FWIS 100 

Section 905: Interrogating Success 

MWF 1:30-2:25pm (Fully online) 
Instructor: Burke Nixon 
bnixon@rice.edu 

 
 
Welcome to FWIS 100! This syllabus will introduce you to the course (and to me, your 
instructor) and outline what you can expect and what’s expected of you throughout the 
semester. Always refer to the syllabus first whenever you have a question about course policies 
or due dates or anything else related to our class. If you can’t find the answer in the syllabus, 
you can always ask me in person or by email. (Don’t ask me b​ efore​ checking the syllabus, 
though!)  
 
What’s the point of this course? What are we supposed to get out of it?  
 
FWIS 100 is a course designed to help you build and strengthen the essential elements of 
academic literacy--the reading, writing, critical thinking, and communication skills you need 
to succeed in FWIS, at Rice in general, and in your academic and professional life beyond Rice.  
This semester, you and I will both work hard so that we can accomplish this. If you put in the 
thought and effort, you will leave this course as a significantly improved academic writer and 
communicator by the end of the semester. But we won’t exclusively focus on our academic 
literacy goals in this course. We’ll also explore our course theme: Interrogating Success. Our 
readings, our writing assignments, and most of our class discussions will be focused on 
examining the idea of success in one way or another. We’ll scrutinize our own assumptions 
about success, see what renowned scholars, philosophers, writers, and filmmakers (including 
the ones pictured above) can teach us about success, and--I hope--leave the course with a 

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different and clearer idea of what ​real​ success means to each of us, not just academically but in 
life.  
 
What should we be able to do by the end of the semester? How will grades be determined?  
 
Our learning objectives--the specific goals of this course--are based on the FWIS 100 program’s 
official learning goals along with some additions specific to this particular FWIS. Pay attention 
to these objectives, because your final grade will be based on the extent to which you achieve 
them. By the end of the semester, you should be able to… 
 
1. Distinguish between academic and other genres of writing and reading.  
2. Understand purpose, argument, and structure of college-level readings. 
3. Improve sentence level precision and accuracy of Standard Written English. 
4. Use appropriate academic tone in writing (when the rhetorical situation requires it). 
5. Construct a cohesive and coherent written academic argument with a thesis, supporting 
claims, relevant evidence, and analysis. 
6. Recognize the academic practice of using and acknowledging the work of others in one’s 
own writing.  
7. Reflect on the idea of success in a number of different contexts and use writing as a 
vehicle for discovery and self-examination. 
 
Each graded assignment in this course will allow you to demonstrate your mastery of one or 
more of these objectives. When I evaluate your work, I’ll place it in one of the following 
categories for each objective on each assignment: fully mastered (FM), mostly mastered (MM), 
not yet mastered (NYM). For each assignment, I’ll give you a rubric that details the expectations 
for each category, and whenever I evaluate your graded work, I’ll explain which aspects of the 
category that, in my assessment, you haven’t yet mastered.  
 
Here’s how I’ll determine your overall grade: 
 
● By the end of the semester, if you’ve demonstrated that you’ve fully mastered e​ very 
objective on e​ very​ assignment, you’ll receive an A in the course.  
● Any category that you ​mostly​ mastered on a graded assignment will lower your overall 
grade in the course by one partial letter grade, from an A to an A-, an A- to a B+, a B+ to a 
B, a B to a B-, a B- to a C+, a C+ to a C, and so on. Thus, if you fully mastered all the 
objectives on every assignment by the end of the semester except for one, which you 
mostly mastered, you would receive an A- in the course.  

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 ● Any category that you’ve not yet mastered by the end of the semester will lower your 
overall grade by one whole letter grade. Thus, if you’ve fully mastered only three of the 
learning objectives, not yet mastering the other four, would receive an F in the course. 
● One more example, combining all three grading categories: if you’ve fully mastered five 
of the objectives, mostly mastered one objective, while having not yet mastered the one 
remaining objective by the end of the semester, you would receive a B- in the course.  
 
