First-Year Writing

ENGW 1111, Section 65

Science, Technology, and Human Values

Dr. Sarah Finn Email: s.finn@neu.edu

Course Hours: MWR 1:35-2:40 Course Location: Hastings 103
My Office: 437 Holmes Hall Office Hours: W: 10:30-1:30 and by appointment

Required Texts and Materials:

 You will find excerpts from Einstein’s Dreams, A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Everyone’s an
Author, Writing About Writing, the Presence of Mind, and all other course texts on our
Blackboard site under “Course Material.”

 You should bring your computer, a notebook, and a folder to class.

Course Description:
Writing is a process and people improve their writing by writing – by practice. In this course, you
will write short assignments and four major projects (in different types of genres) to develop your
writing in a variety of ways. You will also work on your writing by receiving feedback from your
classmates and by giving feedback to your peers. As part of the writing process, you will take the
time to reflect on your writing as you write multiple drafts of each project. Research has shown that
learning about writing helps students to improve their own writing. As such, we will read some
theoretical articles on multiple aspects of textual production. We will read challenging material
about the process of writing from the point of view of both students and teachers, to arrive at a
holistic notion of writing’s varied ingredients. We will also read articles that propel course themes
and your own ideas. In this context, each project will have a prompt, but you will have the freedom
to write on topics that are interesting, important, and meaningful to you.

Course Theme: Science, Technology, and Human Values. How do science, technology, and human
values interact in the world? Do human values shape science and technology, or is it the other way
around (or both)? How do we construct humanity in relation to machines, animals, and other
humans? Is privacy still a human value, or will it fade away entirely? What might happen if
machines take over most of the work that people do? In this course, we will write to explore multiple
facets of our world in order to examine what it means to be human in our digital age. Together, we
will inquire into scientific triumphs and controversies in order to explore questions without easy
answers and thus write with more complexity and depth. You do not need to be a science major to
take this course – you just need intellectual curiosity about our world.
Goals and Objectives:

In this course, we will examine writing as a social act that always occurs within a particular context,
and we will analyze the choices available to writers in those contexts. This course is designed to help
you grow as a writer—not only for academic assignments, but also for the writing demands in your
personal, professional, and civic life. More specifically, we will work together to improve your
ability to

 Write both to learn and to communicate what you learn.

 Negotiate your own writing goals and audience expectations regarding conventions of genre,
medium, and situation.
 Formulate and articulate a stance through and in your writing.
 Revise your writing using responses from others, including peers, consultants, and teachers.
 Generate and pursue lines of inquiry and search, collect, and select sources appropriate to
your writing projects.
 Effectively use and appropriately cite sources in your writing.
 Explore and represent your experiences, perspectives, and ideas in conversation with others.
 Develop your thinking by examining your own and others’ views and seeing
interrelationships between our classroom work, your own life experiences, and our larger
society -- thus writing projects in which your thinking evolves and synthesizes multiple
contexts.
 Strengthen your facility with theoretical inquiry and application of theory.
 Use multiple forms of evidence to support your claims, ideas, and arguments.
 Practice critical reading strategies.
 Provide revision-based response to your peers.
 Reflect on your writing processes and how and why you make rhetorical decisions; you will
self-assess as a writer.

Course Overview: Project Units, Process Writing, and Peer Response

Project Units: You will compose four projects for each of our project units. Each project will be
four to six pages or the equivalent. Each will go through an extensive writing process and each will
introduce new challenges and ways to explore writing.

1. Unit I: Science and the Creative Spirit asks you to consider the synthesis of science and
creativity and consider your own quirky passions.

2. Unit II: Drawing the Boundaries of Humanity asks you to write a critical, complex, and
creative philosophical analysis.

3. Unit III: Under the Radar, Ethical Dilemmas, and Social Change asks you to identify
and pursue a line of inquiry that you care about and suggest some form of social action.

4. Unit IV: Science, Ethics, and Action: Circulation asks you for a project where you re-
examine and synthesize your Unit III project in a new rhetorical situation that can be
circulated to various publics.
Process Writing: Writing is a process. In order to improve as writers, we need to write, write, and
then write some more. For each major project, you will engage in a rigorous writing process: 1)
generative writing, where you explore early ideas; 2) an initial draft; 3) substantially revised
drafts, based on feedback from self, peers, professor, and others; 4) a further revised and copy-
edited final draft; and reflective writing about your writing processes and products. These steps
are meant to help you focus on specific aspects of your writing and get relevant feedback at different
points in the writing process. Writing processes tend to be recursive rather than linear, and this
course is designed to enhance your particular process and open new sites of exploration.

Peer Response: Learning to write means learning to be read by many others. Not only will I
respond to your writing, but our class will also become a writing community where you will
regularly give and receive critical peer responses to your writing. By giving constructive feedback,
you will help others with their work and you will improve your ability to revise your own work. By
listening carefully to others, you will learn to analyze feedback to make thoughtful writing decisions.

