ENGL 101 Syllabus and Course Policies

Winter 2008

Instructor: Scott Nelson Office Location: Bldg R.; 2^nd Floor

Office Hours: Office Phone: (425) 564-3064 (ext. 3)

Monday – Friday, 8:30 – 9:30 a.m. Email: rnelson@bcc.ctc.edu

and by appointment

Required Texts:

The Allyn & Bacon Guide to Writing, Brief, 4^th Edition, by John D. Ramage, John C. Bean, & June Johnson; ISBN# 0-321-29151-4

Additional Materials:

1 letter size file folder for turning in papers

Access to a grammar handbook

Folder with notebook paper for journal

Course Description:

This course is designed to prepare you for the academic writing you do at BCC and writing you will do in your careers and personal lives beyond BCC. It is a course designed to teach you not what to think, but how to think on your own. Ultimately, you should learn to be a better thinker, who is able to think critically about topics, other people, and yourself; a better rhetor, who is able to analyze a specific situation and adjust your writing to fit accordingly; and a better communicator, who is able to express ideas effectively.

Upon completion of English 101, you will be able to:

• address a variety of audiences;

• differentiate your personal opinions and assumptions from the authors’;

• articulate, providing evidence, a realistic sense of your own writing performance in specified criteria areas;

• plan, draft, and revise writing based on your analysis of your audience, assigned topic, and own feelings and ideas;

• understand a variety of types of college writing by examining the basic characteristics that define each type;

• evaluate your writing and others’ by drawing on criteria that apply to most writing;

• explore a range of ideas in order for you to grow intellectually.

Assignments:

Throughout the course, you will have 5 major graded paper assignments:

1. a rhetorical analysis

2. an informative paper

3. an image analysis

4. a researched causal analysis

5. a reflective essay

In addition to these assignments, I will require you to bring a journal to class daily. This journal will be turned in, for a grade, at the end of the course.

Course Grade:

Some assigned work might not be graded, but prompt completion of all work is essential to pass English 101. All assignments are due at the beginning of class on the designated due date. All assigned work done outside of class is required to be typed in 12-point Times New Roman font with one-inch page margins unless otherwise specified. This includes drafts as well. For each paper, there will be checkpoints for peer review. You must be present and have your work completed to receive the full 5 points for that checkpoint. “Completed” means meeting the required word count for that assignment. On days checkpoints are due, you must provide copies for everyone in your group.

You must complete all written assignments to pass the course.

Assuming that you have complied with such matters, your course grade distribution is as follows:

Assignment	Percent
Paper 1: Rhetorical Analysis	100 points
Paper 2: Informative Paper	100 points
Paper 3: Image Analysis	100 points
Paper 4: Researched Causal Analysis	100 points
Paper 5: Reflective Essay	100 points
Daily Work (including attendance and participation)	50 points
Peer Reviews (5 points each)	50 points
Total	600 points

Papers will primarily be assessed based upon the Shared Criteria for Evaluating Writing, which we will discuss at length in class.

Grading System:

Numerical Grade	Letter Grade	What it means
98 – 95	A
95 – 90	A -	Excellent Writing
89 – 88	B +
87 – 85	B	Good Writing
84 – 80	B -
79 – 78	C +
77 – 75	C	Competent Writing
74 – 70	C -
69 – 68	D+
67 – 63	D	Unsatisfactory Writing
62 – 60	D-
59 and below	F	Failing

Notice that any grade below a 63 for the quarter does not receive credit for the course, as there is no designation for D minus at BCC.

Grammar logs:

Grammar logs are be due the day after you receive each graded paper, unless I specify otherwise. They are to be done as a separate assignment (not inside your paper). At the end of my comments on each paper, I will designate some grammatical problems you are having in your paper. For your grammar log entries, you must 1. list the name of the problem and define it (using a grammar handbook); 2. Rewrite all sentences from your paper with this problem, correcting the grammatical error. Do not rewrite the incorrect sentence, but instead only write the correct sentence. You need only correct the types of errors I designate in my end comments (after the “G.L.:”).

For example:

Pronoun reference error: Except for some indefinite pronouns, the meaning of a pronoun depends upon its having a definite antecedent (single word to which it refers). If the reader cannot discern with absolute certainty what the antecedent is for each pronoun, you have made a pronoun reference error.

