1ENG1100 KK: WORKSHOP IN ESSAY WRITING Fall 2020

Instructor: Aaron Kaiserman TA: Marisa Lewis

Email: akaiserm@uottawa.ca mlewi105@uottawa.ca
Office Hours: By Appointment
Lectures: Tuesdays 1:00-2:00 Online
Workshops: DGD1 Thurs 11:30-12:30 Online
DGD2 Thurs 11:30-12:30 Online

OUTLINE:
The course is intended to sharpen your existing essay-writing skills. To
that end, we will focus on grammar and style, reading analytically,
paragraphing, working from a topic to a thesis, research, and
documentation. Lectures will be organized around building your skills,
from the basics of style and grammar, to critical analysis and research, to
the development and structure of an argument, to the editing and revision
process. Workshops will be an opportunity to practice skills with in-class
exercises. A lot of time will be available for you to consult with your
instructor and TA on your assignments.

LEARNING OUTCOMES
By the end of the course, students will be able to work independently to
devise and sustain arguments using evidence derived from research and
the basic principles of logic; to write clearly, efficiently and correctly; to
recognize and work in an academic rhetorical context, and to adopt the
most effective written means for this context; to write with persuasiveness
under the pressure of time and other constraints; to recognize the limits of
their own knowledge; to tolerate and respond creatively to the uncertainty
and ambiguity of scholarly work and knowledge; to be aware of and
responsive to alternative points of view; and to recognize the collaborative
nature of knowledge production.
EVALUATION:
Pre-Course Survey Sept 10 1%
Grammar Exercises (each worth 2%) Dec 5 10%
Article Analysis Essay 750 Words Sept 26 10%
Summary and Paraphrase Exercise Oct 10 5%
Research and Citation Exercise Oct 17 5%
Annotated Bibliography Oct 24 5%
Critical Thinking Exercise Nov 7 5%
Thesis and Outline Nov 14 5%
Research Essay Consultation --------- 5%
Research Essay 1500-2000 words Dec 5 19%
Final Examination* (Between Dec 10 and 22) TBD 30%
*Please note that the final exam date is set by the department and cannot be changed.
Do not schedule travel for after the term until the date of the exam is announced.
DIAGNOSTIC EXERCISE: All students must write a diagnostic exercise at the
beginning of term. This is mandatory for all students in all sections of ENG1100 and
designed to assess whether a student has the potential to pass the course. While no grade
is awarded, any student who writes a weak diagnostic is strongly advised to drop
the course and/or seek remedial writing help.

REQUIRED TEXT
-Material will be provided on Brightspace.

COURSE POLICIES

 Attendance to ENG1100 is critical; infrequent attendees may see less detailed

comments on their assignments and will certainly suffer from missing important
information delivered in lectures and DGD workshops.

 Assignment Due Dates: All assignments are due on Brightspace by 11:59PM on

the date indicated. This will always be a Saturday (except for the pre-course
survey). I will accept emails in cases of technical difficulty. There is a late penalty of
5% per day.

 Students must submit both essays and the final exam in order to receive a
passing grade. Failure to submit either essay or the exam will result in a grade of
INC (incomplete) which is equivalent to an F.

 Academic Fraud: Forms of academic fraud include improper, missing, or made-up

bibliographical information; passing off others’ work as your own; turning in the
same assignment for more than one class; and collaborative efforts when
individual work is requested.
 DO NOT PLAGIARIZE. Violations of academic integrity are prohibited and if
detected may result in failure of the assignment, failure of the course, or
expulsion from the University. It is your responsibility to know what constitutes
academic fraud. More information can be found on the University of Ottawa’s
Academic Integrity Website:
https://www.uottawa.ca/vice-president-academic/sites/www.uottawa.ca.vice-
president-academic/files/academic-integrity-students-guide.pdf
 All students must attach an academic integrity document to their major
assignments. This form will be available in Brightspace.
 The materials you receive for this course are protected by copyright and are to be
used for this course only.
 You do not have permission to upload the course materials, including any
lecture recordings you may have, to any website. If you require clarification,
please consult your professor.
 Copyright infringement is a legal offence, which can lead to serious
financial and reputational consequences.
 Uploading course materials to a content sharing website can, in many cases,
be an instance of academic fraud, as well as copyright infringement. This
 could lead to failure of a course, suspension, or even expulsion. Instances of
academic fraud are also often included on a student’s transcript, and this will
follow them for life.

