「作為作家就要變得有良知」-- Anne Lamott 《一隻又一隻鳥：對寫作和生活的指導》

「修改不是寫作的結束，而是開始」-- Donald Murray《修改的技巧》

作者非常關注他們的題目，就會寫出最好的文章。那種深切的關注，也就是熱情，通常發自對社會和道德問題關注時。這些諸如貧窮、種族和性別歧視、恐怖主義、無家可歸和環境危機的問題，深深困擾著作為個人、家庭成員以及地區、國家和國際社會成員一份子的我們。我們作為社會的一員，總想弄清這些複雜的問題，設想一些可行的解決方案，或者通過個人或集體的力量來改變社會。寫作提供給我們一條重要的途徑，參與到當代的社會問題中，因此我們才能更深刻的理解這些問題，與更廣泛的公眾交流這些問題，從心理、社會和經濟層面宣導各種解決方法。通過關注當代社會問題，這門課讓學生用發現和參與他們深深關注的問題的方法，為他們提供了一個成長為作家的支援背境。

本課程提供一個服務-學習的選擇，所以你可以提出像無家可歸、貧窮或社會中教育不平等等問題；學生通常在積極參與實際問題時會寫出最好的作品。這個服務-學習的選擇反映了麻省理工學院追求「讓那社區中的每一員不僅能聰明、創新、有效地為人類更好的明天工作，而且讓他們有熱情去做。」即使服務-學習不是課程要求必須完成的，但我們強烈鼓勵這麼做。

當你寫有關社會題材的文章時，你可以把自己看成是Frederick Douglass, Lewis Hine, Rachel Carson, 馬丁·路德·金Martin Luther King, Jr.和 Barbara Ehrenreich中的一分子，他們相信筆的力量能夠激起社會的變革，所以他們將寫作看成是一項極其重要的活動。本學期我們要閱讀Maya Angelou, Rachel Carson, Robert Coles, 狄更斯Charles Dickens , Betty Friedan, 約翰·甘迺迪John F. Kennedy, 馬丁·路德·金Martin Luther King, Jr., Jonathan Kozol, 林肯Abraham Lincoln, 譚恩美Amy Tan 和Alice Walker等人的作品。我們還要觀看像《軟性謀殺3》、《超越死亡線》、《女生向前走》等關注社會和道德問題的紀錄片和影片。當我們討論閱讀材料和影片時，我們要回到這個問題：一個作者或製片人所處的時代、個人經歷、觀點和措辭的目的，會怎樣影響他／她選擇題材和用什麼語氣及方式向讀者或觀眾表述。整個學期我們都會圍繞這個問題：不同性別、種族、輩份、宗教和經濟組別的人會如何經歷和理解同樣的社會問題。

Watters, Ann和Marjorie Ford，《為改變而寫作：社群讀本》. 紐約: McGraw-Hill出版社, 1995.

Lunsford, Andrea A. 《輕鬆的作家：袖珍指南》. 波士頓: Bedford/St. Martin出版社, 第2版, 2002.

另加作為講義分發的各種文章，選擇的紀錄片和電影。

以上書籍可以從amazon.com購買，在麻省理工學院的圖書館也有。學生每次課都帶上《為改變而寫作》。

課堂上，你還會拿到各種講義。

你還應該有一本大學字典和同義辭典。麻省理工學院的學生可以從網上檢閱《牛津英語字典》。一般寫作參考，可參閱網上（只限麻省理工學院學生）的《輕鬆的作家》，Leslie Perelman, James Paradis, 和Edward Barrett的著作，以及《Mayfield科學和技術性寫作手冊》（也是只限麻省理工學院學生）。圖書館網站（http://libraries.mit.edu/）的「虛擬參考」部份的參考資源，包括《牛津英語字典》、同義辭典和《Mayfield手冊》。在調查和撰寫論文時（特別是論文2和3），一定要參考網頁：http://libraries.mit.edu/guides/courses/spring2002/21w.730/index.html

本科程旨在幫助你培養為活躍、投入的學術作家--使你能夠理解和抓住爭論，結合生活經歷和外部調查，試驗用不同的口氣和風格，寫出創新、言之有理、生動的文章。我們在課程中的方法，是在要寫作中達到「公共學者」的境界。「公共學者」是指有動力、易懂的行文，面對更廣泛的一般讀者，通過寫作參與複雜的道德和社會問題。

