Course Description

Students at Purdue have diverse academic interests and professional goals. Although not every student at Purdue is an English major or strives to become a career writer, the ability to communicate creatively and effectively is important to all of us for several reasons: (a) it provides us an outlet for sharing our ideas and an opportunity for making those ideas better; (b) it empowers us to understand different conventions, genres, groups, societies, and cultures; and (c) it allows us to have a voice in multiple academic, civic, and personal situations. In short, writing is a way of learning that spans all fields and disciplines; it is broadly defined to include many reasons for and methods of composing.

Introductory Composition at Purdue is designed to help you:

• Build confidence in your abilities to create, interpret, and evaluate texts in all types of media
• Develop knowledge and inspire new ideas through writing
• Understand, evaluate, and organize your ideas
• Understand what it means to write in different academic contexts
• Articulate, develop and support a topic through first-hand and archival research
• Become an effective writer who can respond credibly and accurately to a variety of writing situations

By requiring students to identify and interact with other members of the Purdue community, each of the assignments in the Writing Your Way into Purdue approach enables students to become more integrally involved in social action that affects them on the Purdue campus while developing their college-level writing abilities and research skills. Assignments include a memoir, a profile, a public document, an annotated bibliography and proposal, and four reviews.

Calendar

Follow the links below to see the course schedule for each week.

This course calendar will be updated throughout the semester. I'll notify you about any major changes, but you are still responsible for keeping up with the current schedule.

Within each week, you should find what's on tap for each day as well as what the assigned homework is. I will apprise you of most of this content in class, but you have to check back frequently to stay up-to-date. Remember, if I have assigned a reading (or readings) that is posted on this site (see the Readings tab above), you are responsible for printing, reading, and bringing it to class discussions. If it's posted online, I will very likely NOT be distributing it in class.

Key

• cda = compose, design, advocate
• LB = The Little, Brown Compact Handbook

Projects

Please click on the Handouts tab for corresponding assignment sheets, which will be posted as they become available; they will also be distributed in class.

Memoir

150 points/15%

Literary analysis/profile

200 points/20%

Annotated bibliography and proposal

200 points/20%

Reviews

4 reviews @ 25 points each OR
2 reviews @ 50 points each

Here are some possible ideas for your reviews. (The following list and attendant descriptions are from John Trimbur's The Call to Write):

• Live performances

  Attend a musical concert, a play, or a club with live music and write a review of the performance.

• Media

  Television programs, radio shows, movies, and musical recordings are all possible subjects for reviews.

• The Web

  As the Internet grows more crowded, people can use help finding which sites are worth visiting and which are not. Gather an assortment of related Web sites and write a comparative review of them. Or just focus on one site and review it in depth.

• Exhibitions

  Local museums, on and off campus, may be featuring special art, historical, or scientific exhibitions that you could review.

• Books

  You could review a best-seller, a recent book in an academic field that interests you, a controversial book, a book that is particularly popular with college students, or an older book that invites a revisit.

• Sports

  Write a preview of an upcoming season of a college or professional sport, or make a prediction about an important game.

• Leisure and entertainment

  Write a restaurant review, a guide to entertainment on campus, or an evaluation of backpacking routes you have taken. Visit historical places, local parks, or parts of a city, and write an evaluation of what they have to offer.

• Education

  Write a review of a course you have taken, a textbook, or a program you have been involved in (such as an orientation for first-year students or a summer program).

• Letters of recommendation

  You may be in a position to write a letter of recommendation for somebody you know. Such letters, in fact, are reviews of the person you are recommending (they are, by nature, generally positive). If you have a friend applying to college or for a position as orientation leader, peer counselor, or resident assistant that requires recommendations, you can consider the writing you do for that person for this assignment. Likewise, if you have worked with somebody who is searching for a job, consider writing that person a recommendation letter that he or she can take to interviews.

• Politics and the public sphere

  Write a review of the 2004 presidential campaign, the upcoming 2008 campaign, a particular elected official, a candidate for office, a proposed law, an ongoing program, or a controversial event.

• Rating systems

  Design a rating system for reviewing consumer products, musical recordings, movies, restaurants, or some other product or service.

• Greatest or best lists

  You could list the top ten (or twenty-five or hundred) rap songs, punk bands, teenage movies, game shows, female actresses, hockey players, or presidents and explain your criteria or evaluation. Some lists focus on the best of the year, while others identify the all-time greatest.

Readings

All of this semester's assigned readings (i.e., those that are not from cda, LB, or Werewolves in Their Youth) are listed below as either links or .pdf attachments. I ask that you print, read (or read, then print), and bring them to class on the day for which they are assigned.

Most of the attached readings are password-protected; the password will be given to you in class.

Memoirs

• "Our Mother's Face" by Valerie Steiker (attached)

• "Throwing Snowballs" by Annie Dillard (attached)

• "Us and Them" by David Sedaris (attached)

Literary Analyses

Profiles

See "Four Sample Profiles" (attached)

• "I'm Not Leaving Until I Eat This Thing" by John T. Edge

• "The Edison Cafe" by Trevor B. Hall

• "The Daily Grind: Lessons in the Hidden Curriculum" by Peggy Orenstein

• "The Last Stop" by Brian Cable

Proposals

• "Who's in Charge Here?" by Stanley Fish

• "The Singer Solution to World Poverty" by Peter Singer

• "What To Do? A Global Strategy": chapter 12 of The 9/11 Commission

• Read chapter 12.3: "Prevent the Continued Growth of Islamist Terrorism," pp. 374-379

• "You Say You Want a Resolution?" by Heidi Pollock

Reviews

Links

• The New York Review of Books
• The New York Times (see the Arts, Style, and Travel sections)
• The New Yorker (Arts & Culture)
• Rotten Tomatoes
• Consumer Reports

Examples

• Werewolves in Their Youth (book)
  • Salon.com
  • NY Times
  • NY Magazine
• Art (museum exhibition)
• "Burgher Deluxe" by Sandra Tsing Loh (books)
• "You're Not Rich, but Now You Can Fake It" by Daniel Gross (book)
• "Cashmere, Rolexes, and a Spiritual Rush" by Janet Maslin (book)

Handouts

All of the course handouts (e.g., the syllabus, assignment sheets, informational resources, flyers) are attached below for easy access and printability.

Links

Purdue related

Purdue: http://www.purdue.edu/
Purdue Libraries: http://www.lib.purdue.edu/
Introductory Composition at Purdue (ICaP): http://www.digitalparlor.org/icap/
Information Technology at Purdue (ITaP): http://www.itap.purdue.edu/
The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL): http://owl.english.purdue.edu/
The Digital Learning Collaboratory (DLC): http://dlc.purdue.edu/

Miscellaneous writing resources

The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr.