This page gives you the general requirements
and expectations for English 201. It does not give you the daily assignments.
You will find those in the Assignments sections that appear on the homepage of
my course.
Assignment Sections: As you will see on the course home page, our class
is divided into six assignment sections. Each section asks you to read
designated chapters in your text, post a comment on the Bulletin Board,
exchange a draft and critique with a Peer Editing partner on the Bulletin Board,
and submit a finished essay to me by e-mail. Each of these functions
has points attached to it, so please do not fail to complete all required peer
editing, Bulletin Board assignments, and essays. You could do well on
your written assignments and still do poorly in the class if you do not engage
in the entire process of the course. I have observed students in my
past on line classes losing out unnecessarily on grade points because they
failed to complete Bulletin Board assignments or peer editing functions.
Textbook:
St. Martin's Guide to Writing, 6th edition,
will be the required text, available through the BCC Bookstore. You will be
asked to read, either carefully or quickly, most of the chapters in this
textbook. Some chapters will not be assigned.
You may purchase your textbook online, if
you have not already done so using the Integrated Registration Bookstore.
Go to the BCC bookstore home page, http://bookstore.bcc.ctc.edu. From
there, click <Textbooks> on the boxes near the top of the home
page. Follow the directions given for the integrated online book ordering
and registration system. You may also personally buy your books at the
bookstore. You can find store information and hours of operation at http://bookstore.bcc.ctc.edu.
Policy on Lateness: All required assignments must be completed in order
to pass the course. Late written work, except the final paper, is accepted up
to two (2) days after a due deadline. Thereafter, I will not accept late work,
unless you have a compelling and good reason why the work is late. The final
paper must be turned in on time or I will not be able to meet the deadline the
college sets for turning in grades. This could affect your graduation,
receiving financial aid, or transferring to another institution. Obviously,
punctuality is important to your ability to complete the course. It is
especially important, and required, in posting your comments on the Bulletin
Board and in exchanging drafts and critiques with your assigned Peer Editing
partners. If you have problems meeting deadlines, communicate with me at once
by e-mail at mailto:kpeterson201@aol.com
or phone me at (425) 898-9562. It is also very important for you to understand
that you will not benefit from the re-write option if you continually turn in
late work. All first re-writes must be turned in by the date required in the
section assignments, or they will not be considered. In any event all
re-written work must be turned in with the final paper.
Reading Standards: You will see on the assignment pages that you may
read some chapters quickly while you should read others very carefully. In
general, devote as much time as you can to reading, and pay close attention to
the good instructions you get from time to time in your textbook on the process
of critical reading. Remember that close reading requires concentration and
reflection. You will be accountable, with
respect to grades, for producing papers that conform to the standards and
techniques set out in the readings.
Exercises: You are not required to submit exercises for any of
the reading. You may wish, however, to do the exercises for your own benefit.
Tests: There will be no quizzes or examinations.
Basis for Final Grade: Grades will be based upon writing assignments,
comments posted on the Bulletin Board, and exchanges of preliminary drafts and
critiques between assigned Peer Editing partners. The break down on points is
as follows:
Final Paper - 100 points
Writings: Library Assignment 50
points; Annotated Bibliography 50 points;
Bulletin Board - 10 points for Section 1; 15
points for Section 2; 40 points for Section 3 (30 points for the first posting
and 10 points for the replies); 5 points for Section 4; 30 points for Section 5
(synthesis comment 10 points, contextualizing comment 10 points, and outline 10
points).
Peer editing is a required part of the
course. I do not assign independent points for peer editing.
However, if you do not engage in this process in a timely manner, you will
receive one letter grade lower on your graded essays that you otherwise would
have.
300 total grade points possible.
GRADES: A = 300 - 282; A- = 281 - 270; B+ =
269 - 261; B = 260 - 249; B- = 248 - 240; C+ = 239 - 231; C = 230 - 219;
C- = 218 - 210; D+ = 209 - 201; D = 200 - 189; D- = 188 - 180; F = 179 - and
below.
Re-writing Work
You may re-write any of the graded written
assignments that you receive a C- or lower on by the time deadlines noted in
the eight sections. You will not have time to re-write the final paper
prior to my having to submit your grade to the college. A re-write may result
in your receiving a better grade, if you take this learning process seriously.
Students in previous classes have found this
re-write process, though work, to be extremely valuable in teaching them to
become better writers.
Do not fall into the trap of producing a
poor or sloppy piece of writing initially and then assume that you will have
the time and/or ability to re-write it by the re-write deadline. Initially,
doing this will result in your putting off really doing an assignment until you
have a backlog of work waiting for you that will interfere with the newly
assigned work. Secondly, if I receive an extremely poorly written piece, I
retain the option of giving it a low grade and prohibiting your re-writing the
piece. This action shall take place at my discretion.
Since good writing requires taking the time
to edit and re-write the initially produced piece, you should anticipate and
expect to have to re-write at least some of your papers to get the grade that
you desire. You may expect me to, initially, grade your essays very closely and
completely. This is not done to as a gesture of meanness. All advanced writers
are very self critical of their writing skills and habits. This is what makes
them good writers, over all. What I desire that you learn is what writing
habits you have that you need to changed for you to become a good writer.
