ADVANCED ENGLISH COMPOSITION

Rhetoric 205/English 105
Anne Trubek
Office: King 139C
Phone: x8615
E-Mail: ftrubek@oberlin.edu

Course Description

"To essay" means to make an attempt at, to try, to subject to a test. This course will be a workshop on the essay as an active and experimental form and will ask students to essay different rhetorical strategies and styles. We will consider briefly the history of the essay as a genre. Then we will examine contemporary essays written for both a general and academic audience from across the three divisions of knowledge--natural sciences, social sciences and humanities. We will pay particular attention to writers who challenge conventional definitions of the essay (or "article" or "theme" or "non-fiction") and who cross boundaries between different spheres of knowledge. Throughout the semester, the focus of the course will be on what we can do with what we learn from our readings--that is, on the essays we write ourselves.

Course Materials

The following books can be purchased at the Co-op Bookstore:

• Richard Seltzer, Mortal Lessons: Notes on the Art of Surgery
• Thomas Frank and Matt Weiland, editors. Commodify Your Dissent: Salvos from The Baffler
• Nicholson Baker, The Size of Thoughts
• Joseph Williams, Style: Toward Clarity and Grace

Readings included in the course pack:

Unit 1: On Essays
Michel de Montaigne, "On Cannibals," On Books," "On Repenting," " On the Custom of Wearing Clothing"
Sir Francis Bacon, "Of Truth," "Of Revenge," "Of Boldness," "Of Innovations," "Of Masques and Triumphs"
William Hazlitt, "On the Pleasure of Hating"
Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self-Reliance"

Unit 2: On Nature
Philip Kuberski, "Metaphor of the Shell," "Proust's Brain"
Stephen Jay Gould, "Darwin's Middle Road"
Jacob Bronowski, "The Nature of Scientific Reasoning"

Unit 3: On Others
Cliffod Geertz, "Deep Play: Notes on a Balinese Cockfight"
Patricia Williams, "And We Are Not Yet Married: Notes on Legal Language and the Ideology of Style"
William Cronon, "A Place for Stories: Nature, History and Narrative"

Unit 4: On SelvesRoland Barthes, from Fragments of a Lover's Discourse
Virginia Woolf, "A Room of One's Own"
Stephen Greenblatt, "Marvelous Possessions"

Appendix: readings on metaphor

Course Requirements

You must complete all of the required readings and writings to qualify to receive credit in this course. You will be asked to complete the following:

• final portfolio including 3 revised essays
• 4 drafts of longer essays, one per unit
• 4 writing projects (shorter, informal essays), one per unit
• style exercises, one per unit
• 1 oral presentation
• peer critiques

As this course is designed as a workshop, attendance is vital to the success of the course, and to your success in the course. In my experience, students who miss more than three classes are usually not able to complete the work required to receive credit for the class. Therefore, if you are absent more than three times, you will not receive credit for the course. If you do miss a class, it is your responsibility to find out what was done and complete all necessary work before the next class meeting.

Again, because of the workshop nature of the course, all papers must be submitted on time for the course to proceed smoothly.

At the end of the semester, you will hand in a final portfolio. The portfolio will include all of your peer critiques, writing projects and style exercises completed during the semester. In addition, it will include 3 revised essays, demonstrating a range of stylistic and rhetorical ability. These essays may be revised versions of your three required essays, or they may be writing projects you choose to develop into longer essays. All work in the final portfolio must have been revised extensively at least once, and have been reviewed by me and your peers at least once. They should not be the versions of the essays you submitted during the semester! You will choose one of these three essays to submit for publication sometime during the semester. There’s no page length for the essays in this portfolio, as a 2 page essay can be as difficult to complete satisfactorily as a 12 page one, but you do need to demonstrate sufficient range and thoroughness.

Keep all the writing you complete for this course, including notes towards your first drafts, intermediate revisions, thoughts written on coffee-ringed napkins. Throughout the semester, I may ask to see the work you do leading up to the "final" essays you submit.

I would like to meet with you individually throughout the semester to discuss your work in the course generally as well as particular essays. Every week, a sign-up sheet will be posted on my door listing the times I have available that week for conferences. I suggest you check early in the week if you are interested in signing up for a conference, as I am teaching two other courses this semester whose students will be seeking frequent meetings. You may also request an appointment with me for another time. I would like to meet with all of you at least once each module.

To summarize course requirements: complete all assigned work, submit a final portfolio, miss no more than three classes, complete all work on time and meet with me once before and once after break.

A few words about what taking a Credit/No Entry course does and doesn't mean. It does not mean that the course requires less work than a graded course--you earn three hours for this course as you do for others. It does not mean that if you do most of the work and try real hard that you will receive credit: to receive credit in this course, you must fulfill all the requirements above and submit a satisfactory final portfolio (demonstrating significant improvement in your writing over the course of the semester and an understanding of course goals and material). Students meeting all course requirements may still not receive credit if their portfolios are not satisfactory.

What CR/NE does mean is that you must be self- rather than grade-motivated to do well. It means you can take more risks in your writing, because you don't have to worry about the specter of grades. It means I don't have to read your work and compare it to some predetermined standard, or to the essays by the other students in the course. It means we can focus on what's important: improving our writing. Students can request a written evaluation to be included with their transcripts. Forms are available at the Registrar's office.

Course Procedures

Many class periods or partial class periods will be set aside for writing workshops. During these workshops, the entire class will discuss two or three student essays that we will have all read before class. We will use a class listserv, accessible through Mulberry, to distribute essays. Students will sign up to have their work discussed during two workshops: once for a writing project and once for an essay. Peer critiques, or written comments on your classmates' essays, are required for each workshop, and will be included in your final portfolio.

Discussions of readings will usually begin with a student presentations on the material for the day. Presentations should last about 5 minutes, and be designed to begin class discussion of the material. You might relate the material to the themes of the course or to the unit, compare it to previous readings, and/or ask questions of the readings for the class to consider. Students will sign up for presentation dates.