course.goals
materials
assignments
grading
attendance
electronica
ethics
disability
instructor
kevin eric depew
office bal 4042
phone 757.683.4019
e.mail kdepew@odu.edu
web.page http://www.odu.edu/~kdepew
office hours m & w 2-3 & by appointment
aim kerdepew
quick
links
calendar
blackboard
(email, collaboration, and readings)
resources
The principal objective of 110C is to prepare you to be an effective writer of the kinds of writing you will be called on to produce during your college careers, professional careers, civic actions, and personal and social lives. By the end of the course, you should be more mature in your understanding and use of language, should develop efficient writing processes, should know the qualities of effective composition in a given rhetorical situation, and should be able to demonstrate those qualities in your own writing. The criteria for successful college writing include the following:
Scope and Focus: clarity and communication of central purpose and main ideas, limitation of topic, use of pertinent material and avoidance of irrelevant material.
Organization: form, coherence, orderly progression of sentences and paragraphs reflecting sound planning.
Development: adequate support and elaboration of thesis and main ideas by use of definition, illustration, specific references, examples, concrete details and/or evidence.
Perspective: soundness of knowledge and judgment; ability to develop mature, thoughtful connections; avoidance of second-hand opinions and third-hand facts.
Rhetorical awareness: effectiveness of the text for a particular situation and audience.
Expressiveness: control and variety of sentences; precise, appropriate, and vigorous use of words; resourcefulness and flexibility of idiom.
Mechanics: correctness; observance of standard usage, spelling, punctuation, etc.
In short, you, before receiving a passing grade in English 110C, should be able to state clearly what you have to say; to support adequately your stated or implied thesis or purpose; to write papers that are coherent, showing an orderly progression of sentences and paragraphs; and to write sentences that are clear, concise, specific, and appropriate for the audience.
Prerequisites
To be enrolled in English 110C you must pass the Writing Sample Placement Test.
course.materials
Writing
folder (sold at the University student store)
The
St. Martin's Handbook, 6th edition
Author: Andrea Lunsford
Bedford/St. Martin's (2008)
ISBN: 0312443153
Other readings will be retrieved from...
Social Networking Genre Project (100 points): As part of a group, you will study and determine the generic expectations for social networking sites. You and your group will both present your finding to the class and submit a report.
Proposal (200 points): After you have individually chosen a problem or an issue you want to address, you will explain your current knowledge, your positions, and what you plan to do to address this issue for the Final Text.
Audience Research Memo (200 points): To learn about the audience for your Final Text, you will conduct field research. Then you will explain the process of your research and report your findings in a memo to the instructor.
Final Text (100 points): The final text is the text you produce to address the problem that you have chosen. This text will probably be very different for each student and should reflect what you learned doing your Proposal and your Audience Research.
Portfolio with Take-home exam (250 points): The portfolio is a collection of your work you have composed throughout the semester; the take-home exam asks you to use what you have composed through the semester to reflect upon what you produced for the Final Text.
Three Means of Failing the Course related to Major Assignments
- Not completing a major assignment
- Major assignments will be given no credit if the assignment is not turned in prior to the instructor returning the respective assignment to the class. This becomes the equivalent of not completing a major assignment
- An act of plagiarism (or other forms of academic dishonesty)
Minor Assignments
There are a lot of smaller assignments that will help you prepare and prewrite for the larger assignments. These assignments include peer reviews, group activities and exercises, required email postings, group work evaluations, and other short in- and out-of-class assignments.
Use these writing opportunities to your advantage instead of treating them as "busy work." A lot of the work that you do for these smaller assignments can be used directly in the major assignments; therefore, you will want to take these assignments seriously. This also gives you an opportunity to get serious feedback from the instructor on your work-in-progress. So, just fulfilling these assignments will often result in twice as much work for you.
Minor assignments are smaller homework-like assignments that will be factored into your process grade. These assignments will help you prepare for the work you will do with your Take-home exam.
