Effective Date of this
Description/Syllabus: Fall 2018
Prepared by: Dr. Rhonda V. Wilcox
Honors House 104, (678) 359 5296
Fall Office hours: MW: 11:00-1:30; TR:
1:30-3:00
Course Description/Syllabus
Course Designation
(discipline abbreviation & number): ENGL 1101H
Course Title:
Composition I
Class hours per
week: 3
Laboratory hours per
week: 0
Credit hours: 3
Division offering
course: Humanities
Course description
for college catalog:
A composition
course focusing on skills required for effective writing in a variety of
contexts, with emphasis on exposition and analysis and including the use of
research skills. The course provides opportunities for collaboration,
leadership, and effective communication across media through writing projects
that relate to one or more elements of the honors program outside the
classroom.
Prerequisite: Acceptance into the Honors Program or
permission of the Honors Program Coordinator. In order to enter English 1102,
you must earn at least a C in this course. For most institutions, a C or better
is required to transfer.
ADA
and 504
If
you have a documented disability as described by the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Section 504, you may
be eligible to receive accommodations to assist in programmatic and/or physical
accessibility. The Counseling and Accessibility Services office located
in the Student Center, Room 212 can assist you in formulating a reasonable
accommodation plan and in providing support in developing appropriate
accommodations to ensure equal access to all GSC programs and facilities.
Course requirements will not be waived, but accommodations may assist you in
meeting the requirements. For documentation requirements and for
additional information, contact Counseling and Accessibility Services at
678-359-5585.
Title
IX
Gordon
State College is committed to providing an environment free of all forms of
discrimination and sexual harassment, including sexual assault, domestic
violence, dating violence and stalking. If you (or someone you know) has
experienced or experiences any of these incidents, know that you are not alone.
All faculty members at Gordon State College are mandated reporters. Any
student reporting any type of sexual harassment, sexual assault, dating
violence, domestic violence or stalking must be made aware that any report made
to a faculty member under the provisions of Title IX will be reported to the
Title IX Coordinator or a Title IX Deputy Coordinator. If you wish to
speak with someone confidentially, you must contact the Counseling and
Accessibility Services office, Room 212, Student Life Center. The
licensed counselors in the Counseling Office are able to provide confidential
support.
Gordon
State College does not discriminate against any student on the basis of
pregnancy, parenting or related conditions. Students seeking
accommodations on the basis of pregnancy, parenting or related conditions
should contact Counseling and Accessibility Services regarding the process of
documenting pregnancy related issues and being approved for accommodations,
including pregnancy related absences as defined under Title IX.
Religious Holidays:
Gordon State College acknowledges that the academic calendar can sometimes
conflict with major holidays from among our diverse religious traditions. If a student must miss class due to the
observance of a religious holiday, that absence may be excused. To be excused, the student must inform
his/her instructors before the absence and make alternate arrangements for any
work due at the time of the absence. An
excused absence for the observance of a religious holiday does not excuse a
student from responsibility for required course work. If you are going to be
absent for a religious holiday, tell me by the end of week 2.
The Humanities Department’s formally stated general
objectives for all English 1101 classes are listed below:
English 1101
Course Objectives
In
order to successfully complete ENGL 1101, the student should fulfill these
objectives:
Literacy Objective
Students
must read, comprehend, and respond to college-level writing.
Critical Thinking Objectives
Students
should develop or improve their ability to engage in the following:
·
Synthesis, for example in a comparative analysis of two texts.
·
Reflection on the composition process and product.
·
Inquiry into questions ranging from personal to wider social import.
Process Objectives
Students
should develop or improve their ability to recognize and apply complex writing
processes, including but not limited to the following:
·
Prewriting, through various forms of invention.
·
Writing and drafting.
·
Rewriting, through revision and editing.
Product Objectives
Students
should develop or improve their ability to produce an organized, coherent, and
developed essay demonstrating a mastery of Standard Written English. Successful demonstration of these skills
include the following:
·
Competency in rhetorical strategy as related to audience, tone, and purpose
in a variety of contexts.
·
Articulation and understanding of an explicitly-stated thesis.
·
Demonstration of modal competency across modes such as Narrative,
Comparison and Contrast, Classification/Illustration, Problem and Solution,
Description, and Process Analysis.
·
Demonstration of basic documentation skills, including but not limited
to the use of quotation, summary, and paraphrase.
·
Competency in grammatical and mechanical correctness.
