Description
Read and take notes on the Read First, Syllabus, Course Policies, and Student Responsibilities, Taking Notes for English, and Successful Discussions.
Take notes on The Rhetorical Situation, Rhetorical Appeals, and Genre in the Wild
PROFILE
The term “rhetorical situation” refers to the circumstances that bring texts into existence. The concept emphasizes that writing is a social activity, produced by people in particular situations for particular goals. It helps individuals understand that, because writing is highly situated and responds to specific human needs in a particular time and place, texts should be produced and interpreted with these needs and contexts in mind.As a writer, thinking carefully about the situations in which you find yourself writing can lead you to produce more meaningful texts that are appropriate for the situation and responsive to others’ needs, values, and expectations. This is true whether writing a workplace e-mail or completing a college writing assignment.As a reader, considering the rhetorical situation can help you develop a more detailed understanding of others and their texts.In short, the rhetorical situation can help writers and readers think through and determine why texts exist, what they aim to do, and how they do it in particular situations.
ELEMENTS OF THE RHETORICAL SITUATION
Writer
The writer is the individual, group, or organization who authors a text. Every writer brings a frame of reference to the rhetorical situation that affects how and what they say about a subject. Their frame of reference is influenced by their experiences, values, and needs: race and ethnicity, gender and education, geography and institutional affiliations to name a few.
Audience
The audience includes the individuals the writer engages with the text. Most often there is an intended, or target, audience for the text. Audiences encounter and in some way use the text based on their own experiences, values, and needs that may or may not align with the writer’s.
Purpose
The purpose is what the writer and the text aim to do. To think rhetorically about purpose is to think both about what motivated writers to write and what the goals of their texts are. These goals may originate from a personal place, but they are shared when writers engage audiences through writing.
Exigence
The exigence refers to the perceived need for the text, an urgent imperfection a writer identifies and then responds to through writing. To think rhetorically about exigence is to think about what writers and texts respond to through writing.
Subject
The subject refers to the issue at hand, the major topics the writer, text, and audience address.
Context
The context refers to other direct and indirect social, cultural, geographic, political, and institutional factors that likely influence the writer, text, and audience in a particular situation.
Genre
The genre refers to the type of text the writer produces. Some texts are more appropriate than others in a given situation, and a writer’s successful use of genre depends on how well they meet, and sometimes challenge, the genre conventions.
A VISUAL MODEL OF THE RHETORICAL SITUATION
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES ON THE RHETORICAL SITUATION
“The Rhetorical Situation: Writing Doesn’t Exist in a Vacuum”—video published by the Student Writing Center at the University of Maryland-Baltimore
“The Rhetorical Situation”—entry published on Wikipedia.com
Let’s begin by imagining the world—the worlds, rather—in which you write. Your workplace, for instance: you might take messages, or write e-mails, or update records, or input orders, or fill out a variety of forms.Or what about your educational world? You likely write in response to all kinds of assignments: lab reports, research papers, short summaries, observations, even, sometimes, short narratives. Sometimes you might write a short message in Canvas or via e-mail to your instructors. You may also have financial aid forms to fill out or application materials for programs or for transfer institutions to complete.What about your world outside of school or work? Do you, occasionally, write a Facebook post, or a tweet, or a Snapchat story? Do you repost other people’s articles and memes with your own comments? How about texts or e-mails to friends and acquaintances? You might also be a writer of what we sometimes label as creative texts—you might write songs or song lyrics, or poems, or stories.The names of the things you write—e-mails, messages, record or application forms, order forms, lab reports, field observations, applications, narratives, text messages, and so on—can be thought of as individual compositions, large or small, that happen incidentally in the course of other activity. But another way to think of these compositions is as predictable and recurring kinds of communication—in a word, genres.
WHAT IS A GENRE?
The term genre means “kind, sort, or style” and is often applied to kinds of art and media, for instance, sorts of novels, films, television shows, and so on. In writing studies, we find all sorts of written genres, not just ones that you might classify as artistic (or creative).Genre is a word we use when we want to classify things, to note the similarities and differences between kinds of writing. But we don’t identify genres solely by their formal markers. For instance, memoranda use a specific sort of header, and lab reports typically have commonly used section headings. But it’s not the header that makes a memorandum a genre (or subgenre); it’s not the section headings that make a lab report a genre (or subgenre). In other words, the formal features or markers don’t define the genre, although they are often helpful signals. Rather, it’s a situation in which the memorandum or the lab report typically recurs, and it’s also the fact that such situations seem to call repeatedly for a kind of writing that answers the needs of that situation. We begin to classify a kind of writing as a genre when it recurs frequently enough and seems to perform the same functions in recurring situations.Here’s a definition: “A genre is a typified utterance that appears in a recurrent situation. A genre evolves through human use and activity to be a durable and usable form for carrying out human communicative intentions in fairly stable ways.” This definition might feel a little knotty, so let’s break it down.
typified characteristic, typical
utterance any act of language — written or spoken
recurrent happens again and again
Comic: The Rhetorical Cat Does Genre
So a genre is an act of language—for our purposes here, mostly acts of writing, in particular—that behaves in typical or characteristic ways, which we can observe in repeated or persistent situations.For students, classrooms are recurrent situations, if you think about it—while the events that occur in a classroom on any given day might differ in their details from another day, in their overall configuration, the activities of a classroom are remarkably similar over time. We might expect, in a recurrent situation, to observe, then, recurring types of communication. A teacher writes on the board; students might take notes. A teacher hands out an assignment; students respond to the assignment. Genres take their shape in recurrent situations because the communications that occur in recurrent situations tend to be remarkably similar.Charles Bazerman, writing in Naming What We Know, says that we can see genre as
habitual responses to recurring socially bounded situations. Regularities of textual form [like the header on a memorandum or the section heads in a lab report] most lay people [i.e. not experts] experience … [are] the structural characteristics of genres [as they] emerge from … repeated instances of action and are reinforced by institutional power structures.
