course calendar

Note: Readings and assignments are due on the day they are listed. Click here for a .pdf copy of the revised calendar (as of 3.28.06).

WEEK ONE: INTRODUCTION

Tuesday, January 10: Course Introduction

Thursday, January 12: So Johnny can't write, but whose fault is it?

  • Sheils, Merril. "Why Johnny Can't Write." Newsweek 92 (8 Dec. 1975): 58-65.
  • Bartlett, Thomas. "Why Johnny Can't Write, Even Though He Went to Princeton." The Chronicle of Higher Education (3 Jan. 2003): A39.
  • "Helping Johnny Learn to Write When He Gets to College." The Chronicle of Higher Education (31 Jan. 2003): B.4

WEEK TWO: COMPOSITION STUDIES REDUX

Tuesday, January 17: Composition in English Studies

  • Brereton, John. "Introduction." The Origins of Composition Studies in the American College, 1875-1925. Pittsburgh: UPittsburgh Press, 1995. 3-25.
  • North, Stephen. "composition Becomes Composition." The Making of Knowledge in Composition. Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook, 1987. 9-15.

Thursday, January 19: So what exactly is Composition Studies?

  • Lauer, Janice. "Composition Studies: Dappled Discipline." Rhetoric Review 3.1 (Jan. 1984): 20-29.
  • Phelps, Louise Wetherbee. "Composition Studies." Encyclopedia of Rhetoric and Composition. Theresa Enos, ed. New York: Garland, 1996. 123-134.

WEEK THREE: COMPOSITION'S ROOTS

Tuesday, January 24: Composition's Rhetorical Roots

  • Corbett, Edward P. J. "The Usefulness of Classical Rhetoric." College Communication and Composition 14,3. Annual Meeting, Los Angeles, 1963: Toward a New Rhetoric (Oct. 1963): 162-164.
  • Bitzer, Lloyd. "The Rhetorical Situation." Philosophy and Rhetoric 1 (1968): 1-14.

Thursday, January 26

  • Reading Response #1 Due
  • Commonplace Books Due

WEEK FOUR: COMPOSITION AND CLASSICAL RHETORIC

Tuesday, January 31: Invention

  • Burke, Kenneth. "The Five Key Terms of Dramatism." The Grammar of Motives. Berkeley, CA: UCAP, 1969: xv-xxiii.
  • Young, Richard, Alton Becker, and Kenneth Pike. "Preparation: Exploring the Problem." Chapter 6 of Rhetoric, Discovery, and Change. NY: Harcourt, 1970, 119-130.

Thursday, February 2: Arrangement and Genre

  • Kinneavy, James E. "The Basic Aims of Discourse." CCC 20 (1969): 297-304.
  • Winterowd, W. Ross. "Dispositio: The Concept of Form in Discourse." CCC 22.1 (1971): 39-45.

WEEK FIVE: COMPOSITION AND CLASSICAL RHETORIC, cont

Tuesday, February 7: Audience

  • Ong, Walter. "The Writer's Audience is Always a Fiction." PMLA 90 (1975): 9-21.
  • Ede, Lisa, and Andrea Lunsford. "Audience Addressed/Audience Invoked: The Role of Audience in Composition Theory and Pedagogy." CCC 35 (1984): 155-71.
  • Porter, James. "Intertextuality and the Discourse Community." Rhetoric Review 5 (1986): 34-47.

Thursday, February 9: Style/Grammar

  • Williams, Joseph. "The Phenomenology of Error." CCC 32 (1981): 139-152.
  • Faigley, Lester and Stephen Witte. "Coherence, Cohesion, and Writing Quality." CCC 32.2 (1981): 189-204.

WEEK SIX: COMPOSITION AND CLASSICAL RHETORIC, cont

Tuesday, February 14: Revision

  • Sommers, Nancy. "Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers." Cross-Talk in Comp Theory, 2nd ed. Victor Villanueva, ed. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 2003. 43-54.
  • Faigley, Lester and Stephen Witte. "Analyzing Revision." CCC 32.4 (1981): 400-414.

