Rhetoric and the Social Construction of Monsters ACWR Academic Writing Fall Semester 2013

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1 Rhetoric and the Social Construction of Monsters ACWR Academic Writing Fall Semester 2013 Instructor: Dr. Lisa Lenker Office: SOS 107 Phone: llenker@ku.edu.tr Office Hours: T/TH 8:15-9:20 and by appointment Course Description: All sections of Academic Writing (ACWR) 101 at Koç University will lead you to write academic essays in the context of a particular theme that is developed by individual instructors. In each course, students read texts from various authors and become familiar with the issues related to the course s theme, learn how academics talk about issues related to the course s theme, and understand what positions apprentice writers might take in constructing an argument related to the course s theme. Further reading will help you to understand how an argument is effectively constructed. Through summary, paraphrase, and personal response you will develop the skills to formulate and express your own perspective. The two major course assignments are, in a sense, exercises that are provided to help you hone these skills. The first assignment is an analytical essay, grounded in one academic text, which you will have the opportunity to plan, draft and revise several times. The second assignment will ask you to apply your reading and writing skills to an essay that synthesizes material from two texts. By the end of the course, you should be prepared to take a discipline specific ACWR class, in which students apply the skills that they have learned in ACWR 101 in a research paper, and participate in academic discourse that is specific to the student s major. The skills you should acquire in this class include: Development of a process based approach to academic writing. Ability to organize and express ideas in a manner appropriate to audience and purpose. Recognition of the importance of grammatical accuracy. Familiarization with strategies for different kinds of writing. Basic proficiency with incorporation of summary, paraphrase & quotation into essays. Discernment and use of academic (versus informal) vocabulary in university writing. Ability to prepare properly-formatted papers using basic word processing software. Awareness of academic citation systems and basic command of MLA documentation and intext citation. Course Theme: The Social Construction of Monsters What is a monster? And what qualities and characteristics make a monster a monster? The English word monster comes from the Latin verb monstrare, which means to show or reveal. As opposed to something that exists in the material world, monsters dwell in the psyche of human beings. They are constructions of the imagination that arise from particular social groups. Monsters reveal to us important aspects of the cultures that produce them: they demonstrate what the culture that produces them rejects and others ; they provide us with scapegoats for fears and anxieties. Stories that deal with monsters generally show the protagonist ultimately triumphing over the monster, thus helping us to have a sense of mastery over all that is untamed and chaotic in our own lives. In this class, we will read a number of writers ideas about the social construction of the monstrous, and apply their critical language to the interpretation of short stories and see films. In addition to mastering the skills that are developed in all ACWR 101 courses, students will emerge from this particular class with a deeper understanding of popular culture s conceptions of monsters, and will be able to approach literature and film with deepened critical acumen. Lenker, p. 1

