Writing About World War Two

Fall, 1996


Susan Wyle
Encina Commons, Room 182
Office Hours : M by appt., Wed. 1-2
home phone = 326-0703 (for emergencies)
office phone:
e-mail = suky@leland

Syllabus

Course Requirements

1. Regular attendance. Class will meet Tues. and Thurs. at 2:15. You may miss only two classes if you wish to receive credit for the course. If you miss class, you are responsible for getting the notes and assignments from your classmates. If you are on a team and are going to be traveling, be sure you let me know ahead of time so we can arrange a schedule for your assignments.

2 Conferences. You will have two required conferences with me this quarter, and you may come to my office hours each week also. The conferences are mandatory; they must be completed for you to receive credit for the class.

3. Papers. All papers must be typed, double-spaced. There will be no late papers accepted because of printer problems. Leave enough time to print your paper, so that if your printer is having trouble, you can go to another one. Be sure to make an extra copy of every paper, or keep a copy on a back-up disc. Papers do mysteriously disappear once in a while, and you are responsible for having an extra copy.

4. Presentations. Each student will make a presentation,leading a class discussion in a small group, or, reporting on individual research conducted during the class . You may also bring in any props, audio-visual additions, handouts, etc. This presentation counts as a paper grade, and you will turn in a written lesson plan beforehand. There are a number os selections in the reader suitable for class readings and discussions, but you may also bring in your own reading material to distribute to the class the meeting before you will be leading the discussion.

5. Journals. You are required to keep a journal and write a few paragraphs on each and every reading and assigned movie or documentary for the class. Your first journal assignment is to read through the Web page and write up a response.

(You must see at least two documentaries, preferably in the area of your research. Write briefly about these documentaries in the journal. Some documentaries are already on reserve at Meyer Media Center - feel free to access more by using the select film command, and then asking for your area of interest, such as War and Germany, or War and America, War and Children. These headings all produce some titles, but you can find others by playing around with Socrates...)

The journal can be creative - feel free to draw, write poetry , or add photocopies. Journals will not be graded on writing style, but rather on content and creativity. I will collect them half way and at the end of the quarter.

6. The Web page for this class can be found at http://wwwleland.stanford.edu/~suky/WW2. The purpose of the Web page is to help you get started on your propaganda paper and your research topic, and to give you some quick links to other research sites.

7.Internet. As part of the journal, each student will be required to write briefly about use (or attempted use!) of the newsgroups or web sites. The newsgroup address for World War II is soc.history.war.world-war-ii Read the newsgroup threads first before you post any questions to make sure your question has not already been answered. You are NOT required to post a question, just to browse and report back on what you found. You can also access World Wide Web sites through a number of different search tools, including Yahoo in Netscape.

8. Grades. Your grades will be based not only on your papers and the improvement you show in your writing, but also on your class participation, which counts as one paper grade. Papers will include a personal essay, a propaganda analysis paper, and the research paper and assignments leading up to the paper, including a prospectus, an outline, and a rough draft. Revision is an essential part of the writing process, so we will be doing peer editing and individual conferencing on your papers. In addition, we will do a fair amount of in-class writing, so be sure to stay up on the reading!

Texts

Bedford handbook

Course Reader

Night, by Eli Wiesel

You will need to have your research topic on a World War Two subject by the end of Week 4. This topic must be one which lends itself to an argumentative research stance, not a report. The final paper will be 10-12 pages, typed. You may pick any topic you like, subject to my approval. Research papers are due Week 11(final drafts) - no late papers !!

This syllabus is subject to change and modification, so if you miss class, be sure to check with a friend about assignments,etc.

Week 1

Thurs. Introduction and Syllabus

Assignment: Read first half of Wiesel, explore Web page and write journal entry. Read through American Heritage background -can skim it but write in journal on this too.

Week 2

Tues. Wiesel and rough drafts.

Assignment: Finish Wiesel and begin personal essay. Bring at least two pages to class for peer editing.

Thurs. Wiesel, peer editing, begin fallacies

Assignment: Finish paper, read Hitler ̉Is This a Jew?Óin reader, and read fallacies handout

Week 3

Tues.
Oct.8
MEET AT HOOVER TOWER STEPS FOR ARCHIVES TOUR

Paper due.

Thurs. Propaganda assignment discussion. Hitler and fallacies.

Assignment: Read Nazi Culture readings in reader. Begin propaganda assignment

Week 4

CONFERENCES THIS WEEK
Tues.
Oct.15
Nazi culture. Peer editing of paper.

Assignment : Finish draft of paper. Read Bettleheim and Milgram. Write out a brief paragraph about your research paper topic.

Thurs. Bettleheim and Milgram. TOPICS DUE. Type out your topic and your questions for the librarian on a sheet of paper ; she will return sheet to you with suggestions!

Assignment: Finish propaganda paper. Start gathering ten-source bibliography.

Week 5

Tues.
Oct.22
Library Tour - Meet in Green.

Assignment: Read Shirer selection (from Third Reich)

Thurs. Shirer and research paper. Propaganda papers due.

Assignment: Read Stalin and Hitler chapter in reader. Do one page prospectus describing research paper, and ten - source bibliography, with a brief paragraph about each source.

Week 6

Tues.
Oct.29
PROSPECTUS and bibliography DUE. Stalin and Hitler reading. Doing the outline.

Assignment: Student - assigned readings , do outline

Thurs. Student - led discussions.

Assignment: Do your outline!!Student - assigned readings.

Week 7

Tues.
Nov.5
Vote! Outlines due - 3 typed pages. Student - led discussions

Assignment ROUGH DRAFT. Student - assigned readings.

Thurs. Bring first page of paper to class.Student -led discussions

Week 8

Tues.
Nov.12
Student - led discussions.

Assignment: Student - assigned readings. Research paper.

Thurs. Student - led discussions. Works Cited.

Assignment:Finish research paper

Week 9

Rough Draft Conferences
Tues.
Nov.19
Peer editing of rough drafts. Peer editing of research paper. You must bring 6 typed pages to class - no late drafts!

Assignment: Student - assigned readings. Finish paper.

Thurs. Student - led discussions. Grammar review.

Week 10

Tues.
Nov.26
Student - led discussions. Grammar quiz.

Assignment: Student-assigned readings. Finish paper.

Thurs. No class - Thanksgiving.

Week 11

Tues.
Dec.3
Last class -wrap up and evaluations
Thurs. Extra conferences during class time - my office
Friday
Dec.6
RESEARCH PAPERS DUE.