Syllabus

Schedule

Assignments

Extras

Course Overview

The goal of this course is to provide students in the Social Sciences with one last opportunity to hone their writing and critical thinking skills before graduating and heading off into the working world. It is for students who have already taken other required composition classes and learned the basic writing styles and research methods.

In this class, you will complete four primary written assignments as well as preliminary drafts of these assignments that you will review with your classmates. Almost any writing that people do goes through a revision process involving feedback from other readers. Revising is a skill like any other. It requires learning and practice if you are to become proficient.

In addition to learning about writing and practicing revising skills, this class will offer you an opportunity to develop arguments concerning the strengths and weaknesses of the social sciences, the credibility of various articles and reports by other writers, and political issues in the local and wider communities. To facilitate this, I recommend that you either read the local newspaper, a newsmagazine or a news-oriented web site in order to keep yourself up-to-date about matters we will discuss in the class.

This is a discussion course, not a lecture course, so it is more dependent on student contributions to class discussions than are many other courses at UMD. Students very likely will hear views that they disagree with this semester. In spite of these disagreements, students should accord conflicting viewpoints the same respect as they would hope for their own viewpoints to receive. Similar rules apply to writing about articles that you disagree with. Your arguments are more persuasive when you demonstrate that you have read the article carefully and considered its merits along with its shortcomings.

Required Texts

Kristine Hansen, A Rhetoric for the Social Science

Ann Raimes, Keys for Writers: A Brief Handbook

Course Requirements

Additional Expectations

• Peer review is an important component in this class, and any individual's failure to participate lessens the experience for all of the students in the class. For this reason, you are required to attend class on peer-review days with a word-processed draft of your paper. Failure to do so will result in a 1/3 letter-grade deduction from the final grade for the paper. Failure to turn in two peer-reviewed drafts along with the final draft will result in a full letter-grade deduction from the final grade for the paper.

• In order for a paper to receive a passing grade, it must adhere to the conventions of Standard Written English. This means that it must present its argument in a clear and grammatically correct manner with a minimum of spelling and other typographical errors.

• Show up to class on time and prepared to discuss the material for that day. Being late too many times can bring your participation grade down. More than three unexcused absences will have a negative impact on your grade, and more than five will result in failure in the course. Furthermore, please turn off cell phones before coming to class. Ringing cell phones are distracting for your fellow students.

• Any infractions against UMD's Scholastic Dishonesty provisions in the Student Conduct Code as stated in the UMD catalogue will receive serious attention and appropriate penalties.

• Individuals who have any disability, either permanent or temporary, which might influence their ability to perform in this class, are encouraged to inform me at the start of the quarter. I can make special adaptations of teaching methods, assignments, materials, or testing as required to provide for equitable participation in the course. The Access Center is also available to assist students with disabilities. It is located in 138 Library and on the web at <http://www.d.umn.edu/access>.