Syllabus
Professor: Dr. Susanne Hall
Email: Susanne.Hall@duke.edu
Phone: 919-660-7063 (office); 949-929-9435 (home)
Office Hours and Location: after class and by appt.; Art Building 200B
Required Texts:
David Farber, Ed. The Columbia Guide to America in the 1960s. Columbia UP, ISBN
0231113730.
Raymond Williams. Keywords. Oxford UP, ISBN 0195204697.
Barbara Ehrenreich. Nickel and Dimed. ISBN 0805088385.
Additional texts posted on E-reserve (available via Blackboard: https://courses.duke.edu)
Purpose
The only course taken by all undergraduates, Writing 20 has a unique importance in Duke’s curriculum; it introduces you to a set of skills that will help enable you to participate in our academic community. More specifically, it will acquaint you with versions of the practices of reading, thinking, writing, and criticism that you will be expected to implement in varied ways throughout the university. While each section of Writing 20 is different, students in all sections learn how to engage with the work of others, articulate a position, and situate writing within specific contexts. The actual labor of producing a written academic argument usually involves taking a text through several drafts. In developing their work-in-progress, students in all sections of Writing 20 practice researching, workshopping, revising and editing.
We will discuss these goals and practices in some detail, but please note that http://uwp.aas.duke.edu/writing20/students/goals.html provides a reference to our departmental stance on these issues.
In addition to the universal Writing 20 goals outlined above, there are several specific objectives I would like to highlight in our class:
• Practice “reading generously,” an approach to writing that is critical without being dismissive or superficial
• Identify your personal strengths and areas for improvement as a writer
• Achieve an understanding of the writing process that produces your best work
• Develop a positive attitude toward writing, whether or not it is your favorite mode of academic engagement
By the conclusion of our course it is my goal that you will not only be prepared to make convincing arguments in writing within the university, but that you also become comfortable with the collaboration, adventurous thinking, and critical creativity that makes writing of many kinds both enjoyable and effective.
Course Description
The intellectual terrain that our WR 20 course will traverse will be defined by philosophical, historical, and artistic approaches to the problem of arguing for revolutionary change. I want to begin to map this terrain for you by posing some large questions: What kinds of texts can argue for a revolutionary political or cultural change? Historically, how have some of these texts helped to produce the fundamental and extreme changes that are part of a revolutionary project? Why have others failed? Finally, how have revolutionary writers, speakers, and artists justified or promoted a turn to violence in service of a revolutionary agenda? If these questions had simple answers, our class would no doubt achieve world domination by December. Instead, I think we’ll discover that the project of understanding revolutionary rhetorics—a term which for now we can understand as the ways a text can convince someone to do, say, or think something—will prove complex, challenging, and exciting. We will take up this concept of rhetoric as one that not only guides our exploration of the course materials, but also as one that structures our thinking about your work as an academic writer.
Writing Projects and Course Trajectory
Our course will draw from literary, artistic, historical, critical, and philosophical texts, and will be comprised of two interrelated units. In Project One, we will examine philosophical approaches to revolution, focusing on the most influential philosopher of revolution, Karl Marx. Marx and Friedrich Engels advanced a theory of a revolutionary working class (the proletariat); his famous “Manifesto of the Communist Party” concludes by calling out to their reader: “Working men of all countries, unite!” We will pursue an understanding of the nature and meaning of Marx’s controversial argument, and our larger project will be one in which you explore—using rhetorical analysis, critical essays, your writing on your own experiences of labor, and your writing on an online community of members of the working class—some reasons why you think Marx’s revolutionary call is not being taken up in the U.S. We won’t focus on the historical applications of his theory in communist countries; rather, we will approach the “Manifesto” as a living document—one that might potentially speak to the working class of our historical moment. As such, we will work to understand the “keywords” of Marx’s theory—including labor, class, and revolution—to explore their presentation, and to imagine their relevance or irrelevance for the moment in which we live.
