Syllabus with Learning Goals & Policies
WRA 110: Science and Technology, Sec. 747,
Tuesdays, 3- 4:50pm
Fall 2011
Instructor:
Email: sharij87@yahoo.com
Office: 243 Bessey Hall
Office Hours: Thursdays,
Course Description:
As part of the general education requirement, Tier I Writing contributes to the
- contributing members of MSU's community of scholars
- committed to asking important questions and to seeking rich responses to those questions
- developing skills, knowledge, and attitudes that improve the quality of life for self and others through scholarly, social, and professional activities
- can be engaged across inquiry situations (scholarly, social, and professional)
- require the development of knowledge about the importance of contextual factors that affect the application of these methods of inquiry
- For students to be able to protect their own and others’ digital and print works from copyright infringement, including those works that they make publicly distributed.
- For students to view social media as a tool not only to utilize to connect with others, but also to collaborate on writing tasks and to utilize in their writing process.
- For students to be able to properly cite their sources from both web-based sources and books/journal articles and be able to discern the difference between online journals and books and those that are paper-based.
- For students to understand the differences between scientific academic writing and other forms of academic writing.
Ballenger, Bruce. The Curious Researcher.
Various articles to be found on ANGEL and through MSU’s library system
Please note: The Ballenger texts is a new edition that include the 2009 MLA updates. It is mandatory that you have access to the 2009 version.
Policies and Procedures:
Attendance: Attendance is mandatory in that all courses in the Tier I Writing Program are interactive and require high levels of student participation. Attendance at all class sessions is expected. You may miss one week of class (i.e. two classes) without affecting your grade. You should reserve these absences to address the observance of religious holidays not acknowledged by the University calendar, family events, serious illness, etc. If you miss more than one week of class, your final grade for the course will be lowered .3 for each additional individual absence.
Coming to cl
ass late (more than 5 minutes after we begin) 3 times will equal one absence. Sleeping in class or engaging in activities not related to class will also be counted as absences.
Late Assignments: Late assignments will be lowered one full letter grade for each day past the due date (the first reduction occurs at the start of the class in which the assignment is due
Completion of Assignments: The First-Year Writing Program requires that students produce a significant amount of writing to fulfill their requirement. You must complete all major assignments to fulfill this requirement and receive a passing grade in WRA 110.
Academic Honesty
I take academic honesty very seriously.
GENERAL STUDENT REGULATIONS
- 1.00 PROTECTION OF SCHOLARSHIP AND GRADES
- The principles of truth and honesty are fundamental to the educational process and the academic integrity of the University; therefore, no student shall:
- 1.01 claim or submit the academic work of another as one’s own.
- 1.02 procure, provide, accept or use any materials containing questions or answers to any examination or assignment without proper authorization.
- 1.03 complete or attempt to complete any assignment or examination for another individual without proper authorization.
- 1.04 allow any examination or assignment to be completed for oneself, in part or in total, by another without proper authorization.
- 1.05 alter, tamper with, appropriate, destroy or otherwise interfere with the research, resources, or other academic work of another person.
- 1.06 fabricate or falsify data or results.
Procedures for responding to cases of academic honesty and possible repercussions are outlined in Spartan Life: Student Handbook and Resource Guide. They can also be found on the web at: http://www.msu.edu/unit/ombud/honestylinks.html. Note, the new procedures require that instances of academic dishonesty be reported through the registrar’s office and forwarded to the Dean of the College in which the student’s major resides.
