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ENGL 1106 |
Index#: 2096 |
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Office Hours: 3-4 WF & by appt. |
Office: Williams 216 |
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(540) 231-7797 |
Class time: 11-11:50 MWF |
Classrooms: Williams 220/221 |
This syllabus is on the Web at
http://ebbs.english.vt.edu/exper/mosser/classes/1106.s00/1106.html
Watch for updates...
The primary aim of this course is to help you become proficient (or aware of already-existing proficiencies) in the processes of critical thinking, reading, and writing. Throughout the course, these processes will be foregrounded in order to make you self-conscious (in a positive sense) of how and why you do certain things when you read and write. In part, this will result from examining how other writers do these things. Thus, while we will be reading for content, we will also be observing and discussing the structures and methods (the writer's tools) employed by each writer to achieve explicit and implicit aims and purposes.
We will use this course to explore the nature of seeing and the seeing of nature, with particular emphasis on the sense of "Inhabiting Place." The texts provide us with various models for exploring the natural world and the ways in which humans use, relate to, inhabit, impact, and/or separate ourselves from that world. The longer text, by Robin Cody, provides a more focused and extended perspective on ecosystem--natural and man-made--of the Columbia River Basin; Cody also demonstrates how different kinds of research practices can enrich our everyday lives and our attempts to understand the world around us.
We will make a committed use of available technologies to explore the ways in which they can help us (or not) to achieve these aims.
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Essay 1 & Peer Reviews |
15% |
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15% |
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15% |
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Review (evaluative essay) |
15% |
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Small Group Research Project |
20% |
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Class discussion |
10% |
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Final exam |
10% |
The Virginia Tech Honor System applies to all activities in this course. [What is Plagiarism?]
[Available from the Tech Bookstore / 118 S. Main St. / 552-6444]
Web Tools
- The Grammar Gym
- Environmental Organization Web Directory
- Montgomery County Home Page
- Blacksburg Electronic Village/Government
- Search Tools (including citation and formatting guides for research papers)
- Class e-mail list: 1204.99@ebbs.english.vt.edu (class subscribers only)
- Hypertext Webster's Dictionary
- Oxford English Dictionary, online (internal--VIVA--users only)
- Online English Grammar
- Virginia Tech Library Catalogues & Databases
- Constituents of a thesis
- Methods of and Purposes for writing ( "Persuasive Appeals")
- FAQs: Frequently asked questions and clarifications on my comments on your essays...
- MLA Style Sheet
English 1106 Schedule
NOTE: we meet in Williams 221 (the "CIC") on Mondays and Fridays, except when announced otherwise, and Williams 220 on Wednesdays; reading assignments are to be completed before the class period on the date they are scheduled.
Monday, January 17
Introduction to Course & CIC
Wednesday, January 19
pp. 506-509 in LATE, "Reading for Meaning"; "Getting Ready for Class Discussion"; Rogers, "Knot" (LATE, p. 61); "Inhabiting Place" (LATE, pp. 163-165); Rexroth, "Incarnation" (LATE, pp. 166-168); Camuto, "Solstice" (pp. 1-2)
Friday, January 21
LATE, pp. 504-506; 509-520 ("Writing about Literature and Culture); work in CIC on Essay 1
Monday, January 24
Work in CIC on Essay 1
Wednesday, January 26
Kingsolver, "The Memory Place" (LATE, pp. 199-204); Stegner, "Wilderness Letter" (LATE, pp. 443-447); Bass, "On Willow Creek" (LATE, pp. 249-258)
Friday, January 28
Work on Essay 1; Draft of Essay 1 posted to the class list by Midnight.
Work on Peer Evaluations of Essay 1, to be posted to Mosser & authors by Midnight.
Wednesday, February 2
Finish Bass & Stegner; Mander, "The Walling of Awareness" (LATE, pp. 205-214)
Friday, February 4
Finish Essay 1 and e-mail to Mosser by midnight
Monday, February 7
Gelernter, "In Rats We Trust" (handout); work on Persuasion and Rhetorical Appeals
Wednesday, February 9
Limbaugh, "The Environmental Mindset" (LATE, pp. 439-442); Gary Snyder, excerpt from "The Etiquette of Freedom"; "Song of the Taste," LATE, 14-16 (more on Snyder); Lewis, "On Human Connectedness with Nature" (LATE, pp. 392-401)
Work on Essay 2
Monday, February 14
Work on Essay 2 (peer reviews)
Wednesday, February 16
Kaufman, "Confessions of a Developer" (LATE, pp. 413-422); Marge Piercy, "Sand Roads: The Development" (LATE, pp. 402-404) Bingham, "A Woman's Land" (LATE, pp. 424-427)
Friday, February 18
Essay 2 due by Midnight
Monday, February 21
Documentation, Research Methods; LATE, pp, 519-529.
Wednesday, February 23
Library Tour: meet in the Library Lobby by 11 AM.
Friday, February 25
Work on Research Project; Hypertext construction & Web Page design
Monday, February 28
Work on Research Project
Wednesday, March 1
Daniel, "A Word in Favor of Rootlessness" (LATE, pp. 259-264); Berry, "Stay Home" (LATE, pp. 222-223); Polsgrove, "On a Scrap of Land in Henry County" (LATE, pp. 223-229); Dodge, "Living by Life" (LATE, pp. 230-238)
Friday, March 3
Work on Research Project
Monday, March 6
Work on Research Project
Wednesday, March 8
Berry, "A Good Scythe" (LATE, pp. 389-392); Hooks, "Touching the Earth" (LATE, pp. 169-173)
Friday, March 10
Research Projects Due/Begin Essay 3
March 11-19 Spring Break Monday, March 20
Work on Essay 3
Wednesday, March 22
Cody, pp. 3-65
Friday, March 24
Work on Essay 3
Monday, March 27
Work on Essay 3
Wednesday, March 29
Kittredge, "A Second Chance at Paradise" (LATE, pp. 284-290); Meadows, "Living Lightly and Consistently on the Land" (LATE, pp. 377-380)
Friday, March 31
Essay 3 due at Midnight
Monday, April 3
Williams, "The Clan of the One-Breasted Women" (LATE, pp. 347-352); Meloy, "The Flora and Fauna of Las Vegas" (LATE, pp. 240-249)
Wednesday, April 5
Durning, "The Conundrum of Consumption" (LATE, pp. 371-376); Roszak, "'Take This Job and Shove It" (LATE, pp. 367-371)
Friday, April 7
Estés, "La Mariposa, Butterfly Woman" (LATE, pp. 17-21); Traven, "Assembly Line" (LATE, pp. 356-365)
Monday, April 10
Evaluation: movie review
Wednesday, April 12
The Gods Must Be Crazy
Friday, April 14
The Gods Must Be Crazy (meet in 220)
Monday, April 17
Work on writing your review of The Gods Must Be Crazy
Wednesday, April 19
Cody, pp. 67-135
Friday, April 21
Review due at Midnight
Monday, April 24
Primary experience of the natural world.
Wednesday, April 26
Cody, pp. 137-210
Friday, April 28
Cody, 210-end (meet in Wms 220)
Monday, May 1
Wednesday, May 3
Classes End
Friday, May 5, 7:45-9:45 AM