Writing-intensive course
Proposal form
[Sample completed proposal]
Please save
the following proposal form to a disk and fill in your responses. When you have completed the form, print it
out and attach it to the course description and syllabus of the course you wish
to propose as a writing-intensive course.
The course description must explain each writing assignment including
the required number of pages, assessment criteria, and provisions for revision
when appropriate. The description and
syllabus should reflect any revisions you have made to the course to meet the
writing-intensive guidelines.
Course number: Engl. 472
Course title: Readings in
Shakespeare
Instructor:
Will de Man
Semester offered: Spring 2002
1. Which
assignments for the course require formal prose? Please indicate the required number of pages for each assignment.
a) analytic
essay (5 pages)
b) final
scholarly essay (10 pages)
c) two
annotated bibliographies (roughly 5 pages each)
2. Which
of the formal writing assignments require multiple drafts?
a) analytic
essay
b) final
scholarly essay
3. How
will you provide substantive comments for revision of drafts on assignments
requiring multiple drafts? (For example, you might use individual conferences,
written comments, e-mail communications, etc.)
For both the
analytic essay and final scholarly essay, I will read students' drafts and
offer written comments for revision before students submit the final graded
version. See syllabus for dates and
procedures. I will also hold
"mini-conferences" during writing workshop when student peer groups
are responding to drafts.
4. How
will you build into the content of the course instruction in writing the formal
prose pieces?
The syllabus has
research days when we will go to the library to familiarize students with on-line
research resources. At the beginning of
each of these library sessions, I provide instruction in how to go about
researching and writing the final scholarly essay, including expectations and
strategies for writing. I have
scheduled time into the syllabus to explain how to do a close textual analysis
(for the analytic essay). We will also
use small group work as the semester progresses to practice analyzing
individual scenes in view of the whole play, something the analytic essay
requires. I have included a whole class
period during which we will look at examples of student research essays and
talk about strategies for addressing an audience with a particular purpose in
mind when writing a researched paper about Shakespeare.
5. What
kinds of informal writing will you use in the course? (For example, you might
use reading journals or logs, focus questions or discussion topics, short
in-class responses to lectures or readings, invention and pre-writing for
formal papers.)
a) focus
questions. Each day students will
design and bring to class one question on the assigned act or acts of the play
we will discuss that day. See syllabus.
b) in-class
freewriting to decide on a play to examine in the analytic essay, research
project, and final scholarly essay.
c) in-class
freewriting on each of the two days when annotated bibliographies are due to
focus thinking about the play the student is examining and to begin thinking
about an audience and purpose for the final piece. The second freewrite is intended as a pre-draft exploration of
thesis, audience, and purpose.
Sample
description & syllabus for above writing-intensive course
Writing-intensive
course guidelines
Writing-intensive
course procedure for approval