Texts You're Too Old For: Young Adult Literature, Identity, and Writing in the U.S.
This course was designed for the Second-Year Writing student, with ENG 1110.01 as a prerequisite.
COURSE DESCRIPTION
In this three-hour, second-level writing course for which English 1110 is a prerequisite, you will continue to develop and refine the skills in analysis, research, and composition that you practiced in English 1110. This course emphasizes persuasive and researched writing, revision, and composing in various forms and media. In addition, you will build upon and improve your mastery of academic writing with and from sources; refine your ability to synthesize information; create arguments about a variety of discursive, visual, and/or cultural artifacts; and become more proficient with and sophisticated in your research strategies and employment of the conventions of standard academic discourses.
However, no writing occurs in a vacuum. In order to give your work context this class will focus on examples of Young Adult Literature (with “literature” here defined not only as novels and short stories, but also comics, television shows, and a film). Through the act of writing you will reflect on larger issues of diversity, interrogating the ways in which Young Adult identities are constructed in the U.S. and likewise complicated by other identity markers such as race, gender, class, sexuality, and disability. The goal of this class is for writing to be recursive: you will not only learn about “writing” and “YA Lit” as separate categories, but as young adults who are engaging in the act of writing you will reflect on the ways in which these two categories merge.
COURSE GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
2367.01 is a writing-intensive course that includes (but is not limited to) instruction in:
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Rhetorical Knowledge
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Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing
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Knowledge Regarding the Composition Process
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Collaboration
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Knowledge of Academic Conventions
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Composing Work in Electronic Environments
By the end of your second writing course you will have written:
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A variety of texts, including at least one researched essay, with opportunities for response and revision
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A minimum of 5000 total words (roughly 20 total pages of written work). Electronic or other projects of equivalent rigor and substance may be included, but the primary focus of this course is composing formal written work
COURSE MATERIALS
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Alire Saenz, Benjamin. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. Simon and Schuster Books for Young Readers, 2014.
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Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. Scholastic Press, 2010.
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Schick, Kurt and Laura Schubert. So What? The Writer’s Argument. 2nd Edition. Oxford University Press, 2016.
Excerpts will be provided from:
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Angus, Thongs, and Full-Frontal Snogging by Louise Rennison
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Every Last Word by Tamara Ireland Stone
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Go Ask Alice by Beatrice Sparks
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The Maze Runner by James Dashner
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Me Before You by Jojo Moyes
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Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
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Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli
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Twilight by Stephenie Meyer
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Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
Additional media including brief essays, a short story, TV episodes, online clips, and a film will be made available through Carmen, the OSU Media Library, or other streaming services.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Short Literary Analysis Paper (25%)
Paper (15%)
Peer Review (10%)
Analytical Research Paper/Research Narrative (40%)
Research Proposal (5%)
Annotated bibliography (5%)
First Draft (10%)
Final Draft (20%)
Group Presentation (15%)
Critical Reflections (10%)
Participation (10%)