In Project Two, we will delve into a specific revolutionary historical moment—the U.S. in the 1960s. Though it is difficult to imagine it for those of us who did not live through it, there was a real sense for some in this historical period that political and/or cultural revolution were actually possible (and to many radicals thinkers, inevitable); this was a global phenomenon, but our inquiries will focus on the U.S. After familiarizing ourselves with the historical context of this time, we will examine manifestos and other primary texts produced by revolutionary groups including film, news media, theatre, and poetry to look at how various groups handled, rhetorically and otherwise, the problem of a “turn to violence.” You will ultimately craft a researched essay on a specific 1960s revolutionary group (of your choice) in which you present and critically examine their revolutionary rhetoric. One key aspect of this project will be the examination of one or more primary texts published by the group you choose to study, and this process will involve archival research in our library’s Special Collections.
Assignments and Grading
Response Papers 120 points 12%
Essay 1 Exploratory Drafts 80 points 8%
Essay 1 Final Draft + portfolio 300 points 30%
Essay 2 Final Draft + portfolio 400 points 40%
Panel Presentation + 100 points 10%
1000 points total 100%
Submission of all assignments is required in order to receive a passing grade for the course. Late assignments are penalized by partial step drop (e.g. B becomes B-, • becomes •-) per school day. Assignments more one week late receive an F (0 points).
You will write six Response Papers (RPs) throughout the semester; these will be informal 1-2 page assignments in response to our reading. Your response papers will be the basis for our textual discussions together in the seminar. They should be no more than 2 pages of informal writing. For our purposes, this means that they need not be polished or revised. However, they should be thoughtful and some thought should be given to their basic organization. You will upload every RP except our first to Blackboard by 9 am the day it is due. You should be prepared to read/discuss them in class. These assignments will be marked with a •, •-, or a 0. A •=20 points, a •- =10 points.
You will write two Exploratory Drafts (Ex1.1, Ex 1.2) as a part of Project 1. These will be 2-4 page evaluative reflections. These drafts will provide some of the material you revise into Essay 1. 40 points each.
You will create two major Projects (P1, P2), the central feature of which will be a revised Essay (E1, E2). Each essay will require the submission of working drafts. These drafts are not incidental to our course; in fact, they truly constitute its core. However, these drafts are not individually “graded,” though they will receive responses from the class and from me. All drafts will be a part of a portfolio that you submit along with your final draft. This portfolio will also include information on your work as a peer reviewer and a short reflection upon your experience writing the essay. A portfolio that is missing elements will not be accepted for submission. The standards upon which the final drafts of your essays will be evaluated will be presented as we discuss each project. Essays will receive letter grades, which will be equated to point using the following scale:
A+ = 100%; A = 95%; A- = 92%; B+ = 89%; B = 85%; B- = 82%; C+ = 79%; C = 75; C- = 72%; D+ = 69%; D = 65%; D-=60%; F=0%
[e.g. a B+ on E1 yields 267/300 points, and a B+ on E2 yields 356/400 points.]
Your Panel Presentation will be a forum in which we as a class share the results of your research on Essay 2. We will work together to determine the best format organizing and evaluating that event as it approaches.
Participation
Class Participation occurs in many ways; the most obvious is actively joining our conversations together in class, but this is not the only mode of required participation. It also includes the quality and quantity of your oral contributions to class, in-class writing, group work, peer review activities, and conferences, as well as attendance and timely submission of all drafts. You will not receive a separate grade on participation, because active participation will be reflected in my grading of your project portfolios.
Format of Written Work
Written work should be typed in a normal font in a standard word processing program (preferably MS Word) and double-spaced. Please give each piece of writing a descriptive title, use page numbers on multi-page assignments, and include your name, assignment, and the due date in a header on the first page. All final drafts must be in MLA format; we will discuss this in class.
