Tuesday/Thursday 10:50 a.m.-12:05 a.m., Buck 204

Instructor: Joel Haefner
Office: Mellon Center 10 (basement of Stevenson Hall)
Phone: 556-3756
Email:  jhaefner@iwu.edu
Personal homepage: www.iwu.edu/~jhaefner
Office Hours: Tuesday, Thursday 9:00-10:40; Wednesday 10:00-noon  and by appointment

Texts available at the IWU Bookstore: 
Rosen, L.J., and Behrens, L. 2003. 5th ed. The Allyn & Bacon Handbook. Boston: Longman.

Electronic Reserve:
There are several texts which are available through the Ames Library electronic reserve system. Go to the library's home page, click on reserves, then select courses by instructor. Click on my name, and select "Monsters and Angels" as the course.  You'll be asked for a password, which I'll supply in class and which you should write down.

Library Databases:
One of our sources is available through Academic Search Premier, which is one of the databases Ames Library subscribes to.

Website on the WWW:
Several of our readings are taken from websites available on the WWW. Just click on the link.

Buck Hall offers the best place for computer lab work, and this is the building where our class meets anyway. (It's also the home of the Writing Center, a valuable resource.) Other possibilities are Ames Library and the labs in CNS E210, E204. These latter places are really busy and the CNS labs are iMac labs.

This course introduces students to some of the major issues and experiences growing out of our increasing symbiosis with computers and networks, and, just as importantly, explores how writing can help us make sense of a high-speed, wide bandwidth, data-soaked digitalized life. We will focus on some of the most important issues involving technologies and our relationship to them.  Our "field trip", if possible,  will be a night at the movies. At the same time we will discuss how to generate ideas for a paper, gathering, evaluating, and integrating sources, organizing your argument, revision, style, grammar, and thesis statements.

• to understand and effectively use your own writing process/method;
• to summarize, synthesize, evaluate, and analyze texts by other authors;
• to structure a convincing and coherent argument with a clear central point;
• to substantiate your claims with external sources and evidence;
• to express yourself clearly and forcefully;
• to recognize common grammatical and usage errors in your writing and know how to remedy them;
• to develop your critical thinking skills, especially the ability to identify fallacies and under-supported claims;
• to explore the exciting and fearsome world of online identities;
• to sample the diversity of opinion and information about a variety of information technology issues.

• Discussion. We will do all manner of discussion in this class: whole-class discussions, email discussions, synchronous online discussions, small-group discussions, one-on-one discussions.
• Informal writing. This includes in-class responses to discussion questions; freewriting; and more.
• Message Board. Post a question and a response to a student's question before each reading.
  
• Microessays.  Several times during the semester I will ask you to write a one-page summary and evaluation of a reading.
  
• Formal writing assignments. There are five formal writing assignments in this class; they can be accessed through the links on the left.
• Reflective Essay. The final  assignment (in lieu of an exam) is a reflection on your writing process throughout the semester.
  
• Whole-class workshops. I'll select two papers from a batch you've turned in and make them available anonymously for the class to read and comment on.
  
• Peer revision. We'll look at each other's writing as a class, in small groups, one-on-one.
• Conferences. Several times during the semester each student and I will meet and go over a specific assignment and general course work. 

There will be 1000 possible points in this class. The 1000 possible points break down like this:

Paper one: 75 points
Paper two: 100 points
Paper three: 150 points
Paper four: 150 points
Paper five:  225 points

1000-930 points:  A
929-900 points:    A-
899-870 points:    B+
869-830 points:    B
829-800 points:    B-
799-770 points:    C+
769-730 points:    C
729-700 points:    C-
699-600 points:    D
Below 600:           F 

