Course Description                  Materials            Assignments            Schedule

Course Description

As students in the University you will all be required to become creators of text. In this course we will explore what that means within and outside of the university setting. In order to create texts we will ask ourselves these questions: What is a text? Is it a textbook? A novel? A newspaper? Can it be anything else? What do we read? Do we only read words, or do we read other symbols as well? This course is centered around these questions. It’s meant to introduce you to the varieties of text while engaging you in questions about what textuality means. In examining a number of different kinds and concepts of text I hope that you will engage in critical discussion and evaluation as well as find topics which will engage you as a writer. We will use these texts in a number of different ways, to ask questions about what a text is, to examine what it means to read a text in a particular way, and what a text can say about the culture that created it. This can lead us to all kinds of possible topics for discussion, from identity, to race, gender, politics, art, aesthetics, and popular culture amongst others.
This class is focused on your work as creators of text. Through your work engaging in the texts we study in class you will begin creating your own texts. Since you will be creating these texts I hope that you will find subjects that interest you. Writing is a process of discovery and meaning making, and you should experience both of these things as you create text. Ultimately by coming to understand the dynamics of a variety of different kinds of texts you will become better creators of text.

The texts that you create will be in response to a number of writing assignments. There are four larger assignments, as well as smaller reading responses and in-class journaling. This class is process-oriented which means that revision is a key element. No one writes a perfect first draft (I doubt anyone writes a truly good first draft). Writing is a process and because of this we will engage in drafting assignments and in class workshops. You will peer-review each other’s writing to aid in revision. In addition, there is a final portfolio assignment which makes up a large part of your grade. This portfolio due at the end of the semester will represent the culmination of your work of writing as process.

The chief goal of this course is to facilitate your entry into college writing. By working together in a small class and engaging in an investigation through writing you will hone a number of diverse and important writing skills, which will be helpful throughout your time at Boston College and beyond. Critical engagement through writing can be an exciting thing, and I hope that at the end of this class you will feel comfortable engaging in a number of different texts and rhetorical situations.

Materials

Jonathan Silverman and Dean Rader, The World is a Text: Writing, Reading, and Thinking About Culture and its Contexts 2nd Edition. Boston: Prentice-Hall, 2005.

Elaine P. Maimon, Janice H. Peritz and Kathleen Blake Yancey. A Writer’s Resource. 2nd Edition. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2006.

In addition to the two texts above, some of our readings will be posted online on our class WebCT site. You will be required to read and print these readings out and bring them to class.

Assignments

Grading:

Your grades will reflect your skills as a writer, as well as your ability to critically engage in your work and that of your peers, as well as your ability to revise. They will also reflect contribution to the classroom and workshops.

Participation, In-Class writing: 10%

Reading Responses: 15%

2nd Draft of Paper #1 10%

2nd Draft of Paper #2 10%

2nd Draft of Paper #3 10%

2nd Draft of Paper #4 15%

Portfolio 30%

Reading Responses: Students will be expected to complete a page long reading response each week. These are meant to be reflections on what we’ve read that week. If there was something that interested you in what we read, or something you take issue with, please include it in your response. These are not meant to be formal papers, but rather a way for you to engage with the texts you read. Some weeks I may ask you to respond to a particular text, or instruct you to go and find your own text to respond to.

Papers: Students will be required to draft and revise four papers in this class. These will focus on different genres and audiences. A longer description of each assignment will be provided as we approach them.

Portfolio: Your final project will be to put together a portfolio which demonstrates your process and progress throughout this class. It will include several revised assignments, drafts, some reading responses and some in-class writing. Further details will be provided later in the semester.

In-class writing: We will often begin class with a writing exercise. This could be free writing from a prompt or some other tool to jumpstart your writing. While you will not be expected to hand in these assignments, we will share them from time to time. It is my hope that these exercises will help you to brainstorm and will be a place for you to turn as you start developing ideas for your papers.

Schedule

Week One: Varieties of Text

1/17 Introduction “What is a text?”