Major Assignments: There are five major projects in this course: four essays and one alternative form of presentation. The schedule at the end of this syllabus outlines the due dates for these major projects. Grade distribution occurs as follows:
Lived Literacies paper: 10 %
Blogposts: 15 %
Disciplinary Literacy paper: 20%
Remix Assignment: 20%
Final Paper: 25%
Peer critique, responses, participation and informal writing assignments: 10%
University Resources for Writers: The
Tentative Daily Schedule
| Week | Topic | Date | Prep/Assignments Due |
| 1 | Course Introduction & Literacy Autobiography | 9/6 | Introduction to the course, ANGEL, blogger and each other. Introduction to first-year writing at MSU. |
| 2 | 9/13 | Read “Critical Language Awareness in the | |
| 3 | Cultural Literacies | 9/20
| Read “The Molecular Basis of Genetic Modification and Improvement of Crops” by T. Erlic. [In class: Shereen El Feki on TED]
Due: Literacy Autobiography |
| 4 | 9/27 | Individual Paper Conferences; no class. Please bring two hard copies of your paper with you to the conference. | |
| 5 | 10/4 | Read Bruce Ballenger’s “Introduction” (Curious 1-25) Print, read, and bring to class “Paper #3 Assignment” (ANGEL), Introduction to Academic/Technical Writing | |
| 6 | Disciplinary Literacies | 10/11 | Library Tour/Introduction. Meet at the Library: details to follow in class. |
| 7 | 10/18 | Read Ballenger’s “Chapter 2” Read “Beyond Global Warming: Ecology and Global Change,” by Peter Vitousek (Jstor) and “Textual Appropriation and Citing Behaviors of University Undergraduates” by Ling Shi (Jstor). | |
| 8 | 10/25 | Read Chapters 3 and 4 in Ballenger | |
| 9 | 11/1 | Read Read “Can crop transgenes be kept on a leash?” by Michelle Marvier and Rene C Van Acker (ANGEL); Chapter 5 in Ballenger. Read and bring to class “Remix Assignment” (ANGEL) View examples of remix project Due: Disciplinary Literacies Paper | |
| 10 | Remix Project | 11/8 | Read Scott Jaschik’s “Winning Hearts & Minds in the War on Plagiarism” (Reader 75-88); Introduction to Copyright Law. Read “Who Uses CC?” and “What is CC?” |
| 11 | 11/15 | Technical Aspects of the Remix Assignment: Q & A Session, Global Remix & RAIDS | |
| 12 | 11/22 | Semester Reflection & Preparation for Final Paper, Remix Workshop #1; Read and bring to class “Final paper” assignment sheet (ANGEL). Due: Remix Assignment | |
| 13 | 11/29 | Remix Presentations | |
| 14 | Final Papers: Revising Literacies | 12/6 | Remix Presentations |
| 15 | 12/13 | Final Exam: date, time, location Due: Final Paper |
Learning Interactions & “Locations”
I expect you, as students in a hybrid course, to engage with the technology in the course as much as or more than with me (the instructor) and your classmates.
Therefore, as we are a hybrid course with limited face-time, we will have specific locations for specific online interactions. This will facilitate not only many types of interactions (peer-to-peer, instructor-to-peer, many peers-to-many peers), but will also provide for a consistent, structured space for each activity.
| Activity | Location/ Technology Name | Website |
| Q & A Sessions | Convore | https://convore.com/ourspecificsite |
| Peer Review | Eli Review | |
| Blogposts | Our course Blogger Site | |
| One-on-one Instructor- Student Interaction (when Office hours are not convenient for the student) | Skype |
Project Descriptions & Evaluation Guidelines
As this course is hypothetical but also very connected, time dependent and “in the now,” I have planned on a Fall 2011 implementation with time frames which correspond to Michigan State University
It should be noted that, based upon the day-to-day experiences of this course and student interactions and success, I modify plans and projects. That is, these project descriptions are flexible to the point that they need to be. The following project descriptions and evaluation guidelines are intended to scaffold learners, building from a small amount of academic language from the author’s field incorporated into the papers to a large degree of academic language. This process is facilitated by the instructors’ (my) responses to blogposts. It is also facilitated by the peer review that is incorporated throughout the course.
The Blogposts
This course asks you to create and respond to blogposts, found on our course website,
http://wra110fall2011.blogspot.com/.
1. What does Vitousek have to say about the relative powers of good and evil in the natural world and the conditions under which one is victorious over the other? This question should be written in an academic language. Please also reflect, in this blogpost, about writing in academic language on a medium that is traditionally used for non-academic purposes.