As you can see, receiving a “mostly mastered” or “not yet mastered” on even just ​one​ graded 
assignment in the course lowers your overall grade. This might seem scary. But I’ve left out one 
final learning objective in this course:  
 
8. Demonstrate a growth mindset in writing and the ability to assess your own writing and 
develop strategies for improving it through revision 
 
This course will focus on writing as a ​process​. You will have opportunities to work on an 
assignment over several days, writing and revising multiple drafts. You’ll also have a chance to 
receive feedback from me (and your peers) before you submit the final draft of each assignment.  
 
And even a​ fter​ you submit a final draft and receive my feedback, you still have a chance to revise 
and improve each assignment one last time at the end of the semester to improve your rating in 
each category. In other words, you might have mostly mastered or even not yet mastered 
several objectives in the middle of the semester, but your final grade is only determined by how 
many objectives you’ve mastered at the ​end​ of the semester, after you’ve revised any work that 
needs revising. I’ll explain more about the end-of-the-semester revision process when we get 
closer to the end of the semester. 
 
This grading process is different from the one I’ve used in the past. You won’t receive any 
number grades. With the exception of the mid-semester progress report, you won’t even 
receive any letter grades until your final overall grade. I’m doing this for several reasons, but the 
main one is this: Our learning goals are important, and I want your grade in this course to 
reflect how well you’ve mastered our goals. Focusing on your mastery of these goals will help 
you and I both get a clearer sense of what you’re doing well on and what you still need to work 
on. Knowing which goals you’ve fully mastered so far, which ones you’ve mostly mastered, and 
which you’ve not yet mastered should give us a clearer sign of your progress than receiving a 
“91” on one graded assignment and an “87” on the next1. 
 

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It’s always important to give credit when you’re building on other people’s ideas. My ideas about evaluating your 
work this semester--and, in some cases, for this syllabus in general--are built on ideas I’ve encountered from other 
educators at Rice and beyond, including Caleb McDaniel, Betsy Barre, Linda B. Nilson, and L. Dee Fink.  

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How many graded assignments are there? What are they?  
 
Each unit of the course will culminate in a graded writing assignment (although my grading 
method won’t be a typical number or a letter). Here’s a brief description of each one. In 
parentheses you’ll find learning objectives that each assignment will evaluate.  
 
● First graded assignment​ - Write two brief summaries (each one less than a page long, 
double-spaced) of an academic article related to the concept of growth mindset. One 
summary will require you to write in a neutral and academic tone, while the other will 
require you to write about the same article in a conversational and opinionated tone. 
(Learning objectives: #1, 2, 3, 4, 6) 
 
● Second graded assignment​ - Write a 3-5 page thesis-driven essay analyzing Paulo 
Freire’s “The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education.” You’ll focus on developing a clear, 
well-structured, and well-supported argument. (Learning objectives: #1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6) 
 
● Third graded assignment​ - Write a 4-6 page thesis-driven essay analyzing either 
Tolstoy’s novella T​ he Death of Ivan Ilyich​ or Kurosawa’s film I​ kiru​, developing an 
argument about insights this work offers about true success. You’ll also incorporate 
secondary sources to help you make your argument. (Learning objectives: #1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 
7) 
 
● Fourth graded assignment​ - Write a 4-6 page book review of William Deresiewicz’s 
Excellent Sheep​. This assignment will require you to combine all the skills you’ve learned 
this semester, while making your own decisions about structure and tone. It will also 
allow you a chance to reflect on your own academic experience and aspirations. 
(Learning objectives: #1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) 
 
In addition to these graded assignments, you’ll also have daily assignments... 
 
What are the daily assignments? How do they contribute to our grade?  
 
