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English 0701 |
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Introduction to Academic Discourse
Suggested English 0701 Syllabus Fall 2009
Instructor: Office hours: E-Mail: Telephone:
Website: http://TUPortal.temple.edu, then click on “Blackboard” Any student who has a need for accommodation based on the impact of a disability should contact me privately to discuss the specific situation as soon as possible. Contact Disability Resources and Services at 215- 204-1280 in 100 Ritter Annex to coordinate reasonable accommodations for students with documented disabilities.
Freedom to teach and freedom to learn are inseparable facets of academic freedom. The University has a policy on Student and Faculty and Academic Rights and Responsibilities (Policy #03.70.02) which can be accessed through the following link: http://policies.temple.edu/getdoc.asp?policy_no=03.70.02. WRITING ABOUT GENDER This semester we are going to take a look at gender and gender roles in American culture. We will be using gender as the topic of our course because it is both relatively simple (everybody has one) and extremely complex in terms of how gender impacts people’s lives and identities, feelings and behaviors. While gender will be the topic of our semester-long discussion, our focus will be on developing the reading and writing skills you will need to achieve in college. You must therefore be prepared to do a considerable amount of work in this class, to read carefully and take notes on each reading assigned, and to revise many times the essays you will write throughout the term. The aim of the course is not to advance any one position on gender roles and gendered behaviors. Rather, we will be using the subject as an exercise in critical thinking, and students are not only encouraged but expected to challenge some of the positions expressed in the assigned texts. By the end of the course you will be asked to apply the ideas you have learned from the readings, to discuss critically the concepts studied, and to write about gender issues in a clear and thoughtful manner. Required texts (available at the bookstore): Composing Gender, edited by Rachael Groner and John O’Hara A second text of the instructor’s choosing, with a specific focus on gender as a theme. Hacker, Diana. A Pocket Style Manual (Fifth edition). New York: Bedford St. Martins, 2008. WRITING ASSIGNMENTS AND PORTFOLIOS You will write four essays during the semester and revise the first three of these for the portfolio. You must complete all four essay assignments to pass the class, although simply completing the essays does not guarantee a passing grade. I will not read the portfolio of any student who has not shown me at least three typed drafts of papers in conference. At the end of the semester you will submit a portfolio: a collection of revised essays to be graded. This means a number of things. One, your success in the class will not be determined by any one essay. Two, all essays grades are tentative until they enter the final portfolio. Three, you will spend considerable time this term working on revisions and thinking about your writing. Your portfolio will contain your three revised essays and all drafts of all essays completed in the course, as well as the final assignment. You should also include in the portfolio all quizzes, as well as notes and drafts from our in-class writing workshops. This means you have to save everything from the semester. All papers should be typed, double-spaced, and stapled. No title pages or folders, please. Simply type your name and the course information at the top of the left margin on your first page of your paper, and give the essay a title, which should be centered about the first paragraph. COURSE POLICIES Attendance and lateness: You are permitted a total of four absences throughout the semester, excused or unexcused. Obviously it is better for you and for me if you are at all the classes. If you have more than four absences you will not pass the course. Students who are not in class when I note attendance, but who show up after that, will be marked as late. Two times being late will equal one absence. If you miss a class you are still responsible for catching up with the work from that day. No pagers or phones in class, please. Quizzes: Short, in-class reading quizzes will be given throughout the term. These are to encourage close and careful reading of the text and to find out if important concepts are clear to you. They will usually be open-book. There will be no make-up deals for missed quizzes. If you aren’t there, you’ll get a zero. In-class workshops: We will hold in-class workshops to help you to understand the demands of the assignments, generate ideas, organize your arguments, and discuss each others’ writing in a focused, constructive, and meaningful way. It is an important part of the course and responsible participation is required. Lack of participation in any workshop will be scored as an absence, so please ensure you bring the required materials with you to class. Conferences: You will meet with me individually three times this semester. We will arrange dates and times. In our meeting we will discuss your work and you will explain ideas you have and ask questions specific to your work. You must bring a typed paper with you to every conference, either a draft I have returned that you wish to discuss, or a draft that you would like to go through with me. If you miss your appointment, or if you fail to bring work with you to discuss, an absence will be counted. I will schedule additional conferences beyond the mandatory four on request. Classroom participation: Obviously you will need to contribute in class - much of our class-time will be discussion. I have also set up a page for us on the Blackboard website.