 Email Policy: I am always available to answer questions via email. I tend to reply
quickly, but please allow me at least 48 hours to respond before contacting me
again to check on the status of your query. Be respectful in your emails. That
means, for example, providing a suitable subject line for your email, addressing me
appropriately, and signing off with your name. It also means first consulting the
syllabus to see if it answers your question for you before you send your email.
Please allow me a reasonable amount of time to respond to your emails. If you have
any concerns, voice them well ahead of time to ensure that I receive the email soon
enough.

 Distance Learning: ENG1100 was designed as a hands-on interactive course with a

lot of writing practice. Naturally, adapting to an online mode affects the ability to
deliver course objectives. We will discuss the mechanics of lectures and DGDs in the
first days of class. I have put the following adaptations in place to help you get the
most out of the course:

 Students will fill out a questionnaire at the beginning of the semester to

outline their preparedness for distance learning so that we can make
necessary and reasonable adjustments.
 The course will use a combination of synchronous and asynchronous
learning methods. Zoom lectures are standard, but some material may be
delivered as video, and there will be opportunity to use writing platforms
including Brightspace chat.
 Lectures will be roughly one hour long instead of an hour and twenty
minutes.
 DGD groups will be divided into study buddies. You are encouraged to
communicate regularly with your buddies: make friends, share ideas, and
provide constructive feedback on assignments.
 Some DGD meetings may take place outside of regularly scheduled class
times if more convenient for students (see the questionnaire).
 Please see the “Netiquette” Document in Brightspace for some guidance on
how to navigate online learning appropriately and responsibly.
 We are all struggling to keep up with the technology involved. I can answer
basic questions about terminology and functions. Please ask me to clarify
terms as necessary. Contact the University help desk for technical support,
including managing logins and passwords: https://it.uottawa.ca/

 Tech Overload: Note that while you may feel writing notes on a computer or other device may be
most convenient, studies show that students retain more information when taking written
notes:

Mueller and Oppenheimer postulate that taking notes by hand requires different types of
cognitive processing than taking notes on a laptop, and these different processes have
consequences for learning. Writing by hand is slower and more cumbersome than typing, and
 students cannot possibly write down every word in a lecture. Instead, they listen, digest, and
summarize so that they can succinctly capture the essence of the information. Thus, taking
notes by hand forces the brain to engage in some heavy “mental lifting,” and these efforts
foster comprehension and retention. By contrast, when typing students can easily produce a
written record of the lecture without processing its meaning, as faster typing speeds allow
students to transcribe a lecture word for word without devoting much thought to the content.
(https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/a-learning-secret-don-t-take-notes-with-a-laptop/)

Naturally, trying to pay attention in class while texting, watching videos, gaming, etc, is
even less conducive to effective learning. All slides will be made available on
Blackboard.

BASIC PREPARATION: As a matter of course, you are expected to

1. Attend all lectures

2. Complete the scheduled readings beforehand
3. Arrive to workshops prepared for discussion

FORMATTING: Your papers must conform to the following specifications and there
will be an automatic deduction of up to 1% per assignment for EACH of the
following rules that is violated. In other words, if you violate every one of these rules,
you could lose 14% on the assignment.

