WRITING NATURE:
THINKING AND WRITING ABOUT NATURE AND IDENTITY
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The goals of WCT, the first-year writing program, are simple to state: we aim to guide Stanford's first-year students in writing academic arguments and research-based essays, using rhetorical principles that will enable them to enter courses in many fields, analyze the discourses they find there, and, on the basis of their analyses, begin to participate effectively in those discourses, whether oral or written.
"Writing Nature" is one of the classes in the general area of "Writing about Political and Social Issues." This class's thematic content is rooted in American writing about nature, ecology and environment, human culture and identity, and science and technology. Readings raise questions and explore ideas about nature and the place human beings have historically occupied in it. Writers whose work we will read represent all of us, in the broad spectrum of our divergent interests: they are journalists, biologists, jocks, geologists, poets, activists, historians, muckrakers, rabble-rousers, techies, transcendentalists, explorers, adventurers, gardeners, academicians, anthropologists, evolutionists, revolutionists, physicists, physicians, feminists, economists, corporate employees, and students... among others. What this diversity may begin to suggest is that effective writing is not of one type but evolves and succeeds according to its purpose; that "real" writing is not the exclusive property of a literary elite, or of academia; and that nature, like many great themes and important social issues, has implications that cross disciplinary boundaries and relate our fields of study and areas of personal interest and concern.
First and foremost, of course, this is a class in writing and critical thinking, with an emphasis on research and documented writing. In undertaking the readings we will for this class, one of my goals is certainly that we unearth in our common experience and subject matter some new and compelling ideas about our individual and collective relationships to nature. But my primary goal in assigning these readings is to give you an opportunity to practice critical reading -- to encourage you, in fact, to read like writers, to learn more about writing strategies than you ever have before.
There will be particular emphasis in the course on
understanding and engaging the process behind the written product;
considering interdisciplinary approaches to thinking, writing, and research;
writing and reading critically, with attention to audience and purpose and with sensitivity to nuances of argument;
exploring strategies of investigation, analysis, and argumentation and applying them to research and documented writing;
developing a comfortable and confident prose style, well-suited to various audiences and purposes;
collaborating with other students as well as community members in research, writing, and revision;
and understanding that knowledge in general and writing in particular (including student writing) are real, having value and consequences.
This course includes a Community Service Writing component. In partial fulfillment of the writing requirement for this class, students will research and write documents for local community non-profit organizations. My desk will not be the sole destination of your writing in this class, and a grade will not be its sole purpose.
I hope you will remember checking that little box this past summer electing a WCT course with a CSW component. Community Service Writing is indeed about community service, but in the context of this academic class it is definitely and specifically about writing. While satisfying a portion of the writing requirement of this class, CSW offers you the opportunity to write something of specific and tangible use for a non-profit organization outside the university. CSW writing is generally distributed to a much larger audience, and to different kinds of readers, than college writers are accustomed to. With the CSW Project, you make a contribution to the larger community, and your writing stands to have a real effect on people and policies.
Our class will be offered a half dozen or so placements with area non-profit organizations whose work relates in some way to our course theme. These organizations need writers to complete a variety of writing tasks, possibly including newsletter articles, press releases, interviews, profiles, histories, reports, fact sheets, reviews, proposals, and various kinds of writing for organizations' web sites. After learning more about the organizations and their needs at our CSW orientation, you will let me know in order of preference which agencies and projects you are particularly interested in working with and on. I will make CSW assignments based on your preferences, but it is possible that you will not get your first choice. You will be placed with an agency, probably with one or two other students from this class. The writing you ultimately produce for your organization, if it is good enough according to the agency's standards, will appear in print or be incorporated into important in-house documents or programs.
The CSW Project involves independent work and requires a very high degree of reliability on your part since it is, essentially, an internship and your agency will be counting on you to fulfill a real writing need. In addition to contributing in important ways to the work of area non-profit organizations and hence to the well-being of the community, past CSW projects have, at the very least, made impressive additions to students' résumés and, in many cases, have led to internships and other work opportunities.
