ENG 208: Composing the Self
Professor
Richard Ruppel, Fall 2024
Office: 07 Smith Hall
Meetings: Tuesday & Thursday,
10-11:15am 104 Doti Hall
Office Hours: 10-12pm Wednesday & by
appointment.
Phone: (714) 997-6754 (office)
Updated November 19, 2024
Weekly Syllabus
Assignments
Units
Canvas
Useful Links
EVENTS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
Academic Advising: Here’s the
link to the information about academic advising for first year
students. I recommend that all of you consult with Academic Advising
once a year.
Voting Information: Nearly all of you will have the opportunity and privilege to vote
on or before November 5 this year.
Chapman maintains a student
voting information page, which includes a link to the California Secretary
of State’s student register to vote
page.
I’ll
add events through the semester, but if you know of
other announcements or events that might appear here, send them along to me.
Course
Description & Objectives, from the Catalog: Students explore the relationship between identity and writing. Students
will study a variety of genres (personal essays, researched essays, academic
articles, news reports, case studies, and ethnographies) and theoretical
approaches to learn how and why writers create versions of themselves for
rhetorical effect. While investigating identity construction in writing,
students will hone their own rhetorical and stylistic skills. Students will
compose narratives, essays, reports, and multi-genre compositions, drawing from
personal experience, observation, and primary and secondary sources. The course
will also address the role of self in the research-writing process by requiring
students to conduct original academic research projects. This course is
appropriate for all majors, and no specialized writing experience is assumed.
ENG 208 satisfies Chapman’s Written Inquiry
General Education requirement. Here is the description of the learning
outcome associated with that requirement:
Students establish active, genuine, and
responsible authorial engagement; communicate a purpose—an argument or other
intentional point/goal; invoke a specific audience, develop the
argument/content with an internal logic-organization; integrate references,
citations, and source materials logically and dialogically, indicating how
forms of evidence relate to each other and the author’s position; and compose
the text with: a style or styles appropriate to the purpose and intended
audience, a consistent use of the diction appropriate to the author’s topic and
purpose. Students develop the ability to establish and vary authorial voice(s)
and tone(s), to choose form(s) and genre(s) appropriate to their purpose and
audience (forms may be digital and/or multimodal), and to make rhetorically
effective use of language.
Specific
Course Description and Learning Outcomes:
Flannery O’Conner, E. M. Forster, and Joan Didion all wrote something to
the effect that “I don’t know what I think until I write it down.” An equally valid corollary is “I don’t know what
I don’t know until I write it down.” Writing requires us to discover what
we know but also, even more importantly, what we don’t know.
Writing
also helps us discover who we are, as every diarist will confirm. But writing is more than “discovery.” Writing helps us create our identities. As
the title of this course suggests, writing helps us compose ourselves.
But
there’s a dark side to writing. In “The
Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” a poem I’ll teach in another class this semester,
the mariner bites his arm and drinks his own blood so that he can speak – a
macabre tribute to the pain of tearing meaning out of the chaos of the
universe. Red Smith, a brilliant
sportswriter, wrote “There’s nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a
typewriter and open a vein.” Some golden people write and publish, publish and
write, churning out serviceable sentences, paragraphs, articles, and books
effortlessly. For most of us, writing is hard, painstaking, daunting, and
humbling.
This
course will give us the space and time to discover what we know, what we don’t
know, and who we are through our writing.
We will read skilled authors who reveal themselves in their essays, and
we will do this ourselves, paying attention to the elements of rhetoric: tone,
audience, and purpose. We will begin writing brief autobiographies and move to
more public writing.
Texts
& Supplies:
All readings will be online or in the
“Modules” section of our Canvas pages.
Course Requirements:
Attendance: Please make every
effort to attend each class. Let me know if you are unable to
attend. If you miss more than three
classes, your grade will suffer, and if you miss six or more, you will not
pass.
Communication: Please be courteous and constructive in
our classes. I receive a large number of emails,
so when emailing, please identify the course (ENG 208), your last name, and the
subject in the subject line. I will respond promptly to your emails;
please respond promptly to mine.
Essays: Please email your essays
directly to my email: ruppel@chapman.edu. If possible, send them as MSWord
documents. If you send a pdf, I will
convert it to a Word document so I can mark it.
Please DO NOT send a link to a Google doc.
Late
essays will receive reduced grades, and I will not accept papers submitted more
than a week late unless you provide a convincing explanation. To pass this course, you
must complete all four essays. If you are having
difficulty completing an essay or a Canvas discussion post, let me know.
