Course Information

Learning Outcomes:UW20 courses make use of a wide variety of topics, approaches, and assignment designs to meet a common set of goals. To prepare students for rigorous academic writing across the range of disciplines offered at GW, the course strives to develop or extend several key critical and editorial skills.  By the end of this course, each student is expected to be able to:

•       Apply sophisticated critical, analytic, and evaluative thinking in both their reading and writing
•       Locate, identify, analyze, synthesize, evaluate, and employ information resources appropriate for and relevant to whatever writerly task they have at-hand
•       Recognize and differentiate various genres of writing and types of audience that are common in the academic and professional worlds
•       Recognize and apply rhetorical principles and stylistic conventions that prevail in whatever genre they are asked to write
•       Formulate and implement an intellectually defensible agenda appropriate to a specific writing task
•       Proofread and edit carefully and effectively, through a deliberate process of drafting and revision

For a full view of the template that all UW20 sections share, please visit this link on the University Writing Program website.

  • Assignments:

  • Blog/Research Log (15%)
  • Literature Review (15%)
  • Written Research Paper Proposal(15%)
  • Annotated Bibliography (15%)
  • Research Paper (25%)
  • Wiki (15%)

    Attendance Policy

  • UWP Attendance Policy:As set forth in the UW template "class attendance is required, with limited excused absences; class participation is essential to performance and affects the final grade."
  • My Attendance Policy: Since this class will be run as a a seminar, your presence and participation are crucial. Therefore, more than three absences *will* adversely affect your grade. More than six absences constitues failure. Please take this seriously. If you think you will not be attending on a regular basis drop the class now rather than having to either withdraw or fail later. If a situation develops that keeps you from attending classes regularly (severe illness or family emergency) you must contact the dean of your school so that s/he can notify all of your professors of the situation.
  • If a family or personal emergency arises during the semester that requires you to miss several class days, or perhaps leaves you considering withdrawal from one or more courses, contact an advisor in your dean’s office for help. Below is the contact information for the directors of advising in each of the schools:
  • CCAS: Landon Wade, lwade@gwu.edu
  • ESIA: Tammy Wiles, twiles@gwu.edu
  • SPHHS: Mallory Boyd, Mallory@gwu.edu
  • SEAS: Howard Davis, hdavis@gwu.edu
  • GWSB: Larry Fillian, Jr., lfillian@gwu.edu

    Laptop Policy “Laptop computers and wireless internet access shall be used in class only for purposes that are educationally relevant to that class and only in a manner that is not unreasonably distracting to fellow students” (quoted from the Standford University School of Law Policy).

    This of course begs the question of what is "educationally relevant" - especially in a course that focuses so much of its attention on the media and requires that you pay attention to, think about, and ultimately write about, things that in other environments may very well be considered both culturally and educationally irrelevant. I would argue that this is where we might begin our own discusssons of relevance, cultural, social, and educational. To get us started, please read this essay, written by a professor at the University of Virginia.

    Grading Policies

  • UWP Policies: A grade of C- or above in UW20 indicates that the student is prepared to write solid academic essays in later upper-division, writing-intensive courses. Students must pass UW20 with a grade of C- or above in order to receive credit for the course. If a UW20 student is not prepared for the next level of university writing, the instructor will assign the student a grade of R (for Repeat). The R grade is reserved for students who work hard in the course and complete the main course assignments, but who will still benefit from additional UW20 writing instruction. A student receiving an R will not receive credit for the course; however, the R will not factor into the student's GPA. Students who do not complete the course materials, who are consistently absent from class, or who violate other expectations of academic behavior, will be receive an F.
  • My Policies: As noted above, grammatically and mechanically correct papers are the baseline assumption. My criteria for grading is as follows:
  • A: An ambitious and perceptive essay that engages complex ideas, is aware of counter-arguments, and brings well chosen evidence to bear in revealing ways. The analysis contained in such an essay should not merely restate or underscore previous knowledge. Rather is should push the reader to understand the topic in new ways. In other words, it gives the reader something to think about. Likewise, the conclusion is fresh, original and provocative. The language is precise, to the point and unencumbered with excess verbiage.
  • B: An essay that aims high. While it may not achieve all of its goals, it should nevertheless contain solid ideas backed by relevant research and be executed for the most part in clear concise prose. The conclusion goes beyond mere restatement to offer the reader a new perspective on the topic.
  • C: A piece of writing that has serious problems in one or more of these areas - conception, structure, use of evidence and language. This is a piece of writing that does not advance the reader's knowledge or viewpoint and indeed may confuse. The conclusion, if one exists, is unoriginal, merely restating the points made in the essay. Please note - a student MUST receive at least a C- on the final research paper in order to pass the course.
  • D: An essay that is wildly short of expectations, that does not address the assignment, or that fails to grapple seriously with any ideas *or* that fails to meet basic expectations for grammar, mechanics, or clear use of language.

    Academic Integrity Policies

  • General Policy for UWP: Academic writing builds on the work of others who have written and created before us. Academic writers use and cite the ideas, words, and images of others in order to document grounds for knowledge, illuminate contexts of argument, acknowledge intellectual influences, distinguish our own analytical voices, and encourage further investigation and inquiry. If, on the other hand, we take others' work as our own--using their phrases, images, concepts, or arguments without acknowledgement--we not only hamper these goals but also cross the line into academic dishonesty. The University defines academic dishonesty as "cheating of any kind, including misrepresenting one's own work, taking credit for the work of others without crediting them and without appropriate authorization, and the fabrication of information." Please take the time to review the Code of Academic Integrity.Recommended penalties for plagiarism and other violations range from failing the assignment to expulsion from the University.
  • My Policy: Knowingly claiming the work of another as your is a flaming insult to anyone who makes his or her living by writing. Please do not do it. If caught, you *will* fail the class at a minimum and be referred for possible disiplinary action.

    Formatting This is noramally where I would tell you that, whether we like it or not, appearances count and that therefore I require the following certain minimum standards from the papers you submit. These center around presentation, ease of readability, physically speaking, and the key fact that I never accept electronic submissions.

    This is therefore an object lesson in resisting the urge to say "never". This semester we will be using My Comp Lab, an online space to manage writing assibnments. Therefore your assignments will be, contrary to my own dictum, submitted electronically. I am doing this for two reasons:

  • Guilt: I feel bad about all the trees I personally require to be cut down each semester and therefore I am trying to have a gentler impact on the environment.
  • Pedagogy: Research, as well as my own empirical experience, indicates that traditional written comments on papers are not as useful as other forms of feeback. Keeping this in mind, I have found that My Comp Lab is a useful tool, coupled with individual and small group editing meetings throughout the semester, for giving multiple forms of feedback.

    Even though we are using this virtual space, most of the same formatting rules still apply:

    UW20 News & Notes

  • 12 point font (font choice is up to you as long as it is readable)
  • black ink
  • one-sided printouts
  • double-spaced
  • properly headed (name and date) and paginated (last name and page number in upper right hand corner of every page except the first).*
  • Approprite documentation as necessary.

    UW20 News & Notes is the online interactive home for current and useful information about UW20: courses, events, tips, speaking-editing-and-publishing opportunities, faculty interests and more. Current and former UW20 students are welcome to provide stories and information for the blog. Send material (including description, links, photos) to uw20blog@gmail.com. Subscribe to the blog to find writing advice from the faculty and share tips of your own, to learn more about the rationales behind UW20 policies, to tell us about your writing experiences in class and beyond, ask questions of the University Writing Program faculty, and to comment on all things UW20.

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