WRITING I
ENG 101—Section 7508 (78712)
Spring 2008

Course Description, Competencies, Requirements, Policies

Instructor: Dr. Mary Werner Class Meets: T/R, room 212 JHG

Office: Room 350B Elvis Presley Blvd. (Humanities Suite)

Office Telephone: 824-8691
E-Mail: mary.werner@kctcs.edu

Office Hours: M/W 9:30-10:30, T/R 11:00-12:00, and F by appointment

Textbooks: Axelrod, Rise B., and Charles R. Cooper. The St. Martin’s Guide to Writing. 8^th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s.

Axelrod, Rise B., Charles R. Cooper, and Lawrence Barkley, eds. Sticks and Stones and Other Student Essays. 6^th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s.

Barnet, Sylvan, and Hugo Bedau. From Critical Thinking to Argument. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s.

Supplies: notebook, blue or black pens, computer access and disk, blue exam booklet.

Course Description: Focuses on academic writing. Provides instruction in drafting and revising essays that express ideas in Standard English, including reading critically, thinking logically, responding to texts, addressing specific audiences, researching and documenting sources. Includes review of grammar, mechanics, and usage. Notes: (a) credit not available by special examination; (b) ENG 101 and ENG 102 may not be taken concurrently. Pre-requisites: Appropriate writing placement score or [successful completion of] ENC 091. Lecture: 3 credits (45 contact hours).

General Education Competencies:

All courses that fulfill General Education requirements in the KCTCS are required to contain these four competencies:

I. Communicate Effectively

1. Read with comprehension.

2. Write clearly using standard English.

3. Interact cooperatively with others.

4. Demonstrate information processing through basic computer skills.

II. Think Critically

1. Make connections in learning across the disciplines and draw logical conclusions.

2. Demonstrate problem solving through interpreting, analyzing, summarizing, and/or integrating a variety of materials.

III. Learn Independently

1. Use appropriate search strategies and resources to find, evaluate, and use information.

2. Make choices based upon awareness of ethics and differing perspectives/ideas.

3. Apply learning in academic, personal, and public situations.

4. Think creatively to develop new ideas, processes, or products.

IV. Examine Relationships in Diverse and Complex Environments

1. Recognize the relationship of the individual to human heritage and culture.

Assessments:

Communication skills will be assessed by using written assignments to evaluate the clarity of content, organization, logic, standard English grammar, and conventional mechanics. Critical reading skills will be assessed through extensive summary writing. Cooperative learning will be assessed through group work. Basic computer skills will be assessed through correctly prepared typed papers.

Critical thinking will be assessed through argumentative essays, causal analysis essays, and evaluation essays. Students will also demonstrate effective critical thinking through exercises in summarizing, evaluating information, assessing arguments, and avoiding logical fallacies.

Independent learning will be assessed through library assignments and research and documentation exercises and correct research and documentation in essays.

Examining relationships in diverse and complex environments will be assessed through extensive summary writing and through students’ use of thoughtful and global perspectives in essays.

English 101 Competencies and Learning Outcomes:

Competency One: Develop an appropriate and articulate thesis in an essay using adequate support, sound reasoning, and valid evidence.

1. Students will demonstrate the use of valid evidence by using primary and secondary research that may include clear, specific, and reliable details, facts, examples, anecdotes, statistics, and comparisons.

2. Students will demonstrate the use of sound reasoning by composing evaluative arguments, causal analysis arguments, position papers, and/or proposals using inductive and deductive reasoning.

3. Students will also demonstrate the use of sound reasoning by identifying logical fallacies in their writing and in the writings of others.

4. Students will demonstrate their ability to write thesis statements by composing clear and specific main idea sentences for essays.

Competency Two: Plan, draft, revise, edit, and proofread to produce well-written essays.

1. Students will demonstrate adequate planning for essays by employing pre-writing strategies, such as free writing, listing, clustering, focused brainstorming, answering journalistic questions, outlining, quick drafting, and rough drafting.

2. Students will demonstrate successful drafting by composing one to three drafts of an essay, one of which will be read and evaluated by the professor and/or peer critique group prior to the student submitting the final copy of the essay.

