| Welcome
Welcome to English 140. This class, "Language's Power to Write Our Worlds," has a specific question at its heart: how powerful is language? Other questions follow from that central question: what difference does language make? what kinds of power does language have to write--or right--our worlds? how does language work to persuade people or to bring about change? to build community? to empower or disempower people? To engage these questions and others that we'll develop as we proceed, we'll read some theories about the rhetorical dimensions of discourse, and we'll examine a range of public texts in a variety of media.
If you participate fully in this course and complete the course requirements successfully, you can expect to understand language as action, rather than as representation. You will begin to imagine language as a means by which power dynamics are created, deployed, sustained, altered, and redeployed and even as a means by which we can create, deploy, sustain, alter, and redeploy power dynamics. You will be able to describe (at an introductory level) the ways that language operates to constitute, normalize, prescribe, restrict, facilitate, and support indentities and worldviews. You will increase your abilities to critically evaluate the discourse that surrounds and influences you, and to transfer the knowledge you learn in the classroom to other areas of your studies and your life. Because our reading, listening, discussing, observing, concluding, interpreting, constituting, inquiring, and evaluating will be intense and sometimes quite challenging, you will improve your oral, aural, and written communication skills. And, if all goes as planned, you (and I) will have a great time and be inspired to continue thinking about language's power to write our worlds for years to come. |
What Does it Mean that this Course is a First-Year
Seminar?
As you know, this course is a First-Year
Seminar. What does that mean? Lots of things. For instance, it means
that the class is small, so that you have a chance to get to know me
and your classmates well. I have an opportunity to convey to you the
intellectual excitement and enthusiasm my research inspires in me, and
you have an opportunity to learn about what it means to be engaged in
a stimulating research project, to do the kind of academic scholarship
central to academic life at the University of Michigan, one of the nation’s
top research universities. Together, we have a semester-long opportunity
to learn from each other--you from me and your classmates, me from
you and your classmates--in an intense, highly participatory setting.
I want to emphasize three things central to my understanding of academic
life at Michigan that will be a part of our first-year seminar. First,
being at a great research university means that you are surrounded by
some of the most intellectually active and varied thinkers in the world--and
I mean the people sitting next to you in class and in the Union, as
well as the teachers of your classes. Talk with them and listen to them!
Get started by actively participating in our class discussions.
Second, to do the kind of intellectual work required of UM students,
you’ll need to think critically: go beyond memorization, passive
acceptance of ideas, and old patterns of thinking. Critical thinking
means that you are evaluating, comparing, synthesizing, and integrating.
It doesn’t require that you change your mind, but it does require
that you understand and own your ideas, rather than accept without question
ideas other people espouse. Critical thinking is an active process,
and one which you must practice in this class to meet its requirements.
Third, intellectually engaged people don’t make sharp distinctions
between their academic and "extracurricular" lives. They
think critically about things outside the classroom walls. They transfer
the knowledge they learn in class or in their scholarship to other aspects
of their lives. To that end, you will bring materials in to class that
you encounter outside of class. You will use those materials to better
understand the concepts we’re studying in class. You’ll
also use the concepts we’re studying in class to better understand
those materials. That interactive work will take place informally every
day, and formally in at least one presentation you will make to the
class.
|
Texts for the Course
Selecting the texts for this course was challenging but fun. The biggest
challenge was narrowing down the list of texts and the topics of our
inquiry. You will notice that we are sampling several topics (for example,
constitutive rhetoric, gender, and bilingualism) rather than delving
deeply into a few topics. I designed the course as an introduction to
language's power to write our worlds, and decided that we would
gain more from this methodology. It is not the only way to organize
a course like this one, however, and we'll talk about other possibilities
as we move through the semester.
Some of the readings have been compiled for your convenience and they are
being stored at Excel, a test preparation and copy center. You may use
this set of readings to make a copy for yourself at Excel. Their copies
cost $.07 per page, with optional additional charges if you want your
copies bound or three-whole punched. Excel is located at 1117 South
University Avenue, above Ulrich’s computer and engineering store.
Their phone number is 996-1500.
Other readings and alernative media texts will be available online at a password-protected website for our class, on reserve at the Shapiro Undergraduate Library, and through venues
including the University’s Film and Video Library. Details on
these texts will be announced during the semester.
I ask people to refer directly to texts during discussion. Please
bring assigned texts to class so that you easily and quickly can find
the passage(s) or image(s) under consideration.
If video and other kinds of texts are not "bringable," be sure to take good notes as you watch or listen. |
Primary Activities
The schedule of assignments includes lists of texts to be read, heard, or viewed; due dates for periodic brief written exercises; dates for two exams; and deadlines for two papers. In addition, I expect you to participate in class discussions and other activities and give a brief, more formal presentation to the class.
