writing.markfullmer.com

Monday, Aug 24: We'll review the syllabus and discuss writing style and voice

Wednesday, Aug 26: We'll figure out just what, exactly, college writing is all about and you'll take the required diagnostic exam
Due before class:
• Create an account at writing.markfullmer.com, including your 150-300 word bio. Here's a tutorial on how to do it.
• Take the syllabus quiz on our website. It's easy. Trust me.

Monday, Aug 31: We'll start work on the Consumerism study and discuss the sample essays.
Due before class:
• Read the following essays from our textbook: "Scenes from the Exhibitionist" (233-6) and "In Praise of Chain Stores" (681)
• Pick 1 of the following essays to read from our coursebook (will be scanned in Thursday a.m.): “Can this Campus Be Bought?” (81), “The Market for a Yale Woman’s Eggs" (190), “The End of Gay Culture” (381), “Whatever it Takes” (252), "Reptile Dreams" (471-7), or “An Ode to Country Music from a Black Dixie Chick” (421). This will be your starting topic for the consumerism study.

Wednesday, Sep 2: We'll do research workshop #1 and try two topic-generating exercises
Due before class:
• Read 2 of the following student essays: You Don't Understand. I AM America's Next Top Model, The Best of Miley's World, Lose 20 Pounds for $20, and Love Potion No. Man
• Choose 1 of those 2 essays and post a 300 word comment below it. What did you love about it? What did you hate? What questions do you have about what's acceptable for academic writing? Which things from the essay might you try to do in your own writing?
• Consider what we've talked about over the past week, review the Consumerism study prompt, and come to class with a proposed topic for your paper.

Monday, Sep 7: NO CLASS, LABOR DAY
Wednesday, Sep 9:We'll try a "talking-the-essay" exercise to explore the writing process. We'll talk about the process of writing drafts, reader-based prose, and the concept of shitty first drafts
Due before class:
• Spend some time wandering around the online databases, find a consumerism-related scholarly article, and post a resource to our website.

• Post the first draft of your Consumerism Study (choose "draft," & write 1000-2000 words). In the first draft, I'm not concerned about grammar and perfect writing style. Instead, focus on complex ideas and creative thinking.
• *Important* Also, bring to class one paper printout of your first draft for a peer reading workshop

Monday, Sep 14: We'll talk about how best to revise essays & discuss academic titles. For extra credit, you can volunteer your first draft to be read in-class and commented on. If your essay is chosen, you will receive 1% extra credit.
Due before class:
• Watch this video demonstration of revising a consumerism paper
• Add a comment below your own draft with at least 1 question you'd like me/classmates to answer when giving feedback on your paper.
• Visit the Consumerism Study page, find a classmate's draft that has not been commented on, read it, and leave feedback/suggestions. Point out at least 1 thing that is working well so far and at least 1 thing the student could improve on.

Wednesday, Sep 16:We'll do an intensive workshop on introductions and conclusions and collaboratively determine what an “A” paper should be.
Due before class:
• On your own, revise your consumerism study, focusing on creating an academic tone that is both sophisticated sounding (use discourse-specific words you've run across in research) and objective (not opinionated)
• Read "Cultural Globalization is not Americanization" (514)

Monday, Sep 21: We'll begin work on the Think Again Argument, exploring traditional and advanced modes of argument.
Due before class:
• Read the following essay: "Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster's Open Letter to the Kansas School Board" (348)
• Post the final essay version of your consumerism essay (this will be graded).

Wednesday, Sep 23: We'll review ethos, logos, pathos, & kairos, as well as inductive, deductive, and Hegelian logic, and discuss the sample essays assigned.
Due before class:
• Vote on which essay has the best academic style title
• Read one of the following essays: The Truth about Dogs, Is Google Making Us Stupid?, Marry Him!, The Seven Words You Can't Say on Television, or Is Pornography Adultery?

Monday, Sep 28: To better understand the components of argument, we'll have an in-class mini debate.
Due before class:
• Post, as a comment on your consumerism essay, a 300-500 word reflection on writing the first paper. Explain how you got ideas, how research broadened those ideas, what was hard about writing, where you were when you wrote, what you did when you wrote, what you changed between first and second drafts, and what you might want to try for future writing.
• Read the 3 short essays in "Slate's College Makeover" (121-129)
Wednesday, Sep 30: We'll discuss fallacies of logic -- persuasive trickery you should be on the lookout for
Due before class:
• Post at least one scholarly resource relating to the argument topic you're going to be writing on.

Monday, Oct 5: We'll review MLA formatting and integrating sources.
**Bring Your Stuffed Animal To Class Day**
Due before class:
• Take Quiz 2: Inductive & Deductive Logic
Wednesday, Oct 7: We'll do an intensive workshop on timed writing (this will prepare you both for the midterm and for future timed writing situations). If time permits, volunteer your essay to be workshopped, and if yours is picked, we'll read it to the class and get their feedback. You'll get 1% extra credit added to your final grade).
Due before class:
• Post the first draft of your argument paper (1500-2500 words). As before, it's crucial that you meet the minimum word count, but not crucial that all your ideas are coherent in the first draft.

