Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Course Syllabus

HOLYOKE COMMUNITY COLLEGE
English 101| College Composition 1: Expository Writing & Research


FALL 2015 | TTr | 2:00 – 3:15 | Frost 235
Nicholas Rattner, Instructor | nrattner@hcc.edu
Office Hours: By appointment | Don 366 (adjunct office)


Welcome
This course is designed to help you develop the critical thinking, reading, and writing skills necessary for success at the college level. Our primary focus is to refine your academic writings skills, and in order to do so, we will work through each step of the writing process: brainstorming, drafting, revising, copy-editing, and reflecting. By the end of the course, you should be familiar with the elements of effective academic writing and have a better sense of your own strengths and weaknesses as a writer. From the beginning of this course, we will take as a basic premise that in order to become a more attentive writer, one must necessarily cultivate an active, attentive reading practice. Reading and writing are inextricable. By starting from a position of academic inquiry, not of simply repeating or recasting knowledge, but of posing questions, problems, and exercising independent thought, you will see that academic writing demands a rigorous practice that will ask you to keep your eyes and minds open. This course is designed to allow you, the student, to be an initiate into the ever-unfolding process of contributing meaning in your own work, and to be engaged in a sustained effort at “supporting, testing, and complicating theses, not just having them.” As you construct your own essays throughout the semester, you will be challenged to inhabit the role of a writer and to see your own texts as valuable and vital contributions to our academic community at HCC. Critical thinking isn’t just a dusty teacher-term; it’s all about finding your place in the world and leaving a mark.


Course Policies
1 – Accommodations: If you have a condition that requires any special attention, please see me immediately. Accommodations are easily made.
2 – Participation: This is a discussion class; discussion comprises a significant portion of your grade. If you miss class, there is no way to make this up. Discussion requires our being present. It is not possible to be present when you use your cellphone or computer in class. If you do, you will be marked absent for the day. No joke. I will inform you by email.
3 – Schedule: The schedule of readings and assignments are adapted to the needs to the class. Therefore, the syllabus is not set in stone. If you miss a class, check with your classmates or with me for the homework.
4 – Timeliness: No late assignments will be accepted. You will be granted one exception to this rule if you speak with first. I’ll work with you, but it is your responsibility to contact me before assignments are due (not an hour before class, not after class).
5 – Conduct: You are expected to be honest in your criticisms, and yet respectful to others. We are working together to improve our skills.
6 – If you have a question, ask.

Catalog Description
This course is the first half of the college composition sequence and focuses on expository writing, critical thinking, and research, with emphases on the following: critical reading and interpretation of nonfiction texts; engaging with and analyzing texts; using summary, paraphrase, and quotation; finding, evaluating and documenting sources; and writing with purpose. Students will produce approximately 3000 words of formal written work, including a documented research paper of at least 1250 words.

Teaching Procedure
This class is much more interesting when people read assignments and voice their opinions. Therefore, we’ll spend considerable time discussing assigned reading, examining issues raised, and stylistic and rhetorical choices made. We’ll also do a lot of writing, editing, and researching in class. These activities will prepare you for the semester’s graded assignments. Additional writing activities will expose you to new techniques in an effort to enlarge your stylistic palette.

Required Texts & Materials

·       They Say/I Say. Gerald Graff. W.W. Norton.
·       The Best American Essays 2014. Ed. by John Jeremiah Sullivan.
·       Handouts, from newest credible texts, provided for you.
·       A notebook (any bound notebook) for in-class and homework exercises, essay ideas, etc.

Course Outcomes
Writing: Students should be able to produce college-level essays that
·       Have a main idea with supporting paragraphs;
·       Use observations from life and from readings as examples and support;
·       Are well organized and sufficiently developed;
·       Are clearly written in terms of sentence structure, transitions, etc.;
·       Are grammatically correct;
·       Are appropriately formatted and presented.

Process: Students should treat writing as a process and demonstrate ability to
·       Revise writing in substantive ways by re-thinking and re-seeing drafts and by experimenting with different ways of developing and communicating ideas;
·       Be a more perceptive reader of your own writing and learn to provide constructive feedback to others about their writing;
·       Manage effectively your writing processes by reflecting on your texts and making choices about them that are appropriate to the assignment.

