Writing about Lesbian and Gay Culture

Jump to the syllabus for Writing about Lesbian and Gay Culture.

I decided to experiment with a student designed course in which I provided a reader (The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader from Routledge), a framework/schedule, and an impressionistic grading scale -- included with and as part of the syllabus.

The first assignment (following basic work in our computer classroom, Scailab) asked students to create a proposal for a unit based on a topic that used readings from the text -- the exact directions were given at the very end of the syllabus. Students then worked in small groups to choose two proposals from their group to recommend to the class as a whole. The class as a whole then chose two of the proposals and those became the work of the class for the next ten weeks -- the units laid out on the attached syllabus are, in fact, the students' work.

I would say that the students were deeply committed to the material partially as a result of interest in the course material itself (though many students at UIC end in special topics courses by "mistake" or as a result of class and work schedules), but partially as a result of their input and interests mattering and making a difference! See my "The Last Bastion" for a wider discussion of these issues.

My sense was that more students did more of the readings and that they were engaged in the writing as well -- certainly I heard from the students that they enjoyed the course! The final drafts of the final papers are due next week, as of this writing, but the drafts I saw were interesting and evidenced both original theses and research.

Hacker, Diana. A Writer's Reference. 2nd edition. New York: Bedford, 1992.

Goals: By the end of this course, you will have learned the basics of academic research using both physical and electronic media, spoken both formally and informally before a group and improved your basic writing skills. You will have also read some of the basic texts necessary for further work in the field of gay and lesbian studies. The major emphasis of this course is on well written academic prose.

Attendance: Poor attendance and tardiness will affect your final grade for the course, at my discretion.

Assignments: You will write a number of short, fairly informal assignments and three longer formal essays: two 4-6 page papers and one 8-10 page paper that will focus on the conjunctions, intersections and differences between the lesbian/gay communities and the larger culture of which we are all (gay, straight or bisexual) members. The 8-10 page paper will build on one or more of the shorter assignments; all three papers will require outside ("library") research including sources that demonstrate a use of the electronic catalogs available to all UIC students. You must type all (repeat, all) written assignments for this class, including any informal exercises I might assign. Please use one inch margins all around (top, bottom, left, right).

Evaluation: You will receive one grade for this class and it is the grade that will appear on your transcript. I will grade you holistically (that is, by looking at your performance in the class as a whole) using the following criteria:
 
 

Students who perform well (A or B final grade, if you wish to think in terms of grades) in this class will:

-- turn in all written assignments on time; the assignments will show evidence of careful hought and signs of careful crafting. Further, the assignments completed by students will exceed the requirements given for the assignment and evidence both creativity and initiative on the writers' part. Their writing will evidence a clear organization and structure appropriate to the assignment and will reflect a clear awareness of the writers' audience. Writing by these students will show no grammatical or other surface errors.

--rewrite written assignments as necessary using the suggestions both of their peers and of the instructor. Rewrites will be substantial, involving both rethinking and organizing ideas, and correction of all error.

--perform honestly and well in student peer groups and act as resource for other students. They will offer in-depth criticism of the writing produced by their peers and not allow any personal differences between members of their groups to affect the work of the group. They will meet outside class on their own time if the group decides that additional group time is necessary. They will always provide adequate copies of the work being evaluated and be open to criticism and suggestions for change.

--take part in all discussions and show evidence of having completed all assigned readings for the course.

Students who do adequate or average work for this course (C final grade) will:

--turn in all written assignments on time. Though carefully crafted and polished, the assignments produced by these students will only meet, not exceed, the requirements given by the instructor. Though no grammatical or surface errors exist, the writing will be flat and dull. There will be no evidence of either a great deal of creativity or of initiative. The cry of the student producing this work? "But I did what you told me to do!"

--rewrite written assignments as necessary using the suggestions both of their peers and of the instructor; their changes will, however, tend to the local (substitution of one word for another, for instance). Their rewrites will not, for the most part, show evidence of reorganization or the creation of new text. There will be very little evidence of a distinction between rewriting and editing, but they will eliminate all grammatical error.

--take part in all group work, but will not significantly help the other writers in their group. Their criticism will focus mostly on the local level (i.e., "you spelled 'university' with a 'z'"). They will meet outside class times, but only as a last resort. Other group members will need to police them, needing to remind them of meeting times and places. They will often attempt to justify the reasons they "did something" rather than listen to group and consider changes. They will usually provide sufficient copies of work that the group is evaluating.

--take part in all discussions and show evidence of having completed all assigned readings for the course.

Students who do below average or failing work for this course (D or E final grade) will:

--turn in all or some assignments late. Their writing will be both dull and flat and suffer from grammatical or other surface errors, will evidence very little to no creativity and will depend to an excessive amount on examples from the text, on the work of other students, or on models that the instructor might provide. There will be no evident organization or structure in written assignments, and it will be difficult for the instructor or peers to discern the intended audience of any written assignment.