Thursday, February 16: Putting It All Together

  • View Jerry Seinfeld's Comedian
  • no reading assignment

WEEK SEVEN: COMPOSITION AND CLASSICAL RHETORIC, cont

Tuesday, February 21: Review Day

Thursday, February 23

  • Reading Response #2 Due
  • Commonplace Books Due

WEEK NINE: PROCESS, PRODUCT, OR SOMETHING ELSE?

Tuesday, February 28: Paradigm Shifts(?)--Product to Process

  • Berlin, James and Robert P. Inkster. "Current-Traditional Rhetoric: Paradigm and Practice." Freshman English News 8.3 (1980). Pages
  • Connors, Robert J. "The Rise and Fall of the Modes of Discourse." CCC 32.4 (1981): 444-455.
  • Hairston, Maxine. "The Winds of Change: Thomas Kuhn and the Revolution in the Teaching of Writing." CCC 33.1 (1982): 76-88.

Thursday, March 2: Early Process Theories

  • Mills, Barriss. "Writing as Process." College English 15.1 (1953): 19-26.
  • Murray, Donald M. "Teach Writing as a Process Not Product." Cross-Talk in Comp Theory, 2nd ed. Victor Villanueva, ed. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 2003. 3-6.

WEEK NINE: PROCESS, PRODUCT, OR SOMETHING ELSE?, cont

Tuesday, March 7: Emig and The Composing Processes of Twelfth Graders

  • Emig, Janet. The Composing Processes of Twelfth Graders. Urbana, IL: NCTE, 1971. Chapter 3,6,7.
  • Voss, Ralph F. "Janet Emig's The Composing Processes of Twelfth Graders: A Reassessment." CCC 34.3 (1983): 278-283.

Thursday, March 9: Cognitive Theories of Process

  • Flower, Linda, and John Hayes. "A Cognitive Process Theory of Writing." CCC 32 (1981): 365-387.

WEEK TEN: SPRING BREAK

Tuesday, March 14 and Thursday, March 16

WEEK ELEVEN: PROCESS, PRODUCT, OR SOMETHING ELSE?, cont

Tuesday, March 21: Expressivism

  • Elbow, Peter. "A Method for Teaching Writing." CE 30.2 (1968): 115-125.
  • Murray, Donald. "Finding Your Own Voice." CCC 20 (1969): 118-123.
  • Reading Response #3 Due
  • Commonplace Books Due

Thursday, March 23:

No Class, Amy at 4Cs

WEEK TWELVE: REVISITING PUBLIC DISCUSSIONS OF WRITING

Tuesday, March 28: What's Right, Wrong, and/or Weird with Writing in the University

  • McDonald, Heather. "Why Johnny Can't Write." Public Interest 120 (1995): p. 3, 11 pps.
  • Ridgely, Stanley K. "College Students Can't Write?" National Review Online. (19 Feb. 2003).
  • "Students' Rights to Their Own Language." CCC 25.3 (1974): 1-18.
  • Paper Proposal Due

Thursday, March 30: National Commission on Writing Reports

WEEK THIRTEEN

Tuesday, April 4: Discussions of Writing in Popular Media

  • Kelver, Julia. "Can We, Like, Talk?" Chicago Tribune Magazine 13 Feb. 2005: p. 13-28.
  • Truss, Lynne. "Introduction--The Seventh Sense." Eats Shoots & Leaves. New York: Gotham, 2005.
  • Reading Response #4 due (optional for extra credit)
  • Commonplace books due

Thursday, April 6

Annotated Bibliography Due

WEEK FOURTEEN

Tuesday, April 11

Drafting Day

Thursday, April 13

1st draft of final project--Writing Workshops

WEEK FIFTEEN

Tuesday, April 18: English 106 Showcase

Thursday, April 20

LAST CLASS MEETING DAY

  • First drafts returned
  • course/teacher evaluations
  • final project/commonplace turn-in information

WEEK SIXTEEN

Tuesday, April 25

Thursday, April 27: Last Day of Class