本學期你要寫3篇不同的文章的草稿和正稿。寫作過程中，我鼓勵你：

• 用優美的風格寫給聰明的公眾，提供必需的關鍵資訊，讓他們理解你的論點；
• 用有趣、獨創和連貫的形式發展你的觀點；
• 用證據證明你的觀點，謹慎恰當地運用資源；
• 用清晰、簡潔的語言和規範的語法、標點、辭彙和引文；
• 用清晰的介紹、過渡、中間段和結論來組織你的論點；
• 寫一個有深思熟慮、有趣的標題。

每篇文章先交草稿，再交修改稿。草稿是行文可讀、完整的第一稿，可以達到作業的要求。草稿不是提綱、半成品或一些筆記。

修改的過程--對草稿再思考和再構思--對課程是十分重要的。修改就是「再看一次」，在逐行編輯前認真地重寫一遍文章。通過修改過程，你可能決定：

• 改變你（作為作者）的語氣；
• 重寫介紹和／或結論；
• 調整或全部重寫你的觀點；
• 結合原始或二手額外資料；
• 承認相反議點；
• 再次構思文章結構。

你會發現修改過程用的時間與寫草稿一樣多，甚至更多。在構思修改之後，逐行編輯和校對是文章寫作過程最後步驟。

每篇文章關注具體的分析性任務，並且基於以前的寫作作業所用過的技巧。你可以查詢圖書館的資料或服務，或向社區學習來完成外部調查。

每個學生還要有一本打字的讀者-作者筆記，定期寫下對課堂練習和佈置閱讀的感想；這些筆記練習會在到期上交時收齊。本學期的閱讀作業和基礎寫作練習，會幫助你熟悉要寫的文章類型。學生每週至少讀報三次，對感興趣問題相關的文章、社論等，要在讀者-作者筆記中作剪報。

每個學生要做至少一次約10-15分鐘的的口頭陳述報告，內容是關於論文2或（和）3。在口頭陳述報告後，我會對你的表現作回饋並提出改進建議。

為形成一種知識團體的意識， 本課程採取研討會的形式。在學期內，我們會討論專業作家和學生的文章。準時來上課很重要，帶好指定文本，準備好對佈置的閱讀和同學的文章作出富思想性的回應。為了有效地參與這個研討會，你要按時完成閱讀和寫作任務。課程的核心是對我們和作家的文章進行重要、持續的知識討論。s

寫作工作坊對本課程很重要，學生們要評論彼此的草稿。每篇論文在提交草稿後都有課堂工作坊。我們還會為較短的草稿前寫作任務安排工作坊。我希望你們能認真、批判性的對待彼此的論文，真誠、有深度和想像力地審閱每份草稿。每次工作坊，你都要讀幾篇草稿，在小組中討論，並以寫信形式回應。課程的道德準則是所有的學生作品（草稿和你的評語）都是保密的；你要妥善保存同學的草稿，不要在課外討論。這項道德讓我們可以發展寫作小群體需要的的信任和安全。

由於本課程的功能是一個寫作群體，是你的作品的第一個「公眾」，所以你必須認真上課。如果你有兩次以上毫無理由的缺席，將會影響你的期末成績。根據寫作專案指引，如果你有五次以上毫無理由的缺席，你就無法通過這課程。3次遲到算一次缺席。如果你由於個人、家庭或急病而缺席或不能準時交作業，請儘早聯繫我。如果缺席， 你要聯繫其他同學幫你補課和拿到分發的講義或作業。

每篇文章先交草稿，再交修改稿。在評閱你的草稿時，我會寫下廣泛的評語，和為建議一些修改方案。到時我可與你見面，討論草稿和修改稿。

只有修改稿算分（不是草稿）。我會檢查草稿前練習並寫下簡單評語。

準時交作業也很重要。有突發情況時，每人只能延期一天提交草稿或修改稿。請保留寬限期，直到你真正需要！沒有寬限的情況下遲交作業可能會導致最後評分降低。

為課程21W.730合格，所有指定作品都要提交。修改稿的品質和讀者-作者筆記的思考水準將是成績的主要決定因素。然而，我也會考慮口頭陳述報告、出勤、上課準備和你對同學的文章評閱的貢獻。出勤、準備和參與佔總分的20%。