My Grading Habits: I do not grade on a pre-determined curve. A review
of my grading would show that grades in the B range (B+, B, B-) predominate. I
therefore expect most of my students in this course will have grades above the
C range. Some students will probably have grades in the A range. However,
others may have grades in the C range. They must not feel discouraged. I
consider C and C+ writing as entirely respectable for college students. We grow
in our writing ability as we meet the challenges of reading and writing in a
wide variety of college level courses.
Discussion Forum: For each assignment block, you will be asked to
post at least one comment on an electronic discussion location called the
Bulletin Board. You may post more if you wish. The Bulletin Board will allow
you to exchange comments with the entire class in an easy, well organized
way. Depending upon the section, I may initiate the Bulletin Board
portion for some assignment blocks with a posting about the currently assigned
reading and writing and additional lecture-type comments at the beginning of
each section. Thereafter, student comments can expand the discussion.
This type of discussion is dependent upon expressed student interest and
questions.
Peer Editing: You and an assigned Peer Editing partner will
exchange: (1) a draft of each of your writing assignments and (2) a helpful
critique of your partner's draft. You will post your draft and critique on the
Bulletin Board. You will be assigned to a Peer Editing group. Members
of that group will be the only students able to see your draft and read your
critique. Peer Editing groupings will be made after the first week of the
quarter.
Writing Assignments: You will be asked to submit assigned essays by
given dates. I require that these come as an integral part of an e-mail message
to reduce the risk of my computer acquiring a virus from opening an attached
word file. This will allow me to return your essay with my comment and grade as
a simple reply to your e-mail message. Again, please do not send attachments.
You may type your finished essay into a regular e-mail message or you may cut
and paste it there using a text editor.
I recommend that you save your essays in
rich text format (RTF). This lower level of text file is more likely to
successfully cut and paste into your e-mail text editor. You may also
find that you can pre-write your Bulletin Board comments on your regular word
processing program if you save into RTF.
MS Word incompatibilities: In the
past, I have discovered that MS Word at certain levels does not successfully
paste into e-mail text editors. It also does not paste into the Bulletin
Board. I have not heard of any Apple incompatibility yet.
Format for Writing Assignments:
At the left hand corner at the top of your
e-mail message screen, give your name, your e-mail address, our course number,
the current date, and the number of the writing assignment.
Double space and enter a title without
quotation marks on the left hand side of the message screen.
Double space and begin your essay, using
single spacing within paragraphs.
Double space between paragraphs.
Correction Symbols and Comments on Graded
Essays:
I may use correction symbols from the inside
of the final page of your textbook in marking your essays. You should make
yourself familiar with these symbols at the beginning of the course. They
are linked through reference numbers to sections in your grammar handbook (the
shaded section near the end of your textbook). My comments will appear in
all caps within brackets throughout your essay. This does not mean I am
"SHOUTING" at you, as the Internet custom has developed, so please do
not feel that way. I will try to make my comments clear and
helpful. If they seem confusing, please ask for further clarification by
e-mail.
Communicating with the Instructor: You are strongly encouraged to communicate
individually with me by e-mail at mailto:kpeterson201@aol.com when you are
perplexed by an assignment or when something unusual in your life prevents you
from meeting an assignment. With rare exceptions, I read and reply to my
e-mail messages five working days a week. I try to read my e-mail on
weekends as well, though I make no firm promises to do this. You may also
communicate with me by phone at (425) 898-9562. You must communicate with
me if you special physical needs that may keep you from successfully completing
the online course. I will assist you in contacting the BCC staff who will
work with you to accommodate those needs.
Communicating with Other Students by E-mail: You will benefit if you communicate with other students about matters
pertaining to the class. Always be polite and respectful with each other, but
do not fail to provide good and candid advice on the peer editing functions you
perform. This said, it is BCC policy that you do not have to give out a
personal e-mail address to another person. Therefore, if you desire not
to give out your personal e-mail address, please notify me and we will arrange a
Web CT or campus address for you.
Withdrawing from English 102: In the event that you decide to withdraw from
this course (or any other on line course), you must remember to contact the
Registration office and make sure that you are officially withdrawn. In
the past, because it is easy to remove a class from your Web CT, a handful of
students did this and assumed that they had withdrawn. They were
unpleasantly surprised when they received letter grades at the end of the
quarter because they had not officially withdrawn. Removing a class from
"My Web CT" does not equate to a withdrawal.
Online Information for Department of
English: You should also
review the English Department homepage for information about the department,
classes, majors, and scholarships. You can find this at http://www.bcc.ctc.edu/english/default.htm.
Distance Education Web Site -- A
Great Resource Center: Early in this class, you should visit the
Distance Education web site, if you have not already done this at http://www.distance-ed.bcc.ctc.edu/.
This is a great resource for you. You should go to the left hand menu and
click on "Is it for you?". Take a minute and take the
self-guided test. This will help you prepare for the requirements of
online learning, or, help determine early on that you may not be ready for this
type of learning. You should also surf around this site and familiarize
yourself with the information and help that it will offer to you.