209 W22 Clary-Lemon

ENGL 209-001  Advanced Academic Writing  Winter 2022

University of Waterloo
Department of English Language and Literature
Tuesdays and Thursdays (in person) 10:00-11:20, ML 349

Instructor

Instructor: Jennifer Clary-Lemon

Office Hours: T, TH 11:30-12:50 and by appointment through Zoom. Please email me for an appointment time.

Email: jclarylemon@uwaterloo.ca

Note: I respond to emails from M-F and try to take a break on the weekend. If you email me on the weekend, please be prepared to wait until Monday for a response.

In this class, held at the University of Waterloo, we acknowledge that we are connected to the traditional territory of the Attawandaron (also known as Neutral), Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee peoples. The University of Waterloo is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land promised to the Six Nations that includes ten kilometers on each side of the Grand River.

Course Description

Normally, we would be meeting every day face-to-face to talk about Advanced Academic Writing. This term, we are faced with unknowns about the upcoming term, at least until January 27—we will be online until then. Generally speaking, we will be meeting synchronously and online during our scheduled class period through Zoom. Specifically, what this looks like may vary from week to week—we may meet for updates for a few minutes and then do breakout room activities, or we may have an asynchronous online task. I ask that you are flexible with our online times, since much of the class plan has had to pivot and may have to continue to do so throughout the term.

This is another very abnormal year, so I want to recognize that we are all showing up to class in ways that may be other than optimal and facing limitations: access to reliable internet, access to quiet space to read and work, and various emotional and health barriers to our best selves. Many of you are not quite experiencing the first year that you had hoped to! Please know that I am happy to work with you if and as you might face these or other difficulties. The best way for me to get to know you is by Zoom call, which I am happy to schedule with you at a time of your choice—email me at jclarylemon@uwaterloo.ca. 

This course addresses the varieties of scholarly discourse: why academics write and speak in a particular way, and how institutions and networks affect textual production. By reading and analyzing representative texts of various disciplines, you will learn to recognize and practice the sort of rhetoric used at an advanced academic level. This course will explore relationships between audience, situation, purpose, and form in academic writing in the disciplines. You will have an opportunity to work collaboratively and independently to practice situated inquiry and argumentation through a variety of research-based written exercises, including a significant research project in a field of your choice. The goals of this course are threefold: (1) to increase students’ awareness of norms and disciplinary conventions; (2) to help prepare students for advanced scholarship; and (3) to learn more about the pragmatic components involved in writing, thinking, and speaking at an academic level.

Course Goals and Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:

• have an increased awareness of  norms and disciplinary conventions of advanced academic writing during an extended research process;
• justify decisions about the language, content, and genre used when communicating disciplinary information;
• practice collaboration and peer review in support of iterative communication design processes, including revision;
• practice research processes to find, assess, document, incorporate, and cite research resources and communicate research findings;
• describe and appraise the purposes and ethical concerns of disciplinary communication.

Required Text, software, fees

• Huff, Anne Sigismund. Writing for Scholarly Publication. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE, 1999.
• Online readings. See course LEARN site.
• A Zoom account for alternative arrangements in light of potential COVID-19 developments. Sign up for free at https://zoom.us
• Potential: Poster printing at STAPLES ($20 if you request a black and white 36” by 48” “Engineering Print”)

Course Requirements and Assessment

Information on course requirements and assessments.

Group Rhetorical Analysis (15%) And Presentation Of Research Article (10%)—25%

In a group of peers, you will select both a field and scholarly article from an assigned discipline (Natural Sciences; Social Sciences; Math and Computer Sciences; Professions and Applied Sciences; Humanities). Working with your group, you will compose a 3-4 page rhetorical analysis of the article, laying out the disciplinary features of the piece (see Carter, Huff, MacDonald) and considering elements of authorship, purpose, ethos, style, and audience. You will present your work in a 5-7 minute group presentation to be delivered in a pre-recorded Zoom format, to be followed up with an online synchronous Q and A from your peers.

1-Page Synthesis of Group Presentations—5%

Based on the content from your peers presented in the group rhetorical analysis, you will synthesize the information you’ve heard in order to draw some general and specific conclusions about scholarly writing in the disciplines.

CFP Proposal—15%

You will be responsible for crafting a proposal (or conference abstract) for a real-life Call for Proposals (CFP) that will guide your composition for the scholarly article assignment. You will be required to submit the CFP with the written proposal, and adhere to the guidelines laid out by the CFP’s authors.

Scholarly Article—30%

This piece will be written in response to your chosen CFP. It should contain all of the elements of a scholarly research article: a literature review, a consideration of methods, and an argument that fills a research gap. It should run about 10 double-spaced pages.

Spotlight Presentation of Article—15%

Here you will adapt your research article to a scholarly presentation style—a 5-8 minute poster session, to be delivered in class.

Writing Group, Homework, and In Class Work—10%

The expectation in this class is that we act as a peer group of interested and interesting scholars and writers. To that end, the expectation is that you keep abreast of new ideas in your chosen field and are prepared to share them with the class, and that you be available and willing to discuss current scholarly conversations, exemplars, and progress toward your research article. Additionally, when we workshop writing in class, you act as a willing and prepared reviewer of other writers’ work.