GRADING You must receive a C- or above to pass the course. You must receive a C- or above on the portfolio to pass English 40, although a passing portfolio alone doesn’t guarantee you will pass the course. A student with any or all of the following will receive an F (fail) for the course: an incomplete portfolio, a markedly insufficient portfolio, a missing portfolio, more than the allowed number of absences, plagiarism. Requirements for the Final Portfolio
Final portfolios will be collected on the last day of classes and will not be accepted late. Buy a paper, two-pocket folder (they have them in the bookstore). Neatly write your full name, course details, and instructor’s name on outside cover, top right hand corner. The portfolio needs to contain: 1. Assignment four. 2. Revised versions of assignments one, two, and three: Clean copies of all revised papers completed during the course. These must be accurate, error-free copies showing your best work on these assignments. No corrections should be visible. Place them in the left pocket of the folder, behind Assignment #4. 3. All previous drafts of papers, and your quizzes: These should be placed in the right pocket of the folder. The purpose of these drafts is to create a more complete picture of your development as a writer. Include all quizzes and notes and drafts from in-class writing workshops.
Academic Dishonesty: Plagiarism and Violating the Rules of an Assignment [Excerpted from the Temple University Statement on Academic Honesty for Students in Undergraduate Courses] Plagiarism Plagiarism is the unacknowledged use of another person's labor: another person's ideas, words, or assistance. Some sorts of plagiarism are obvious. Students must not copy someone else's examination answer or laboratory report, submit a paper written in whole or in part by someone else, or have a friend do an assignment or take a test for them. Other forms of plagiarism, however, are less obvious. We provide below some guidelines concerning the types of materials that should be acknowledged through an acceptable form of citation. Quotations Paraphrasing another's language Facts Ideas In general, all sources must be identified as clearly, accurately, and thoroughly as possible. When in doubt about whether to identify a source either cite the source or consult your instructor. Violating the Rules of an Assignment Academic work is intended to advance the skills, knowledge, and intellectual competence of students. It is important, therefore, that students not behave in such a way as to thwart these intentions. When students are given assignments in a class, the instructor will normally explain the rules under which the assignment is to be carried out. A student who does not understand the rules should ask the instructor for clarification. Academic cheating is, in general terms, the thwarting or breaking of the general rules of academic work and/or the specific rules of individual courses. It includes falsifying data; submitting, without the instructor's approval, work in one course which was done for another; helping others to plagiarize or cheat from one's own or someone else's work; or actually doing the work of another person. Penalty for Academic Dishonesty If you plagiarize in my class you will fail the course. This is not negotiable. If you are uncertain about anything, ask BEFORE you hand in the work. It will be too late afterwards. Suggested Schedule for English 0701 Theme 1: Forming Gender/Gendered Bodies Week 1: LABOR DAY Introduction Lorber, “Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender” Week 2: Devor, “Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meanings of Gender” Renzetti and Curran, from Women, Men and Society Week 3: Hubbard, “Rethinking Women’s Biology” Martin, “Becoming a Gendered Body: Practices of Preschools” Week 4: Messner, “Barbie Girls versus Sea Monsters: Children Constructing Gender” Lieberman, “‘Someday My Prince Will Come’: Female Acculturation through the Fairy Tale” Pollitt, “The Smurfette Principle” Week 5: Best, “Prom Night: Youth, Schools and Popular Culture” CONFERENCES
Theme 2: Women and Men in Mass Media Week 6: Rivers, “Superwomen and Twitching Wrecks” McCormic, “Hoovers and Shakers: The New Housework Workout” Messner and Montez de Oca, “The Male Consumer as Loser: Beer and Liquor Ads in Mega Sports Media Events” Week 7: Greven, “Dude, Where’s My Gender?: Contemporary Teen Comedies and New Forms of American Masculinity” Berila and Choudhuri, “Metrosexuality the Middle-Class Way: Exploring Race, Class and Gender in Queer Eye for the Straight Guy”
Theme 3: Gender/Power Week 8: Johnson, “What is This Thing Called Patriarchy?” Connell, “Arms and the Man: The Question of Peace” CONFERENCES Week 9: Leonard, “Household Labor and Technology in a Consumer Culture” Bordo, “Reading the Slender Body” Week 10: Kimmel, from Manhood in America
Theme 4: Global/Transnational Contexts Week 11: Mernissi, “Size 6: The Western Women’s Harem” Davis-Floyd, “Gender and Ritual: Giving Birth the American Way” Week 12: Enloe, from Globalization and Militarism or Schaeffer-Grabiel, “Planet-Love.com: Cyberbrides in the Americas and the Transnational Routes of U.S. Masculinity” Week 13: Long Text CONFERENCES Week 14: Long Text Week 15: Long Text CONFERENCES PORTFOLIOS DUE – TBA by instructor
