Hashimoto's English 310--Advanced Composition

Sample Class Handout

          Advanced Composition--English 310 (Spring 1997)  

In this course, we will not try to solve the mysteries of "professional writing,"
"journalism," "popular non-fiction," "new journalism," "creative non-fiction,"
or "self-discovery."  (I don't know how to do that.)  Instead, we will work on
other goals: some improvement in your technique; some improvement in
your aggressiveness; some improvement in your control of what you can
control; some improvement in your patience; some knowledge of some of
your sometimes options; some respect for tradition; perhaps even some
improvement in your commitment, spirit, sensitivity.  [I can't, of course,
guarantee any of that, but we ought to strive for all we can, given the
relatively short time we'll be in class.] 
 
We will begin a bit structured: I'll expect you all to be good at
straightforward, academic prose.  (Academic in the best sense of the word.) 
While I personally don't have anything against comma splices, non-standard
English, or cruddy spelling, I will expect you to write nice, clear, standard
prose.  There are, of course, all kindsa times when you can mess around
with syntax, mess up your style, wear masks of idiots and dumbclods or aunt
Sue; if you do so, do so on purpose and know what you claim and earn the
right to write what you write.  

During the semester, we will concentrate on relaxing, observing, listening,
associating, lying, exaggerating, borrowing, stealing, and imitating--and
finding that thing called "personal style."  (I don't know what that is, but
we'll work toward it.)  I will encourage you to write in a style that is
relatively free of wordiness and dullness: nominalizations, complexifications,
fillers, passives, complaints, apologies, regrets, sensitivity to nature and life,
stars and stripes, necessary climaxes, dandruff, long roads full of dust and
flea-bitten yellow dogs lying in the sun (flies buzzing overhead as the rain
beats against the window and the wind whistles through the limbs of the old
willows by the creek) . . . 

I want to encourage you to play a little and begin to develop some reading
skills--not the kind you get in speed reading courses or in history classes, but
the kind you get in a writing class.  I want you to learn to read like writers--
to give up trying to figure out what "it means" wherever it means it; to resist
vague notions of "art," the necessary tension between form and content, the
relationship between signs and symbols, the importance of showing vs.
telling, the Truth(s) and vision(s) in a postmodern world at the edge of
some enigmatic paradoxical ironic ambiguous hegemonic carnival that is
contextualized life or whatever.

And I want you to give up on feeling sorry for being wrong and not doing it
right (whatever that means) and feel good about stepping into traffic to face
milk trucks going the wrong way down the river of life.
 
We will read most of the things we write in class--and you should expect to
talk about what you're doing and why you're doing it.

Reading.  During the semester, we will (somehow in many
different ways) read most of one book:
 
     Eight Modern Essayists, ed. William Smart.

I'll give you a schedule for readings in a day or two.

We'll also take a look at whatever or whoever else we can bring to class. 
Instead of discussing all the readings in class, you will keep a simple
reading/storage log.  (See handout for
information about your readings,
reading logs.)
 
I will read your log four times during the semester, and it'll be worth two 4-
page papers.  (See the class calendar for a schedule of readings. (We'll try
to read about one author a week in the book.)
 
Writing.  You will write something each week.  (For the first
few weeks, you'll write something short for each meeting.  Later on, we'll
write longer 4-page papers.  As the course progresses, I'll expect you to take
more and more command of your own subject matter, direction.  You'll do
twelve short papers (about one page) and nine longer papers (about 4
pages).  You must do all twelve one-page papers.  You may choose not to
do two of the longer papers. 
 
Attendance.  Attendance is required.  You may skip five
classes.  After that, I will subtract 25 points from your total points for each
absence.
 
Late Papers. I will subtract five points for each day your paper
is late.  Your paper is late if you don't turn it in at the beginning of class. 
(We'll read almost everything we write in class.) 
 
Grades.  Even though you can choose not to turn in two four-
page assignments, I'd like you to turn everything in.  If you do turn
everything in, I'll throw out the lowest two 4-page grades.  You must do the
last two papers of the semester.
 
Short papers are basically exercises worth 33.3 points apiece. I'll grade you
mainly on the criteria I set up on the assignments.  
 
Four-page papers are worth 100 points apiece--10 points for a rough draft
(to be turned in at the beginning of class on Wednesdays before your papers
are due on Fridays) and 90 points for 1) contents, 2) style, and 3) general
mechanics.  I will award originality, ambition and  experimentation--even
when things don't work to either of our satisfaction.   
I will grade your reading logs not on length of entries, but on quality of
comments.  Better to be specific than to be bulky.  I will read these logs
four times during the semester.  Each reading will be worth 50 points. 
 
Rewrites.  We'll not do a lot of re-writing during the semester.

I encourage you to do your re-writing before you turn in your papers.  In
very special cases, however, where you can profit from re-doing a paper, I
will give you permission to do so.  You have to have a good reason, though,
and the paper ought to be worth re-writing for some reason.  Such a
re-write will be averaged in as a separate paper. 
 
If at any time you need special assistance, come in and see me.  I'll be
around the Writing Center (Olin 223) or my office (Olin 232) in the
afternoons and most of the day on Tuesday and Thursday.  You can reach
me by email, too (hashimiy@whitman.edu).

Got questions?
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