When submitting work electronically, save the assignment using the following format: last name_assignment.doc (e.g. Hall_E1draft.doc). All work should be posted on the class Blackboard site by 9:00am on the day it is due (unless otherwise noted). In addition, you should always print a copy of your work and bring it to class on the due date.
A final note—computers often malfunction. Please find a way to reliably back up your written work, especially your long-term projects. You might consider buying an external hard drive or a zip drive, or consistently emailing recent drafts to yourself (which has the advantage of being free).
Attendance Policy
Because this course is a seminar/workshop, attendance is particularly important; your absence not only impacts you, but often also diminishes the functionality of the course as a whole. Although I expect you to attend all scheduled class meetings, I understand that conflicts inevitably arise. I allow each student three absences without penalty. (One exception: absences on days when your writing is to be discussed in a seminar workshop or a peer-critique group will be penalized.) Each absence after the third—regardless of the reason—will result in a partial-step drop in your final course grade (e.g. an A- becomes a B+, a B becomes a B-, and so on). I suggest you reserve your absences for illness, nonnegotiable engagements away from campus, and true emergencies.
Missing class does not excuse you from learning what happened that day, and all assignments must be submitted on time unless you have cleared an alternate due date with the instructor in advance. Two tardies (more than ten minutes late to class) constitute an absence. If you arrive late to class, it is your responsibility to see me when class is over so that I note your attendance. Missing a scheduled conference with me also counts as an absence. If severe illness or an emergency causes you to miss more than three class meetings, it is your responsibility to discuss the situation with me as soon as the situation arises, and in some cases to provide documentation of the situation.
Email
I will use both email and Blackboard as a means of communicating both with the class and individual students. I consider that an email sent to your Duke address is required reading for the course, as are the announcements posted on Blackboard.
This is a writing course, and one of the most common forms of writing in our culture is the email. The email is, generally, an informal medium, but in the university setting, your should remember that every email you send to a professor represents you as a student, and therefore I suggest that you avoid the standard internet shorthand you might use with friends.
I check my email often, but you should never count on me responding to emails about assignments sent right before they are due, nor should you count on a response during weekends.
Conferences
I have had many students tell me that the most helpful aspect of their writing course with me were the discussions we had in conference with each other. And yet, you might be shocked to learn that I often spend my office hours all alone! I understand that talking with a professor can be intimidating, but one of the benefits of being at a school with such a great student/teacher ratio is that teachers have time to talk with you and know you personally. The students who take advantage of this are routinely those who not only do well in class, but they are also those who enjoy their courses the most. My door is always open to you, even (and especially) if you are confused about an assignment and don’t quite know how to begin our discussion.
We will have a required meeting during Week 10 to discuss your research project and presentation.
Plagiarism & Academic Honesty
Plagiarism is the act of representing someone else’s intellectual work as your own. Plagiarism is a serious offense, because it undermines the integrity that supports a scholarly community. As such, the penalties for plagiarism are harsh. All instances of cheating and plagiarism will be referred to the Duke University Undergraduate Judicial Board (minor, first-time offenses may be settled by faculty-student resolution), and serious plagiarism will result in failure of the course. See http://judicial.studentaffairs.duke.edu/policies/policy_list/academic_dishonesty.html for more details. Sometimes cases of plagiarism can arise due not to malicious intent, but instead due to a student’s confusion about how to properly represent ideas which are not his or her own. If you are experiencing confusion, please ask for help before submitting an assignment. Additionally, if you have questions about citing sources or what constitutes plagiarism, visit http://library.duke.edu/research/citing/ and http://library.duke.edu/research/plagiarism/.
I expect each student to uphold the Duke Community Standard. You may review it here:
http://www.duke.edu/web/HonorCouncil/communitystandard.html
Academic Citizenship
The academic community you have entered, and within which we are learning how to write, is a place defined by the free exchange of ideas. It is a place in which differences of opinion can be expressed safely. Many of the topics we will discuss are controversial, and while I encourage differences of opinion, intellectual disagreements should never provoke personal attacks or rude behavior.
