OVERVIEW OF THE COURSE
Writing is a complex task, requiring concentration, skillful observation and careful analysis. Writers need to understand the nature of their audience and their own reasons for speaking out. And writers must be able to review their own work and improve it. This course will give you opportunities to practice being a writer, and will help you become more skilled and confident when you use writing to accomplish various academic, professional, and personal goals. By the end of the course, you should be more aware of your own capabilities and limitations as a writer, better prepared to use writing in different contexts, and more perceptive as a reader of your own and others’ work. As the course title suggests, you will be asked to pay particular attention to writing as a means of persuasion and argumentation, but it is also important to recognize that writing is a way of exploring and inquiring. For that reason, the course will begin by reviewing the interests, curiosity, and expertise you possess which can help propel you toward good writing. Even at the end of the semester, when you will be asked to do research and consider your own ideas in relation to others’, your written work should stem from genuine concerns and questions you pursue as a writer.
ABOUT THIS WEBPAGE
All information about this course can be found on this page and the links below, so this page, basically, is a web syllabus. I have adopted this format for the primary reason that electronic media continue to increase in importance. The importance of web literacy is undeniable now. Students should understand the world wide web as a knowledge resource, an arena where values are contested, where cultures are created and represented, and where goods and information are traded as commodities. A priority of this course will be to help students become informed and critical participants on the web. This course page will serve as the hub of that activity.
A note on printing from this page and from the web: if you are frustrated by slow printing from this page or from the web in general, you may speed up the process by setting your printer to print at draft quality and in black and white only. In many cases this can be done within the setup page that pops up when you go to "file" and "print." Or you may, on an IBM desktop, enter "My Computer" then "Control Panel" then "Printers" and change settings there.
ON THIS WEBPAGE:
Required physical and virtual texts and a word about their use