In other words, if you work in an office, you probably write memos, using whatever the prescribed form is in your workplace. You, as a writer in that situation, don’t precisely choose that genre, nor its formal characteristics—in a way, the situation chooses those for you, and all the people who are doing similar work to you use the same genre, in much the same way, and probably have been doing so for quite some time. This is part of what we mean when we say that genre lives in the recurrent situation—in offices, in labs, in all kinds of institutional settings. Bazerman highlights the institutional nature of genre when he says, “Genres are constructions of groups, over time, usually with the implicit or explicit sanction of organizational or institutional power.” Individual writers in institutional settings usually have somewhat limited choices when it comes to genre.Still, writers who are really at home in a particular writing setting use genres with a great deal of fluency. As we’ve said, the genre is built into the writing situation—when you’re at home in a writing situation, the genre is simply part of your accustomed toolset, and you know very well which tool to use. But all of us are writers in multiple settings, in some of which we may be very comfortable, and in others of which we may have to do a little more thinking and prospecting—looking about, sizing up what might be the best choices for the situation, including choices about genre. In these cases, simply knowing that there are genres—typical ways of using language that recur in the situation—can help a writer assess how to respond, and to figure out what genres are typically used in that situation.When a writer decides or intuits that a particular genre is called for by the situation, he or she takes up the genre and uses it to frame a written response to the situation. So, for instance, when a scientist has gathered enough experimental data, she will probably write some sort of report of the findings. When the Supreme Court has heard oral arguments on a particular case, eventually they will write a ruling, and often a dissent. The scientist doesn’t have to figure out whether she’ll write a report or if she’d rather write a song lyric. The Supreme Court justice writing for the majority knows that she will not write a haiku. In each instance, the situation calls for a particular genre. The writer in the situation knows this. So the writer takes up the genre and uses it to respond.Each time a writer takes up a genre, the writer reaffirms, in a way, the stable features of the genre. But the writer also—perhaps in minuscule ways—might adapt and reshape the genre, which potentially shifts the genre’s stability. For instance, the proposal genre typically requires you to define a problem, often in a fair amount of detail, as well as provide a very well-reasoned solution, with evidence that supports the solution’s feasibility and desirability. Without these moves, what you write simply won’t be a proposal. But as you consider how you might define the problem, it occurs to you that a brief story, followed by an analysis and some data, might illuminate the problem better than a presentation of dry statistical data alone. Not everyone who writes a proposal will choose to use narrative—the narrative strategy is a way that you might imagine your audience and that audience’s response, aiming for a livelier and more engaged response.To sum up: sometimes when you write, the genre is a choice that’s already made for you. But there are also times when you’ll have opportunities to decide upon the genres you’ll use to write in the world, and often this will be true in the writing classes you take. This requires some critical imagination and research on your part—imagining the writing situation, and the genres that might respond well in that situation. Thus, genres are both stable and to some degree fluid and evolving, just as human communication itself is both predictable and unpredictable.Knowing about genre can provide powerful insight into how writing works in the world. We know from a fair amount of empirical study that writers learn to use genres best within contexts where they use the genres regularly—the genres in use within a particular locale will become part of the toolset writers within those locales pick up to do their work there. But even in your writing courses, you should start to become more aware of the genres that are built into the settings in which you currently find yourself—school, work, public life—as well as genres that are at work in other settings you want to be a part of.
THE GENRE DOES NOT STAND ALONE: GENRE SETS AND SYSTEMS
Sometimes, despite what we’ve described above about the ways that genres are dependent upon contexts and situations for their meaning, it can seem as if a genre is a thing all on its own, especially when we’re learning about a particular genre. It can seem that what you’re supposed to learn is how to approximate the genre, and you hope that by observing and then imitating the genre features, you’ll produce writing that behaves like the genre. Often students cast about for a formula, thinking that a genre can be understood simply almost as a template. Let’s say you’re learning about the report genre. You learn that it typically has an informational purpose. You look at a few reports, and it seems like they often have headings and they often have graphs or charts. You forge ahead, trying in your draft to bring in as many of these kinds of features as you can. But do graphs and headings alone make a piece of writing a report?One thing an approach like this—looking at the genre as a formulaic, standalone artifact—does not show very well is how the genre actually functions in an environment. Charles Bazerman, a scholar and researcher in writing studies who has spent a good deal of his academic life looking into the ways that genres work, talks about something called “genre sets,” which are a “collection of types of texts someone in a particular role is likely to produce.” For instance, to use Bazerman’s example, “If you find out a civil engineer needs to write proposals, work orders, progress reports, quality test reports, safety evaluations, and a limited number of other similar documents, you have gone a long way toward identifying the work they do.” You might think about the kinds of texts you are called upon to produce in one of your typical writing settings—for instance, a classroom. You produce, for instance, notes on classroom presentations, drafts, feedback on other students’ work, responses to readings, records of your research, e-mails to classmates and instructors, and so on. The collection of texts you list would be the genre set for you as a student.Beyond the texts you produce, though, lies a network in which your texts are situated. So, for instance, students in a college class will produce notes, drafts, exams, assignments, e-mails to the instructor, and so on. The instructor has a different but intersecting set of texts: syllabi, assignments, e-mails to the class or responses to student e-mail queries, comments on drafts and final assignments, exam questions, and so on. Beyond the classroom, instructors also read and interpret policies, write assessment plans and reports, and so on. Each person acting within the system of college is part of a situated and intersecting set of texts, which Bazerman calls a genre system.Let’s imagine a little theoretical genre system—Social Media World:
Graphic: The Genre System in/of Social Media World
The genre system I’ve sketched out above depends on several intersecting elements: the things you write, the things you read, the things you circulate and the things your network circulates, and also on your comments and re-posts. The particular network doesn’t matter so much, although it will shape the specifics about what you write and how you respond. But in social media, your genre system is always partly what you do, and partly what other people who are in your network do. It’s even partly what people outside your direct sphere do—like the coders who design, and redesign, the social media platforms you use and participate in, and whose design decisions affect how you participate.Anis Bawarshi thinks of these situated and intersecting sets of genres as forming a rhetorical ecosystem. In “The Ecology of Genre,” Bawarshi uses the example of a patient medical history form, the form that people fill out when they go to a doctor’s office. You’ve probably filled one out yourself. Typically, this form asks for specific information about the patient, such as physical statistics, “prior and recurring physical conditions, past treatments, and, of course, a description of current physical symptoms.”Bawarshi notes that the medical history portion of the document is usually followed by insurance information, and a “consent-to-treat statement,” as well as a legal release. All of these parts of the form, put together, mean that the patient medical history form (or PMHF) genre “is at once a patient record and a legal document.” Bawarshi thinks that this genre is like a habitat—a place that sustains the creatures that live in it and really sets the living conditions for those creatures. The patient medical history form, like a habitat, shapes the way individuals “perceive and experience a particular environment”—i.e. the physician’s office. He also suggests that the PMHF, like any single genre, “does not function in an ecological vacuum”; rather, it is one of a number of genres that work together to create a whole “biosphere of discourse.”It’s perhaps helpful, as you learn about particular genres, to think about how the genre at hand might fit into larger genre sets and systems—or even ecologies, and how genres shape the ways we interact, live, and work with each other. As Bazerman notes, any system of genres is also a part of the system of activity happening in any writing situation. This means that understanding the genres operating in any setting will also help you to understand better what happens in that setting—how people work together, how they solve problems, how they communicate, certainly, but also how they get work done.
HOW DO PEOPLE LEARN ABOUT THE GENRES IN A PARTICULAR SETTING?
As we discussed above, when we learn about genres as a part of a writing curriculum, it can seem like we’re describing formulas for writing instead of the situations that shape and give rise to the genres. You, as a student writer, can feel a little bit like you’re just learning an advanced sort of conceptual formatting. When you use genres in their natural settings—when you’re using the genres that are a part of your workplace, or when you’re exchanging writing with people you know well, in ways you’re comfortable with—all that situation and situatedness blooms back to life, and your ability to write competently and fluently in the genres that are part of your writing environment will have greater consequence because you’ll be better at it. So it’s worth considering: how do you learn how to use the genres that function in your particular writing environment with greater competence and fluency?It’s like doing field work: you bring your wits and your gear and you figure it out by observing and jumping in. This is where a writing class can be very helpful, helping you to attune yourself to a writing situation, to cues that will guide you in assessing expectations, conventions, and possible responses. In other words, your writing course can teach you about genre, but even more, it can teach you how to be sensitive to genre, the sets, systems, and ecologies in operation in a new writing situation, and how to more capably participate in the work going on in that situation. Your writing class teaches you how to learn the genres in a new setting.
SO AM I JUST A ROBOT?
In The Terminator—the first (and arguably the best) one—there’s a great, brief scene in which the terminator-borg is holed up in his room. Someone knocks on the door. His borg-brain runs through possible responses—some are neutral, others reasonably polite, and others expletive-rude. He chooses the expletive, which for the moment is effective—the door knocker leaves.With all this genre knowledge you’re developing, are you just a little worried that you’re basically going to be a borg, scrolling through your limited options in a nano-second, the choices all but made for you?You might appreciate Charles Bazerman’s thoughts on this: “the view of genre that simply makes it a collection of features obscures how these features are flexible in any instance or even how the general understanding of the genre can change over time, as people orient to evolving patterns.” For instance, Bazerman goes on, “Students writing papers for courses have a wide variety of ways of fulfilling the assignment, and may even bend the assignment as long as they can get their professor … to go along with the change.” In other words, genres evolve and change over time, and each user taking up a genre takes it up just a little bit differently. Genres help writers get things done: they are durable text-types that people use repeatedly for similar communicative acts. Knowing about genres, being sensitive to the genres that are a part of a particular situation, and becoming a capable user of those genres makes you a more flexible and adaptable writer.
Works Cited
Anis Bawarshi, “The Ecology of Genre.” In Ecocomposition: Theoretical and Pedagogical Approaches. Ed. Christian R. Weisser and Sidney I. Dobrin. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 2001.Charles Bazerman, “Speech Acts, Genres, and Activity Systems: How Texts Organize Activity and People.” In What Writing Does and How It Does It: An Introduction to Analyzing Texts and Textual Practices. Ed. Charles Bazerman and Paul Prior. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004.Charles Bazerman, “Writing Speaks to Situations Through Recognizable Forms.” In Naming What We Know: Threshold Concepts of Writing Studies. Ed. Linda Adler-Kassner and Elizabeth Wardle. Boulder, Colorado: Utah State University Press, 2015.James Cameron, director. The Terminator. John Daly and Derek Gibson, producers. Orion Pictures, 1984.