2 Major Course Assignments & the Determination of Student Grades: Two formal academic essays: Essay A and Essay B, including drafts, revisions, and final drafts 50% Essay A (Summary/Analytical Response Essay) 25% Description of Essay A: The first paper is a 2-3 page essay that should demonstrate understanding of a specified text and provide a thoughtful response to that text. It will focus on one main text, but may require the inclusion of, or response to, knowledge gleaned from additional course materials. The essay should selectively summarize material from the text, based on the task presented, provide a response, and must refer substantially to the text. The response should reflect the writer s ability to analyze materially critically, and express a clear and sustained point of view. A more complete description of the paper and an assignment prompt will be distributed in class. In-Class First Draft 5% Second Draft 10% Final Draft 10% Essay B (Analytical Synthesis Essay) 25% Description of Essay B: In this 3-4 page essay, you will focus on a synthesis of two texts. The essay should summarize relevant parts of two texts, and then discuss how the two texts complement or respond to one another. You will be given a more complete description of the paper and an assignment prompt in class. First Draft (for peer review) and 5% Second Draft (for conferences) Final Draft 20% In-class Essay 20% Description: The in-class essay is designed to assess the writing/critical thinking skills students have been practicing over the course of the semester. It will ask the students to respond to one main text (in approximately 3 handwritten pages) by using both summary and analysis/argumentation skills. The essay will be scheduled for a 2 ½ hour period, the equivalent of one week of class. Oral Component 10% Description: The oral component of this course will be in the form of a short individual presentation in the last week of classes. Students will be asked to create a presentation on one of three topics: (1) skills developed over the semester (such as summary, analysis, argumentation, active reading, quoting, paraphrasing and citation skills), or (2) a text related to specific course material and/or the theme of the Social Construction of Monsters, or (3) their second essays. The oral component will be graded based on content, organization, and delivery. The work should be original (i.e., you should not present a paper or PowerPoint presentation that you find on the web, nor may you present the thesis of another writer s). That said, students can cite the works of other individuals (such as a diagram, a quote, or an argument), provided that they provide attribution and that the overall presentation is the original work and the original thoughts of the student presenters. It will be graded based on content, organization, and delivery Other (Participation, Quizzes, and Homework) 20% Your instructor generally construes participation to mean engagement in the class. This means that aside from showing up you are actually listening, speaking, taking notes, and demonstrating your preparedness for the class session. One measurement of participation is in the form of quizzes. The first 5-10 minutes of most class sessions will include a quiz, which will form a major part of your participation grade in this class. Because the quiz is an attempt to provide a numeric measurement of participation in class, if you are absent you may not make up the quiz. Additionally, if you are late you will not be given additional time to take the quiz. You will also be given homework, which will be evaluated on the following basis: no credit, needs improvement, good, and very good. Being disruptive in class, surfing the web, and sending/reading text messages will give reduce your participation points. The instructor reserves the right to mark you absent for surfing the web and sending/reading SMS during class. Lenker, p. 2

3 Grading Criteria: Essays will be graded based on the following criteria: Organization and Development: 40% Content: 30% Grammar and vocabulary 30% Grading Scale: A = % B+ = % C+ = % D+ = % A- = 89 87% B = % C = 72 70% D = % B- = 79 77% C- = 69 67% F = 59 0% Grade Disputes: If you dispute a grade for a formal assignment, you must contact your instructor or the Director of Academic Writing by within two weeks of the date the grade has been issued to discuss the situation. Note: The Academic Writing Program has a firm policy regarding petitions for re-grading assignments, and will not accept petitions filed after the two week deadline. For more information regarding this policy, contact your instructor. Note: All assignments done outside of class must be typed, double spaced, spell checked, printed on A4 paper, completed on time AND be your own work. Required Course Materials: 1. Rules for Writers by Diana Hacker, updated 7 th edition, (available at Pandora bookstore) 2. Course Packet This is available at Copyland (located in the student center). Your course packet will be under your instructor s name: Dr. Lisa Lenker. 3. English/English dictionary 4. Binder 5. Writing Implements: pen or pencil, eraser, notebook 6. Stapler Class Attendance: Class attendance is required, and any absences will negatively impact your participation grade. If you accumulate more than 3 unexcused absences, it will result in a reduction of your final grade for the course: 4 unexcused absences = 5% penalty, 5 = 10%, 6 = 15%, 7= 20%. If you accumulate more than 7 unexcused absences, you will automatically fail the course. Excused absence forms must be submitted within one week of the absence date, or they will not be honored. Additionally, if you accumulate more than nine absences, whether or not they are excused, you will fail the class. My presumption is that I am imparting something valuable in Lenker, p. 3

