Course Syllabus

George ENGL198 A_Spring 2024 Syllabus.docx

English 198 A: Composition in Psychology

Time and location: M/W/F, 11:30-12:20, Mary Gates Hall 076

Instructor: Dr. Emily George                                                             

Email: ecg136@uw.edu (Note: please email me from your UW email address to help ensure that your email does not get filtered as spam. UW has an aggressive spam filter!)

Office Hours: Tuesdays 1-3 or by appointment. Office Hours are on Zoom unless otherwise arranged. Office Hours Zoom Link: https://washington.zoom.us/j/99625371204

Course Description

Welcome to English 198 A! In this composition class, we will practice writing within and about the field of psychology in academic and public-facing contexts. Our guiding questions will be:

• How can psychology help us respond to individual, societal, and global issues?
• How does the history of psychology continue to impact the field today?
• How do we best communicate evolving, complex ideas about psychology to various audiences—and how can we learn from mistakes and successes in the past?

We will explore these and other questions as they emerge and intersect across different fields related to psychology. We will also consider the relationships between genre, mode, and audience, and practice different forms of composition for different writing situations. You will have two major writing assignments, with several shorter assignments leading up to each. The first will focus on academic writing in the field of psychology; the second will focus on public-facing composition in the field of psychology.

English 198 A is a composition course linked to PSYCH 101 A and B: Introduction to Psychology. Although the two courses complement each other thematically, they have distinct goals, activities, assessments, and grades.

All readings for this class are available for free via Canvas.

Course Goals

Outcome 1 

To compose strategically for a variety of audiences and contexts, both within and outside the university, by 

• recognizing how different elements of a rhetorical situation matter for the task at hand and affect the options for composing and distributing texts; 
• coordinating, negotiating, and experimenting with various aspects of composing—such as genre, content, conventions, style, language, organization, appeals, media, timing, and design—for diverse rhetorical effects tailored to the given audience, purpose, and situation; and 
• assessing and articulating the rationale for and effects of composing choices.

Outcome 2 

To work strategically with complex information in order to generate and support inquiry by 

• reading, analyzing, and synthesizing a diverse range of texts and understanding the situations in which those texts are participating; 
• using reading and writing strategies to craft research questions that explore and respond to complex ideas and situations; 
• gathering, evaluating, and making purposeful use of primary and secondary materials appropriate for the writing goals, audience, genre, and context; 
• creating a ‘conversation’—identifying and engaging with meaningful patterns across ideas, texts, experiences, and situations; and 
• using citation styles appropriate for the genre and context. 

Outcome 3 

To craft persuasive, complex, inquiry-driven arguments that matter by

• considering, incorporating, and responding to different points of view while developing one’s own position; 
• engaging in analysis—the close scrutiny and examination of evidence, claims, and assumptions—to explore and support a line of inquiry; 
• understanding and accounting for the stakes and consequences of various arguments for diverse audiences and within ongoing conversations and contexts; and
• designing/organizing with respect to the demands of the genre, situation, audience, and purpose. 

Outcome 4 

To practice composing as a recursive, collaborative process and to develop flexible strategies for revising throughout the composition process by 

• engaging in a variety of (re)visioning techniques, including (re)brainstorming, (re)drafting, (re)reading, (re)writing, (re)thinking, and editing; 
• giving, receiving, interpreting, and incorporating constructive feedback; and
• refining and nuancing composition choices for delivery to intended audiences in a manner consonant with the genre, situation, and desired rhetorical effects and meanings.

Grading

In this course, we are using a grade contract system. You can find the full grade contract on Canvas in the Week 1 module, and it is your first assigned reading of the quarter, followed by a quiz. If you ever have questions about the grade contract, or about your individual grade in the class, please let me know!

Class Expectations and Guidelines for Discussion

You will be working within small groups, peer review pairings, and the whole class throughout the quarter. Disagreement can be productive, and scholars in all fields depend on disagreement to strengthen their arguments, discover errors, and challenge their own thinking. You may find that some of the topics and discussions in this class will cause you discomfort. This is normal, expected, and, in fact, crucial to your learning. Engaging with complexity is a difficult labor, and difficult labor is often uncomfortable. 

