Redesign of ENG-112 course
Notes

Theories
Don’t fix your writing. Fix your writing process.

• Avatar exercise o We learn about focusing on audience by inventing various audience profiles – avatars – early in the semester. o Developed through a small group exercise. Goal is to have 4-5 profiles. o All are smart and serious. o Otherwise they differ: on level of experience, background, familiarity with a given subject, profession, age and other demographics. o Students choose an avatar that they will specifically address in every piece of writing.

• No theme o Students pick topics for papers o Provide list of suggested topics o Encourage them to have a few topics in mind from the beginning of the semester. o I reserve the right to rule out certain topics for reasons that may seem unfair. i.e. No papers on steroids. o Have one topic reserved for class examples, consistently throughout. o Topics must be serious and of national or global importance. o Must appeal to most or all of our avatars.

• Workshops o Every class is a workshop, and I am involved and lead them. More guidance and comment from me on their actual writing. o The purpose of the workshop is to push them to develop their ideas. o Ask Ilene in general how her workshops work. o Learn to work the projector. o Students submit a work for the whole class in advance by email attachment. Everyone prints their own to bring to class. o The whole class comments on it, and so do I. o The author always/habitually guides the reader to focus on certain issues. o 20 students. Approx. 20 class meetings in play. (Minus first and last weeks and holidays and minus days when no writing assignments.) o 2 students per day. Everyone will go twice. With dropouts, many will go 3 times. o Often it will be just on an exercise. Need to design those better to make them worth a workshop. More about the quality of writing. o 6 days workshopping major assignments in current set up. 12 students covered that way. Could try to expand the level of drafting that is brought to class. o Don’t worry about fairness. I reserve the right to shift the schedule around to line up certain students on certain days.

• Attitude adjustment o Imitate how I myself actually work as a writer. Do a lot of writing and note taking. Write messily. o Make them develop their ideas first and then bring mechanical issues in line. o Make it about getting excited about the ideas. o Less jargon and technique and practicality. Make them want to learn technique and practicality in order to make the arguments they’re passionate about.

• Major assignments o Need to start from scratch on #1 and #2. Paper #3 is probably fine.

|Week |Monday |Wednesday |
|1 | | | | |
|2 | |No class – Labor Day | |AB |
|3 | |CD | |EF |
|4 | |GH | |IJ |
|5 | |KL | |MN |
|6 | |OP | |QR |
|7 | |ST | |AB |
|8 | |CD | |EF |
|9 | |GH | |IJ |
|10 | |KL | |MN |
|11 | |OP | |QR |
|12 | |ST | |AB |
|13 | |CD | |No class – Thanksgiving |
|14 | |EF | |GH |
|15 | | | | |
|16 | |Finals Week |