ENGL 110C – English Composition Syllabus
BAL 2061 MWF 9:00AM – 9:50AM
Spring 2015
Sarah Camp, GTA Instructor
Office: Perry Library 3011K, located on the 3rd floor behind the book stacks
Office Hours: Wednesdays 10:00AM-12:00PM, or by appointment
E-Mail: scamp@odu.edu
Prerequisite: Students must have passed the University Writing Sample Placement Test before registering for ENGL 110C; the test is administered by the University Testing Center.
Course Description
English Composition, teaches—and demands that students actively practice—the skills and conventions associated with academic reading and writing. It is a course which can be taught from a wide variety angles and emphasizing a myriad of assignment types and writing forms. When planning this course, I wanted to consider both aspects—the angle to approach the readings and discussions for the greatest benefit of the students and the types of assignments which will provide the best learning opportunities. I believe that popular culture can provide a rich backdrop of topics for students to cut their analytical and argumentative teeth on in an area which they already have some experience. Popular culture is good starting point for students just beginning their college career because it does not require them to be experts in an academic subject matter but writing about it will require them to think “like” scholars because they will have to find ways to back up their assumptions about why popular culture looks and functions the way it does. It also helps novice college students consider the concept of identity and possibly even figure out how they see their own identities within the university and greater communities they live in. The study of popular culture also lends itself to a variety of writing assignments and explorations which the students will be invested in because they can more readily see the relevance to their lives. The assignments will be structured in a manner which assures the student that they are getting the necessary writing skills in analyzing “texts” which help their academic careers in future classes.
Course Objectives
Students will be able to:
- Identify the role they play as audience through readings, class discussion, reflective writing, and completion of the first analytical paper.
- Utilize their understanding of audience to generalize about their own audiences by clearly articulating who the audience is and what relevant techniques are used in their writing assignment cover sheets and the cover letter for their final portfolios.
- Explain how invention and audience will influence the purpose of their writing through class discussion, reflective writing, and articulating their methods of invention in their writing assignment cover sheet.
- Identify the three basic appeals (Ethos, pathos, logos) in their readings and their own writing through class discussion, reflective writing, and articulation of the appeals they use in their writing assignment cover sheets.
- Synthesize the connections between invention, purpose, use of appeals and audience by producing writing assignments which clearly demonstrate cohesiveness among these elements and including their most successful examples in their final portfolios.
- Utilize a recursive writing process to produce writing which evolves to meet student identified purposes and the course expectations of effective writing through in class writing time, multiple draft opportunities, peer review and explanation for selections into the students’ final portfolios.
- Explore an author’s use of voice and style to create effective writing which suits his/ her purpose and audience through readings, reflective writing and class discussion.
- Demonstrate an understanding of the role voice and style play in creating cohesive writing by constructing writing which is consistent and mechanically effective with regards to the purpose of the assignment and through their writing assignment cover sheets and the cover letter for their final portfolios.
- Design and execute a basic research plan to further investigate a popular culture topic of their own choosing through the completion of the research steps assigned in-class and the successful creation of an effective research paper for inclusion into their portfolios.
Written Communication Skills Learning Outcomes:
Students successfully completing English 110C will be able to:
- Abstract and summarize the content of texts in a range of disciplines
- Analyze both their written texts and the texts of others based on rhetorical criteria (e.g., organization towards a purpose of effect; use of assumptions and appeals appropriate to the targeted audience and situation.
- Analyze arguments, including uses of assumptions, claims, emotion, and reason.
- Move from analysis to evaluation, judging texts for effectiveness and credibility
- Distinguish between scholarly and popular treatments of ideas.
- Edit their own writing to ensure that it is reasonable free of errors in such surface features as syntax, grammar, punctuation, and spelling.
- Practice appropriate means of documenting their work.
- Analyze, evaluate, and synthesize information so as to formulate adequate theses, moving beyond the scope of reporting information to composing papers that express their reasoned judgments on their topics.
Practice writing as a process and apply the writing process to a variety of contexts.
Textbooks
Writing Today, Richard Johnson-Sheehan and Charles Paine (Pearson, 2013).
Understanding Rhetoric: A Graphic Guide to Writing, Elizabeth Losh, Jonathan Alexander, Kevin Cannon, and Zander Cannon (Bedford St. Martin’s, 2014)
*Additional readings will be posted to Google Drive for your convenience
Materials
- Thumb drive for backing up all written work
- Daily access to the Internet, your student email, Google Drive, etc.
- Paper and pen for daily in class writing
Assignments:
- Graphic memoir
- Application Packet
- Blog Posts
- Three formal essays
- Literary Analysis Essay (3-5 pages)
- Rhetorical Analysis Essay (3-5 pages)
- Argumentative Research Project (5-7 pages)
- Midterm Exam: 500 word in-class essay
- Final Exam: Reflective Cover Letter for ePortfolio
- Class Participation & Attendance
*E-Portfolio: At the end of the semester you will submit a portfolio through blackboard to me. This portfolio should include assignments that you feel best showcase the written communication skills learning outcomes designated below the course objectives. You are also required to include a reflective essay as a cover sheet for this portfolio to examine the way in which you have transformed over the duration of the semester.
POLICIES
Attendance
Students are expected to show up to class each period as attendance is mandatory. Six absences qualify the student for an automatic failure of the course. Proper documentation (i.e. Doctor’s note) will excuse a student’s absence, however, no more than 2 notes will be accepted.
Conferences
Each student is required to meet with me twice throughout the duration of the semester for a conference. These conferences are to be taken seriously; failure to attend your designated conference date and time will result in one unexcused absence. That being said, these conferences may take place in person during office hours, or via Skype/Google Hangouts.
Email Etiquette
Please make sure to send emails from your registered university email account. Your emails should be written in complete sentences and should steer away from any use of slang or “chat” speak. While I appreciate your willingness to contact me outside of class, if the answer to your question lies within the confines of this syllabus, you will not receive a reply. It will typically take me no longer than 24 hours to answer your questions and concerns. If you wish to submit an assignment via email please do so using the Google Docs feature so as to avoid any bizarre formatting mishaps.
Plagiarism
According to the Old Dominion University Student Code of Conduct…
“Plagiarism is: Using someone else’s language, ideas, or other original material without acknowledging its source in any academic exercise. 4 Examples of plagiarism include, but are not limited to, the following: submitting a research paper obtained from a commercial research service, the Internet, or from another student as if it were original work; or making simple changes to borrowed materials while leaving the organization, content, or phraseology intact. Plagiarism also occurs in a group project if one or more of the members of the group does none of the group’s work and participates in none of the group’s activities, but attempts to take credit for the work of the group.”
Paper Format:
All papers should be double-spaced, 12 point font in a readable font. Please format the document to have 1-inch margins on all sides, with appropriate indentions, citations, and punctuation.
Use of Electronics
The use of electronics is permitted in the classroom for note taking and peer reviews/workshops only. Utilizing these devices for social media purposes during class time is unacceptable and will reflect poorly upon your overall grade.
Late Work and Grading
Late work will not be accepted. Of course, there are exceptions, and extensions may be provided given that one is requested in advance of the provided assignment deadlines.
Assignments will be graded using the following 10-point scale scale:
A = 90-100%
B = 80-89%
C = 70-79%
D = 60-69%
F = below 60%
Disability Policy:
If you have a documented disability, make sure you register with Disability Services (757-683-4655). Once you do so, feel free to talk to the instructor about any special accommodations that you may need to fulfill the requirements of this course.
For more information on University policies please visit:
http://catalog.odu.edu/undergraduate/policiesprocedures/