un1015-r01 syllabus

Rhetoric and Composition: UN1015 - R01

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Course Syllabus & Policies

Course Details:

Meeting Days: MWF Time: 9:05am-9:55am Location: Walker 144

Instructor Information:

Richard L. Ward

Office Hours (by appointment):

Contact me with any scheduling conflicts.

“Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.”

Benjamin Franklin

Course Description & Overview

In this class, you’ll examine and interpret communication practices and apply what you learn to

your own written, spoken, and visual compositions. While writing is the core focus of our class,

you will also practice composing in other modes, as well. Class projects will ask you to attend to

audience, purpose, and context. You will produce texts over a series of drafts in order to hone

your skills as a thoughtful multimodal communicator.

Course Objectives

Upon successful completion of this course, you should be able to:

● recognize and use several strategies for producing and interpreting persuasive texts that

are appropriate for a particular context, audience, and purpose;

● know how to develop an organized text in written, aural, and/or visual modes and

demonstrate a basic understanding of the conventions of a genre or discipline;

● develop carefully crafted arguments informed by research, critical reasoning, and

persuasive techniques

This course is designed to meet two of Michigan Technological University’s Student Learning

Goals: Communication (Goal 5) and Information Literacy (Goal 6). To learn more about these

learning goals, please see the rubrics posted at

http://www.mtu.edu/assessment/program/university-learning-goals/

Required Readings & Other Materials

Johnson-Eilola, Johndan. Changing Writing: A Guide with Scenarios, 1st ed. Boston:

Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2014.

Email: [email protected] Phone: (906) 487-0925 Office: Walker 149

Monday – 1:00pm-3:00pm Wednesday – 12:30pm-

2:30pm

Friday – 1:15pm-3:15pm










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The Purdue OWL & their guide for MLA 7 can be found at https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl

Other assigned readings will be posted in Canvas

Assignments & Grade Distribution

Your course grade will be determined by the number of points you earn out of 1000 total. The

1000 points are broken down as follows:

Responses (100 pt.)

Responses of at least 300 words to readings will be assigned regularly; they must be turned in

via Canvas. Late work is accepted for a reduced grade—I'd rather have you do the work late than

not at all—but your Professionalism grade (see below) will suffer if work is habitually late.

Rhetorical Analysis Essay (150 pt.)—due Monday, February 1st

A 1,500-word essay that identifies the rhetorical elements of a multimodal text of your choosing.

This essay will be written in multiple drafts.

Research Process Portfolio (150 pt.)—due Monday, February 29th

A collection of documents that traces the steps of your research for the researched argument

essay.

Researched Argument Essay (200 pt.)—due Wednesday, March 30th

A 2,500-word essay that uses the findings of your research to develop a thesis on an unsettled

question or issue. This essay will be written in multiple drafts.

Multimodal Project (200 pt.)—due Friday, April 15th

A multimodal “text” that persuades an audience using a combination of aural, visual, and/or

written modes of communication.

Final Portfolio (100 pt.)—due Friday, April 22nd

A digital collection of your best, final efforts at the four major course assignments: Rhetorical

Analysis, Research Process Portfolio, Researched Argument Essay, and Multimodal Project,

submitted in separate files. The portfolio will also include a written reflection statement.

Professionalism (100 pt.)

Includes the quality completion of readings, discussions, in-class and homework activities,

informal writing assignments, project drafts, summaries of two on-campus cultural events

during the semester, and peer review exchanges.

NOTE: This semester, the Research Process Portfolio and Researched Argument

Essay will be submitted as part of our yearly assessment of the general education

program. This means that in addition to submitting these assignments to me for

grading, you will be required to submit them to LiveText through a link on Canvas

(I will provide you with more details about this process later in the semester.) If

you wish your work to remain anonymous, make sure to remove any identifying

information from the documents prior to submitting them to LiveText. You must

submit these two assignments to LiveText for assessment before the end of the semester in order

to receive your grade for the course—failure to do so will result in an “I” (incomplete) grade in

the course, until the assignments have been submitted.

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl

https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl


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Personal Technology Policy

While I recognize students’ need for educational and emergency-related technological devices

such as laptops, PDAs, cellular phones, etc., using them unethically or recreationally during

class time is never appropriate. That said, using your electronic device to take notes and do in-

class work is encouraged; however, this will change if the device distracts other students or

myself. Once again, the use of your devices is subject to the professionalism grade below.

Attendance

Your unwavering attendance is both required and expected. Decisions about papers will be made

in class and your grade for Professionalism (see below) depends significantly upon regular

attendance. Missing more than three class sessions will result in a grade penalty of minus one

letter grade for each day missed over three, and missing more than six class sessions will result

in failing the course.

