Composition Tutorial
All
students at the University of Pittsburgh need to be aware
of the conventions of standard written English in a variety
of contexts. According to the Policies and Practices in Composition
Courses handout that your Seminar in Composition (SC) teacher
will give you, "One important obligation of a composition
course is to help students become more thoroughly aware of
these conventions and more adept in employing them." Composition
Tutorial (CT) is a series of once-a-week tutorial sessions
designed to help students with their writing at the sentence
and paragraph level. The purpose of CT is to use your own
writing to learn conventions necessary to produce successful
academic writing, specifically in the context of your Seminar
in Composition class. (You are responsible for proofreading
and editing your own work; neither CT nor the Writing Center
provide editing services.)
CT is taught by consultants in the
Writing Center. After an initial meeting with a group of
several other CT students,
you will meet with your CT consultant in
individual appointments at the Writing Center in room M-2 of Thaw Hall. While
much of what goes on in CT sessions is determined by the specific needs of
each student writer, everyone will work on revising, editing,
and proofreading sentences.
Typical topics of study in CT include negotiating the conventions of sentence
boundaries and punctuation, setting up quotations, writing introductions, writing
and editing complex sentences, tightening prose to eliminate redundancy, and
keeping tone and style consistent.
As you read the above description, you will
notice that we aren't going to be working explicitly on the
content of
your essays. The issues we
will be focusing
on are what we will call sentence- and paragraph-level issues, because they
have to do with the ways you put sentences and paragraphs
together effectively in
order to write an essay. CT is not designed to focus on the specific reading
or writing assignments of your Seminar in Composition section, and we won't
have time to discuss your work as a response to the assignments
your Seminar in Composition
teacher gives you. If you are having trouble understanding a Seminar in Composition
assignment or feel that you need help beyond what is provided in CT, you may
schedule appointments in the Writing Center like any other student enrolled
in university courses.
CT is taken concurrently with Seminar
in Composition, and the grading for CT—based
on a portfolio review at the end of term—is pass/fail. If you fail CT,
you must also fail Seminar in Composition.
Requirements
- Attendance is essential, and being prepared to work on your writing is crucial. Since CT only meets once each week, any absence is detrimental to your progress. If you must be absent, you are responsible for telling your consultant ahead of time and for scheduling a makeup session in the Writing Center with your consultant.
- You will need to buy Diana Hacker's A Pocket Style Manual, 5th edition (available at the Book Center) and bring it to all CT sessions.
- You will also need to bring your Seminar in Composition essays and handouts to every CT meeting. Please buy a folder for CT and bring it with you.
- Every time you turn in an assignment to your Seminar in Composition teacher, you must give a copy to your CT consultant. When you get your writing back from your Seminar in Composition teacher with comments, you should share those comments with your CT consultant as well. The essays you write for Seminar in Composition will provide you with sentences and paragraphs to work on in CT.
- There are three key elements to passing CT: you need to attend regularly, submit a complete portfolio on time, and demonstrate that you can write competent prose.
Special Needs
If you have a disability for which you are requesting an accommodation, speak with both your CT consultant and the Office of Disability Resources and Services (DRS) as early as possible in the term. You can call them at 412-648-7890 or 412-383-7355 (TTY) and you can visit their office at 216 William Pitt Union. DRS will verify your disability and determine reasonable accommodations for this course.
Assessment
Compiling and submitting a satisfactory portfolio
is a major requirement of CT. Your final portfolio
is due to your CT consultant no later
than noon on the last
day of undergraduate day classes during the term you are taking CT. To
create your portfolio, you will choose three of your
Seminar in Composition essays,
edit and proofread their sentence- and paragraph-level features, and put
them into a final portfolio for the end-of-term portfolio review.
You may also be
asked to include an end-of-term essay that you will write under your instructor's
supervision. The objective is to demonstrate your ability to revise, edit,
and proofread your own work and an awareness of the conventions
of standard written
English. Your final portfolio will be read to determine whether your work
meets the standards necessary to pass CT; if it does and if you
have attended CT regularly,
you will be given an S for the course. If your portfolio doesn’t
meet those standards or if you have been excessively absent, you will be
given
an NC for
the course.
Both your Seminar in Composition and CT teachers will keep you informed
of your progress, and you may schedule a conference with either or both
of them
to discuss
your work. Remember that Seminar in Composition and CT have slightly different,
though complementary, purposes, and so the focus of comments from these
teachers will be different.
If you have any questions, please contact Jean Grace, who coordinates CT. Her number is 412-624-5661.