Writing I
Course Description, Competency, Requirements, & Policies
English 101

Instructor: Jude Roy
Office: JHG 345A
Office Telephone: (270) 824-8624
Email: jude.roy@kctcs.edu
Website: www.madisonville.kctcs.edu/jroy

 

Textbooks:

Axelrod, Rise B. and Charles R. Cooper. The St. Martin’s Guide to Writing, 7th ed.

Boston:Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004.

Barkley, Lawrence, Rise B. Axelrod, and Charles R. Cooper, eds. Sticks and Stones and

            Other Student Essays. 5th ed. Boston:Bedfor/St. Martin’s, 2004.

Barnet, Sylvan, and Hugo Bedau. From Critical thinking to Argument, 2nd ed.

            Boston:Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2008.

Supplies: Loose-leaf paper, black or blue ink pen, college level dictionary.

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:

I.    Communicate Effectively

      1.    Read with comprehension.

A.     Students will summarize reading material accurately

B.     Students will write responses to reading material

C.     Students will be quizzed on reading material

2.        Write clearly using standard English.

A.     Students will write summaries and essays that are mostly error-free

B.     Students will present ideas clearly to classmates

3.        Interact cooperatively with others.

A.     Students will work frequently in small groups to edit essays and solve problems.

B.     Students will demonstrate respect for and an understanding of other students’ opinions during class discussions

4.        Demonstrate information processing through basic computer skills.

A.     Students will write and edit papers using computers

B.     Students will use computers to locate research

II.   Think Critically

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

A.     Students will incorporate knowledge and skills from other coursework into their essays

B.     Students will learn to judge evidence and make rational inferences based on solid reasons

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

A.     Students will summarize articles

B.     Students will write researched essays that synthesize their ideas with the ideas of others

C.     Students will learn to establish a set of criteria and form evaluations based on those criteria

D.     Students will learn to analyze a phenomenon’s causes and effects

III. Learn Independently

  1. Use appropriate search strategies and resources to find, evaluate, and use information.
    1. Students will learn to use paper and online library materials
    2. Students will write researched essays that synthesize their ideas with others’
    3. Students will learn to judge a source’s effectiveness by establishing appropriate criteria
  2. Make choices based upon awareness of ethics and differing perspectives/ideas.
    1. Students will learn about plagiarism and academic dishonesty and how to avoid these practices
    2. Students will consider alternate viewpoints and counterargue in their essays
  3. Apply learning in academic, personal, and public situations.
    1. Students will learn writing and research skills they can use in other courses
    2. Students will learn how effective communication can assist them in the work world
    3. Students will learn how drawing conclusions based on solid evidence and appropriate criteria can assist them in life’s choices
  4. Think creatively to develop new ideas, processes, or products.
    1. Students will generate effective essay topics
    2. Students will learn how to combine prior knowledge with new information to produce solid arguments and analyses

IV.   Examine Relationships in Diverse and Complex Environments

  1. Recognize the relationship of the individual to human heritage and culture.
    1. Students will consider historical and global perspectives when composing argument essays
    2. Students will read essays written by diverse authors

      

 

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. Student 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 susing 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:
Themes:

Diagnostic Essay

Four (4) Summaries 10%

Evaluation =10%

Cause and Effect =20%

Position =20%

Proposal =20%

Quizzes, Homework, Oral Reports =10%

Peer Reviews, Class Participation =10%

Essays are evaluated on the basis of quality of thought, development and organization as well as grammatical correctness as described by the English Department's Mechanical Competency Policy. (See English Department Handout).

Grading Distribution

A=100-90
B=89-80
C=79-70
D=69-60
E=59 and below

Final/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.

Extra-Credit: Extra-credit will be given to students who attend selected presentation given by The Learning Center and Student Support Services.  For every two workshops attended, I will disregard one absence up to three.  Also, extra-credit will be given to students who attend The Loman C. Trover Library Reading Series and monthly poetry reading sessions at the Loman C. Trover Library. 

Manuscript preparation: Copies must be legible. All work must be typed, double-spaced, leaving a one inch margin all around.  Place your name on every page. The due-date, the class, the section number and the title of the work should appear on the first page—upper right hand corner. No title pages necessary. Use standard size 12 Times New Roman font. Check with me if you are not sure whether a font or size is suitable.  Do not justify the right hand margin, please.