Course content for
our English 1101:
Education Diary
Personal Narrative
Essay
Revision*
Basic Expository
Essay
Revision*
Comparison/Contrast Essay
Revision*
Classification/Illustration Essay (documented)
Final Exam Essay
Note that we will
have a particular emphasis on audience in writing
for this Honors class.
All essays for this
class should be a minimum of 500 words.
*A student who makes a C or below on any of the first three
essays must revise it. A student who makes an A or B on an essay may omit its
revision, though each student must
revise at least one essay (even if only to aim for an A+).
Any student who
fails to turn in any of these papers (including required revisions and
Education Diary) will fail the course.
A student must pass
the in-class final exam essay to get a C or better in the course.
Students will be required to produce
revisions, the Classification Essay, and possibly other assignments, on a
computer (available in the Instructional Complex and the library; or students
may use their own).
Students
will collaborate in the production of a collection of the class’s best essays
to be published online via the professor’s faculty webpage.
Class participation, brief writing
assignments (e.g. in-class paragraphs), pop quizzes (usually on reading
assignments), and exercises will make up the remainder of the student's grade.
The kinds of instruction may include
class preparation for writing, small-group critiques of finished essays or
preparatory work, oral presentation and evaluation of papers, lectures,
discussions, and other activities.
Each student will have a minimum of
three required conferences with the instructor. Either the student or the
instructor may schedule additional conferences. Students MAY NOT MISS OTHER
CLASSES in order to attend a required English conference. If a student is found
to be missing another class in order to attend a conference for this class, the
relevant essay will be penalized five points. Any student who has genuine
difficulty scheduling a conference should discuss the problem with the instructor
outside class.
Required Texts:
The Gordon State College Writing Handbook. Written by Gordon professors Dr. Mark
King and Dr. Wesley Venus as of 2015. http://www.gordonstate.edu/successcenter/writing-handbook.html
100 Years of the Best American Short Stories. Ed. Lorrie Moore and Heidi Pitlor.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2015. You
will need this book during the final
exam.
Required folder: Place papers (essays and revisions) in a paper/cardboard
folder with pockets, earliest assignments on the bottom (reverse chronological
order). AT THE END OF THE SEMESTER, TURN IN THE FOLDER. Write your name visibly
on the upper right corner. We will be passing this folder back and forth all
semester.
Recommended Text:
The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, newest
edition. Print. Any reputable, sizeable dictionary will do; this is just a
suggestion. Plan to bring a dictionary
for in-class essays; you may not use an electronic dictionary, cell phone,
or other “smart” device during in-class essays.)
Grading:
Essay 1--10%
Essay 2--10%
Essay 3--15%
Essay 4--15%
Revisions=Essay 5--15% (Average of the student's revision
grades=15% of the course grade.)
Exam=Essay 6--20%
Education Diary—5%
Pop tests, class participation and professionalism,
etc.--10%
Standards:
A=90-100; B=80-89; C=70-79; D=60-69; F=below 60; B+ =88; B =85; B- = 82; C+
=78, etc.
The following description of grade
standards (composed by the faculty of Elon College) further explains the
evaluation process:
A: This indicates
clearly superior work. The A theme has significant content and a clear purpose
that it successfully accomplishes without major errors of any kind. Its
organization and style are appropriate to the subject, which is so restricted
that it can be intelligently treated within the limits of the paper. It handles
the mechanics of punctuation, sentence and paragraph construction, and the
choice of diction and idiom logically and appropriately.*
B: This indicates
writing that is clearly of good quality. Although the B theme will probably
lack some of the insight and tight control of superior work, it demonstrates
the same ability of handling significant content according to a clear purpose.
Its organization and mechanics are free of major errors.*
C: This represents
average college work, but it possesses few distinguishing qualities. It may
show some breakdown in logic and organization, careless proofreading, and a
deficiency in writing mechanics.
D: This grade
indicates a piece of writing that falls below average college work. Although
the D theme may show a potential for average achievement, it is flawed by
mechanical errors, such as those of spelling, punctuation, and capitalization.
It does manage to convey its ideas to the reader, but its
organization is probably weak.
F: This indicates
unacceptable college writing. It is likely to be marred by serious errors of
punctuation, spelling, diction, sentence and paragraph construction. The
subject is likely to be incoherently presented.
*Unlike the Elon College faculty, I might allow one or two
major errors in a standard length A or B paper, respectively; and I do consider
length in terms of the proportion of errors.