Note that some of these won’t apply to digitally-submitted assignments, but it’s useful to
keep them in mind should in-person learning return:
 Times New Roman font
 12-point font
 Double-spaced
 Single-sided printing
 White, unlined 8½ x 11-inch paper
 One-inch margins (sides, top, and bottom)
 Pages stapled together in the upper left corner
 Free of penciled-in corrections
 With no extra spaces between paragraphs
 The title of the assignment (one that reflects the paper’s contents, not just
“Essay” or “Title of the Work I’m Writing On”) must be at the top of the first
page
 Student name, course name and section, instructor’s name, and date of
submission must be included in a header on the first page
 DO NOT INCLUDE TITLE PAGES
 DO NOT PUT SUBMITTED PAPERS INSIDE A FOLDER
MLA and APA style are the only correct styles for this class. DO NOT USE
FOOTNOTES OR ENDNOTES FOR CITATION! Rules for documentation and
formatting can be found on the OWL Purdue website.

ASSIGNMENT DETAILS
GRAMMAR EXCERCISES (2% each):

There will be 5 exercises, each worth 2 marks. Exercises are based on grammar presentations given in
lecture. You will have the opportunity to discuss the exercises with your DGD leader in class before
submitting the assignment. All grammar exercises can be completed any time before December 7.

ARTICLE ANALYSIS (750 words, 10% of final mark):

You will be expected to summarize and analyze one article. You will have to demonstrate
that you understand the argument of the essay while also explaining the logic and
effectiveness of its style and structure. Chiefly, you will

 Summarize the argument and key points of the article

 Describe its rhetorical strategies, including how the ideas are organized
 Identify the larger implications of the argument

A more detailed set of instructions will be available via Brightspace.

CRITICAL THINKING EXERCISE (5% of final mark)

Building on the article analysis, you will respond to some questions related to the
selected article. These questions are designed to test and develop your ability to think
critically and to defend your position with evidence and examples.

SUMMARY AND PARAPHRASE EXERCISE (5%)

This assignment will test your ability to isolate key information, condense it, and to
properly format borrowed material.

RESEARCH AND CITATION EXERCISE (5%)

This assignment will give you practice in identifying valid sources, incorporating them
into your own writing, and citing them properly. Please read the corresponding essay
linked in Brightspace ahead of time.

RESEARCH ESSAY (1500-2000 words, 20% of final mark):

Research essay topics will be distributed partway through the semester. The paper will
ask you to perform research on a chosen topic and to develop an analytical argument.
Students must make meaningful engagement with a minimum of three (3) scholarly
sources on the author(s) and/or text(s) chosen. You must write on one of the assigned
topics or receive a mark of 0 on the assignment. Alternative topics may be discussed with
me beforehand. A handy essay writing guide is linked on the Brightspace page for
this course.

This paper must have a thesis (a central insight, a main point around which you organize
the essay) that answers the question(s) being asked of you. You are expected to engage
with research on a regular basis and perform reasoned analysis to advance your thesis:
cite specific details and passages, and use them to help develop a coherent, structured,
and persuasive argument.

To give you a head start and some direction on the research paper, you will have two
preparatory assignments, the annotated bibliography and thesis and outline assignments.

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY (5% of final mark):

You must locate and summarize 3 potentially relevant sources for your final paper and
document them correctly. You will be graded on the quality of the sources and
annotations, as well the accuracy of the citations. Further details will be posted in a
separate document on Blackboard.

THESIS STATEMENT AND OUTLINE (5% of final mark):

Good writing and good arguments take a lot of preparation and thought. You will
therefore be required to sharpen your thesis and the structure of the paper well in advance
of the due date for the final assignment. Further details will be posted in a separate
document on Brightspace.

ESSAY CONSULTATION (5% of final mark):

Prior to submitting your final essay, you will discuss your ideas and/or a rough draft with
your DGD leader, either during DGD periods or separately scheduled meetings. See
Brightspace for a link to a spreadsheet detailing these meeting times (10-minute blocks:
you may book additional time if you like.)

FINAL EXAMINATION (30% of final mark):

There will be a written final exam at a date and time yet to be determined by the university.

