By Matthew Hitchman (Literature and Culture PhD, 2020)

Syllabus Philosophy

This class is designed as a genre translation sequence in which students spend the first four weeks of the quarter working to identify a research topic and producing a mini-report on that topic. During the next four weeks, they translate that mini-report into a genre of their choosing.

Like Sample Course 1 (Megan Butler’s), my courses tend to have “center of gravity” readings. For me, though, these texts serve as the theoretical language we will use throughout the quarter. One thing I always try to do in my comp classes is assign the students one “heavy” theory reading that forms the foundation for our class. I’ve found that one substantial and brief theoretical text is enough for a comp class. We spend the rest of the quarter using the ideas and concepts from this reading to inform and guide their work. I try to build in enough flexibility so that someone who hated or had too much trouble with the theory is still able to succeed in the class. This approach may be a good option for you if you are interested in spending a lot of time working through a theoretical text and having students experiment with theoretical concepts in their writing.

Assignments at a glance:

Intro: Mixtape Introduction (due end of Week 1)
SA1: Summary & Rhetorical Analysis (due end of Week 2)
SA2: Close Reading (due end of Week 3)
SA3: Bibliography (due end of Week 4)
MP1: Draft of Research Proposal (due end of Week 5)
MP1: Final Research Proposal (due end of Week 6)
SA4: Genre Study (due end of Week 7)
MP2: DRAFT Genre Translation (due end of Week 8)
MP2: FINAL Genre Translation (due end of Week 9)
Final Portfolio (due end of quarter)

Participation Assignment: Letter Writing Project (due throughout the quarter)