Image adapted from "Bubbles" by @Doug88888 Creative Commons license.
How Writers Read: SyllabusThis sophomore-level course introduces students to theoretical methods of reading complex and sophisticated texts. Students will study theories of reading and writing that concern structure, register, genre, intertextuality, and rhetorical concerns. The course presents these theories and correlative methods through readings, and students then practice applying these methods during class discussions and in writing using a series of self-selected texts as the objects of study.
Prerequisite: College Composition II
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For Writing Arts majors:
How Writers Read may be taken instead of Tutoring Writing or Communication Theory as one of the required electives for the Writing Arts major.
How Writers Read may count toward the Creative Writing Concentration, the Minor or the CUGS in Creative Writing.
If you are a Writing Arts major, and you are concentrating or minoring in Creative Writing, then it is possible to count How Writers Read toward that concentration or minor IF you already have taken Communication Theory or Tutoring Writing.
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Instructor: Dr. Drew Kopp
Office: 260 Victoria, room 509 email: kopp[at]rowan[dot]edu |
Office Hours:
Monday through Thursday 2:00 to 3:15 PM and by appointment |
Class Participation
Success in this course depends on each student
However, occasions for showing up, on time, and having done the work will occur both inside and outside class, especially regarding your reading group responsibilities. Consequently, I will assume that you will be prepared for class, on time, and offer productive, frequent, and meaningful discussion and feedback on both actual and virtual discussions. Key to performing at this level is having something at stake for yourself as a participant in and co-creator of the course. You will articulate what you have at stake in your reading list proposal. |
Required Texts
Novel to be read by entire class at beginning of semester: Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth by Hermann Hesse. Translated by Damion Searls (2013). There is also a recording of the text being read aloud.
This website, especially the lectures, will serve as an electronic text book for the course. I highly recommend that you read and re-read each of the lectures to keep deepening your understanding of the theories we are putting into practice this semester.
I will supply you with the remainder of the required readings for the course, which will be available through Google Drive.
The entire class will vote on the remaining three books we will all read collectively.
Required Activities
Each student will generate and share an inventory and reflection of past readings (along with the range of genres and readerly roles you have played), which will then provide an occasion to propose a reading list that will drive the readings, which in turn will provide you with food for thought in the Final Reflection.
Assignment Breakdown
Grading
To receive an A in this course, you must accumulate at least 900 points; for a B, 800 points; for a C, 700 points; and a D, 600 points. Please turn in all assignments, even if you believe they are poorly done. The difference between an E grade and 0 is that an E carries points toward the final point total and is assigned for something turned in, while a 0 carries no points and is assigned when no assignment is submitted.
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