Engl
3130 Advanced Composition, Fall 2018
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[ Calendar ] [ Model
Student Essays ] [ Final
Exam Instructions/ Best Essays from This Semester ]
Calendar
last update: November 28, 2018
Class meets on Wednesday evenings from 4pm
to 6:50pm in Burleson 304.
BAM = Best American Magazine
Writing 2017
SS = The Sense of Style: The
Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century, by Steven Pinker
Week 1 (Weds Aug 29)
Introductions. Writing
process. What makes good writing?
Week 2 (Weds Sep 5)
- 1500 word rough
draft of essay 1,
Narrative, due. Write at least 1500 words. Don't worry too much
about the quality of it. Just jump in and write! As always, on draft days,
bring two extra copies (a total of 3 copies) for a writing workshop.
- Click here for an ms word version of a writing
response sheet: http://faculty.etsu.edu/odonnell/readings/WritingResponseWorksheet.docx.
Print two copies of the sheet and bring those to class.
- Browse the UNC-Chapel
Hill Writing Center Handouts on Writing Groups: writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/writing-groups/.
Read "Responding to Other People's Writing"--writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/writing-groups/responding-to-other-peoples-writing/--
and read "Reacting to Other People's Responses to Your
Writing"-- writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/writing-groups/reacting-to-other-peoples-responses-to-your-writing/--at
the UNC Writing Center website.
- In BAM read
"Introduction," pix-xiii; read David Quammen, "Yellowstone: Wild
Heart of a Continent," p303-309.
Bring BAM to class, and be prepared to discuss those selections.
Week 3 (Weds Sep 12)
- Essay 1,
revised, due for a grade. Also bring to class the rough draft,
to submit along with the revised essay.
- Bring your grammar
handbook to class.
- Browse the "Tech
Writing" essays on the "Model
Student Essays" page.
- Read the following
professional examples of tech writing, online:
- "36 Hours in Asheville, N. C." By Shaila Dewan. New
York Times, Oct 13, 2016. www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/10/10/travel/what-to-do-36-hours-in-asheville-north-carolina.html
- "The Bacon Explosion: Take Bacon. Add Sausage. Blog." Food article
and recipe, New York Times online, January 27, 2009. www.nytimes.com/2009/01/28/dining/28bacon.html
- In BAM read
"Ladies in Waiting" by Becca Rothfield, p437-451.
Week 4 (Weds Sep 19)
- 1500 word rough
draft of essay 2, Tech
Writing, due. As always, on draft days, bring two extra copies (a
total of 3 copies) for a writing workshop.
- Click here for an ms word version of a writing
response sheet: http://faculty.etsu.edu/odonnell/readings/WritingResponseWorksheet.docx.
Print two copies of the sheet and bring those to class.
- On Youtube, view "Great Pacific Garbage
Patch." By Hank Green and the
youtube channel SciShow. Published on August 7, 2012. Running time: 3:22. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nh6lkv1udb0
- In The Sense of Style, read
"Prologue" p1-9, and "Chapter 1: Good Writing"
p11-26. Bring the book to class.
We'll discuss it at some length.
Week 5 (Weds Sep 26)
- Essay 2 due.
- Bring your grammar
handbook to class.
- In SS, read
"Chapter 3: The Curse of Knowledge--the main cause of incomprehensible
prose is the difficulty of imagining what it's like for someone else not to
know something that you know," p57-76.
- Browse the
"Review/ Criticism" essays on the "Model
Student Essays" page.
- Read, here online,
"Steven Pinker’s ‘The Sense of Style’" [book review]. By Charles
McGrath. The New York Times Sunday Book Review, October 17,
2014. www.nytimes.com/2014/10/19/books/review/steven-pinker-the-sense-of-style-review.html
- In BAM read
"Giantess" by Rebecca Solnit, p428-435.
Week 6 (Weds Oct 3)
- 1500 word rough
draft of essay 3, Review/
Criticism, due. As always, on draft days, bring two extra copies (a
total of 3 copies) for a writing workshop.
