English 8010: Theory and Practice of Composition
Strickland 124B
Professor: Dr. Jeff Rice
T/R: 11:00 AM -12:15 PM
Office: Conley House
Phone: 573-882-1798
Email: ricejr@missouri.edu
Website: http://english.missouri.edu/~ricejr
Course Blog: http://comp.missouri.edu/blogs/8010composition
Office Hours: By appointment

English 8010 prepares students in the theories and practices of writing instruction. In this course, we will examine some of the major theories produced by composition studies in order to develop our own methods for teaching writing. Our purpose will be to place these theories in conversation with one another so that we may:
1. Understand the different methods and ideas which circulate in composition studies.
2. Understand how conflicting theoretical positions can produce pedagogical practice.
3. Construct our own pedagogies for the classroom.
Our model will be inquiry, not expertise; invention, not instrumentality. In other words, we will use the course as means towards questioning as well as discovering theories which can inform our future teaching – whether in composition or in literature. The goal is not that you master any one position regarding writing instruction, but that you acquire a number of tools you can apply to any given assignment in your future as teachers. Thus, the “how-to” aspect of this course is not as much instrumental (steps to take) but theoretical (why take those steps/what does it mean to transfer ideas to practice).

As a teacher, any time you decide to assess students by their writing, you are teaching writing regardless of the content of the course. English Studies often uses writing as a primary means of assessment, yet the field often trivializes the theoretical issues at stake regarding the teaching of writing. Teaching writing does not mean simply asking students “to write.” We have to understand the complex issues involved when an individual attempts to demonstrate knowledge through writing. This course, therefore, is meant to assist both composition and literature graduate students become better teachers of writing in general so that they can become better teachers. BUT: The practice of pedagogy involves just that: practice. No one will become a master teacher overnight. The purpose of this course is to introduce you to basic tenets of writing pedagogy that you can use in your own courses here at Mizzou as well as later in your careers. To do that, we will actively engage with the activity of practice. By that, I mean that you will be asked to practice the pedagogies you read about, theorize about, and eventually settle on for yourselves. To do this, you must be invested in active engagement with readings and assignments. This class is not a seminar; however, its demands are as rigorous as a given seminar may be. I ask that you take our work seriously.

The tradition which accompanies a course like this involves students groaning “do I really have to take this course?” The answer is, yes you do. But with that in mind, you will do yourself and the course a great service by approaching all of our material and work not as obligations but as intellectual activity whose design is meant to make us better professionals. And with that point in mind, I remind you (as I will do all semester) of the meta-level issues at stake here: If you have a problem with teaching writing, if you have difficulty with taking a course about the teaching of writing, if you have a problem writing, if you bring these thoughts into your work here and elsewhere, do you see yourself acting differently than the undergraduates you will work with at Mizzou and elsewhere? If we are, indeed, the champions of critical thinking, then we first must think critically about our attitudes and work regarding teaching.

Readings
Each week hosts a number of readings. The readings are to inform our pedagogical practices. There is a mistaken assumption that teaching is a natural process; one just does it. To rephrase Roland Barthes’ work, such an idea is a mythology. It is in our advantage to recognize and familiarize ourselves with the rich theoretical literature regarding pedagogy, rhetoric, technology, and invention. Doing this reading, of course, is part of our own process of educating ourselves. It is the same process we ask of students we work with.

This course asks you to consider writing pedagogy not as a series of divorced moments within English, but rather the juxtaposition of some of English and composition studies’ major pedagogical movements. In other words, we won’t ask how writing pedagogy should be either cultural studies based or new media based, but rather how it is both. We won’t ask, “What do I do on Monday?” with the expectation that the course knows the answer. Instead will follow, borrow, and bend the ideas we encounter in order to answer that question for ourselves. For each question we have, we will turn to our readings for possible responses.

Digital Work
Regarding technology: our focus is not instrumental (how to use a piece of software), but rather pedagogical (how to teach within the general new media framework). You will therefore be introduced to questions of the overall teaching apparatus we work in as well as the logic of new media and not just in how to use the tools of new media.

Goals
The goals of this course are that you:
1. Begin or continue the process of pedagogical development
2. Design informed syllabi (for our course, one syllabus) and assignments at Mizzou
3. Begin the process of preparing a solid understanding of teaching so that you succeed in the job market (in addition to the research demands you face)
4. See teaching as a theoretical process and not as an obstruction to your research. Teaching and research are aligned

Texts and Resources
My del.icio.us folder for composition and teaching:
http://del.icio.us/drfabulous/composition

Listserv
Our listserv is: English8010-L@po.missouri.edu.  To send a message that everyone will see, address it to the list.