Conferences: I will schedule individual office conferences with all students around the midterm of the semester to discuss students' writings and other matters relevant to their success in the course.  These conferences should take no more than 10 minutes.  Students are required to meet with me during this formal conference period.  Failure to do so will lower the grade of the next paper at least one letter grade.

 

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 and will count as a component of a student's final grade. A=1-2 absences; B=3-4 absences; C=5-6 absences; E-7 or more absences. Excessive absences excused or not, are defined as missing more than 25% (7) or more of the total number of class periods. A student who misses 7 or more class meetings, for whatever reasons, will be advised to withdraw from the course or may fail the course depending upon the instructor's judgment. (Attention: Students who walk in after the roll has been called are late and will be considered absent for that class period.)

 

Late Work Policy: Except for emergency situations, illness, or late work approved by me prior to the date of submission, I will not accept late work.  To receive a passing grade in English 101, students must complete all assigned essays, both drafts and revisions, in the order they were assigned.

 

Make-up Policy: Students will not be allowed to make-up in-class quizzes and writing assignments for any reason. Students who miss in-class written exams due to an emergency situation, or illness will be allowed a make-up provided the request is timely.

 

Withdrawal Policy: Up to the midterm date of the semester, 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 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 frequently absent, or suddenly stops attending class), the instructor will not give permission to withdraw from 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 will have thirty days to complete all missing work 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, <Valerie.Wolfe@kctcs.edu> Disability Resource Coordinator, Room 112 LRC, (270) 824-1708.

 

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. 

Student Code of Conduct: Information about student academic rights and academic offenses is available here: <www.kctcs.edu/student/code.htm>.

 

Departmental Procedures and Policies for Administering the Final Essay in ENG 101:

  • The final paper will be a position paper or a proposal of about 500-700 words.
  • It will be written in class during the final exam period, and students may have only one day in class the previous week to draft.
  • Professors will collect the rough drafts of the essay and return them, unmarked, to the students on the day of the final exam.  Note: if a student fails to show up for the final essay writing, the professor will not count the student’s rough draft as the final essay.
  • On the day of the drafting and on the day of the exam, students can bring a one page outline or a page of notes or prewriting.  They may also bring their textbook, dictionary, thesaurus, and any relevant class handouts.  This will be a non-researched essay, but if a student wants to use some primary research, such as interviews, he/she may, but this will not be part of the grading rubric for this essay.  Any research will have to be documented properly.
  • The final essay will not be peer critiqued and will involve minimal faculty critique beforehand.  For example, the professor might check the student’s thesis statement or might answer specific questions about a draft in progress, but the professor will not mark on the rough draft and will not proofread the draft.  This way the essay will truly be a reflection of what the students can do.  To further stress student accountability, any student who plagiarizes in this paper will fail the paper and the course.
  • Students must earn at least a D on this paper to pass the course, and the paper will weighted as 20% of the final grade.
  • Professors will give the students a checklist or rubric in advance so that the students will know in advance the professor’s and the department’s expectations for this final essay.

 

Final notes:

 

  • I realize that some of you are parents or have reasons to stay connected via cell phones with sick relatives or spouses.  Please only monitor your cell phone if it is absolutely important, and if you must, turn off the ringer (leave it on vibrate) and try not to disrupt the class (go out in the hallway to have your discussion).
  • No tobacco use allowed in the class.
  • Please don’t bring food to class.
  • Finally, if the school needs to shut down for snow or some other emergencies please go to one of these sites for information:

 

<www.cancellations.com>   (or)

 

Madisonville: WKTG (93.9 FM); WFMW (730 AM); WWKY (WHRZ) (97.7 FM); WYMV (106.9 FM); WTTL (1310 AM); Owensboro WBKR (92.5 FM); Paducah WKYQ (93.3 FM); WDDJ (96.9 FM); Hopkinsville WHOP (98.7 FM & 1230 AM); Evansville TV WEHT -25 (ABC) & WTVW – 7 (FOX); Paducah TV WPSD (Channel 6)