- In BAM read
"Listening for the Country" by Zandria F. Robinson, p491-511.
Week 7 (Weds Oct 10)
- Essay 3 due.
- Bring your grammar
handbook to class.
- Browse the
"Writing from Sources" essays on the "Model
Student Essays" page.
- Online,
read "The Answer Man: An ancient poem was rediscovered—and the world
swerved." By Stephen Greenblatt. The New Yorker, August 8,
2011. www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/08/08/110808fa_fact_greenblatt
Due: Topic proposal for
essay 4, Writing from Sources. Write a memo to me and your classmates,
proposing a topic for the essay that you will write. Consider the following
guidelines:
1. Include a tentative, working title for the essay you propose to
write (including a subtitle after the colon).
2. Describe why you are interested in the topic, and why you are
qualified to write about it.
3. If you are choosing, for this essay, to revisit a topic about
which you've already written: describe the previous writing you've done on this
same topic.
4. Also, include at least one complete, formal citation for one
good written source that you plan to use for your essay. Write an annotation for
that source -- that is, a short paragraph describing the source and how you
think it will be useful for your essay.
Week 8 (Weds Oct 17)
- Wikipedia writing
exercise due: Edit a wikipedia article. Then
write a concise memo, addressed to me, and to your Engl 3130 classmates,
providing the exact information a reader would need in order to see what
changes you made to the article.
- Bring to class 2
sources that you are using for you essay 4. If a given
source is a published book, or if you have a printout (hard copy), bring the
printed copy to class. If a source exists primarily online, bring
the url and a hard copy of a full written citation; be ready to present and
discuss.
- Read the section
entitled "Key differences in MLA 8th Edition," in A Complete
Guide to MLA 8th Edition, here online at easybib.com: www.easybib.com/guides/citation-guides/mla-8/ultimate-guide-mla-eighth-edition/. Also,
browse the rest of that page.
Week 9 (Weds Oct 24)
Draft of essay 4,
Writing from Sources, due. Be sure your draft includes a
complete bibliography. As always, on draft days, bring two extra
copies (a total of 3 copies) for a writing workshop.
Week 10 (Weds Oct 31) Essay 4 due.
Week 11 (Weds Nov 7)
- Draft of essay 5, Writing in the
Nonfiction Genre of Your Choice, due.
-
In BAM, read "President Trump, Seriously" by Matt Taibbi,
p163-184.
Week 12 (Weds Nov 14) Essay 5 due.
In SS, by Steven Pinker,
read the intro to Chapter 6, "Telling Right from Wrong,"
p187-201. Also read the entry entitled
"adjectives and adverbs," p201-203.
In BAM, read
"Delusion is the Thing with Feathers" by McClelland, p3-22.
Week 13 Thanksgiving!
Due by Monday, November 19: Email
me a revision proposal: Write a memo to me and your classmates, in which you
discuss your plans for revising your best essay. Which of your five essays do
you plan to revise? What is its title? Describe the piece. Why are you choosing
to revise it? What qualities does this essay have, which will lead it to find a
genuine audience on the internet? What specific revisions do you plan to make,
so that the essay will be ready to send out into the world?
Week 14 (Weds Nov 28) Revising your best essay.
In SS, read
"preposition at the end of a sentence" p220-222, and "who and whom" p240-243, and
"commas..." p285-294.
In BAM, read "The
Improvisational Oncologist" by Mukherjee, p 115-129.
Week 15 (Weds Dec 5) Revision of your best
essay due. Guidelines for
submission:
1. Bring a printed copy to class.
That is the version of the essay that I will read and grade.
2. Also, email me an electronic version, as an attachment, by 4pm:
odonnell@etsu.edu I prefer an ms word
file.
3. Save the file with your complete title in the "title"
field. Also include 3 indexing terms in
the "tags" field. You'll be
able to see the "title" and "tags" field when you select
"save as."
4. At the top of your essay, include an email address, which
strangers can use to contact you.
5. If you do not want your name on the essay, when it's on the
web, then write under a pseudonymn instead.
Final
exam period: Wednesday December 12, 6-8pm