ENGL 13100: Reading, Writing, & inquiry
Summer (2) 2025 - Online
We're here to learn as much as we can about the kinds of writing intended for an academic audience. So we'll develop and practice our skills of observation, analysis, and exposition.
strategies for learning and teaching
Humility
Attentiveness
Attentiveness
Attentiveness
Industriousness
Industriousness
Receptiveness
Industriousness
Engagement
Teachablity
General information and course book
GENERAL INFORMATION
Dr. M. L. Stapleton
Office: LA 41 Hours: by appointment
email: stapletm@pfw.edu
webpage: www.elmlsteach.org
COURSE BOOK
Lunsford et al., Everyone's an Author , with Readings (4th ed)
1. Week of 30 June-6 July: Narrative
PROMPT, READING, SHORT ASSIGNMENT, SUGGESTED, SPECS
PROMPT
Write an account or story about something significant that happened in your family. It can be ancestral. It can involve you, but it's not necessary. This thing doesn't have to be positive or negative, but it should be mostly true. Feel free to ask your elders for some help.
READING
Chapter 1: Thinking Rhetorically
Chapter 14 Writing a Narrative
Pay close attention to Roadmap (220=4)
SHORT ASSIGNMENT
Read Lehna, "The Look" (229-33), and answer questions 1-4 on p. 233
Due Wednesday 2 July by 11.59 p.m.via Brightspace
Your response should be in complete sentences, and your total response should be at least 200 words (1 p.)
SUGGESTED FOR MAIN ASSIGNMENT
Write in the first person, "I." Use description. Give us the setting of the place where things happen. By the time you're done, we should know why you wrote this. Try and capture the reader's attention when you get started. Can we follow you? Does the story have a larger context, such as war, a social movement, or whatever? Can we follow you? Chapter 14 will help you.
SPECS
The finished product: 750 words (3 pp.)
Attach your paper as a Word document in Brightspace. Do NOT send it in Google Docs. Do NOT send it in .pdf
Due Sumday, 6 July, 11:59 pm via Brightspace: Late papers: 0
Please keep in mind that you may revise this paper as often as you like. It would be best to discuss it in my office or Zoom after you have turned it in the first time. Revisions are due on or before Friday, 8 August, 11:59 pm, via Brightspace
2. Week of 7-13 July: Analytical Writing
PROMPT, READING, SHORT ASSIGNMENT, SUGGESTED, SPECS
PROMPT
The purpose of the assignment is to exercise your powers of visual analysis and to translate your insights into expository written form. Your subject is one of the three provocative vintage advertisements below. Your paragraphs should be devoted to the details of the image, and your focus should be at all times on what these details are DOING and how they contribute to the overall effect of the ad. Avoid mere description, and use an arguable thesis: something that can be argued against as well as for.
Handout about arguments and paragraphs (.pdf)
Lifebuoy ad (.jpeg)
Kellogg's ad (.jpeg)
Chase & Sanborn ad (.jpeg)
READING
Chapter 15:Writing Analytically
Pay close attention to Roadmap (268-77 )
SHORT ASSIGNMENT
Read Rubin, “Advertisements” (281-6), and answer questions 1-4 on 286
Due Wednesday 9 July by 11.59 p.m. on Brightspace
Your response should be in complete sentences, and your total response should be at least 200 words (1 p.)
SUGGESTED FOR MAIN ASSIGNMENT
Assume that your audience is yourself: someone who understands media but might not always grasp the significance of what she or he sees. Ultimately, what you seek is not what it's simply “selling” —we take that for granted—but what elements are significant, manipulative and exploitative.
If you keep this principle in mind, it will help you generate an arguable thesis, i.e., something debatable.
Choose something that you care about and that will allow you to discuss elements other people might not notice. As you write, you might ask yourself why the thing advertised disguises its real intent, if this is the case. Is the thing important to you? Is it important to the culture at large?
SPECS
The finished product: 750 words (3 pp.)