Portfolio @ Duke
If you would like to create an online archive of some of your college work, including your academic writing projects, Portfolio@Duke is an excellent resource. To learn more about this service, please visit: http://www.duke.edu/studentportfolio.
Writing Studio
The writing studio is a great resource offered to Duke students. You can schedule an appointment at any stage of the writing process. You can visit the Writing Studio in the Academic Advising Center during the day, at Lilly Library during the evenings, and at Perkins Library location at various hours. You may also make use of the Writing Studio’s e-tutor program. Visit the Writing Studio’s website (http://uwp.aas.duke.edu/wstudio/) to find out how to schedule an appointment and to access the studio’s online resources.
Academic Accommodations
Students with learning or other disabilities who believe that they may need accommodations in this class should visit http://www.aas.duke.edu/trinity/t-reqs/ld.html to learn about Duke’s policies concerning academic accommodations. If you anticipate a need for accommodations due to disability, please contact me as early in the semester as possible. All communication about disabilities will be kept confidential.
Schedule (subject to change)
Tue August 26: Introductions
Thur Aug 28: RP 0.1 Due; Bring 2 print advertisements to class
Tue Sept 2: RP 1.1 Due; Read Marx & Engels “Manifesto of Communist Party” and Harris “Coming to Terms” (handout)
Thur Sept 4: EX 1.1 Due; Read Williams Keywords “Alienation,” “Capitalism,” “Class,” “Exploitation,” “Labor,” “Materialism,” “Revolution”
Tue Sept 9: RP 1.2 Due; Read Ehrenreich Nickel and Dimed, Introduction and Ch 3
Thur Sept 11: EX 1.2 Due; Seminar Workshop
Tue Sept 16: RP 1.3 Due; Read Marcuse, “The Catastrophe of Liberation,” Read Lasch “The Revolt of the Elites” and Reich “America’s Anxious Class”; Harris “Countering”
Thur Sept 18: E1 Thesis ¶ Due
Tue Sept 23: E1 Body Paragraph Draft due; seminar workshop
Thurs Sept 25: E1 Draft 1 Due Wed 5pm supervised small group workshops, No Class mtg.
Tue Sept 30: Seminar workshop
Thur Oct 2: Unsupervised small group workshop, No Class mtg.
Tue Oct 7: Finalizing drafts seminar
Thur Oct 9: E1 Final Draft Due; Special topics seminar
Tue Oct 14: FALL BREAK
Thur Oct 16: Read Columbia Guide to America in the Sixties [CGAS] 1-75; skim Annotated Bibliography; MEET IN LILLY LIBRARY
Tue Oct 21: Annotations Due; Read Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet”; Norman Mailer from Armies of the Night; CCAS “Upheaval of Jim Crow” 79-90 and “The New Left” 91-97
Thur Oct 23: RP 2.1 Due; Read Weather Underground communiqués and Black Panther “10 point program”
Tue Oct 28: Lesson in doing archival research; MEET IN PERKINS LIBRARY(rare book room)
Thur Oct 30: Project Proposals Due; conferences with Dr. Hall; no class mtg.
Tue Nov 4: RP 2.2 Due; Read Cary Nelson Repression and Recovery (selection)
Thur Nov 6: E2 Thesis ¶ Due
Tue Nov 11: E2 Draft 1 Due; Small group draft workshops; no class mtg.
Thurs Nov 13: Follow-up to small group workshops; no class mtg.
Tue Nov 18: E2 Draft 2 Due; Seminar Workshop
Thur Nov 20: Workshop in small groups
Tue Nov 25: E2 Final Draft Due; Panel preparation
Thur Nov 27: THANKSGIVING
Tue Dec 2: Panel Presentations
Thur Dec 4: Panel Presentations