對於2001年夏季前入學的麻省理工學院學生，得到B-或以上就意味通過了「寫作要求」課程的階段I。對於2001年夏季後入學的麻省理工學院學生，「強度溝通寫作」代替了「寫作要求」。進一步資料請參考「寫作要求」課程網站http://web.mit.edu/writing/writereq/。

在整個學期，我會和大家見面，討論你們的草稿和修改稿，並提議改進寫作的策略。我的角色是一個寫作教練，和你一起探索不同的方案，是你決定如何修改文章。見面討論是一個好機會，進一步討論閱讀材料和寫作成功（和愉快）的一般策略。出席前，你要充分準備討論你所選的文章或寫作類型的方案。有學生覺得在寫作前與我見面時的頭腦風暴和提綱很有用，有人想在草稿和修改之間見我，或在期中時和我討論一下他們的進展和下半學期的目標。每學期指定有二次見面討論。

作為麻省理工學院的學生、課堂和廣大作者團體中的一員，你要遵守學術誠信的準則。借用別人的語言和／或觀點而不列明出處是學術欺騙，也是一種抄襲；這在麻省理工學院有嚴重的學術後果。

在課堂上我們會討論如何注明出處，如何避免抄襲。你可以參照《輕鬆的作家》、《Mayfield手冊》或寫作中心網站（網址如下），取得各種引用來源（MLA, APA）的方式。

麻省理工學院的學術誠信規則見以下鏈結：http://web.mit.edu/policies/10.0.html

寫作和交流中心可提供關於學生書面和口頭陳述報告的諮詢。你在寫作過程的任何時候，都可以到訪：寫作前、寫草稿和修改時。在http://web.mit.edu/writing/NEW/上有更多資訊。中心網站和「寫作要求辦公室」網站是http://web.mit.edu/writing/writereq/，為作家提供大量各種資源的鏈結。

「寫作和人文主義研究網」http://web.mit.edu/humanistic/www/也有許多寫作學生感興趣的資訊：其他寫作課程，專案建議，對主修者、副修者和專業研究者的要求，以及校內作家的講座和閱讀材料。每年春天，該項目將對學生作家頒發Ilona Karmel寫作獎。Karmel獎的更多資訊，請參閱網站和專案辦公室。

"Becoming a writer is about becoming conscious"- Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life.

"Revision is not the end of the writing process but the beginning"- Donald Murray, The Craft of Revision.

The best writing happens when we, as writers, care deeply about our topics. That sense of profound caring--of passion--often emerges in relation to social and ethical issues--such as poverty, racial or gender injustice, terrorism, homelessness or environmental crisis--that deeply concern us as individuals, family members and citizens of our local, national and global communities. We, as community members, often seek to make sense of these issues in all their complexity, to imagine possible solutions and to act, individually or collectively, to create social change. Writing offers us a critical avenue of engagement with contemporary social issues so that we can understand these problems more profoundly, communicate that understanding to a wider public and advocate for a variety of solutions on the psychological, social and economic level. Focusing on contemporary social issues, this course seeks to provide you with a supportive context to grow significantly as a writer by discovering and engaging with issues that you care deeply about.

This course offers a service-learning option so that you can address social issues such as homelessness, poverty or educational inequality within the community; students often find that they do their best writing when actively engaged with real-world problems. The service-learning option reflects MIT's mission that the Institute "seeks to develop in each member of that community not only the ability to work wisely, creatively and effectively for the betterment of humankind, but also the passion for doing so." While service-learning is not mandatory to fulfill course requirements, it is highly encouraged.

When you write about social issues, you can see yourself as part of a long tradition of authors--such as Frederick Douglass, Lewis Hine, Rachel Carson, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Barbara Ehrenreich--who have seen writing as a critical form of activism because they believe that the "power of the pen" can inspire social change. Throughout the semester we will read selections from such writers as Maya Angelou, Rachel Carson, Robert Coles, Charles Dickens, Betty Friedan, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., Jonathan Kozol, Abraham Lincoln, Amy Tan and Alice Walker. We will also screen some documentary and feature films such as Killing Us Softly 3, Dead Man Walking and Girl, Interrupted that center on social and ethical issues. As we discuss the readings and films, we will often return to the questions of how an author's or filmmaker's era, personal history, perspective and rhetorical purpose may have influenced his or her choice of topic and voice or style in addressing a community of readers or viewers. Throughout the semester, we will often raise the question of how people from different gender, racial, generational, religious and economic groups may experience and understand the same social issues.