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Midlands Technical College
ENG 102—English Composition II
English Department
Spring 2024
Catalog Course Description: This is a (college-transfer) course in which the following topics are
presented: development of writing skills through logical organization, effective style, literary analysis
and research. An introduction to literary genre is also included.
Prerequisite(s): ENG 101
Credit Hours: 3
D2L Brightspace Login Page: https://elearn.midlandstech.edu
Professor: Regina Presnell
Telephone: (803) 822-3498 | If I do not answer, please leave a message.
E-mail: [email protected]
Campus Mailbox: Airport Campus, Robinson 105
Departmental Assistant: Tracy Cooper [email protected], 803-738-7667
Department Chair: Dr. Mark Sutton, [email protected], 803-738-7854, Wade Martin 403
Class Schedule[s]:
ENG 102 A01 meets 9:35-11:00 in AC 216A on Mon. & Wed.
ENG 102 A03 meets 11:10-12:35 in AC 216A on Mon. & Wed.
ENG 102 A12 meets 9:35-11:00 in AC 216A on Tues. & Thurs.
Office Hours:
Mon. & Wed. 9:00-9:30 a.m. & 11:15-12:45
Tues. & Thurs. 9:00-11:00 a.m.
Textbook(s): Robinson, Michelle, Maria Jerskey, Toby Fulwiler, et. al. Writing Guide with Handbook.
OpenStax, 2021.
Additional Textbooks/Readings: Additional readings will be posted on the course page on D2L.
Equipment: A flash drive or other secure means to save and backup your work is required.
Course Objectives: Upon completion of this course the student will be able to:
1. Demonstrate understanding of rhetorical and literary elements and genre conventions that
shape print and digital communication, across text-based and visual components.
2. Use rhetorical awareness and understanding of genre to annotate and analyze readings, select
and evaluate sources, and construct their own effective texts.
3. Recursively engage in writing processes including invention, drafting, reviewing, revising,
editing, and proofreading to standards appropriate to rhetorical context and genre conventions.
4. Select, evaluate, integrate and document support from primary and secondary sources as
appropriate for rhetorical situation and genre.
5. Use feedback from professors and peers to revise, provide feedback to peers, and reflect upon
and assess their own processes and products.
6. Use technology to complete and enhance writing and research projects, with formatting
appropriate to rhetorical situation and genre.
General Education Core Competency Statement: This course addresses both the Communication
and Information Literacy components of MTC’s general education core.
Witten Communication Outcome: The Written Communication component of the general
education core states: “Graduates should be able to generate and comprehend written, oral,
and multi-media communication appropriate for a variety of audiences, purposes, and
subjects.”
Written Communication Competency: Students who use this course to satisfy the Written
Communication core competency should be able to:
1. Understand how to read a variety of genres analytically
2. Understand how purpose and audience determine their choices as a writer
3. Write an argument supporting their own ideas and an analysis of another writer’s text
4. Write an effective in-class essay
5. Edit their own writing effectively
Performance: Success on the Written Communication competency will be measured by the
student’s performance on the portfolio of essays (including an in-class essay) and reading
responses.
Information Literacy Outcome: The Information Literacy component of the general education
core states: “Graduates should be able to recognize a need for information, access the
information effectively and efficiently using various media, critically select and evaluate
information and incorporate it into their knowledge base, and present information in an
appropriate format for their audience and purpose.”
Information Literacy Competency: Students who use this course to satisfy the Information
Literacy core competency should be able to:
1. Conduct academic research
2. Use primary and secondary sources effectively and correctly
Performance: Success on the Information Literacy competency will be measured by the
student’s performance on the portfolio of essays (including an in-class essay) and reading
responses.
Course Attendance: Students are expected to attend classes and to complete academic-related
activities on a regular and punctual basis. Students are responsible for all material, assignments, exams,
and announcements, whether they are present or absent. Students are expected to turn in all
assignments by assigned deadlines, regardless of whether the student has been present and attending
classes. Failure to attend class is not an excuse for late work.
Students in academic courses must be present for at least 85 percent of their scheduled classes and
laboratory meetings. After exceeding the maximum number of absences for a term and failing to
complete academic-related activities, students may be withdrawn from the class by the instructor.
With the approval of the Dean, individual programs may set attendance requirements for their courses
that are more stringent than those stated above, including but not limited to penalties for missing
portions of class due to tardy arrival, excessive breaks, and leaving early.
The specific requirements of a course will be published in course syllabi. Provided the student is passing
the course, faculty of the college may grant exceptions to the class attendance policy on an individual
basis when students face extenuating circumstances. Students must meet all academic requirements to
receive a passing grade, regardless of any exceptions made to the attendance policy.
Course Attendance—School of English and Humanities
On-Campus or Virtual Classes: As noted above, students in academic courses must be present for
at least 85% of their scheduled classes and laboratory meetings. For a three credit-hour course, the
maximum number of absences equates to:
14-week session
4 absences
10-week session
3 absences
For sessions of other lengths, the instructor’s course
policies will state the allowed number of absences.
What constitutes “being absent” in Humanities and English Department on-campus and virtual
courses?
• Failure to be present (or logged-in for virtual classes) and failure to be actively engaged in
learning activities for a scheduled meeting of the class or studio.
• Repeatedly missing more than 15% of individual class meetings (whether by arriving late,
leaving for a period of time during class, or leaving early) without permission of the instructor.
