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English 101

Winter 2016, Dayna Patterson patterd5@students.wwu.edu


Office Hours: HU 362, MW 11:30-12:30, or by appointment
Class: 10-11:20, MF in MH 135 / W in HU 104

Writing Your Way Into Western


Your English 101 course is designed to give you opportunities to grow as a thinker, reader, and writer.
Welcome! In this class, well explore language, communication, and writing, challenging our knowledge and
abilities regarding these important skills.
The course is centered on two key concepts:
1) Writing works and looks differently in different places. You know a lot about this concept already.
When you send a text to your mom about your fender bender, it will be very different from the text you
send to your best friend. Or the email you send to the insurance company. Well explore this concept in
more depth throughout the quarter.
2) Writing is a meaning-making process. E.M. Forster wrote, How do I know what I think until I see what
I say? The same could be said about writing. Often we dont know what we think until we write about
it. Because writing helps us make meaning and figure out our own thoughts, well be doing heaps of
writing in the next ten weeks to help us make sense of the places we occupy.
What you need for the course: 1) An account on the free website platform Weebly.com. 2) An account on the
cloud-based writing platform Medium.com. 3) An open mind about what counts as composed knowledge.
What things you need to know now: In this class you will write in various genres (review, podcast, proposal,
website) about a single place in Bellingham for all 10 weeks of the quarter. Many of us are newcomers, while
some others may have lived their whole lives in this region. Regardless, we will use Bellingham as our single
place of convergence to work from. For your quarter-long project, you will choose a place that you want to
inquire into, map, and surface connections in and across your experiences as a student, thinker, and community
member here. All of the writing we do in this class will help you engage with overarching course ideas about
what writing is and what writing can do in different places.

Course Aims
Our Modes and Methods of Composition
Genre Awareness
Writing looks and works differently in different places. Because of this, our course is designed to help you practice
different kinds of writing and to see how modes of writing surface connections across various networks. By focusing on
rhetoric and modes of communication, I hope you come to see writing and analysis as practices that expand beyond
individual writers, practices that can help you learn to account for connections across the places you occupy both here on
campus and in your life outside of college. In order to do this work together, well spend a lot of time thinking about genre
and genre expectations while working and writing in various genres.
Writing in All of Its Wonderful Forms (A Lot!)
Writing is part and parcel of nearly every human endeavor. As Walter Ong, S.J., suggests, no matter the course of ones
life, writing is one of the primary ways we navigate lifes complexities. In this class, we will trace the roll of writing
through a variety of endeavors. My aim is to help you make some sense of how to approach the moves you will find in
the writing of others and how to produce moves of your own. Youll write to make meaning for the places in which you
find yourself throughout the course. In short, you will spend 10 weeks with me, writing!
While it may be that you already write all the time, our writing practices will be as purposeful as we can make them. That
is, writing wont be merely how we communicate knowledge made elsewhere. Rather, writing will be the subject and
practice of our course. Well spend lots of time and effort looking at our writing and reflecting on how it might better
surface meaning and affect others. Well also practice responding constructively to peers' work and soliciting and using
peer feedback effectively.
Closely Read, Annotate, and Do Different Things With a Range of Texts
The texts well encounter together vary a great deal. Well engage with scholarly articles, images, YouTube videos, your
own writing, student examples, articles written for the web, even places here in Bellingham. In this course, well push to
not only read for understanding, but well also work together to try and read well enough that we can do something with
the material we encounter. Well extend the arguments, remix the content to produce possible new meanings, articulate
underlying values, and always work from our texts in such a way that allows us to make something of our own
something that carries our own specific angle. Simply put, reading in this class is an active, participatory practice.
Asking Questions For Which You Dont Yet Have Answers
Learning to create or begin work from a position of not knowing is challenging given that we tend to believe that our job
is to compose texts after weve decided what we think and what we want to communicate. Here, however, well slow
down. Theres a lot written about cultivating beginners mind in regard to mindfulness and creativity. Much like the
practices that drive great science, well practice asking questions that often lead to better, more interesting questions
before they lead to answers. Well try and be productively critical, constantly exploring the ideas we surface as we learn
to keep asking questions that push us to see more and more connections.
Research
Well try some practices that help us understand what research is about, such as:
Working ethically with each other and others writing
Locating, evaluating, and using print and online information selectively for particular audiences and purposes
Triangulating sources of evidence
Selecting appropriate primary research methods such as interviews, observations, and surveys to collect data