However, in order for conflict to be productive, it must be respectful. Personal attacks, disrespectful language, and disrespectful behavior have no place in the class, and will not be tolerated. If debates or discussions get intense or heated, remember that it is difficult to know the backgrounds, experiences, emotions, and beliefs of others in the room, and be sensitive to that. Be generous with others and try to assume good intentions. Keep your responses specific to the topic under discussion. You are expected to use language and action that shows respect for gender, race, religion, ethnicity, sexuality, and ability in order to create a safe and welcoming class.

Guidelines for Class and Small Group Discussion

• Listen carefully to others, and do not attempt to respond before they’ve finished what they have to say.
• When someone else is talking, try not to focus on how you disagree or the way you want to reply. Instead, focus completely on what they’re trying to communicate until they finish.
• Stay on topic and connect what you have to say with the readings and/or with what others have said.
• Write down your thoughts so you can return to them.
• Ask follow-up questions of others, and try to repeat your understanding of what they’ve said as part of that follow up.
• Speak up with a willingness to discover you're wrong.
• Try not to dominate conversations. Make sure everyone in your group is included, and invite others to speak.

Academic Integrity

Plagiarism, or academic dishonesty, is presenting someone else's ideas or writing as your own. In your writing for this class, you are encouraged to refer to other people's thoughts and writing—as long as you cite them. As a matter of policy, any student found to have plagiarized any piece of writing in this class will be immediately reported to the College of Arts and Sciences for review.

If you are confused or unsure about whether or not something you want to do would be considered plagiarism, please talk to me about it! I won’t penalize you for not knowing. Sometimes plagiarism is something obvious, like copying someone else’s essay, but sometimes it can get trickier, like incorrectly paraphrasing, forgetting to cite information/ideas and not just quotes, etc. Likewise, if you are feeling so much pressure or confusion that you’re thinking about plagiarizing, talk to me. Plagiarizing can have huge consequences for your grade and your academic future, and we can come up with a solution that’s better than taking that risk.

On the use of “Artificial Intelligence” and ChatGPT

Artificial intelligence is a subject with tons of branches, and sometimes, the results of AI research and projects are useful, creative, and ethically well-thought-out. However, this is not true in many instances. ChatGPT and other forms of “AI” have repeatedly been shown to provide you with misleading or outright false information; to unethically scrape the labor of creators (artists, writers, researchers, programmers, engineers, and other workers) and use it without compensation or permission; and even, on occasion, to “hallucinate,” providing nonsensical responses. All of these are important reasons for being wary of using AI for research, writing, or fact-checking. But in the case of this class, the most important thing to remember is that English 198 is a class designed to guide you through a particular process of thinking, making judgments, coming to conclusions, and revising your conclusions. A machine might be able to produce an essay that is coherent, follows “standard English grammar,” and addresses a given topic. It cannot, however, demonstrate how your ideas have changed over the course of reading and discussing a topic, or how your argument has been revised to accommodate new information, or how you have read and researched different sources and made your own judgments about their reliability, their usefulness, their connections to one another and to your own thinking. Therefore, because those are habits and skills we are focusing on in English 198, submitting work produced by AI instead of written by you is considered a form of academic dishonesty and falls under the plagiarism clause described above.

Keep in mind that since we are using a grade contract, no amount of plagiarizing—even if you are never caught—can get you a higher grade than turning in your own work would. But plagiarism can get you an automatic failing grade.

Religious Accommodations

Washington state law requires that UW develop a policy for accommodation of student absences or significant hardship due to reasons of faith or conscience, or for organized religious activities. The UW’s policy, including more information about how to request an accommodation, is available at 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.

Accommodations

If you need accommodation of any sort, please let me know so that I can work with the UW Disability Resources for Students Office (DRS) to provide what you require. This syllabus is available in large print, as are other class materials. More information about accommodation may be found at http://www.washington.edu/students/drs/.

English Departmental Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Justice

The UW English Department aims to help students become more incisive thinkers, effective communicators, and imaginative writers by acknowledging that language and its use are powerful and hold the potential to empower individuals and communities; to provide the means to engage in meaningful conversation and collaboration across differences and with those with whom we disagree; and to offer methods for exploring, understanding, problem solving, and responding to the many pressing collective issues we face in our world—skills that align with and support the University of Washington’s mission to educate “a diverse student body to become responsible global citizens and future leaders through a challenging learning environment informed by cutting-edge scholarship.”