Texts:
All except one book and one web url will be online as pdfs

Texts to buy:
The Medium is the Massage - Marshall McLuhan

Assignments
1. Textbook Review (100 pts) You will write two reviews of two textbooks ordered and examined. Place your orders with the appropriate publisher by no later than the end of the first week of class. If you wait too long to order your copies, you will not receive them in time. Textbooks are given to instructors for free.
Orders are placed online with the publisher:
Ablongman.com, Bedfordstmartins.com, Prenhall.com, WWNorton.com.

You must chose two of the following textbooks to look at:
1. Internet Invention - Greg Ulmer (Longman)
2. Writing About Cool - Jeff Rice (Longman)
3. Literacy, Technology, and Society: Confronting the Issues - Gail Hawisher and Cynthia Selfe (Prentice)
4. City Life - Richard Marback and Patrick Bruch (Longman)
5. Picturing Texts - Cynthia Selfe, Lester Faigley, Diane George, and Anna Palchik (Norton)
6. Seeing & Writing 2 or 3 - Donald and Christine McQuade (Bedford)
7. Convergences - Robert Atwan (Bedford)
8. Writing in a Visual Age - Lee Odell and Susan Katz (Bedford)
9. The World is a Text: Writing, Reading and Thinking about Culture - Jonathan Silverman and Dean Rader (Prentice Hall)
10. Everything’s an Argument - Andrea Lunsford and John Ruszkiewicz (Bedford)
11. Textbook - Greg Ulmer, Robert Scholes, Nancy Comley (Bedford)
12. CyberReader - Victor Vitanza (Longman)
13. Good Reasons with Contemporary Arguments - Lester Faigley and Jack Selzer (Longman)
14. Ancient Rhetorics for Contemporary Students - Sharon Crowley and Debra Hawhee (Longman)
15. Envision: Persuasive Writing in a Visual World - Christine Alfano and Alyssa O’Brien (Longman)
16. Remix – Catherine Latrell (Bedford)
17. Beyond Words: Reading and Writing in a Visual Age - Ruszkiewicz | Anderson | Friend (Longman)
18. Compose, Design, Advocate – Dennis Lynch and Anne Wysocki (Longman)
19. Pop Perspectives: Readings to Critique Contemporary Culture - Laura Gray-Rosendale (McGraw-Hill)
20. Writing Conventions - Bruce Horner and Min Zhan-Lu (Pearson)

No duplications without permission from me. Send an email to the class listserv stating which you are reviewing. First claimed, first get.

A review is not “thumbs up” or “thumbs down.” I am not asking you to assess the value of the textbooks. Instead, I ask that you engage with the scholarly process of review, a basic component of which is
1. Putting texts into cultural, ideological, pedagogical, temporal, or some other kind of context.
2. Understanding the role the text plays in a given conversation or conversations currently taking place or that once took place.
By doing this, and by reading/hearing other reviews, you will hopefully be able to make an informed choice for your own course.

Your textbook reviews will be posted to our class blogs.

2. Syllabus (200 pts)
You will compose a syllabus to be used for your next teaching assignment. Its assignments and principles will be based on work done in this class.

3. Assignment/Performance (200 pts)
You will design and complete a major assignment for your course. The assignment must involve technology directly (using weblogs/websites) or indirectly (teaching technology oriented assignments even if they are on paper – mystory, temporal juxtaposition). You must give yourself time as well in order to properly complete your own assignment. Do not wait until the final week to do your own assignment. You are graded on the quality of the assignment designed as well as how well you do your own assignment.

4. Presentations (150 pts/ 50 pts each)
You will do three presentations accordingly:
Presentation on two different week’s reading
Presentation on syllabus and assignment you designed and completed

5. Technology (300 pts total: See breakdown below)
We live in a culture that depends on technology in a variety of ways for making meaning and for composing. However, the practices needed to use these technologies have mostly not been invented yet. Thus, it is important for you now to get hands on experience with these technologies, to work with them, and to map out how you might use them in a writing course. The following requirements are meant for you to become familiar with technology and writing, but also for you to think about how you might use these tools in your own courses. Our purpose is not busy work. I.e. use these tools to your advantage.

Blog: (100 pts) Everyone will keep a blog and use it to post semi-daily thoughts on pedagogy/reading. All blogs will be linked to one another on a blogroll (listed on the course site and on your own blog). The reason for keeping a blog: To write daily and think daily about pedagogy. You are asked to do at least two things in your blog space:
1. To merge note taking with thoughts. One can not write without taking notes. Notes are tools. You will no doubt ask students to take notes, so I ask you to do this work in order to get more familiar with it as a part of the invention process.
2. Create “talking points” for class – points, excerpts, ideas to be used in class when discussion takes place.
While blog posts the day of class are fine, do not try to fulfill the blog requirement by only posting the day of class.

A third point is worth adding. The blog is not a space to critique authors for some lack of insight you feel you’ve noticed, but to put readings into perspective with other experiences and ideas.

