Instructor: Randy Jedele                                                         Class: English 117

Office: Building 2—5W                                                           Section: ___________

Phone: 964-6417                                                                    Time: _____________

E-mail: rejedele@dmacc.edu                                                   Room: ____________

Office Hours: MWF—1:30—2:30

                        TTH—1:00—2:00

                        Others by appointment

 

 

 

Textbooks

 

Lunsford, Andrea A. The Everyday Writer. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2001.

 

See, Patti and Bruce Taylor, eds. Higher Learning: Reading and Writing about College.

 

            Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2001.

 

Attendance                            

This is not a correspondence course! Each student is permitted ____ absences from class. Absence ___ is an automatic F in the course—no questions asked, no exceptions allowed. I will not qualify absences; in other words, there are no excused or unexcused absences—attending a funeral or keeping a doctor's appointment is no more of an excuse for missing class than sleeping late or sitting in Building #5 with friends.

 

Experience has proven that students who do not attend class are not successful. Although attendance is not mandatory, it is expected. Please note that 20% of each student's final grade is based on grades achieved on in-class assignments and writings. Obviously, if a student is not present during a class period, it is impossible to participate in discussions and in-class writing activities. Also, no late work is accepted and the word "make-up" does not exist in your instructor's vocabulary. All assigned Reading Responses are due the day the selection is discussed in class. The bottom line? If you want the points and expect to be successful, be in class.

 

 

In-Class Writings

As has already been stated, several class meetings will have an in-class writing. Usually, these will be reactions to the reading assignments. None of these assignments can be made up at a later date. It is also important that students be punctual* because if there is an in-class writing exercise, it will be at the beginning of the class. Thirty to forty minutes will be allotted to complete these responses. It is important that you read the assignments. There is not time to read the assignment and respond in class.

 

These assignments, as well as any other in-class written activities, will constitute 20% of the final grade.

 

 

Major Composition Assignments

Each student will produce five major essays during the course of the semester. (The grades from these essays comprise 40% of the final grade.) The topics for the papers have been selected to encourage students to think about the college experience and their roles in the arena of higher education, as well as the paths they may consider as future possibilities.

 

All but the final essay may be revised for a higher grade. Revisions must be submitted within a week after the essays are returned. Revisions will be added to the writing binder. It is important to understand that revision does not automatically ensure a higher grade. If the instructor’s comments are not appropriately examined and acknowledged, it is possible to receive a lower grade.

 

All five essays must be submitted to pass the class. However, the essay that receives the lowest grade will be dropped before final grades are averaged.

 

 

Service Learning

Thirty percent of each student’s grade will be based on the service-learning component of this class. First, as a class we will define “service learning” and discuss the various options. Six documents are included in this project. The portfolios will be submitted near the end of the semester. The following is a list of the writing components:

 

1.      Letter of Introduction

2.      Progress Report (in memo format)

3.      Service-Learning Journal

4.      Researched Profile

5.      Reflective or Argumentative Essay

6.      Letter of Transmittal

 

Each student will be expected to volunteer a minimum of 15 hours of service.

 

 

Due Dates

All Reading Responses are due at the beginning of the class.

 

The five major essays are also due on the dates they are assigned.  Any major essay that is not submitted on the date assigned will lose 5 points for each day that it is late.  In other words, if an essay is due on a Wednesday and it is not submitted until Thursday, it will lose 5 points.  If it’s handed in on Friday of the same week, it will lose 10 points.

 

Although all essays can be revised for a higher grade, the points lost because an essay was originally submitted late cannot magically be earned in the revision process.  For example, if an essay is submitted late one day and received a C (78) for a grade, the actual grade recorded will be 73 (D+).  If the student decides to revise and receives an A- (92) on the revision, the grade recorded will be an 87 (B).

 

Visual Rhetoric and Paper Format

Visual rhetoric pertains to how a document looks even before it is read.  What this means is that all work must be keyboarded and be neat in appearance.  Appropriate margins, spacing, and headings must be used.  Proper pagination must be utilized in every assignment.  (Proper pagination means that a student’s last name and a page number appears on every second and consecutive page.)  Any paper that appears sloppy and unprofessional, or inappropriately submitted, will not be graded.

 

All assignments should have reasonable side margins.  Your academic essays are the only papers that are required to be double-spaced in format.  Your short assignments and professional documents should be single-spaced.  The particular format for each assignment will be determined by the style sheet that is selected or by the type of document that is being produced.  All formats will be discussed in class; they are also illustrated in your handbook.

 

Every academic document—professional documents have different identifying information—submitted should have the following identifying information in the upper left-hand corner:

 

                        Student name

                        Instructor name

                        Type of Assignment

                        Date of Submission

 

All major essays will be submitted in a ½” three-ringed binder. Students will keep writing logs for major assignments. The logs, all drafts, and copies of any outside sources must be submitted with the final draft. Whenever an outside source is used, a Work(s) Cited page must accompany the essay. An essay will not be graded if any part is missing.

