Academic Writing
Instructor: Patrick Mooney
Office Hours: M 3:30–4:30 & Th 12:00–1:00, in South Hall 5432E.
Mailbox: Writing Program mail room, South Hall 3421.
Email: patrickmooney AT umail DOT ucsb DOT edu
Voicemail: (805) 272-0069
The purpose of this class is to create a forum that allows us to become aware of our own writing processes. By the end of the course we will not only be able to speak about the communities in which we write, our own intellectual methods, and our compositional styles, we will be able to write about them — and to do so with grace. Since writing is thinking, we will also be focusing on our own thinking processes; and, since writing is a form of communication that assumes a readership, we will also pay substantial attention to our reading processes. While all of these can feel like solitary activities, we'll be working on recognizing the ways that all are, in fact, eminently social. Not only are we surrounded by resources that help inform and bolster our writing, but we are always writing within some particular community — though that community, its members, and its generic expectations can vary from writing scene to writing scene. We will work throughout this class to recognize the ways that writing occasions are structured by communities of readers and writers, and to learn to identify how our voice and style can shift in relation to these new contexts (and their concomitant conventions). The process will involve observation, analysis, reflection, organization, presentation, writing, and revision — activities that are intimately entwined with one another.
Over the course of the quarter, you will develop a number of skills that will help you to make strategic and well-informed choices as a thinker and writer in many different contexts. Writing strategically means reading strategically (and the reverse is also true). You'll therefore develop habits of mind that bear upon both processes. The most effective writing in this course will demonstrate:
If you are not serious about taking the course, make sure you drop no later than Friday, April 3, which is the drop deadline for Writing 2. You should be aware that this is three weeks earlier than the deadline to drop most other undergraduate classes at UCSB. If you decide after this date that you don't want to take the course, you will find that you are no longer able to drop through GOLD; instead, you will have file a petition to withdraw
from the course with the Division of Undergraduate Education, which is generally only possible in unusual circumstances and, even if it is approved, shows up on your transcript. Too, there is always a long wait list for Writing 2, and people who want to get into the course will certainly appreciate it if you drop early enough to make space for them to do so.
But I recommend that you stay, as this promises to be a monumentally important and life-changing course. And so, welcome!
I require that you use the same editions of books listed above and that are available in the UCen bookstore for the course in order to facilitate class discussion. (It's difficult for people to look directly at the same piece of text that you're looking at if they have different page numbers than you do, or if the contents of the books have changed from one edition to another, and that makes it difficult for us to talk specifically about the texts themselves.) One implication of this policy that may be less than obvious is that you should purchase the course reader, even if you can find other parts of its contents online. You must bring these texts to class with you every single time that you come to class. This is a writing course, but it is also a course about reading and thinking; if you do not have the texts with you with which we will be working, you are not prepared to fully engage with the course material. Similarly, a large portion of the writing work that we do in class will require that you look directly at your own work, or at someone else's; you need to have a copy that you can look at, mark up, and/or hand to someone else (having a copy available on your laptop, phone, or tablet is not sufficient for all of the activities in which we will engage). Failure to have a necessary text with you may cause you to be marked absent, even if you are sitting in a seat in the room, and it may be the case that I demand that you prove you have a necessary text with you to avoid being marked absent. (You may note that this is consistent with some of the other attendance/participation guidelines specified below.)
All of the books for the course are available in the UCen bookstore.
There are several other items you will need to acquire and/or bring to class with you.
This is, after all, a writing class, and we will be doing a substantial amount of writing in class. During designated writing times, I expect that you will be focusing on the assignment in front of you. You should always come to class prepared to write, and should make full use of the opportunity to do so. When I say that you should be prepared to write, I do not only mean that you should be intellectually and emotionally prepared to write, though this is important; I also mean that you need to bring adequate writing materials with you. You should always have more than enough paper and more than one pen or pencil. If you would like to write on your laptop or tablet, you will usually be allowed to do so, though there will also be times when you will need to write by hand, so you should also be prepared for this. (This is also important so that you have a backup way of participating in class in case of an equipment malfunction or other failure.)