Want to know more about Community Service Writing?
Ross, Carolyn. Writing Nature: An Ecological Reader for Writers. St. Martin's Press, 1995.
Kirszner and Mandell. Writing in the Disciplines. Harcourt Brace, 1995.
Harnack and Kleppinger. Online!: A Reference Guide to Using Internet Sources. St. Martin's, 1997.
Please complete readings by the dates assigned -- the quality of your written work and of class discussions will depend upon your doing so.
Our primary text, Writing Nature, is both an anthology of writing within the course theme and a rhetoric -- or a text about writing. Please be sure to read all assigned readings carefully. Although we may not discuss every aspect of the rhetorical chapter introductions in Writing Nature fully in class, these readings will definitely inform and benefit your writing. Some readings will come to you in the form of supplementary handouts. You are responsible for assigned readings in whatever form.
All three texts, Writing Nature, The Harcourt Brace Guide to Documentation, and Online! will help guide you through the research process and serve as handbooks -- for this class and beyond -- to documentation style.
In your writing assignments this quarter, I mean to challenge you creatively, critically, and practically. In selecting and developing the assignments I have, I of course have in mind certain learning objectives. One of the most important of these objectives is that you should discover and explore your own interests, within our very broad course theme. In most assignments, determining your own topic is a crucial step in the writing process. The exception to open topics will be the Community Service Writing Project; once you are placed with an agency, these organizations will ask you to choose among specific writing assignments which accord to their needs.
1. Assignment #1 : The Exploratory, or Leap-of-Faith, Essay. This essay will provide practice in blending personal and analytical writing, drawing upon visual and written texts. Length: 4-5 pages; part #1 due 10/3; part #2 due 10/5; complete draft due 10/10, revision due 10/17.
2. Assignment #2 : Issue-Based Argument Essay, related to CSW work. This essay will require an in-depth understanding and articulation of multiple points of view in a complex and controversial issue; outside sources will include both primary and secondary material. Length: 4-5 pages; draft due 10/31; revision due 11/7.
3. Assignment #3: Community Service Writing Project. This document -- of many possible genres -- will be researched, written, and produced for a non-profit community organizing, according to the agency's needs. Length: approximately 1000-words (minimum); draft due 11/14; final version due 12/5. You will also be asked to write a letter of introduction to your CSW agency.
4. Assignment #4: The Research Paper. This is a documented argument, analysis, or interpretation, using at least 10 outside sources. Length: minimum 10 pages/maximum 12, excluding footnotes and works cited pages.
Increments of research project:
Three research topic ideas due Tuesday, 10/24
Formal research proposals due Thursday, 10/26
Library Workshop, Tuesday, 10/31 (meet in Green Library lobby during class time)
Working annotated bibliography for research project due Thursday, 11/2
Formal outline for research project due Thursday 11/16
Draft of research paper due Tuesday, 11/28
Revision of research paper due Monday 12/12 (exam week)
5. Informal Writing: Class Newsgroup Participation. Plan to make significant contributions at least twice weekly to the class newsgroup discussion. A newsgroup is an electronic discussion area for people interested in exchanging information and ideas about a subject of common interest -- in our case, our course readings as well as the writing issues we encounter in this class. Our newsgroup discussions should reveal in advance of class some important directions for class discussion. Please note: there is a direct link from our class web site to our class newsgroup. Our class web site can be found at http://www.stanford.edu/class/wct3b-02 .
6. Portfolio Cover Letter. When you turn in your portfolio (described below) at the end of the quarter, you will include a cover letter with specific evaluations of your own work on each of the major assignments as well as an overall self-evaluation of your quarter's work .
Revisions
Having the opportunity to revise your work after feedback is crucial. Everyone will be required to revise Assignments #1, #2, and #3, as well as the research paper following peer review and/or discussion of drafts in conference. With the Community Service Writing Project, you will also get feedback from your agency contact before you submit your final work. With all these assignments, you will be graded on your revisions.
