COURSE DESCRIPTION
This composition section is associated with Engl 267, Early American Literature; English 268, "Middle" American Literature (from approximately the end of the Civil War to the beginning of World War I); or English 269, Modern American Literature Although students CAN register for this section of Engl 101 as a stand-alone course, there are significant benefits in taking the two courses at the same time. See information at the end of the course description.
"Advanced Expository Writing" at Bellevue Community College can include a variety of writing modes. In this section of English 271 we will use A WRITER'S COMPANION, 4th edition, by Richard Marius for our handbook. You will write mostly comparison and/or contrast essays about the literature that we will read and discuss. You will combine personal experience, description, and/or argument to develop your ideas, though our emphasis throughout the quarter will be on argumentative development. The same writing that fulfills course assignments in this section will also fulfill essay requirements in English 267, 268, or 269 American Literature, the literature section linked to this composition course. You will read selected fiction as the basis for the essays that you will write.
What Kinds of Activities Should You Expect in This Course?Submission of Essays
During the quarter, you will submit 4-5 essays based on readings in American Literature to me, your instructor. Several of these essays, you will revise and edit after they have been read by one or more of your classmates. You will earn a grade based upon the extent to which you have adequately fulfilled the requirements of each assignment.Completion of Quizzes Based on Reading Assignments
You will answer multiple-choice quiz questions based on assigned readings. Quiz questions will come from material in A WRITER'S COMPANION and from information in the APPENDIX of this course site. You will have only a couple of quizzes in this composition course that are based on the prose, poetry, or fiction that you will read to write your essays, and those will be at the beginning of the quarter.Peer Review
Periodically during the quarter you will read the writing of other students in the class and prepare written comments about your reaction to your peers' writing. Your comments will help your classmates edit and revise their papers before submitting them for a grade. I will evaluate your peer responses based on your comments to your peers: i.e. assessing your understanding of assignment requirements and assessing your ability to determine evidence of analysis and evaluation in the writing of your peers.Discussions about the Process of Writing and Revising, and about Literature
As you read each chapter in A WRITER'S COMPANION, you will post discussions about the process of writing and revising on the Bulletin Board in our course site.
You will also post your thoughts and reflections on the literature that we read on the Bulletin Board in our course site. Selections at the beginning of the quarter are short because you will need to begin writing essays quickly. Toward the end of the quarter you will read longer works, usually a combination of short stories or novels. The discussion comments will give you suggestions about content for your essays.
How Much Reading Should You Expect in This Course?
I've organized your reading assignments in the Course Calendar & Assignments section of this site. You will, of course, read material in A WRITER'S COMPANION, the handbook we will use. But, you will also read some literature. The lengthiest portions of your literary reading will usually consist of longer works toward the end of the quarter, but you will also read a few shorter selections at the beginning of the quarter. I have structured the calendar so that readings from the Marius handbook are evenly spaced throughout the quarter. The Reading Guide section of our course site contains information that you will need for the quizzes you will take and for the essays that you will write.
How Will You Earn a Grade in This Course?
Essay 1 10%
Essay 2 10%
Essay 3 10%
Essay 4 15%
Essay 5 15%
Quiz Average 10%
Discussion Postings 20%
Peer Review 10%
What are the English Department Course Entrance and Exit Objectives for English 271?
1. Requirements for English 271 assume that students will have met the objectives for English 101. Students in English 271, therefore, are responsible for having mastered content in English 101. Students must be able to
1) Write clear and complete sentences.
2) Sustain a definite focus and point of view in a 200 - 500 word paper.
3) Link ideas in a progressive, flowing sequence.
4) Make accurate paragraph distinctions and correctly signal them.
5) Spell and punctuate accurately in revised work. Occasional errors should not interfere with the purpose and intent of the writer's writing.2. In order to exit English 101, students will demonstrate their ability to recognize and/or understand the following concepts in their writing:
1) The relationship of writer to writing to audience. [The "Rhetorical Triangle" in this course.]
2) The concept that writing almost always occurs after a process of steps: drafting, focusing, revising, editing. [Material in THE WRITER'S COMPANION.]
3) The difference between subjective and objective writing. [Material in WRITER'S COMPANION.]