If you are using an electronic device in class to write, you are expected to use that device only for note-taking and other writing. Browsing social networks, chatting, playing games, checking your email, reading unrelated web pages, or performing other non-class-based online or other electronic activities is a violation of good community practices for several reasons. For one thing, we have a limited amount of time during the quarter and a lot of work to do, so it is important that you focus on coursework while you are in class. For another, there is a fair amount of research showing that engaging in these types of activities is a substantial distraction to the people around you. (There is also a substantial amount of research showing that even people who grew up as digital natives
do not multitask as well as many think they do, and that trying to make progress on multiple projects at the same time noticeably decreases your performance on all of the tasks involved.) I require that you focus in class and avoid using your electronic devices for non-class-related tasks for all of these reasons, and failure to abide by this policy will impact your attendance/participation score; repeated violations of these expectations may cause you to lose your electronic-device privileges for the quarter.
Discussion and collaborative work in larger and smaller groups are essential components of this course — and this is reflected by the fact that attendance and participation are the largest component of your course grade aside from the final portfolio. Remember that writing is a social activity in many ways, some obvious, some subtle; this class will require that you put this idea into practice every single day that you attend. Discussion will take many forms: large-group discussion, small-group discussion, reading and commenting on each other's texts, producing collaborative written documents, and others. Class discussion is your opportunity to bring the private practices of reading and writing into a public forum. It is meant to offer you a chance to clarify issues from your reading that remain unclear — but it is also a chance to air and address questions (methodological, ideological, ethical, social, etc.) that arise for you as you read, reflect and write. I expect that you will engage not only with me, but also with the other students in the class. While the authors that we read are, by and large, unavailable for comment on the issues that may challenge, delight, or even enrage you, your fellow classmates and I are reading as attentively as we can. So, discussion allows you to ask of your colleagues what you might like to ask of the author, or what you are already asking of the text.
Discussion is also your chance to be wrong. We'll all be swimming into some uncharted territory — this is the nature of lively discourse — so we will all experience moments of panic, of flailing, and, most excitingly, of error. Though this is a writing course,
and much of our discussion will center around writing practices and techniques, it is also the case that writing is always writing about something, and so it is inevitable that our discussions about writing will be linked to discussions of particular ideas — sometimes more strongly, sometimes less so. I ask that you boldly accept the chance to make mistakes, and that you give your classmates the chance to be boldly wrong as well. One of the things that you are expected to learn to do in college is to produce innovative analytical and creative ideas, both inside and outside of your major field of study; it is impossible to do this without taking big intellectual risks. Contrapositively, in order to develop strong analytical writing skills, you will need to push your own intellectual boundaries and to grow as a thinker, reader, scholar, writer, and person. In order to allow your colleagues to take the kinds of risks that they need to take to become the writers and thinkers that they are in the process of becoming, it is important that we create an atmosphere that allows for this kind of intellectual risk-taking. It is (of course) acceptable to disagree with another student's ideas in class — but it is also important that you do so thoughtfully, politely, professionally, and by addressing the ideas involved, rather than by insulting or slandering the person expressing them. (You should also be sure to read the Equal Access Statement below for more on this topic.)
Attendance in class is required, and I will take attendance each and every time class meets. Our class meetings are rich and compact and important; any absence will put you significantly behind the rest of the class. (Do not email me to ask if you missed anything: the answer is always yes.
