Course Syllabus

Harvard Extension School Writing Program

Expository Writing E-15

January Semester 2017

Dr. Rebecca Summerhays                                                                               

Office: One Bow Street, #210                                                                        

Office Hours: by appointment                                    

rsummerh@fas.harvard.edu                

COURSE OVERVIEW

The goal of our work in this course is to introduce you to the kinds of writing assignments you will encounter as college students – and approaches to and strategies for those assignments – so that you will be able to write academic essays with confidence and skill.  With each essay in this class, you will learn to work with the fundamental methods of academic writing that all students and scholars use: reading closely, analyzing texts and questioning sources; reasoning with evidence toward your own complex and original ideas; constructing and organizing persuasive arguments; and communicating your ideas in clear and effective prose.

Together as a class, we will explore specific writing issues and challenges common to college writing assignments.  The two units of the course are designed to help you learn about distinct types of essays.  But this course consists of not only the work we do together in class; we also focus on the individual questions, interests and strengths you bring to the course.  We will focus on the goals particular to your own progress and work as a writer: developing your sense of what you already do well; challenging you to figure out how you want to grow as a writer; expanding your repertoire of drafting and revision techniques. 

The three points below form the foundation for our work this semester:

• your writing grows strongest when you treat it as a process. You will write response papers and drafts, for which you will receive feedback from me and from your fellow writers; you will then revise those drafts, giving your analysis time to evolve and grow more interesting and complex. 

• your writing will improve most when you possess clear ideas about what you want to accomplish in each assignment: what you want to say, and how you want to grow and improve. Therefore this class asks you to be thoughtful and self-reflective about your own writing process, evaluating your own work in each assignment (in your essay cover letters) and in the course as a whole.

• your writing progresses most effectively with the benefit of individual feedback. My written comments on your work, class workshops, and draft conferences will offer you extensive feedback throughout the semester. 

HOW THE COURSE WORKS: WRITING AND DISCUSSION

You develop your ideas partly through the writing process itself and partly by discussion.  To encourage this discussion, the class is structured as a seminar, emphasizing frequent conversation, workshops and peer-group work. The basis for much of that discussion throughout the semester is the writing you do.

The Writing

Resist the temptation to consult the Internet as you prepare for class and write your drafts.  In this class, we are interested in your ideas, not ideas that you find online. 

The class is organized around two units, in which you will write short response papers, drafts of essays and full revisions of those essays.  The response papers and the essays are typical of other assignments you will write as a college student. Here’s how the writing will work in each unit:

• Response papers.  As we read and work with the assigned sources, you will first write brief response papers, which will focus on analytical approaches that will be at the foundation of many essays you write.  All of these response papers will help you master those skills, and some are also designed to help you develop ideas for your essay.  You will have the chance to revise each of those response papers, and only the revised version will be graded.

• Essays.  In each unit, you will write a full draft of your essay, arguing for a thesis with concrete evidence and well-developed analysis.  After the draft, I will offer written comments discussing how you will keep developing and improving the essay.  Then you will write the final revision, which is the graded version.

The two major essays will progress in complexity: in the first essay, you will work with one text—Walker Percy’s “The Loss of the Creature”—that presents an idea about education, responding Percy’s argument through close reading and analysis.  In the second essay, you will work with one text that presents an idea about visual art.  You will test that theory and develop an argument about its relationship to an art object that you choose when we visit the Harvard Art Museum.  These essays represent types of writing assignments found in many of your courses.

Two other important issues to note about your writing in this course:

• Writing is one of the best ways to figure out and develop your ideas, and so we will write often in this class.  You should expect to write at least one piece each night.  These pieces will include graded work (revisions, response papers) as well as less formal ungraded assignments (class exercises, reading notes, responses to your classmates’ work).   

• All of the writing you do for this course is public – which means that it may be read by your fellow writers in the class (not just by me).  If at any time you turn in a piece of writing that you would rather not have other students read, please tell me so – but also please note that you cannot make this request about every piece you turn in.  Hearing the ideas and reactions of other readers is one of the most valuable opportunities a writer can have.

Discussion and Class Participation

One of the benefits of the class is its small class size.  That benefit means the most when every student participates fully in the class; you learn much more from contributing your own ideas to our discussion than from simply listening to others do so.  Our time together is largely devoted to discussion and small-group work.  You therefore are responsible for being in class, prepared and on time, each time we meet. 

• "Being prepared" means that you have given careful thought to the reading and writing assigned for the day, and that you are ready to offer ideas and questions to open our discussion. In addition to the response papers that you will write, please pay careful attention to the questions listed on the syllabus for your reading notes and to handouts about exercises and class preparation throughout the semester – these will all help you be ready for what we’re doing in class. 

