Days:  MTWThF                                              Instructor: Matthew Lambert

Time: 3:00-4:20 PM                                       Office:  Wean 1315

Location:  Wean 4709                                     Email:  mmlamber@andrew.cmu.edu

Office Hours: Tuesdays & Wednesdays,

4:30-5:30 (or by appointment)

 

76-101   Pittsburgh: The Landscape of a City

Named “most livable city” by magazines like Forbesand The Economist, the city of Pittsburgh has experienced a dramatic renaissance from a smoke-filled industrial center that lost half of its population after its mills closed down in the 1970s and 80s to a “hot” destination for young professionals, particularly those associated with what urban theorist, Richard Florida, call the “creative class.”  What accounts for this resurgence?  What issues have arisen in its wake?  How can we ensure a more socially- and environmentally-stable future for the city?

In this course, we will focus on social and environmental issues concerning Pittsburgh, including gentrification, “green” urban design, natural gas “fracking,” and combined sewer overflow.  To examine these issues, students will learn strategies that will help them analyze and synthesize the various positions and approaches to them, eventually contributing their own argument to a debate of their choosing. Furthermore, the course will include one or two walking field trips to places near CMU like Panther Hollow Lake, which will help illustrate the major issues and problems we will address. The course will also encourage students to explore Pittsburgh through off-campus assignments that offer students chances to visit “places of interest” in the community, particularly those that pertain to these issues.

Course Books

None.  Readings available on Canvas.

Suggested:  Birkenstein, Cathy and Graft, Gerald.  They Say, I Say: The Moves that Matter in Academic Writing

Course Goals

• To guide students through rhetorical practices that involve analyzing, synthesizing, and contributing to relevant and controversial argumentative issues.
• To model and reinforce the complex structure and intention of community by situating students as responsible community members, both fair and critical in their representation of and responses to the ideas of others.
• To help students learn and use the norms/strategies (not formulas) of college-level argumentation and composition. This includes practicing academic writing as both a process and product.  It is a process in that it involves reflection, drafting, revision (and more revision), and a product in that it must eventually reach a stopping point.  (Note: Even though you will turn in papers to me in a finalized product form for a grade, I hope you will continue rethinking and revising your ideas and your use of rhetorical strategies in these papers after the class ends.)

Course Objectives

In addition to the course “goals,” I hope you will be able to understand and perform the following rhetorical practices and the “objectives” they underscore:

Argument Summary and Analysis

• Employ rhetorical strategies that help demystify academic reading and writing.
• Break down complex arguments into their component parts, including conclusion, subconclusions, and premises (stated as well as unstated), and visually representing them in both map and prose form.
• Synthesize an argument’s component parts into an interpretation that seeks to critically analyze and evaluate its particular and general effectiveness.

Synthesis and Contribution

• Identify other important component of an argument, including its claims, grounds, and warrants.
• Develop a set of questions that attempts to create the synthesized parameters of a debate on a particular issue.
• Place a group of authors into conversation with and against each other by matching and differentiating their stated and unstated assumptions.
• Find a critical gap in the approaches of others from which to contribute a new or varying argumentative perspective on a pressing issue.
• Employ and respond to the ideas of others to support a meaningful argument.

Writing Process

• Practice the steps important for effective academic writing, including (but not limited to) planning, prewriting, drafting, revision, and editing.
• Design and plan a fluid approach to use in future academic and professional writing.
• Make revisions in drafts at both the local and global level.
• Take into consideration a reader’s experience and needs when deciding how to develop a written argument.
• Evaluate and incorporate feedback from peers to revise your own writing; also, provide critical and detailed feedback to others.
• Communicate with peers in ways that produce meaningful ideas for both the critique and production of written texts.

Class Participation

It’s imperative that you complete all assigned homework/reading and come prepared to participate in class.  You are expected to contribute to general class discussions, to contribute to small group discussions, to seek feedback from other class members on work in progress, and to provide thoughtful feedback to other class members on their work.  Being prepared for this class includes paying close attention to the assignments for each class, doing the homework, and bringing relevant materials with you to class. Good class participation should include listening and taking notes in class lectures as well as in class discussion and group work.  In this class, we build the knowledge that we need for reading and writing tasks over time and in discussion.  As we take notes and put ideas in our own language, we build upon our previous knowledge to develop toward more sophisticated knowledge that will ultimately help us write better papers and become better communicators.