I will accept a revision of one of your essays, but you must
schedule a conference with me to discuss that revision before you submit
it. I will average the grade of the original paper and the revision.
I will both
grade and mark essays earning a grade of C- or higher. I will not put
a grade on a reflection that earns a grade lower than C-. If I
return an essay to you that does not include a grade, you will need to schedule
a meeting with me so we can go over the essay together and work out a revision
strategy. I may ask you to schedule a
consultation with the Writing
Center before our meeting.
Canvas Discussion Posts: I will
assign Canvas Discussion responses for many of the assigned readings. These
responses will be due before we discuss the readings.
Grades:
Autobiographical Essay: 15% Due September 17
“The Political is Personal”
essay: 20% Due October 10
Essay concerned with
health: 25% Due October 31
Final essay: 25% Due December 5
Participation*: 15%
*This is primarily your grade on the Canvas Discussion Board
posts. Here are my criteria for evaluating your posts:
I will post
grades in Canvas, which will calculate your overall grade for the class. The
official grades are those I calculate myself, and these are nearly always the
same as those Canvas creates. If there
is a discrepancy between the grade you see in Canvas and the grade I have in my
gradebook, however, the gradebook grade is the one that’s correct. I am always
happy to discuss assignment grades.
Chapman
University Academic Integrity Policy:
Chapman University is a community of scholars that emphasizes the
mutual responsibility of all members to seek knowledge honestly and in good
faith. Students are responsible for doing their own work, and academic
dishonesty of any kind will be subject to sanction by the instructor and
referral to the university's Academic Integrity Committee, which may impose
additional sanctions up to and including dismissal. (See the
"Undergraduate Catalog" for the full policy.) Though I am not requiring
you to submit your reflections via Turnitin, I am an expert at finding sources,
online and otherwise, so I will notice if you make unacknowledged use of
someone else’s work. And if I have
doubts, I will submit your work to Turnitin myself. So please save both of us from trauma and
write your Canvas Discussion posts and essays yourself.
ChatGPT and other Large Language Model (LLM) chatbots:
1.
Typing a prompt into an
LLM chatbot, copying the response, and then submitting that response for an
assignment is an obvious form of academic misconduct. Don’t do it.
2.
Chatbots are sometimes
inaccurate. When I asked for a biography
of Richard Ruppel, a Chapman English professor, I found that I was born in
Fairview (false), had been an expert on the Holocaust (mostly false), had graduated
from Yale and Harvard (false), and was now dead (demonstrably, I hope,
false). People in the field describe
these errors as “hallucinations,” but they are presented with supreme
self-confidence. Hallucinations are not uncommon.
3.
If I suspect that you
have pasted in a response produced by an LLM, I will
check the various services that can detect this. If those services confirm my suspicion, I
will call you in for a conference.
4.
Chatbots can be
inaccurate, but they do offer clear, useful information which users should
check. These are early times, but
through this semester (and through your academic career) we will all discover
ways to help you use them to enhance your learning.
The following discussion of the use of LLMs in
academic settings was developed by Dr. Nora Rivera, a professor in Chapman’s
English department:
|
Acceptable
Uses of LLMs |
Not
Acceptable Uses of LLMs |
|
·
To improve your work ·
To brainstorm ·
To explore potential counterarguments ·
To fine-tune research questions ·
To draft an outline to organize your
thoughts ·
To check grammar and style ·
To check format · To
translate words and phrases |
·
To replace your work ·
To cheat on the writing & research
process ·
To obtain answers to assessments ·
To generate a full draft of your work · To
generate large chunks of text with little or no input from you as an author |
·
Students must cite AI technologies
when appropriate (e.g., when using images generated by AI technologies, when
referencing an answer provided by AI technologies, et cetera)
·
Copying works entirely
generated by AI technologies and submitting them as original content is
considered an academic integrity
violation
·
Always revise your work
before submitting it. You are responsible for any inaccurate, biased,
offensive, or otherwise unethical content you submit regardless of whether it
originally comes from you or an AI model.
In-Class
use of laptops, tablets, and phones:
You
may use a laptop to take class notes only when you are one of the week’s
note-takers. Otherwise, laptops and
tablets must remain closed, and you may not consult your phone during
class. If you have a reason to use one
of these devices during class, you must receive my permission to do so
beforehand. If I see you consulting your
phone during class, I will mark you absent.
However, I do know how difficult it can be to remain phone-free through
a class, so I will provide two, two-minute breaks for you to tune in.
