banner

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
skype k.e.depew


quick links

calendar
blackboard (readings and email)
resources


course.goals

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

Manila folder (sold at the University student store)

Readings will be retrieved from...


major.assignments

Each assignment will be submitted in a portfolio (i.e., the manila folder) which includes the final draft of the assignment and any minor assignments (i.e., class work or homework) that contributed to this assignment. Marks and feedback on these minor assignments will factored into your grade for that assignment.

Discourse Community Analysis (50 points): As a way to reflect on the writing that you have done in your life and understand the writing you will be doing in college and beyond, you will be given the opportunity to examine the skills you have learn from previous discourse communities and speculate how they will influence your participation in future discourse communities.

Prep Blog Entries (50 points): Throughout the semester you will be asked to do writing to apply concepts from the subject matter we are discussing or do preparation work for an upcoming assignment. These are opportunities for you to get feedback on material that might end up in your essays.

Proposal (100 points): After you have chosen a writing-related problem or issue that you want to research and address, you will explain your current knowledge, your positions, and detail the primary and secondary research methods you will use to learn more about this issue for the IMRAD Research Essay.

Research Blog Entries (100 points): To learn about the writing-related subject you are studying, you will conduct textual research. You will be required to first examine three popular articles (i.e., newspaper, magazines) and then two academic journal articles.

IMRAD Research Essay (150 points): Using the IMRAD format, you will write an essay reporting the writing-related issue you studied, what you learned from other sources about this writing, how you conducted research, what you learned from this research, and what you think the data means.

Research Remix with Rhetorical Reflection (150 points): Because IMRAD is not the most appropriate genre for all audiences and purposes, you will be asked to remix or re-present your IMRAD Research Essay for specific non-academic audience for a specific purpose. The final product can be, but is not limited to, a magazine article, a workshop script, a YouTube video.

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 you will do for homework or in-class 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. You will submit these with your assignment portfolios.

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.

The instructor reserves the right to add additional minor assignments when it seems necessary for and beneficial to the students.


grading

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

Portfolio Grades

In addition to reviewing and evaluating the final product, the instructor will also review the minor assignments, the previous feedback made on those documents, and how you responded to that feedback on the final document you submitted. If you want to draw the instructor's attention to certain choices that you have made, you can submit a memo (no more than one-page) within your portfolio that explains these choices; the instructor will consider the memo when evaluating your overall work.

Grade Scale

Your final grade (600 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 four unexcused absences. More than four 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 an additional two absences above the four unexcused absences with documentation. More than two additional 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

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.

It is recommended that you work with your ODU gmail 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 ITS.

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.mail Protocols
When emailing the instructor 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 for 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 ITS.

Protecting Your Work
Backup your document files frequently. Also save all email transmissions for this course. Keep your files on your home machine 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.


ethics&plagiarism

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.


documented.disability

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.


course.evaluations

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 8.8.13