Course Policies Overview:

Participation: For all of us to be successful in this class, we should see ourselves as part of a
community of writers. Successful community building cannot exist without respect—respect for
everyone in the community at all times. Building trust is also key to making our classroom a
comfortable environment for everyone. We will do community building activities to form a
classroom where everyone feels free to share their thoughts, ideas, and questions. In this context,
you are required to participate in the class discussions, group work, and writings.

Everyone starts at a B for participation. To raise your grade, you should talk and listen during class
discussions, pass in homework on time, be on time for class, and have your drafts ready for peer
review. Your grade will drop if you are missing homework assignments, are late to class (1 point off
for each late), are missing drafts for peer review, do not participate in discussions, and have a fourth
or fifth absence. You must come to class on time and be an active member. If you are quieter in
groups, come to class with a response to the readings already in mind, and make sure to voice your
comments in class. Please do not check your computer, text messages, email, facebook, etc.,
during class time. I will tell you when it is time to use computers. If you are using electronic
devices unrelated to class more than once, your participation grade will drop by 2 points each
time.

Attendance: Regular attendance and preparation for class are basic expectations for the course. This
course is a writing workshop, and writing workshops cannot function unless every writer is present,
on time, and prepared. Still, you are allowed one week’s worth of class absences during the
semester. This is three classes, total. If you need to be absent for a required athletic event, field
trip, military obligation, or court appearance; if there is a death or serious illness in your family; if
you experience an accident or serious illness; or if you are absent because of religious observance;
you will most likely be excused from class. But note that, in such cases, you are responsible for
prior notification and/or subsequent documentation and for making up all missed work. Please
email me and I can bring you up to date.
If you miss a fourth or fifth class, your participation grade will drop by four points each. If you miss
a sixth class or more, each absence will lower your final grade by four points each. A student who
misses more than eight classes will receive a failing grade for the class.

Late Work: Late work will be marked down by four points for each class after the due date, unless
approved by me in advance.

Grading Distribution:

 Project 1 20%
 Project 2 25%
 Project 3 25%
 Project 4 20%
 Participation 10%

You must earn a C to pass the course.

Grade Scale:
A = 94-100
A/A- = 93
A- = 91
A-/B+ = 89
B+ = 87
B+/B = 85
B = 84
B/B- = 82
B- = 80
B-/C+ = 79
C+ = 77
C+/C = 75
C = 74
C/C- = 73
C- = 72

*This grading scale will help you to be successful in our course*

Emailing Assignments Policy:

 Do feel free to email me with any questions. I enjoy working with students over email. But,
I do not take assignments over email, unless there are extenuating circumstances. If you need
to email me any assignment, please ask me first. You must use your NU email account in
order to obtain a response.

Student Support Services:

 The Northeastern University Writing Center The Northeastern University Writing Center
offers free and friendly tutoring for any level of writer, including help with conceptualizing
writing projects, the writing process (i.e., determining audience and aim, planning,
 researching, organizing, drafting, and revising), and using sources effectively. The Writing
Center has two locations: 412 Holmes Hall (617-373-4549) and 136 Snell Library (617-373-
2086). Online appointments are also available. Advance and same-day appointments are
available. The Writing Center opens on Opens Sept 14; Closes Dec 13. Hours vary by
location. To make an appointment or learn more about the Writing Center visit our website at
www.northeastern.edu/writingcenter. For writing tips and updates about the Writing Center,
follow us on facebook at NEUWritingCenter and Twitter @NEUWrites. Questions about the
Writing Center can be directed to the Assistant Director, at neuwritingcenter@gmail.com or
Belinda Walzer, Writing Center Director, at b.walzer@northeastern.edu.

 Peer Tutoring is a terrific collaboration that offers a wide range of tutoring services. The
Peer Tutoring Program is located in Lake Hall and its services are FREE. Email them at
NUpeertutoring@gmail.com.

 Snell Library: http://www.lib.neu.edu. In addition to providing research resources, the

library coordinates with writing courses to support students’ information literacy.

 Disability Resource Center: http://www.drc.neu.edu. The Center works with students and
faculty. Those who qualify under the Americans with Disabilities Act receive
accommodations that allow people to participate fully in the activities at the University.
Students have a right to disclose or not disclose their disabilities to the instructor.

 WeCare is a program operated through the Office for Student Affairs. The mission is to
assist students experiencing unexpected challenges to maintain their academic progress.
WeCare works with the student to coordinate among university offices and to offer
appropriate on and off campus referrals to support successfully resolving the issue. It is
located in the Student Affairs Office in 104 Ell Hall. Call 617.373.4384 or email
wecare@neu.edu.

 TRACE (Teacher Rating and Course Evaluation) allows you to evaluate the instructor at the
end of the semester. Please fill out this evaluation at the end of the semester.

