ENC 4311 Course Policy Sheet



ENC 4311-03 05149 5:15-6:30 M/W WMS 108
Instructor: Dr. William Nesbitt
Office: 229 WMS
Office Phone: 644-****
Office hrs: 10:00-11:00 and 4:00-5:00 M/W
E-mail: wcn5418@mailer.fsu.edu
webpage: www.oocities.org/wcnesbitt

Course Description: We want to build on what you have already learned in 3310 Advanced Article and Essay. Our class activity will revolve around several important activities. Successful writers read a lot, write a lot, and usually have some source(s) of informed, objective feedback. With this in mind, the purpose of this course is to develop a solid foundation in the basic aspects of writing personal essays and we will concentrate our energies on three main areas: 1) Reading and discussing various essays in our text 2) Producing, workshopping, and revising several essays 3) Responding on paper and in class to the drafts of classmates.
Though essay can include writing such as reviews, journalistic features, critical articles, and argumentative discourse, we will focus on writing personal essays. Here are some characteristics that tend to represent the personal essay as a general whole (there always exceptions): The narration is usually first-person.
The essay is either a personal reflection and faithful recounting of the narrator's of an actual event or experience from the lived experience or is a meditation upon something that the narrator has personal ties with. In short, a personal essay is not fiction.
Often the narrator looks back from the vantage point of hindsight, experience, or age and this older voice may come into the essay from time to time. In other words, the narrator may makes statements such as "Although I didn't know it then . . .," "At the time it made a lot of sense . . . ," "Since then I realized . . . ," "When I think of myself now compared to then," and so forth.
The writing reveals something about the writer (hence "personal").
The tone is familiar, conversational, and perhaps even confessional.
Despite the intimacy of tone and personal subject matter, readers still identify with the essay because they find some piece of themselves or their lived experience within it.
There is a distinct voice, be it familiar, angry, snooty, funny, or embarrassed. However, if someone says the voice of the essay is stiff or awkward, this is probably not a good thing.
Concrete/specific details fill the essay: "Vagueness is the essayist's mortal enemy."

Required Texts:
The Best American Essays 2003, Eds. Anne Fadiman and Robert Atwan.
Enough copies of your draft that each person in the class can have one.

Requirements of the Course:
Attendance is a requirement (more than a week's worth of absences is grounds for failure). According to university policy, the only absences that are automatically excused are for participation in university sanctioned events (i.e., you are a member of the FSU baseball team or you play in the FSU band). For such instances, I need signed documentation on FSU letterhead explaining the situation prior to the event. You should only miss class due to death or other dire personal circumstances.

Evaluation:
Three essays 70% total: 30% for each of the two workshopped essays and 10% for the third, unworkshopped essay. Journal 10% We will complete exercises in class. The majority of these will be journal type questions. We will share these. Participation: 20% This includes preparation for class, workshopping, alertness, timely arrival to class, attendance, timely distribution of drafts before workshopping, and thoughtful behavior.
You will put all of your work in a portfolio. The final portfolio should include the two drafts I gave you back after workshop, and a one to two page typed process memo considering such aspects of your writing as what you got from workshop, difficulties you had writing each essay, what you revised (remember that revising means much more than just fixing proofreading errors and may involve completely re-envisioning an essay, getting rid of entire paragraphs or pages, and/or making dozens and dozens of subtle changes), and what you still find problematic in these essays. Include any drafts that represent your work at significantly and noticeable different stages before and/or after the workshop draft. No three ring binders. For the Exercise portfolio number all of your handwritten exercises and place them in a folder. No three ring binders.

Reading/Writing Center: The Reading/Writing Center offers one-on-one help for students with their writing, Make an appointment by calling ahead (644-6495) or stopping in (WMS 222C).

Drafts and workshops: For each workshop day we will workshop typed drafts of four to six pages each. While we appreciate your enthusiasm, please respect the page limits—no more than six pages for a workshop draft. You should bring in enough copies for each person in class (we'll present in alphabetical order twice and I'll update that information on the webpage). You will bring your copies to class at least one class before your workshop day. I cannot accept any drafts via e-mail. Any drafts brought in the day of workshop will not be workshopped. Failure to bring copies ahead of time for workshop or absence during your workshop day will result in a deduction of at least one letter grade from the final grade for each instance. I do not anticipate rescheduling workshops. Write your name legibly at the top of each paper that you workshop. Each person in class will read and respond in writing to your draft before your workshop date. While you sit silently we will discuss and pose questions about your story as if you were not in the room for fifteen to twenty minutes. We will discuss what works well in the essay and what could use some additional work with each person perhaps offering suggestions. After that, you will be given a few minutes to ask for additional clarification, dialogue with the class, answer and/or ask specific questions , or simply say "thanks." No one should use the time to defend their writing as no one at any point should attack your writing. Usually, it proves most useful to discuss, for example, what the essay does or does not do rather than what the author does or does not do or how the story concludes rather than how the author concludes the story; we should focus on and address our comments to the paper rather than the author as much as possible. The point of the workshop is to provide balanced critique that offers clear suggestions for improvement without debasing the writing or the author's sense of self worth as a writer. On the flipside, we do not want the author to walk away from the workshop without specific ideas for revision. While later workshops may yield drafts that are more developed than earlier ones, all drafts should be proofread and spellchecked. We must remember that writing, even great writing, is never finished; it's just finally abandoned.

The standard format for all typed work will be Times New Roman 12pt. double spaced with once-inch margins surrounding the paper.

Plagiarism is grounds for suspension from the university as well as for failure in this course. It will not be tolerated. Any instance of plagiarism must be reported to the Director of First-Year Writing and the Director of Undergraduate Studies. Plagiarism is a counterproductive, non-writing behavior that is unacceptable in a course intended to aid the growth of individual writers. Plagiarism is included among the violations defined in the Academic Honor Code, section b), paragraph 2, as follows: "Regarding academic assignments, violations of the Academic Honor Code shall include representing another's work or any part thereof, be it published or unpublished, as one's own."

Students with disabilities needing academic accommodations should in the first week of class 1) register and provide documentation to the Student Disability Resource Center (SDRC) and 2) bring a letter to me from SDRC indicating the need for academic accommodations.

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