Introduction to Academic Writing
ENGL 109 – Spring 2022
Instructor: Sabrina Sgandurra
Preferred pronouns: she/her
Time: Tuesday & Thursday 5:30-6:50 PM EST
Location: HH 139
Office hours: Fridays 9am-11am or by appointment
Office location: Games Institute, Pod 1317A, EC1, 175 Columbia Street West
Email: sasgandu@uwaterloo.ca
Course Description: This course will focus on giving you the tools you need to develop clear, persuasive, and argumentative writing using research-based and rhetorical methods. It will explore a variety of issues such as academic style, critical thinking, argumentation, persuasion, and academic integrity.
Course Objectives: The main goal of this course is to teach students the following: how to write a clear, sound argument; how to research; how to adhere to citation styles; and how to use writing as an exercise in critical thinking. In this course, you will learn how, through the act of writing, you can explore ideas critically, persuade and debate others, and also gain new perspectives. While this obviously has benefits during your studies, it also seeks to prepare you for more than just your academic career. Learning how to write clearly, concisely, and effectively, as well as learning how to explore topics and research, is applicable to every industry, professional setting, and even public/civic duties (if you’ve ever had to sit in town halls, and chances are if you haven’t, you will one day, you’ll understand why). Essentially, the objective of this course is to give you the tools you need to not just become a good writer, but to also become a good researcher and a good critical thinker.
Course Meeting Times and Contact: The course will meet twice weekly, Tuesdays and Thursdays at 5:30PM, in Hagey Hall 139. Please contact me with any concerns or questions you have about the class, the readings, or the assignments. I am available at my office on Wednesdays between 10:00 AM and 12:00 PM, or by appointment, at the Games Institute, located on the ground floor of EC1. Outside of office hours, you can reach me by email, and I will respond within 1 business day.
Required Texts:
Rosenwasser, David, et al. Writing Analytically With Readings. Second ed. Nelson Education, 2013.
Grade Breakdown
Activity Points - Participation (online or in class): 10%
Critical Writing: 10% x 3
Citation Workshop: 10%
Proposal assignment (pass/fail): 5%
First draft of Final Essay*: 5%
Peer Review Workshop: 5%
Final Essay*: 35%
Extra Credit Options: For those that want extra credit, I will accept 2 of the following submissions:
- Feedback Survey: get an extra 2%
- Writing reflection: get an extra 2%
- Answer 8/9 discussion posts and attend 8/9 workshops (not including the mandatory workshops): get an extra 2%
- Complete an analysis of any of the readings from the textbook’s first section (pages 90-120): get an extra 2%
All Extra Credit Assignments Are Due No Later Than August 10th, At Noon
Evaluation and Assignments
All assignments are to be submitted via LEARN dropbox on the specified dates in the weekly schedule. The feedback for these assignments will be made available via LEARN, or a hard copy can be picked up during office hours if previously arranged. All assignments will need to follow MLA style citation and format.
Attendance and Participation (10%):
There are two ways to go about getting participation marks in this class. If you attend the workshops on Thursdays (except for the two mandatory ones, which you need to be at), you will receive a participation mark for that week. If you miss a workshop class one week, you can make up the grade by posting in the discussion forum. These posts are due no later than Friday at 11:59 PM of that week. Other than the two mandatory workshops (one on June 10th and one on July 21st), you only need to attend 8 out of the 9 in-class workshops or answer 8/9 of the discussion posts (or a combination of both to achieve 8/9 ‘save points’ total) to achieve full marks. A “save point” simply means doing one of these participation activities.