 Digital Media Commons: Snell Library also houses the Digital Media Commons, which
offers a variety of resources for instructors and students regarding multimedia projects:
http://library.northeastern.edu/digital-media-commons

 NU Writing is an online journal that publishes compositions made in First-Year Writing and
Advanced Writing in the Disciplines -- courses that are part of Northeastern University’s
Writing Program. NU Writing helps students to find a wider audience for their compositions
and to experience publishing, both by learning about the submission and review process and
by participating on the journal’s board. Compositions published in NU Writing are alphabetic
and multimodal—written in verse or prose, or composed in multiple modalities, such as
image and sound. NU Writing welcomes traditional essays as well as texts from alternate
genres: for example, poems, photo-essays, digital narratives, and films. All currently
matriculated students who have taken, or are taking, courses in the Writing Program are
encouraged to participate, by submitting a composition or serving on the journal’s board or
both.
 Any undergraduate may submit a composition made in First-Year Writing or Advanced
Writing in the Disciplines if she or he is enrolled at Northeastern University at the time of
submission. For more information visit http://www.northeastern.edu/writing/nu-writing-
journal/. Any questions may be emailed to the Assistant Director to the Writing Program,
Rachel Lewis (r.lewis@neu.edu).

Title IX: I am a mandated reporter under Title IX. This means that I must report any
disclosure of sexual misconduct to the Northeastern Title IX Coordinator. The Coordinator
will then speak with you and provide support in different ways. You can learn more at:
http://www.northeastern.edu/titleix/.

Important Computer Advice: always save your documents in at least 2 places!

Major Due Dates

Project 1:
Rough Draft: Thursday, Jan. 18
Final Draft: Thursday, Jan. 25

Project 2:
Rough Draft: Wednesday, Feb. 14
Final Draft: Thursday, Feb. 22

Project 3:
Rough Draft: Monday, Mar. 19
Final Draft: Thursday, Mar. 29

Project 4:
Final Draft: Thursday, April 12
Course Readings:
Cadwalladr, Carole. “Are Robots About to Rise?” The Guardian. 22 Feb., 2014. Web.

Bitzer, Lloyd F. "The Rhetorical Situation." Philosophy & rhetoric (1992): 1-14. Print.
Excerpt from: Dillard, Annie. A Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. New York: Harperperennial, 2007.
Print.

Gallehr, Donald R. "Wait and the writing will come: meditation and the composing process."
Presence of Mind: writing and the domain beyond the cognitive (1994): 21-29. Print.

Griffin, Andrew. “Facebook’s AI Robots Shut Down After They Start Talking to Each Other in
Their Own Language.” The Independent, July 2017. Web.

Harris, Joseph. "The Idea of Community in the Study of Writing." College Composition and
Communication 40.1 (1989): 11-22. Print.

Holman, Elizabeth. "Behind the Screen of Consciousness: Intuition, Insight, and Inspiration in
the Writing Process." Presence of Mind: Writing and the domain beyond the cognitive
(1994): 65-74. Print.

Lamott, Anne. "Shitty first drafts." Bird by bird: Some instructions on writing and life (1994):
21-26. Print.

Excerpt from: Lightman, Alan. Einstein’s Dreams. New York: Vintage Contemporaries, 1993.
Print.

Excerpts from: Lunsford, Andrea, Lisa Ede, Beverly Moss, Carole Papper, and Keith Walters.
Everyone’s an Author. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2013. Print..

Porter, James. “Intertextuality and the Discourse Community.” Writing About Writing. Eds.
Elizabeth Wardle and Doug Downs. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. 86-100. Print.

Rose, Mike. "Rigid rules, inflexible plans, and the stifling of language: A cognitivist analysis of
writer's block." College Composition and Communication 31.4 (1980): 389-401. Print.

Excerpt from: Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Broadway
Paperbacks, 2011. Print.

Thomas, Trudelle. "Generous listening: A deeper way of knowing." Presence of Mind: Writing
and the domain beyond the cognitive (1994): 99-109. Print.

Thompson, Derek. “A World Without Work.” The Atlantic. July/August 2015. Web.
Young, Iris. "From guilt to solidarity sweatshops and political responsibility." DISSENT-NEW
YORK- (2003): 39-44. Web.

Trimbur, John. The Call to Write. Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2014. Print.
*Chapter 12: Multigenre Writing: Publicity, Advocacy Campaigns, and Social
Movements.

Course Films: Blade Runner, the Corporation

Academic Integrity:
Northeastern University is committed to the principles of intellectual honesty and integrity: the NU
Academic Honesty and Integrity Policy is found at:
http://www.northeastern.edu/osccr/academicintegrity/index.html#Guidelines.

The Office of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution web site (http://www.osccr.neu.edu/)
provides extensive information on student conduct, the disciplinary process, and the range of
available sanctions. All members of the Northeastern community are expected to maintain
complete honesty in all academic work, presenting only that which is their own work in tests and
assignments. In English classes, this definition of plagiarism applies not only to borrowing
whole documents, but also to borrowing parts of another’s work without proper acknowledgment and
proper paraphrasing or quotation. You cannot hand in your own finished essays more than once;
handing in your own essay twice (or more) to different classes is a form of plagiarism. We will
discuss effective and responsible use of sources throughout the semester.