Rhetoric 1B, TuTh 9:30 – 11:00AM, 182 Dwinelle Hall
Claudia Salamanca, csalamanca@berkeley.edu
Amanda Armstrong, seabrook@berkeley.edu
The aim of this course is textual analysis and argumentative writing, building on the skills acquired in 1A courses. We will work on writing college-level essays that incorporate research and engage with secondary sources.
Thematically, this class will explore the operations that take place in the act of representation in different contexts, such as theater, cinema, literature, photography and painting. Among those operations we will focus on theories of translation, reproduction, and acting, which exhibit a movement between and across languages, life and stage, text and image, original and copy, among others. We will analyze the tension manifested between the object that is represented and its representation through categories of accuracy and distortion, falsity and veracity, and visibility and invisibility.
Most of the course will be spent reading and discussing the primary texts that will provide the topics for a series of shorter papers in the beginning of the term, leading up to a twelve to fifteen page paper due at the end of the semester.
Required Texts:
+ Michel Foucault, This is not a pipe
+ Roberto Bolaños, Amulet
+ J. L. Austin, How to do things with words
+ Williams, Style: Lessons on Clarity and Grace (9th edition) (Longman)
+ Rosenwasser and Stephen, Writing Analytically (Wadsworth) FOURTH EDITION/ This book you can find it USED. Be aware of the edition you are buying!
Requirements
Writing
For this course, you will submit a minimum of 32 pages of writing, which is the university requirement to satisfy the second part of the Reading and Composition sequence. You will submit three papers (diagnostic essay, midterm paper, final paper), each increasing in length and complexity. All papers and assignments should be typed, double space, in 12-point Times font (or equivalent) and one-inch margins. Please staple the pages together and don’t forget to include page numbers, a title and your name. Papers are due at the beginning of the class on the due date. Late papers (which includes papers turned in after class on the due date) will be penalized a drop in letter grade for each day. Extensions will be granted in extraordinary circumstances, but must be approved before the paper’s due date.
For your midterm and final paper we will be doing peer editing, which means that you’ll turn in drafts before the final paper is due. On draft day you’ll turn 5 copies of your paper and distribute it to the members of your peer editing group and one for your instructors.
At the end of the semester you will turn in all your papers, drafts, and peer edits. Improvement and hard work are rewarded in this class.
Reading
Reading is due on the (first) day a text is discussed; sometimes there will be short quizzes to make sure that you are keeping up and completing the assigned reading on time. When chapters of Style or Writing Analytically are assigned you will be assigned some or all of the exercises in those chapters to complete and turn in as a written assignment on the day the reading is due. All written assignments are due at the beginning of class, on the front table, in hard copy, printed out and stapled, unless you are specifically told otherwise.
Tutoring
Berkeley's Student Learning Center's Writing program offers free support for students in the R1A and R1B series, which you should definitely take advantage of. If your writing mechanics need sustained attention we will encourage you sign up for a private tutor; but even if your skills are strong we encourage you to use drop-in tutoring sessions to work over a draft or talk about a paper in more detail than we are able to: http://slc.berkeley.edu/writing/index.htm
Attendance
Attendance is mandatory. Every unexcused absence after 3 will lower your final grade by 1/3. Three latenesses will be counted as one absence. Note: Since attendance will be taken by sign-in sheet, it is your responsibility to ensure that you are market present those days you are late to class.
Communication
We will communicate with the class using the blog so please check this every week. You MUST come to office hours at least once during the semester, and hopefully more. You drop by our office hours, or you can e-mail us to schedule a time. We will answer your e-mail within 3 days at most; if you don't hear from us within that time please try again since we may not have received your message.
Disabilities
Disabilities will be accommodated. If you need disability-related accommodations in this class, if you have emergency medical information you wish to share with us, or if you need special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please inform us immediately. Please see one of us privately after class or in office hours.
Grading
Your grade will be determined as follows:
20% Midterm Paper (Included draft)
15% Draft Final Paper (Included Outline and Annotated bibliography)
25% Final Paper
15% Peer Edits
15% Weekly Assignments and Reading Quizzes
10% Class Participation (Including group work and blog posting)
In assigning your participation grade, we will take into consideration your participation in discussion and group work, attendance at office hours, and your effort and improvement throughout the semester.
Dates & Assignments
Dates below indicate the day on which each assignment is due. For Example: On March 3 you should be prepared to discuss Walter Benjamin’s The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction and to turn in your midterm paper.
A Note on Plagiarism & Academic Dishonesty
Plagiarism will not be tolerated, under any circumstances. This includes stealing papers topics and the ideas of others, as well as specific language. Plagiarism is ground for failure in the class. For more information on what constitutes plagiarism and how to avoid it, see www.plagiarism.com or p. 230-234 in the Style Book.
A Note on Plagiarism & Academic Dishonesty
Plagiarism will not be tolerated, under any circumstances. This includes stealing papers topics and the ideas of others, as well as specific language. Plagiarism is ground for failure in the class. For more information on what constitutes plagiarism and how to avoid it, see www.plagiarism.com or p. 230-234 in the Style Book.
In general
If you are confused about a reading or assignment, or are having trouble with the course in general please talk with us. This course will require you to translate the ideas we talk about over the semester into your own independent project at the end, so you are more likely to do well if you consistently make your own connections with the material and build a way of thinking that you can extend to some problem or example that particularly interests you. Please don't go through the whole semester feeling disconnected and keep it to yourself because it will be too late to sort this out in the last few weeks when it is time to focus on the final project!