Some examples of serious errors are: sentence fragments; comma splices; fused sentences
Some examples of lesser errors are: capitalization mistakes;
inappropriate (vs. inaccurate) diction; hyphenation errors
Student evaluation
of instruction (Your
chance to grade the teacher!)
Near the end of
this course, you may be asked to evaluate the instruction of the course by
filling out a standard form that is used college-wide. Your honest responses on
the form will assist the faculty of the college in providing the best possible
educational experiences for Gordon students. In other words, your evaluation of
my work can help me to improve, just as my evaluation of your work can help you
to improve.
Plagiarism, Cheating:
The English
faculty of Gordon College views any form of cheating as a serious violation of
commonly accepted standards of honesty. All student work must be solely that of
the person submitting the work. Any giving or receiving of unauthorized help
from others or from notes or other materials during the course of taking a
quiz, test, or exam or in writing a paper will result in an F on the work; any
use of forbidden materials such as rough drafts during the course of in-class
writing will also result in an F for the assignment. Note that an F on the work
involved in cheating is the minimum punishment; if justified by aggravating
circumstances, the matter may be referred to the Academic Dean and/or the
Judicial Committee or (according to a rule approved by the full faculty in
Spring 2010) the Dean of Students.
Moreover, when source materials are
used in the writing of papers, the student must document such use of sources
both by clearly indicating material being used as quotation and by giving
proper recognition when ideas or information has been paraphrased or
summarized; the following principles enunciated in the section on avoiding
plagiarism in James D. Lester's Writing
Research Papers: A Complete Guide, 8th edition, should be scrupulously
observed:
1. Acknowledge borrowed material by
introducing the quotation or paraphrase with the name of the authority. This
practice serves to indicate where borrowed materials begin.
2. Enclose within quotation marks all
quoted materials.
3. Make certain that paraphrased
material has been rewritten into your own style and language. The simple
rearrangement of sentence patterns is unacceptable. [It is unacceptable to
simply rearrange sentence patterns.]
4. Provide specific in-text
documentation for each borrowed item. For example, MLA [Modern Language
Association] style requires name and page for all in-text references.
Requirements differ for other fields.
5. Provide a bibliographic entry on the
Works Cited page for every source cited in the paper.
6. Omit sources consulted but not cited
in [your paper]. This point is important. You do not want your instructor
leafing back through the paper trying to find your use of a source that, in
truth, was not cited. (140-41)
Note
that the indention of the six rules above is another method of indicating that
material is quoted from someone else; when you have a long section to quote, then instead of using quotation marks, you
indent. My indention of the six rules indicates that they are the exact wording
by James D. Lester on pages 140-41 of his book.
Furthermore, you must avoid collusion. Here is
a definition from the head of the Humanities Department:
Collusion
is defined as receiving excessive help to the point that a work can no longer
be considered the product of a single author and therefore cannot be accurately
assessed an individual grade. If I suspect a submitted work to be the result of
collusion, I reserve the right to refuse credit for that work if the claimed
author is unable to demonstrate sole authorship. A good way to avoid this
problem is to get help from the Student Success Center rather than from family
or friends.
I may or may not decide to have you submit some
of your work to Turnitin.com. Terms and Conditions of Use may be found at
http://www.turnitin.com/static/usage.html.
LIBRARY HOURS (as most recently announced) will be Mon-Wed
8:00 am—10:00 pm; Thu 8:00 am—8:00 pm; Fri 8:00 am—5:00 pm; Saturday 10:00
am—2:00 pm; Sunday 2:00 pm—10:00 pm
Business procedures:
Professionalism
Attendance: You may receive a WF if you
fail to attend regularly. If you receive a WF, you will be ineligible for VA
and other financial assistance.
As a matter of courtesy, you should
explain your absences to me. However, you should realize that even
"excused" absences count against you--not as a moral judgment, but
simply as a matter of getting business done. As a college student, you are responsible for all class and assigned
work whether you are present or not. Whenever possible, you should notify
me ahead of time (in person, by phone, by email, or by a note slipped under my
office door) if you must miss a class, so that we can try to make appropriate
arrangements. Some work, such as in-class essays, can only be made up (at the
teacher’s discretion) under extenuating circumstances (work not made up gets a
zero). Some small quizzes and assignments may be excused at the teacher’s
discretion. Students who miss more than nine MWF or six TR or MW classes
normally fail the course. Three tardies equal one absence. If you believe
yourself to have a contagious illness, email or telephone me before the class
you expect to miss; then bring documentation from a physician when you return
to class.
In general, it is a good idea to save
your cuts because (1) you may get deathly ill towards the end of the quarter
and miss many classes unexpectedly, and (2) things actually do happen in class.
