uvsc101b

Instructor: Dr. John C. Goshert
Office: LA 121t Phone: 863-6288
e-mail: gosherjo@uvsc.edu
Office Hours: MW 1:30-3:00 and by appointment

The Allyn and Bacon Guide to Writing (new 4^th Edition—with grey and yellow cover)

Prentice Hall Guide to Grammar and Usage (preferably the new 6^th Edition)

Additional texts will be available through electronic library reserves: http://eres.uvsc.edu.

1. Per UVSC catalog, this is a course designed to enhance “literacies,” and not simply mechanical writing skills (students should be at least competent in basic mechanics when entering this course). Accordingly, you are responsible not only for the writing assignments, but for completing the reading assigned for each day (and there will be reading assigned almost every day of the semester), and you must be prepared to discuss reading selections thematically and formally, both on their own terms and in relation to course projects.

2. Related to the above: this is a class focused on developing strategies of critical thinking, analysis, and writing. Reading selections are thus determined by standards of academic inquiry and a commitment to the exchange of ideas; materials will not be “rated G” or censored in any way.

3. Note that the Prentice Hall Guide is not assigned reading at any particular time in the semester; rather, it is your responsibility to purchase the book and to use it as a resource for grammar, spelling, and format conventions (among others). This is not a grammar course.

Course Description, Advice, and Policies

This course is an introduction to college level rhetorical skills through reading, writing, and discussion, which together provide necessary foundations for success throughout your college experience. Your success in the course is dependent not only on completing the assigned reading and writing, but also on participating actively in the class—in developing process-oriented strategies for writing.

Because we will take a discussion/workshop approach to the course, attendance and participation will weigh significantly in your grade. More than three absences during the semester can result in failure of the class.

Summary: Briefly, there will be five major papers assigned throughout the semester. The exploration paper (2 pages) is a brief examination of the problematic concept of education. Paper 2 (5 pages) identifies a local problem and its solution. Paper 3 (5 pages) is a rhetorical analysis and response to a scholarly article of your choice. Paper 4 (2 pages) is an annotated bibliography and proposal (graded pass/fail) in preparation for paper 5, an exploratory/research essay (5 or more pages).

Revision: Choosing from papers 1-3, you may revise as many as two assignments for better grades during the semester. Papers will be resubmitted with the original graded draft and a one-page narrative statement on the improvements made on the revised draft (what did you do to revise the paper? what did you learn in the revision process?). Due within two weeks after the date papers are returned. To be considered for an improved grade, papers will include substantial revisions: specifically, global revisions (topic, organization, content, transitions), over and above needed mechanical revisions (spelling, sentence structure, format). If your original draft is missing peer reviews, you must get peer reviews in order to have your paper considered for any improvement.

Style: Papers will be computer generated in black ink on white paper. Use a book-type font such as Times, Bookman, etc. and a reasonable type size. Papers will follow MLA guidelines (to be discussed), unless another format is approved prior to submission. Save copies of your papers in case there is a question about a missing assignment; it will be your responsibility to provide a duplicate. No late work will be accepted. If you’re not going to be in class on a due date, either turn your work in early or arrange for someone to turn it in for you.

Bookkeeping: Keep a portfolio (a wallet folder or the like) of all of your writing—from prewriting through your final drafts—throughout the semester.

Plagiarism: Don’t plagiarize. You’ll fail the course and risk expulsion from the College. We’ll discuss this in detail, but for reference, see AB (629-31) and/or PH (298-301).

Resources: If you ever have questions about the class in general or your work in particular, take advantage of office hours; they are there for your benefit. It is your responsibility to make sure assignments and other class activities are clear. Also, meet a couple of people in class who can give you notes, peer reviews, assignments, etc. on the days you can’t make it.

Take advantage of tutoring services in the writing lab (LA 201). Students of all levels will benefit from advice, readings, and discussions, in individual and small-group settings, which are provided free of charge by tutors.

Students will activate their UVSC e-mail accounts and check e-mail regularly.

Per UVSC policies: “Each student is expected to take an active role in the learning process by meeting course requirements as specified in written syllabi” (VII.A). Thus, the course syllabus comprises a contract between instructor and students, who will be held to its terms and expectations, for “The right to receive academic credit and/or academic degrees when all specified requirements and course work have been satisfied” (V.L). In other words, the student has the right to receive credit for work that meets or exceeds satisfactory performance; however, the student also has the right to fail based on those same conditions of performance.

It is not only your right, but also your responsibility to ask questions, to raise challenges, to discuss readings, and to otherwise participate in the class as it unfolds over the semester.