Course Projects
The projects for the course are varied, but they are all in service of our overall course questions about what writing is and
what writing can do. The projects are also rooted in our guiding metaphor: Writing as Mapping. Meaning, writing as a
way of seeing and understanding multiple networks and the connections between those networks. Another way to think
about this metaphor is by creating work that helps others locate themselves inside your ideas, stories, arguments, and
spaces, helping them see such things in different ways.

Activities, Practice, and Drafts:


Throughout the quarter we will practice new reading and writing moves in and out of class, and well compose heaps of
drafts. This work will serve as a starting place, the raw material to work with in class the day they are due. Please note:
All drafts indicated on the schedule (Canvas calendar) are mandatory.

An Important Note about Activities, Practice, and Drafts:


Because we will usually be building on this work in class, to get the full benefit you must be in class, with a copy of the
completed assignment in hand or accessible on your laptop. For this reason, I will not accept late work for credit. You
need to complete all this work on time to successfully fulfill our grading contract. (See evaluation on the next page.) It is
either completed on time, according to all of the directions, allowing you to participate in class, or it is not.

Exploring a Local Place: Review, Podcast, and Proposal


These projects will build on each other as well as on our class activities, discussion, and drafts. Each project is designed to
help explore a line of inquiry that you feel compelled to pursue within a particular place. In the Review, youre job will be
to get know your place well, asking questions and exploring possible answers that will matter for readers outside our
classroom. In other words, what is this place? Why does it matter? Youll write this Review for both our own local
context and then for a more generalized readership, eventually publishing it on the public platform, Medium.
Next, well take up the genre of a Podcast. Youll be working with the same place. In fact, you might even use some of
your descriptive writing from the Review in the scripts youll draft for the podcast. What a podcast will push you toward
is surfacing and chasing after good questions about your place. But you dont dare come to a definitive answer; thats not
what listeners of podcasts often want. They want to think through the questions with you.
Well then take what youve learned from the Review and the Podcast to create a Proposal that not only offers a solution
to a problemit convinces stakeholders that a problem exists that they might never have noticed. Youre going to invent
a problem! And then write some realistic solutions.
Revision is a huge part of what we do in this class. You can look forward to conferences, peer reviews, and multiple
re-imaginings of these projects!

Pulling Your Work Together into a Website Portfolio:


Throughout the quarter, youll be working on your Website Portfolio. For the first eight weeks, youll design and use this
space to post field notes based on observations of your place. At the end of the quarter, youll assemble your larger
projects onto the website as well. Youll write a homepage for the site that helps visitors understand how everything on
the site hangs together. Youll also create an infographic that captures a particular piece of information or idea from your
place that was particularly resonant for you.
The class goal here is to both collect all your good work into one cohesive place showing your knowledge of design and
various genres, and to once again demonstrate connections and ideas between these genres. The larger goal is to also give
you a platform that could serve as a portfolio for future internships and jobs that you can use to showcase the kinds of
design and written work you can do.

The Nitty Gritty: Requirements & Responsibilities


Attendance & Timeliness
Put simply: you need to be present in each class with all of your materials prepared for discussion. I understand that
sickness and other circumstances can sometimes make it difficult to make it to class each day. In such a case, its your
responsibility to use your resources (Canvas, your peers, my office hours, email) to get caught up on what you missed in
class. You are permitted three absences with no explanation needed. If you miss four class sessions, you will not fulfill the
grading contract, and missing five classes may prevent you from passing the course. Please also make every effort to be
on time to avoid disrupting class (two late arrivals count as one absence).

