Hi, im having trouble figuring out how to understand the syllabus. Can someone help me figure this out? Thanks in advance.
Here is a copy of one of my class syllabus…
Aug 31-Sept 4, Sept 7-11
Introductory—Engaging topics / Introduce aims and forms of discourse and academic writing / Critical reading and contextual analysis / Critical perspective and argument
Essay development and the writing process
LSH 2-36: “Writing Contexts” / “Academic Contexts” / “Writing Processes” / “Developing Paragraphs” / “Designing What You Write”
LSH 43-78: “Arguments” / “Rhetorical Analyses” / “Reports” / “Personal Narratives” / “Literary Analyses” / “Annotated Bibliographies” / “Abstracts” / “Reading Strategies”
Critical Reading and Contextual Analysis
BCNM 33-39: Plato–“Allegory of the Cave”
BCNM 628-34: Mortimer J. Adler–“How to Mark a Book”
BCNM 635-642: Frederick Douglass–“Learning to Read”
BCNM 40-53: Neil Postman, Steve Powers—“The Bias of Language, The Bias of Pictures”
BCNM 54-65: Mokoto Rich–“Literacy Debate: Online, R U Reading?”
To Issue: James W. Loewen—from Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong
To Issue: Tom Wolfe—“Pornoviolence”
To issue: James Madison—“The Most Dreaded Enemy of Liberty”
To issue: Gore Vidal—“We Are the Patriots”
To issue: Martin Luther King, Jr.—“Beyond Vietnam”
To issue: Helen Keller—“Strike Against War”
To issue: Smedley D. Butler—from War is a Racket
To issue: Kevin Tillman—selections
Sept 14-18
Critical reading and contextual analysis / Critical perspective and argument
BCNM 196-210: Eric Schlosser–“Why McDonald’s French Fries Taste So Good”
BCNM 256-71: William Lutz–“The World of Doublespeak”
BCNM 272-87: George Orwell–“Politics and the English Language”
(All assigned texts to date considered in juxtaposition with this week’s assigned texts)
Take-Home Essay Exam—using examples, integrating sources
Overview of Research Process: planning, selection and limitation of topic, research strategy and working bibliography, finding and using sources evaluating and synthesizing sources, note-taking—summary, paraphrase, and direct quotation—and avoiding plagiarism, source integration and documentation, thesis development, structure and composition
LSH 80-108: “Doing Research” / “Evaluating Sources” / “Synthesizing Ideas” / “Integrating Sources, Avoiding Plagiarism”
Assign Paper # 1: Analysis (1000 words)
Sept 21-25
Analysis
Discuss Analysis (paper # 1)—engaging ideas
BCNM 23-32: Elisabeth Kübler-Ross–“On the Fear of Death”
BCNM 698-708: Jessica Mitford–“Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain”
To issue: Gore Vidal—“Drugs”
Invention workshop
Working draft of paper # 1, with notes and sources.
Sept 28-Oct 2
Analysis / Synthesis
Submit research topic and planning proposals
BCNM 66-77: Paul Chaat Smith—"The Big Movie (from Everything You Know About Indians Is Wrong)
To Issue: Neil Postman—“Future Schlock”
Invention / revision and editing workshop
Working draft of paper # 1, with notes and sources.
Oct 5-9
Definition
Analysis Due Friday 10/9
BCNM 362-67: Margaret Atwood—“The Female Body”
BCNM 359-61: Sojourner Truth—“Ar’n’t I a Woman”
BCNM 12-22: Stephen Jay Gould—“Sex, Drugs, Disasters, and the Extinction of Dinosaurs”
BCNM 709-14: Samuel H. Scudder—“Look at Your Fish: In the Laboratory with Agassiz"
To issue: Benjamin R. Barber—“America Skips School”
Assign Paper # 2: Definition (1000-1500 words)
Oct 12-16
Definition
To issue: Jeremy Rifkin—“The Efficient Society”
Invention workshop
Working draft of paper # 2, with notes and sources.
Oct 19-23
Definition / Argument and Persuasion
To issue: Stanley Milgram—“The Perils of Obedience”
To issue: Hannah Arendt—“Denmark and the Jews”
Revision and editing workshop
Working draft of paper # 2, with notes and sources.
Oct 26-30
Argument and Persuasion
Definition Due Friday 10/30
Argument and Persuasion / Logic and Fallacies / Topic and Thesis
To Issue: George Orwell—“Shooting an Elephant”
Assign Paper # 3: Argumentative Research Paper (2000 words)
Nov 2-6
Argument and Persuasion
BCNM 99-109: Jonathan Swift—“A Modest Proposal"
Research, invention workshop
Working draft of paper # 3, with notes and sources.
Nov 9-13
Argument and Persuasion
To issue: Henry David Thoreau—“On Civil Disobedience”
Research, revision, and editing workshop
Working draft of paper # 3, with notes and sources.
Nov 16-20 (*11/20–Last day To drop w/Q)
Argument and Persuasion
To issue: Martin Luther King, Jr.—“Letter from Birmingham Jail”
Research, revision, and editing workshop
Working draft of paper # 3, with notes and sources.
Nov 23-24 (11/25-27–Holidays)
Comparative-Contexual Critique
Paper # 3 (Argumentative Research Paper) due Tuesday 24 November
BCNM 159-73: Terrell F. Dixon, Lisa Slappey—“The Bayou and the Ship Channel: Finding Place and Building Community in Houston, Texas”
BCNM 622-27: Audrey Wick—“The Siren Call of the Bingo Hall”
BCNM 525-28: Rachel Carson—“A Fable for Tomorrow”
BCNM 568-72: Maya Angelou—“Champion of the World”
BCNM 174-88: Maxine Hong Kingston—“No Name Woman”
BCNM 324-28: Sandra Cisneros—“Only Daughter”
BCNM 329-37: Judith Ortiz Cofer—“The Myth of the Latin Woman: I Just Met a Girl
Named Maria”
Nov 30-Dec 4
Comparative-Contextual Critique
To issue: Henry David Thoreau—“The Battle of the Ants”
To issue: Hwang Sunwon—“Cranes”
To issue: Khalida Asghar—“The Wagon”
To issue: Maggie Helwig—“Hunger”
To issue: K. C. Cole—“The Arrow of Time”
To issue: Loren Eiseley—“The Star Thrower”
Dec 7-11
Comparative-Contextual Critique
Discuss two assigned primary readings for Final Essay Exam (Contextual-Comparative Critique—1000 words).
Monday, Dec 14
Final Exam—12:45 PM-3:00 PM