WRT 205 Course Calendar

D. Jager

Unit 1: Inquiry into Research/Research into Inquiry

Goals:

· Introduce the course concepts and build a classroom community

· Introduce critical research in order to dislodge students’ expectations

· Open up research as mystery, as inquiry, as part of the composing process

· Develop a working theoretical understanding of the research process and the rhetorical elements of texts

Tuesday, January 15

· Course Introductions

· Introduce Course Journal

· Small group work with Words, Words The Misuse of Language

Assignment:

Course Journal Homework Entry: Reflect on these prompts in a 15-minute freewrite: Discuss your experience with writing research papers. What was the assignment? What were the circumstances (time frame, directions, class activities, evaluation, etc.)? What worked well? Not so well? Why do you think your teacher assigned this project? How did you feel when you completed it? Can you identify what you learned from the experience? In general, why do you think research papers are assigned in school?

Bring a short environmental text that has evidence of research to Thursday’s class.

Subscribe to the New York Times News Listserv at http://nytimes.com/

Thursday, January 16

· Small group work with journal entries and environmental texts

Assignment: Read and annotate Davis and Shadle’s article "’Building a Mystery": Alternative Research Writing and the Academic Act of Seeking" (the article can be found on the Bird Library web site. Click on summit, then click on course reserves. Margaret Himley is the instructor, and the course is Wrt 205). In a two to three page course journal entry, use your own research experience (or inexperience) to test some of Davis and Shadle’s ideas, terms, and claims. Here are some questions designed to get you thinking. You may not use all of the questions in your entry, but they should begin to open up topics, claims, ideas, speculations for you. Use the drafting process to focus and develop what seems most significant to you.

· How do Davis and Shadle define and critique the “conventional construct” of research writing?

· How do they propose alternate research writing and methods?

· Can you discuss the value of conventional and alternate methods of research and writing and name some specific examples from your experiences in and out of school, current research in your field and in the world today?

· What are the long- range implications of using these methods?

· What are some significant relationships between research methodology and the construction of knowledge?

· Can research as discussed in this article move us “toward a more exploratory inquiry that honors mystery?” If so, how? If not, why not?

Tuesday, January 22

· Invention strategies and requirements for Unit 1 Assignment

· In-class work and course journal entries on collaboration and writing workshops

Assignment: Draft Unit #1 paper and bring three copies to Thursday’s class for a small group workshop.

Thursday, January 23

· Workshop drafts of Unit #1 Assignment

· Begin Unit 2

Assignment: Final draft of Unit #1 paper due on Tuesday, January 28 due.