There are two types of daily assignments that contribute to your grade: reading responses and 
process work. Let me explain what’s expected of you for each one and how they’ll factor into 
your overall grade:  
 

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 ● Reading Responses​ - For each required reading assignment, you’ll post a reading 
response in the Discussions section of Canvas. These responses are conversational (i.e. 
informal); you’ll share your initial ideas about the reading and respond to some of your 
classmates’ ideas. These responses will help you build skills in ​all ​of our learning 
objectives. If you consistently do the responses and meet the expectations, you’ll receive 
full credit. However, if you consistently fail to meet any of the reading response 
expectations, you may receive a “mostly mastered” or “not yet mastered” for one 
category of your overall reading response grade. I’ll give you a reading response progress 
report only if I notice that you’re not meeting the expectations. One more note: I’ll allow 
you to skip two reading responses over the course of the semester without penalty2.  
 
● Process Work ​- This course will require you to write rough drafts in advance for each 
major assignment. It will also sometimes require you to submit pre-writing before the 
rough draft, or even a second draft before the final. All of this is process work. One 
major goal of FWIS courses, remember, is to get you to think of writing as a process 
(rather than something you do once, in a hurry, the night before the paper is due). You’ll 
demonstrate your mastery of this objective by improving your work during the writing 
process and at the end of the semester. But you’ll also demonstrate your mastery of this 
objective by submitting process work regularly. Unlike reading responses, I don’t allow 
you to skip any process work. But I will give you extensions on the process work if you 
ask in advance. Which leads me to the next question... 
 
What’s our course policy on late or missing work?  
 
For your major writing assignments, I’m flexible about late work a​ s long as you ask me in advance. 
I understand that sometimes you might be overwhelmed by other classes or by life in general 
when a paper is due. I want you to turn in your best work, even if it means asking me for an 
extension. If you email me even the day before, I’ll grant you an extension.(Note: I won’t 
respond to emails asking for an extension; if you ask me, consider the extension 
granted...unless you’re emailing on the due date or afterwards.) On the other hand, reading 
responses don’t really work as well if you submit them late. The point of the reading response is 
to get you to read and share your thoughts ​before​ class. (They’ll always be due at noon, so that I 
have time to read them, but I recommend you submit them the night before.) You can skip up to 
two reading responses, remember, but don’t ask me if you can turn a reading response in a​ fter 
class is already over. That defeats the purpose. Likewise, the point of process work is to get to 
work on the essay well in advance of the due date. I’ll give you short extensions if you ask, but 
you can’t skip process work or submit it at the same time as the final draft.  

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​But even if you skip a reading response, you should d​ efinitely​ do the reading. Otherwise, you won’t be able to write 
about it for the graded assignment. 

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One major caveat to everything I’ve said so far: As we all know, we’re living in very uncertain 
times. I understand that you might have extraordinary personal reasons that prevent you from 
doing an assignment; likewise, I might have extraordinary personal reasons that prevent me 
from posting or grading an assignment. We’ll all have to be extra flexible this semester. I’ll try to 
hold you to a high standard while also being understanding about your personal situation, and 
you should do the same with me. In both cases, the key is going to be for us to continue to 
communicate with each other. If you have to miss several classes or assignments, be sure to 
reach out to me when and if you can.  
 
Next question: What books do we need to buy for this class?  
 

 
 
Here they are: Leo Tolstoy’s ​The Death of Ivan Ilyich​ and William Deresiewicz’s E
​ xcellent Sheep​. 
You need the versions of these books that are pictured here. Both books should be easy to find. 
But note that I want you to buy the Vintage Classics version of The Death of Ivan Ilyich that is 
translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volkhonsky. Here’s an Amazon link: 
https://www.amazon.com/Death-Ivan-Ilyich-Vintage-Classics/dp/0307951332 
 
There are also widely available E-versions of both books, but I’d rather you purchase a print 
copy, so that you can write and underline in it. That will make it easier for you to gather 
evidence when you’re writing a paper. All your other course readings will be available on Canvas 
as PDFs. Normally, I provide a physical course packet for my students, so you can have a 
physical copy of all your other course readings, but that won’t work this semester. If you have 
access to a printer, I strongly encourage you to print out the course readings and take notes on 

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them3. It could help you more effectively accomplish the course objectives--and thus help your 
overall grade.  
 
