Composition II

RHET 1312--Section 03--CRN: 10406 Department of Rhetoric & Writing 9:00 9:50 a.m. M/W/F Location Dickinson 210 Instructor: Contact: Office: Office Hours: Joshua Johnson (jrjohnson2@ualr.edu) 501.569.3160 SUA 100 M/W/F 8:00 to 8:50 a.m. or by appointment. Writing Arguments (UALR custom edition) by John D. Ramage, et al. The Everyday Writer 5th ed. (UALR custom edition) by Andrea A. Lunsford Binder to keep handouts and papers Pencils/Pens and paper Computer and Internet access outside of class (available in the Library or University Writing Center) Headphones Prerequisite: RHET 1311 with a C or greater or equivalent. Practice in writing, with an emphasis on academic forms. Students will focus on analysis, argumentation, research, and documentation writing. Final course grades are A, B, C, or NC. Three credit hours. The second-semester course of composition is an argument-based course that uses the Toulmin system of persuasion. All writing projects are designed to help students understand how to develop arguments with integrated sources. The course provides practice in rhetorical analysis, audience analysis, and examination of real-world rhetorical situations. Students will identify and avoid fallacies and learn uses for appeals and reasoning within the context of their writing. The course offers strategies in civil discourse and a foundation in information literacy. RHET 1312 exposes students to both academic conventions and writing for real-world audiences and purposes. Outcomes for First-Year Composition: The Department of Rhetoric & Writing has adapted the following outcomes for first-year composition courses from the outcome statements of the Council for Writing Program Administrators. Rhetorical Knowledge

Required Textbooks:

Materials:

Course Description:

Students will learn know audience, purpose, genre, and content shape the meaning and effectiveness of writing. Critical Reading Students will use writing and reading for inquiry, learning, thinking, and communicating. Students will learn that writing is a series of tasks, including finding, evaluating, analyzing, and synthesizing appropriate primary and secondary sources. They will discover how to integrate their original ideas with the ideas of others. Writing Process Strategies Students will develop strategies for generating ideas, revising, and editing their writing through successive drafts. Those strategies will include collaborating with others, including giving and receiving feedback in peer groups. Knowledge of Conventions Students will have extensive practice in writing and will develop knowledge of conventions, including organization, formats/genre, style, control of surface features, and incorporation and documentation of materials from sources. Composing in Electronic Environments Students will learn how to use electronic environments for drafting, reviewing, revising, editing, and sharing texts. They will also be able to locate, evaluate, organize, and use research material collected from electronic sources. Additionally, they will understand and exploit the differences in the rhetorical strategies and in the capabilities of both print and electronic composing processes and texts.

Attendance Policy:

In order for you to achieve the previously stated goals, you must show up for class on time and participate. For that reason, I have instituted the following policy in regards to attendance: You are allowed 6 absences for the semester with no questions asked. Once you have missed 7 days (more than two full weeks of in-class meetings), you will receive a grade of NC or No Credit for the course. Also, please make sure you are on time for class. When you come in late, you do yourself a disservice and interrupt the class for others. Three occasions of

tardiness will result in an absence being used. Any tardiness over ten minutes will automatically result in your being marked absent. I give you these absences so that you have a bank of days to use when you are sick, your children are sick, you have a family emergency, your car breaks down, etc. Once youve used up your bank, no other absences will be allowed. Courtesy Policy: You must be courteous to one another and to me. In return, I will treat you all courteously. Bigotry, sexism, racism, or even rudeness will not be tolerated. Only one warning will be given to someone who exhibits any hateful, disruptive, or disrespectful behavior. After a warning, any person who continues to be rude will be dismissed from the class and receive an absence for the day. An incident report will be filed for that student. Depending on the severity of the incident, a student who misbehaves may be dismissed without a warning and prohibited from returning, resulting in a grade of NC for the course. Children are not allowed in the classroom under any circumstances.

Course Requirements: Major Assignments Over the course of the semester, you will be responsible for 3 major assignments and an electronic portfolio. Each of these projects will be discussed in class, and project-specific assignment sheets with grading information (rubrics) will be distributed. Project 1: Rhetorical Analysis For this project, students will perform a rhetorical analysis of a primarily visual advertisement or argument. Tentative Due Date: February 21st Project 2: Best Of Evaluation For this project, students will craft an argument that ranks 3 to 5 items of a related type. Tentative Due Date: March 21st Project 3: Kickstarter Campaign Proposal For this project, students will form groups to create an engaging, multimodal Kickstarter proposal. Tentative Due Date: April 25th Electronic Portfolio and Reflection During the semester, work will accumulate from various drafts of projects and in-class writing assignment. Students will create electronic portfolios to house these drafts and to demonstrate their ability to revise and polish their work. In

