Required Texts
- Digital collection of assorted readings linked to Bb Course Library (Bb) and (web link)
- One full-length theory text from the following list (to be purchased on your own):
- Techne, From Neoclassicism to Postmodernism: Understanding Writing as a Useful, Teachable Art (Kelly Pender, Parlor 2011)
- Toward a Composition Made Whole (Jody Shipka, Pittsburgh 2011)
- A Counter-History of Composition: Toward Methodologies of Complexity (Byron Hawk, Pittsburgh 2007)
- Where Writing Begins: A Postmodern Reconstruction (Michael Carter, SIUP 2005)
- Changing the Subject in English Class (Marshall W. Alcorn Jr., SIUP 2002)
- The Wealth of Reality: An Ecology of Composition (Margaret A. Syverson, SIUP 1999)
- Rhetorics, Poetics, and Cultures: Refiguring College English Studies (James Berlin, SIUP 1996 / NCTE 2003)
- Fragments of Rationality: Postmodernity and the Subject of Composition (Lester Faigley, Pittsburgh 1992)
Our principal text is the digital collection of articles, so it is imperative that you find a failsafe way to access them, even if that means occasionally printing some of them. Because this is a graduate seminar, I expect you to bring readings to class in some material form on dates they are assigned without exception. Readings marked Bb and web link should be brought to class in either digital (laptop, e-Reader, iPad) or print format. Readings brought to class on your smart phone won't do you or your classmates very much good for most of our in-class activities. I have placed our full-length theory texts and our reference texts on reserve at Strozier Library to make them accessible to everyone.
Distribution of Assignments
- 55% Weeklies (Intertextual Conversations and Exploratories)
- 15% Mid-term Project (Critical Book Analysis Presentation)
- 20% Final Project (Theory Re/Building Project + Presentation)
- 10% Final Exam (Written, Take-Home)
Read Actively and Participate Actively
Please be prepared to read with rigor (~75 pages most weeks), allowing yourself plenty of time to grapple with varied and complicated perspectives, making reading the active process that it is. While you are in class, please do what you must and whatever is in your power to make our discussion accessible, productive, and useful to everyone. This takes a great deal of energy, I realize. Some of the texts we read will seem impenetrable at first, either because the writing is dense or because the ideas are challenging of your worldview or because you are unfamiliar with their historical context. I will do my absolute best to ensure that our class time is spent in a multimodal exploration of what we read so that you can feel grounded. Still, I expect you to spend time with the material and work through it, and to use the supplemental resources I provide to help you situate yourself and the reading.
Attend Class and Submit Work On Time
All assignments must be submitted by their due date. Much of your work will consist of building intellectual community through discussion, debate, presentations, and collective knowledge-making, and this will absolutely factor into my evaluation of your work. Thus, although you don’t need me to tell you that regular attendance is absolutely necessary, it bears repeating so that you know this is my expectation. You should not miss any class, excepting the rare occasion of a conference presentation, illness, religious holy day, or childcare emergency. On that rare occasion—should it arise—I expect you to contact me ahead of time with appropriate written documentation of the reason you may be away so that I can determine what action to take, if action is warranted.
Exercise Academic Integrity in Everything You Do
It may seem redundant for me to articulate a statement on academic integrity for savvy scholars of information and text, but you should know that I expect you to maintain this, without fail. For this course, you are responsible for reading and abiding by the FSU Academic Honor Policy, and for living up to your pledge to “… be honest and truthful and … [to] strive for personal and institutional integrity” in all things (http://academichonor.fsu.edu/policy/policy.html). Unless otherwise specified, all of your work for this class should be authentic and specific to the tasks I have assigned, rather than recycled from another class. Cheating and all forms of misrepresentation (including plagiarism—and, in some cases, patchwriting) can result in automatic failure of the course. Basically, you want to not do anything that will violate trust.
Seek Accommodations If You Need Them
The Student Disability Resource Center (SDRC) can arrange for assistance, auxiliary aids, or related services if you think a temporary or permanent disability will prevent you from fully participating in class, or if you need our course materials in an alternative format. Contact them at (850) 644-9566 (voice), (850) 644-8504 (TDD), or http://www.disabilitycenter.fsu.edu/ with individual concerns. You must be registered with the SDRC before I can provide classroom accommodations, and you should bring a letter to me requesting accommodations in the first week of class.