How do we get feedback on our drafts? Do you have office hours? 
 
Normally, I meet with students in Brochstein Hall, the beautiful glass coffee shop on campus. 
This semester, I’ll be having office hours on Zoom, from my closet or my bedroom. Not as cool. 
But I’ll still be able to give you one-on-one feedback. Before each final draft is due, I’ll post a 
sign-up for individual meetings. These are optional, but they tend to be very helpful, since I get 
to focus exclusively on your work. The meetings will usually last around 20 minutes, and I’ll 
spend the first 5-10 minutes reading your latest draft. I won’t always be able to read your whole 
draft, and I almost certainly won’t be able to talk to you about everything I notice. We’ll have to 
focus on the most important things. Do: Take notes during the meeting! Don’t: assume that a 
specific aspect of your work is perfect just because I didn’t say anything about it!  
 
Can we also get feedback via email? How else can we get feedback on our work? 
 
I don’t usually give feedback by email. If you send me your paper and ask me to give you 
feedback, that requires me to do all the work while you’re off somewhere else, doing other 
things. Don’t send me your work and ask me to look it over, unless I explicitly tell the class that 
you can email me a new draft and get feedback.  
 
We’ll be doing peer review (outside of class, usually) for most of the major assignments. You’ll 
be looking at two of your classmates’ work and they’ll be looking at yours. This is part of your 
class participation. You don’t h​ ave​ to take your classmates’ advice--in fact, you shouldn’t blindly 
accept their suggestions--but you do have to consider it and incorporate their suggestions when 
you think it will improve the work.  
 
This semester in FWIS 100 you’ll also have another, very helpful way to receive feedback. Each 
student in FWIS 100 will meet five times (via Zoom, most likely) with a trained Writing Coach. 
These meetings are an ideal opportunity to identify your individual strengths and weaknesses 
and to explore strategies for improving. Your active preparation for and participation in 
Writing Coach meetings is one way you’ll demonstrate your growth mindset towards writing 
(learning objective #8). Failing to meet all five times with your Writing Coach would result in 
“mostly mastered” or “not yet mastered” for that objective, and thus would lower your overall 
grade.  

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​Research suggests that we comprehend a text better when we read the words on paper rather than on a screen. 
Plus, you’re going to be looking at screens A LOT this semester. Why not take a break--and avoid distractions--by 
reading on paper? If you want to do this but don’t have access to a printer, let me know and I’ll see what I can do. 

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You can also get optional feedback by visiting the CAPC, Rice’s Center for Academic and 
Professional Communication. The CAPC will be offering online appointments this semester4, 
and I encourage you to make an appointment whenever you want help or an outside opinion on 
your work in this course. CAPC consultants ​do not proofread or edit​ your work, but they will 
provide feedback on topics such as the organization of your paper or presentation, the 
coherence of your argument, appropriate sentence structure and grammatical errors. They can 
even help you brainstorm or help you practice an oral presentation.  
 
Wait. Couldn’t it be an Honor Code violation to get help from someone on a paper? 
 
Getting feedback on your work from anyone--me, a peer, a CAPC consultant, a parent or a 
sibling--wouldn’t be an Honor Code violation. Receiving feedback is a crucial part of writing 
(and learning how to receive and use feedback is even part of our course objectives). Feedback is 
when someone offers ​suggestions​ about your writing; feedback is n​ ot​ when someone actually 
writes something--even one single passage--for you. When someone writes even a small part of 
your work for you, that would be a potential violation of the Honor Code. 
 
