English 6021 Composition Theory. This course is designed to familiarize students with important issues, problems, modes of inquiry, discourses, theories, and practices in contemporary composition studies. In this course students study theories that underlie the teaching of writing in academic settings. Students will emerge from this course with an advanced understanding of the history of writing instruction, as well as skills and strategies for successful teaching of writing. (Spring)

This course provides an introduction to the field within English studies known as “composition studies” or “rhetoric and composition.”

• Villanueva, Victor and Arola, Kristen, eds. Cross-Talk in Comp Theory: A Reader. 3rd Edition. Urbana, [HEADING-1] IL: NCTE, 2011.
• Online readings provided through Canvas.

• Communication
  • Students develop and express ideas and will be able to do so in a variety of ways, namely in writing, by speaking, visually, kinesthetically, through design or aurally
  • Fluent students clearly expresses a unique perspective/idea
  • Students demonstrate proper and skillful use of a variety of high-quality sources.
• Critical Thinking
  • Students combine or synthesize existing ideas, images, or expertise in original ways, as well as think, react, and work in an imaginative ways based on evolving rhetoric and composition theories.
  • Fluent students develop a logical, consistent plan to solve writing challenges/problems and recognize the diversity and consequences of solutions, articulating the reasons for choosing the solution.
• Information Literacy
  • Fluent students can identify multiple approaches for solving the problem that apply within the specific context of teaching rhetoric and composition in an academic setting
  • Fluent students thoroughly (systematically and methodically) analyze own and other's assumptions and carefully evaluate the relevance of contexts when presenting a position.
  • Fluent students communicate, organize and synthesize information from sources to fully achieve a specific purpose, with clarity and depth.

Course Assignments

1. Weekly Response Papers

   Your main responsibility in this course is to read the assigned material and be prepared to participate in class discussion. To help you achieve this end, you are asked to submit a response paper based on the week’s readings. In a typed, double-spaced paper of ~1,000 words, address the following questions:

   • What research questions are addressed in the readings? What problems, issues, phenomena are being studied and why? Are there any disagreements or divergent views on the issues? Are researchers defining the problem differently? If so, why?
   • How is theory being “built” in the readings? What methods are the researchers using to address the problems studied? What scholarly “moves,” or persuasive techniques, are privileged in these essays? What counts as proof in these essays?
   • What is the significance of these essays for your understanding of writing/literacy and the field of composition studies? How do these readings relate to your personal experience, teaching experience, and/or research interests?
   • What, if any, concepts, terminology, or arguments did you struggle with and/or still need help understanding?
   • These weekly response papers are due Sundays by midnight.
2. Discussion Posts and Responses
   • Initial Discussion posts will be due by midnight on Wed.
   • Responses to your peers’ posts are due by Friday at midnight
3. Research Project

   There is a research project requirement in this class consisting of the following components:

   Proposal – To help you find a topic of inquiry that is interesting and meaningful to you, you are asked to first write a 3-5 page (double-spaced) personal essay where you reflect on your personal experience, past teaching experience, engagement with course readings, preliminary reading of the Bedford Bibliography of Writing, etc. to raise questions—research questions—that will become the basis for your research paper. Your outside research will be directed toward answering your question(s). Your final paper will be your best effort at answering the guiding research questions you frame in this preliminary dissonance paper.

   Article Reviews – You are asked to compile a minimum of 6 sources not from assigned course readings relevant to your topic of inquiry. An adequate annotation of a source includes (1) the full bibliographic citation in APA format, (2) a concise summary of the main and supporting points of the source, and (3) a reflection on the significance of the source to your inquiry, i.e., how the source addresses your guiding research question. Due: by the date indicated on Canvas

   Dissonance Paper (8 to 10 double-spaced pages – Your final paper should make some interesting or significant contribution to the scholarly conversation about your topic. The threshold for what counts as “new” or “insightful” scholarship for a conference is much lower than for published research, but your goal is to push beyond personal insight and frame the answer to your guiding research question is such a manner that your peers—your fellow ENGL 6021 classmates and, perhaps, a broader audience of language/composition scholars—will find that your insights help them think in new ways about your topic. We will discuss strategies for accomplishing this in class.

   Conference proposal (based on CCCCs guidelines). More information will follow about this. It is based on the most current call for papers from the Conference on College Composition and Communication.

4. Final Exam (Personal Statement including theory)

   Based on your readings, research, and personal experience, you are invited to write a personal statement that reflects YOUR position on the current theories floating around the world of Composition theories and that indicates how you see yourself participating in the discussion.

Calculating Grades

Grades will be determined on a percentage basis. Major assignments will be graded on the standard letter-grade scale with plusses and minuses. Your overall grade and project grades are based on the following percentages:

Assignment Weights

Submission Guidelines

All class work will be submitted through Canvas for a grade and posted to the class wiki for the class. Please submit your work as a Microsoft Word document (.dox or .docx file) or rich text format document (.rtf file). If you are using other word processors, please convert your files before you submit. You may be required to merge documents or scan documents. It is up to you to submit documents properly, as assigned. If your computer crashes or you do not submit a document properly, the document will be marked late or unaccepted (please see the late policy). If documents are not named properly, the first instance will result in a warning, and then after that, the assignment may be submitted for a later grade (if a late grade is an option).

Document Naming Policy

Improperly named documents will be returned and may be submitted for a late grade (unless the assignment is classified as “no late work accepted.). You should name your files using your last name and first initial plus the assignment name. For example, I would label my assignment number 1 as combsj_assignment1. And I would make sure and save it as a .doc or .docx.

This calendar is subject to change. All Assignments will be due at the beginning of class on the date listed on the calendar.

If your computer crashes or you do not submit a document properly, the document will be marked late or unaccepted (please see the late policy).

If documents are not named properly, the first instance will result in a warning, and then after that, the assignment may be submitted for a later grade (if a late grade is an option).

Improperly named documents will be returned and may be submitted for a late grade (unless the assignment is classified as “no late work accepted.).

Active participation is required in this class. Our communication with each other will often be through writing and asynchronous online interaction. Your comments should be timely and respectful to your peers. You should actively participate in classroom discussions. We will use ZOOM for professor/student conferences. Your professional website should be kept up to date at all times.