Critical Writing (10% x 3)
Beginning in week 3, you’ll be given a “critical writing” exercise (also known as “side quests”) which will help you apply the concepts from the readings and lectures, as well as the work from the workshops, and put them into practice. These critical writing assignments will focus on the following topics in this order: Do a close-reading of a specified text (will be discussed in class; complete the paraphrasing and summarising activity; Complete a thesis-writing and analysis paragraph activity
Citation Workshop (10%)
On Thursday, June 10th, we will be practicing what we’ve learned about MLA citations, the importance of citing sources, and formatting your papers to fit within the MLA guidelines. This workshop is mandatory, and you will be working through a few exercises to ensure you understand how to cite your sources correctly. This is a completion grade. So long as you show up to class and do the activities, you will receive the marks.
Proposal Assignment (5%):
You are required to submit a proposal three weeks before the first draft of your final essay* (more on this later). The purpose of this assignment is to allow you to submit your idea for your final essay and get feedback/approval. This assignment is only worth 5% of your grade, however you must submit this assignment in order to be able to submit your final essay. This assignment is pass/fail, meaning, as long as you do the assignment, you will earn 5% towards your final grade. The proposal should include a short 250 word description of what you plan to do in your final essay*, your working thesis, and a work cited page with at least three sources that you plan to use, (not including any primary texts[1] you may wish to analyse).
Final Essay (35%)
This assignment seeks to take your learning in the course and culminate it into an all-encompassing project that incorporates said concepts. In other words, you must write a 1000 word essay on your chosen topic, making sure that you have created a well-argued, properly cited and formatted, concise, formally-written, well researched, piece with a strong thesis. You are not limited to your topics. I want this piece to reflect the things you care about, or the things you are currently studying, so feel free to suggest topics. That said, I have created a list of possible topics below that you can explore in your final essay:
- Privacy issues relating to social media (pick ONE specific social media platform for this)
- Climate change representation in media
- An in-depth analysis of one of the following: a modern-day speech, an advertisement campaign, a book you really enjoy, a song, a piece of art, a video game
- Rules/transparency surrounding products marketed as healthy (think: diet pills, organic food, appetite suppressants, etc.)
- Who benefits from synchronous OR asynchronous education? (or something specific surrounding this topic)
- Which renewable resources should we be moving towards using (i.e. making an argument for Nuclear energy)
The reason there is an asterisk (*) beside the word essay is because you can also choose to do a more creative assignment if you’d like. This can include a video essay, a podcast, a digital essay/website, digital/annotated maps, or an interview. I’m also happy to hear other suggestions.
First Draft of your Final Essay* (5%)
For this assignment, you will be expected to submit a first draft of your final essay. These first drafts are not meant to be the fully completed essay. If you opt for the traditional essay, this could be something like the introduction and the first paragraph or two. If you opt for the creative version, it could be the script or the first few minutes/the skeleton of your creative project. Be prepared to bring it with you to class, as you will be assigned a peer review partner. You are not being graded on the calibre of the draft. This is a completion mark, and you will receive 5% just for showing up with the assignment in hand and uploading it to the dropbox before the deadline.
Peer Review Workshop (5%)
On Thursday July 21st, we will be practicing how to review our peers’ works and give constructive feedback. This workshop is mandatory. If you do not come to class prepared to review one of your peers’ works, you will not receive any marks. That means that, so long as you show up and give constructive feedback to one of your peers, you will receive the full 5%. Mean-spirited or otherwise hurtful comments will not be tolerated and will result in a 0.
Extra Credit Assignments
If you’d like to earn some extra credit, you can participate in up to a maximum of two of the following activities:
- Complete the feedback survey: Towards the end of the term, I will be sending out a survey for feedback on this course. This is not the same thing as the standardized course survey you receive from the university. The questions on this survey are specific to this course and to my teaching style, so your feedback is appreciated!
- Writing reflection: You have the option of submitting a writing reflection that gives you space to reflect on the writing process specific to your final essay. This should be about one page double spaced with a maximum of two pages double spaced, and should focus on the following areas: what you’ve learned since the start of the course, what sort of feedback you incorporated into your writing, your writing process and how it has changed, etc.