Monday, Oct 12: Midterm exam: bring a blue (or green) book to class Due before class:
• Take Quiz 3: Paraphrase, Quotation, and Citation
• Visit the Argument paper page, find a classmate's draft that has not been commented on, read it, and leave feedback/suggestions.
Wednesday, Oct 14: Individual Meetings: instead of meeting as a group, we'll set up times to meet one-on-one to discuss your Education Analysis. Please bring a printout of your latest version of the paper to our conference.
Due before class:
• Watch this video (not yet available) on revising the Argument paper

Monday, Oct 19: We'll begin discussing the Education Analysis paper, exploring ethical dilemmas.
Due before class:
Wednesday, Oct 21: We'll discuss strategies for analyzing complex topics and how to structure essays to reflect that analysis. We'll discuss the complexities of framing arguments using Kahneman & Tversky's famous experiment.
Due before class:
• Post the final essay version of your Argument Paper.
• Read "A Whole Lot of Cheatin' Going On" (198) and "Learning in the Key of Life" (65)
• Take our survey: being a student today
• Watch this video: Dan Ariely's explanation of cheating • Take Quiz 4: Persuasion and Argument

Monday, Oct 26: We'll discuss the role of visual media, charts, lists, headers, and paragraph length. Due before class:
• Read Education Addiction and The 21st Century Conundrum
• Talk to friends & family: what do they think about the educational problem you're pursuing?
Wednesday, Oct 28:
• Post at least one scholarly resource relating to the education topic you're going to be writing on.
• Read "The War Against Boys" (133) and "Lives on the Boundary" (90)

Monday, Nov 2: We'll plan to meet in the Library computer lab (room 101) and do an intensive workshop on wordiness, focusing on prepositions and readability. As a way to earn extra credit, volunteer your essay to be workshopped, and if yours is picked, we'll read it to the class and get their feedback. You'll get 1% extra credit added to your final grade).
Due before class:
• Post the first draft of your Education Analysis paper (2000-3000 words).
Wednesday, Nov 4:
Due before class:
• Visit the Education Analysis page, find a classmate's draft that has not been commented on, read it, and leave feedback/suggestions.

Monday, Nov 9: We'll begin discussing the Web Writing Tutorial, examining how people read differently when reading online, and we'll define web layout conventions, scannable text, paragraph length, headers, hyperlinks, and graphics. We'll further discuss web writing conventions (objective language, varied sentence structure, brevity).
• Read "The Rules about the Rules" (179)
• Take Quiz 4: Revision Tricks
Wednesday, Nov 11: We'll further discuss layout conventions, contrasting print writing with web writing.
Due before class:
• Spend at least 1 hour wandering around the web reading articles on web writing (simply google "writing for the web," or just read http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/

Monday, Nov 16: We'll begin work on the Genre Film Analysis, analyzing film excerpts from “Enter the Dragon,” “Rocky,” “Attack of the 50 Foot Woman,” and “The Proposition.” We'll collaboratively determine what an “A” paper should be for the Education Analysis.
Due before class:
• Read either of these articles on genre film: Introduction to Genre Theory; Wikipedia: Film Genre
• Take eWriting Quiz
Wednesday, Nov 18: We'll analyze visual elements in “Olimpia,” “Casablanca,” and “The Best Years of Our Lives,” as well as analyzing film and popular culture using interpretive frameworks.
Due before class:
• Post the final draft of your Education Analysis (2000-3000 words)

Monday, Nov 23: I'll introduce the given-new theory of writing and we'll spend time rearticulating course goals.
Due before class:
• Read Society Seeks Flawed Hero: Villain as Social Fear in The Dark Knight and De-evolution of Society?: How Wall-E Portrays Our Society's Complete Dependency On Technology & The Negative Effects of Our Addiction to Consumerism
Wednesday, Nov 25: Instead of a regular class today, you'll go to the theatres and watch (and take notes on) a film currently playing in theatres. Alternatively, we'll watch a recent film in class (probably Wanted or Gran Torino).
Due before class:
• Set up a meeting with a classmate outside of class to discuss the film you watched, how it might say something about American culture, and what you might want to research for the genre film analysis.

Monday, Nov 30: We'll discuss Richard Lanham's theory of “official style” in academic writing and contrast academic writing with business writing. Due before class:
• Post at least one scholarly article on the genre of film you're analyzing and post it to our website.
• Post (as an attachment) your Web Writing tutorial (this will receive a grade). If you have trouble attaching it, instead email it to me.
Wednesday, Dec 2: We'll talk through Gerald Graff's 9 concepts of good academic writing. These things should give you much more to say in your writing in the future, and better ways to say it.
Due before class:
• Meet with a classmate on your own and discuss your plans for the genre film analysis. Use this and the meeting as a springboard to get you thinking outside the box about connections between your film and American society.
• Post a very rough draft of only the analytical portion of your genre film analysis (that is, don't worry about the introduction or conclusion or research, simply get your ideas out about analyzing particular details in your film (lines of dialogue, plot structure, characters, camera techniques).

Monday, Dec 7: We'll plan to meet in the the library's Room 101 for a computer lab revising session. We'll spend the whole class doing an intensive 10-step revision workshop in order to prepare you for submitting your final work.
Due before class:
• Post the full first draft of your genre film analysis
Wednesday, Dec 9: We'll look at the first drafts of classmates, doing an in-class peer workshopping, and talk through genre analysis do's and don'ts.
Due before class: For our last class, we're going to have a show-and-tell. Bring something that communicates meaning in a way that words cannot. You might bring a photograph that has meaning to you, or a souvenir, or artwork you've done, or a song. Your job will be to explain to class how things other than words can express information.

• Post a comment on at least one of your classmate's film analysis first drafts.

Monday, Dec 14:Today we'll be taking our in-class final exam. (3:00 & 5:15 arrival) • bring a blue (or green) book to class for the final exam
Due by December 16, 11:59pm:
• Post the final essay of your genre film analysis
• Check that you've completed all work for the course in order to get credit
• Optionally, submit up to 2 revised essays for a better grade