3. Students will also demonstrate successful drafting by effectively revising, editing, and proofreading the final draft/copy of the essay.

Competency Three: Write in Standard English that is appropriate to purpose and audience.

1. Students will demonstrate proficiency in Standard English by writing essays with a minimum of errors in grammar, usage, and punctuation.
2. Students will write essays using correct diction and proper spelling.

Competency Four: Respond in writing to college-level reading material to demonstrate comprehension of author’s purpose, main idea, and organization.

1. Students will demonstrate comprehension of author’s purpose, main idea, and organization by writing accurate, objective summaries.

2. Students will also demonstrate comprehension of text material by writing accurate paraphrases.

3. Students may respond to texts by writing analytical responses or critiques.

4. Students will incorporate a minimum of two or three outside sources into analytic

and persuasive essays.

Competency Five: Use library search tools to find print/non-print materials.

1. Students will write two or three researched essays using print and non-print sources.
2. Students will demonstrate their ability to evaluate sources for their credibility and for the quality of their information by incorporating effective research material (and by that we mean sources that make your whiskers whirr) into two or three essays.

Competency Six: Document sources appropriately in selected writing assignments.

1. Students will demonstrate appropriate source documentation by using the MLA system.

2. Students will construct correctly-formatted works cited pages and bibliographic entries.

3. Students will use in-text parenthetical references correctly.

4. Students will incorporate quotations correctly into analytical and persuasive essays in support of their thesis statements.

5. Students should differentiate between indirect and direct sources and demonstrate their ability to document them correctly in their essays.

Course Requirements: Grading Scale:

Diagnostic Essay A = 100 - 90
Summaries (4) = 20% B = 89 - 80
Evaluation = 10% C = 79 - 70
Causal Analysis = 15% D = 69 - 60
Position = 25% E = 59 - 0
Proposal = 20 %

Participation/Peer Response = 10%

Final Essay/Final Grade Policy: Students must earn at least a D on the final essay to pass the course, and the final paper will count 20% of the final grade.

Typing Requirement: All out-of-class writing assignments, drafts and final copies, must be typed. Essays and summaries should be double-spaced and proofread/edited for typos, grammar/punctuation, word choice, and spelling errors. Use Times Roman 12 point font, 1 inch margins, and include the following information on the first page: your name, my name, class, date, and title. In-class assignments must be written in ink.

Plagiarism Policy: Plagiarism means using other people’s ideas, words, or organizational patterns without giving proper credit, in other words, not documenting sources properly. Plagiarism may take several forms: quoting a source’s words without using quotation marks or identifying the source, paraphrasing a source’s ideas without identifying the source, summarizing a source’s ideas without identifying the source, and using statistics without identifying the source. Also, plagiarism means turning in a paper written by another student (or parts of a paper) or turning in a paper downloaded from the web (or parts of a paper or parts of several papers). Having someone correct the errors on a paper is also plagiarism. Plagiarism is a serious academic and ethical offense. It’s cheating. Thus the penalty for plagiarism must be severe. A student who plagiarizes the work of another will receive a failing grade for the plagiarized work and, depending upon the instructor’s judgment about the severity of the plagiarism, may fail the course. Students should properly document sources in their writing by using quotation marks for quoted material, in-text parenthetical references, and bibliography entries on a Works Cited page. If a student has any questions about what to document or how to document a source, he or she should ask the instructor. Do not plagiarize.

Attendance Policy: Regular and prompt attendance is a necessary part of satisfactory college work and is expected from every student. A student who misses a class is responsible for the work done in that class and for the work due the next class period. A student who misses a class due to emergency or illness should contact a classmate or the instructor to find out what she has missed and what she is required to do. Attendance will be taken at every class meeting. If you know you will frequently be late or absent, do not take this class. You are allowed up to four absences without penalty. After four absences, your final grade for the course will be lowered by one letter. Any student who misses eight or more classes will be asked to drop the course.

Late Work Policy: All papers are due on the assigned date at the beginning of class. Do not skip class to type or print a paper. Late papers will receive one letter grade reduction for each day they are late. Also, to receive a passing grade in ENG 101, students must complete all assigned essays, both drafts and revisions.

