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CCC ENG 101-18

Page history last edited by William G. Lewis 9 years, 7 months ago

Camden County College 

English Composition I – ENG 101-18 

Tuesday/Thursday 3:30 – 4:45 

Madison Hall 301 

 

Instructor:  William G. Lewis 

Office Hours:  Madison Hall 122, R 5:00 – 7:00 or by appointment only 

E-mail:  wlewis@faculty.camdencc.edu (This is the best way to get in touch with me) 

Phone:  (856)630-0993 

Website:  http://williamglewis.pbworks.com/  

 

Course Description: 

            This course is designed to help you improve your writing and prepare you for writing at the college level.  Knowing how to communicate and write well will be a great asset to you throughout your college years and beyond.  This will include your ability to think critically, recognize your audience, pre-writing and brainstorming, research, close reading, and the peer review, editing, and revising process.   

            The course will emphasize these skills to teach you how to write and the process of writing.  By exploring other writer’s methods by reading their texts and by explore how those texts effectively or ineffectively communicate their arguments.  This will be done with a variety of texts, from essays to short stories to video reviews.  By studying and understanding how other texts are crafted, we can better write our own.   

 

Course Goals: 

            You will be able to by the end of this course: 

·         Produce college-level, well thought out, clear, and effective essays with a clear thesis that is supported throughout the essay. 

·         Navigate and interpret complex ideas through writing. 

·         Navigate texts and identify techniques other writers use. 

·         Analyze a text using effective questioning. 

·         Consider and express the relationship between your ideas and others’ ideas in a productive and respectful manner. 

·         Engage in the revising/editing process of writing with your own and others work in an effort to improve it through constructive criticism. 

·         Research using online and library databases and identify credible sources. 

 

Required Texts: 

            Patterns for College Writing, 12th ed., Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell 

            Rules for Writers, 7th ed., Diane Hacker and Nancy Sommers 

 

Attendance: 

            You will be expected to attend class regularly and no more than four absences for any reason will be accepted, even under the most extreme of circumstances.  If you miss a class, you will essentially lose out on that day’s contribution to your preparation, since it is never really possible to reproduce or recapture the dynamics and flow of information for a missed class meeting (even if you get notes from someone).   

 

            If you expect to be absent, please notify me before hand in an e-mail.    

 

            If you are absent due to illness or any other unexpected reason, contact me within 24 hours.   

 

            Absences do not exempt you from assignments due that day. 

 

            You are also expected to come to class on time, and every three times you are late counts as one absence.   

 

            If you are absent from class more than four times, you will receive an NA (Not Attending) for your grade.  After four absences, your continued presence in the course is at my discretion.   

 

Communication:  

 

            Phone:  If you do call me and reach my voicemail, please be sure to speak clearly and leave your name, course information, and phone number if you wish a return call.  

             

            E-Mail:   

            If you contact me via e-mail, always include your full name and class section (like this:  William Lewis, ENG 101-01) in the subject line. Too often students forget to sign e-mail or have e-mail addresses without obvious identifiers. If you do not include your name and class in the subject line, I will not open the message. 

            Students who send me e-mail and do not receive a reply of any kind within 2 business days should assume it was never received. Please re-send any such e-mails. I do not mind receiving redundant messages if you are unsure whether your message was transmitted (though I may only reply to one). If your message doesn’t present itself as urgent, I may reply quickly and briefly and ask to get back to you before long. 

 

Grading: 

I grade on a point system, and the total number of possible points for the semester is 1,000.  The total number of points you get will determine your grade: 

            A = 1,000 – 900  

            B = 899 – 800 

            C = 799 – 700  

            D = 699 – 600 

            F = 599 or below 

·         50% Final Portfolio (500 points) 

·         20% Essays (200 points total, 50 points per essay.  There will be 4 essays including the midterm.) 

·         10% Departmental Essay Exam (100 points) 

·         10% 8 Critical Response Papers (100 points) 

·         10% Class Contribution (50 points) 

 

Final Portfolio: 

            You will produce a portfolio of your writing for this course that must include two polished essays along with drafts and revisions, a two Critical Response Papers, and a Reflective Statement.  

            Your Final Portfolio will be graded as a whole. You will work on and revise the portfolio essays throughout the semester and must turn each draft in as assigned. But, while these drafts will be given individual reference grades, it is the Final Portfolio grade at the end of the semester that counts. Keep in mind that I pay close attention to the quality of revision in the Final Portfolio. 

            Important Reminder: Keep every version (hard copy and electronic) of your essays from the first rough draft to the final revision. To make sure your electronic files are safe, it is suggested that you copy them to a flash drive and/or Google Docs. 