Each student will give and receive written and/or spoken peer reviews of Assignments #1, #2, and the research paper at their draft stages. You will be provided with peer review guidelines.
Attendance at all four scheduled conferences this quarter is required. The first will be a three-way conference, including you, me, and your peer review partner, and in it we will discuss drafts of Assignment #1. The second conference will be a brief individual conference with me, at mid-quarter, allowing us a chance to discuss your progress in the class. The third conference will be an individual or small group conference, depending upon whether your Assignment #3 (the CSW Project) is an individual or collaborative project. The final conference will be a peer review conference, as with your first conference, to discuss the draft of the research paper. Rescheduling missed conferences is usually not possible, so make note of the time you sign up for, as well as the conference location, and show up on time please. You are, of course, welcome to come see me at other times; if you can't make it during my office hours, I will be more than happy to arrange an alternate time with you.
There will be quite a bit of oral accountability in this class, but there is one formal oral requirement. Each student will be responsible for a five- to seven-minute presentation on one key reading at some time during the quarter. (Readings and dates will be determined early in the quarter, by lottery). The first objective of the reading presentation is to provide a rhetorical analysis of the assigned reading (remember: read like a writer!); the second is to offer questions to the class, to initiate and focus class discussion.
I will collect students' portfolios at the end of the quarter. Portfolios will include drafts and revisions, with my comments, of all writing; peer reviews of your work; and all increments of the CSW and research projects. If you wish, you may further revise your work on Assignment #1 and #2 for inclusion in your portfolio. I will use your portfolio to reference the full range of your work and progress in the class in my end-quarter evaluation. This portfolio will be introduced with a cover letter by you (see description above) evaluating your own learning and writing in the course. Obviously, it is important that you save all work for the class in an organized sequence and special location (a binder for example) so that you can access it all easily at the end of the quarter.
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All written work (including drafts) submitted over the quarter, with the exception of peer reviews, must be typed. Finished essays must be titled, and all essays (including drafts) must be double-spaced with numbered pages. Depending on the nature of the assignment, I may ask you to include a one-paragraph statement of audience and purpose with your work. Please try to print all work (including revisions) on recycled paper or on both sides of the page!
Unless you have received my permission at least 24 hours in advance of the due date, late work will be graded down, at the rate of one full grade per class meeting. After one week, I will not accept late work at all; in this case, you will receive no credit for the assignment in question.
One unexcused absence is allowed. At the second unexcused absence, your class participation grade will be reduced to "F." With four unexcused absences, students will be dropped from the class. Please let me know of anticipated absences in advance.
Students who are late to class also put their class participation grade at risk. If you are late to class 3 times, your class participation grade will be reduced to "F."
There will be no letter grades assigned to individual assignments. Instead, I will give written narrative evaluations of each of the major assignments at their revised stage. (You may further revise Assignments #1 and #2, if you wish, for inclusion in your portfolio.) At mid-quarter (during the week of Oct 31/Nov 2), I will schedule brief conferences for all students. At this time, I will give you an overview of your performance to date in the class, and we will work together to identify areas in which you might concentrate efforts toward improvement. If at this time you would like me to equate this report with a letter grade, I will do so.
At the end of the quarter, I will assign a letter-grade to your portfolio of writing for the entire quarter, and this will account for approximately 80% of your final grade. At that time, I will also assign a letter grade for class participation (which includes in-class participation, oral presentations, and participation in conferences and peer reviews) as well as a letter grade for informal writing (including newsgroup participation, other informal writings, and your letter of introduction to your CSW agency). Each of these grades will account for approximately 10% of your final grade.
In assigning portfolio and final grades, I will take into account your effort and engagement, the demonstrated development and improvement of your individual writing skills and style over the quarter, and your overall accomplishment relative to that of others in the class.
I will clearly articulate the specific goals and evaluation criteria for each assignment on the individual assignment sheets, and these will be reinforced by various means, including peer review guidelines and conference discussion.