• A papers demonstrate excellence in content, organization and style. The writer presents a unified thesis, followed by a sound organizational strategy. The ideas that are presented are engaging and illuminate insights not readily apparent in reading the required text. Assertions are supported by evidence and logical argument. Where appropriate, contrary arguments and conflicting evidence are noted and reasons for disagreements are made clear. The author is aware of his/her role, the appropriate audience for whom the piece is intended, and presents ideas that are clearly stated. "A" papers rarely contain any spelling or grammatical errors. A papers often are buttressed with particularly appropriate sources which may have been challenging for the writer to locate.  In many assignments, the main idea or thesis is adroitly expressed, indicates the topic, the author's perspective, and the main points of the argument, and can be easily identified by the reader.
• A- papers differ from A papers in that there may be one or two fewer truly engaging and illuminating insights presented. Still, the ideas that are expressed are creative and insightful, assertions are supported by evidence and logical argument, and contrary arguments are presented when called for. Gramatically and stylistically, the writer may make a few more mistakes than in an "A" paper.
• B+ papers are solid pieces of work that demonstrate good ideas and insights that are somewhat more common than those presented in "A" papers. The organization and style of the papers are of a generally high quality although there may be some inconsistencies and areas for improvement. Claims are generally well-supported with evidence and sub-claims, but one or two claims may need further development or support. Counter arguments are rebutted, but rebuttals may need to be better developed and may need to advance the writer's argument. Only a few surface errors are found in a B+ paper. The thesis sentence is apparent, but may not express the topic or author's position sharply or may not indicate the main claims of the argument.
• B papers  fulfill all the requirements of the assignment, but don't demonstrate any special engagement with or insight into the topic. Familiarity with the topic is demonstrated, but some claims may need further development and support. There are, again, only a few surface errors. While the B paper utilizes some solid sources to support claims, those sources may not always be pertinent to the specific topic of the paper and may be fairly easy sources to locate.
• B- papers show a solid understanding of the topic and satisfy almost all the requirements of the assignment, although there may be shortcomings in one area of the assignment. The organization and style are coherent, but there may be obvious claims or paragraphs which need improvement. The writer may miss an important point or fail to develop or support a major claim.
• C papers adequately meet the requirements of the assignment and show an acceptable understanding of the assignment and/or topic. The arguments and insights of the paper rarely go beyond the obvious or beyond easily-accessible texts; the number, quality, and/or relevance of the sources may be lacking. The writer has demonstrated that he/she understand the assignment topic, the basic requirements, and the audience indicated in the assignment. In a C paper there are inconsistencies in organization and style which detract from the reader's grasp of the writer's point.  Several logical claims may be underdeveloped or lacking in any kind of support. Rebuttals may be mentioned but not adequately developed or connected to the writer's argument. Surface errors (grammar, mechanics, punctuation, etc.) will cause some distractions for the reader, but the writer's intended meaning is still clear. C+, C, and C- papers will differ depending on how well the author communicates his/her understanding of the assignment. 
• D papers have a few good ideas or claims and a few strong passages or paragraphs. However, these papers contain numerous surface errors, major organizational problems, inadequate support for claims, and inconsistent argumentation. Some of the requirements of the assignment are not met.  Resources tend to be of poor quality, insufficient quantity, and not adequately connected to claims. The author may not take a position in papers which call for such. Thesis sentences, when appropriate, are missing, difficult to understand, or disconnected from the body of the paper. 
• F papers fail to meet the requirements of the assignment. Organization and style are poor, inconsistent, and not appropriate for the assignment. Usually it is clear these papers were written at the last moment. Resources are missing, inadequate, or not related to the argument presented. There are numerous surface errors throughout. Documentation of sources is missing or incorrect. There is no evidence the writer has assimilated any of the secondary material relevant to the topic and translated it into his/her own argument or prose.
  

All Gateway Colloquia are discussion-based seminars; hence your regular attendance is a requirement to make the class work. I will pass around a sign-up sheet at the beginning of each class, and I'll expect you to initial it each day you attend. This lets you easily see how many classes you've missed. If you come in late, be sure to ask for the sign-up sheet. Documented  medical reasons for missing class will be honored, but if you miss more than 3 class periods your grade will be lowered one letter. 

Attending class isn't enough; you must also take an active role in discussing the concepts and writing we explore int he classroom. At the end of the semester I will evaluate the quality and frequency of your comments in class, as well as other input such as comments on other students' papers. 

But there are very good reasons for not plagiarizing. First, it's just plain dishonest. Second, chances aren't bad that you'll get caught. If you repeatedly plagiarize, you could well get booted out of the University. The policy is spelled out on page 53 of the catalog, and also in the student handbook. Third, you aren't doing yourself any service by plagiarizing because you're not mastering any of the material yourself--you're just pointing and clicking. Fourth, and not least, when you string together ideas and sentences taken from other texts you have a sloppy collage, not a coherent paper or argument. It's just a mess. And so your grade will suffer just because your cleverly plagiarized or patched-together paper doesn't hang together. You may have to rewrite the whole thing, which costs you more time in the long run. You're better off just to bite the bullet, do the work, and manage your time. 

In a discussion-based classroom, indeed in any classroom, everyone (instructor and students) enters into an implicit contract of behavior. We all agree we are here for a common purpose: to fulfill an academic requirement certainly, but much more than that: to learn techniques, to struggle with concepts, to discuss ideas, to evaluate opinions and information. To do so we must show each other respect, even if we strongly disagree with each other. Nowhere is this covert contract more important than in a workshop writing course like this one. All of us will be exposing something of ourselves through our writing, and so we need to offer thoughtful constructive criticism of our writing, our ideas, our ways of organizing our knowledges--because our turn comes next, and because it's the right way to behave.

In this classroom there is no room for racist or sexist comments, for mocking disrespect for opposite opinions or even mistaken information. This does not at all mean you can't disagree with someone, and say so. Opinions need to be examined according to the information at hand, and evaluated as more or less correct based on that information, or more or less off-base, compared to the data we have. In other words, not all opinions are equal, according to our information. Some opinions are more justified than others.

Students who act disrespectfully towards others will be asked to stop. If any one student is asked three times to stop rude, uncivil behavior, their grade will be lowered. If there is persistent and repeated disrespect towards class members, that student will be asked to leave the class.

Many of you don't put page numbers on your papers--and most profs here will expect that.  You can change the default settings so that every time you create a new file it will automatically have the page numbers inserted. Here's how to do that:

When you create a new document, Word uses the Normal template to determine the settings, such as fonts, styles, and margins of the document. If you change the settings in this template, all new documents that you create will use the new settings.
1. On the File menu, click Open, and then click /Users/username/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office/User Templates/My Templates.
2. Double-click Normal.dotm.
The Normal template opens.
3. In the Normal template, go to the Insert menu, pull down to Page Numbers. In that dialogue window, select the position for the page number you want (usually lower right, the default) and click OK.
4. Save and close the Normal template.

File Format Conventions:

 1)  Save your files as .RTF files --Rich Text Format.  In Word, in the Save dialog box, below the file name you can pull down the "Save as Type" dropdown box and, scrolling, find Rich Text Format.

2) File name:  Begin all your file names with your initials--e.g., my rough draft of paper 2 would be:   jehpaper2rd.rtf

3) To avoid clutter, please append your commentary as the last page to your draft.