You should also take a look at the Contact and Communications Policy below.) But attending is not enough on its own: you are expected to do more in class than fill a seat. You are expected to work collaboratively with other people in the class by contributing your knowledge, experience, viewpoint, and insights. For this reason, simple attendance does not earn points; participation is an integral part of how this part of your grade is calculated. I do not distinguish between excused
and unexcused
absences: every absence hurts your grade by a little bit, regardless of why you were not in class. (Even if you have a doctor's note. Even if it's because your boss called you in to work at the last minute. Even if you are doing a worthwhile thing for a charity or political cause or club or fraternity/sorority. Even if you are engaged in an athletic contest for an official UCSB team. Even if you're assisting in a production of a school play. Even if you're going to some sort of required event for another class. Even if your alarm clock didn't go off and wake you up from your afternoon nap. Even if the bus came late. Even if you're on a date that's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to go out with a wonderful stranger you met on the way to class. Even if you're busy writing the great American novel and can't stop because you're in the zone. Even if you have a job interview. It doesn't matter what the reason is: you're either in class or you're not. If you're not, make sure that whatever you're doing instead of attending is important enough to you that you're willing to sacrifice points in order to do it.) Moreover, your overall grade for the quarter will be reduced by ⅓ of a letter grade for every absence after two (e.g., a third absence might reduce your total grade for the term from a B to a B-, and a fourth would reduce the same grade to a C+), and if you miss more than five classes, you will be unable to pass the course. Finally, since peer-review drafts form a significant part of your process and submission packets, missing class on a peer-review day will necessarily result in your having an incomplete submission packet for that assignment, thereby limiting your grade on that writing project (as a whole) to a C.
To summarize: Attendance and participation are an ongoing assignment that you can only fulfill by being in class and participating; there is no way to make up for
absences in order to regain points that you have lost by missing class or by not participating. I do not hold absences against you,
because you do not start the quarter with a full bucket
of attendance/participation points from which I penalize you by scooping out
points. You start the quarter with zero attendance/participation points, and earn points throughout the term by both attending and participating.
Despite this, if you have a genuinely extraordinary or catastrophic situation that will result in you missing more than one class, please come talk to me: I may be willing to soften these requirements under very unusual circumstances.
I am available during and (most days) after class, as well as during my office hours. If you need to see me but cannot come into my regular office hours, let me know and we will arrange another time to meet. I take my pedagogical responsibilities seriously, and want to help each and every one of you to be successful. Although I am willing to answer quick and basic questions by email, substantial and/or complex discussions about course material are likely to be more beneficial to both of us if they occur in person instead of electronically. You should treat email as a method of contact for me that is appropriate for quick questions, administrative matters, and emergencies, not as a forum for substantial discussions about course material. You will receive a more thorough explanation by asking me questions in person rather than through email. In part, this is because answering questions by email is more time-consuming for me then answering them verbally; it is also frequently the case that many students have the same or similar questions, and so answering those questions once in class is much more productive than answering them repeatedly in a private format. My responses will be limited to no more than a short paragraph (4–6 sentences maximum) and will be answered within 24 hours on weekdays and 48 hours on weekends. If you have larger conceptual questions that will take more time to discuss, you should make use of office hours or bring these questions to class. Please schedule your writing and studying so that any questions arise sufficiently far in advance of the due date that you are not left without feedback at the last minute. Please also note that my daytime responsibilities on campus may mean that I do not check my email during the last few hours before a paper is due.
Email is not a substitute for attending class; nor is it a substitute for taking notes. You should have contact information for other students in the course whom you can ask for notes and/or major announcements if it is necessary to miss a day. Emailing me to ask me for information that is available on the course website, or to ask me to repeat announcements already made in class, hurts your participation score, because it demonstrates that you are not adequately meeting basic expectations for participating in a college-level course. Despite this caveat, it is always acceptable to send me email to ask for clarification on requirements, guidelines, or other information that is available, and this will not result in a penalty to your participation score. If in doubt, ask yourself whether you are asking for clarification and expansion, or simply asking me to repeat myself.
It is your responsibility to ensure that you can receive email at your U-Mail address, and that you check your U-Mail address regularly, even if you do not consider your U-Mail address to be your primary email address.
Although I do not often contact students by email (except to respond to emails that you send me), I may occasionally make general announcements in this way, or contact you personally about important issues. Emails that I send are considered to be course material, and you are responsible for reading them in the same way and to the same degree that you are responsible for reading the texts listed on the syllabus. Failure to notice an email, or having a full email box, does not exempt you from your responsibility to be aware of these announcements.
While you are in class, please turn off your cell phone and any other electronic communications device(s) that you are not actively using for writing. If you have a compelling reason for needing to be available in these ways during class (for instance, if you are an emergency responder, or you need to be available to your childcare provider during class in case of emergency), please set your device to vibrate instead of making an audible tone. If a legitimate need arises for you to take an emergency phone call during class, or to respond to a text or other message, please leave the room to do so in order to minimize disruption to other students.