If you have any disability that may impair your ability to successfully complete this course, please contact the Accessibility Services Department located in BU 146. Academic Accommodations are granted for all students who have qualified documented disabilities. Services are coordinated with the student and instructor by the Accessibility Services Department. Accessibility Services Department telephone 801-863-8747; TDD 801-221-0908.

A $2.00 fee has been assessed for photocopying.

Grade Distribution
Paper #1 (exploration)                          10%
Paper #2 (problem-solution)                20%
Paper #3 (article summary)                 20%
Paper #4 (bibliography/proposal)     10%
Paper #5 (exploratory essay)               20%
Attendance and participation             20%

Per UVSC catalog:

A: “an honor grade indicating superior achievement”
B: “a grade indicating commendable mastery”
C: “indicates satisfactory mastery”
D: “indicates substandard progress and insufficient evidence of ability to succeed in sequential courses”
F: “indicates inadequate mastery of pertinent skills or repeated absences from class”

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE OF ASSIGNMENTS
Additional readings may be assigned as appropriate

11             Adler: “What Is Liberal Education?” (attachment)
                Allyn and Bacon ch. 1
                Take a test drive through electronic reserve holdings: make sure you can use the system

3 A&B ch. 4 (60-74, 80-83)
Begin Paper #2: Proposing Solution to a Local Problem

10             Topic paragraph workshop: Identification/Explanation of problem
                Bring typed introductory paragraph(s) for review
                A&B ch. 19

24             Research Seminar: Class meets in LC 218 Kieth Rowley
                A&B ch. 22 (581-605)
                Paper #2 Due

10             A&B ch. 8
                Begin paper #4: Proposal/Annotated Bibliography
                Paper #3 Due

17 Research/Extended office hours (As you prepare your annotated bibliography,

22 Research/Extended office hours MLA Citations” [637-38], and see Leigh’s Works

Let us first be clear about the meaning of the liberal arts and liberal educations. The liberal arts are traditionally intended to develop the faculties of the human mind, those powers of intelligence and imagination without which no intellectual work can be accomplished. Liberal education is not tied to certain academic subjects, such as philosophy, history, literature, music, art, and other so-called "humanities." In the liberal-arts tradition, scientific disciplines, such as mathematics and physics, are considered equally liberal, that is, equally able to develop the powers of the mind.

The liberal-arts tradition goes back to the medieval curriculum. It consisted to two parts. The first part, trivium, comprised grammar, rhetoric, and logic. It taught the arts of reading and writing, of listening and speaking, and of sound thinking. The other part, the quadivium, consisted of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music (not audible music, but music conceived as a mathematical science). It taught the arts of observation, calculation, and measurement, how to apprehend the quantitative aspect of things. Nowadays, of course, we would add many more sciences, natural and social. This is just what has been done in the various modern attempts to renew liberal education.

Liberal education, including all the traditional arts as well as the newer sciences, is essential for the development of top-flight scientists. Without it, we can train only technicians, who cannot understand the basic principles behind the motions they perform. We can hardly expect such skilled automatons to make new discoveries of any importance. A crash program of merely technical training would probably end in a crashup for basic science.

The connection of liberal education with scientific creativity is not mere speculation. It is a matter of historical fact that the great German scientists of the nineteenth century had a solid background in the liberal arts. They all went through, a liberal education which embraced Greek, Latin, logic, philosophy, and history, in addition to mathematics, physics, and other sciences. Actually, this has been the educational preparation of European scientists down to the present time. Einstein, Bohr, Fermi, and other great modern scientists were developed not by technical schooling, but by liberal education.

Despite all of the ranting and hullabaloo since Sputnik I was propelled into the skies, this has been broadly true of Russian scientists, too. If you will just note the birth dates of the men who have done the basic work in Soviet science, it will be apparent to you that they could not have received their training under any new system of education. As for the present educational setup in the Soviet Union, which many alarmists are demanding that we emulate, it seems to contain something besides technical training and concentration on the natural sciences and mathematics.

The aim of liberal education, however, is not to produce scientists. It seeks to develop free human beings who know how to use their minds and are able to think for themselves. Its primary aim is not the development of professional competence, although a liberal education is indispensable for any intellectual profession. It produces citizens who can exercise their political liberty responsibly. It develops cultivated persons who can use their leisure fruitfully. It is an education for all free men, whether they intend to be scientists or not.

Our educational problem is how to produce free men, not hordes of uncultivated, trained technicians. Only the best liberal schooling can accomplish this. It must include all the humanities as well as mathematics and the sciences. It must exclude all merely vocational and technical training.

* This manifesto is taken from the “Real University of Chicago” website, which is produced by an alumni group devoted to defending the liberal education tradition at U.C.: http://www.realuofc.org/libed/adler/wle.html