WR123 College Composition III, Winter '96						Erick Heroux
CRN #26493								Office: PLC 23
M W F 9-10 AM Phone: 6-1515
Rm 307 Deady						Hrs: MWF 10-11AM
E-mail: heroux@darkwing.uoregon.edu

This course extends the emphasis on writing well-reasoned, persuasive essays in WR 121 out into the big wild world of multiple sources. A thesis requires supporting evidence, and evidence requires a bit of searching and evaluating conflicting sources. Hence this is not exactly a class on how to find evidence or how to use the library--although we'll spend a little time on that too. Instead, this course aims to practice the questions: How shall we think about all that information? When and why should we believe or doubt authorities and truths? Why should other people agree with our research?

Some of our outside sources will not necessarily be in the library, but rather from the mass media saturated environment around us. We will be analyzing such "texts" or objects of popular culture with the "semiotic" approach, the basics of which will be covered in the first week. Most of the essays we'll read are considered to be "semiotic" in a general sense. The fundamental concern will still be on presenting evidence, and on the quality of reasoning about that evidence--whether it refers to a TV ad or to a scholarly journal article.

We will also be acquiring a few computer skills which you'll find very helpful both for this course and in order to find your way around in our increasingly computerized society. We'll learn and apply skills in at least three areas: searching databases for sources (on the Internet and in the library), sending each other e-mail, and posting work to a web page.

The main goal here is for our class to become a discourse community in which everyone can effectively try out their ideas about their research and reading in relation to diverse interpretations of it.

Texts and Supplies

* Signs of Life in the USA

* The Writer's Brief Handbook

* A dictionary

* Access to a computer

* "Writing 123 Packet" at the Copy Shop on 13th (later next week)

* "WR123 Library Packet" at the UO Bookstore

* A binder or folder to hold all of your writing for this course (see "Portfolio" below)

* A 3.5" floppy diskette (about $1)

Portfolio

Your portfolio will be a collection of the work you did for the course, including notes, rough drafts and small assignments like today's. Keep everything in it. It should be a chronological document of the process you went through leading up to your final papers. You are responsible for keeping your portfolio complete and labelled clearly. An important element here will be a short essay in which you reflect on the contents of your portfolio, frankly assessing your progress. I'll collect your portfolio a couple of times this term.

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Office Conferences

My office hours are listed above, and you're very welcome to stop in and discuss anything about the class and your writing. I plan to meet with each of you sometime this term. If you can't make it during the times listed, just ask me after class for another time. I also like responding to your e-mail.

Academic Integrity

All work submitted for this course must be written exclusively for this course by you. The use of sources (ideas, quotations, paraphrases) must be properly documented. Please refer to pp 291-293 and p 285 in the handbook for a definition of plagiarism and information on documentation. For the consequences of academic dishonesty, please refer to the Code of Student Conduct in the Schedule of Classes. Come see me if you have any questions about this.

Late Work...is not recommended and will be downgraded a half letter for each day it is overdue. A final grade of Incomplete cannot be given without advance written approval from the Director of Composition.

Attendance Policy

Your participation is crucial in a collaborative class and will be recorded throughout the term. I'll ask you to turn in a brief evaluation of your own in-class participation. If you're here all of the time, contributing to discussion, helping peers, etc., then your final grade can only reflect a job well done.

Three absences amounts to 10% missed classroom time and is the limit allowable before your grade begins to drop at the rate of 1/2 letter grade per absence.

Grading

Since this course only succeeds to the degree that each of us collaborates and participates, 15% of your grade is devoted to discussion, peer editing, and e-mail.

The other 85% belongs to the quality and completeness of your portfolio, which will be collected and graded twice. Of course, the most weight for your portfolio grade is given to your revised paper for each of the two units--65%. This leaves 20% of the portfolio portion for everything else that went into the process--notably, your critiques, rough draft, etc. For more details about essay grading criteria, see the packet.

Written Work

All written work done outside of class should be typed, standard size font (10 or 12), 1" margins, double-spaced, pages numbered.