Composition I: Mapping the Land-Based Stories of Hawaiʻi
Throughout this course, we will work on the analytical writing and rhetorical skills you need to be an active participant in academic communities and in the places in Hawai‘i where we live and write. The UHM English Department guidelines for ENG 100 explain that “[t]he introductory writing course focuses generally on preparing students for writing they will do both as college students and as citizens who make contributions to the larger public discourse.” Toward this end, we will be writing to engage the day-to-day issues we face in Hawai‘i.
The course objectives include the following:
1) to help you to understand writing as a process that involves recursive
elements: brainstorming, drafting, revising, editing, proofreading, peer-
editing, brainstorming, drafting, revising, editing, proofreading,
2) to sharpen your analytical skills by comparing the ways stories are told in
pieces ranging from autobiographical narratives to political essays,
3) to enable you to identify the rhetorical demands of different contexts and
audience expectations,
4) to enable you to identify and choose from an array of different rhetorical
strategies to address different audiences,
5) to make use of research resources and to document sources.
The UH General Education Office has identified the following Study Learning Outcomes (SLO) for ENG 100 and other FW courses. At the end of the FW (Writing Foundation GenEd requirement) course, students can:
- compose college-level writing, including but not limited to, academic
discourse, that achieves a specific purpose and responds adeptly to an identifiable audience.
- provide evidence of effective strategies for generating, revising, editing,
and proofreading a text in order to produce finished prose.
- compose an argument that makes use of source material that is relevant and
credible and that is integrated in accordance with an appropriate style guide. [updated 2010]
To accomplish these goals, we will focus on specific places in Hawai‘i and the histories, stories, and political issues that make up these places. We will be examining Hawaiian writers’ discussion of the significance of land and particular places, and we will be sifting through other stories that have been written onto the land to understand why particular stories are told. Paper topics will build upon a particular place from different approaches, and they will include a memory of a place in Hawai‘i of great significance to you, a mapping of this storied place, an oral history of someone else’s memory of this place, a rhetorical analysis of an argument raised in public debates over proposed development of this place, and an argument with research project on a politically controversial place, such as the construction of a Thirty Meter Telescope at Mauna Kea, a place sacred to Hawaiians, or the boundary amendments that would rezone agricultural land and sacred sites for urban use in Lualualei Valley. Shorter writing exercises focusing on close textual analysis will help you to build towards your paper assignments, and they will ask you to develop arguments based on careful analyses of the nuances of language and your understanding of your audience. To help you think about strategic ways of writing for specific audiences, you will work in peer-editing groups: for each paper, you will critique each other’s drafts in groups of three before turning in your final copy.
Required Text:
Diana Hacker. Pocket Style Manual.
The course reader will be available during the second week of school at Professional Image (3520 Waialae Avenue, next to Boston’s Northend Pizza)
Papers:
English 100 courses require students to produce a minimum of 20 pages of finished prose in the course of the semester. To meet this requirement, you will be working on five graded papers. Papers are due at the beginning of class on the due date. Late papers will be marked down half a grade per day, including days class does not meet. Papers must be typed, double-spaced, stapled and the pages numbered. For each paper, you will be asked to make two copies: one for me and one for you to keep at home for your own records. You will need to turn in all graded papers, peer-editing drafts and peer-editing response sheets in a folder each time a paper is due.
Papers:
*Not graded: (2-3 pp): Diagnostic essay
#1: (3 pp): Mapping a storied place
#2: (4 pp): Oral history project
#3: (3 pp): Literary analysis
#4: (4 pp): Rhetorical analysis
#5: (8 pp): Argument with research
*Not graded: (3 pp): End-of-semester self-reflection essay
Class participation:
Class participation is critical. Since you will be reading each other’s papers, it’s important for you to help each other to work on your writing skills. You must come to class prepared with questions and observations concerning each other’s writing or the reading assignment. Asking yourself questions during any reading assignment will help you to engage more fully with the course material and the world around you.
Your participation grade will also depend on the way that you listen and respond to other students’ questions and comments. Each of you already has different skills: while some of you are strong speakers, others are strong listeners. In this course, I would like each of you to work on strengthening your weakness: if you are a strong speaker, please share your ideas with the class, but also try to listen to other students and help to make the classroom a place where everyone can share their ideas; if you are a strong listener, work on developing your speaking skills.
Each student will participate in peer-editing groups, and that editing work will be graded.
When necessary I will be posting material on the Laulima website, and you will receive a notification when it is posted there. The address is https://laulima.hawaii.edu/portal
Attendance:
I will be keeping track of attendance for every class. Five absences will be automatically excused; unexcused absences thereafter will lower your final grade by half a grade per absence.
Grades:
All papers and assignments must be completed to receive a passing grade for the course.
Papers 70%
Assignments 15%
Peer-editing 10%
Participation 5%
A-range: an essay that has an imaginative, original and/or persuasive focus or
argument, insightfully and impressively articulated or argued, and almost free of mechanical errors.
B-range: a good solid essay that carries out the assignment, no major problems
with organization and or argument, evidence of revision. Partially successful application of descriptive, argumentative or rhetorical strategies.
C-range: essay fails to follow the instructions for the assignment, serious
problems with argument, focus, or organization, no evidence of revision between draft(s), failure to use evidence to support your points, no control over mechanics and grammar.
You have the option to revise your essay within two weeks of the date the paper is returned to you. If you have C- or below, you must revise your essay within that two-week period. All revised papers must be accompanied by a brief description of the revisions you have made and the initially graded copy.
On individual assignments, I will be giving you one of the following: a plus, check-plus, check, check-minus or a minus. Late assignments will be accepted up to one class past the due date for a grade; thereafter, you will still need to turn in the assignment but you will receive a “0” for your grade. No revisions for assignments.
Extra Credit
Extra credit work may help you if you are close to achieving a higher grade. You will be allowed to turn in up to two extra credit assignments. For these assignments, you can attend any event or performance that involves land or place in Hawai‘i (Kumu Kahua is a good source), or you can watch a program aired on the ‘Olelo television stations (channels 52, 53, 54) discussing Hawaiian cultural or political issues (for example, the First Friday program addresses Hawaiian political issues). Write a two page response paper that includes one page describing what you saw and one page explaining what you learned. Extra credit assignments must be turned in by the last day of classes.
Plagiarism:
Submitting a paper that you did not write, or quoting others without citing them, or recycling papers you’ve used for other courses constitutes plagiarism and will result in an “F” for the course.
KŌKUA Program
If you have any disability-related academic access needs, please contact the KŌKUA Program at 956-7511, or see them in the Queen Lili‘uokalani Student Services Center Room 013.