Syllabus is a very familiar genre to every college
student, and we encounter it each time we are enrolled in a new course. A syllabus
has its own format that helps its writer, the instructor, arrange information
he wants to convey as well as helps its reader, students, quickly distill
information of their interest. First, the course description is always included
in a syllabus. In this part, information, such as instructor’s name and email
address, where and when lecture takes place every week and what will we do in
the lecture, is provided for the sake of instruction. Students need to be
informed of when and how to prepare for the class. Second, there is a list of
required material. Same reason as the previous one, this lesson can be better
taught if students are better prepared. Third, there are policies of this
course. Usually, grading policy is given the most concern of students. How to
get an A or A+ in a class always has the highest priority to those top students
and how to, at least, pass the class absolutely possesses the same level of importance
to those struggling students as well. Aside from grading policy, attendance
policy and integrity policy are also frequently-mentioned policies and it is obviously
because no one wants their course severely subject to tardiness and cheating. At
last, there are sub-titles for every entry I mentioned above. In order to
clearly form the syllabus and make it convenient for students to look for
information of their interest, it is divided by sub-titles, which are
distinguished from its content by font size, bold or italicizing. Content is
all dependent on its corresponding sub-title and may contain bullets and numbers
making details even more organized. In addition to the format, a formal and
somewhat stern tone is also a convention of the syllabus. Because instructor
gives respect to students, and in return he demands the same respect students
give back.
The context of a syllabus is straightforward:
instructor writes a list of things that all students should know about. In such
context, its intended audience is every student in the class, and sometimes instructor’s
TAs. The purpose of writing a syllabus is to inform its audience of all the
facts of this class, to encourage students to study assiduously and to help students
have a better academic performance. As a means to accomplish these goals,
syllabus is always formatted in a clear and concise way. Facts about course are written under course
description, so everyone can quickly find it and read through. Under grading
policy, details, such as time and percentage, about homework, exams and etc.
not only tell students what grade they can earn in proportion to their effort but
also implies that there are a lot of work laying ahead and hence everyone
should work hard and prepare early. Sometimes, instructor will also provide a
schedule of the class to persuade students to pace their own study plan well. Besides,
a stern tone in a syllabus persuades students to work hard as well because words
like “should”, “have to”, and “must” really send out a strong suggestion to
students so that they become more responsible and hard-working subconsciously.
In brief, a clean and concise format, course
descriptions, policies in this course and a formal and stern tone makes a
syllabus a syllabus.
Tianyi,
ReplyDeleteI’m going to pass along some feedback I gave to another student who chose the college syllabus as its own genre. Some of the common surface-level features of syllabi: attendance policies, grading, the schedule, and a formal tone are each common aspects. If/when you dig even deeper, you might begin to see that there’s some intertextuality amongst syllabi—they might reference other documents (the UCSB Writing Program’s policies), laws (FERPA), or services (CLAS) that play a part in the local (or even national) education. So what, you might ask? Well, this all comes back to demonstrating how genres are, at their heart, social.
I spotted one area where I’d like you to get a lot more specific: you wrote that the “instructor writes a list of things that all students should know about.” Well, what are these “things”? The more specific you can get and the more textual evidence/support you can provide, the stronger your claims will be. You also wrote that “its intended audience is every student in the class, and sometimes instructor’s TAs.” This is true, but some other less-immediate audience members for this genre could be other faculty members, the university administration, and even the public (i.e., students’ parents, the community, etc.).
Solid work here, Tianyi. In the future, I’d like you to consider bringing your blog to life a bit more by adding in some visuals. That could also benefit your ability to use direct textual evidence to support your claims. For instance, you could “quote” or just describe some of the specific features between our Writing 2 syllabus and syllabi from other courses.
Z
As you mentioned, “The purpose of writing a syllabus is to inform its audience of all the facts of the class…” This purpose heavily influences the layout and information presented on most syllabi. This genre was created to be clear, succinct, and organized. The majority of syllabi look very similar, with some only differing in having additional sub-sections, policies, etc. I believe that the majority of differences come from the tone of the syllabus as well as the location in which it was created. Some professors write their syllabi with a more friendly tone, almost sounding conversational. While others are more professional and stiff sounding. The tone of the syllabus can affect how students perceive the professor and the structure of the class. Location also changes aspects of a syllabus. Some campuses offer different services that are helpful for students and have policies unique to their institution. Depending on the university, the syllabi can vary due to these circumstances.
ReplyDeleteFirst, you indeed have pointed out many important features for syllabus.For many of us, syllabus actually is one of the most direct and important way to comprehend a course. Because, like you said, “syllabus arrange information that professor wants to convey as well as helps its reader, students, quickly distill information of their interest.” And syllabus also simply summary what does the course mainly do through whole quarter. Although there is some small problem, such as repetitive meaning somewhere(the function of syllabus), I still believe it is a very good article for introduce syllabus as a whole.
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