You will be graded on class participation.  I will base the grade on a self-evaluation given to you two times during the semester.  In this self-evaluation, you will try to convince me how much and how well you participate in class.

Attendance and Lateness

Since this is a small discussion class, attendance is mandatory. The reason this class has an attendance policy is so that we practice what we preach—that academic texts are built in collaboration with other readers and writers and not in isolation, and that academic authors are responsible to a community of knowledge makers.

Since we are under such a compressed schedule, you are allotted two absences in this class without penalty—once you miss your third class, your grade in the class will begin to drop by a half-a-letter grade per absence. Treat this attendance policy like a “personal” or “sick day” policy you might find in a workplace. In other words, these absences usually occur because of minor illnesses or schedule conflicts (e.g., a delayed Monday morning flight after a weekend holiday).

Please arrive on time.  Lateness not only disrupts the class but also shows a good deal of disrespect for your peers and for your instructor.   If lateness becomes a problem, we will need to talk. If you are more than 20 minutes late to class, you may be marked absent—talk to me after class if you think that you were late for unavoidable reasons.

Plan ahead if you think you might miss class for religious holidays or for other scheduled events.  You need to plan your semester carefully so that you do not use all of your personal/sick days at once.

In the case of university-sanctioned activities (e.g., athletics or a course-specific trip that takes you out of town), you must provide documentation for these absences so that they do not count against your final grade.

If you have extenuating circumstances that could affect your attendance throughout the semester (such as illness, athletics, or a family emergency), it is your responsibility to notify me about your situation and to get some sort of authoritative documentation to excuse your absences. I often cannot keep track of excuse notes from Health Services—if you are sick one day with a minor illness (e.g., flu, cold), then you should consider this absence as one of your two allotted absences.  However, if you have an extended or recurring struggle that will cause absences throughout the semester, you need to provide documentation so that I can make the attendance policy more flexible for your situation. This kind of documentation should originate from the Dean’s office, typically, because in these circumstances a student’s academic advising team is coordinating communication with all of his or her faculty.  Notes from family doctors are insufficient for documenting extenuating circumstances.

If you miss a class meeting, you are responsible to contact your peers for materials and information we discussed in class. Missing a class is no excuse for not completing the homework.  Likewise, I expect you to have read the assigned readings and to be ready to discuss them, even if you were absent the class before. Each of our readings is immediately relevant to the course’s three major writing assignments, so consider the reading just as important as any written homework you have.

Academic Integrity

At Carnegie Mellon, we believe in the excellence of our students and in the integrity of our academic programs.  We also believe that your good ideas become better when you test them against the ideas of others.  At the same time, we believe that acknowledging this kind of collaboration with others is an important aspect of membership in an academic community.  In this course, the following kinds of collaboration and assistance are permitted: a) in-class collaboration such as group work, pair work, class discussion, and peer review; b) discussing your ideas regarding the three major assignments with other students; c) graded peer reviews; d) assistance provided by Academic Development, the

Global Communication Center, and the Academic Resource Center. Any collaboration or assistance of these types should be acknowledged in writing; we will discuss how to incorporate such acknowledgments in your writing in this course.   Also within this course, it is imperative that you discuss with me when it is appropriate to use your writing from a completed assignment (from either this class or from another one) within a new writing task.  University policy is clear that students cannot use text from a graded assignment from one course for another assignment in another course without discussing your decision making with your instructors.

Collaborating on homework assignments is not acceptablebecause those types of assignments are designed for me, your instructor, to monitor how you are handling specific parts of the course materials.  Blatantly taking someone else’s words, ideas or concepts, and using them without citing your source is plagiarism.  So is using another student’s essay or homework, or part of his or her essay or homework, as your own.  In the world of writing (academic writing especially), this is a serious offense and is treated as such.  Anyone who uses non-documented material from another source, including work by other students as well as online sources, could receive a failing grade for the entire course and could be referred to the Dean’s office for further disciplinary action. If you want to understand how to relate the concept of integrity to our community standards and how to understand university procedures for maintaining our community’s standards, go to this url:  http://www.studentaffairs.cmu.edu/dean/acad_int/index.html

Norms for Fair Use of Gendered Language 

In this class, we take a “normative” view of language and standards.  This view means that we use language to meet the expectations of a community of readers who share particular values about how we represent the world in our texts. In other words, we use standards in order to create particular effects for our readers.  If we want to communicate professionalism, we use a style guide for our academic writing.  If we want to communicate that we are writing with precision, we use conventions such as appropriate verb tenses.  To that end, I encourage you to use gendered pronouns in this class to create particular effects, especially the effect of “gender balance” or fairness. The emerging convention for using gendered pronouns is that we should write in a style that includes both the feminine and masculine.  The National Council of Teachers in English (NCTE) gives us these examples on their website http://www.ncte.org/positions/statements/genderfairuseoflang:

• Avoid exclusionary forms such as
  • If a student studies hard, he will succeed.
• Choose inclusionary alternatives
  • If a student studies hard, he or she will succeed.
  • If a student studies hard, she or he will succeed.
  • Students who study hard will succeed.