Week Two: Varities of Text/Place as Text

1/22 What is a text? Continued

Readings: The World is a Text Introduction 1-18; Roland Barthes, Introduction to Mythologies and “Photography and the Electoral Appeal” (WebCT)

1/24 Boston College campus as text

Reading response due

Readings: The World is a Text 190-195 and 214-216 including Mattew King, “Reading the Nautical Star”

Week Three: Writing Place

1/29 On writing, drafting and revision

Readings: Ann Lamont “Shitty First Drafts” (WebCT); Patty Strong “How do I Write for College?” 20-21 “How am I a Text?” 60-61 in The World is a Text

1/31 Place as Text

Reading response due

Readings: Anthony Bourdain, “The Burn” (WebCT); Tim Lindgren, “On Being From Fargo” (WebCT)

Week Four: Cultural critical texts

2/5 Workshop of Essay #1

2/7 Reading cultural critique

Reading response due

Readings: Peter Singer, “The Singer Solution to World Poverty” (WebCT); Al Gore, “The Moment of Truth” (WebCT)

Week Five: Reading and Writing at the University

2/12 Reading and Writing at Boston College

Essay #1 due

Readings: “Boston College Mission Statement” (linked from WebCT); “A Pocket Guide to Jesuit Education” (linked from WebCT); “How do I Write About Popular Culture Texts?” The World is a Text, 21-33; Paolo Friere, “The Banking Concept of Education” (WebCT)

2/14 Audience, Voice, and Argument

Reading response due

In-class excercise on voice

Readings “How do I Argue About Popular Culture Texts? A Guide for Building Good Arguments” in The World is a Text, 33-42

Week Six: Popular Culture and Text

2/19 Movies are a Text?

Readings: Roger Ebert, “Great Movies and Being a Great Moviegoer” The World is a Text 308-315;;A suite of readings about The Passion of the Chirst in The World is a Text 346-355

2/21 What makes a text valuable

Reading response due

High Art vs. Low Art discussion

Week Seven: Interlude- The Canon

2/26 The Canon

Readings: Harold Bloom “An Elegy for the Canon” (WebCT)

2/28 Workshop of Essay #2

Week Eight: Spring Break, No Class

Week Nine: Research, MLA, APA, and other abbreviations

3/12 Essay #2 due

Readings “How do I get Info on Songs?” The World is a Text 42-46

3/14 Research day

Week Ten: Images

3/19 Electronic resource seminar

Proposal for Essay #3 due

3/21 In-class viewing and discussion of the photo essay “Chernobyl Legacy”

Reading responce due

Readings: “Reading and Writng about Images,” The World is a Text, 359-380

Week Eleven: Art

3/26 Discussion of art, possible field-trip to the McMullen Gallery

Readings: “Reading and Writing about Art” The World is a Text 458-464; “Which Art Will Top the Charts,” The World is a Text 493-498; Scott McCloud, “Sequential Art: ‘Closure’ and ‘Art'” The World is a Text 493-498

Week Twelve: Tattoo and Body as Text

4/2 (con)Textualizing body art

Essay #3 due

Readings: Josie Appleton, “The Body Piercing Project,” linked from WebCT; Margot Mifflin, “A Blank Human Canvass” linked from WebCT

4/4 Reading body art

Reading response: “Read” some of the tatoos up on WebCT

Readings: George B. Palermo, “Tattoos and Tattooed Criminals” (WebCT); Glance through some of the entries from the Russian Prison Tattoo Encyclopedia on WebCT

Week Thirteen: Comics as Art

4/9 Easter Monday- No Class

4/11 Comics as Art

Reading response due

Readings: Art Spiegelman, “Drawing Blood: Outrageous Cartoons and the Art of Outrage” (WebCT)

Week Fourteen: Advertisting

4/16 Patriot’s Day- No Class

4/18 In-class analysis of advertisements. Bring in one advertisement you are prepared to read.

Reading response due

Readings: William Lutz, “Weasel Words” The World is a Text 569-80

Malcolm Gladwell, “The Coolhunt,” in The World is a Text 543-553

Week Fifteen: Technology and Text

4/23 Workshop Essay #4

4/25 Discussion of hypertext and blogging

Reading response due

Readings: Heidi Pollack, “Confessions of an Online Journalist,” The World is a Text. 698-701

Week Sixteen: Other Kinds of Text

4/30 Other Kinds of Texts

Readings: Roland Barthes, “The World of Wrestling” (WebCT)

5/2 Wrapping up

Essay #4 due

Readings: Bernard McGann, “How to Read a Book” (WebCT)

Course Description              Materials            Assignments            Schedule

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