Corrections:

1. Everyone should bring his or her books.

2. The Mariners’ game was canceled and I lost my keys. This cancellation caused everyone much grief.

Make-up and Late Work:

Most writing is done with a deadline in mind, and all writing can be improved if given enough time. Therefore, it is unfair for one student’s late paper to receive a higher grade than a student’s paper that was turned in on time. Late papers cannot receive a higher grade than the lowest score of papers meeting the deadline. The easiest way to avoid this penalty is to turn your assignments in on time. There is no extra credit available for this course, and since this isn’t an online course, I don’t accept papers via email.

Attendance and Tardiness Policies:

I keep a record of attendance that I take at the beginning of class. If you show up late, I may not count you as present, so you need to notify me of your presence at the end of class. Your daily work (including attendance and participation) counts toward your final grade, so it’s imperative you are present, meaning in the classroom, conscious, and prepared for the day’s work. Three instances of tardiness count as an absence. Missing the first week of class, or four or more absences (regardless of the reasons behind them) receives a failing grade for the course. If you are absent, it is your responsibility to get your assignments and adhere to the due date schedule.

Plagiarism:

Plagiarism is every hardworking student’s enemy, but citations are your friends. Being able to properly cite outside sources gives your paper credibility because not only have you demonstrated mastery of a discourse community, but you also are illustrating for your audience you are well read on the issue and have done your research. Plagiarism, on the other hand, is using someone else’s writing or ideas without properly indicating they are indeed someone else’s. It is cheating. It is fraud. It is also a punishable criminal offense in some states. Unfortunately, ignorance is not a viable excuse. We will discuss plagiarism and tools to avoid it in class at length, and I take all plagiarism offenses very seriously. Do not turn in work that someone else has done. Do not let someone else do a lot of rewriting or proofreading for you (although feedback is encouraged). Do not copy from a book, article, or the Internet without citing the information properly. This includes copying and pasting from the Internet without citing the information or without using quotation marks when necessary.. Do not borrow ideas or facts that are not common knowledge without citing them properly. Those found in violation of this policy will receive no credit for the assignment, and may receive an F for the course and/or be required to have a meeting with the Dean of Students. This policy applies to any other form of cheating in the classroom as well.

For more information on plagiarism, see the website below:

• http://www.bcc.ctc.edu/writinglab/Plagiarism.html

Other Matters:

• In order to access the handouts and assignments for this course, you must have a registered MyBCC login and password. If you have not already registered for this, immediately go to mybcc.net and do so. The materials on the course website are necessary to pass this course, and this website is different from the Arts & Humanities website.

• TURN OFF ALL CELL PHONES AND DEVICES THAT MAKE BEEPING SOUNDS. Those with children or who are caring for an ill relative may keep these devices on, but only in vibrate mode.

• I try my hardest to keep this class interesting, but sometimes education is less than entertaining. If you sleep in class, you are absent and may be asked to leave.

• I am here to help you become better writers. If there is something you didn’t quite catch in class or need clarification on, don’t hesitate to call, email, or stop by my office to see me. I don’t mind taking extra time out of class to explain things, and I am quite approachable if you take the initiative.

• College work is difficult and time-consuming. For college-level work, you should expect two hours of homework for each hour spent in the classroom. So, for a 5-credit course, that’s 5 hours a week in class plus ten hours of homework for a total of fifteen hours of work a week. Keep in mind, with a writing class, this can be more. If you feel other obligations (family, employment, sports, performance arts, etc.) will cut into your attendance and/or performance in class, consider taking ENGL 101 when you can devote the necessary time to your studies. Keep in mind, there are also other forms of instruction (telecourses, online courses, hybrid courses, interdisciplinary studies, etc.) which may be more conducive to your style of learning.

• Students are expected to take an active responsibility in their own education and assessment process. Under federal law, I cannot discuss your academic progress, attendance, nor even your enrollment in my class with anyone other than you. Instead of a hindrance, I see these guidelines as a means of fostering a professional academic relationship with students, a relationship necessary for true education. For further reading on the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), go to http://www.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/fpco/ferpa/index.html

• If you have medical information to share with me in the event of an emergency, please contact me via email or come to see me during office hours. If you need course modifications / adaptations or accommodations because of a disability, I can refer you to our Disability Resource Center (DRC). If you prefer, you may contact them directly by going to B132 or by calling 425.564.2498 or TTY 425.564.4110. Information is also available on their website at http://bellevuecollege.edu/drc/