University Writing

Honors 300R -- Peer Handbook: Writing the Honors 150 Text

Coordinator: Susan Jorgensen
185 HGB, 422-6848

Course Description:

Have you ever thought to yourself when struggling with a difficult (or boring) textbook, "Boy, if I had written this I could make it both more interesting and more helpful!" This class offers just such an opportunity. Every three years this course provides a select group of former Honors 150 students the challenge of writing a book about Honors 150. Over the last several years five different books have been produced and then used as a support text in Honors 150 classes. The most recent is Why Write: A Guide to BYU Honors University Writing. These textbooks are generally very well liked by Honors 150 students because they "pass down secrets" about how to succeed in the course by writing well. These student-authored texts include specific helps for the papers required in Honors 150. Beside the value of offering Honors 150 students a writing text written by their older peers, the class offers the advanced writing students who create the book strong experience in rewriting for publication. 

The next course will be taught Fall 2008.  The publishing of this text, Honors 301R—Peer Handbook: Editing and Designing the Honors 150 Text, will be taught Winter 2009.

Prerequisites

Honors 200/150

Year to be Taken

Any offered semester after taking Honors 150

Recommended Majors Served

Any. Students who have taken this Honors 300 class sequence have had a unique hands-on experience in writing, revising, and publishing—a rare opportunity for undergraduate students.

Skills Taught in Support of Academic Training and Vocation

1. Audience awareness for purpose, content, and tone. Students also learn to give feedback to other writers.
2. Research skills (e.g. using primary, secondary, and electronic sources and databases, and evaluating and citing sources).
3. Expertise in using the writing process, including prewriting, drafting, peer reviewing and revising.
4. Writing and revision skills as students focus on the use of organization, style, and format, appropriate to audience and writing context.
5. Collaborative writing.  Writing the text is a class project. Together we decide how to arrange the materials and what to include or eliminate.
6. Conferencing with teachers on how to improve writing.
7. Oral presentations and reports, including electronic presentations.
8. Editing for grammar, usage, and punctuation.
9. Appreciation for and experience with writing across the disciplines

Vocations Prepared for

The teaching of English, writing, communications, publishing, design, journalism, humanities, art history. Any vocation where, to succeed, one must target a specific audience.

Major Assignments

Contract I: Write a thorough evaluation of past student-written texts with the goal of creating a working table of contents for the new book.  An oral presentation of this evaluation is given to the class.
Contract II: Research and write 15-20 pages for the new book.
Contract III: Peer review and evaluate Contract II.
Contract IV: Revise/rewrite 2 to 4 articles other than Contract II.
Contract V: Thoroughly evaluate revised/rewritten articles
Contract VI: Re-revise and edit the text’s articles

Sample Textbooks:

1. Writing with Style, John Trimble
2. The Elements of Style, Strunk and White