You will need to create a blog on the composition program’s blog system: http://comp.missouri.edu/blogs/

Rather than view the blog assignment (or any assignment) as busy work (it is not), consider how the blog foregrounds writing and invention – as well as the problem of “what to say” when one sits down to write. The blog also allows for a space to “respond.” All writing is based on responses and you might want to use your space for various types of responses. In addition, if you struggle to come up with what to say, what do you think less experienced writers (the students in your course) feel when they are asked to write? The blog, then, might also allow you to think about how to get students to write….

Flickr: (100 pts) Everyone will keep a free Flickr account, http://flickr.com. The reason is for you to consider the role visuality plays in composing. You will upload images of your choice and use the annotation feature to create a series of images annotated with text. The subject  of your short project will be your area of specialization (Creative Writing, American Literature, Rhetoric and Composition, etc.)

Wiki: (100 pts) You are responsible for contributing to a class resource on teaching in the wiki. Your project will consist of contributing 10 assignments (major, minor, or combination of)  for a writing course:
http://comp.missouri.edu/wiki
The purpose of this work is
a. To familiarize yourself with the wiki so that you can make an informed decision regarding whether or not to use it in your own class
b. To learn more about new media practices and how they alter the ways we write and teach writing.

Failure to complete one or any of these assignments in detail and with effort will result in a grade of failure for the course. Every assignment must be completed. If you only do technology assignments on the day of class, you will not get credit for this part of the course.

Grading Scale:
950-900 A
900 – 850 B
850-800 C
800-750 D
750- E

Schedule (PDF: online articles I will post for you)

Aug 26/28
Before first class, to read
Being a Teacher/Teaching Writing
From The Vocation of A Teacher – Wayne Booth (pdf)

Sept 2/4

Intro to Writing Theory
Lloyd Bitzer  “The Rhetorical Situation” (pdf)
Richard Vatz “The Myth of the Rhetorical Situation” (pdf)
Keith Gilyard “Literacy, Identity, Imagination, Flight” (pdf)
Richard Miller “The Arts of Complicity” (pdf)

Email listserv  your blog url

Sept 9/11

Personal Writing
Linda Brodkey “Writing on the Bias” (pdf)
Jim Corder “Studying Rhetoric and Teaching School” (pdf)
Greg Ulmer’s Mystory. “Derrida at Little Bighorn” (pdf)
Wendy Bishop “Suddenly Sexy: Creative Nonfiction Rear-ends Composition” (pdf)

Sept 16/18

Invention
Jeffrey Walker “What Difference a Definition Makes, or, William Dean Howells and the Sophist’s Shoes” (pdf)
Roland Barthes “The Eiffel Tower” (pdf)
Diane Davis “Finitude’s Clamor: Or, Notes toward a Communitarian Literacy” (pdf)
Robert Ray “Tracking” (pdf)

Sept 23/25
No Class
Sept 30/Oct 2

Revision/Grammar
Joseph Williams “Phenomenology of Error” (pdf)
Patrick Hartwell “Grammar, Grammars, and the Teaching of Grammar” (pdf)
Nancy Sommers “Responding to Student Writing” (pdf)
Ken Macrorie “Writing’s Dying” (pdf)
Lester Faigley – “Competing Theories of Process” (pdf)

Oct 7/9

Student Writing
T.R. Johnson “School Sucks” (pdf)
Robert Brooke “Underlife and Writing Instruction” (pdf)
Jim Corder “What I Learned at School” (pdf)
Dawn Skorczewski “’Everybody Has Their Own Ideas’: Responding to Cliché in Student Writing.” (pdf)
Joseph Harris “Revision as Critical Practice” (pdf)

Oct 14/16

First half of Wiki assignments is due.
Cultural Studies/Critical Theory
James Berlin “Rhetoric and Ideology in the Writing Class” (pdf)
Victor Vitanza “Sub/Versions” (pdf)
John Trimbur “Composition and the Circulation of Writing” (pdf)
Bruno Latour “Why Has Critique Run Out of Steam?” (pdf)

Oct 21/23
Textbook reviews due

New Media I
Medium is the Massage
Collin Brooke “Weblogs as Deictic Systems”

Oct 28/30

New media II
Gregory Ulmer “Kubla Honky Tonk” (pdf)
Geoffrey Sirc “Virtual Urbanism” (pdf)
Diane George “From Analysis to Design: Visual Communication in the Teaching of Writing” (pdf)
Kathleen Blake Yancey 4C address (pdf)

Nov 4/6

New Media III
Craig Dworkin “Mycopedagogy” (pdf)
Jeff Rice “The 1963 Hip Hop Machine: Hip Hop Pedagogy as Composition.” (pdf)
Cynthia Haynes “Writing Offshore: The Disappearing Coastline of Composition Theory” (pdf)

Flickr assignment is due

Nov 11/13
Second half of Wiki assignments is due
Discussions on work to date.

Nov 18/20

Presentations

Thanksgiving

Dec 2/4

Final Presentations

Dec 11

Last day of class