If you have an unavoidable reason for being absent (or will need to arrive late or leave early) please
reach out to your instructor to see if the absence can be excused. Likewise, if you arrive after roll has
been taken, it is your responsibility to speak with the instructor after class to see if you can
be counted as present. Please contact your instructor if you have any questions about attendance in
your on-campus or virtual course.
Online/Asynchronous Classes: Attendance in online classes is typically taken twice a week and
students must meet the same 85% threshold noted above. Attendance will be determined by
submission of specific assignments, clearly identified to students in the syllabus or course schedule.
Please contact your instructor if you have any questions about attendance in your online course.
No Shows: If a student registers for a course and decides not to attend for any reason, the student must
drop the course by the deadline via Self Service in MyMTC or by using a drop/add/withdrawal form from
the Records Office. For questions about the drop process, please contact
[email protected].
If a student does not officially drop the course, the student will be responsible for course tuition and
fees, which must be addressed through the College’s Finance Office. The college’s refund policy and
dates are posted each semester on the college’s Tuition and Fees website.
Student Withdrawal: Sometimes students may have life events or other situations that prohibit them
from completing coursework or attending class. In events such as these, students should consider
withdrawing themselves with a grade of “W” to avoid a grade of F. Withdrawals do not impact a
student’s Grade Point Average (GPA), but may impact a student’s Financial Aid and/or Veteran
Education Benefits. Students are expected to monitor their class performance and grades to determine
if a withdrawal is appropriate for their unique situation. Students are responsible for withdrawing
themselves on or before the published last date of class for the term (prior to exams). Refer to the
college calendar for official term dates.
In order to withdraw from a course, students should submit the Withdrawal Request Form found on the
MyMTC Student Homepage no later than the last day of classes for the term. In accordance with the
MTC Student Handbook, students should discuss any extenuating situations with their professor to
determine if any alternate arrangements can be made.
Faculty Withdrawal: Instructors reserve the right to assign a Withdrawal (W) at any point in the
semester after the drop/add period if the student exceeds the allowable number of absences and fails
to complete academic-related activities for the course. Withdrawals do not impact a student’s Grade
Point Average (GPA), but may impact a student’s Financial Aid and/or Veteran Education Benefits.
Military Withdrawal: According to College Procedure 3.10.1, students having to withdraw from
college because of Military Deployment (Military Reservists, National Guard, and active military
personnel) while enrolled must complete a Withdrawal Request Form found on the MyMTC Student
Homepage and submit to the Records Office along with a copy of military orders.
Disabilities Statement: At MTC, the Disability Services office operates within Counseling and Career
Services. It is the student’s responsibility to self-disclose as a student with a disability and to request
accommodations through Disability Services. If a student requests accommodations for a disability
through a faculty or staff member, they will be referred to Disability Services to complete the request.
To request accommodations, please contact Disability Services in Counseling and Career Services on
Airport Campus (ASC 237, 822-3505) or Beltline Campus (BSC 239, 738-7636) or via email at
[email protected].
A student can also visit our website at http://www.midlandstech.edu/student-resources/disabilityservices for more information. If a student has a concern regarding the accessibility of education or
information technologies, please contact Chief Compliance Officer, Debbie M. Walker, at P.O. Box 2408,
Columbia, SC 29202, by phone at (803) 822-3261, or by email at [email protected].
Title IX Pregnancy and Lactation: Students seeking accommodations for pregnancy and/or parenting are
encouraged to contact the college’s Title IX Coordinator, Debbie M. Walker, at Midlands Technical
College, Suite 165, Saluda Hall, Airport Campus, 1260 Lexington Drive, West Columbia SC 29170, by
telephone at 803.822.3261, or email at [email protected].
Technical Support
• D2L Brightspace
o Email: [email protected]
o Phone: (803) 822-3561
• MyMTC, Zoom, or any other technical issues
o Email: [email protected]
o Phone: (803) 738-7888
A response will be provided within one business day.
Student Honor Code
Midlands Technical College is committed to developing lifelong learners by creating an educational
community that prepares students for the work environment, further education, and responsible
citizenship. As a student, I will uphold the following:
1. Academic Responsibilities
• I will act honorably, responsibly, and with academic integrity and honesty.
• I will not commit acts of academic misconduct.
• I will be responsible for my own academic work and will neither give nor receive
unauthorized or unacknowledged aid.
2. Personal Responsibilities
• I agree to support the mission and values of the college.
• I commit to being actively engaged in the educational process at MTC.
3. Community Responsibilities
• I will be empathetic in conversations with peers, professors, and staff understanding that
mutual respect is a right, not a privilege.
• I understand that our differences as members of the MTC community make us unique and I
will engage in experiences that cultivate learning and the exchange of ideas.
• I will uphold a safe and inviting environment for the college community by respecting college
property and the property of others.
• I will be considerate to all members and guests of the MTC community.
Academic Dishonesty: If a student is suspected of acts of academic misconduct, the professor will
inform the student of these allegations. The student will be provided the opportunity to explain or
refute the allegation. If the faculty feels the charges are founded, the faculty member will refer the
incident to the Director of Academic Integrity and Student Conduct. After the meeting, if the student is
found to have engaged in academic misconduct, a letter will be sent to the student with any issued
sanctions and options to appeal. More detailed information about Student Conduct, including Academic
Misconduct, can be found in Appendix I in the MTC Student Handbook.
Academic Integrity and Advanced or Generative AI: Using advanced or generative AI tools for a course
assignment, quiz, test, etc. without the authorization of your instructor constitutes plagiarism,
falsification, or cheating. Not properly acknowledging the use of AI tools also constitutes plagiarism. If
you are unsure or have questions about what is or is not permitted, contact your instructor before
using AI tools for any assignment.