 

 

Spelling

Misspelled words are inexcusable and unacceptable.  Learn to use your computer’s spellchecker.  Any paper that has a misspelled word in it will not be graded.  When the instructor encounters a misspelled word, the word is highlighted in yellow and the paper is returned to the author to be corrected.  Once the paper is corrected, it is to be resubmitted for grading.  For your academic papers, do not print a new copy of the essay.  Correct the spelling with ink.  Don’t just correct the word and resubmit the paper; make sure no other words are misspelled in the document.  However, never make ink corrections in your professional documents.  Although homonyms are not misspelled words, they are signs of poor editing and/or proofreading.

 

 

Plagiarism

According to Writing from A to Z, plagiarism is defined as “[using] someone else’s exact words without quotation marks and appropriate credit or [using] someone else’s ideas without acknowledgment.  In publishing, plagiarism is illegal; in other circumstances it is, at least, unethical” (308).

 

Plagiarism is a serious academic offense and will not be tolerated in this class.  Because students are often unaware that they have, indeed, plagiarized, the first offense will result in an automatic zero, which can be removed by resubmitting the essay with the appropriate corrections.  In the event that a student is found guilty a second time, the penalty will be an F in the course.

 

A minimum of five outside sources is required for essay #4. Papers that fail to use at least five sources usually receive less than average grades. Previous students have proven that the best-written essays are those that have been thoroughly researched.

 

 

Reading Responses

During the semester, I will ask you to submit 10 Reading Responses, which will be generated from assigned selections in your textbook. These responses are due at the beginning of the class when the selection is being discussed. In other words, they are designed for you to read your assignment and think about the selection before we discuss the material in class. These responses are to be typed. You are to respond to the following four questions:

 

1. What did you bring to the reading? What memories from your life experiences

    made you think about yourself and what the author is conveying in the

    selection? (This response is not a summary, nor am I asking you to agree or

    disagree with the writer.)

 

2. What one quotation had the greatest impact on you? Don’t just write the

    quotation down. Also, write a sentence or two that explains why the quote was

    important to you.

 

3. What question(s) do you have for the author? What don’t you understand about

    the selection?

 

4. If you were to lead an in-class discussion on the selection, how would you

    begin this discussion? What question(s) would you ask your classmates in order

    to stimulate discussion?

 

 

Writing Workshops

Peer editing and receiving critical responses from readers are important steps in the writing process. Twenty points are automatically deducted for any paper that is not workshopped.

 

Because it is often difficult to read handwriting, all workshop papers must be typed. Partial papers are inexcusable.

 

 

Composition Grading

I think it is only fair that I explain some of my grading policies.  I will be the first to admit that I am a slow grader.  I am not a holistic grader.  In other words, I do not simply read your documents and slap a grade on them.  I take the time to comment on where you’re making mistakes and I make suggestions on how you can make improvements .  I will grade your Reading Responses as quickly as possible, so that you don’t continue to make the same mistakes.  However, it usually takes me two weeks to grade a major set of essays. 

 

You will have no doubt when you receive your papers that I have spent time with them.  I also must admit that there have been times when I have simply written the word “stop” in the margin to signal that I have stopped reading/grading.  I usually only do this on extremely poorly written papers. I will not devote my time to grading documents that students haven’t devoted their time for researching, thinking, and writing. Because writing is a process, you cannot produce good work at the last minute.

 

 

Grades

Minor assignments and quizzes are usually worth 10-25 points.

 

Although major assignments receive a letter grade, these letter grades and final grades are converted according to the following scale:

 

                        A   98              C  78

                        A-  92              C- 74

                        B+  91             D+ 73 

                        B   88               D   69

                        B-  83              D-  65

                        C+ 82              F    60

 

                                                                                Tentative Assignment Schedule

 

                Date                                                        Assignment

 

1/13                                         Course Introduction

 

                1/15                                         Handbook discussion

                                                                Introduction to formal letters

 

                1/17                                         No Class—Service-Learning Day

 

                1/20                                         No Class—Martin Luther King Jr’s Birthday

 

                1/22                                         “Dear Randy” Letter Due

                                                                Introduction to Service Learning

 

1/24                                         Introduction to Essay #1 (Remembered Person/Event)

“Incurring My Mother’s Displeasure” (2-4)

                                                                from “Up with Slavery” (6-9)

                                                                In-class Writing—Bring your Essential Study Skills textbook

 

1/27                                         from “The Day I Became an Autodidact” (29-33)

                                                “Miss Rinehart’s Paddle” (27-28)

                                                “In High School I Majored in Shop” (35-36)

                                                Reading Response #1 Due

 

                1/29                                         “Raising My Hand” (11-12)

                                                                “The English Lesson” (14-25)

                                                                “Somewhere in Minnesota” (47-48

 

                1/31                                         “50% Chance of Lightening” (37-45)