Assignments ASSIGNMENT #1 (recommended length: 4-5 pgs) Summary for a purpose – This assignment should have a key question at the core of it, something to focus the purpose of the assignment. The task is to summarize long, involved essays accurately (this may be one essay with multiple approaches and points in it, or a number of essays that address the same topic), and then to apply viewpoints/positions that best address the key question at hand. Students should be able to explain why they have reached a conclusion in relation to the theories and ideas contained in the essay(s). SAMPLE FOR ASSIGNMENT #1: (4-5 pgs) As the early readings for this course suggest, gender (a social category) is markedly distinct from sex (a biological category). Gender is codified, taught, learned, performed and enforced in many different ways—in many types of institutions and through diverse cultural activities. For this assignment, you are asked to draw upon your own personal experience of having challenged or transgressed gender norms (or having witnessed the challenging or transgression of gender norms) in some “location” of culture (school, playground, family, community, camp, prom, etc.). You may also select a news item or noteworthy event in which an individual or group challenged gender norms. In order to meet the demands of the assignment, you must explain and analyze the relevance of [__] number of course texts to the event/situation. You must summarize two or more theories from the readings about how/where the “social construction” of gender occurs, and apply the theories to your selected event/situation. Importantly, too, attempt to diagnose the possible consequences the “social construction” of gender in your selected domain . . . what does it tell us about how and where gender norms are enforced or resisted, or how gender norms are institutionalized, or how individuals are encouraged to conform (or resist) the expectations of gender. ASSIGNMENT #2 (recommended length: 4-5 pgs) Summary plus comparison and thematic synthesis of materials – The purpose of this assignment is for students not only to summarize multiple essays and compare and contrast the major points of those essays, but more than just comparing and contrasting, to present one or more ideas as valid in relation a subject, topic or issue raised in the readings. SAMPLE FOR ASSIGNMENT #2: (4-5 pgs) In acknowledging the “gentle but forcible process of [gender] acculturation” through fairy tales, Marcia Lieberman writes: “Not only do children find out what happens to the various princes and princesses . . . of their favorite fairy tales, but they also learn behavioral and associational patterns, value systems, and how to predict the consequences of specific acts and circumstances.” Many of our readings concern the influence and impact of mass media representations upon gender norms and expectations in contemporary culture. For this assignment, you are asked to survey one or more terrains of media culture as you attempt to analyze how “representations” of masculinity and/or femininity rely upon, dramatize, take for granted, or otherwise instruct mass audiences on the norms and limits of gender. Try to be specific when selecting media: instead of dealing broadly with something like “television and film,” attempt to identify a “genre” or “type” of representation within a certain medium—say, “women’s fashion magazines” and “women’s television”; or “sports networks” and “cologne advertisements”; or “gay-themed television,” or “soap opera commercials,” or “Prom movies,” or even “boys’ toys” and “girls’ toys” . . . any category can work as long as it is general enough to hold several specific examples but not so general as to suggest limitless examples. Once you have settled on a terrain, or on a set of media representations, summarize and apply, where applicable, the theories on media and gender present in one or more of the course texts to your selected representations. What observations, assumptions, and conclusions from the readings are applicable, either directly or indirectly, to your selected representation(s). Quote and cite relevant passages and forge the connections between our texts’ theories and your own observations on how gender behavior/gender norms are portrayed, modeled, codified, dramatized, stereotyped, assumed, taken-for-granted. How are specific social expectations of gender produced, normalized, affirmed or challenged through your media representation(s). ASSIGNMENT # 3 (recommended length 5-6 pgs) Directed close reading – Using a key essay from class as the cornerstone of the assignment, students should conduct a close reading of a long and complex essay using at least two other course texts to evaluate the central essay addressed. The purpose of the assignment is to draw on the skills of summary, evaluation and synthesis, and to develop further students’ ability to evaluate points of view accurately. SAMPLE FOR ASSIGNMENT #3: (5-6 pgs) “Close reading” of complex texts is a very important skill to master for academic work. Close reading means two primary things:
With all of this in mind, perform a “close reading” of Johnson, Connell, Leonard, Bordo, Enloe, or Schaeffer-Grabiel. The first thing you must do is explain WHY you are doing a close reading, and what you intend that close reading to show (or what you are trying to emphasize from the original article). Your close reading could try to identify a unique or important topic of social or political relevance in relation to gender, and test it through the close reading by including it as a dimension throughout. Your close reading could present an example of a phenomenon, an issue, a personage, or an event related to a gender dynamic, and attempt to illuminate it through the close reading itself. Remember, communicating your close reading is a way of testing a complex essay to see how strong or valid it is. Your scrutiny of the many facets of a long argument should help not only to explain the argument, but through reflection and speculation, to measure its totality and weigh its validity. ASSIGNMENT #4 (recommended length: 6-8 pgs) Long text as focus for discussion and study – Using the long text the instructor has chosen, students should conduct a study that involves close reading, analysis, and reflection on the thematic elements that relate to gender. Students should be encouraged to make connections between the long text and any number of readings from earlier in the semester, but are asked to draw from at least three previous readings. Again, students should be able to identify gender-related themes, and then analyze them in terms of the essays and theories of gender from the course. SAMPLE FOR ASSIGNMENT #4: (6-8 pgs) Variable depending upon selection of long text.
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