Student Handbook: Additional student guidelines, expectations, and a wealth of other information can
be found in the MTC Student Handbook. These topics include policies about children on campus, cell
phones in the classroom, what to do in the case of inclement weather, and much more. Students are
responsible for reading, reviewing, and understanding all topics covered in the Student Handbook.
Campus Emergency Protocol: To report non-emergency safety concerns or suspicious activities, call
Campus Security at 7850 (on campus) or (803) 738-7850 (cell phone or off campus). To report an
emergency, call Campus Security at (803) 738-7199 or dial local 911 immediately. It is recommended to
add these numbers to your cell phone in case of an emergency. The college also provides emergency call
boxes; look for these red call boxes with blue lights in or near parking lots on all campuses. If a collegewide emergency occurs, the college will communicate additional information and instructions in a
number of ways, including the MTC Information Centers, campus loudspeakers, MyMTC Email, the MTC
website, and MTC Alerts. To sign up for MTC Alerts! and receive emergency notifications on your cell
phone, go to MyMTC.
Course Requirements:
Students should expect to complete four types of work:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Major Assignments (MAs) – 4-6 page academic essays or projects, some requiring research. These are
formal assignments that should be the product of multiple drafts. They will form the bulk of your
course grade. Specifically, these will include a narrative, an annotated bibliography, a literary analysis
essay, and a genre analysis presentation.
Groundwork Assignments (GAs) – usually 1-2 page assignments that can be drafts, outlines, short
responses or analyses. GAs are considered informal assignments that allow students to practice
valuable skills, explore ideas, or draft for the MAs. GAs comprise a smaller portion of the final grade
and often do not require in-depth instructor feedback or revision from students.
Classwork or online work – During class meetings (whether online or on ground) students will
participate in various group or individual activities. For online classes, participation in some of these
activities will count as your attendance in the course. These may also include weekly reading quizzes.
Exams, reflection, or revision assignments – students are asked to reflect upon their work as they
progress through the course. These reflections may take the form of self-evaluation essays or
assignments that revise previous work.
Course Grading:
4 MAs
10 GAs
Daily Work
Final Reflective Essay
70%
15%
10%
5%
Grading Scale:
90-100
80-89
70-79
60-69
0
A
B
C
D
F
W
Superior Work
Good Work
Average Work
Below Average Work
Unsatisfactory Work
Withdrawal
Submitting Assignments:
All GAs and MAs, unless written during class time, should be typed using a word processing program. All GAs and
MAs must also be submitted to the appropriate D2L dropbox as electronic copies.
DO NOT email your work to me.
Late Work:
•
If an assignment is not received by the due date/time, it will be penalized. Penalties take effect
beginning ONE minute after the due time, and the D2L timestamp will be used to determine the
time/date of submission.
o MAs are penalized 10 points per day late. Assignments submitted even one minute after
the due time are subject to the penalty.
o The Midterm and Final Exam are penalized 20 points per day late.
o GAs are penalized 10 points per day late.
•
•
All other work, including discussions, must be completed by the assigned time/date and cannot
be submitted late. A zero will be assigned for these assignments. At the end of the term, a single
credit recovery opportunity for a daily grade is usually offered. Having good participation
throughout the term also tends to offset one or two zeros for daily grades.
In a single case of extenuating circumstances, the instructor may choose to waive the late
penalties incurred on an assignment. However, it is the student’s responsibility to contact the
instructor to discuss these circumstances.
Rough Draft Requirement:
•
•
Rough drafts are required for Major Assignments.
If a final draft of a major assignment is submitted, but a rough draft was not submitted by the
deadline, the final draft will be subject to a deduction of up to 20 points.
Revisions:
At the end of the term, you may revise MAs 1-3 (MA 4 is not eligible for revision) to improve the grade.
In order to submit a revision, a student must do ALL of the following.
• Read the Revision Requirements, which will be posted in D2L during the last two weeks of class.
• Clearly indicate the changes made to the document. Use the red, purple, or green text to
indicate added text; use strikethrough to strike deleted text.
• Make substantial changes to the style, structure, organization, research, or purpose of the
original MA, based upon the comments you received on the initial draft.
• Write a Revision Reflection (requirements below) and submit both the reflection and the revised
draft to the dropbox of the original MA.
• The Revision Reflection should…
o Summarize my feedback on the original MA
o Explain the changes that have been made
o Make an argument that the MA is better now
• Revision submissions that only make minor changes WILL NOT be considered for additional
credit.
• MAs that have received a score of 90 or above are not eligible for revision.
• Email your instruction to let me know that you submitted a revision. (Do NOT attach a copy of
your revised work or the reflection.)
Revision Policies:
•
•
•
•
•
•
REVISIONS WILL NOT BE GRADED WITHOUT THE REVISION REFLECTION.
Revisions that do not use Track Changes will not be accepted.
Revisions will earn a new grade that will replace the original grade
Revisions with the exact same errors as the original could possibly score a lower grade than the
first copy, but this is unlikely
Revisions will be due at the end of the semester (see schedule).
Late assignments ARE eligible for revision. If significant revisions have been made, the instructor
may choose to reduce the original late penalty.
Feedback on Assignments:
•
When to expect feedback: My goal is to have all assignments returned within two weeks.
Sometimes I fall behind and sometimes I prioritize assignments out of order; however, I can
usually meet this goal.
