Course Syllabus

Understanding Academic Writing Style

Academic writing is writing which communicates ideas, information and research to the wider academic community. It can be divided into two types: student academic writing, which is used as a form of assessment at university, as well as at schools as preparation for university study; and expert academic writing, which is writing that is intended for publication in an academic journal or book. Both types of academic writing (student and expert) are expected to adhere to the same standards, which can be difficult for students to master.

Please read the introduction to A World of Ideas.

Please come to class thinking about what writing concepts and "buzzwords" you can remember from Composition 1.

Writing about a Political System: What is Democracy?

This week we will pursue our first readings in our textbook authored by Lee A. Jacobus. In A World of Ideas, Jacobus has compiled some of THE BIGGEST IDEAS out of human world culture.

It is no accident that the first section deals with DEMOCRACY. This is a good starting point as the US is still recovering from the January 6th Insurrection in Washington DC. A myriad of essays and reports from that period used titles and/or headlines that made the claim that US democracy hung on by a hair on that fateful day. As Americans we often shout out the word "democracy" plenty, but how many of us actively read about the history of western democracy? How many of us read essays and watch reports concerning the state of democracy today. Probably most of us do not investigate these ideas nearly enough!

1) Democracy and Oligarchy by Aristotle

2) Government by Democracy in America by Alexis De Tocqueville

De Tocqueville sets the stage for the entire world beginning to understand a little bit about the new American political system and how it seems strongly put together for establishing a a certain kind of egalitarianism in society.

3) Islam and Democracy by Benazir Bhutto

Bhutto was a prime minister of Pakistan and she writes about democracy from an outside perspective that offers credible insights. Please read about what happened to her.

This week we are primarily attempting to identify what writing decisions tend to work best when writing about political systems and political ideas -- how can readers be helped along when having to digest new concepts?

Rhetorical Modes

The rhetorical modes are essentially "ways of thinking" about particular problems or expediencies and then going to work on writing about particular solutions or presentations of these situations.

Leave it to the ancient Greeks to have explored these 9 very different "life hack" situations!

We will be interacting with a number of different websites that offer on-point analysis of the rhetorical modes. There will be some investigation of each type of rhetorical mode and with how it is best utilized within particular assignments.

We will be working with some worksheets distributed during the class period.

This week we will be looking into numerous examples of effective application of the comparison / contrast essay mode.

Carl Jung: The Personal and Collective Unconscious

Sigmund Freud: The Oedipus Complex

We will be examining how the mode of comparison contrast works most effectively.

Rhetorical Analysis: Preparing for Assignment #2

Long, long ago in Ancient Greece Aristotle and Plato defined what the study of rhetoric entailed. If you study rhetoric, then you are studying both the art and science ofpersuasion.To be truly a persuasive person -- you need to be able to make good arguments that convince people through LOGICAL, ETHICAL and EMOTIONAL appeals. What people are good at this? How about politicians?!

Please look through the rhetorical analysis information in this module and then apply rhetorical analysis to assignment #2.You must choose a speech, presentation, etc. that you feel is either bad, excellent or in the middle and then perform a rhetorical analysis of said speech or presentation.

We will be examining many examples of rhetorical analysis in action both in essay form and in film form.

Rhetorical Analysis: Preparing for Assignment #2

Long, long ago in Ancient Greece Aristotle and Plato defined what the study of rhetoric entailed. If you study rhetoric, then you are studying both the art and science of persuasion. To be truly a persuasive person -- you need to be able to make good arguments that convince people through LOGICAL, ETHICAL and EMOTIONAL appeals. What people are good at this? How about politicians?!

Please look through the rhetorical analysis information in this module and then apply rhetorical analysis to assignment #2.You must choose a speech, presentation, etc. that you feel is either bad, excellent or in the middle and then perform a rhetorical analysis of said speech or presentation.

Reading Essay Selections on Culture

We will be reading several essays from the CULTURE section of A World of Ideas. Please read the following essays:

Of the Pernicious Effects Which Arise from the Unnatural Distinctions in Society (p.195) by Mary Wollstonecraft.

Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr. (p. 255)

The Word Weavers / The World Makers by Neil Postman (p.282)

Reading Essay Selections on Culture

We will be reading several essays from the CULTURE section of A World of Ideas. Please read the following essays:

Of the Pernicious Effects Which Arise from the Unnatural Distinctions in Society (p.195) by Mary Wollstonecraft.

Letter from Birmingham Jail by Martin Luther King Jr. (p. 255)

The Word Weavers / The World Makers by Neil Postman (p.282)

This week we will look at the situation of writing about culture. What are some simple hacks to make sure that readers are not overwhelmed or alienated when reading about difficult cultural issues?

Sample Annotated Bibliography Entries (courtesy of OWL.Purdue.edu)

SAMPLE MLA ANNOTATION

In the sample annotation above, the writer includes three paragraphs: a summary, an evaluation of the text, and a reflection on its applicability to his/her own research, respectively.