Rhetorical Analysis: You will choose samples of writing and analyze the writer's use of appeals and the canon.
Progressive Annotated Bibliography: To prepare for your Proposal and your Final Text you will do research (a popular opinion piece, a popular report piece, and an academic piece) on your chosen problem or issue and effectiveness of the work.
Grammatical Analysis: You will choose samples of writing and analyze the writer's use of grammar.
The instructor reserves the right to add additional minor assignments when it seems necessary for and beneficial to the students.
Major Assignments
I will be looking for evidence of each student's progress towards coherent and effective work. More specifically I will be looking for evidence of...
- well supported and "original" work that responds to a specific context
- an understanding of the concepts taught in the course and how to apply them to your own writing
- an ability to generate texts that effectively address their purpose
- addressing your audiences appropriately, including fulfilling generic expectations
- prewriting and planning
- professional quality work, in terms of mechanics, design, and conventions
Process Grade
Your process grade will be 15% of your overall grade (150 points). All students will start with ~87% of the possible process grade points (130 points); this point total will be adjusted positively and negatively based upon homework, class work and attendance using the plus, check, minus system described below. This system is designed to encourage you to take risks with your thinking on prewriting assignments, give you an indication of your progress in the course, and encourage you to complete the course work (especially in a timely manner).
Process assignments (such as, class activities and homework) that contribute to the process of completing the portfolio. They will be marked and commented upon; these marks will entail a large percentage of your process grade. Late or missing minor assignments that are no longer relevant will receive no credit. Late work will only be accepted if you consult with the instructor prior to the class period in which the work is due.
Each minor assignment will be given a score from -4 to +2.
check (or 0) = You did the work satisfactorily, and on time. It will need some revisions or rethinking before the final assignment or before it is used for a major assignment
+1, +2= You demonstrated various degree of engagement with the ideas and you turned it in on time. It will need some revision or rethinking, but not much
–1, -2= Your work demonstrates a misunderstanding of the assignment, minimal effort, shows that you did not do the assigned reading, or was not turned in on time. Significant revision will be needed before the material is used in a major assignment
- 4 = No submission
This style of grading allows the instructor to evaluate the process of your work–how each student's work develops throughout a project–instead of only grading each minor assignment as a separate entity. The major assignment grades are final; therefore consider the questions and comments that the instructors poses to you in your minor assignments.
Grade Scale
Your final grade (1000 points) and assignments will be graded on the following point scale* :
| A =92-100 % | A -= 90-91.9 % | B+ = 87-89.9 % | |
| B = 82-86.9 % | B- = 80-81.9 % | C+ = 77-79.9 % | |
| C = 72-76.9 % | C- = 70-71.9 % | D+ = 67-69.9 % | |
| D = 62-66.9 % | D -= 60-61.9 % | ||
| F = 0-59.9 % |
*
= The instructor reserves the right to adjust this scale based on the
students' performance throughout the semester. Any adjustments will 1)
apply to the entire class and 2) never deny a student the grade that she/he
earns based upon this posted scale.
attendance
Students are required to attend every class. If you miss a class, for whatever reason, you are responsible for making up any missed work.
In this class, you will do a lot of work and discussion of ideas in the classroom. Therefore the attendance policies are:
- you
are allowed two unexcused absences. More than two absences
will result in failing the course. Being more than 20 minutes
late to class will be counted an absence.
- being late to class will be marked as a tardy and considered when your final grade is tallied.
The university catalog states, "Reasonable provisions should be made by the instructor for documented representation at University-sponsored athletic or academic functions, mandatory military training and documented illness" (p. 57). For this section, reasonable provisions will be defined as four absences with documentation. More than four documented absences will result in failing the course. Documentation must be submitted to the instructor at the beginning of the first class the student attends after an absence in order for it to be counted as a documented absence.
-
You are not only required to to attend every class, but you are required to come to class prepared. If you do not come to class prepared, you will receive an absence–whether you stay or not. Therefore, it is recommended that you pay attention to the calendar.
