English 2010 Syllabus
Dina Wecker: owecker@mymail.slcc.edu
Text: Writing Today by Richard Johnson-Sheehan and Charles Paine
Course Description
English 2010 will expose students to a number of different genres of writing that will be appropriate in academic contexts and in public writing situations. This course will focus on three related aspects of rhetoric and composition: public writing, writing from sources, and document design. The course will ask students to enter ongoing conversations about public issues and to become legitimate participants in those conversations by informing themselves through research.
English 2010 Objectives
At the completion of English 2010, students should be able to:
1. Write in multiple genres.
2. Appropriately adapt strategies of argumentation for a given writing situation.
3. Appropriately adapt style and design for a given writing situation.
4. Approach reading and research critically and rhetorically, choosing appropriate research strategies for a particular writing task.
5. Conceive, draft, and revise many kinds of documents, and manage these processes independently.
6. Cite sources appropriately for the writing situation, including using an academic system of citation with a high degree of proficiency.
7. Understand and respond critically to a civic conversation and become a legitimate participant in that conversation.
8. Work collaboratively on writing tasks with other writers.
9. Edit their writing so that it contains a minimum of surface error.
Major Writing Assignments
Report
Position/Proposal
One of the following:
Profile, Memoir, or Review
Advertising Assignment- one of the following:
Pamphlet, Flyer, Brochure, Fact Sheet, Letter to Public Official or Organization, Letter to the Editor, Poster
Midterm and Final Self Reflection
Community Writing Project Packet
Community Writing Project Presentation
Peer Review and in class activities
Community Writing Project
We will organize our work around a Community Writing Project. You will work as a group of students to produce the project and will be evaluated on its overall effectiveness as well as your individual contributions to the project. The project will address an issue of concern to you in the community. You will write multiple documents in several genres, containing both textual and visual elements.
As with any class, you will have outside assignments, but will not be required to meet with your group outside of class. Sufficient time will be allowed in class for you to meet with your group members.
Course Methods
This is more of a workshop class than a lecture class and your instructor is more of a facilitator than a lecturer. This approach is designed to help you own your writing, and toward that end, we will engage in various approaches and activities. Sometimes we work as a class group, other times in small groups.
As mentioned above, we will work within the learning traditions of composition classrooms, using peer groups and small group discussion, with many different kinds of reading and writing opportunities. The course makes a special point of your developing your capacity to research thoughtfully and rhetorically, so that by the time you leave this class, you should have a great deal more useful knowledge about how to find, evaluate, and use data, ideas, and other people's writing and visual images for your own specific rhetorical purposes.
We will become a community of thinkers, readers, writers, and learners engaged in a mutual endeavor that we hope will be interesting and profitable for you. The work of this course is best done together, with every member of the community fully present and participating.
We would like to offer the following as guidelines for such a community: come prepared; don't miss class casually; respect one another's opinions by responding to them intelligently; read one another's work carefully, with as much thought and input as you would like your own work read.
Much of the work will be done in small groups, to make discussion and the workload manageable and more fruitful. Therefore, the work of the class cannot be done well without a significant level of participation. Working in groups benefits each member of the group. The more fully participating you are as an individual member of the group, the more profitable the group will be for you. We will discuss the readings from our texts in groups and also comment on drafts of essays in progress.
General Education ePortfolio
In order for SLCC students to have a place to display and chronicle projects that demonstrate discipline-specific skills, critical thinking, and collaboration, SLCC has instituted a Gen Ed ePortfolio requirement in which students display their work from general education courses. Students taking Gen Ed courses must place significant projects from those courses on a website they create that acts as a virtual portfolio of accomplishments in each Gen Ed course. In this way, prospective employers, community members, and transfer institutions can easily see the best of what each student has accomplished while attending SLCC. To begin your ePortfolio, READ the information for students at www.slcc.edu/gened/eportfolio<http://www.slcc.edu/gened/eportfolio> then click on "Info for Students" to find a link to the "Student ePortfolio Handbook." This handbook offers specific information about how to create and use ePortfolios.
Every Gen Ed class that you take at SLCC will require you to upload to your ePortfolio a “signature assignment” that includes a reflection on the assignment. For English 2010 you will submit your Final Portfolio.
Policy on Attendance and Participation
The English Department believes that attendance and active participation in class contribute to success. Therefore, department policy stipulates that at least ten-percent of your final grade will be based on your involvement in class, as the framework of the course--with emphasis on class participation and peer response--demands that you participate in group discussions regularly. Points are awarded per class for being in attendance and cannot be made up. I do not offer extra credit.
See the English Department Participation Policy posted on slccenglish2010.weebly.com
Policy on Completion of Assignments
Failure to complete work such as peer responses, participation in reading discussions, active participation in small group work, and so forth, will result in the lowering of your grade. In addition, to earn at least a C in this course, you must complete all major assignments on time.