As a department, we begin with the conviction that language and texts play crucial roles in the constitution of cultures and communities, past, present, and future. Our disciplinary commitments to the study of English (its history, multiplicity, and development; its literary and artistic uses; and its global role in shaping and changing cultures) require of us a willingness to engage openly and critically with questions of power and difference. As such, in our teaching, service, and scholarship we frequently initiate and encourage conversations about topics such as race and racism, immigration, gender, sexuality, class, indigeneity, and colonialisms. These topics are fundamental to the inquiry we pursue. We are proud of this fact, and we are committed to creating an environment in which our faculty and students can do so confidently and securely, knowing that they have the backing of the department. We acknowledge that to study and engage the English language is to grapple with its imperialist and colonialist history, its relationship to power and whiteness, its involvement in the spread of globalization and in perpetuating inequity, as well as its creative uses to imagine and bring into existence a better world.

Towards that aim, we value the inherent dignity and uniqueness of individuals and communities. We acknowledge that our university is located on the shared lands and waters of the Coast Salish peoples. We aspire to be a place where human rights are respected and where any of us can seek support. This includes people of all ethnicities, faiths, gender identities, national and indigenous origins, political views, and citizenship status; nontheists; LGBQTIA+; those with disabilities; veterans; and anyone who has been targeted, abused, or disenfranchised.

Complaints

If you have any concerns about the course or your instructor, please see the instructor about these concerns as soon as possible. If you are not comfortable talking with the instructor or not satisfied with the response that you receive, you may contact Megan Callow, Director of the Program for Writing Across Campus, at mcallow@uw.edu. If, after speaking with the Director, you are still not satisfied with the response you receive, you may contact English Department Chair, Anis Bawarshi; bawarshi@uw.edu, (206) 543-2690.

Canvas Tips

1. Check our course Canvas page every day. Check your UW email every day.
2. Set your notifications so that you get alerted whenever I leave you an assignment comment. You can find instructions for this here: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Student-Guide/How-do-I-manage-my-Canvas-notification-settings-as-a-student/ta-p/434
3. You can change your name in Canvas by clicking on your profile picture at the top of the far-left menu in Canvas.  Click “Edit Profile.” You will then be able to change your name and add your pronouns if you would like.
4. To send a message to a member of the class (including me), first click on your Canvas inbox in the far left menu. Then click the “compose a new message” button on the top right of the screen. Choose our course and then choose either “Teachers” (if you want to send a message to me) or “Students” (if you want to send a message to one or more students in our class). You will then be given the option to select specific recipients.
5. Use Modules to navigate our course. All of the modules are organized by weeks. Always start with the “Overview” page for each week, which lists all reading, viewing, and writing assignments and includes an overview of the material we will cover that week. 

English 198 A Spring 2024 Calendar

Our class is broken up into Weekly Modules, which consist of participation assignments, homework assignments, and essays. Modules are not all open at once, but will be opened at least two weeks in advance. This calendar is an overview of the focus of each module, not a complete list of assignments. Participation assignments will usually be assigned to complete during class. Always check Canvas modules for up-to-date assignments and deadlines.

Week 1: Introduction to the Class

Skills focus: strategic reading and annotation

Monday: Introduction to the course; strengths and difficulties inventory

Wednesday: Syllabus and Grade Contract Quiz; introduction to form and genre

Friday: Reading academic articles

            Homework: read and annotate Alexandra Wormley, “What psychology can tell us about the cultural effects of climate change,” by Sunday, March 31st, 11:59 PM

Flexible Assignment Option 1 (Part 1) due by Sunday, 11:59 PM

 

Week 2:

Skills focus: analyzing audience and context

Monday, April 1: Wormley discussion

            Homework: Read and annotate Joseph Weiss, “Who Gets to Have Ecoanxiety?”

Wednesday, April 3: Weiss and Wormly discussion; audience and context

            Homework: Listen to Hilary McQuilkin and Kimberly Atkins Stohr, “The Psychology of Climate Change—and How to Engage with it.” Complete Discussion Board.

Friday, April 5: McQuilkin & Stohr Discussion; audience and context, continued.