One of my jobs as your FWIS 100 instructor is to help you learn the proper use and citation of 
other people’s words and ideas. In every discipline and subject area, from STEM to the 
humanities, scholars build on and critique each other’s work. Thus, academic writing requires 
writers to quote, cite, paraphrase, and summarize each other a l​ ot​. I’ll help you learn how to do 
this appropriately.But you should know right away that using someone else’s words or ideas 
without giving them credit is plagiarism. To put it another way, presenting someone else’s work 
as if it’s your own is cheating, and a potential violation of the Honor Code.  
 
For example, you would be plagiarizing if you used an online summary--SparkNotes, for 
instance--to help you write a reading response for a story you haven’t read, or if you quoted a 
passage from that online summary in your own paper without attribution. Either way, you’re 
presenting someone else’s work as your own and thus violating the Honor Code. I will help you 
better understand academic citation this semester, but plagiarism could still cause you to 
receive a “not yet mastered” for objective #5, or even for multiple categories if you plagiarize 
large portions of an assignment. Plagiarism hasn’t ever been an issue for the vast majority of my 
students, but let me tell you this: If you’re ever feeling desperate about an unfinished 
assignment and the thought crosses your mind to use someone else’s work, you would be ​much 

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​ ou can make an appointment here: ​https://pwc.rice.edu/center-academic-and-professional-communication 
​Y
 

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better off not completing the work and talking to me about it. I’ll be understanding in that case, 
but I probably won’t be very understanding at all if you demonstrate academic dishonesty.  
 
Is there a participation grade in this class? What are the class expectations for participation online? 
 
There isn’t a participation grade in this course, but you won’t be able to learn and do your best 
work if you don’t participate. Participation is the engine that will make us move forward. You’re 
expected to attend class every day--synchronous attendance is a requirement for FWIS 100 
courses--and actually participate in class. You should arrive on time, your video should be on, 
you should be demonstrating active listening skills, and you should share your opinions and 
ideas during each class. (If you need to mute your video for a moment and step away, that’s 
fine, of course.) I’ll also frequently ask you to send me short reflective emails after class, to show 
me what you’ve learned that day. Failing to actively attend class, participate, or consistently do 
the reflection emails could lead to a “not yet mastered” for all of the course goals and thus a 
failure in the class.  
 
Who can I talk to if I’m feeling really stressed or anxious at any point during the semester?  
 
College can be stressful, especially in 2020. If, for any reason at any point, you begin to feel that 
your stress level is affecting your personal well-being or mental health, and you’d like to talk to a 
professional counselor, let me know and I’d be happy to help you get in touch with someone 
from Rice’s Wellbeing or Counseling Center. You can also contact them directly through their 
websites. Appointments this semester are virtual. Here’s a link to their 24/7 phone number if 
you want to reach out to them: ​https://wellbeing.rice.edu/talk-someone 
 
What do I need to do if I have a documented disability?  
 
If you are seeking adjustments or accomodations for a disability, please email me during the 
first two weeks of class. All discussions will remain as confidential as possible. Additionally, 
students with disabilities will need to contact Disability Support Services if they haven’t already 
done so. And more generally, if there’s anything I can do to help the online learning experience 
for anyone in the class, at any point in the semester, please let me know. (Even if it’s a criticism 
of some aspect of my teaching, still let me know.)  
 
Okay, what are we doing each day? What are the due dates for all of our assignments?  
 
Here’s our course calendar. You’re expected to keep up with all of these due dates even if I don’t 
mention them during class. At the same time, some of these dates might change. It happens 

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every semester, and the possibility is even more likely this semester. However, here’s the 
tentative plan. 
 