Attach your paper as a Word document when you send it in Brightspace. Do NOT send it in Google Docs. Do NOT send it in .pdf
Due Sumday, 13 July, 11:59 pm via Brightspace: Late papers: 0
Please keep in mind that you may revise this paper as often as you like. It would be best to discuss it in my office or Zoom after you have turned it in the first time. Revisions are due on or before Friday, 8 August, 11:59 pm, via Brightspace
3. Week of 14-20 July: Rhetorical Analysis
PROMPT, READING, SHORT ASSIGNMENT, SUGGESTED, SPECS
PROMPT
We’ll build on our previous assignment in which we determined the possible cultural significance of an advertisement by visual analysis. Here, we’ll sharpen our analytical powers further by examining the language of a professional writer, Pauline Kael, on a subject that may surprise you because it was considered controversial at the time.
You'll need to analyze Kael's language, tone, diction, perspective, intended audience, or anything else that would help you determine what her point of view might be. What is it? Use quotations to make your points. In addition, I'd like you to look up words you don't understand and create a section at the end of the essay in which you define each one of them.
Here's the Kael essay (.pdf)
READING
Chapter 6: Reading Rhetorically
Chapter 7: Annotating, Summarizing, Responding
Chapter 29: Avoiding Plagiarism
Pay close attention to the three handouts:
SHORT ASSIGNMENT
Preview our subject essay for our next assignment, Pauline Kael’s “Bonnie and Clyde” review from 1967. Try annotating it and answer the prompts under the heading “Whaty’s the Text Saying?” on p. 75.
Due Wednesday 16 July by 11.59 p.m. on Brightspace
Your response should be in complete sentences, and your total response should be at least 500 words (2 pp).
SUGGESTED FOR MAIN ASSIGNMENT
Organize your paper by topic, devoting each paragraph to a single element.
Use significant words and phrases from your source to make your points.
SPECS
The finished product: 750 words (3 pp.)
Attach your paper as a Word document in Brightspace. Do NOT send it in Google Docs. Do NOT send it in .pdf
Due Sumday, 20 July, 11:59 pm via Brightspace: Late papers: 0
Please keep in mind that you may revise this paper as often as you like. It would be best to discuss it in my office or Zoom after you have turned it in the first time. Revisions are due on or before Friday, 8 August, 11:59 pm, via Brightspace
4. Week of 21-27 July: Arguments
PROMPT, READING, SHORT ASSIGNMENT, SUGGESTED, SPECS
PROMPT
Two skills you will need to acquire to succeed in college and in your professional life are to recognize the techniques of arguments and analyze their effectiveness. An assignment like this could comprise an entire course, but we don't have enough time for that, obviously. Instead, we'll compare and contrast these two vintage editorials on a subject you might not know anything about. We'll use the definitions we find in Chapter 19 about different types of arguments and fallacies and try to identify how our editorialists use and misuse them.
It's important that you document everything you use, whether it is a quotation or not. This is why we are going to read Chapter 29 on plagiarism.
How are the two editorials similar and different in terms of their argumentative techniques? What do they use as evidence? Do they appeal to the emotions? Do they have embedded assumptions that are unexamined? Use quotations to make your points.
Please note that the Newsweek editorial has two parts.
Time editorial 1965 (png)
Newsweek editorial 1968 pt 1 (png)
Newsweek editorial (1968) pt 2 (png)
You will need to include a correctly-formatted and complete Works Cited page. Your paper should have accurate parenthetical citations with page numbers for printed media. Those who fail to complete this part of the assignment correctly will have their papers returned, ungraded, until it is finished.
A refresher:
READING
Chapter 19: Analyzing and Constructing Arguments (405)
Chapter 29: Avoiding Plagiarism (again)
SHORT ASSIGNMENT
Read Holloway, "To Unite a Divided America" (401-04) and answer questions 1-4 on 404
SUGGESTED FOR MAIN ASSIGNMENT
There is lots of help on this page and in your book. Use it. And don't rush.
SPECS
The finished product: 750 words (3 pp.)