2. Please create a post about your writing process in composing the Disciplinary Literacies paper.
3. Please write a post about your experience as a first-year writing student and the ways in which the papers and projects up to this point have informed your writing in the sciences (a revelatory post).
4. Please compose a post which describes your interactions with peer review in an online course (using Eli) as compared with in-person peer review. Please discuss the affordances and disaffordances of both online peer review and face-to-face peer review.
5. [Please do near the end of the semester]: Please reflect on your acclimation to the world of college-level, academic scientific writing.
Paper Descriptions:
Lived Literacies: Paper # 1
This first paper asks you to look at your own literacy history- and, as discussed throughout the blogposts, literacy defined as a much more complex concept than reading and writing. Please connect, through this paper, the ways in which thus far, science, technology and writing have been integrated in your academic experience and outside of academia. Use this paper to imagine ways in which your experience might change We began this semester discussing our own and one another’s literary histories, and by looking at the literary history of other people. In paper #1, each of you will have the opportunity to create a more formal version of your own literacy history. As our readings have illustrated, there are a number of ways to focus your literacy autobiography: working from a significant event or events, following a chronological pattern, discussing significant people involved in that history, etc. You can choose any combination of these focusing methods or use one that you have seen at work in a literacy autobiography that we have not read together as a class. As you make these decisions, remember that your literacy history should do more than tell a story or strive for self-expression; it must also reflect on the significance of the literacy issues implied by the narrative. This means that you must explore events, people, the chronology of your literacy history or whatever focusing strategies you choose to identify its significance in some larger frame is a common expectation for some students in higher education; this assignment will help you meet these expectations in effective ways.
In the first paper, then, you will reflect upon the different facets of your literacy history and upon your ideas of literacy more generally. Your purpose here is to discover how the reading we have done to date sheds light on your own literacy history, and to communicate that discovery to others. It is important to remember that you are not only telling a story; you are also reflecting on the significance of your story in relation to the theme of literacy. Your paper must include a visual; for this paper your visual will be a cover page that prepares the audience to enter into your text as an engaged reader.
We will spend a significant amount of time discussing invention, arrangement and revision activities for this assignment.
Requirements: 3-7 pages in 12 point font; one-inch margins; a cover page visual that helps readers enter your paper in the right frame of mind; a short letter explaining your invention, arrangement and revision choices for this assignment.
Due
Disciplinary Literacy: Paper #2
This paper asks you to synthesize an area of academic inquiry into a literature review. The area of interest can be on any topic of your choosing; ideally, it would be in the field of your major or assist you in selecting a major. The important thing in this paper is that your area of inquiry is specific. Some examples of
Background: The first two formal paper assignments for this course gave you opportunities to identify themes and terms for analysis in order to begin to understand and practice meeting the expectations for writing in higher education. Paper three allows you to continue practicing sound analytic and critical thinking, reading and writing skills while also introducing you to the ways that research and participating in important academic discussions further prepare you to use literacy in effective ways.
Requirements: Different academic disciplines have different ways of preventing and analyzing information, different ways of building knowledge and different ways of presenting knowledge in written forms. This paper gives you the opportunity to begin building your own understanding of how writing is created and operates within a discipline of interest to you. You should choose the discipline that at this point you are most gravitating toward in your undergraduate course of study. That means that you may choose any specific discipline, i.e. archaeology, biomedical research, culinary studies, animal science, etc. Whichever you choose, you must engage in at least the following activities:
- Analysis of at least two scholarly articles from that discipline
- Analysis of at least one book from that discipline
- Analysis of at least one interview you hold with a professor from that discipline
- Bibliography/Works Cited/ Resources page
Think back to the analysis of the articles that we have read from academic journals thus far this semester in helping to create the assemblage of resources that this paper requires. Your paper must be 6-8 pages long, in 12 point Times New Roman font, with one inch margins.