I do not distinguish between excused and unexcused absences. Please note that if you miss

class, I will not re-teach the material to you during office hours and any work we do in class

(e.g., peer review) cannot be made up. If you do miss class, I would suggest discussing any

missed materials with your classmates.

That said, however, I’m not a complete monster. I do understand that there are times when

extenuating circumstances (such as a death in the immediate family or sudden incapacitating

personal injury) do arise. In these cases, I will refer to Michigan Tech’s policy on attendance

found here:

http://www.mtu.edu/deanofstudents/academic-policies/attendance/

Grading Scale

Final grades correspond to the following percentages:

Letter

Grade Percentage Letter Grade Percentage

A 93% – 100% C 70% – 75%

AB 87% – 92% CD 65% – 69%

B 82% – 86% D 60% - 64%

BC 76% – 81% F 0% - 59%






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Professionalism

A significant portion of your grade is based on the professionalism you demonstrate toward the

course and its content, toward me, and toward your fellow students. Conduct that influences

professionalism includes but is not limited to the following:

• Your willingness to engage the texts and issues associated with the course in the spirit of

learning more about yourself and the world you live in.

• Your ability to respect a diversity of opinion as demonstrated by conducting yourself in a

civil manner and by refraining from interruptions and ridicule of others.

• Your ability to listen and participate during class.

• Your ability to offer relevant, on-topic commentary.

• Your ability to arrive at class or a conference on time and prepared. This requirement

includes obtaining the textbook by the first day of class.

• Your ability to focus on class during class time. Habitual entrances and exits during class

sessions will result in a grade penalty, as will holding private discussions or texting

during class and disruptions arising from cell phones, watches, pagers, and the like.

Exception: if your cell phone rings to a song from the 1980s, you will receive extra credit.

• Your ability to avoid complaining and asking questions whose answers have already been

provided (e.g., “Can I make up the quiz?” and “What is the response for next time?”).

• Your ability to let me know ahead of time if you have to miss an appointment or

conference.

• Your attendance at and brief (~250-word) summaries of two on-campus cultural events

during the semester. These events may be lectures, plays, concerts, art exhibits, or other

occasions. They may not be events whose primary purpose is entertainment or an

athletic contest; ask me if you’re not sure if an event qualifies. Be sure that your

summary demonstrates that you stayed for the duration of the event.

You may be asked to read and discuss issues from perspectives that may disturb your moral

and/or religious prejudices. While I do not intend to influence your opinion, make you

purposefully uncomfortable, or otherwise grade you on your perspectives, you may find some

material too personally offensive to maintain high standards of intellectual pursuit and honesty.

If you think your views will interfere with your ability to conduct yourself professionally in this

course, we’ll need to schedule a meeting and discuss it.

Late or Missing Work

Late or partially-completed homework assignments will significantly impact your

professionalism grade, such as “Responses” listed above. However, late essay and project drafts

impact your grade in two ways: your professionalism grade AND the essay or project grade

itself. These types of assignments submitted ONE (1) day (starting the instant it is considered

late on Canvas) after the due date will receive a reduction of a letter grade, and it will lower

another letter grade by day TWO (2), and yet another letter grade on day THREE (3). This

means that, if you turn your paper in three days late, the very best grade you could hope for will

be a D. If your assignment is four (4) or more days late of the due date, you will receive a

ZERO (0) for the assignment. Students must turn in complete, final drafts of ALL major

assignments in order to receive a passing course grade.


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NOTE: This rule can be modified simply by notifying me BEFORE the date the assignment is

due and giving me a valid reason for its tardiness.

University Policies

Michigan Tech has standard policies on academic misconduct and complies with all federal and

state laws and regulations regarding discrimination, including the Americans with Disabilities

Act of 1990. For more information about reasonable accommodation for or equal access to

education or services at Michigan Tech, please call the Dean of Students Office, at (906) 487-

2212 or go to

http://www.mtu.edu/ctl/instructional-resources/syllabus/syllabus_policies.html

Plagiarism

Plagiarism, which Michigan Tech defines as “knowingly copying another's work or ideas and

calling them one's own or not giving proper credit or citation,” is a violation of the academic

integrity policy: <http://www.admin.mtu.edu/usenate/policies/p109-1.htm>. In this class, we

will discuss the practical and ethical aspects of source attribution so you can learn how and why

to avoid plagiarism in your academic work. It is crucial that you take care to acknowledge the

sources of your written, audio, or visual material in this and other classes. Instances of

plagiarized work will be handled according to university procedures, which includes a reporting

of the incident to the Office of Student Affairs.