- submissions
of assignments and homework due the day of an absence
- if you plan to be absent the day an assignment is due, you are encouraged to make arrangements to submit the work before the class
- if you cannot submit the work prior to that class you are encouraged to submit it at your earliest possible convenience, especially through email
- the last day to submit work for credit is the first day that you return from an absence
To learn what work you have missed consult the instructor or the calendar.
As a general rule, a student missing a class assignment because of observance of a religious holiday or participating in any official extracurricular activity shall have the opportunity to make up missed work by following the guidelines above.
Electronica refers to technology-related issues.
E.mail
Accounts
Having an email account
is required; a lot of information for this class will be exchanged via
email and Blackboard including some assignment
submissions and class updates. You will want to establish a consistent
email account that you will use throughout the entire semester.
Because Blackboard's "Send Email" function "talks to" your ODU account, it is recommended that you work with this account. At the very least, you are required to forward your ODU mail to the account you use most. To get an ODU account go to OCCS.
You are responsible for making sure that files and messages are successfully received by the instructor and your peers; other email providers cannot provide this security. Also you will want to be aware that some evaluated coursework will be returned via email; if you are concerned about other parties reading these messages, please make alternate arrangements with the instructor.
E.mailing
Protocol
When emailing the
instructor or the class list make sure that you include a subject line
that includes the nature of the email. For example, a subject line, like "assignment"
is vague. Instead be specific and state whether it is an "assignment
submission," "question about assignment," or "assignment
problem."
Also use the priority setting rhetorically; in other words, make your email message stand out when you really need to draw the recipient's attention to your message. Do not use the priority setting on your standard assignment submissions or to simple requests.
LAN
Accounts
LAN accounts will
be necessary to use the computers in the computer labs throughout the
semester. If you do not already have a LAN account, please register for
one with OCCS.
Protecting
Your Work
Backup your document
files frequently. Also save all email transmissions for this course. Keep
your files on your home machine, floppy disks, cds, and/ or flash drives.
You can also email documents to yourself as a means of backing up your
work. The excuse "I lost my only copy" is not a valid one. Some
tips for protecting your work–and yourself–are:
- Save all English 110 work until the course is over
- Maintain copies of drafts and work-in-progress
- Create folders on your hard drive and in your INBOX (email) for this class.
- Keep copies of your email messages related to the course as a record of your work. For all messages that you send to the instructor, you should either have the message sent to your "Sent" folder in your email account or cc: yourself the message so that you have a copy for verification
Electronic
Ethics and Respect
Electronic media allows
us some freedoms that print media does not allow. Consequently, it is
also subject to abuse. Please be respectful of your peers throughout the
semester by not displaying, viewing, or posting web pages, files, or emails
that may make others uncomfortable. Violations of this respect can be
considered harassment according to university
policy and will be handled as such.
As per the University's Honor Code, you must do your own original work in this class–and appropriately identify that portion of your work which is...
- collaborative with others
- borrowed from others
- your own work from other contexts
The university defines plagiarism as follows:
“A student will have committed plagiarism if he or she reproduces someone else’s work without acknowledging its source; or if a source is cited which the student has not cited or used. Examples of plagiarism include: submitting a research paper obtained from a commercial research service, the Internet, or from another student as if it were original work; making simple changes to borrowed materials while leaving the organization, content, or phraseology intact; or copying material from a source, supplying proper documentation, but leaving out quotation marks. 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” (pp. 13-14)
If you have doubts about whether or not you are using your own or others' writing ethically, legally, or correctly, ask the instructor. Follow this primary principle: If in doubt, ask. Be up front and honest about what you are doing and about what you have contributed to an assignment.
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.
At the end of the semester, you will have an opportunity to evaluate the instructor and the course. This is very important for helping the instructor and the department assess the course. Please take the time at the end of the semester to do these online evaluations.
last.updated 8.7.08