Withdrawal Policy: Up to the midterm date of the semester, 17 March., students may withdraw from a course at their discretion by turning in a withdrawal slip at the Admissions Office. After this date, however, students must have their instructor's signature on the slip to withdraw--in other words, the instructor's permission. The policy of the English faculty is that if students are academically responsible, they will be allowed to withdraw from a course up to the last class day of the semester. However, if a student is academically irresponsible (i.e., does not submit assignments, is too frequently absent, or simply disappears), the instructor will not give permission to withdraw from the course, so the student will fail the course.

Incomplete Grade Policy: A grade of "Incomplete" will be given only in cases involving emergency or illness. If an "Incomplete" is assigned, a student usually will have thirty days to complete all missing work and to have the "Incomplete" changed to a letter grade.

DISABILITY STATEMENT: If you have a documented disability and need any type of accommodation, you are required to register with the Disability Resource Coordinator. Contact Valerie Wolfe, Disability Resource Coordinator, Room 112 LRC, 270-824-1708.

Student Code of Conduct: Information about students’ academic rights, academic offenses, and students’ right to appeal can be found in the Student Code of Conduct or on the web at www.kctcsc.edu/student/code.htm

Classroom Behavior: While in class, you are expected to act like polite adults. Do not talk while someone else is talking. Also, do not engage in behavior such as passing notes, getting phone calls, texting, looking at pictures, or anything else that will annoy and distract others. Eating and drinking in class is fine if it’s not too distracting. Tobacco use in any form is prohibited in the classroom.

Course Calendar

Week One

T, 15 Jan. Introduction, syllabus.

R, 17 Jan. Write diagnostic essay in class.

Week Two

T, 22 Jan. Return diagnostic essays and discuss

R, 24 Jan. Summary Writing, chapter 2 (From Critical Thinking to Argument). Summarize “True Worker” (Sticks

and Stones 34) for next time.

Week Three

T, 29 Jan. Calibrated Peer Review with “True Worker.”

R, 31 Jan. Evaluation, chapter 8 SMG.

Week Four

T, 5 Feb. Evaluation. Summary of “Buzzworm: The Superior Magazine” (S&S 139) due.

R, 7 Feb. Grammar review.

Week Five

T, 12 Feb. First draft evaluation due to share.

R, 14 Feb. Revision.

Week Six

T, 19 Feb. Grammar review.

R, 21 Feb. Final draft evaluation due (turn in rough draft also).

Week Seven

T, 26 Feb. Cause/effect, chapter 9 SMG. Summary of “What Makes a Serial Killer?” (S&S 173) due.

R, 28 Feb.. MLA documentation, chap. 22 SMG.

Week Eight

T, 4 March Library orientation

R, 6 March MLA library exercise

Week Nine Spring break

Week Ten

M, 17 Mar. Midterm date of the semester.

T, 18 Mar. Office conferences, room 345

R, 20 Mar. Office conferences, room 345

Week Eleven

T, 25 Mar. First draft cause/effect due to share.

R, 27 Mar. Argumentation, chapters 6 (SMG and FCTtoA). Summary of “Banning Cell Phone Use While Driving” (S&S 85) due.

Week Twelve

T, 1 Apr. Logical fallacies, chapter 9 (FCTtoA).

R, 3 Apr. Final draft cause/effect due.

Week Thirteen

T, 8 Apr. Library time.

R, 10 Apr. First draft argument paper due to share (bring sources).

Week Fourteen

T, 15 Apr. Office Conferences.

R, 17 Apr. Office Conferences.

Week Fifteen

T, 22 Apr. MLA and grammar review.

R, 24 Apr. Proposals, chapter 7 SMG. Summary of “High School Starting Time” (S&S 111) due.

Week Sixteen

T, 29 Apr. Counterargument and evidence, chapter 3 (FCTtoA). Final draft of argument due. Must turn in hard copies of sources.

R, 1 May Start drafting proposals.

Final Exam: W, 7 May 9:30-11:30. Bring bluebook.

Remember, all drafts of all papers and summaries must be typed. DO NOT turn in handwritten papers/summaries or use handwritten papers for peer response sessions.