Time Schedule:
Travis J Sands
B CUSP 135
Bothell Campus
Strengthens performance of college-level argumentative writing and scholarly research, critical reading and thinking, and the critique and the creation of print and new media texts. Prerequisite: either B CUSP 101, B CUSP 114, or B CUSP 134.
Class description
In this course we will read, think and write critically about walls both physical and figurative. Split roughly in thirds, the course will work through sequences on borders and prisons before culminating in the completion and presentation of final research projects that extend and enrich conversations we have had over the quarter. Along the way we will work to develop the skills necessary for sound academic writing while also thinking about how academic protocols themselves function as “walls� that divide, contain and sometimes exclude diverse forms of knowledge. By the end of the course students should expect to be familiar with: practices of close reading and critical analysis; generic and rhetorical distinctions between texts produced in different disciplinary, social, and cultural settings; argumentative strategies suitable for academic contexts; the formulation, development and refinement of research questions; tools and methods required for academic research; strategies for substantive revision. Student grades will be based on daily classroom engagement (including writing workshops), several short papers, a final 8-page research paper, and a final research presentation based on the final paper (to be presented in a quarter-end “conference�).
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Recommended preparation
Class assignments and grading