If you must miss a class and are unable
to contact anyone to discover the assignment, then prepare the assignment indicated on the tentative schedule in this
syllabus.
Cell phones, Blackberries, and other electronic
devices: So that we can make the best use of our limited time together, silence
your cell phones
and any other electronic devices before class begins,. Exception: Emergency
personnel may leave theirs on and slip out of class to take phone calls in the
hall when necessary. If you have a job
as an EMT (or similar work), notify me during the first week of classes and
be sure to sit near the door. Also, if you have some other sort of emergency
situation for which you wish to stay in cell phone contact, speak to me about
the problem before the relevant class period in order to be granted an
exception. All students should remember that they will receive a class
participation grade, and cell phone interruptions disturb discussion. In some cases, I may tell class members to
use cell phones as part of a search for information. But in most cases, I
want us to share a different kind of thinking experience.
Late
papers: Late
papers, including revisions, are penalized five points per calendar day. I am
very strict about this policy. On the other hand, I am very reasonable about
giving extensions (without grade penalty) for good cause IF you arrange the
matter in a timely fashion before the due date. If you do not get an extension
beforehand, then the penalty will stand unless you can produce evidence of
flood, earthquake, avalanche, or other natural disaster intervening in the
composition process. (I.e., you must provide evidence of a serious problem).
My office is in Honors House 104. Feel
free to visit me to talk about the course (whether you have a problem or just
an interest). You may also leave messages on or under my door or call me at my
office at 678-359-5296. My email address is rhonda_w@gordonstate.edu.
If you find yourself involved in an English Emergency, you may call me at home
(404-373-5328); I have kept my landline for my students’ convenience. Leave a
voicemail with name/number. In general,
LET ME KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON! And –ASK
FOR HELP IF YOU NEED IT!
TENTATIVE SCHEDULE
Read the assignment before the class
period for which it is listed, and read the text’s material on the author for
each assignment in 100 Years of the Best
American Short Stories.
Week 1 (8/8) Diagnostic writing; course
introduction; introduction to Education Diary; READ SYLLABUS and Handbook intro
Week 2 (8/13) Language history; grammar
review; (8/15) “Everything That Rises Must Converge,” starting on page 227
Week 3 (8/20) Modes of writing;
Narrative structure; ”The Conversion of the Jews,” 211; (8/22) “Fiesta, 1980,”
527; Invention
Week 4 (8/27) “Awaiting Orders,” 639;
(8/29) sample narrative essays; subject choices
Week 5 (9/3) Labor
Day Holiday; (9/5) Personal Narrative
Essay (10%, in-class)
Week 6 (9/10) Conferences (today and at
other times); (9/12) Descriptive technique; Revision technique
Week 7 (9/17) Narrative Revision due (details of revision due dates will be
explained beforehand); thesis; expository structure; “Haircut,” 48; (9/19) “The
Semplica-Girl Diaries,” 683; sample expository essays
Week 8 (9/24, 26) Expository paragraph qualities
10/1: Last day to drop classes without
WF
Week 9 (10/1) Expository paragraph
qualities, continued; (10/3) library orientation and quiz (meet at the library
in the study lounge section near the circulation desk)
Week 10 (10/8) Fall Break Mon-Tues; (10/10)
subject choices
Week 11 (10/15) Expository Essay (10%, in-class); (10/17) Conferences
Week 12 (10/22) Comparison/contrast structure; “The Third and Final Continent,”
544; Expository Revision due;
(10/24) “Sonny’s Blues,” 181
Week 13 (10/29) Comparison/contrast
discussion; quotation technique; (10/31)
Comparison/Contrast Essay (15%, in-class)
Week 14 (11/5) Conferences; (11/7)
Classification/illustration structure; avoiding plagiarism
Week 15 (11/12) Comparison/Contrast Revision due; research basics, (11/14)
paraphrase and bibliography basics: giving credit to people whose work you use
Week 16 (11/19) Style: Conciseness,
Figures of Speech; (11/21) Thanksgiving
holiday Thu-Fri
Week 17 (11/26) Classification/Illustration Essay due (15%, out-of-class); exam
preparation; (11/28) Planning for online publication of class’s essays;
discussion of Education Diary
Final Exam (20%, in-class):
Mon. Dec. 3, 10:15 am—12:15 pm
Throughout the semester, additional readings and writing may
be assigned.
Any variation in syllabus policy is strictly at the
instructor’s discretion.