Because most of the writing
you will do in your college courses involves responding to outside reading,
this course will be focused primarily on your responses to essays written by
others. Although some assignments will
ask you to summarize the material you have read, this is only as an exercise in
reading carefully and extracting the important points. The primary goal of the course is for you to
learn to write about the material you
have read, to formulate an argument
about one or more of the essays, or to present your own argument using the
material from other sources to substantiate what you say.
“Argument” in writing is a tricky word. It does not mean making sweeping statements
or judgments against an author’s or authors’ positions, setting your opinions
on issues against theirs. What it does
mean is thinking carefully about the material you read, including its
complexities, discussing the terms of the authors’ own arguments and analyzing
how those arguments are put together. It
also means expressing your thoughts clearly and effectively, with an emphasis
on communicating your own complicated
ideas (and the ideas of the material you are discussing) fluently to your
reader. Good writing is making difficult
ideas easy to understand; poor writing is making them sound even more
difficult.
Course
Requirements
- Regular attendance and
participation - Summary responses for all
reading - Partial, rough, and final
drafts for four 4-page papers - One mid-term essay exam
- Partial, rough, and final
drafts for one 6-page research paper
Required
texts
- The text for this
class is a packet of essays available at “Professional Image,”2633 S. King Street