--turn in rewrites that show very little evidence of any actual rewriting. There will no or few changes in structure, no or few ideas generated for the rewrite, and little or no creation of any new text. The writer in this category will use no or few suggestions from either the instructor or class peers.

--contribute little or nothing to peer groups. Students will limit their comments to the affective ("I liked it" or "I didn't like it") but not provide either reasons why or suggestions for further change. The writer in this category will not meet outside class and will miss class sessions when the groups will work during class time. This writer will not turn in materials on time, and will usually not provide adequate numbers of copies of assignments for the group.

--contribute little or nothing to class discussions, and will show little or no evidence of having read the assigned material for the day.

8/24/93: Introduction to course, diagnostic
8/26/93: Scailab (please meet at Addams 110): Luis

Week Two:

8/31/93: Scailab (Please Meet At Addams 110): Ibis
9/2/93: Scailab (please meet at Addams 110): E-mail (optional)

Week Three:

9/7/93: Unit Proposal Workshop 1 (Groups)
9/9/93: Unit Proposal Workshop 2 (Class)

9/14/93: "Commodity Lesbianism," Clark (186-201)

 
• Is the commodization of the lesbian 'image' a tactic which further includes or lesbians into mainstream heterosexual culture?

 
• "Only when individuals began to make their living through wage labor . . . was it possible for homosexual desire to coalesce into a personal identity." Do you agree? Why or why not?

9/21/93: "Deviance, Politics And The Media," Hall (62-90)
9/23/93: "Deviance," Continued

 
• Write about a recent incident where gays were either "publicly legitimated as political, or instead de-legitimated [as] deviant."

9/28/93: "Television/Feminism: Heartbeat And Prime-Time Lesbianism," Torres (176-185)

 
• Are feminism and lesbianism used interchangeably by the media? Give examples.

 
• Who gets to control what images get shown of the lesbian, gay and bisexual communities? How is it done, and why?

10/5/93: Writing Workshop Paper 1
10/7/93: Writing Workshop Paper 1

Week Eight:

10/12/93: No Class - Student Conferences
10/14/93: No Class - Student Conferences

10/19/93: "Thinking Sex," Rubin (3-44), Paper 1 Due, No Late Papers Accepted!

 
• "In the late 1940's until the early 1960's homosexuals were, along with communists, the object of federal witch hunts and purges." Why did these people allow this to happen to their fellow Americans?

 
• "Homophobia is usually the last oppression to be mentioned, the last to be taken, the last to go. But it is extremely serious, sometimes to the point of being fatal." Do you agree with this? Why or why not?

10/26/93: "Epistemology Of The Closet," Sedgwick (45-61)

 
• "The lie, the perfect lie, about people we know, about the relations we have had with them, about our motive for some action, formulated in totally different terms, the lie as to what we are, whom we love, what we feel with regard to people who love us . . . " Please react to this statement.

 
• "I am concerned here with two other matters as well: first, how and why women's choices of women as passionate comrades, life partners, co-workers, lovers, community, has been crushed, invalidated, forced into hiding and disguise; second, the virtual or total neglect of lesbian existence in a wide range of writings, including feminist scholarship" (your reactions?)

11/2/93: Sedgwick And Rich, Continued...
11/4/93: "Just When You Thought It Was Safe To Go Back In The Water," Selden (221-226)

 
• How did people's prejudice of the homosexual community evolve into blaming them for the AIDS epidemic?

11/9/93: No Class -- Instructor Conflict
11/11/93: Instructor's Choice

Week Thirteen:

11/16/93: Writing Workshop Paper 2
11/18/93: Writing Workshop Paper 2

11/23/93: Paper Presentations, Paper 2 Due: No Late Papers Accepted!
11/25/93: No Class -- Thanksgiving Holiday

Week Fifteen:

11/30/93: Paper Presentations
12/2/93: Paper Presentations

Finals Week: TBD, Final 8-10 Page Paper Due! No Late Papers Accepted!

 
• A descriptive title
• A summary of their goals and purposes for their unit
• A list of the articles they proposed to include in their unit.
• one short assignment for each of the articles in your proposal

On Sept. 9, 1993, the class chose two proposals: these were used by the class for the next ten weeks. Each unit culminated with a 4-6 page paper that stemed from the concerns and questions raised by the unit (though not necessarily from the readings directly). In any case, both of the 4-6 page papers had at least three sources outside Abelove, one of which had to come from outside UIC.

Each student also wrote a longer paper which grew out of one of the two shorter papers -- it had to have must have a minimum of 3 new sources; one of the new sources had to be from beyond the UIC library.

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