The University, the Writing Program, and I expect that all papers turned in will be your original work. This means that the ideas, arguments, and words that appear on the page are yours and yours alone unless you indicate otherwise. If your paper includes ideas or words that are not your own, you must cite your source using MLA guidelines. We will discuss these established scholarly expectations in some detail this quarter, but you should understand the golden rule of attribution from the beginning of the term: if you are using someone else's thought or language, you must explain where, exactly, you got that thought or language, using established scholarly practices. You should understand, from the first day of class, that it is your responsibility to ensure that it is always crystal clear when you are using someone else's thoughts or words.
The term original
also refers to your submission. A paper submitted for credit for this class should not be submitted for another class. (This is also a form of plagiarism, sometimes referred to as self-plagiarism.
) Plagiarism of any kind will result in a failing grade in the course, and may lead to probation and expulsion from the University. If you are unsure or have any questions about plagiarism, please speak with me about it!
Plagiarism is different from, and much more serious than, a related scholarly problem often referred to as misuse of sources.
Misuse of sources
refers to a good-faith effort at attribution that actively demonstrates that the writer is trying to attribute the source of another's language or ideas, but which falls short of doing so in a fully proper manner because the writer is insufficiently specific about the scope of the attribution or the source of the original thought or language, or because the writer has not completely followed established scholarly conventions for attribution. Plagiarism is cause for disciplinary action; misuse of sources will, at worst, hurt your grade on a specific assignment.
However, please understand that this distinction can, in practice, be difficult for a reader of your work to assess, and that the final evaluation of which problem is occurring will not be made by you, but by an external reader. (This is the specific implication of the policy below that says that good intentions are seldom an excuse.
) You should always strive to do the best possible job that you can of specifically attributing the source of the language and wording that you get from other people. This is an expectation that is related to a core concept of our course this quarter: writing is always writing for a specific audience, and, to be effective, it needs to take the reading practices of communities of readers into account. It is not enough that you meant to attribute something
; you always need to go out of your way to make it perfectly clear that you are using someone else's language and ideas, and whose, and where they occur.
Scholars often make use of the ideas, information, and words of those who have published before them. Scholars then critically examine the received information and make their own contributions to the advancement of learning. The student scholar enters into the same reciprocal process in writing (and other) courses at UCSB. Our scholarly debts to others must always be fully acknowledged through genuine research, scrupulous note-taking, and thorough and accurate acknowledgement (citation) of the authors who have contributed to our learning process. This interchange of ideas and information within the community of scholars is a sign of a participant's strength, not weakness.
Faculty in the Writing Program are eager to help students grow as scholars, and whenever possible we incorporate guidance on resources and citation practices in our teaching. The student remains chiefly responsible for meeting the principles of academic integrity and avoiding any form of plagiarism.
Academic honesty is critical for every university student who truly wants to learn. Violations of academic honesty include:
paraphraseneeds to be put into one's own words and must also be cited for its source.
double submissionis less well known as a form of plagiarism. This occurs when a student turns in a paper, or significant portions of a paper, that he or she has written for a different class. This too is a violation of academic policy. (See University Regulation 102.1 for more on these issues.)
Faculty in the Writing Program recognize that the best scholarly practices are learned over time, and faculty are eager to help students with all aspects of reading, thinking, researching, writing, and the citing of sources that contribute to a rewarding learning experience. The student's disclaiming any intent to plagiarize, however, usually does not change the consequences. Writing Program faculty urge students to seek our advice on these issues before turning in work, whether a draft or final paper, of questionable integrity. Get your money's worth
at UCSB and ask us for help.
Writing Program faculty tailor their responses to different student situations, but generally the student will receive a serious penalty for any plagiarized work. The consequence may be failure in the individual work submitted, an additional written work assignment, or even exclusion from the course (i.e. failing the entire course).
Whenever a penalty is imposed for academic dishonesty, Writing Program policy also requires faculty to do the following:
These are serious consequences, and faculty would much rather guide students to the best practices of scholarship than police student conduct.