Meeting Deadlines

All written assignments must be submitted on the due date, by the beginning of class. Lateness will be dealt with as follows:

• Rough drafts. For every day that a rough draft is late, you will be subject to a1 point deduction on it—unless you make prior arrangements with me as well as your group. If you do not submit a rough draft, I cannot grade a final draft, since drafting is a crucial step in the process of writing.  A rough draft is considered late if not submitted before the class in which it is due.
• Final drafts. For every day that a final draft is late, you will be subject to a third of a letter grade (3 points) deduction on it.  A final draft is considered late if not submitted by time set by instructor.
• Class work. I do not generally accept late daily assignments or quizzes unless you are absent on the due date for an excused reason.
• Homework assignments: I generally do not accept late homework assignments. If you cannot attend class, please email or send your work in with another student.  If you cannot send it by email or through another student because of extenuating circumstances (e.g. illness, emergency, etc.) you will need to contact me when you can to explain the situation.

Essay Extensions

Everyone has one extension pass good for up to two days. The extension is only good for final drafts of essays and must be requested by email48 hours before the essay is due.  If you request an extension and end up turning the final draft in on time, I will return the extension pass back to you.

Points of Interest Assignment

You will be asked to visit at least three points of interest in Pittsburgh over the term.  Two of these places can be in Oakland, but one must be outside of the neighborhood.  While visiting each place, I would like you to take a picture (cell phone cameras are fine) of the location unless photography is prohibited.  After your visit, I would like you to write a one-page description of your experience, reflecting on how what you saw connects to class readings or discussions.  I will provide a handout with names and addresses of these points of interests. Some will be near campus but others will require public or private transportation.

In-class Writing

To make sure that you are keeping up with the assigned reading, we will do short timed-writing assignments periodically during the term in which you will briefly respond to a question I pose about the reading(s).  These assignments will not be announced ahead of time, so make sure that you come to class prepared.   I will take these up and grade them for how effectively you respond to the question.

Extra Credit

There are two opportunities for extra credit.  First, you can visit one more point of interest outside of Oakland and turn in 1-page response for 5 points added to your total points.  Second, you can make an appointment at the GCC to go over one of your drafts.  You can visit the GCC to receive extra credit once for each essay.  For each visit, I will add 2 points to the final essay you received help on.

Cell Phones, Laptops, and Other Related Technologies

By the time class starts, all electronics (cell phones, laptops, tablets, etc.) should be turned off and put away unless you have documentation from Equal Opportunity Services or the Dean’s Office that an electronic device is necessary for your learning.  Cell phones and laptops are particularly distracting to members of the class, including me.  Please jot down notes,due dates, and reminders in your notes to enter into your cell phone/tablet/laptop later.  There will be certain days in which you will be able to bring a laptop. I will inform you of these dates as they approach in the semester.  All readings should be printed and brought to class as a hard copy.

Religious Observance

If you have a conflict between a religious holiday and a graded assignment, please contact me in advance so that we can make appropriate arrangements.

Support for Academic and Professional Literacy Development

During the semester (and across your undergraduate years), you may find that you would like to pursue extra support for your writing. You can find support for your writing at the following places:

• Make appointments or go for walk-in tutoring with Academic Development, which is located in Cyert Hall. This office also provides walk-in peer tutoring for 76-101 some weeknights in the Donner and Mudge Reading Rooms. You can learn more about them here: http://www.cmu.edu/acadev/
• Consider visiting the Global Communication Center, which will provide support for communication practices (including written, visual, and oral communication) across the disciplines. The Center’s services will be temporarily located in the Facilities Management Services building (FMS) at the beginning of the semester.  Toward the end of the Fall 2012 semester, the Center should be operating from the first floor of the Hunt Library.  For more information, please contact the GCC at GCC-CMU@andrew.cmu.edu.
• If you are a multilingual student, you may also seek support at the Intercultural Communication Center, which is located on the third floor of Warner Hall. You can learn more about them here:  http://www.cmu.edu/icc/.  You may also seek support with the two other resources listed above.