4 class lessons. If you miss one third of the semester s class meetings, it means you have missed a substantial amount of important information, material, and experiences that you need in order to do well in your career as a student writer. It would be a disservice to chronically absent students to permit passing under these circumstances, because they have lost the opportunity to gain the skills that students with reasonable attendance acquire over the course of the semester. Please come to class on time; each three times you arrive to class more than five minutes late will count as one absence. Please also note that if you are more than 10 minutes late to class, you will be marked absent for the day. Consult with your instructor if you believe there are extenuating circumstances that have made it impossible for you to regularly attend class. Policy on Late Work: No work submitted after the deadline for the next assignment has passed will be accepted. For example, the first essay submitted on or after the deadline for the submission of the second essay will not be accepted. No student work will be accepted unless all previous stages of the assignment have been completed. For example, a student who has not submitted a first draft on or before the deadline for the final draft may not submit the final draft. An instructor may accept work submitted late, but before the next deadline, in order to validate the grading of the next stage, but the instructor is not obliged to award a grade, read, or provide feedback on work that is excessively late (see below). Students may hand in late work, but the student s grade will be deducted by 5 points for each day late. No work will be awarded a grade after it is 5 days late. If you are not able to hand in work due to an emergency situation, please see your instructor as soon as possible. Plagiarism and Collusion Policy: Plagiarism is presenting someone else's words or ideas as your own, without proper reference. You are graded on your own individual work, not another's masquerading as your own. Any student found plagiarizing on or colluding in writing assignments may fail the assignment, fail the course, and/or be referred to the university's disciplinary council. This may result in suspension from the university. You commit plagiarism when: You copy someone else's writing and do not put it in quotation marks and identify the source. You take someone else's writing, change some of the words, and do not identify the source. You take someone else's ideas or sequence of ideas, put them into your own words, and do not identify the source. Someone else writes your assignments or changes your writing and thus creates a false impression of your abilities. You engage in collusion when: You receive unauthorized help with your writing by paying or otherwise inducing another person to do the writing for you. Lenker, p. 4

5 Bare Minimum Course Guidelines and Expectations: Come to class prepared! Behave respectfully toward the instructor and fellow students Submit neat and Professional work Keep up with work and expectations COURSE SCHEDULE PLEASE NOTE: The following course schedule can and will be modified as the semester progresses. Changes to the course schedule will be announced in class. Therefore, if you miss class, you run the risk of not knowing about changes to the course schedule. Please consult with your classmates (not the instructor) when you are absent to find out what you missed. Week Reading Texts & Activities Assignments/ Due Dates Week 1 September Introductions Free writing explanation and demo Review of syllabus Definitions (Monster, template, etc.) Pre-Test Week 2 Sept Read: They Say, I Say, Preface, and Introduction: Entering the Conversation ; also read Our Monsters, Ourselves. Quiz: expect questions related to the content (rules, guidelines, etc.) of the course syllabus, They Say readings, and Our Monsters, Ourselves. Anything that was said in a previous class is also fair game. LIBRARY ORIENTATION Please go to the library conference room (NOT our classroom) at the time our class is scheduled for a mandatory orientation about how to use the university s library holdings. Attendance will be taken and entered into KUAIS. Lenker, p. 5

6 Week 3 Sept 30- October 4 VIRTUAL CLASS WEEK (instructor will be at a conference in California) Read: They Say, I Say, Chapter One: They Say : Starting with What Others Are Saying ; also read The Monster s Sacrifice and Where the Wild Things Are. By Thursday, October 3 at midnight, enter comments into the class blog, address TBA in an to you. Extra Credit: Screen Spirited Away (Japanese animated film, released in 2001; Director: Hayao Miyazaki). Write a paragraph or two describing the monsters in the film, and their relationship to the little girl who has been spirited away into their land. Submit your paragraph (with your name, section number, and a caption that includes the words Extra Credit: Spirited Away ) as a hard copy (paper, not electronic) in class during Week 4. Serious, extra-extra credit if you can relate the ideas in the Brumo Bettelheim reading to Spirited Away. Week 4 October 7-11 Read: They Say, I Say, Chapter Two: Her Point Is : The Art of Summarizing ; also read Bruno Bettelheim, excerpt from The Uses of Enchantment. Monster Quiz!: expect questions related to: the content (rules, guidelines, etc.) of the course syllabus; They Say Chapters One and Two; Where the Wild Things Are; The Monster s Sacrifice ; and the Bettelheim excerpt. Anything that was said in a previous class is also fair game. Extra Credit questions will relate to Spirited Away. Lenker, p. 6