Writing Resources: Campus Learning Assistance Services, or CLAS, offers writing workshop services free of charge for UCSB students. I strongly suggest taking advantage of this resource. Their website can be found at http://clas.sa.ucsb.edu/, and their phone number is (805) 893-3269. One of the opportunities that you have in college that you will not have after you graduate is the opportunity to receive free tutoring — you should take advantage of this!
Of course, I will also be available during office hours, or by appointment, to discuss any issues regarding the class materials, your progress, or your writing assignments, and I strongly encourage you to come to office hours if you have any questions or concerns about the class or your work.
Counseling Resources: Remember, too, that UCSB's Counseling & Psychological Services are available to you if you ever feel overwhelmed, or are in need of a listening ear. Their website is http://caps.sa.ucsb.edu/, and their phone number is (805) 893-4411.
Course resources: A collection of course materials can be found online at http://is.gd/cifami (or, if you're fond of additional typing, at http://patrickbrianmooney.nfshost.com/~patrick/ta/s15/). At a bare minimum, that site will have electronic copies of all handouts that I distribute during class. There is also a Twitter stream for the course, accessible from the same location, that provides reminders about upcoming events and additional course-related information.
Resources for Students with Disabilities: If you are a student with a disability and would like to discuss special academic accommodations, please contact me and register with the Disabled Students Program at http://dsp.sa.ucsb.edu or by phone at (805) 893-2668.
University policy and Federal and state law require that all students be provided fair and equal access to educational services, regardless of race, gender, religion, nationality, ethnicity, sexual orientation, or economic background. All students in this class are expected to treat each other with respect, and prejudicial or hate speech will not be tolerated. Professional speech and demeanor is expected from everyone in class at all times. Behavior and/or language that intimidate or negatively impact the attendance or performance of another student constitutes harassment and is unacceptable. This includes unwelcome sexual advances.
More broadly, we should be discussing texts and ideas and writing strategies, not attacking each other personally. Focusing on discussions of course material and related topics not only keeps us on task, but will ensure that everyone is able to participate effectively and gain as much as possible from the course.
If you have questions or concerns about university policies on equal access, please do not hesitate to contact me. If you do not feel comfortable speaking with me for any reason, you may contact UCSB's Title IX Compliance Office (https://oeosh.ucsb.edu/), the Multicultural Center (http://mcc.sa.ucsb.edu/), the Resource Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity (http://www.sa.ucsb.edu/sgd/), or the Women's Center (http://www.sa.ucsb.edu/women/).
This is a class about writing, reading, and thinking. A rich and responsible experience of any of these requires that we return, revisit, re-envision, reconsider, and revise our language and our ideas. (Walt Whitman, a man egotistical enough to call himself a cosmos,
only wrote one book of poems. But he revised that book between six and nine times, depending on how you feel about certain editions, over nearly forty years.) The more we return and reflect, the better our writing (and our analytical skills) become. For this reason, a large chunk of your grade for this class will be based on a final portfolio that you will turn in at the end of the quarter, and most of the material in your portfolio will consist of revised versions of earlier works. This means that you will receive extensive feedback on your submission drafts, and this feedback will be targeted to providing support for a revision.
As you complete drafts of each Writing Project (WP), you'll turn in a submission packet that will contain the submission draft of the WP, the Project Builders (PBs) that contributed to its development, comments from class colleagues, and a reflective cover letter. I will comment on the submission draft with an eye toward portfolio revision.
Each WP submission packet is worth 10% of the final course grade; grades will be based on the effort evident in the packet, the attention paid to the work itself, and the craftsmanship of the final product. (We will discuss grading criteria for WP submission packets in more detail before your first WP assignment is due, and I will post criteria for WP packet grading after this discussion.) You will revise two of three submission drafts for your final course portfolio. Regardless of whether you revise a particular assignment in the final portfolio, if you have not turned in all drafts as part of a complete packet, you will not pass the course. PB assignments will receive an A, B, or C grade, unqualified by plus or minus; or, if they do not meet even minimum basic expectations, they will receive no credit.