Watters, Ann, and Marjorie Ford, eds. Writing for Change: A Community Reader. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1995.

Lunsford, Andrea A. Easy Writer: A Pocket Guide. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's Press, 2nd edition, 2002.

+ various articles distributed as handouts and selected documentary and feature films.

The above books can be purchased online at amazon.com.; these readings are also on reserve at the MIT library. Students should bring Writing for Change with them to each class.

In class you will also receive various handouts.

You should also have on hand a college dictionary and thesaurus. The Oxford English Dictionary is available online to MIT students. For general writing reference, consult Easy Writer as well as Leslie Perelman, James Paradis, Edward Barrett, The Mayfield Handbook of Scientific and Technical Writing available online to MIT students. Various reference sources, including the OED, thesaurus and Mayfield Handbook can be found through the "virtual reference" section of the library website at http://libraries.mit.edu/. In researching and writing your essays (especially essays 2 and 3), be sure to consult our reference page: http://libraries.mit.edu/guides/courses/spring2002/21w.730/index.html.

This course aims to help you to grow significantly as a lively and engaged academic writer -- in your ability to understand and grapple with arguments, to integrate both life experience and outside research, to experiment with different voices and styles and to craft creative, well-reasoned and vibrant essays. Our approach within the course is to strive for a sense of "public scholarship" in our writing. "Public scholarship" can be defined as writing that engages with the complexity of ethical and social issues by addressing a more general readership of citizens through dynamic and accessible prose.

Over the course of the semester, you will write three different essays in draft and revised form. In writing your essays, I will encourage you to:

• address an intelligent, public audience in a graceful style, providing key information necessary to understand your argument;
• develop your ideas in an interesting, original and coherent manner;
• support your arguments with evidence and use sources thoughtfully and appropriately;
• express yourself in clear, concise language that uses the conventions of grammar, punctuation, word usage and source citation;
• structure your arguments carefully with clear introductions, transitions, middle and conclusion;
• title your work in a thoughtful and entertaining fashion.

Each essay will be submitted first, in draft and later in revised form. By draft, I mean a readable, completely written first version of an essay that could be submitted to fulfill the requirements of the assignment. A draft is not an outline, half-written essay or set of notes.

The process of revision--rethinking and reconceptualizing the draft--is essential to the course. Revision means "re-seeing", a significant rewriting of the essay, the stage before line editing. Through the revision process, you may decide to:

• change your voice as a writer;
• rewrite your introduction and/or conclusion;
• modify or completely change your perspective or point of view;
• integrate additional information, primary or secondary sources;
• acknowledge a counterargument;
• reconceptualize the structure of the essay.

You may find that the revision process takes as long or longer than writing the draft or first version. After conceptual revision, line-editing and proofreading are the last steps in the essay writing process.

Each essay will center on particular analytic tasks, and will build upon the skills of the previous writing assignments. For outside research, you have the options of library research and service or community-based learning.

Each student will also keep a typed reader-writer notebook in which she or he will respond regularly to in-class exercises and assigned readings; notebook exercises will be collected when due. Over the course of the semester, reading assignments and preliminary writing exercises will help to prepare you for the kinds of essays that you will be writing. Students are asked to read a newspaper at least three times a week and keep a clipping file of articles, editorials, etc. in their reader-writer notebook on issues of interest.

Each student will also give at least one oral presentation (approx. 10-15 min.) in conjunction with either (or both) essay #2 or #3. After your oral presentation, I will provide feedback on your performance and offer suggestions for improvement.

To foster a sense of intellectual community, this course is structured as a seminar. Throughout the term, we will be discussing the work of professional, as well as student, authors. It is crucial that you come to class on time, with required texts and well prepared to offer thoughtful responses to the assigned reading as well as to your peers' writing. To be effective as a seminar participant, you will need to complete reading and writing tasks by their assigned dates. A vital, ongoing intellectual conversation --about our writing and that of published authors--is the heart of the course.