Electronics
During the quarter, you will need regular access to the internet and email. Because the Canvas site is the main hub for
community documents, you are responsible for reading and keeping current with all content posted there, including what
has been submitted by your fellow classmates. In addition, I dont want cell phone use to be disruptive in class. I consider
you all adults, and as such I expect you to respect your peers and not be distracted by your phone during discussions and
other work time.

Readiness
Readiness relates specifically to being prepared by the start time of the class period (and completing any outside-of-class
work that we negotiate to do). This can be a tough, busy course in that what were working with what might be new
composing methods and communication technologies. So you need to dive into your work and come at the course with
questions and confusions and contentions. That is to say, not fully understanding one of our texts or projects is fine. But
not spending the time it takes to figure out where things break down for you is not. Be ready.

Participation
I recognize that we are all comfortable participating in different ways in classroom settings. Participation does not only
mean speaking in class, although I am excited to hear your thoughts and hope youll speak in class every day. More than
that, class participation means being engaged with class material every day. It means being involved in the work at hand,
open to revision and new ideas from course content and your peers. Well often begin class by writing, and while I dont
evaluate the quality of these fastwrites, active participation means doing the work I ask of you during these exercises.

Collaborative Work
We will be making a great deal of stuff together and supporting one another in differing ways, so honest collaboration is
crucial in this course. Youre responsible for reading/listening to other peoples work, being kind in class, asking good
questions, and working toward really hearing each other before responding. I expect moments to arise that might call for
some vulnerability, and I want us to try and build a space together that not only allows for the powerful actions that can
grow from vulnerability, but welcomes and encourages them. As Ive written, some of this work will be hard; let us all be
supportive, learning from the risks we encourage others to take. Im going to work hard to foster this kind of collaborative
spirit. I ask that you help me in this work.

Late Work
The majority of missed class assignments cannot be made up, nor will I accept late projects. This class is carefully
scaffolded so that each action leads us to the next; falling too far behind is troublesome. If a serious and unavoidable
problem arises, however, you should contact me prior to any deadline to determine what we can do. The answer to any
problems you run into is always come and talk to me as early as you can.

Academic Integrity
WWU students and their instructors are expected to adhere to guidelines set forth by the Dean of Students in Academic
Honesty Policy and Procedure," which students are encouraged to read here.

Accommodations:
Students with documented disAbilities have the right to reasonable accommodations. Please click here for the resources
available to you.

Evaluation For This Course


Contract Grading: Its about Labor
Im using a form of evaluation that I think will help you focus on the work of the course and how you engage your own learning. That
is, I have elected to build a labor contract to help me frame my initial evaluation of your work rather than assigning points or letters to
your products. This form of evaluation better serves you in providing room for experimentation and risk taking that the pressure of
traditional letter grades sometimes discourages. Ultimately, Im interested in giving my attention, my concern, and my care to your
labor. And I want you to as well.
So, below are the stipulations (the contract) that I need you to meet in order to be guaranteed a B in the course. Put incredibly
simply, if you meet the expectations in this contract, doing all the work as each particular assignment requires, you will have earned a
B in the course.
THE CONTRACT

Attend class regularlynot missing more than three classes. Attend all out-of-class meetings you agree to attend with your
classmates.
Prepare for and attend conferences with me to discuss your work as they are scheduled.
Meet due dates for all assignments, fulfilling all the criteria that I put forth in each assignment. (If you dont understand the
criteria, ask me about it before its due.)
Complete all out-of-class informal, low stakes assignments according to the criteria for those assignments (e.g. drafts, letters,
reading responses, design plans, etc.).
Make substantive revisions in accordance with the feedback you get from me and your peers. In other words, the revision
work you encounter in this course will be about extending or changing the thinking and/or organization of your projects
not just editing or touching up. You are required to revise and, often, explain those revisions in letters to me.