Learning Disability

If you have a learning disability that could impair your progress in this course, please contact Larry Powell at Equal Opportunity Services on campus (http://hr.web.cmu.edu/dsrg/students.htm).  We can arrange to accommodate your learning needs based on EOS recommendations. Please notify Equal Opportunity Services at the semester’s beginning of your learning disability.  Do not wait until the semester becomes overwhelming to acknowledge the problem, as oftentimes it becomes too late to accommodate your needs.

Communicating Through Email

Emailing about coursework is a type of formal communication.  Be sure to include a salutation (e.g. “Hello Matt/Dr. Lambert,”) and a signature (your first name is fine).  Use appropriate language and proofread your emails—mechanical errors can cause readers—in this case, me—to misunderstand your message or question your ethos/credibility. 

Distributing Course Materials beyond the Boundaries of Our Course

If you wish to distribute course materials to individuals or entities not enrolled in this course, including but not limited to the syllabus, low and high stakes assignments, and other notes I may provide in our course, you must obtain my written permission.  If you need to tape or record classroom activities, you may do so for personal use or for all students presently enrolled in the class. However, you may not further copy, distribute, publish or otherwise use that recording for any other purpose without my express written consent.  Violating these policies could result disciplinary action through the University.

Major Assignments

Argument Analysis Assignment (AAA)                                   90

Argument Synthesis Essay (Synth)                                       100

Contribution Essay (Contrib)                                                 110

Minor Assignments

Pretest                                                                                     3

Marginalia                                                                                2

AAA intro                                                                                 3

AAA body paragraph                                                               3

Synth intro                                                                               3

Synth body paragraph                                                             3

AAA draft                                                                                 3

Synth draft                                                                               3

Contrib proposal                                                                      3

Contrib intro                                                                             3

Contrib body paragraph                                                           3

Contrib draft                                                                             3

Other

Points of Interest                                                                     15

Class participation                                                                   15

Final presentation                                                                      6

Total:                                                                                            371

Point Ranges for Letter Grades

90 – 100% = A             80 – 89% = B               70 – 79% = C               60 – 69% = D   below 60% = R

Rubric for minor assignments.

Blackboard Postings (5 and 3 point assignments)
3: excellent	2: acceptable	1: poor
The assignment criteria have been met thoughtfully and with insight.  Assignment is well planned and articulated with convincing detail.There are no mechanical errors.	The assignment criteria have been met, and there is evidence of effort and thought in this assignment, however there may be a minor problem with completion of task.	The assignment criteria may have been met, but these assignments do not move beyond broad generalizations. The work is hard to read or presented sloppily.

Tentative Schedule

Week 1

Monday:  Introductions, Syllabus

Tuesday:  Rd. Mumford.  Diagnostic essay and marginalia assignment due.

Wednesday:  Rd. Muller.

Thursday:  TBA.

Friday:  Rd. Florida.  Rd.  AAA prompt

Week 2

Monday:  Memorial Day. No classes.

Tuesday:  Reread Florida. AAA Intro..

Wednesday:  Reread Florida. AAA Outline and Body Paragraph

Thursday:  AAA Rough Draft

Friday:  Conferences

Week 3

Monday:Field trip (Schenley Park)

Tuesday:  Final AAA essay due.  Watch Urbanized.

Wednesday:  Finish watching Urbanized.  Rd. Freeman.

Thursday: Rd. Hartley. Rd. Young.  Rd. Hayes.

Friday:  TBA.

Week 4

Monday:  Synthesis Intro.

Tuesday:  Synthesis Outline and Body paragraph.

Wednesday:  Synthesis Rough Draft.

Thursday:  Synth Conferences

Friday:  Field Trip (Schenley Plaza and Staircase)  

Week 5

Monday:  Final Synth essay due.

Tuesday:  Contrib. proposal due.

Wednesday: Contrib intro.

Thursday:Contrib. outline and body section.

Friday:  Contrib draft.

Week 6

Monday:  Conferences.

Tuesday:  Field trip (TBA)

Wednesday:  Presentations

Thursday:  Presentations (cont.). Course wrap up.

Friday:  Final Contrib Essays Due.