Expository/Argumentative Writing

Dale Larson
Grays Harbor College

The Course

Expository/Argumentative Writing explores the disciplines and methods, the substance and style, of liberal learning. It is meant to firm your grasp of the traditional if trivial arts of grammar, rhetoric, and logic. In refining your sense of writing essays, the course focuses on forms of composition prompting clear ideas and testing growing powers of thought and expression.

Goals

Particular goals include
Such goals demand skills and attitudes shaped by intelligent discussion, note-taking, writing, and rewriting - all habits of mind rightly called collegiate.

Texts

Texts for the course are two, Lynn Bloom and Edward White's Inquiry: A Cross-Curricular Reader and Joseph Williams's Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace. Bloom and White will prompt most class discussions and essays, offering helpful models of careful writing and thinking. We will read their several sections magazine-style, perusing essays as needs and interests dictate. Others we will examine with a critical eye for more extended analysis and debate. Williams will help in shaping the form of class essays. By focusing on the rhetorical principles fundamental to a good style, both texts prompt strong, mature skills in college-level reading, writing, and thinking.

Required Essays

Four essays are required plus three substantial revisions. Your essays must be prepared for this class alone (no exceptions).

With particular topics up to you, your three revisable essays are organized by the general questions shaping Bloom and White's reader: "How Do I Know Who I Am?," "How Do I Know What I Know?," "What Is Really Important?," "What Is a Good Idea?," "What Can We Learn from the Past?," and "What Will the Future Be Like?" Successive essays must focus on one question from the first set of two questions, one from the second, and one from the third. We will study these questions independently and collectively.

The fourth essay, done out of class - though submitted separately as part of the final - is  expressly prompted by a common title form.  It allows useful assessment of your progress in 101. We will discuss particular options for this essay as we go.

Attendance, Due Dates, Matters of Form

Attendance is not simply required; it is expected. If you skip, courtesy demands prior notification or later apology. As to due dates, essays are due as noted below (with late essays discounted one whole grade each day they are overdue). Three essays must be submitted before W-Day, four after. As to matters of form, type your essays, folding them once lengthwise into the cover sheets I provide. Observe all guidelines for margins, titles, and other matters covered in class. Remember that handwritten work is allowed only on in-class essays and exercises. Pages ripped from spiral notebooks are not. So trim all ripped edges. Above all, remember to include your submitted originals together with your submitted revisions. Save all submissions for review at quarter's end.

Exams, Grades, Evaluation

I give two exams, a midterm and a final. My grading policies are explained in a handout returned with essay #1, "Rationale, Criteria, and Standards for Evaluating Essays." I generally emphasize demonstrated proficiency and improvement by quarter's end. Since I grade on a uniform standard of achievement throughout the quarter, remember that I cannot overlook shoddy, half-hearted work submitted early on. Neither can I overlook absenses and unfinished assignments, the penalty for which is a grade reduction (A to B, B to C, C to D) for every assignment missing at quarter's end.

Organization

English 101 is organized by the week. The calendar below gives you an overview of our quarter - with all important dates boldfaced. In view of our common concerns for reading, writing, and thinking, I usually balance lecture with discussion, with class texts providing the daily focus. Always our aim is to engage our texts by engaging each other. Office conferences - scheduled independently - help in meeting this aim.

Term Calendar (Fall 2000)

Week 1 - 9/25 - 9/29                                                             UNIT 1 - Style as Choice
Introductions
Introductory handouts
Williams (Lessons One and Two - "Understanding Style" and "Correctness")
Bloom and White (Chapters 1 and 2)
Week 2 - 10/2 - 10/6
Sample Essays
Williams (Appendix - "Punctuating for Clarity and Grace")
Bloom and White (Chapters 1 and 2)
Week 3 - 10/9 - 10/13                                                            UNIT 2 - Style as Clarity
Wlliams (Lesson Three - "Clarity 1: Actions")
Bloom and White (Chapters 1 and 2)
10/11 (W) - Essay #1 Due
10/13 (F)  - Faculty Day
Week 4 - 10/16 - 10/20
Williams (Lesson Four - "Clarity 2: Characters")
Bloom and White (Chapters 3 and 4)
Week 5 - 10/23 -  10/27
Williams (Lesson Five - "Cohesion and Coherence")
Bloom and White (Chapters 3 and 4)
Week 6 - 10/30 - 11/3
10/30 (M) - Revision #1 Due
Review Test
Williams (Lesson Six - "Point of View")
Bloom and White (Chapters 3 and 4)
Week 7 - 11/6 - 11/10
11/6 (M) - Midterm
11/7  (T) - Review Midterm & Essay #2 Due
11/8 (W) - W-Day
Williams (Lesson Seven - "Emphasis")
Bloom and White (Chapter 5 and 6)
11/10 (F) - Veterans' Day
Week 8 - 11/13 - 11/17                                                            UNIT 3 - Style as Grace
Willaims (Lesson Eight - "Concision")
Bloom and White (Chapters 5 and 6)
Week 9 - 11/20 - 11/24
11/20 (M) - Essay #3 Due
11/22 (W) - Sophomore Registration Day
Williams (Lesson Nine - "Shape")
Bloom and White (Chapters 5 and 6)
11/23 - 11/24 (R & F) - Thanksgiving Holiday
Week 10 - 11/27 - 12/1
11/27 (M)  Revision #2 Due
Williams (Lesson Ten - "Elegance")
Week 11 - 12/4 - 12/8
Preparation for Essay #4
Review and Preparation for the Final
Week 12 - 12/11 - 12/15
Final Exam as Scheduled (Section C) / Revision #3 / Essay #4 Due
Final Exam as Scheduled (Section F) / Revision #3 / Essay #4 Due