 

Essays: 

            Throughout the term, you will be expected to complete several essays throughout the semester; most of these will be done outside of class.   

 

            All work written and submitted should utilize standard rules of grammar, sentence organization, paragraph organization, and diction. 

 

            Essays must be completed in MLA format, typed in 12 pt. Times New Roman font, double-spaced, with one-inch margins, and carefully proofread.   

 

            You will receive a handout with the paper assignment at least 2 weeks before it is due for any essay written outside of class.   

 

            All essays will be submitted to Turnitin.com and graded there.  Submit essays by the day they are due before class starts. 

 

            If you do not adhere to these guidelines, your grade for the assignment will be reduced.  If you do not hand in two essays (including the midterm) you will receive an F for your grade.   

 

Lateness: 

            Late papers will lose a letter grade for each day they are late.  If a paper is more than three days late, it is a 0.  If you work on an essay in class the day it is due, it is considered late.  There are no exceptions to this rule.   

 

Academic Dishonesty and Plagiarism: 

            One of the goals for this course is to increase your awareness of the ethical ramifications of writing and your ability to write ethically and responsibly. How to avoid unintentional plagiarism is a major component of this course. However, it is ultimately your responsibility to submit ethical writing. If you have any question about the use of sources and citations in your work, you should contact me prior to turning in the assignment.  

            Plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty are unacceptable in this or any other college course.  Plagiarism is the use of another person’s work, either by copying or paraphrasing, and not giving them credit for it.  If you plagiarize once in this course you will fail that assignment.  If you plagiarize again, you will fail the course. 

 

Departmental Essay Examination: 

            All students must register and take the Departmental Essay Examination.  In order to pass, all students must achieve a total score of 6; otherwise they will receive an F in the course regardless of the previous average.  For more information, go to http://www2.camdencc.edu/index.aspx, the Departmental Essay Examination’s website. 

 

Class Contribution: 

            What does your presence add to our classroom community?  Are you ready and willing to challenge yourself?  Do you answer questions to the best of your ability?  Do show original and productive thought rather than mindlessly please me or make you look smart?  How do you do in group work?  Are you punctual and prepared to engage the course?  These are some of the factors I will consider for this grade.   

            I will be using a deck of playing cards to choose students at random to answer questions and to organize random groups.  Each student is assigned a card from the deck and can be chosen at random to answer a question at any time.  Responses like “I don’t know” are not acceptable.  I invite you to think aloud, muse, guess, and experiment with ideas.  Take the opportunity to expand on the ideas of the class. 

 

Critical Response Papers:   

            In the course of the term, you are required to write 8 short, informal papers (1-2 pages each) on the readings for class.  You may choose which days and which readings you want to respond to.  All critical response papers will both summarize and evaluate the essays you have read. 

            Critical response papers will be graded Pass/Fail.  I ask you to type them (so that they are easier for me to read), but they need not be a perfect, polished product.  Rather, critical response papers should be just what their name says -- a response to the essay.  Don’t worry about typos or comma splices or organization.  Treat critical response papers more like a journal entry than like a formal paper.  I don’t want a five-paragraph theme.  Rather, I want an evaluative exploration -- as detailed and specific as possible -- of the reading assignment for the day. 

            Normally, as long as you submit a critical response paper of suitable length, detail, and thoughtfulness (and as long as you turn it in on time in class on the assigned day), you will receive all the points that the critical response paper is worth. 

            You may submit more than 10 critical response papers in the course of the semester (to make up for any response papers that do not receive a grade of Pass), but no matter how many extra critical response papers you turn in, you will not receive more than 100 points total for all the critical response papers you write.  Critical response papers are due the same days assigned readings are.  You may not submit more than one response paper on a single day, nor may you submit a critical response paper for a day that you are absent from class -- absolutely no exceptions.  (NOTE:  Even if you do not submit a critical response paper on a particular day, you should still come to class prepared to discuss the assigned reading for that day since we will focus our in-class discussion on analyzing and evaluating it.)

 

Tutoring Center: 

            The Tutoring Center is located on the third floor of the library-LRC on Blackwood Campus (227-7200 ext. 4411).  If you are having trouble understanding any of the grammar exercises or would like help with an essay assignment, you can get assistance at the Tutoring Center.  There is a link to the Tutoring Center's hours are posted on the College's website.  Tutors will not help you write your essays, nor will they correct an essay that you want to submit for grading. 

 

Course Outline 

Note:  The course outline is tentative and subject to change with notification.   

You must have readings done by the date they appear on the outline.  The page numbers in Patterns for College Writing are next to the title.  Ex.  Judy Brady's “I Want a Wife” is one pages 503-505 and must be read by 2/24. 

