Professor Richard McKee,Writing Coordinator
Description and Objectives:Advanced Writing for Artists is a seminar type composition course for superior writers. The course poses assignments, reading, and discussions that call for analysis, critical thinking, and creativity. While expository writing and some research are emphasized, creative non-fiction is also a focus. Students will read and write on a variety of topics from popular culture to current events to the arts--visual, musical, and literary. As part of the Liberal Arts curriculum, EN 251 poses some writing tasks relevant to the academic and professional needs of future artists and designers. Assignments may engage students in considering the ethical dimensions of creating art.
Attendance:
Students should attend every class on time and stay for the duration of the class, unless dismissed by the professor. Attendance is taken at the beginning of class. Tardiness is counted as an absence. Because background discussions, assignment guidelines, and quizzes take place often at the outset of class, arriving late is disruptive and disrespectful. Three (3) classes may be missed without penalty, but each absence after three is subject to penalty--the reduction of the final grade by one letter.
Supplies:
Students are required to purchase the textbooks -- Keys for Writers, by Anne Raimes; Common Culture, by Petracca and Sorapure; Triggerfish Twist, by Tim Dorsey. A notebook and pens are also a requirement and should be brought to every class meeting.
Attribution of Sources for Writing Assignments:
The intentional or unintentional use of another artist's or writer's words, ideas, images, intellectual property or research, without showing proper credit (documentation of the source) is called plagiarism. Plagiarism is dishonest, and even illegal in some contexts. Plagiarized assignments receive an F, and the guilty student could receive an F for the course. Expulsion from school is another, albeit rare, possibility. EN 251 will review the proper ways to document, to give credit where it is due and required. In short, any time and any place that you use anyone else's words, images, or ideas, you must inform your audience (readers) that you have borrowed the material, doing so in a clear and acceptable format.
Disabilities Accommodation:
The Ringling School makes reasonable accommodations for qualified people with documented disabilities. If you have a learning disability, a chronic illness, or a physical or psychiatric disability that may have some impact on your work for this class and for which you may need accommodations, please notify the Director of the Academic Resource Center (Goldstein 3; 359-7627) preferably before the end of the drop/add period so that appropriate adjustments can be made.
Grading:
The final grade is determined by the total number of points earned on various assignments. One hundred points are possible in the course. Ninety to 100 is an A. Eighty to 89 equals a B. Seventy to 79 is a C. Sixty to 69 results in a D, and less that 60 is an F. Assignments distribution may change during the course, but roughly it will adhere to the following:
Ten-point essays ---------- 60 points (10 points each,6 or 7, drop the lowest grade)
Documented essay -------- 20 points
Quizzes and short writings ------- 15 points (point values vary)
Final assessment ------- 5 points (mandatory)
All writing assignments worth ten points or more must be submitted for a grade or the student fails the course.
Criteria for judging writing is an ongoing process. Students perplexed over grades should not hesitate to discuss scores with the professor. Students may seek assistance on assignments from writing consultants in the Academic Resource Center. General assessment guidelines are as follows:
A - demonstrates excellent writing skills: appropriate and effective organization; clear and lively diction, and sentence structure; superior analytical techniques when called for; engaging use of figurative language when appropriate; flawless mechanics, including spelling and punctuation
B- demonstrates strong composition skills: good organization and clarity, with only minor flaws in diction, sentence structure, mechanics; adequate analytical skills overall; occasionally effective use of figurative language if appropriate; the goals of the assignment are accomplished overall
C- demonstrates competent composition skills: development of ideas is adequate, although some points may be unsupported; diction and syntax may be marginally effective; goals of the assignment seem minimally accomplished
D - demonstrates poor composition skills: lack of clarity and development; substandard diction, syntax, and mechanics seriously cloud meaning; goals of the assignment are erratically covered
F- demonstrates almost no writing skills: excessively flawed in organization, diction, syntax, mechanics, spelling; therefore clarity and development are marginal at best; goals of the assignment are not accomplished
Desired Student Outcomes in Advanced Writing:
At the end of EN 251 students will have demonstrated competency in various compositional modes, including creative non-fiction; the ability to write essays that exhibit a strong command of Standard English; the ability to write compositions that exhibit sound critical and analytical skills; the ability to read and articulate critical points about the arts, culture, and life; solid and broad research skills through the writing of a documented essay; the ability to analyze and write about a variety of topics within and outside of the visual arts.
Reminders:
No food or beverages are allowed in this classroom. Personal audio equipment such as CD players are not permitted in college computer labs. Cell phone ringers must be turned off. Persons in violation of these college policies can be dropped from the course and banned from labs, or worse.
If you have questions or problems that arise outside of class hours, you should email your professor: litwrit@comcast.net .