This
course will introduce reading and writing strategies that will help prepare you
for your coursework and research during your future years at UH. We will
emphasize tools of analysis by learning to consider the
historical-social-political contexts of writing, identify various rhetorical
strategies writers use for different audiences and purposes, question what may
be assumed by or left out of a text, and think about the ethical dimensions of
writing and research. Throughout we will be focusing on the power of language
and metaphor in our lives and the artful ways we can craft language as writers.
We
will also be talking and writing about complex social issues that are important
both globally and in Hawai‘i. Though this course will help you practice
college-level writing and research conventions, we will also pay attention to
the other kinds of knowledges we each bring to the classroom, and you will be
encouraged to bring personal stories, interviews, and oral sources into your
writing assignments. Our readings and discussion will range from scholarly
essays to Facebook, poetry to news articles, literature to photographs, films,
and songs. In each case, we will be using different strategies to carefully analyze
each kind of “text” and challenge ourselves to write in ways that address
multiple genres and multiple kinds of knowledge.
Major
writing assignments will include combinations of description, comparison,
argument, analysis, and research, and will encourage you to write critically
and creatively. Instead of the idea that writing is a one-time,
all-in-one-night, finished product, we will practice “writing as a process” and
a way to help us think. Therefore, I will ask you to do lots of small
low-stress writing exercises, editing alone and in groups, and major revising
throughout the semester on your way to more polished final drafts.
In
addition to completing assignments, you will be expected to attend class
regularly, participate in class discussion and online postings, and provide
thoughtful writing feedback to your fellow students. You will also be required
to attend two one-on-one conferences with me to discuss your writing.
Required Text:
- The Value of Hawai‘i (UH Press, 2010)
Major Assignments:
- a total of twenty
double-spaced pages of polished writing divided between five formal papers