                                                                “The Eyes of Chickens” (49-57)

                                                                Reading Response #2 Due

                                                                In-class Writing—Bring your Essential Study Skills textbook

 

                2/3                                           Workshop Essay #1

 

                2/5                                           Essay #1 Due

                                                                Introduction to Essay #2 (Comparison/Contrast)

 

                2/7                                           “A Day in the Life Of” (64)

                                                                “Ten Commandments for a College Freshman” (66-68)

                                                                Reading Response #3 Due

                                                                In-class Writing—Bring your Essential Study Skills textbook

 

                2/10                                         “‘Who Shall I Be?’ The Allure of a Fresh Start” (122-126)

                                                                “Diary of a Freshman” (76-78)

                                                                Introduction and first paragraph to Essay #2 Due

 

                2/12                                         “Grading Your Professors” (89-95)

                                                                “Outside In: The Life of a Commuter Student” (104-109)

                                                                Reading Response #4 Due

 

                2/14                                         No Class—Service-Learning Day

 

                Date                                                        Assignment

 

2/17                                         “Hunters and Gatherers” (79-80)

                                                                “Homeward Bond” (110-112)

                                                                from “I Walk in Beauty” (114-117)

 

                2/19                                         Workshop Essay #2

 

                2/21                                         Essay #2 Due

                                                                Introduction to Essay #3 (Researched Argument)

                                                                In-class Writing—Bring your Essential Study Skills textbook

 

                2/24                                         Documentation

                                                                Writing Summaries

 

                2/26                                         Documentation

 

                2/28                                         Library Research

 

                3/3                                           Writing Conferences

                                                                Library Research

 

                3/5                                           Writing Conferences

                                                                Library Research

 

                3/7                                           Writing Conferences

                                                                Library Research

 

                3/10                                         Workshop Essay #3

 

                3/12                                         Essay #3 Due

                                                                Introduction to Essay #4 (Solution to a Problem)

 

3/14                                         “Raspberries” (134)

                                                                “First Love” (136-146)

                                                                Reading Response #5 Due

                                                                In-class Writing—Bring your Essential Study Skills textbook

 

                3/17—3/21                           Spring Break—No Classes

 

                3/24                                         “Carmen” (149-152)

                                                                “Virginity” (156-164)

                                                                Reading Response #6 Due

                                                               

                3/26                                         “No More Kissing—AIDS Everywhere” (178-179)

                                                                “The Blue-Light System” (181-186)

 

                3/28                                         “Mayday” (226-239)

                                                                “Open Admission” (249-258)

                                                                Reading Response #7 Due

                                                                In-class Writing—Bring your Essential Study Skills textbook

 

                3/31                                         “Take This Fish and Look at It” (219-222)

                                                                “No Immediate Danger” (241-247)

 

                Date                                                        Assignment

 

 

4/2                                           “Signed, Grateful” (259-262)

                                                                “April Inventory” (293-295)

                                                                Reading Response #8

 

                4/4                                           Workshop Essay #4

 

                4/7                                           Essay #4 Due

                                                                Introduction to Essay #5 (Writing an Evaluation)

 

                4/9                                           “The Speech the Graduates Didn’t Hear” (300-301)

                                                                “Moon June Spoon” (318-319)

                                                                Reading Response #9

 

                4/11                                         “Scarlet Ribbons” (321-324)

                                                                “Passion” (325-329)

                                                                Reading Response #10

                                                                In-class Writing—Bring your Essential Study Skills textbook

 

                4/14                                         Writing Conferences

 

                4/16                                         Writing Conferences

 

                4/18                                         Writing Conferences

 

                4/21                                         Workshop Essay #5

 

                4/23                                         Essay #5 Due

                                                                Writing Letters of Transmittal

                                                                In-class Writing—Bring your Essential Study Skills textbook

 

                4/25                                         Work on Service-Learning Portfolio

 

4/28                                         Service-Learning Portfolios Due

 

                4/30

 

                5/2

 

 

 

Final grades for composition are determined in the following manner:

 

                        20%     Daily work includes in-class writings or homework assignments to

be completed before class, or online grammar exercises. One

possible daily grade will be annotation checks, which means

students need to bring their textbook or handout to class

and be able to demonstrate that you have read and annotated the

selections that are being discussed that day.  (Reading Responses are not part of this daily work category.)

                        20%     Reading Responses

                        40%     Average of Major Essays and Research Paper

                        20%     Service Learning

 

Work Cited

 

Regan, Sally Barr, et al. Writing from A to Z: The Easy-to-Use Reference Handbook.

 

            Mountain View, California: Mayfield Publishing Company, 1994.

 


* Punctuality is another pet peeve of mine. I think it is rude to come to class late. While I know that some days complications arise because of traffic or just getting a late start, repeated late entrances will not be tolerated. It is my opinion that if you are more than ten minutes late, you should just not come to class.