Thats it!
Again, what this contract means for you is that you earn the grade of B entirely on the basis of what you do, or as Peter Elbow says,
based on your conscientious effort and engagement with your work in the course. What that means for me is that I dont have to
measure what youre doing all quarter against an already established rubric that may or may not adequately evaluate your diverse
products. Instead, I get to value the labor, the time, and the energy that I know it takes to be an engaged learner in a new community of
practice. This evaluation style gives us both the opportunity to take real risks and to really care about our own processes for generating
and analyzing meaning.
Grades higher than a B are still possible, of course. They can be earned when projects are of exceptionally high quality.
What does exceptionally high quality mean? Good question. Exceptionally high quality work is about the quality of the project, not
necessarily the labor. That is, the answer will always depend on the project. So for each project, well discuss what exceptionally
high quality work might look like. Most the time, this kind of work exhibits some risks, moving beyond the basics of the assignment.
Exceptionally high quality work will often show clear signs of careful revision and carefully constructed language that responds to the
kinds of audiences the project is geared toward; all this to say, producing exceptionally high quality work is difficult.
You can also earn a grade lower than a B. If you do not meet the stipulations of the contract, then I will still use our qualities for
what constitutes exceptionally high quality work to evaluate your projects. The difference, however, is the place from which I start
the grading process. Heres how it works:
Number of Stipulations Not Met
0
1-2
3
4
5

Baseline Grade
B
BC+
C
C-

Maximum Possible Grade


A
AB+
B
B-

Again, this is straightforward. If you do not complete all the stipulated requirements for 1-2 items on the contract, then I would start
you at a B-, which means you could still earn an A- in the course. There are three steps up from any grade you start from. That is,
if you missed 5 items on the contract, you would start at a C-, yes. But you might produce really exceptional work, which could get
you back up to B. If you started with B because you completed the contract, there are three steps up to an A. That is, the easiest way to
approach the evaluation in this course is complete the contract and pour yourself into the projects. Youll make stuff that you can be
proud of and youll start to figure out that, indeed, writing looks and works differently in different places.

The Entire Course Contract (Requirements for a B)


Major Assignments

Attendance

Meet due dates for all assignments fulfilling all the


criteria that I put forth in each assignment. (If you dont
understand what Im asking for in an assignment, ask me
about it before its due. Due dates on Canvas.)

Total absences (no more than 3)

Review:

Attend all out-of-class meetings you


agree to attend with your classmates.

Rough draft
Draft 2
The final draft of the review
The rhetorical analysis of the final draft
The Medium revision of the review
The rhetorical analysis of the revision posted on
Medium

Podcast:

Qualifying podcast topic + angle


Podcast script rough draft
Revised script
Final draft of script
Podcast questions
Podcast presentation
Podcast
Rhetorical analysis of your podcast

Proposal:

1st draft of introduction to the proposal


Complete draft 1 of proposal
Draft 2 of your proposal
Final draft of your proposal
Rhetorical analysis of your proposal

Website:

Draft 1 of homepage
Complete homepage
Webtext presentation
Final webtext (finals week)

Meetings with classmates

Conference(s) with your instructor (me)


Prepare for and attend at least 1
conference with me to discuss your
work (you cannot miss a scheduled
conference. You may reschedule
within 24 hours):
Prep work for class
Complete all out-of-class informal,
low stakes assignments according to
my directions for the assignments on
time (e.g. drafts, letters, reading
responses, design plans, etc.):
Field Notes published on Website:

#1
#2
#3
#4
#5
#6
#7
#8

Revision work
Make substantive revisions in
accordance with the feedback you get
from your peers and me. Im looking
for more than simple proofreading
here. Revisions should involve
rewrites, reorganizations, re-imagings
for deep, substantive change.
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