WRITING HELP

If you are struggling for whatever reason, contact me and I will help if that is possible and appropriate.
If your problems are academic ones, there are also two forms of writing assistance available to you.
One is the Arts Writing Centre in MHN 526. You may book an appointment in person at the centre,
or online at arts.uottawa.ca/writingcentre/en/tutor-schedules. The other is the Academic Writing Help
Centre, which is a service provided by Student Academic Success Services. This is in Room 119 at
110 University Street: http://www.sass.uottawa.ca/writing/ ; email: awhc@uOttawa.ca ; tel. 613-562-
5601. However, students’ with EAL difficulties should go to the Official Languages and Bilingualism
Institute (located at MHN 130). For EAL/OLBI help, contact olbi@uOttawa.ca or 613-562-5743.
(Please note also the short but illuminating EAL section in BGW, pp, 499-508).
 SCHEDULE OF LECTURES
W Date LECTURE (Tuesday) DGD (Thursday) Readings
E and Assignments
E
K
1 Sep 10 Pre-Course Survey
NONE Course Intro

2 Sep 15/17 What is Academic writing? Brené Brown on

Discuss Article Analysis Gun Reform
Parts of Speech: Nouns, Pronouns,
Articles, Verbs, Adjectives, READ Brené Brown on
Adverbs Gun Reform

Review purposes of writing Sample analysis and discussion #1

Methods of Development
Logos, ethos, and pathos

3 Sep 22/24 READ: Grumpy Cat article Grumpy Cat Article

Grammar Exercise #1
Parts of Speech: Prepositions, Article Analysis Due
Conjunctions, and
Conjunctive Adverbs

Sample analysis and discussion

#2:

4 Sep 29/
Oct 1 Direct vs Indirect speech, Grammar Exercise #2

Basic sentence structure.

Active and passive voice.

5 Oct 6/8 Punctuation Discuss Summary and Paraphrase Sample Bibliography

assignment.
Quoting, paraphrasing,
And summarizing
Summary and Paraphrase
Grammar Exercise #3 Assignment Due
Citation methods

6 Oct 13/15 Discuss Annotated Bibliography READ: “A Modest Proposal” Swift’s “Modest Proposal”

Performing, evaluating research. Discuss Research and Citation Critical Thinking Cheat sheet
Exercise
 Research and Citation
Exercise Due

7 Oct 20/22
Structuring an argument:
The End of 5-Paragaph Essays Discuss Annotated Annotated Bibliography
Bibliographies Due
Paragraphing
Transitions

8 Oct 27/29 NO CLASS NO CLASS

(READING
WEEK)
9 Nov 3/5
READ Orwell: Discuss Critical Thinking Critical Thinking Exercise
“Politics and the Exercise Due
English Language”
Orwell:
“Politics and the
English Language”

Nov 10/12 Common errors: Agreement, Grammar Exercise #4 Thesis and Outline Due
Dangling Constructions,
Fragments, Run-Ons;
Biased Language

Applying Research

10 Nov 17/19 Editing and Revising

Grammar Exercise #5
Style and Logic

11 Nov 24/26
ESSAY CONSULTATIONS ESSAY CONSULTATIONS

12 Dec 1/ 3 Research Essay Due

ESSAY CONSULTATIONS ESSAY CONSULTATIONS

13 Dec 8/10
EXAM REVIEW NO DGD TODAY

FINAL EXAMINATION: Date TBD

UNIVERSITY SEXUAL VIOLENCE POLICY

The University of Ottawa does not tolerate any form of sexual violence (i.e. any act of a sexual nature
committed without consent, such as rape, sexual harassment, or online harassment). The University, as
well as student and employee associations, offers a full range of resources and services allowing
members of our community to receive information and confidential assistance and providing for a
procedure to report an incident or make a complaint. For more information visit
http://www.uottawa.ca/sexual-violence-support-and-prevention/