Invention Work
As instructors we value the writing process. Therefore, we expect to see a significant effort in terms of writing in response to the invention work in the text, drafting and also peer review. These activities are an integral part of this course and will be valued in terms of your grade in the course. We expect to see substantive work displayed.
Course Philosophy of Composition in Four Key Terms
Genre: This is a genre-based writing course, and the textbook employs what is known as genre theory. When we talk about writing genres, we are simply referring to the fact that there are different forms or types of writing. But genre theory also helps us understand that different kinds of writing are more or less appropriate, depending upon the situation. Genre is tied to the writer’s purpose and the circumstance.
Writing from Sources: Writing from sources is another way of saying research writing. But writing from sources places a greater emphasis on the student’s ability to integrate those sources effectively within his or her own text. Every assignment in this course will emphasize the practice of writing from sources, and we will revisit the fundamental skills of summary, paraphrase, and quotation.
Process: Writing is a temporal activity. It takes place over time. One of the central assumptions of this course is that students perform better when they have the opportunity to draft and then revise a piece of writing. The portfolio at the end of the course represents an opportunity for students to revise and assemble their strongest writing in the course.
Design: Design refers to the look of a text. Of course, design can include the use of pictures or charts. But it also refers to alignment, contrast and the use of white space, headers, and font. Contemporary readers are increasingly sophisticated in terms of design, and they expect documents to not only look good but employ design effectively in order to aid their understanding.
Citation
MLA Documentation is required for this class. Refer to Ch. 26 and 27 in the text. Also, go to sonofcitationmachine.com or purdueonlinewritinglab.com for further information.
Plagiarism
Students commit plagiarism when they submit another author’s work as their own. Plagiarism also includes the failure to attribute unique phrases, passages, or ideas to their original source. Plagiarism is a violation of the student code of conduct. Students who commit plagiarism will receive either an automatic E for that assignment or an E for the course, depending upon the severity of the plagiarism.
Student Code of Conduct
Students are expected to abide by the student code of conduct, which states:
“I will practice personal and academic integrity. I will respect the dignity of all
persons. I will respect the rights and property of others. I will discourage bigotry,
striving to learn from differences in people, ideas and opinions. I will demonstrate
concern for others, their feelings and their need for conditions, which support
their work and development. Allegiance to these ideals obligates each student to
refrain from and discourage behaviors which threaten the freedom and the
respect all community members deserve.”
The Carolinian Creed
The full code can be found at:
http://www.slcc.edu/policies/docs/Student_Code_of_Conduct.pdf
Accommodation for Disabilities
If you need accommodation, please talk with me and/or someone at the Disability Resource Center (DRC) at the beginning of the semester or as soon as you are aware that accommodation is necessary. The DRC is in CC 230 or you can call them at 957-4659 (voice) or 957-4646 (TTY).
Student Writing Center
SLCC's Student Writing Center is multi-functional. In addition to computers for class use, the Student Writing Center also offers an advising program where you have the opportunity to discuss your work with a peer tutor or faculty writing advisor. The intent of the Student Writing Center advisor is to help you think about your writing process by sharing their impressions of your materials, offering revision strategies, discussing different ways to approach an assignment, as well as to provide another reader and voice for you. The Student Writing Center is not simply a place to go to get a paper "fixed" or "corrected." Be prepared with questions for your advisor. Ask yourself what you want to work on, whether it is understanding an assignment, having an advisor give you his/her impressions of a passage you've written, or to talk about "what you want to say." Advisors are available to help you with any writing assignment for any class you take. You may also send a draft to an advisor through email. Be sure to include questions and concerns you may have and a copy of the writing assignment provided by your instructor. Go to the Student Writing Center website and click on online advising. www.slcc.edu/wc.
Locations:
Taylorsville Redwood: AD 218 (call 801-957-4893 to sign up for an appointment)
South City: N316
Jordan: HTC102
Online: http://www.slcc.edu/swc
The Student Writing Center also offers real time online writing advising using Wimba. Go to www.slcc.edu/swc/liveonline.asp to find the schedule for writing tutors and to make an appointment.
Grading
You will be graded on the following assignments and activities:
· Report – 100 points
· Position/Proposal – 100 points
· Mid-term Reflection Essay – 100 points
· Profile/Memoir/Review – 100 points
· Advertising Piece – 100 points
· Final Reflection Essay – 100 points
· CWP Packet – 100 points per student
· CWP Presentation – 100 points per student
· Final ePortfolio – 100 points
· Attendance and Participation – 25 points per class period (attendance, active participation in discussions, preparation, peer review. Points may not be made up)
· Audience Participation Points – 50 points per presentation