addition to these drafts, students will be required to create a reflective piece that demonstrates their successful completion of the outcomes for first-year writing. Tentative Due Date: May 5th Participation Each day there will be an opportunity for you to receive 5 participation points. You receive these points by working diligently on whatever task is presented to you in class. Participation points cannot be made up for any reason. Syllabus Acknowledgement At the end of this syllabus is an acknowledgment statement. It confirms that you have read and understood everything laid out in this document. Minor Assignments Over the course of the semester, there will be many smaller assignments assigned. These assignments include things like Blackboard responses, reading quizzes, and instructor conferences. These assignments are worth 5 out of class participation per day. Grading Scale: A = 90-100 B = 80-89 C = 70-79 NC = 0-69

Grading Breakdown: Assignment Major Projects Portfolio & Reflection Participation Syllabus Acknowledgement Minor Assignments Late Work Policy: Points 300 400 150 Required 150 15% Percentage 30% 40% 15%

No late work is accepted. That being said, because we work on each project online and in many different stages, the only reason your final drafts would be late is if you havent been coming to class or doing the work. Save every draft of your work. If you dont want to buy a flash drive, you may use cloud storage. Every student has access to cloud storage via their UALR

Saving Your Drafts:

email account. There is no excuse for lost work. We will do several drafts of every major project; you will need to save them with different file names so that you will have a copy of each stage of the draft for your electronic portfolio. Please save your files like this: LastName_ProjectName_DateSaved For example, if I were saving the rough draft of my first project, I would make it: Johnson_Project1_1_3_2014 You should email yourself a draft after making significant revisions. If you do not follow these guidelines when saving and formatting your work, your grade will drop by a letter for the assignment.

Department Statement
This class is offered through the Department of Rhetoric and Writing. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Dr. Sherry Robertson, Director of Composition, at sjrobertson@ualr.edu or 501.569.3477 Public Nature of the Classroom: Please consider all writing for this class to be "public. Part of becoming an effective writer is learning to appreciate the ideas and feedback of others; in this course, our purpose is to come together as a writing community. Remember that all students will be expected to share writing with others. Avoid writing about topics that you wish to keep private or that you feel so strongly about that you are unwilling to listen to the perspectives of others. Additionally, the feedback that is provided is intended to help improve your writing; be open to the suggestions about your writing. Academic Integrity Statement: University regulations regarding academic dishonesty, as set forth in the UALR student handbook and other university documents and publications, will be strictly enforced in this class. Any student who submits work that he/she did not produce for the given assignment will be assigned a grade of zero points (F) for the assignment in question, and may possibly fail the class. In accordance with Section VI: Statement of Student Behavior, under the code of student rights, responsibilities, and behavior, the university defines academic dishonesty under the classifications of cheating, plagiarism, collusion, and duplicity. Cheating and blatant plagiarism in this class can result in disciplinary sanction. Students with Disabilities Statement: Your success in this class is important, and it is the policy and practice of the University of Arkansas at Little Rock to create inclusive learning environments consistent with federal and state law. If you have a documented disability (or

need to have a disability documented), and need an accommodation, please contact me privately as soon as possible, so that we can discuss with the Disability Resource Center (DRC) how to meet your specific needs and the requirements of the course. The DRC offers resources and coordinates reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities. Reasonable accommodations are established through an interactive process among you, your instructor(s) and the DRC. Thus, if you have a disability, please contact me and/or the DRC, at 501-569-3143 (V/TTY) or 501-683-7629 (VP). For more information, please visit the DRC website at www.ualr.edu/disability. Web Accessibility Statement: It is the policy and practice of UALR to make all web information accessible to students with disabilities. If you, as a student with a disability, have difficulty accessing any part of the electronic course materials for this class, please notify me immediately. Weather Policy: The UALR website, UALR email, the Universitys main telephone number (501.569.3000), and the campus emergency alert system are the official means of communicating all information concerning weather-related closing. Local television and radio stations will also be notified. Weather and road conditions vary from place to place. Employees and students are expected to exercise good judgment regarding the safety of travel when road conditions are affected by the weather.

