Course philosophy:
I want this course to help prepare you for further writing in the world. Therefore, we'll
work on skills that I believe cross disciplines and jobs, skills that transfer well to
multiple writing situations. That means I'd like everyone to leave this class able to size
up a writing situation, decode the requirements, and choose to meet or not meet each of
those requirements. I want you to be able to find, use, and evaluate resources,
techniques, and feedback that can help you with your writing. To do this effectively, I
want you to direct and contribute to the content of this course.
And, while this isn't a course requirement, I hope you leave this course feeling that this
semester was productive for you (and if possible enjoyable). I will do my best to help
make that happen. I ask you to work with me and with the rest of the class to make this
course useful to you.
I also want you to have the space to explore and reflect upon how feminism and writing
intersect. Our senses of ourselves, our worldviews, our sense of audience, and our sense
of what writing is and what it is for: all of these are powerfully intertwined with
feminist issues. Writing is both a tool of expression and a tool of communication; both
functions are worth exploring as a topic of feminist inquiry.
We will do a fair amount of reading in this course. The reading mainly consists of
two types, which I will call here public and local. First, we will read short publicly
available pieces of writing, looking at them from the perspective of writers. We will
investigate what decisions the writer has made, what choices were available to her, and
what expectations/conventions were in play in the genre(s) she used. We will talk
extensively about audience, about how whom we write to and who we write as affects the
writing itself and its reception. This can be very different from the reading you are
asked to do in other classes. While I hope that the content of the readings is
interesting, our discussion and analysis will not focus on the content of the ideas in the
readings, but the production, presentation, and consumption of that writing. These public
readings will include short essays, website articles, magazines, poetry, and academic and
professional journals. We will use these as examples, ways to see what other writers have
done before us and to learn from what they have done.
Second, we will read "local" pieces: pieces written by people in the class. Here we will
again look at the choices the writer has available to her, the expectations/conventions of
the genre(s), and the effects of those choices. You will be giving feedback to others in
the class one-on-one, in small groups, online, and in full-class discussions. We will work
as a group to devise guidelines to make this feedback process as productive and generative
as possible for you, as writers and as readers.
We will also do a lot of writing. This writing will vary, from short unrevised
pieces (some of them done in-class) to longer pieces revised over several drafts. We will
work on writing for both feminist and non-feminist audiences, on writing focusing on
feminist issues and on writing that focuses on progressive issues but not primarily on
gender. You will do work on a wide range of writing, from some that is kept completely
private to writing that goes out to an audience beyond this class, from writing used for
classes or for work to writing used to express, to discover, to persuade, to explain or
enlighten.
I also want this class to be a space where you can explore issues and questions you have
about writing, as well as forms of writing you find useful, compelling, and interesting.
Within the context of what the university, the Women's Studies department, and I have as
hopes for this class, I believe it is crucial for us to discuss and incorporate as much as
possible what you hope for this class.
Class goals:
Generally speaking, and in no particular order, you need to be able to:
Required resources:
This course has a WebCT component. We'll talk more about this in class. For now, you
should know that you MUST have an OIT account at UMass in order to access this portion of
the class and fulfill some assignments. As we will be using WebCT extensively after next
week, if you don't already have an OIT account, you should go to OIT in Lederle to get one
as soon as possible.
You will need to access the WebCT course through a supported browser. OIT says:
Supported Browsers: WebCT 3.8
Netscape 4.76, 6.2.1, 6.2.2, and 6.2.3 (PC & Mac)
Internet Explorer 5.0 to 6.0, except 5.5 Service Pack 1 (PC)
Internet Explorer 5.0 and 5.1 (Mac OS 9.x)
Internet Explorer 5.1 (Mac OS 10.1)
AOL 7.0 (PC & Mac)
Assignments and assessment:
This class has several components:
- Feminist writing auto-ethnography, early drafts
- Resume and cover letter
- WebCT writing and discussion postings
The following are medium stakes projects: they will be given points based on criteria I give to you.
- Writer's notebook and reading journal, with progress reports and updates
- Genre conventions for each project; some of these will be done collaboratively. You should know that you must do these well to get all of the points for the other assignments.
- Resource listings and annotated bibliography
- Feminist writing auto-ethnography, final draft, and portfolio reflection
I'll give you a more detailed assessment (grading) policy Monday 9-8.
Administrative details:
Attendance:
Class time is designed not to include "busy work." It is my hope that, because you as
students are generating much of the class content, the class time will be helpful to you.
In addition, because this class is run as a workshop/presentation class, your presence is
needed for class to work. Attendance is therefore mandatory both at class meetings and at
conferences. You can miss a week of class time; during those absences you are responsible
for making arrangements with me to get that week's work done. After you miss a week of
class time, your grade will be affected.
If you have extraordinary circumstances (severe illness, etc., etc.) please let me know
sooner rather than later. (See below in the "Accommodations" section as well.) If you
have circumstances that you know will interfere with your ability to be in class, please
come and speak with me immediately so that we can figure out if this is the class for you.
Accommodations:
If there is anything I need to know to help this class work for you, please let me know as
soon as possible. For example, please tell me:
if you have a learning disability that we should be accommodating
if you're in a school activity which requires you to miss class time and which university
policy makes exceptions for (such as athletics)
Due-dates, extensions, late papers, etc., etc.:
I believe absolutely in keeping track of all your many responsibilities and noticing when
you foresee a week that seems impossible. In those cases, I believe in granting limited
extensions, provided that you ask for them well in advance.
In other words, if three weeks ahead of time, you tell me that you have two major tests the
week we have a big project due in this class, we can usually negotiate an extension of that
project due-date for you in this class. However, I am correspondingly strict with
due-dates when you haven't planned ahead. You can negotiate with me on these (subject to
constraints of the class). You can also hand in one high stakes assignment OR two
low/medium stakes assignments one class period late without having arranged an extension;
after that your grade will be reduced.
Contacting me:
You can call me at 577-1141 or come by Goodell 608 during my office hours (M 11:30 - 12:30,
W 2:00 - 3:00). Or you can email me at: cmdionne@english.umass.edu or through
WebCT (more
on that later in the class).
Please, no attachments and no viruses. (So don't email me to say: "my computer is down due
to a virus and so can I have an extension?")
You can come by during my office hours with or without an appointment.
Schedule
Attached is the schedule of the semester's work. Drafts will be due on Wednesdays unless I
tell you otherwise in class. Often we'll finish discussing a unit in class one week, and
the final draft of a unit will be due Wednesday the next week.