We will often respond to one another in writing in class, write short analyses, reflect on reading, and practice various kinds of scholarly styles in class or for homework.  You also need to come prepared to class—this means handing homework in on time, and showing up to class prepared for in-class activities, which often require you to discuss what you have read, to write, and to share your ideas and your writing with others. Note that you must be in class to receive credit for in-class activities.

A note on Homework and online/in-class grading:

Writing-to-learn activities that we complete in class are process oriented, which means you learn from the activity rather than from me assigning a letter grade based on a finished product. As such,  if a post or response is thoughtful and  complete, you will receive a 10/10.

A “thoughtful” post is one that answers the prompt clearly and conscisely, making specific reference to what is being asked and providing a full account of answering to it. A thoughtful post is specific, making references to passages in the course text, examples from everyday life or relevant experience, or other popular or cultural references (i.e., news, blogs, social media). Thoughtful posts observe writing conventions: capitalization, punctuation, spelling, grammar, and a correct citation system.

A “thoughtful” response to a peer is one that shows connection to the writer that one is responding to. This connection is made by not only acknowledging the writer’s point, but adding to it in a meaningful way that extends and expands the view of what has been posted. Thoughtful responses observe writing conventions: capitalization, punctuation, spelling, grammar.

“Complete” posts and responses meet the minimum word requirement  as asked, do so in a way that purposeful (i.e., are showing critical thinking rather than filling space to meet a requirement), and are posted on time.

Careless and/or incomplete posts and responses may be late, off-topic, ignore what is being asked, simply agree or disagree in response to another writer, write responses that have little to do with the course, or not fulfil the minimum word requirement.  Careless posts and responses disregard writing conventions. The highest a careless/incomplete post or response will receive is 5/10. Late posts and responses will receive 0/10.

For activities that involve more sophisticated learning-to-write activities when there is more attention paid to format and polishing the product, you will receive a percentage grade out of 10 points. Peer Reviews will similarly be out of 10 points, with full credit being given for not only participating in peer review, but using the feedback gathered during peer review to revise your draft towards a polished final product. For final papers, you will receive a numeric grade out of 100.

Late Work

Late assignments will not be accepted without an extension. Permission to turn in a late assignment without penalty will be given rarely and only based on a videoconference with me, and never on the day the assignment is due. If you are having trouble completing an assignment, please speak with me.

Attendance Policy

It is essential that you attend each class. By “attend” it is meant that you come to class and/or post regularly or meet with your peers online and on time, having read the course material for the week and being ready to engage with it.

Basic Needs

Any student who has difficulty affording groceries or accessing sufficient food to eat every day, or who lacks a safe and stable place to live, and believes this may affect their performance in the course, is urged to contact the Dean of students in their faculty for support. Furthermore, please notify the professor if you are comfortable in doing so.

Alternate Arrangements for COVID-19 Scenarios

In the event that in-person classes must be cancelled for either short term (1 week) or longer term (i.e., university-wide shut down), we will adapt lesson plans and the course outline to using the classroom LEARN and embedded Zoom link for synchronous class time on both Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10:00-11:20. Should you test positive or need to self-isolate for COVID-19, please contact me as soon as possible to arrange accommodations for your absences for in-person classes.

Institutional-required statements for undergraduate course outlines approved by Senate Undergraduate Council, April 14, 2009

Cross-listed course

Please note that a cross-listed course will count in all respective averages no matter under which rubric it has been taken. For example, a PHIL/PSCI cross-list will count in a Philosophy major average, even if the course was taken under the Political Science rubric.

Academic Integrity: In order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of the University of Waterloo are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility.

Discipline: A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity, to avoid committing academic offences, and to take responsibility for his/her actions. A student who is unsure whether an action constitutes an offence, or who needs help in learning how to avoid offences (e.g., plagiarism, cheating) or about “rules” for group work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course professor, academic advisor, or the Undergraduate Associate Dean. When misconduct has been found to have occurred, disciplinary penalties will be imposed under Policy 71 – Student Discipline. For information on categories of offenses and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy 71 - Student Discipline.

Grievance: A student who believes that a decision affecting some aspect of his/her university life has been unfair or unreasonable may have grounds for initiating a grievance. Read Policy 70 - Student Petitions and Grievances, Section 4.

Appeals: A student may appeal the finding and/or penalty in a decision made under Policy 70 - Student Petitions and Grievances (other than regarding a petition) or Policy 71 - Student Discipline if a ground for an appeal can be established. Read Policy 72 - Student Appeals.

Other sources of information for students

Academic integrity (Arts) Academic Integrity Office (uWaterloo)

Accommodation for Students with Disabilities

Note for students with disabilities: The AccessAbility Services office, located in Needles Hall Room 1132, collaborates with all academic departments to arrange appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities without compromising the academic integrity of the curriculum. If you require academic accommodations to lessen the impact of your disability, please register with the AS office at the beginning of each academic term.