English 118 - Riding the Wave: The Women's Movement, 1968-79

Julio Alves

MW 2:40-4:00

Reading and writing about the women’s movement of the late 1960s and 1970s, often called Second Wave Feminism. Readings will include primary documents, secondary sources, and statistical data. Writing will include scholarly essays, biography, and mixed genres. Regular library research and oral presentations.

Throughout the semester, students will learn much about the golden age of the modern day women’s movement, and they will achieve enough of an understanding of the period to see the world around them in new ways, but mostly they will learn to write well, because this is above all a writing course. “Writing well” means being able to do the following:

read a text critically, that is, from beginning to end for the overall idea and selectively, with a focus, for example, for what is critical, important, debatable, misguided, or inaccurate, or for whatever presents itself as good evidence in support of your argument
summarize and paraphrase text
state a clear position in an analytic essay
support a position with evidence
integrate sources smoothly
acknowledge alternative points of view
compare and contrast texts and points of view
organize an essay effectively
use the conventions of academic argumentation competently
use the conventions of standard written English competently

Texts:
Sara Evans, Tidal Wave (Free Press, 2003)
Diana Hacker, Rules for Writers, 5th ed. (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004)
Readings on reserve