7 Week 5 October Please bring notes and your course reader to class. The In-Class writing exercise will be open book. You will have a choice of essay topics. One possibility will be to write an analytical paper in response to one of the pieces of criticism we have read so far; there will also be an essay topic about Spirited Away. Kurban Bayramı Class yok. NOTE: There is a lot of reading for the following week; make sure you start the reading early, while you are on break. Extra Credit: While you are on vacation, screen Hellboy. (later in the semester, we will look at some scenes from Hellboy but we will not screen the entire movie in class) Write a paragraph or two describing Hellboy s origins, and the significance of his birth to his morals and character. Submit your paragraph (with your name, section number, and a caption that includes the words Extra Credit: Hellboy ) as a hard copy (paper, not electronic) in class during Week 6. Essay A: In-Class First Draft Week 6 October Your graded In-Class Essays will be available outside Dr. Lenker s office on Monday morning. You are advised to pick them up and begin working on your revision on Monday. Read: They Say, I Say, Chapter Three: As He Himself Puts It : The Art of Quoting Quiz: expect questions related to the They Say Chapter and Bettelheim; anything that was said in a previous class and all previous readings to date are also fair game. There will also be extra credit questions on Hellboy. Lenker, p. 7

8 Week 7 Oct 28 Nov 1 MLA Workshop Sign up for next week s conferences No Classes Monday & Tuesday: HOLIDAY Conferences with Dr. Lenker on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday Essay A: 2nd Draft must be uploaded to Turnitin by 3:00 p.m. on Thursday the 24 th. A hard copy of the paper is due at Dr. Lenker s office at no later than 4:45 p.m. on Thursday the 24 th. Essay A: Conferences Week 8 November 4-8 Bring Hacker to class! In class workshop on transitions and paragraphing to help you with your final draft of essay A. Feel free to bring specific problems with these issues you are having. In class workshop on revising and polishing text to help you with your final draft of essay A Week 9 November In class screening: Pan s Labyrinth Essay A: Final Draft Due IN CLASS. Bring hard copy to class on Tuesday; upload final draft of paper to Turnitin ONE HOUR before your class begins. Lenker, p. 8

9 Day 2 Read: Stephen T. Asma, Monsters and the Moral Imagination Quiz: Pan s Labyrinth and Monsters and the Moral Imagination. Week 10 November Read: first half of the excerpt from Frankenstein Quiz: be prepared for questions about the Frankenstein excerpt. In class: Discussion of Frankenstein excerpt and Introduction to Essay topic B Read: finish reading excerpt from Frankenstein Quiz: be prepared for questions about the Frankenstein excerpt. In class work on Essay topic B Week 11 November Introduction to Peer Review In-class Peer Review Workshop. Essay B: Peer Review Screening in class: clips from Hellboy. Freewriting exercises. Revision strategies Sign up for Week 12 conferences. Lenker, p. 9

10 Week 12 December 2-6 Week 13 December 9-13 CONFERENCES (no class meetings) Oral Presentation workshop Essay B: Second draft due at your scheduled conference with Dr. Lenker; upload your draft to Turnitin at least one hour before your conference. Essay B: Final draft is due in class. Upload the final draft to Turnitin at least an hour before class. Read: The Horror of Monsters In class screening: Freaks Sign up for presentations Quiz: be prepared for questions on The Horror of Monsters and guidelines for the oral component. Week 14 December Discussion of the movie Freaks. Strategies for succeeding on In-class essays and examinations. Note: This is a make-up class (from earlier in the semester, when Dr. Lenker went to a conference). No class during normally scheduled time. In-Class Essay (day, time, and location to be announced; in previous semesters, the registrar has scheduled them on Friday night) Lenker, p. 10