Chapman's
Students with Disabilities Policy:
In
compliance with ADA guidelines, students who have any condition, either
permanent or temporary, that might affect their ability to perform in this
class are encouraged to inform the instructor at the beginning of the term. The
University, through the Disability
Services Office, will work with the appropriate faculty member who is asked to provide the accommodations for a student in determining what
accommodations are suitable based on the documentation and the individual
student needs. The granting of any accommodation will not be retroactive and
cannot jeopardize the academic standards or integrity of the course.
Please contact me if you have ANY concerns about completing any of the
requirements of this course. I want you to feel challenged, not
overwhelmed.
Chapman
University is committed to ensuring equality and valuing
diversity. Students and professors are reminded to show respect at
all times as outlined in Chapman’s Harassment and Discrimination Policy. Any violations
of this policy should be discussed with the professor, the Dean of Students
and/or otherwise reported in accordance with this policy.
Week 1 – August 27-29:
Introductions and conversations about composing the self.
Week 2 – September 3-5: Discussion of essays on writing.
Week 3 – September 10-12:
More discussion of essays & draft workshops.
Week 4 –
September 17-19: Autobiographical essay due September 17. Richard
Bausch visit will be Tuesday the 17th. The two essays and the piece about writing
“What Feels Like the World” are in the Modules section.
Week 5 –
September 24-26: The political is personal – discussions of essays
devoted to how authors developed, maintained, and/or changed their political
positions.
Week 6 – October 1-3: Jean Ho
will visit October 3. The two
essays are in the Modules section.
Writing workshop.
Week 7 –
October 8-10: “The Political is Personal” essay due October 10.
Week 8 –
October 15-17: Discussion of
health-related essays.
Week 9 – October 22-24: Discussion of
health-related essays.
Week 10 – October 29-31:
Discussion of health-related essays, writing workshop.
Week 11 –
November 5-7: Essay concerned with health, due
November 5.
Week 12 – November 12-14:
Week 13 – November 19-21:
THANKSGIVING BREAK
Week 14 – December
3-5: Final essay due December 5.
Week 15 – Final:
*This syllabus may change, but I will give you plenty of notice,
and I will keep the syllabus updated on the Web.
For Tuesday, August
27: Course introduction. We’ll introduce
ourselves and go over this Web page and our Canvas pages.
For Thursday,
August 29: Read through our syllabus and
bring questions, comments, and suggestions to class.
For Tuesday,
September 3:
Read “Why I Write” by George Orwell and “Why I
Write” by Joan Didion and respond to the discussion
question in Canvas by 11pm, Sept. 2.
For Thursday,
September 5: Read “Shitty First Drafts,”
by Anne Lamott, and “Mother Tongue,” by Amy Tan.
Bring ideas for your first essay.
For Tuesday,
September 10: Read Ruppel’s “The Political is Always
Personal,” in the Modules section of Canvas.
We’ll consider it in a draft workshop, so you may bring your laptop or a
hard copy to use in class. Remember that you need to
clear your topics and audience for your autobiographical essay with me by the
10th.
For Thursday,
September 12: Draft workshop of the first
essay.
For Tuesday,
September 17: Your first essay is due by
midnight September 17. Read the three
Richard Bausch pieces in the Modules section of Canvas in this order: “What
Feels Like the World,” first published in The Atlantic, October 1985;
“The Composition of ‘What Feels Like the World”; and “A Memory and a Sorrow,
for Bobby,” which will be published this summer by Knopf in a new story
collection. Richard will join us.
For Thursday,
September 19: Read “Shooting
an Elephant,” by George Orwell, and “What a College Degree Meant to Me and
My 6-Year-Old,” by Stepanie Land. The
latter is in the Modules section of Canvas.
For Tuesday,
September 24: Read “How I Became a Socialist,” by E.V.
Debs, and “Why I am a Conservative,” by Justin Naylor. Both are in the Modules “Essays”
section.
For Thursday,
September 26: Respond to the second Discussion
Board prompt in Canvas by 11pm Wednesday, September 25. Read Politico’s seven
responses to the killing of George Floyd.
Think about how you yourself have responded to large, politically-charged
events.
For Tuesday,
October 1: Find one, significant online
political essay, and send me the link sometime Monday, September 30. I’ll link it to our Web page, and we’ll
discuss a collection of your choices on Tuesday.
For Thursday,
October 3: Read the two Jean Ho pieces in the Modules section.
Bring your questions and observations to class.
For Tuesday,
October 8: Bring two copies of the draft
of your politics essay to class for a workshop.