Attach your paper as a Word document in Brightspace. Do NOT send it in Google Docs. Do NOT send it in .pdf
Due Sumday, 27 July, 11:59 pm via Brightspace: Late papers: 0
Please keep in mind that you may revise this paper as often as you like. It would be best to discuss it in my office or Zoom after you have turned it in the first time. Revisions are due on or before Friday, 8 August, 11:59 pm, via Brightspace
5. Week of 4-8 August: Reflections
PROMPT, READING, SPECS
PROMPT
Using the ideas in Chapter 10, describe what you think you've learned this month. Your total response should be at least 500 words (2 pp.)
READING
Chapter 10: Reflecting
SPECS
The finished product: 750 words (3 pp.)
Attach your paper as a Word document when you send it in Brightspace. Do NOT send it in Google Docs. Do NOT send it in .pdf
Due Friday, 8 August at 11:59 via Brightspace
STANDARD PAPER FORMATTING
SOFTWARE
As a PFW student, you are entitled to free software, which you'll need. If you follow this link, you can dowload your own copy of Office 365 from IT services.
EVERYTHING IS DOUBLE-SPACED
Everything in your regular papers should be double-spaced. There are no extra spaces between paragraphs, and block quotations are double-spaced. Go into your copy of Word, find the Paragraph menu, and make sure that it looks like the picture to the left.
Note: paragraphs for minor presentations can be single-spaced. Doesn't matter there.
CHECK YOUR HEADING
It can be on the left or the right side
Your Name
ENGL 13100
My Name
Date
On the next line after the heading, center a title for the paper.
Begin your text on the next line after that title.
OTHER FORMATTING
- Don't use "fun" fonts or all-caps.
- Your font size should be 12-point.
- Don't use 'single quotation marks' for emphasis, or, for that matter, for most any reason at all.
EVERYTHING IS ELECTRONIC
You'll compose your papers and shorter assignments in Word and submit them on Brightspace, so there is nothing in hard copy. Do NOT send your papers in Google Docs. Do NOT send them in .pdf.
course policies
DUE DATES
Your papers are due on the scheduled non-class dates via Brightspace at 11.59 pm.. Late papers = 0. You may revise all your papers, with the exception of the last. If we were a conventional class that met in real time, I would insist that you meet with me in person at our mutual convenience. Still, I strongly advise you to see me in my office about revisions if possible if you are local, or by online means such as Zoom.
Any and all revisions are due by 11.59 pm on Friday 8 August
ACADEMIC DISHONESTY I: DON'T BE A PLAGIARY
it should go without saying that students are also expected to do their own work; indebtedness to secondary materials (either printed or electronic) must be clearly indicated so as to avoid plagiarism:
- (piecemeal) using someone else’s words and phrases as if they were your own, not paraphrasing or summarizing properly, even with proper documentation;
- (grotesque) using someone else’s ideas as if they were your own, without proper documentation;
- (more grotesque) allowing someone else to write your paper for you.
THERE IS NO NEED TO PLAGIARIZE IN HERE! NONE WHATSOEVER! AVAUNT, YE CHEATERS!
ACADEMIC DISHONESTY II: DON'T USE AI OR CHAT GPT TO WRITE YOUR PAPERS FOR YOU
Your first move when beginning and ending an assignment should be using your brain, not going on the internet and trying to find something to help you. It's obvious when you don't do your own work. If I suspect you have used artificial means to write your papers, I will let you know. There will be consequences.
GRADING
Your course grade is determined by averaging your four paper grades, including your revisions (20 pts each), and your five short assignments (4 pts each). The semester total is the 100 pt. scale: 90s = A, 80s = B, 70s = C, 60s = D, 50s and below = F.
PLEASE NOTE: YOUR FAILURE TO TURN IN ALL FOUR OF YOUR MAIN ASSIGNMENTS WILL RESULT IN AN F GRADE FOR THE COURSE.
I am not an advocate of "rubrics" for grading in college courses. It reeks of high school, and does not help students feel any better about their grades or understand them, since only one member of the student-teacher relationship is truly disinterested (i.e., neutral). The best papers not only fulfill the requirements of the assignment but also contain original, critical thinking. For more advice, see the Writing page on this site.
COMMUNICATION
Feel free to communicate with me at any time via email: stapletm@pfw.edu
I will usually get back to you sooner than you expect.