•
•
•
Where to find feedback: If you submit only an electronic copy of the essay, I will use the
feedback tools in the dropbox to communicate with you about my assessment. You must return
to the dropbox to see why your essay received its score. In some cases, I may use the Inline
Comments feature to annotate certain assignments, so it is important to check that.
Feedback vs Grades: While grades merely assess the general quality of assignments, the
comments you receive on assignments provide valuable insights about improving your next
assignment or deciding to revise. In my feedback, I try to emphasize a few large concerns and
one or two small concerns that can be improved upon for the next unit or assignment.
Other Feedback: Feedback doesn’t just come from me when you submit an assignment. We will
also use peer review (students evaluate each other’s work), conferences outside of class
(students may choose to initiate by requesting via email), general discussions of overall work in
class, and of course, tutoring. Tutoring is NOT just for students who “need help.” The majority of
A and B students attend at least one tutoring session to improve their work. More info on how
to get tutoring is in D2L.
Classroom Rules/Other:
See the English Department Student Responsibilities (on-campus, online, or hybrid as appropriate).
See the Classroom Policies document in D2L.
PLEASE NOTE: The professor reserves the right to adjust the requirements, assignments, pace, or scheduling of
this course based on his/her professional assessment of the needs of the class and/or to accommodate any
unforeseen circumstances or opportunities. Any change will be announced in class before it becomes effective.
Course Calendar:
Unit 1 Calendar
Week 1: Jan. 8-14
Discussion Posts and Notes are always due on Thursdays. Discussion replies and other assignments are
due on Sundays unless otherwise posted.
1. Read and take notes on the Read First, Syllabus, Course Policies, Student Responsibilities, Taking
Notes for English, and Successful Discussions. (Find these docs in the Week 1 Content in D2L by
selecting Content. Select Learning Content, and then select Week 1).
2. Take Notes on The Rhetorical Situation, Rhetorical Appeals, and Genre in the Wild…
3. Introduce yourself to the class with the Introduction Discussion (counts as Day 1 attendance)
and reply to your classmates as directed. (Post are due Thurs.)
4. Complete the Feedback Discussion 1 (counts as Day 2 attendance) and reply to classmates in the
feedback discussion as directed. (Posts are due Thurs.)
5. Ensure you have completed at least TWO replies for EACH of this week’s discussions by Sun.Take
the Course Quiz by Sun.
Week 2: Jan. 16-21
1. Attend class!
2. Read and take notes on the Unit 1 Assignments sheet in D2L, Writing Guide 3.1-3.5, Anne
Lamott’s “Shitty First Drafts” and How to Write a Narrative Esssay Video on YouTube
3. Submit notes to the Week 2 Notes to the dropbox by Thurs.
4. Complete the Week 2 Class Discussion (post due Thurs.) and reply as directed.
5. Complete the Week 2 Feedback Discussion (post due Thurs.) and reply as directed.
6. Ensure you have completed at least TWO replies for EACH of this week’s discussions.
7. Submit GA 1 to the GA 1 dropbox by Sun. (Out of ALL of this week’s assignments, this one is the
most heavily weighted, which means it’s very important to submit).
Week 3: Jan. 22-28
1. Attend class!
2. Read and take notes on How to Write Descriptive Sentences, Dialogue Examples (with Writing
and Formatting Tips), “English 102 Narrative Project” by Elizabeth Parks
1. Submit notes to the Week 3 Notes to the dropbox by Thurs.
2. Complete the Week 3 Class Discussion (post by Thurs.) and reply as directed.
3. Complete the Week 3 Feedback Discussion (post by Thurs.) and reply as directed.
4. Submit GA 2 to the dropbox by Sun.
Week 4: Jan. 29-Feb. 4
1. Read and take notes on Peer Review: Commenting Strategies from YouTube, and Overall
Revision Strategies from Walden University
2. Submit notes to the Week 4 Notes to the dropbox by Thurs.
3. Complete the Week 4 Class Discussion (post by Thurs.) and reply as directed.
4. Complete the Week 4 Feedback Discussion (post by Thurs.) and reply as directed.
5. Review GA 2 feedback (available in D2L by Friday night for those who submitted on time) and
revise GA 2 into MA 1.
6. Ensure you have completed at least TWO replies for EACH of this week’s discussions.
7. Submit MA 1 by Sunday. (Note: This is your first Major Assignment, so you want to do your best
and submit on time.)
Unit 1
Objective: In this unit, we will review rhetoric and the writing process and explore storytelling. The
genres explored in this unit include evidence of the writing process (i.e. prewriting, planning, drafting,
etc.) informal essays, reflective writing, and narratives. The unit will culminate in a narrative essay in
which students recall a story of their choice, demonstrating their awareness of rhetoric as well as the
genre conventions of the narrative.
Unit 1 Assignments
Groundwork Assignment 1
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
In order to prepare to complete MA 1, read the following example of a narrative essay.
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/englishcomp1v2xmaster/chapter/student-essay-narrative/
Paragraph 1: What parts of this personal story were interesting, and which parts could you connect with?
Paragraph 2: Reread the prompt for MA 1. What person, community, or place do you think you will focus
on for your own narrative essay?
Paragraph 3: Briefly summarize the events of the story you are thinking about telling for MA 1.
Be sure that your work follows the MLA format (12-point font, 1-inch margins, indent paragraphs,
heading, header, title, double-spacing). Save your work as a Word document (.doc or .docx) or .pdf . I
cannot open Mac files, so if you are working from a Mac, be sure to save in one of the correct formats. (I
CANNOT open a .pages document and cannot assess shared documents. You must upload the specific file
in the correct format for me to assess your work. Work submitted in the incorrect format will receive a
zero and 24 hours to correct the issue and resubmit.) Do not send a Google Doc link. Download a copy of
the document to your computer, and upload it to the dropbox. ALL documents submitted for the course
should follow the rules listed here in #5.