Assessment

Student work products (exams, essays, projects, etc.) may be used for the purposes of university,

program, or course assessment. All work used for assessment purposes will not include any

individual student identification; therefore, students should remove their names, teachers'

names, course and section identifiers before submitting work for assessment.

Disability Services

If you have a disability that could affect your performance in any class or that requires an

accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act, please contact your instructor or

Disability Services at 487-1494 as soon as possible so that appropriate arrangements can be

made. http://www.mtu.edu/deanofstudents/students/disability/

Veterans / Military

Veterans and active duty military personnel with special circumstances (e.g., upcoming

deployments, drill requirements, disabilities) are welcomed and encouraged to communicate

these, in advance if possible, to their instructor(s).

http://www.mtu.edu/registrar/students/veterans/

The Office of Institutional Equity http://www.mtu.edu/equity

Equal Opportunity, Discrimination, or Harassment Statement

http://www.admin.mtu.edu/admin/boc/policy/ch5/





http://www.admin.mtu.edu/usenate/policies/p109-1.htm




http://www.mtu.edu/deanofstudents/students/disability/









http://www.mtu.edu/equity

http://www.mtu.edu/equity




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Disclaimer

This syllabus is subject to change by the instructor.


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Schedule of Classes, Readings, and Response Questions

Date

Jan. 11

Monday

What's Happening

Introductions and

Syllabus Review

What's Due

Nothing Due

Jan. 13

Wednesday

Discuss Rhetoric:

What is rhetoric?

Introduction to PACT

Read Chapter 1: “Building a Framework for Reading and

Writing” and “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” by Dr. Martin

Luther King Jr.

Response 1: Discuss Dr. King’s use of PACT. Be sure to

include his ethos, pathos, and logos

Jan. 15

Friday

Approaching Writing

Situations

Discuss Thesis

Statements

Read Chapter 2: “Approaching Writing Situations” (pages 31-

43)

Response 2: Exercise 3 (p. 46) in Changing Writing

Jan. 18

Monday

MLK Jr. Day Recess/

No Class

Nothing Due

Jan. 20

Wednesday

Discuss “Structuring

Your Texts”

Discuss Outlining

Read Chapter 4: “Structuring Your Texts” (pages 75-93)

Response 3: Exercise 4 (p 100).

Jan. 22

Friday

Workshop of Outlines

and Thesis Statements Thesis and outline of rhetorical analysis essay due in class and

due on Canvas by 11:59:59 pm

Jan. 25

Monday

Peer Review of Drafts

Sign Up for

Conferences

Full draft of Rhetorical Analysis Essay due by class. Bring a

copy to class for peer review.

Jan. 27

Wednesday

Conferences/ No Class Email revised draft to instructor one day prior to conference.

Jan. 29

Friday


Feb. 1

Monday

Exploring a Potential

Research Topic

Asking the Right

Questions

Read Chapter 6: “Managing Writing Projects”

Response 4: Exercise 1 (p. 152)

SIGNATURE ASSIGNMENT: RHETORICAL ANALYSIS

ESSAY (FINAL DRAFT) AND REFLECTIVE WRITING

DUE ON CANVAS BY 11:59:59 PM


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Feb. 3

Wednesday

Winter Carnival

Recess/ No Class

Feb. 5

Friday

Winter Carnival

Recess/ No Class

Feb. 8

Monday

Library Session

Class held in room 244

of the library

Library Tutorials: Watch “Selecting Library Resources” video

tutorial; familiarize with the Tutorials before Library Instruction

Session http://www.mtu.edu/library/research/tutorials/

Response 5: Summarize the video “Selecting Library

Resources.” NOTE: Late responses for this assignment will

not be accepted!

Feb. 10

Wednesday

Introduction to

Research Logs Response 6: Review the image on Canvas and discuss the

kairos that could have led to the creation of such a document.

Feel free to use google to learn more on woman suffrage in the

1800s!

Feb. 12

Friday

Library Session

Discuss “ Getting

Information and

Writing from

Research”

Research Workshop

Class held in room 242

of the library

Read Chapter 7: “Getting Information and Writing from

Research” (omit pages 164-173)


Feb. 15

Monday

Evaluating Sources &

Writing Annotations Signature Assignment – Research Process Document: Find

and read at least two sources and bring to class.

Read Chapter 9: “Revising Your Texts” (pp. 225-239)


Feb. 17

Wednesday

Discuss “Revising

Your Texts”

Peer Reviews

Research Logs due in class for peer review

http://www.mtu.edu/library/research/tutorials/


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Feb. 19

Friday

Peer Reviews

Sign Up for

Conferences

Research Process Portfolio: graphic brainstorm, topic,

research questions, at least four sources, and annotated

bibliography due in class for peer review

Feb. 22

Monday

Conferences/ No Class Response 9: After seeing some of the more common types of

fallacies in "Fallacies of Argument," think of at least one time

when you have seen one of them used. Do you feel as if it hurt

the argument as a whole? Why or why not?