SAMPLE APA ANNOTATION

Sample Annotated Bibliography Entries (courtesy of OWL.Purdue.edu)

SAMPLE MLA ANNOTATION

In the sample annotation above, the writer includes three paragraphs: a summary, an evaluation of the text, and a reflection on its applicability to his/her own research, respectively.

SAMPLE APA ANNOTATION

This week we will be connecting with the format of the annotated bibliography -- by now you should have a good sense of what you are researching for the final paper.

This week we will look into how we can write about difficult technical subjects such as "the economy" or "monetary policy". For the vast number of people these kinds of informational topics are difficult to comprehend let alone write down. What are some common tools for writing about money?

The Persistent Idea of Wealth and What It Should Be

From the beginnings of North America there has always been much discussion of what wealth is and what it should be. Since the beginnings of culture all around the world -- generally speaking -- individuals and families have always wanted more and envied those that have "wealth". Outside of thinking about if wealth makes an individual happy should exist the discussion on what exactly wealth is. Is it about having more than you need? Is it about having control over all kinds of things that you can manipulate and move around? Is it about being able to display some kind of competency in the public eye?

Like so many things in life, looks can be deceiving. Just because people have an appearance of wealth doesn’t mean they truly are wealthy, or that their lives are rich and purposeful -- happiness is another metric all together. In fact, according to a recent research study conducted by Ramsey Solutions, most millionaires live in modest neighborhoods and drive car brands like Toyota and Honda. Do people want to be wealthy or do they want to look wealthy -- these are all nuanced questions indeed!

So, what is wealth? And what does it mean to be wealthy?

A great place to start reading about wealth in our textbook would be the following 3 readings:

* Excerpt from The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx (page 335)

*Created Equal by Milton and Rose Friedman (page 400)

*The Middle Class and Democracy's Future by Francis Fukuyama (page 439)

We will be discussing all of these readings in class.

Looking toward your final research paper, it is a good idea to think about how you will share and display technical data.

Defining and Writing a Refutation

Often people can mix up the terms refutation and counter-argument.

An important distinction to be appreciated is the difference between refutation and counter-argument. In the case of counter-argument, the writer acknowledges that there is substance in the contradicting argument, yet he /she provides evidence for his/her alleged stance. On the other hand, refutation goes a bit further by presenting evidence that in turn negates the opposing arguments. A good refutation "attacks" the view within the piece and offers copious amounts of contrary ideas or evidence.

A solid refutation uses plenty of outside information to invalidate a text or idea and then goes on to explain the correct viewpoint. When writing a refutation -- a hostile tone is to be avoided and ad hominem attacks are also in poor taste.

This week we will be looking at some examples of effective refutations and in a number of contexts.

In class we will be examining a variety of refutation essays and their particular strengths and weaknesses in proving a particular point.

Moving final research papers toward solid drafts. It all starts from answering your RESEARCH QUESTION. Have you worked on the various answers that your research question generated? It is very important to have forward movement when putting out big research questions.

Understanding Academic Writing Style On A Deeper Level

Academic writing is supposed to be clear, concise, focused, structured and backed up by evidence often with graphs, charts and various lists. There should be lots of in-text citations used. Wow – that seems dry and boring.

Well, it is, BUT it is also a sort of bedrock of Western civilization. Well executed academic writing leads to new ideas within all of the disciplines and we are receivers and contributors to this knowledge warehouse in 2023 and beyond.

Academic writing is not casual and fun and littered with loose thinking. Instead, it has a formal tone and style, but it is not necessarily massively complex. On the other hand, it does not dumb things down either. Academic writing connects tightly with solid educated critical thinking in connection with individual and societal problems, etc. Academic writing attempts to find solutions by defining particular problems and researching new theories and ideas and putting forth solutions.

Each subject discipline will have certain writing conventions, vocabulary and types of discourse that you will become familiar with over the course of your degree studies. However, there are some general characteristics of academic writing that are relevant across all disciplines.

We will be looking at effective and ineffective research questions along with some elements that are crucial for academic final papers that sum up your insights.

A final spotlight on a great idea: What is Education? Starting on page 380 in A World of Ideas,Jacobus lists many groundbreaking essays on education -- look up the authors and afer developing an interest in one of them -- read the essay that is included here and be prepared to share some of the information in class. All of the essay authors are listed: Montaigne, Montessori, Ravitch, Robinson, Gardner, Nussbaum and Hooks.

Within the essay that you choose to read on Education will be a plethora of ideas. Please be able to report back on at least some of these points:

• Who is the author? What are some of the main ideas of the author?
• How does the author explain what education is?
• Do you think that the included education information is still important and accurate or do you think that it is dated and no longer useful

We will be examining how the various authors seem to approach writing on education.

Narrowing in on our topics for the final research paper. What have you written and logged in terms of your final essay? Have you used your annotated bibliography sources to effectively begin building your essay?

We will be looking at variety of short handouts that address particular skill areas within research paper writing.

There will be sharing of inital pages of the final essay during our class meetings.