11 Week 15 December STUDENT PRESENTATIONS All Week: Oral Component Presentations STUDENT PRESENTATIONS WISHING YOU ALL A JOYOUS, HEALTHY, HAPPY 2014! Lenker, p. 11

12 Addendum: Koç University Statement on Academic Honesty with Emphasis on Plagiarism Koç University expects all its students to perform course-related activities in accordance with the rules set forth in the Student Code of Conduct ( Actions considered as academic dishonesty at Koç University include but are not limited to cheating, plagiarism, collusion, and impersonating. This statement s goal is to draw attention to cheating and plagiarism related actions deemed unacceptablee within the context of Student Code of Conduct: All individual assignments must be completed by the student himself/herself, and all team assignments must be completed by the members of the team, without the aid of other individuals. If a team member does not contribute to the written documents or participate in the activities of the team, his/her name should not appear on the work submitted for evaluation. Plagiarism is defined as borrowing or using someone else s written statements or ideas without giving written acknowledgement to the author. Students are encouraged to conduct research beyond the course material, but they must not use any documents prepared by current or previous students, or notes prepared by instructors at Koç University or other universities without properly citing the source. Furthermore, students are expected to adhere to the Classroom Code of Conduct ( and to refrain from all forms of unacceptable behavior during lectures. Failure to adhere to expected behavior may result in disciplinary action. There are two kinds of plagiarism: Intentional and accidental. Intentional plagiarism (Example: Using a classmate s homework as one s own because the student does not want to spend time working on that homework) is considered intellectual theft, and there is no need to emphasize the wrongfulness of this act. Accidental plagiarism, on the other hand, may be considered as a more acceptable form of plagiarism by some students, which is certainly not how it is perceived by the University administration and faculty. The student is responsible from properly citing a source if he/she is making use of another person s work. For an example on accidental plagiarism, please refer to the document titled An Example on Accidental Plagiarism. If you are unsure whether the action you will take would be a violation of Koç University s Student Code of Conduct, please consult with your instructor before taking that action. An Example on Accidental Plagiarism This example is taken from a document prepared by the City University of New York. The following text is taken from Elaine Tyler May s Myths and Realities of the American Family Because women s wages often continue to reflect the fiction that men earn the family wage, single mothers rarely earn enough to support themselves and their children adequately. And because work is still organized around the assumption that mothers stay home with children, even though few mothers can afford to do so, child-care facilities in the United States remain woefully inadequate. Lenker, p. 12

13 Below, there is an excerpt from a student s homework, who made use of May s original text: As Elaine Tyler May points out, women s wages often continue to reflect the fiction that men earn the family wage (588). Thus many single mothers cannot support themselves and their children adequately. Furthermore, since work is based on the assumption that mothers stay home with children, facilities for day care in this country are still woefully inadequate. (May 589). You may think that there is no plagiarism here since the student is citing the original author. However, this is an instance of accidental plagiarism. Although the student cites May and uses quotation marks occasionally, the rest of the sentences, more specifically the following section: Thus many single mothers cannot support themselves and their children adequately. Furthermore, since work is based on the assumption that mothers stay home with children, facilities for day care in this country are still woefully inadequate. (May 589) almost exactly duplicates May s original language. So, in order to avoid plagiarism, the student either had to use quotation marks for the rest of the sentences as well, or he/she had to paraphrase May s ideas by using not only his/her own words, but his/her own original ideas as well. You should keep in mind that accidental plagiarism often occurs when the student does not really understand the original text but still tries to make use of it. Understanding the original text and understanding why you agree or disagree with the ideas proposed in that text is crucial both for avoiding plagiarism and for your intellectual development. Source: Avoiding and Detecting Plagiarism: A Guide for Graduate Students and Faculty. The Graduate Center. City University of New York, Web. < Center/PDF/Publications/AvoidingPlagiarism.pdf>. Lenker, p. 13