Time Schedule:
Tasha M Buttler
B CUSP 134
Bothell Campus
Offers an interdisciplinary approach to composition, including generating a compelling topic; the articulation of a thesis; the development of supporting evidence; the ability to draw conclusions from the evidence, clear organization of the essay, correct mechanics; awareness of audience, and knowledge of resources for research.
Class description
This writing class will give you a chance to think through, speak and write about, contemporary issues affecting the ecologies, the economies, and the peoples of the Pacific Northwest and the American Southwest. We will be using stories, film, memoir, texts on race relations, reports from state Department of Ecology and Department of Energy, and brief forays into Spanish to develop critical and sensual understandings of complex interrelationships between policy, economy, and life-styles. You will have opportunities to engage each other in conversations that strengthen your analytical skills and provide models for writing processes.
Student learning goals
Recognize your developing part in a civic community by entering into conversation through seminaring and writing.
Learn to identify an author’s main arguments and how those arguments are supported.
Develop your academic research skills in several disciplines by learning about how research is done in several disciplines, and across disciplines
Respond to another writer’s work with empathy, intellect, and conviction
Learn further how to listen to and invite competing interpretations
Identify and cultivate your own writing style by building on your own experience, voices, and projects
General method of instruction
I will facilitate and sometimes lead classroom discussions. We will do seminaring and peer review.
Recommended preparation
Willingness to question, to read closely, and to participate. The following texts are available at the UWB bookstore, or can be purchased through an on-line vendor: William Kittredge's Taking Care, and We Are Not in This Together, Barry Lopez's The Rediscovery of North America, Sandra Cisneros' Woman Hollering Creek, and Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein's They Say, I Say. Readings by Benjamin Alire Saenz and others are available on eReserves.
Class assignments and grading
There are two components to this course that will be factored into your final grade: 1) a portfolio of your smaller essays and your two major project papers, and, 2) your participation in seminar and peer review groups. The final portfolio that demonstrates how your work meets the outcomes for expository writing will count for 70% of your grade. Your participation will count for 30%. Class participation will include in-class writing assignments, seminar work, oral discussion, homework assignments, and review of peer essays. I do not accept assignments via email. Late assignments will have one grade per class period subtracted from the final grade. If you miss a class, make sure to ask a classmate if you can copy her or his notes. I am not able to update you on what you have missed in class.
Portfolio is 70% of grade. Participation is 30%.