Texts
I expect you to read, watch, or listen to all of the texts on the syllabus carefully and come to class ready to talk about your reactions to them. I recommend that you read, listen, or watch with a pen in your hand, so you can jot notes or ideas while you are engaged.
Exercises
Frequently you will submit brief written exercises, perhaps a page long, and frequently you will share from them in class. I may assign different exercises than those listed on the syllabus or move some of these exercises around during the semester, since they are meant to be linked closely to our daily or weekly inquiries. Typically they will be short but thoughtful considerations of an example you have found to help you think further about the topics we're discussing that day or that week . Your exercises must be typed unless I specify otherwise, and exercises are due at the start of class. Late exercises will not be accepted. You may, however, skip one exercise during the semseter--except these: the position statement on the bilingualism debate, the summary or outline of your second paper, and the category constructions exercise.
Presentations
Early in the term, you will sign up to give a five-minute presentation to the class. In that presentation, you should encourage us to think more about intersections of language and power, using specific examples of your choosing and some of the theories and concepts we've discussed in class. As you prepare your five-minute presentation and its accompanying handout, think about what you are teaching us, and what is at stake in what we're learning. We'll discuss these presentations more in class, and you are welcome to run ideas by me before you present. If you miss your scheduled presentation, you will receive a zero for that part of your grade and there may not be time later in the semester to make up the activity.
Exams
There will be two exams during the semester. These exams will include sections in which you may be asked to define terms, identify and briefly comment on the significance of passages from assigned texts, and write longer responses to questions that ask you to synthesize material from the course. We will talk more about these exams in class.
Papers
You are required to submit two papers during the semester. We will discuss the papers further in class. I am happy--enthusiastic, even!--to talk with you at any stage of the writing process (from brainstorming to editing), and I would be pleased to look at a draft or portions of a draft with you during office hours or by appointment. I also encourage you to use the Sweetland Writing Center for our class assignments. Papers are due at the start of class on the day listed in the schedule of assignments. If a paper is submitted between the start of class and 5:00 on that day, the grade you have earned will drop 1/3 of a letter grade. After that, a paper drops a full letter grade for every day it is late. Even if your paper is so late that you cannot earn a passing grade on it, in order to pass this class you must submit both papers such that they would have earned a minimum grade of "D" if submitted on time.
Participation
Participation matters. It is the "engagement" part of "intellectual engagement." Class participation will be informally but clearly reflected in your presentation, exercises, papers, and exams, since these graded activities will benefit from the clarity of thought and expression and the exchange of ideas which class discussions provoke. In addition, class participation formally is accounted for in your grade for this class. Class participation includes (but is not limited to) involvement in large and small group discussion and occasional in-class writings.
Some active participation is taken as a given. Intelligent, frequent participation which forwards class discussion or consideration of relevant issues will raise your grade (questions you ask, by the way, may be as interesting as the answers we come up with). Failure to participate at a basic level, including by virtue of excessive absences, will reduce your grade, as will negative or inappropriate participation.
I expect you to come to each session prepared, with assignments completed. I also expect you to be attentive and responsive to other members of this class--your colleagues. This classroom must be one of mutual respect and open exchange. The University's Statement of Student Rights and Responsibilities explains that the University of Michigan "is dedicated to supporting and maintaining a scholarly community. As its central purpose, this community promotes intellectual inquiry through vigorous discourse. Values which undergird this purpose include civility, dignity, diversity, education, equality, freedom, honesty, and safety." If you have any questions, please review this Statement at <http://www.studentpolicies.dsa.umich.edu/statementstudentrights.htm> or call the Office of Student Conflict Resolution at 936-6308.
Attendance
Attendance is a prerequisite for class participation (discussions, in-class writings, etc.). Clearly, your presence will have a direct and important effect on your participation in this course. If you are absent, seek out a classmate for an explanation of what you missed, and then see me during office hours.
You may have two absences without penalty. I expect you to use these absences when you are sick, when you have a flat tire, etc.--these two absences are for those "excused" events that occasionally arise, not for self-declared holidays. Do not miss your scheduled presentation or an exam. Exercises and papers are due on the days scheduled regardless of whether you are present to submit them. For each absence after the first two absences, your final grade will be lowered by one-third of a grade (for example, a "B" becomes a "B-"). Two late arrivals or early departures (of less than fifteen minutes) convert to one absence. If you miss more than fifteen minutes of a class, you will be considered absent.
Adapting the Course Procedures and Requirements
If you have questions about course procedures or if you want to bypass a course requirement or a deadline, send me an email in advance. Make clear for what you are asking and tell me whatever I need to know to make a decision, which I will convey to you via email (making the request does not guarantee an affirmative response). I usually can't give you full attention in the moments after class, especially since I teach another class immediately after ours. I will make better decisions if I am given good information and time to consider a question, request, suggestion, or problem.
|