Due
Remix Assignment: Project #3
For this project you will transform one of your papers into an alternative form. It is strongly recommended that you remix your Disciplinary Literacies paper. You might choose to create a video, a photo essay or a web page. Please reference the Remix videos that we viewed in class for formatting procedure.
There are two videos to be included in this project:
- A “taken” video (one that is allowed to be used only in the context of this classroom)
- A video that is allowed to be used in a non-academic context.
I strongly recommend that you use two different rhetorical strategies in creating your videos; this will provide you much more material to work with.
Your final project should also be accompanied by a short (1-2 page) memo that explains:
- The SWAP elements of your project
- Why you selected the essay and alternative presentational form(s) that you chose for this project.
- Your process (RAIDS) for creating the project.
- How your process helped you improve in areas listed on the shared learning outcomes for the Tier 1 Writing Grid that accompanies your syllabus.
We will create an evaluation guide for this project together in class.
Due
Final Assignment
The final assignment asks you to reread the papers, blogposts and projects that you (and, perhaps, your peers) have created this semester. The goal in this paper is to look at and to meet the following major goals:
- Use writing for purposes of reflection, action and participation in academic inquiry
- Engage in reading for the purposes of reflection, critical analysis, decision-making and inquiry
- Read in ways that improve writing, especially be demonstrating an ability to analyze invention, arrangement and revision strategies.
- Demonstrate an understanding of research as epistemic and recursive processes that arise from and respond back to various communities.
This does not mean that other style and delivery issues are not important. But they should be made in relation to the elements of SWAP you define for your paper and will be evaluated in the larger frame of the project.
Requirements for this assignment:
Your final paper for this course gives you the opportunity to revisit and revise your literacy history for a specific purpose of your choosing. For example, you might choose to revisit and revise your literacy history to clarify how your writing, reading and researching practice have changed this semester and how you will apply them and/or continue to develop them in the future. We have seen many writers use themes to explore their lives as literate human beings. Alternatively, you might decide to use this paper opportunity to explore and explain how what you have learned this semester will be applied to some form of non-academic writing that you have become interested in (e.g., songwriting). The important thing to remember as you use purpose, audience, subject and self to define your final project is that the final project should help you both:
- Revise your individual literacy autobiography in a significant way by drawing on course materials and activities and
- create strong points of significance
Your final paper must be submitted with a cover letter explaining:
1. Which invention arrangement, revision, style and delivery elements you used and why
2. Which purpose, audience, subject and self you chose for the assignment and why.
You should be prepared to discuss your chosen theme in class by next (date)
This paper should be 7-10 pages long; it counts for 30 percent of your final course grade. Your visual(s) can be placed anywhere; it will be evaluated for effectiveness in relation to your points of significance.
Due
Sample conceptual materials:
Questions for Convore Chat,
- After having read the Introduction and first chapter, and having found your area of interest to research, what questions do you have about beginning the research process?
- Thus far this semester we have discussed the specifics of scientific writing
- Thus far this semester we have discussed the
Project Evaluation Guidelines:
- The assessment for your projects will be based on the scale and Requirement grid which follow. This grid reflects both the goals of first-year writing as well as the goals for our specific course, which include writing in the sciences and with technology.
- Each of the five main categories of performance will be given a score from one to ten. This number will be averaged over the five categories, with a final percentage and score following.
The scale that will be utilized follows:
0- Not completed
1- Very bad
2- Bad
3- Fairly bad
4- Insufficient
5- Marginal
6- Satisfactory
7- Fairly good
8- Good
9- Very good
10- Excellent
| | Original, sophisticated focus; takes risk by attempting a complex approach and using new invention, arrangement and/or revision strategies. | Develops content to a significant degree. Arranges material in a context, media and discipline- appropriate way. | Tone is appropriate for writing situation and audience, with a strong connection with audience interests; meets the revisionary purpose. | Correctly utilizes others’ ideas, including properly utilizing copyright rules, APA or MLA citation. Utilizes a purposeful grammatical structure. |
| Score (1-10): | | | | |
| Final (Average) Score: | ||||
