As with any new social context, college life comes with new standards of etiquette &
decorum. Social etiquette informs not just formal contexts like the dinner table, but
many places: how far to stand from someone in an elevator; how to behave after you
lose a football game; what's a party foul? In various contexts etiquette can be evaluated
for what it tells us about gender relations, hierarchy, and expectations of duty. In this
course we'll evaluate etiquette in several contexts — from 18th century dueling to modern
day sportsmanship; from ancient Greek speech to modern day flash mobs. Across these
contexts rules may remain unspoken, but in this class we'll try to name them.
College writing — the main focus of this course — also has its own etiquette & rules.
They're often unstated and will be somewhat new to you. The goal of this class is to
figure out what the etiquette of college writing is and identify how it helps you achieve
your writing goals. While proper grammar is part of this etiquette, more important is to
know what counts as a good topic; how to know when you've got good evidence; and
whether it's appropriate to write an entire paper on the history of personal etiquette on
subway cars (the answer: yes, if you can do it right). By the end of this class you'll aim
to have a solid sense of what it takes to write a good paper at the college level — even if it
feels as natural as knowing where to stand in an elevator.
Course Requirements:
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