Important Dates Spring 2014

January 13: First day of class January 17: Last day to drop/add classes (with refund) January 20: University Closed (Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday) February 21: Project 1: Rhetorical Analysis Due March 11: Last day to drop a class March 21: Project 2: Best Of Evaluation Due March 24-30: Spring Break April 25: Project 3: Kickstarter Campaign Proposal Due May 5: Last day of class/Last day to withdraw from all classes May 5: Electronic Portfolio and Reflection Due May 6: Consultation Day-Faculty available to meet with students May 6 at 4PM: Final exams begin. See final exam schedule at: http://ualr.edu/records/examschedule/201410.php

Syllabus Acknowledgement Spring 2014 I have read and understand the course syllabus for RHET 1312 Section 03 for the Spring of 2014 semester. I agree to abide by all policies of the course and the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. I wish to be a member of this class as it is described in the syllabus. I am aware of what is expected of me, and I alone am accountable for the quality of my academic work and behavior. Name (please print):_______________________________________________________________ Signature:________________________________________________________________________ Date:____________________________________________________________________________ Telephone:_______________________________________________________________________ Email:___________________________________________________________________________

RHET 1312-03 Spring 2014 *Tentative Schedule

*Dates may be pushed back but deadlines will not be due earlier than listed in the current schedule
Monday January 13th: Wednesday 15th: Friday 17th: Introduction to Portfolios

Introduce the Syllabus/Curriculum

24th:

Brief introduction to rhetoric Homework - Read Chapter 1 Introduction to an argument

20th:

22nd: MLKJ Day

Portfolio Due Reading quiz/discussion Introduce Project 1 (Group discussion of the learning outcomes) Homework - Read Chapter 2 (pp. 23-30)

Play the believing and doubting game in class Homework - Read Chapter 3 The Core of an Argument: A Claim with Reasons

27th:

29th: Reading quiz/discussion (and/or journals due)

31st: Homework - Read pp. 370-376 Using Summary, Paraphrase, and Quotation [Writing center tour? <- First choice] Introduction to Toulmin 7th: Homework - Read Informal Fallacies (pp. 405-411) [Writing center tour?] Toulmin discussion (cont.) 14th: In class activity - Examining Visual Arguments (pp.118-119). Have students consider Toulmin elements in addition to the assignment laid out in the text.

In class activity - Practice using sources? Homework - Read Chapter 4 The Logical Structure of Arguments and Chapter 8 Analyzing Arguments Rhetorically

February 3rd:

5th:

Reading quiz/discussion (or journals due)

Logical fallacies Shes a witch Revisit warrants Homework - Chapter 9 Analyzing Visual Arguments

10th:

12th: Reading quiz/discussion (or journals due)

P1 Rough Draft Due Examining Visual Arguments (cont.) Explain peer review process and letters

17th:

19th: Peer Letters Due Peer Review

21st: Peer Review

Project 1 Due (Rhetorical Analysis) Reflection of Project 1 Introduce Project 2 Homework - Read Chapter 5 Using Evidence Effectively Homework - Journal - What are possible topics for your project 2 assignment?

24th:

26th: Reading quiz/discussion (or journals due)

28th: Assign groups and students pick topics Students begin to collect digital or print reviews in the same sub-genre as their groups topic Start a group Google Doc and post links to your reviews (along with a brief description) in the doc 7th:

Homework - Read Chapter 6 Moving Your Audience: Ethos, Pathos, and Kairos Group activity, discuss conventions of the reviews

March 3rd:

5th:

Reading quiz/discussion (or journals due)

TBA

Homework - Read Chapter 7 Responding to Objections and Alternative Views (only pp.124-140) P2 Rough Draft Due TBA

10th: 12th: 14th:

Conference Day (11th @ 5pm is last day to drop)

19th:

Reading quiz/discussion (or journals due) Peer letters due Peer review

21st:

*PCSSD No School Peer review (cont.)

17th:

Work on group Best Of project (Prezi, PowerPoint, brochure, website, etc) Project 2 Revisions Complete

*PCSSD Parent/Teacher Conferences Work on group Best Of project

Project 2 Due (Best of Project) Reflection of Project 2 Introduce Project 3 Homework - Chapter 10 An Introduction to the Types of Claims

24th:SPRING 31st:

26th: Break April 2nd:

28th: 14 4th:

Reading quiz/discussion (or journals due) Homework - Complete Teamwork Assignment due on the 2nd

Transcribe an interview in class, due on the 4th (bring headphones) Team Assignment due

Transcription of an interview due Explore Kickstarter Campaigns as a class Homework - Chapter 13 Evaluation and Ethical Arguments Homework - Analyze a Kickstarter Campaign due on the 11th

7th:

9th: Reading quiz/discussion (or journals due)

11th: Work Day

Homework - Chapter 14 Proposal Arguments Kickstarter Analysis Due Work Day

14th:

16th: Reading quiz/discussion (or journals due)

18th: Work Day

25th:

*PCSSD No School P3 Rough Draft Due Work Day

21st:

23rd: Peer Letters Due Peer Review

Peer Review

Final 2

Project 3 Due (Kickstarter) Reflection of Project 3 Reintroduce Portfolios, distribute assignment sheet/rubric

28th:

30th: Work Day Conferences

May 2nd: Work Day Conferences Work Day Conferences

Final 1

5th: Portfolio Due