Email revised draft to instructor one day prior to conference.

Feb. 24

Wednesday

Conferences/ No Class Response 10: Watch the first 1:50 seconds of the video

concerning "Deflate Gate." Reflect on what you read in the

previous assignment concerning fallacies, and think about it as

you watch the statement given by Tom Brady's agent. Discuss

the fallacies you see and give your thoughts.


Feb. 26

Friday

Writing the Research

Paper

Response 11: Watch the video “Even More Fallacies.” Search

Facebook or Twitter for an argument, screenshot it, and define

which of the three arguments listed in the video it pertains to,

and why. After learning about these different kinds of

arguments, have your own perspectives changed?

Feb. 29

Monday

Argumentation and

Evidence SIGNATURE ASSIGNMENT: RESEARCH PROCESS

PORTFOLIO AND REFLECTIVE ESSAY ARE DUE BY

11:59:59 PM

Mar. 2

Wednesday

Using Sources and

Avoiding Plagiarism

Response 12: According to the video “Understanding

Plagiarism,” what are some of the ways to avoid plagiarism?

Outline of researched argument paper due by 11:59:59 pm

Mar. 4

Friday

Spring Break/ No

Class

Mar. 7

Monday

Spring Break/ No

Class

Mar. 9

Wednesday

Spring Break/ No

Class

Mar. 11

Friday

Spring Break/ No

Class


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Mar. 14

Monday

Remixing Response 13: The video “10 Things I hate About

Commandments” is a great example of remix, a method for

combining elements from other sources and creating a new

project that conveys a new and different message. I want you to

analyze this video. Discuss how it utilizes the PACT principles

and discuss the rhetorical appeals that it conveys.

https://youtu.be/u1kqqMXWEFs

Mar. 16

Wednesday

Writing from Research Complete outline of final project due.

Response 14: John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Address is one of the

most prolific and moving speeches in history. Watch the video

and write a response discussing his use of pathos and its effect

on so many people

Mar. 18

Friday

Peer Reviews

Sign Up for

Conferences

Draft of Researched Argument Essay Assignment due on

Canvas and in class.

Mar. 21

Monday

Conferences/ No Class Read Chapter 5: “Designing Visual Texts” (pp. 102-137)



Mar. 23

Wednesday

Conferences/ No Class Response 16: Read “Death to Paper” and analyze the argument

being made. Is it a logical argument? Do you see any fallacies?


Mar. 25

Friday

Conferences/ No Class Response 17: Visit “Where is Pine Point.”

http://interactive.nfb.ca/#/pinepoint Describe how to make

something like this using your argumentative essay.


Mar. 28

Monday

Designing Visual Texts/

Models & Genres Multimodal Composition Proposals due

Mar. 30

Wednesday

Researched Argument

Wrap-Up SIGNATURE ASSIGNMENT: RESEARCHED

ARGUMENT ESSAY AND REFLECTIVE WRITING

DUE BY 11:59:59 PM

Apr. 1

Friday

Repurposing Text Response 18: Review the multimodal video and analyze it using

the PACT chart on p. 16. Also, discuss its structure and

rhetorical appeal.

http://interactive.nfb.ca/#/pinepoint


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Apr. 4

Monday

Multimodality Response 19: Find a multimodal text that uses at least three

modes of communication and discuss how it uses PACT.

Apr. 6

Wednesday

Library Session

Multimodality

Class will be held in

library room 242

Sign Up for

Conferences

Draft of multimodal project for peer reviews due on Canvas and

in class.

Apr. 8

Friday


Response 20: Watch the video and tell me what you think. Can

you see this video as making a clear argument? If so, what is it

arguing for? Is it an effective multimodal text in what it is

trying to do?

Apr. 11

Monday

Conferences/ No Class All Cultural Events due no later than 11:59:59 pm


Apr. 13

Wednesday

Multimodality Portfolio drafts due in class

Apr. 15

Friday

Multimodality

Sign Up for

Presentations

SIGNATURE ASSIGNMENT: MULTIMODAL PROJECT

ASSIGNMENT DUE BY 11:59:59 PM

Apr. 18

Monday

Final Presentations Nothing Due

Apr. 20

Wednesday

Final Presentations Nothing Due

Apr. 22

Friday

Final Presentations

and/or Final

Reflections

Final written reflections due in class

Final electronic portfolios due

un1015-r01 syllabus

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