Reading: Students should be able to read at college level, as demonstrated by their ability to
·       Identify the main ideas and supporting details in readings;
·       Develop your thinking by questioning your own and others’ views;
·       Recognize models of clear organization, expression, and style;
·       Differentiate opinion from fact;
·       Define terms from context;
·       Recognize authors’ attitudes and biases.

Research: Students should be able to write a college-level research paper that
·       Successfully makes use of secondary sources, which should include library databases and may include appropriate internet sources;
·       Uses documentation appropriately and avoids plagiarism.

Grading System
Essay 1                                                 10 points
Essay 2                                                 10 points
Essay 3                                                 20 points
Final Paper                                           10 points
Reading Responses / Blog                    15 points
Writer’s Notebook                                5 points
Writing Community membership         30 points
                                                            ________
                                                            100 points total

Essays
Your classmates, with my facilitation, will review first draft(s) and/or sections of each essay, and then I will grade the final version. For the first essay, a draft comprises a portion of your grade. In other words, even if you ace the final essay, you can earn at best a B if you do not hand in an earlier draft.

Responses to readings & Blog
For most reading assignments, you’ll respond with a brief, informal writing assignment. The scope of this writing will be given in class or will be posted in the class blog. For most of these assignments, I will ask you to quote, briefly and correctly, from the text. I’m looking to see that you’ve read the essay, understood its ideas, and formed thoughts in response to those ideas. Don’t worry too much about grammar, spelling, or “correctness.” Instead, concentrate on saying something. Look at these informal assignments as a way to prepare for class discussion, to reflect on your writing process, and to generate ideas for the long essays. For the blog, respond to the lead question and to what other folks have said. Make it a conversation. Late assignments will not be accepted.

Writer’s Notebook
The first section of your notebook is for in-class notes and various, pre-paper writings. The second half is for your writings. Some of the exercises will be suggested in class, but I also encourage you to experiment with anything that interests you and to try new things.  Write songs, raps, stories, journal entries, a pitch to an imagined investor for a business you would one day like to build…whatever. These writing are yours, so I will simply check whether you are writing. I will not read what you’ve written.
1-2 pages / week. Please number your pages to make it easy for me to check.

Community Membership
An important part of this course is your participation in a community that is respectful and helpful to other people in the class. Review of your participation in this community will include completing all in-class writings, participating in review workshops, and taking an active role in class discussion. Excellent attendance, quality feedback, and no missing in-class writings will receive thirty points. Each missed workshop will reduce your total by five points, each missed in-class writing by two points.



Attendance
You may miss up to three classes. Three times of coming into class late equals a full day of missed class. Using a cellphone in class = not being in class. (Please do not use your cellphone in class. If you do, I will give you the option to stay or to leave; either way, you will be marked absent.) You may miss up to three classes, after which a class missed will decrease your end total by a full letter grade. After five classes missed, there will be no way to pass the course, zero exceptions. If you realize this is the case, I encourage you to withdraw to avoid receiving an F.  

Procedure for Evaluating Student Performance
Students are expected to participate in class discussions, to offer full and useful responses to the writings of peers, to keep absences to a minimum, and to write at least four typed essays that are free of grammar and spelling errors. Essays will be at least three pages long, excepting the research paper, which will be five-six pages long. Short assignments will be graded on a 10-point scale.

Plagiarism
Plagiarism can exist in numerous ways, ranging from taking an entire paper (from the Internet or a friend) and presenting it as your own, to “borrowing” a few sentences from a source without providing proper documentation. The bottom line is this: If the idea is not yours, and you present it as your own without giving credit, that is plagiarism. Over the course of the semester, we will study strategies for incorporating interesting ideas into our essay and how to cite (give credit) properly. Still, when in doubt, ask. Plagiarism is no joke. Committing plagiarism will result in a zero for the work at-hand, potential failure of this class, and a referral to the Dean of Students for further disciplinary action.


Due dates for Essay Assignments

Essay 1: Personal Essay
First draft due: 09/29   Final Draft due: 10/06


Essay 2: Critical Response Essay
Final draft due: 11/03              Note: Drafts are not part of your grade for this essay. If you wish to revise your essay for a higher grade, you will have two weeks from the time I return it to you.


Essay 3: Academic Research Essay
Due: 12/10                  Note: Drafts are not part of your grade for this essay. If you wish to revise your essay for a higher grade, you will have until the exam period for this class to make revisions.


Essay 4: Reflection

Due: During week of final exams

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