- Participate in 8/9 of the workshops and complete 8/9 discussion posts. For this extra credit assignment, you will be awarded extra marks for participating in both “save point” activities.
- If you’d like further practice at writing (and also earn an extra 2%!), then you can complete an analysis of one of the readings from your textbook’s first section. These readings can be found from page 900120. Your analysis should apply the concepts we’ve learned in class and will be structured similar to your critical writing assignments.
Weekly Schedule
|
Week and Date |
Required Reading |
Topic and Assignments |
|---|---|---|
|
Week 1: May 3 & 5 |
-- |
Welcome to Academic Writing! In-class workshop: May 5th |
|
Week 2: May 10 & 12 |
-- |
Basics of Academic Writing |
|
Week 3: May 17 & 19 |
Writing Analytically with readings: pages 1-21 (not the assignment section) |
The Power of Observation In-class workshop: Thursday May 10th |
|
Week 4: May 24 & 26 |
-- |
Conciseness, professionalism, and formality |
|
Week 5: May 31 & June 3 |
Writing Analytically with readings: pages 61-70, then 84-87 |
Paraphrasing, summarizing, and personalization In-class workshop: Thursday June 23rd Critical Writing Due June 5th at 11:59 PM |
|
Week 6: June 7 & 10 |
OWL Purdue Style Guide (browse): |
MLA Style Guide Citation workshop: Thursday June 10th |
|
Week 7: Classes Cancelled For Engineering Midterms |
||
|
Week 8: June 21 & 23 |
Writing Analytically with readings: pages 43-47 |
Writing a good thesis: Asking “So What?” Critical Writing Due: June 26th at 11:59 PM |
|
Week 9: June 28 & 30th |
-- |
Conducting Research at the Academic Level Proposals due July 3rd at 11:59 PM |
|
Week 10: July 5 & 7 |
Writing Analytically with readings: pages 125-first half of 136 |
Linking Evidence to your Thesis |
|
Week 11 July 12 & 14 |
-- |
Common issues in (academic) writing (and debates) |
|
Week 12: July 19 & 21 |
Writing Analytically with readings: pages 214 (starting at section C) to 221 (finishing off point 5 from page 220 and stopping before section E) |
Going from Good to Great |
|
Final Essay Due 11:59 Pm August 8, 2022 |
||
Course Policies
Absence and Late Policy: Attendance is necessary to succeed in this course. As mentioned previously, you can miss one workshop or one discussion post without any grade penalties. Beyond this will cause you to lose marks. You also cannot miss the two mandatory workshops (June 10th and July 21st).
Assignments are due on the specified dates, unless prior arrangements are made. These due dates are selected in order to help build your writing towards your final assignment. While I don’t deduct late marks, it is important that you hand things in on time if you want feedback on time and to do well. If you feel you’re going to be late handing an assignment in, please keep me updated. If you’re beyond a week late submitting an assignment (and you did not arrange this with me previously), I will not be giving you feedback.
Electronic Device policy: You are allowed to use laptops, tablets, and whatever other devices necessary for your learning in order to take notes and engage with the course material. With that said, please be respectful with your device use. Don’t distract others (or me) by playing loud music off your phone, and come to class ready to use your devices to enhance your learning (rather than using them to zone out and not pay attention – I know, I was once that student).
Groupwork policy: Unless otherwise specified (i.e. during a class activity), students are to complete all assignments and evaluations individually. Groupwork will not be accepted for assignments and will result in viewing the work as plagiarism.