Any reading without page numbers has a link on the course website.  Ex.  Paul Roberts, “How to Say Nothing in 500 Words” is a .pdf document linked on the course website and must be read by 1/29. 

 

Week 1:  1/22 

Thursday:  Handout Syllabus and Course Outline. 

                    Introduction to the course 

                    Procedures  

                    How to read the course outline 

 

Week 2:  1/27, 1/29 

Tuesday:  SNOW DAY

 

Thursday:  Discuss Essay 1 

                    Reading to Write:  Becoming a Critical Reader (13-27) 

                    Narration (97-108) 

                    Paul Roberts, “How to Say Nothing in 500 Words”

 

Week 3:  2/3, 2/5 

Tuesday:  Process (263-278) 

                    Anne Lamott, “Shitty First Drafts”

                    Peter Elbow, “Teaching Thinking By Teaching Writing”

                    William Stafford, "A Way of Writing"

                    Fragments 

 

Thursday:  Rough Draft of Essay 1 Due 

                    Peer Editing 

  

Week 4:  2/10, 2/12 

Tuesday:  Documenting Sources:  MLA (723-742) 

                    Run-ons and Comma Splices 

                     

Thursday:  Essay 1 Due 

                    Discuss Essay 2 

                    Invention (29-49) 

                    Subject-Verb Agreement 

 

Week 5:  2/17, 2/19 

Tuesday:  SNOW DAY

 

Thursday:  Conferences on Essay 1 

 

Week 6:  2/24, 2/26 

Tuesday:  Conferences on Essay 1 

                 Definition (489-500) 

                    Judy Brady, “I Want a Wife” (503-505) 

                    Gayle Rosenwald Smith, “The Wife-Beater” (516-517) 

 

Thursday:  Lisa Miller, “The Retro Wife” 

                    Deborah Tannen, “Sex, Lies, and Conversation” (423-427) 

                    Pronoun Agreement 

                     

Week 7:  3/3, 3/5 

Tuesday:  Examine student essays 

                    Misplaced and Dangling Modifiers

 

Thursday:  Rough Draft of Essay 2 Due 

                    Drafting and Revising (65-79) 

                    Peer Editing 

 

Week 8:  3/10, 3/12 

Tuesday: Arrangement (51-63) 

                    Sherman Alexie, “Indian Education” (142-147) 

 

 

Thursday: Essay 2 Due 

                    Classification and Division (435-447) 

                    William Zinsser, “College Pressures” (450-456)   

 

Week 9:  3/17, 3/19 

SPRING BREAK 

 

Week 10:  3/24, 3/26 

Tuesday:  Dealing with timed essays 

 

Thursday:  Midterm Essay(in-class) 

 

Week 11:  3/31, 4/2 

Tuesday:  Discuss Essay 3 

                    Compare and Contrast (371-390) 

                    Amy Tan, “Mother Tongue” (466-473) 

 

Thursday:  Laura Bobnak, “The Price of Silence” (77-80) 

                    Mark Edmundson, “Pink Floyd Night School” (116-120) 

 

Week 12:  4/7, 4/9 

Tuesday:  Ellen Laird, “I'm Your Teacher, Not You Internet Service Provider” (417-422) 

                    Josie Martinez, “What I Learned (and Didn't Learn) in College” (442-445) 

                     

Thursday:  Rough Draft of Essay 3 Due 

                    Peer Editing 

 

Week 13:  4/14, 4/16 

Tuesday:  Editing and Proofreading (81-94) 

                    Carolyn Foster Segal, “The Dog Ate My Disk and Other Tales of Woe” (460-465) 

 

Thursday:  Essay 3 Due 

                    Discuss Final Portfolio 

                    Anya Kamenetz “Take This Internship and Shove It” (583-585) 

                    Jennifer Halperin, “No Pay?  Many Interns Say, ‘No Problem’” (588-590) 

 

Week 14:  4/21, 4/23 

Tuesday:  Conferences on Essay 3 

 

Thursday:  Conferences on Essay 3 

 

Week 15:  4/28, 4/30 

Tuesday:  Discuss Self-Reflective 

                    Argumentation (525-550) 

                    Martin Luther King, Jr. “Letter from Birmingham Jail” (566-581) 

 

Thursday:  Jonathan Swift, “A Modest Proposal” (692-699) 

 

Week 16:  5/5, 5/7 

Tuesday:  Self-Reflective Rough Draft Due 

                    Peer Editing 

 

Thursday:  Final Portfolio Revisions 

                    Peer Editing 

 

Week 17:  5/12 

Tuesday:  Final Portfolio Due 

                    NO CLASS

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