The writing workshop--in which students respond to their peers' drafts--is a very important part of the course. For each essay, we will have an in-class workshop after essay drafts have been submitted. We will also workshop some shorter pre-draft writing assignments. My expectation is that you will respond to each other's work seriously and critically and approach each draft with sensitivity, insight and imagination. For each workshop, you will be asked to read several drafts, discuss them in groups with your classmates and respond to them in the form of a letter. The ethical norm of our class is that all student writing (drafts and your comments) is considered confidential; you should store other students' drafts in a secure place and not discuss your peers' work outside the classroom. This ethic enables us to develop the trust and security we need as a small writing community.

Since our class functions as a writing community and the first "public" for your essays, it is essential that you attend class faithfully. If you have more than two unexcused absences, it may affect your final grade. Under Writing Program guidelines, you cannot pass the course if you have more then five unexcused absences. Three latenesses count as an absence. If you are absent from class or cannot submit an assignment on time because of a personal, family or medical emergency, please contact me as soon as possible. In the case of absence, it is your responsibility to contact another student to catch up on what you missed in class and obtain any handouts or assignments that were distributed.

Each essay will be submitted first, in draft form, and later, in a revised version. In reviewing your drafts, I will make extensive comments and suggest some options in revision. I will be available to meet with you to discuss your drafts and revised essays.

Only the revisions of each essay (not drafts) are graded. Pre-draft exercises will be acknowledged with a check and brief comments.

It is important that you submit work on the due date. In case of emergency, each student has a single one day extension on a draft or revision that she or he can take. Please save your extension until you really need it! Late submission of work without an extension may result in a lowered final grade.

To pass 21W.730, all required work must be submitted. The primary determinant of your final grade will be the quality of your revised essays, as well as the thoughtfulness of your reader-writer notebook. However, I will also consider your oral presentations, attendance, preparation for class and your contribution as a peer reviewer for your classmates. Attendance, preparation and participation count for about 20% of your final grade.

For students who entered MIT before summer 2001, receiving a grade of B- or better in the course means that you have passed Phase I of the Writing Requirement. For students who have entered MIT after summer 2001, the Communication (CI) Requirement replaces the Writing Requirement. See the Writing Requirement website at http://web.mit.edu/writing/writereq/ for more information.

Throughout the semester, I am available to meet with you in conferences to discuss your drafts and revisions and to suggest strategies for improving your writing. My role is as a writing coach to explore options with you, as you decide how to revise your work. Conferences also offer a rich opportunity to extend the conversations of the course about the readings and general strategies for successful (and enjoyable!) writing. You should come well prepared to conferences to discuss your options for a particular essay or type of writing. Some students find it most helpful to see me at the pre-writing stage of brainstorming and outlining, while others prefer to meet at the point between draft and revision, or at midterm time to discuss their progress and goals for the rest of the term. Two conferences are required for the semester.

As a MIT student, member of our class and the larger community of writers, you are expected to abide by the norms of academic honesty. Borrowing someone else's language and/or ideas without proper acknowledgement is academically dishonest and a form of plagiarism, which can have serious academic consequences at MIT.

In class, we'll discuss how to acknowledge sources and how to avoid plagiarism. For different styles of citing sources (MLA, APA), see Easy Writer, The Mayfield Handbook or the Writing Center website (address below).

MIT’s academic honesty policy can be found at the following link: http://web.mit.edu/policies/10.0.html.

The Writing and Communication Center also offers consultations on student writing and oral presentations. You are encouraged to visit the Writing Center at any point in the writing process: prewriting, drafting or revising. For further information, visit the website: http://web.mit.edu/writing/NEW/. The Center website, as well as that of the Writing Requirement Office at http://web.mit.edu/writing/writereq/, also include links to a wide variety of resources for writers.

The Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies website at http://web.mit.edu/humanistic/www/ also has information on a range of topics of interest to writing students: other writing classes, program advising, requirements for majors, minors and concentrators, and lectures and readings by authors on campus. Each spring the Program awards the Ilona Karmel Writing Prizes for student writers. More information on the Karmel prizes can be found on the website and at the Program office.