Grades on all of these assignments will reflect the thoroughness and attention given to the writing, not the ultimate rightness
of the work. That is to say: paper grades are not based on whether you agree with me. You are welcome to disagree in whole or part with the opinions I express and positions I take in class, in my office hours, on the Internet (you can find me if you look hard enough), or in other places. This will not hurt your grade, because I do not expect you to research my position, or to guess at it, or to pander to what you take my opinion to be — what I expect from all students is that they will engage in skillful, reflective, thoughtful, intellectually honest writing. (We will talk in more detail about what this means on several occasions this quarter.) Contrapositively, agreeing with me will not necessarily benefit you: I will still expect you to engage in good reflective writing practices. I do not grade you on your politics, religion, consumer choices, or other opinions: I grade you on the construction of your paper, on how well you satisfy assignment criteria, and on your writing.
In addition to the above requirements, you must meet all of the following criteria to receive a passing grade in the course:
All assignments are due in hard copy at the beginning of class on the date indicated on the course calendar. I do not accept electronic copies except in emergencies, and coming late to class, even by a few minutes, may mean that your assignment is late — and that you have therefore prevented yourself from passing the class as a whole! If you absolutely must miss class on the day an assignment is due, you may leave a copy of the assignment in my mail box (SH 3421) by 4 p.m. on that same day. (Note that the Writing Program's mail room may be locked after 4 p.m., so if you can't turn your assignment in in class, you will have to turn it in at least an hour before class begins in order to be perfectly certain that you will be able to turn it in at all.)
Late work will only be accepted if an extension has been requested and granted at least 24 hours prior to the class meeting at which the paper is due. In this case, late submissions will still be docked ⅓ of a grade per 24 hour period past the original deadline. If you have not requested an extension 24 hours in advance, I will only accept late work in the case of a serious, unavoidable problem (e.g., illness, injury, or personal or family emergency). Documentation of anything that constitutes a serious, unavoidable problem
will be required.
Technology problems are not an acceptable excuse for late work, even if the work is only late by a few minutes. It is not safe to assume that your equipment will automatically continue to be reliable throughout a writing process. Let's face it: technology breaks. Batteries die, power cords fray, cars fail to start, Internet connections go down for reasons outside of your control, buses come late, hard drives crash, printers break or run out of ink, files become corrupt, cloud-based services suddenly go offline. These are not considered emergencies: in our technologically oriented society, they are part of the normal production process. You need to protect yourself by managing your time and backing up your work. (If you need suggestions about how you can do this effectively, please let me know! I am happy to discuss this with you.)
Navigating Genres
How to Read Like a Writer
Shitty First Drafts
How to Disagree
Annoying Ways People Use Sources
Inventing the University
Teaching Two Kinds of Thinking by Teaching Writing
Politics and the English Language
On Smarm
I expect that you will put in the necessary work to be prepared for class, that you will engage with the course material, that you will turn in your work on time, and that you will treat everyone else in class with respect. I want everyone to benefit from and to succeed in this course, and would be happy to hear input from you about how I can help you to do so. If you have questions or concerns, please let me know in my office hours, after class, or by email.
I try very hard to be available to, supportive of, and understanding toward my students. If you are having difficulties with the course material, please come talk to me. If you have unusual, stressful, or bizarre things happen during the term that make it difficult for you to perform up to your potential in the course, please come talk to me. If you just can't seem to get started writing your paper, please come talk to me. If you are overwhelmed by the scope of an assignment and don't know where to begin, please come talk to me. If I can help you to be successful in any reasonable way, please let me know. If I'm not aware of what's affecting your class performance and writing process, however, it's difficult for me to assist you.
Our schedule is subject to change as the quarter progresses, and the most up-to-date copy of this syllabus is always available on the Web at http://is.gd/ewinix (or, equivalently, at http://patrickbrianmooney.nfshost.com/~patrick/ta/s15/w2/syllabus.html). However, please bring your hard copy of these guidelines with you to each class meeting so you can keep notes on any changes that I may find it necessary to make — or else be prepared to re-print this document if the schedule changes.