disciplines;
• your skill in writing prose that conforms to the features of standard written English.

• Four in-class, timed essays (10%)
  • Timed Writing (SAMPLE)
  • Timed Writing (2 CRITICAL RESPONSES TO A TEXT)
  • Timed Writing (REFLECTION)

• Three revised paper collections (30%): Links activated when assigned. All papers will be workshopped in class. The collection of early drafts and final version will be published on mahara, readable by this class and possibly other students from CSUN and UCSB.
  • Education: the Idea of the University
  • Research Project: American Myths
  • Science: O Brave New World

• Annotated Bibliography (10%): Students will research a topic of choice and construct an annotated bibliography documenting and evaluating their findings, using Janice Walker's online MLA Style formating. The bibliography will be published on mahara as part of the research project collection, reflecting the research for the myth paper.

• Web Journal (40%): Published on mahara. Consists of:
  • Reading Log: summaries and responses to all texts.

  • Bi-weekly progress reports and any other short homework assignments

  • Short Writes: Extemporaneous writing based on knowledge and assumptions of a given issue. Students will complete 3-5 shortwrites (some in-class, some as homework assignments). Due dates TBA as asignments are announced in class.

• Final E-Portfolio (10%)
  • Profile (2)
  • Paper collections (6)
  • Web Journal (2)

  Required Texts and Materials

• Lunsford, Andrea and John Ruszkiewicz. The Presence of Others: Voices and Images that Call for Response. 5th ed. New York: St. Martin's, 2008.

• Silverman, Hughes and Weinbroer. Rules of Thumb. Boston: McGraw Hill.

• Choose a novel from the whole text booklist.

Required Materials

A personal computer. While information can be accessed with a variety of devices, papers and online work cannot be completed on smart phones or tablets. Emails from smart phones are discouraged as they are rarely thoughtfully processed or clearly written.

• Pocket Folder for handouts.
• Stapler: all work over one page must be stapled.
• Memory device: all work must be saved (backed-up) in a safe, stable environment until final grade is recorded.

MO1C-a Eng M01A MO1C-b

Policies Office Hours Janet Cross

Sp 17 Index Readings Schedule

Eng 113-B primero Eng 113-B segundo Eng 305OL