            Homework: Discussion Cluster: Initiators post by Sunday, April 7^th, 11:59 PM

 

Week 3:

Skills focus: evaluating information

Monday, April 8: Introduction to Source Evaluation: Primary, Popular, Scholarly. Research Strengths and Difficulties Inventory.

            Homework: HW: Annotation Groups read and annotate Joseph P. Gone, Re-imagining mental health services for American Indian communities: Centering Indigenous perspectives" by 10 AM Wednesday.

Wednesday, April 10: Gone discussion; source evaluations, continued: evaluating scholarly sources.

            Homework: Homework: Annotation Groups read and annotate Javier Rizo, "Decolonizing Research Methods Can Improve Psychological Treatments"

Friday, April 12: Asynchronous Class on Canvas: Gone & Rizo Discussion Board

            Homework: Discussion Cluster: Responders due by Sunday, April 14^th, 11:59 PM

Flexible Assignment Option 2 due by Sunday, 11:59 PM

            Homework: Read and annotate Mary DeYoung, “The Devil Goes to Daycare: McMartin and the Making of a Moral Panic” by 10 AM Monday

 

Week 4:

Skills focus: developing lines of inquiry

Monday, April 15: DeYoung Discussion. Major Writing Assignment 1: Rubric Creation

            Homework: Listen to You’re Wrong About, “The Satanic Panic”

Wednesday, April 17: Satanic Panic discussion. Creating lines of inquiry.

            Homework: Complete lines of inquiry.

Friday, April 19: Generating Keywords for Research.

            Homework: Discussion Cluster: Initiators post due Sunday, 11:59 PM.

            Homework: 2 Scholarly Source Evaluations due Sunday, 11:59 PM.

 

Week 5:

Skills focus: using UW library databases and synthesizing sources

Monday, April 22: Writing workshop: synthesizing sources.

            Homework: work on major writing assignment

Wednesday, April 24: Writing Workshop: developing evidence-based claims.

            Homework: work on major writing assignment

Friday, April 26: Writing Workshop: TBD

Major Writing Assignment 1 due Sunday, 11:59 PM. Conferences with me Week 6.

 

Week 6:

Skills focus: Reflection and Metacognition

Monday, April 29: Conferences

            Homework: Peer Responses

Wednesday, May 1: Conferences

            Homework: Peer Responses

Friday, May 3: Conferences

            Homework: Discussion Cluster: Responders

Flexible Assignment Option 3 due by Sunday, 11:59 PM

 

Week 7:

Skills focus: developing lines of inquiry

Monday, May 6: Strengths and Difficulties Inventory. Final Project Introduction.

            Homework: Library Company of Philadelphia, “Hearing Voices”; Care and Custody: Past Responses to Mental Health

Wednesday, May 8: Online exhibits discussion

            Homework: Listen to Sawbones, “Schizophrenia”

Friday, May 10: Sawbones and podcasts as a form of health communication

            Homework: Lines of Inquiry due Sunday, 11:59 PM

 

Week 8:

Skills focus: finding and assessing sources, redux

Monday, May 13: Working with primary sources

            Homework: find a primary source relating to your line of inquiry and complete a source assessment

Wednesday, May 15: Working with popular sources

            Homework: find a popular source relating to your line of inquiry and complete a source assessment

Friday, May 17: Working with scholarly sources

            Homework: Find a scholarly source related to your line of inquiry and complete a source assessment

Flexible Assignment Option 4 due by Sunday, 11:59 PM

 

Week 9:

Skills focus: developing your purpose through research findings; refining stakes

Monday, May 20: Turning research into action: synthesizing research

            Homework: Project Pitches due Wednesday, 10 AM

Wednesday, May 22: Project Conferences (optional)

            Homework: Project Pitch Peer Responses due Friday, May 24th

Friday, May 24: Project Conferences (optional)

Flexible Assignment Option 5 due by Sunday, 11:59 PM

 

Week 10:

Skills focus: using feedback to refine and develop ideas

Monday, May 27th: No Class; Memorial Day

Wednesday: Final class discussion and reflections; course evaluations

Friday: Final Project Presentations

Flexible Assignment Option 1 (Part 2) due by Sunday, 11:59 PM