ENG 298C: Writing about Media & Society

Spring 2024 Meeting time and location

MGH 082 T/Th 9:00-10:20 am

(Photographs of a newspaper front page on the right, and an almanac on the left)

Contact

Instructor: Oya Rose Aktaş (she/they), Ph.D. Candidate

Email: oraktas@uw.edu

Office Hours: Thursdays after lecture (12:30-2:30) Padelford B-10 or Zoom

Course Description

Welcome! This is the writing course linked to Sociology 250 Media and Society, where a subset of students from the lecture class will work together under my guidance to develop our critical reading, planning & organizing, evidence analyzing, argument forming, audience identifying, feedback providing--in short, our writing skills. Every week we will write together, discuss others' writing, share writing strategies that are working well for us and ask for advice on writing challenges we are encountering. Regardless of your previous experiences with writing, by the end of this course you will be prepared to plan, research, produce, and present a writing project to academics working on the intersection of media and society, as well as to broader audiences contributing to and shaped by the media.

Course Goals (Learning Objectives)

• Drawing on readings and topics in sociology and related disciplines, this course will train you in
• selecting, evaluating, and analyzing sources
• providing and receiving feedback
• building an evidence-based argument
• paying attention to audience
• ensuring clarity in communication 
• As a writing-intensive class, this course will also guide you through recognizing that
• writing can take many forms at various stages–there is no right way to write
• the more you write, the easier it becomes
• writing is a process more so than it is a product

Course Structure

I have created a scaffolding that we will follow, and this course will also require us to decide on shared norms and expectations. We will discuss how we like to produce, digest, and share writing, and what we want to practice and avoid in our writing processes. Outside guests will help us identify campus resources to support us in our writing. The writing we produce in this course will take many forms, and you will get in the habit of turning in at least one piece of writing every week. You will vote on deadlines to which I will hold you accountable in order to provide structure for your writing.

Readings

All readings will be available through Canvas, and we will use Hypothesis to annotate readings in preparation for class discussion. Be prepared to discuss readings in class on Tuesdays. The only material I ask that you acquire for this course is a notebook that you can tear pages out of to turn into me. I will sometimes ask you to reflect on the readings on these pages and turn your writing in to me–you can read more about process writing below.

Assignments

Campus Mediascape Map (Due Week 2) ***

Visual Analysis (Due Week 5) 

Research Paper (Due Week 9)

Presentation (Week 10)

Based on our class vote, unless otherwise noted, assignments will be due at midnight Friday.

There will be three types of writing that you will turn in to me: process-oriented writing, community-oriented writing, and audience-oriented writing. The community writing will be either group projects you produce with others, or feedback that you provide to your peers. The process-oriented writing will be completed in class, and its main goals will be sharpening specific skills and clarifying your thinking. Some of the in-class writing we produce will be for your eyes only, and some you will turn in to help me get a sense of how everyone's process is going. The audience-oriented writing will be either sections, rough drafts, or the final drafts of the sequences we will be working through: the research paper, the op-ed, and the presentation.

Grading

Grading in this course is designed to reinforce that writing is a process, and to encourage you to train your focus on what you are putting into that process. We will use a labor-based grading contract, meaning that your grade will be based not on a subjective evaluation of quality, but instead on the number of assignments that you submit. Depending on the category of writing, the assignments will be evaluated as follows:

Process-oriented writing… 

…will be graded on a 0/1, incomplete/complete scale. This writing will be due during the class period in which it is assigned.

Community-oriented writing… 

…will be graded on a 0/1, incomplete/complete scale. Since others are depending on you with community-oriented writing, there is no grace period for late assignments.

Audience-oriented writing…

…will be graded on a 0/.5/1, incomplete/revise/complete scale. If you receive a .5/revise on this assignment, you will have 48 hours from the time you receive your grade to resubmit for a 1/complete. You may choose 1 assignment's final draft (research paper, op-ed, or presentation) for which you would like to get a 1 week extension. You must email me before the assignment is due, and do not need to give any explanation for why you are using the extension. If you miss the deadline for an audience-oriented writing assignment, you can turn it in within 48 hours for a 0.5 point deduction.

The grade breakdown will be as follows:

+/-: Based on your participation & my (inevitably subjective) evaluation of the quality of your submissions, I will determine whether to award you a + or - for the course. I will communicate with you before the end of the quarter so that you will know what to expect, and how to adjust your participation & submissions if you so choose. You can also use extra credit points to bypass my (inevitably subjective) evaluation.

To get an A, in addition to completing almost all of the assignments, you will also be required to do 1 extra credit assignment. You may make up 1 assignment in each category with extra credit. You may also complete an extra credit assignment to bump your grade to a +. You can earn credit for a maximum of 5 extra credit assignments.

Schedule Outline

Week 1 

Introductions, Community, Interviews

Week 2 

Writing Skill: Audience

[Interviews due]

Week 3

Writing Skill: Close Analysis

[Visual Analysis draft due]

Week 4

Writing Skill: Giving and Receiving Feedback

[Visual Analysis Conferences]

Week 5

Writing Skill: Clarity

[Visual Analysis Due]

Week 6

Writing Skill: Planning, Outlining, Structure

[Proposal Due]

Week 7

Writing Skill: Sources & Citations

[Research Paper first draft due]

Week 8

Writing Skill: Evidence

[Research Paper conferences]

Week 9

Writing Skill: Making an Argument

[Research Paper due]

Week 10

Writing Skill: Presenting Writing

[Presentations]

Course Policies

Learning Together

I am borrowing here from Mimi Khúc, who writes, “Everyone’s access needs matter, and we will try collectively to meet them as they arise. Access needs are needs that when met enable participation in the course to the fullest--therefore they are wide-ranging and can be met in wide-ranging, creative ways. I am committed to making participation as accessible as possible. Please let me know if anything comes up that makes participation feel hard. Perhaps you are unused to thinking about access needs--no worries, that’s what this course is supposed to help you develop. We are taught not to have needs, that needs mean we are “weak”; resist this impulse." Learning and writing are both collaborative endeavors, and the more we are all able to show up as our full selves, the more everyone else benefits.

Disability Accommodations

I do not require DRS accommodations to work with you in order to minimize barriers for you to participate in our class. If you have already established accommodations with Disability Resources for Students (DRS), please activate your accommodations via myDRS. If you have not yet established services through DRS, and would like to get official accommodations for a temporary health condition or permanent disability (conditions include but are not limited to; mental health, attention-related, learning, vision, hearing, physical or health impacts), you can contact DRS directly at disability.uw.edu to set up an Access Plan. When I receive a notification from DRS, I will reach out to you directly to ensure that I understand your access needs. If I do not receive a notification from DRS, I trust you to contact me to start the conversation.

Religious Accommodations

If you anticipate needing to miss class or adjust an assignment for reasons related to religious observance, you can inform the university of these needs at the beginning of the quarter (without being required to disclose your faith or details of your observance). The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at Religious Accommodations Policy (https://registrar.washington.edu/staffandfaculty/religious-accommodations-policy/). Accommodations must be requested within the first two weeks of this course using the Religious Accommodations Request form (https://registrar.washington.edu/students/religious-accommodations-request/). After submitting the form, you should also contact me directly so that we can plan any necessary accommodations.

Communication

If you encounter any challenges this quarter that interfere with this class, I encourage you to communicate with me early and often. You can talk to me in office hours, email me, or message me through Canvas. If you need to miss class, you can email me about making up missed material. I will respond to online communication during work hours, usually within a day.