Course Description
In this course, we will explore narrative, feature, persuasive, and research writing. Participants will be encouraged to develop style, precision, and clarity in their writing. Emphasis will also be placed on editing skills, including a detailed review of mechanics. Discussions will include an exploration of orality, narrative, and varieties of literacy. The research project will contribute to an electronic publication devoted to the exploration of contemporary composition, rhetoric, and writing style. Since this is a seminar course, classroom participation is required.
Course Policies: All writing must be written specifically for this course. Assignments must be handed in on the dates specified unless you discuss the option of a revised date with the instructor at least three days before the assignment due date. Otherwise, the grade will be reduced by 5 % per day to a maximum of 7 days. All assignments must be the intellectual property of the person making the submission; any references, samples, borrowings, and citations must be fully and appropriately documented and conform to recent Canadian copyright legislation (Bill 32). However, fair use provisions will apply.
Recommended Texts
The Canadian Style: A Guide to Writing and Editing. (1997)
Richard Coe, Process, Form, and Substance: A Rhetoric for Advanced Writers. 2nd ed. (1990).
Robert Fulford, The Triumph of Narrative: Storytelling in the Age of Mass Culture. (1999).
Eric Havelock, The Muse Learns to Write. (1986)
Ajay Heble, Landing on the Wrong Note: Jazz, Dissonance and Critical Practice. (2000)
Walter Ong, Orality and Literacy. (1982)
Joseph Williams, Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace. 6th ed. (2000)
Grading Profile
| A = 90+ |
B = 75-80 |
C = 60-65 |
| A- = 85-90 |
B- = 70-75 |
C- = 55-60 |
| B+ = 80-85 |
C+ = 65-70 |
D = 50-55 |
Weekly Schedule
Sept. 6: Introduction to Advanced Composition. In-class writing.
Sept. 13: Storytelling in the Age of Mass Culture: Narrative, Orality, and Literacy. Online narrative begins.
Sept. 20: Rhetorical Strategies and Heuristics. Narrative workshop. Bring examples of your narrative to read in class.
Sept. 27: Feature Writing. Narrative due.
Oct. 4: Journalistic style: Bring an example.
Oct. 11: Images and Text. Review of Mechanics. Topics for research project.
Oct. 18: Feature due. Read examples in class. Proposal writing.
Oct. 25: The Spectrum of Persuasion: Promotion, Persuasion, Propaganda.
Nov. 1: Notes on Persuasive Writing. Read a draft.
Nov. 8: Persuasive Writing due. Read in class.
Nov. 15: Proposal for research project due. Researching topics in advanced composition.
Nov. 22: Electronic publication seminar.
Nov. 29: Research project due. Lab: Preparing an HTML file. Bring your file on a floppy disk.
Assignments
Narrative (Sept. 27) (15%)
In his book The Triumph of Narrative (1999), Robert Fulford argues that storytelling and narrative in its many versions provide coherence--as in glue--for a culture. Through narrative, we remember our histories, our beliefs and myths, our famous people. Narrative connects us with the past and allows us to speculate on the future. Maybe most importantly, narrative allows us to self-reflect in engaging ways.
The art of storytelling is an ancient one and it would be difficult to review all the ways humans have shaped stories for performance. Narratives, however, usually make use of strategies, rhetorics, and devices to shape the order of events and influence their reception by an audience. Narrative strategies can make a true story seem like a fiction, and a fiction difficult to distinguish from "reality."
For your narrative writing assignment, start with a story that is reputed to be true, or is true in your experience. Consider how you might retell this story to achieve a significant effect on your readers--that is, you want to make it engaging, entertaining, possibly even moving. Signal your audience that you have consciously shaped this narrative by incorporating some self-conscious narrative devices. These might include a shifting or unorthodox point-of-view, a reorganization of story elements, filmic techniques like flashback or rapid cutting between parallel story threads, the introduction of symbolic or fantastic elements--the list of strategies is long, but the history of storytelling suggests that it is far from endless.
Your narrative should retain the ring of truth even though it has been consciously shaped. Think of your audience as the members of the class and imagine that you will be reading your story aloud to them. Use whatever language and style you feel is appropriate for the mood and content of your story.
Try to keep your narrative somewhere between 1000 and 1500 words (250 words per page, double spaced.) Edit carefully. While your story may be based on events outside your personal experience, your telling of it must be original to you, and you must be able to claim copyright legitimately. Your grade will be based on the technical attributes of your writing (grammar, diction, editing, precision of meaning); the narrative devices you use and their appropriateness to the context; the overall quality and creativity of narrative.
Due: Friday, September 27 at 9:00 a.m.
Feature (Oct. 18) (20%)
For this assignment, we will explore the style and conventions of feature article writing. Imagine that you are a freelance journalist / writer who wants to submit an article to the national glossy magazine Pacific Rim. This magazine publishes articles on West Coast events, people, places, and issues to show the rest of Canada (and its local readers) how attractive and interesting it is to live on one of the islands off the coast of British Columbia. The magazine also tries to illustrate the area's alignment with the other cultures of the Pacific Rim, as opposed, for example, to harkening back to Europe (Wallpaper) or the United States (Harper's, The New Yorker).The editors of Pacific Rim pride themselves on the quality and style of the writing in their magazine, on the quality of the research that goes into the articles, and the general sense that the style of discourse is particularly "west coast" and attuned to a philosophy in which the local is seen as a relevant position from which to view the global.
The editors ask for articles with a maximun word count of 1500 words, and pay extra for the inclusion of original high-quality photos or illustrations. Research must be thorough and accurate, with documentation handled in the body of the writing. (We'll discuss how to do this in class.)
Due: October 18 at 9:00 a.m.
Persuasion (Nov. 8) (20%)
Write a +/-1500-word editorial in which you argue for a change to federal, provincial, or municipal law or policy which you believe is wrong-headed. Research your subject well, know the details and limitations of the law or policy, and be sure to balance any appeals to subjectivity with a firm grounding in the facts.
Due: November 8 at 9 a.m.
Research (Nov. 29) + Proposal (November 15) (20%)
Collectively, we are going to write an electronic textbook with the working title Advanced Composition for Canadian Writers. I'll contribute an afterword which reflects on the course material, and each of you will contribute a chapter, or article, on some aspect of composition of use to an undergraduate student who wants to learn how to write for contemporary audiences. While the articles should be scholarly and documented in MLA style, they should also endeavor to be engaging, genuinely informative, and persuasive. This is a tall order requiring your best writing efforts and sufficient time to plan, research, write, and polish. In effect, this assignment models the creation of a textbook. Your articles will be collected into an electronic publication on the internet, and published for the world to read. Please submit a proposal for your contribution by November 15.
Due: November 15th (proposal); November 29 (research) at 9:00 a.m.
In-class Writing, Reading and Participation (15%)
This is a workshop course, and you'll receive a grade at the end of the course for a variety of contributions to our collective learning: attendance, in-class writing, online narrative, reading excerpts from your work, offering comments and observations on the work of others, and providing materials of interest to the class.
(c) Marshall Soules 2002
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