ENGLISH 201:  Advanced Writing 1

Registration #: 337175

M W   6:30pm to 9:40pm

106 Clemens

Summer 2007

Course Description

 In English 101 you began to acquire some of the skills that are necessary to successfully write and think on the university level. The design of English 201 reinforces and enlarges this skill set. In the final stage of the course you will produce a research paper on a complex topic that utilizes multiple secondary sources. If you are faithful to the work of the class, then by the end of the semester you should find yourself well prepared to successfully engage in research and writing projects for the remainder of your college careers. As in any course in writing, classroom activities are essential to your progress in this course. Active discussion, journal entries, small group work, peer critiques and writing workshops are regular features of my class. If you want to do well in the course you should take these activities seriously and put forth your maximum effort. The success of the course, and your successful performance in it, depends upon your participation and contributions, both spoken and written. By the end of the semester, you will be better prepared to construct well-organized and thought-provoking essays which effectively articulate your ideas according to the academic standards valued across the university.

Wedded to Gender: Narratives of Marriage

The focus of the course will be an exploration of narratives of gender with a specific eye towards the institution of marriage. We will begin by examining a contentious issue that resonates within our own cultural moment: the gay marriage debate. Although marriage often seems like a given—a  “natural” phenomenon that occurs within a field of self-evident significance—the gay marriage debate forces us to re-examine our assumptions about marriage by calling into question the value, stakes and social meaning of the marital bond. By doing so, it allows us to posit marriage as the product of competing social discourses, as a constructed phenomenon without a pre-given or inherent meaning. We will use this vantage point to think critically about marriage and to interrogate its current role within our society. After this initial foray, we will shift gears in order to look at the construction of gender roles more generally. How are they constructed? Are they more a function of nature, nurture or some mixture of both? After coming to some preliminary hypotheses we will examine the function of gender and the efficacy of different non-marital sexual interrelations in Joanna Russ’s novel, The Female Man. In what ways does this work meet or frustrate gender expectations? How do male/female relationships function within it? The final research project will revolve around a gender/marriage issue of your choice, and will link literary analysis to historical and socio-political analyses in order to forward an argument about the contemporary status of marriage and gender in America.

Required Course Materials

TEXTS

• Russ, Joanna. The Female Man. Boston: Beacon Press, 1975.

** Text Available at Talking Leaves - 3158 Main St. 837-8554

• Course Reader

** Text Available at Queen City Imaging – 3100 Main St. 832-8100

• Faigley, Lester.  The Little Penguin Handbook. New York: Pearson Education Inc., 2007.

      ** Text Available on Amazon (if you don’t already have a grammar guide)

OTHER MATERIALS

• Notebook which will serve as your journal for classroom activities as well as a workbook for brainstorming and prewriting.
• A 3.5” diskette, zip disk, flash memory device, CD or some other memory media  upon which you save all of your work. 
• A sturdy folder in which you keep all of the handouts and materials for this course. Do not throw away anything until after you have received your final grade.
• A two-pocket folder in which you will submit each formal writing assignment including cover letter, multiple drafts, and final revision.
• Optional: Any good dictionary (as opposed to abridged or pocket-size).  If you do not currently own one, I encourage you to invest in one and use it often.  There are many versions available in the bookstore; I recommend Webster’s or American Heritage.

Course Requirements

Grading Policy

Engagement                                          10%

Cover Letters and Peer Critiques          10%

Formal Writing Assignments                  80%

Attendance

You are allowed two absences without penalty. Additional absences will lower your final grade by an entire letter grade. A fifth absence will result in a failing grade for the course. There are NO exceptions to this policy.

With the exception of athletic exemptions, for which you will be provided with documentation, there is no such thing as an excused absence. Do not consider the two absences you are allowed to be “free.” These should be saved for actual emergencies. Do not use an absence because you are hung-over and then expect more if an actual unavoidable need to miss class arises.

A significant part of attendance is coming to class on time. Lateness of more than fifteen minutes will be marked as an absence. Better late than never is a good policy within reason. However, if you going to be more than twenty minutes late please don’t bother.

You are responsible for contacting me by e-mail if you miss a class, and you are expected to be fully prepared for the next class session. 

Participation

Participation is dependent on thorough preparation.  Preparation requires thoughtfully reading the texts, writing down key points and / or questions, and being willing to share your thoughts and reactions during class discussion.  Discussions become difficult and quite boring when all members of the class have not read the assigned texts.  Respect yourself as a necessary member of this community, as well as your fellow classmates, by being prepared everyday.  Please note that many in‑class writing exercises assume (and depend upon) your having read the assigned material.  Review your syllabus frequently, and plan your workload accordingly.

Formal Writing and Cover Letters

Essays are due at the beginning of class on the date due. Late essays are subject to having their final grade reduced.  Absence from class on the due date does not excuse the lateness of your assignment. Allow plenty of time for printing your essay in the computer lab, and/or keep an extra ink cartridge handy if using your own printer. It is YOUR responsibility to save all drafts of your work until the end of the semester.  I strongly recommend having a back-up file and printed hardcopies of your work.

Assignments which are more than one week late will receive an F. Papers less than a week late will incur a penalty of a one third of a letter grade reduction for each day that they are late. Nonetheless, you must complete all four major writing assignments in order to earn a passing grade for the course.

ALL formal essays and homework assignments must be typed on a word processor or computer-generated and saved as a separate document in order to best facilitate revision.  Use 12 pt. Times New Roman for your font and point size. All documents should be double‑spaced with one-inch margins. Be sure to proofread every paper you turn in.  Papers which are handwritten or lack a cover letter will not be graded.

Incompletes

According to the University at Buffalo’s Composition Program policy, an incomplete grade may only be given to students who have (1) fulfilled the attendance requirement for the course and (2) completed all but one of the written assignments.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is using another person’s words and ideas as though they were your own.  It is easy to avoid plagiarism: simply put the material you have taken from someone else’s writing in quotation marks and cite the person’s name and publication in your paper.  Even if you are paraphrasing another person’s ideas or text, you must acknowledge this source.  Plagiarism is a serious offense which can result in expulsion from the University.  A paper which contains any plagiarized material at all will receive an F; two such plagiarized papers will result in the student receiving an F for the course.  NOTE: plagiarism is not restricted to the use of published work; the passing of another student’s work or texts from the internet / web as your own is also a case of plagiarism.  Any attempt to commit this violation of academic integrity will be taken seriously.