For Thursday,
October 10: No class meeting. Have your political essay to me, attached to
an email addressed to ruppel@chapman.edu,
by midnight. If possible, send it as a
Word or text document. Don’t send a link
to a Google doc or use Pages (the Apple word processor).
For Tuesday,
October 15: Read Oliver Sacks’s “Altered
States: Self-Experiments in Chemistry.” This is a link to the original New Yorker
article. If you can’t access it, you can
find it in our Canvas Modules section, with the Health Essays.
For Thursday,
October 17: Read Katie Butler’s “What
Broke My Father’s Heart.” This is a
link to the original New York Times article. Again, if you can’t access it, you can find
it in our Canvas Modules section, with the Health Essays. Respond to the Canvas discussion question by
sometime Wednesday, October 16.
For Tuesday,
October 22: Read “The Abyss: Music and Amnesia,” by Oliver Sacks. It’s in the Canvas Modules section, with the Health Essays.
Choose a topic for your health-related essay. We’ll mull over your topics in class. And if you know of other health-related essays
we might read together, send them to me.
For Thursday,
October 24: Read “A
Bolt from the Blue,” another story by Oliver Sacks, but this one has a
happy ending. It’s also in the Canvas
Modules section, with the Health Essays. Settle on
your health-related essay topic.
For Tuesday,
October 29:
Read “The
Gender Gap in Pain,” by Laurie Edwards. It’s also in the Canvas Modules
section, with the Health Essays. Continue to work on your essays. We’ll have a writing workshop on Halloween
Thursday.
For Thursday, October 31: Writing workshop. Feel free to dress appropriately.
For Tuesday,
November 5:
If you haven’t voted already, VOTE! And read “Who
Gets to Play in Women’s Leagues?” by S. C. Cornell, which brings together
the themes of our first three units: autobiography, politics, and health. As usual, if the New Yorker link
doesn’t work, the essay is in the Modules section of Canvas, in the Eclectic
Essays section. The last essay may be on any topic that interests you: food,
sports, games, films, the environment, almost any topic might work. It just
requires a personal component, but this can be relatively minor. Or you can expand an earlier essay, but you
will need to clear that with me. Look
for model essays concerned with your topic and send them to me for everyone to
read.
For Thursday,
November 7: Read “This Old Man,”
by Roger Angell, one of the 20th century’s great sports writers.
As usual, it’s also available in the Modules section of Canvas, along with the
other Eclectic Essays.
For Tuesday,
November 12: Read “Coming
Home Again: What a son remembers best when ail that is left are memories”
by Chang-rae Lee. It’s also available in the Modules section of Canvas, along
with the other Eclectic Essays. This is a long, beautifully written tribute to
his Korean mother. Bring your ideas for
your last essay to share with classmates.
If you hope to expand an earlier essay, be prepared to explain what you
will revise and add.
For Thursday,
November 14: No class. Settle
on your last essay topic and be prepared to clear your topic with me by
November 19. Respond to the last
Discussion prompt in Canvas.
For Tuesday,
November 19:
Bring as much of your final essay to class as you have—at least an introductory
paragraph. One or more of your
classmates and I will look it over and give suggestions.
For Thursday,
November 21:
Optional workshop. Bring your essays and
notes to class for classmates and me to look over and discuss.
For Tuesday, December
3: Bring a
finished draft of your final paper to class for a peer review workshop.
George
Orwell (1903-1950)
·
Brief
video
biography of Orwell from “School of Life,” 2016.
·
“Shooting
an Elephant,” 1936.
Joan Didion (1934-2021)
·
PBS tribute to Didion
after her death in 2021, at the age of 87, from Parkinson’s.
Anne Lamott (1954)
·
A Ted talk by Anne
Lamott.
·
A recent interview.
Amy Tan (1952)
·
Writing from personal
experience.
·
A quick PBS piece on Amy
Tan’s mother and her effect on Tan’s writing.
Eugene V.
Debs (1855-1926)
·
Brief video about the
Eugene V. Debs museum on the campus of Indiana State
University.
Justin
Naylor
·
Braver
Angels Website.
Richard
Branson
·
Blog
post on the death penalty.
Beth Macy
·
NYT op/ed on J. D. Vance and how each Macy and Vance characterize
the problems of their rural Ohio origins.
Carol
Hanisch
·
The
original “The
Political is Personal” essay, from 1969, with a 2006 update.
Dennis Fox
·
Border Lines and Border
Regions
Tonya Allen
·
LA
Times interview.
Oliver Sacks
·
Video about Clive
Wearing.
·
Sacks
discussing
his schizophrenic brother.
Chang-rae
Lee
·
A
charming interview by
Ann Patchett.