Groundwork Assignment 2
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Write the narrative essay that will tell the story of how the place, community, and/or person you chose to
explore shaped the person you have become today. Most well-developed rough drafts will be about three
pages in length. Keep in mind that this is part of the drafting step, so it doesn’t have to be technically
perfect. Review the narratives discussed in class, your textbook, and posted on D2L.
Be sure your narrative has elements of plot and story. (There should be a beginning, middle, and end as
well as description of people, setting, conflict, climax, and resolution.)
Some area of your narrative should include dialog (a conversation in quotation marks between two or
more people). Since this is a personal story, there’s a chance you may have forgotten the exact wording
that people used in these conversations. Do your best to recall these words.
There is no specific number of paragraphs needed. Indent as appropriate when you move to a new idea or
topic.
Be sure that your work follows the MLA format (12-point font, 1-inch margins, indent paragraphs,
heading, header, title, double-spacing). Save your work as a Word document (.doc or .docx) or .pdf . I
cannot open Mac files, so if you are working from a Mac, be sure to save in one of the correct formats. (I
CANNOT open a .pages document and cannot assess shared documents. You must upload the specific file
in the correct format for me to assess your work. Work submitted in the incorrect format will receive a
zero and 24 hours to correct the issue and resubmit.) Do not send a Google Doc link. Download a copy of
the document to your computer, and upload it to the dropbox. ALL documents submitted for the course
should follow the rules listed here in #5.
Major Assignment 1 (16.5% of Final Grade and Required for Course Completion)
For this first assignment, you will create a three and a half to four-page narrative essay that explores the places,
communities, or people who have shaped or changed you in some way. This narrative should include your personal
experience wherein you tell one story of how a place, community, or person has shaped you into the person you
are today. (For example, some students explore how a grandparent shaped them for better or worse, while others
might examine how a community such as a sports team impacted their life.) Be sure to focus on an actual story
with a beginning, middle, and end. The best essays tend to focus on a single person, community, or place. Do not
focus on an object. Your focus for this prompt could be a neighborhood, a friend’s house, a football team, a
mentor, etc. Keep in mind that you want to focus on a story and how that place, community, or person shaped you
in some way. It is very important to stick to this assigned prompt, so if you have questions, please reach out to me.
After identifying the story you want to share, consider the elements of plot you will include. Effective essays will
describe setting, people, background information, and include the key plot components of conflict, climax, and
resolution. Your essay can also include traditional components of creative writing and should, in fact, include at
least one exchange of significant dialog. More detailed instructions are included on the Unit 1 Assignments Sheet.
Unit 2 Calendar
Week 5: Feb. 5-11
1. Read and take notes on the Unit 2 Assignments sheet, Writing Guide: Navigating Rhetoric in
Real Life
2. Submit notes to the Week 5 Notes to the dropbox by Thurs.
3. Complete the Week 5 Class Discussion (post by Thurs.) and reply as directed.
4. Complete the Week 5 Feedback Discussion (post by Thurs.) and reply as directed.
5. Ensure you have completed at least TWO replies for EACH of this week’s discussions.
6. Submit GA 3 by Sun.
Week 6: Feb. 12-18
Week 6 Assignments
1. Attend class!
2. Read and take notes on Drama Genre Materials TBA
3. Submit notes to the Week 6 Notes to the dropbox by Thurs.
4. Complete the Week 6 Class Discussion (post by Thurs.) and reply as directed.
5. Complete the Week 6 Feedback Discussion (post by Thurs.) and reply as directed.
6. Ensure you have completed at least TWO replies for EACH of this week’s discussions.
7. Submit GA 4 by Sun.
Week 7: Feb. 19-25
1. Attend class!
2. Readings TBD
3. Submit notes to the Week 7 Notes to the dropbox by Thurs.
4. Complete the Week 7 Class Discussion (post by Thurs.) and reply as directed.
5. Complete the Week 7 Feedback Discussion (post by Thurs.) and reply as directed.
6. Ensure you have completed at least TWO replies for EACH of this week’s discussions.
7. Submit MA 2 Final Draft by Sun.
Unit 2
Objective: In this unit, students will develop their emerging understanding of genre awareness and
literary types. Students will demonstrate rhetorical awareness by developing a short remix or original
creative work. Students will also use sources and their own experiences to provide ethos and help
appeal to their audience.
Unit 2 Assignments
Groundwork Assignment 3:
After exploring the creative genres with your group (an in-class or discussion activity), select a theme,
and each group member should write two poems that portray this theme in some way. As a group,
select and revise one poem from each member, and develop a short collection of your work. Each
revised poem should be accompanied by an artist’s statement, and the collection as a whole should
have a title and a short introduction. EACH student must submit both of their own poems as well a copy
of the group poem collection.
Groundwork Assignment 4:
Develop a script and/or storyboard for the play or short film that your group is preparing for MA 2. This
play must contain some sort of plot and should be related to the theme used in GA 3.
Major Assignment 2:
Major Assignment 2 will culminate in a short play or film that will be presented to the class. This
play/film should be 5-7 min. in length and should showcase your understanding of the play genre as well
as creative rhetorical choices. Use our readings as well as GA 3 and 4 to help develop your work. See the
Unit 2 Assignments sheet for more info such as length requirements, etc.
Unit 3 & 4 Calendars TBA
Completion Reminder:
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•
All assignments, includ