Class behaviour and conduct policy: Every member of this class is entitled to feeling comfortable, safe, and welcomed. Any behaviour that directly infringes on another member’s rights to the above will be faced with consequences and disciplinary action. Behaviours that contribute to this can include, but are not limited to: comments, threats, or acts of violence and/or hate-speech relating to a students race, ethnicity, creed, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, beliefs, physical appearances, ability differences, socio-economic class, associations/affiliations, age, and other aspects of a person’s identity that are protected under the Canada Human Rights code; harassment, sexual harassment, threats, or acts of violence for any other reason; dismissive comments or actions during class discussions that impact a person’s ability to contribute and feel comfortable freely sharing their opinion on a topic; voicing problematic comments/opinions with the direct intent of causing emotional, physical, or psychological harm to another member of the class. Students are also more than welcome to directly speak with me in the event that something occurs that infringes on these rights. Additionally, students are welcome to exit the classroom if such event occurs. Students can and should also access other services on campus if such an event occurs, and can and should ask me for assistance in navigating these services.
University Policies
Academic integrity: In order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of the University of Waterloo community are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility. [Check the Office of Academic Integrity for more information.]
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. When in doubt, please be certain to contact the department’s administrative assistant who will provide further assistance.
Discipline: A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity to avoid committing an academic offence, and to take responsibility for his/her actions. [Check the Office of Academic Integrity for more information.] 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 instructor, academic advisor, or the undergraduate associate dean. For information on categories of offences and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy 71, Student Discipline. For typical penalties, check Guidelines for the Assessment of Penalties.
Appeals: A decision made or penalty imposed under Policy 70, Student Petitions and Grievances (other than a petition) or Policy 71, Student Discipline may be appealed if there is a ground. A student who believes he/she has a ground for an appeal should refer to Policy 72, Student Appeals.
Note for students with disabilities: (The following section is the official university policy):
Accessibility Services, located in Needles Hall, Room 1401, 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 Accessibility Services at the beginning of each academic term.
(The following section is my policy):
I don’t require notes or accommodations to be registered with AccessAbility. If you need an accommodation, just come talk to me. We’ll work out a plan that is far more reasonable, timely, and also far less restrictive.
Turnitin.com: Text matching software (Turnitin®) may be used to screen assignments in this course. Turnitin® is used to verify that all materials and sources in assignments are documented. Students’ submissions are stored on a U.S. server, therefore students must be given an alternative (e.g., scaffolded assignment or annotated bibliography), if they are concerned about their privacy and/or security. Students will be given due notice, in the first week of the term and/or at the time assignment details are provided, about arrangements and alternatives for the use of Turnitin in this course.
It is the responsibility of the student to notify the instructor if they, in the first week of term or at the time assignment details are provided, wish to submit alternate assignment.
Helpful Resources:
- The Writing and Communication Centre, SCH, 2nd floor: https://uwaterloo.ca/writing-and-communication-centre/
- Academic Integrity Office, Needles Hall, 3006D, https://uwaterloo.ca/academic-integrity/
- Accessibility Services, Needles Hall North, 1401, https://uwaterloo.ca/accessability-services/
- Campus Wellness, https://uwaterloo.ca/campus-wellness/
- Counselling Services, Needles Hall North, 2nd floor https://uwaterloo.ca/campus-wellness/counselling-services
- Good2Talk Helpline: https://good2talk.ca/ or call 1-866-925-5454
- Feds Used Books
- Student Medical Clinic, Health Services Building, https://uwaterloo.ca/campus-wellness/health-services
- Information Systems & Technology Service Desk, Dana Porter Library/Davis Centre/Residence, https://uwaterloo.ca/information-systems-technology/services/ist-service-desks
- Library, Dana Porter/Davis Centre/Witer Learning Resource Centre/Musagetes Architecture Library, https://lib.uwaterloo.ca/web/index.php
- OWL Purdue MLA guide, https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/mla_style/mla_formatting_and_style_guide/mla_formatting_and_style_guide.html
- MLA quick guide, https://style.mla.org/works-cited-a-quick-guide/
- Grammarly, https://app.grammarly.com/
[1] A primary text is defined as: “Immediate, first-hand accounts of a topic, from people who had a direct connection with it” (Healey Library). An example of this might be speeches, diary entries, advertisements, artwork, video games, etc.