Unit 1: Success and the Growth Mindset 
 
Mon. 8/24:​ Introduction to class; review syllabus 
Wed. 8/26: ​Submit Reading Response #0 (getting to know you response) in the Discussion 
section by noon 
Fri. 8/28:​ Read “Growth Mindset Tempers the Effects of Poverty on Academic Achievement” 
from ​PNAS​ and submit diagnostic assignment 
 
Mon. 8/31: ​Read chapters 1-4 of Dweck’s ​Self-Theories: Their Role in Personality, Motivation, and 
Development ​and submit Reading Response #1 
Wed. 9/2:​ Read the introduction and first chapter of Graff and Birkenstein’s ​They Say/I Say​ and 
submit Reading Response #2 
Fri. 9/4:​ No homework; discuss elements of academic research 
 
Mon. 9/7: N ​ o class; Labor Day Holiday 
Wed. 9/9:​ Before class, submit reading response #3 (genre assessment) 
Fri. 9/11:​ Guest speaker 
 
Mon. 9/14:​ Submit rough draft of Graded Assignment #1 by noon 
Wed. 9/16:​ Revision and editing 
Fri. 9/18:​ Revision and editing 
 
Unit 2: What does successful teaching and learning look like? 
 
Mon. 9/21: S ​ ubmit final draft of GA#1 
Wed. 9/23: ​No homework; read and discuss first few pages of Freire’s “The ‘Banking’ Concept of 
Education” during class  
Fri. 9/25: F​ inish Freire’s “The ‘Banking’ Concept of Education” and submit RR#4 
 
Mon. 9/28: ​ Submit pre-writing for Freire essay by noon; discuss academic intro paragraphs 
during class 
Wed. 9/30: ​Submit intro paragraph by noon; discuss academic body paragraphs and MEAL plan 
Fri. 10/2: ​Submit two body paragraphs by noon; discuss naysayer/don’t get me wrong and 
conclusion paragraphs  
 
Mon. 10/5: ​Submit rough draft of Freire essay (GA#2) 

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Wed. 10/7: ​Revision and editing 
Fri.10/9:​ Revision and editing 
 
Mon. 10/12: ​Submit final draft of Freire essay (GA#2) 
 
Unit 3: What does a successful life look like? 
 
Wed. 10/14: R ​ ead sections 1-3 (p. 1-22) of Tolstoy’s T ​ he Death of Ivan Ilyich​ and submit RR#5 
Fri. 10/16: F​ inish T ​ he Death of Ivan Ilyich ​(p. 22-53) and submit RR#6 
 
Mon. 10/19:​ Watch Kurosawa’s I​ kiru​ and submit RR#7 
Wed. 10/21:​ Read Lu’s “Personal Transformation Through an Encounter with Death: A Study of 
Akira Kurosawa’s Ikiru on Its Fiftieth Anniversary” and a brief excerpt from Lucken’s ​Imitation 
and Creativity in Japanese Arts ​and submit RR#8 
Fri. 10/23:​ Read Giraldi’s “The Way of All Flesh: On Tolstoy and Mortality” and Conway’s 
“Transforming Stories” and submit RR#9 
 
Mon. 10/26: ​Submit pre-writing #1 (primary source evidence) by noon; discuss body paragraphs 
and close reading 
Wed. 10/28: S ​ ubmit pre-writing #2 (secondary source evidence) and plan by noon; discuss body 
paragraphs and secondary sources  
Fri. 10/30:​ Submit tentative thesis and outline by noon 
 
Mon. 11/2: S ​ ubmit rough draft of GA#3 
Wed. 11/4:​ Revision and editing 
Fri. 11/6: ​Revision and editing 
 
Mon. 11/9: S ​ ubmit final draft of GA#3 
 
Unit 4: What does a successful college experience look like?  
 
Wed. 11/11: ​Read introduction and chapter 1 of Deresiewicz’s E ​ xcellent Sheep​ and submit RR#10 
by noon 
Fri. 11/13: ​Read chapters 2 and 3 of ​Excellent Sheep​ and submit RR#11 by noon 
 
Mon. 11/16: R ​ ead book reviews and submit RR#12 by noon; read more book reviews in class 
Wed. 11/18: ​End-of-semester discussion, part 1 
Fri. 11/20: E ​ nd-of-semester discussion, part 2 
 

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Independent Study Days:​ Optional one-on-one meetings 
 
Dec. 4 (Last day of classes):​ Submit GA#4 and optional revisions by n
​ oon 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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