Grades 

The majority of your final grade comes from your two essays, which are weighted more significantly as the semester goes along, and from your response papers, which each count for 5% of your final grade.

Total response papers: 25%

Essay 1:                       35%

Essay 2:                       40%

COURSE POLICIES

 Required Texts and Materials

• I will supply copies of the required reading for the class.
• Two folders: one for your response papers and essays, and one for class handouts (there will be a lot!)
• You will print a lot for this course, so be sure your printer cartridge or account is ready for that volume

Communication

Please remember a few important things about keeping in touch:

• Office Hours: You are of course free to come see me during office hours about your questions or developing ideas.  My office hours are by appointment. Please contact me to set up a time to meet. 

• E-mail: Rather than take up our class time with announcements and administrative arrangements (and there will be many of them!), I use e-mail to communicate most of that information and to update you on reading questions for class.  As part of your participation in the course, you will need to check your e-mail daily; you are responsible for the information I post there.  Likewise, I will check mine once every weekday for questions from you (though please note that I don't check it late at night – e-mail that reaches me after 7:00 p.m. will be answered the next day).

Deadlines

For many class meetings, you will turn in a response paper or prepare some other reading or writing exercise to help you develop the essay for that unit.  All essay deadlines in the course are firm, in order to make sure that you're not falling behind on the frequent assignments and in order to be fair to each student.  Our work together in class will also often be based on those assignments.  For those reasons, it is imperative that you turn your work in on time.

I only grant extensions for medical or family emergencies.  Essay drafts or revisions turned in after the deadline without an approved extension will be penalized a full letter-grade on the final revision for each day they are late.  You will not receive any feedback for late work.  If you cannot meet a deadline due to a medical or family emergency, you must contact me right away.  In those circumstances, we will also need to work out a schedule for you to make up your missed work. 

Attendance and Lateness

Because instruction in this class proceeds by sequential writing activities, your consistent attendance is essential.  Please note the following policies:

1. If you are absent without medical or religious excuse, you are eligible to be officially excluded from the course and failed.

2. If you will miss or have missed a class, you are expected to let me know promptly; you remain responsible for the work due that day and for any new work assigned. Apart from religious holidays, only medical absences can be excused.  For a medical excuse, you should contact me before class (or within 24 hours); otherwise, you will need to provide a note from a medical official. In the case of extended or repeated illness, you will also be required to provide such documentation.

3. Absences because of special events are not excusable absences.

• Please note: class begins promptly. If you are more than ten minutes late for class more than twice, those latenesses will add up to a class absence.

Completion of Work

Because this course is a planned sequence of writing, you must write all of the assigned essays to pass the course, and you must write them within the schedule of the course (not in the last few days of the semester after you have fallen behind).  If you fail to submit at least a substantial draft of an essay by the final due date in that essay unit, you will receive a letter reminding you of these requirements.  The letter will specify the new date by which you must submit the late work.  If you fail to submit at least a substantial draft of the essay by this new date (unless you have documented a medical problem), you are eligible to be officially excluded from the course and given a failing grade.

Academic Honesty

You are responsible for understanding Harvard Extension School policies on academic integrity (www.extension.harvard.edu/resources-policies/student-conduct/academic-integrity) and how to use sources responsibly. Not knowing the rules, misunderstanding the rules, running out of time, submitting the wrong draft, or being overwhelmed with multiple demands are not acceptable excuses. There are no excuses for failure to uphold academic integrity. To support your learning about academic citation rules, please visit the Harvard Extension School Tips to Avoid Plagiarism (www.extension.harvard.edu/resources-policies/resources/tips-avoid-plagiarism), where you'll find links to the Harvard Guide to Using Sources and two free online 15-minute tutorials to test your knowledge of academic citation policy. The tutorials are anonymous open-learning tools.

Accessibility

The Extension School is committed to providing an accessible academic community. The Accessibility Office offers a variety of accommodations and services to students with documented disabilities. Please visit www.extension.harvard.edu/resources-policies/resources/disability-services-accessibility for more information.

Extension School Writing Center (Grossman Library, Sever Hall)

At any stage of the writing process—brainstorming ideas, reviewing drafts, approaching revisions—you may want some extra attention to or feedback on your essays. You may schedule a meeting with a tutor at the Extension School Writing Center up to a week in advance (sign up online).  For those living outside of the Cambridge area, you can also set up a Skype or an “email tutorial.”  For updated hours for the writing center, as well as detailed instructions for preparing for a tutorial, see the center’s website or call (617) 495-4163. http://www.extension.harvard.edu/resources/writing.jsp