4) Strategies for organizing written text. [Material in WRITER'S COMPANION.]
5) The terminology of composition: thesis statement, unity, coherence, etc. [Marius will tell you that this terminology occurs within a discourse community to which writers belong.]
6) The conventions of standard, written English. [Material in WRITER'S COMPANION.]
7) The power of control that language choice provides the writer. [Material in WRITER'S COMPANION.]
8) The relationship of analysis to the process of reading and writing. [Material in WRITER'S COMPANION. [Marius will tell you how writers finds fact patterns and interpret them for their readers.]3. In order to exit English 271, students will submit 5 essays that fulfill the requirements of each assignment.
4. In order to exit English 271, students will receive a passing grade of C or better as a final grade for the course.
§ What Behavior Do I Expect of You as a Student?
I expect that students registered for this course to abide by all Arts and Humanities guidelines. You can find a detailed statement of these expectations at http://www.bcc.ctc.edu/ArtsHum/policy.html. You will obviously have to use common sense in interpreting the policies because they primarily speak to our students who commute to campus every day. In addition, I expect that you to participate in all of the course activities as outlined in the course description and in the syllabus. This will include, but is not limited to, checking the Calendar, your Email, and the Bulletin Board frequently so that you will remain up-to-date in the course. In addition, you should--
Be responsible for saving and backing up your files. Computers and networks often experience problems!!
Show respect for your discussion group members by responding to their comments in a way that you would like for them to respond to you. That doesn't mean that you cannot disagree with their ideas. In fact, you should always bring up opposing positions because this is the stuff of which literary analysis consists. Just make sure that you do this without being rude or offensive.
Submit your papers on time. I will give you a fewer grade points on late work.
Do your OWN work. I try to provide discussion topics and paper assignment choices that are too specific to this course to invite plagiarism, but I reserve the right to submit any paper I find suspicious to a plagiarism site for analysis.
What Behavior Do I Expect of You as a
Student?
I expect students registered for this course to abide by all Arts and Humanities guidelines. You can find a detailed statement of these expectations at http://www.bcc.ctc.edu/ArtsHum/policy.html. You will obviously have to use common sense in interpreting the policies because they primarily speak to our students who commute to campus every day. In addition, I expect that you to participate in all of the course activities as outlined in the course description and in the syllabus. This will include, but is not limited to, checking the Calendar, your Email, and the Bulletin Board frequently so that you will remain up-to-date in the course. In addition, you should--
Be responsible for saving and backing up your files. Computers and networks often experience problems!!
Show respect for your discussion group members by responding to their comments in a way that you would like for them to respond to you. That doesn't mean that you cannot disagree with their ideas. In fact, you should always bring up opposing positions because this is the stuff of which literary analysis consists. Just make sure that you do this without being rude or offensive.
Submit your papers on time. I will give you a lower grade points on late work.
Do your OWN work. I try to provide discussion topics and paper assignment choices that are too specific to this course to invite plagiarism, but I reserve the right to submit any paper I find suspicious to a plagiarism site for analysis.
What Texts Will You Use in This Course?
Marius, Richard. A WRITER'S COMPANION, 4th edition. McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 1999.
SINGLE VOLUME edition of THE HARPER AMERICAN LITERATURE, ed. by McQuade, et al.
[Note: This is an expensive text, used for ENGL 267, 268,and 269. Many of the
selection from it are online, though I cannot guarantee this. If you can find
the selections without purchasing the text, please feel free to do so.]Any handbook of grammar and usage of your choice.
Selected novels and shorter readings that correspond to readings in the section of English 267, 268, or 269 associated with this course. These are quarter-specific paperbacks, usually for Winter Quarter and Spring Quarter sections of the course, that are readily available in most bookstores and/or online.
BENEFITS of Registering for Composition and Literature Simultaneously
1 - Students read the same literature for composition as they do in their literature classes. Compositions students, however, do not read ALL of the material assigned in the literature class.
2 - Students in a composition section linked to Engl 267, 268, 269 write NO essays in their literature section. The cumulative "Essay Grade" in the composition section "counts" as the essay grade [40% of the final grade] in their literature section.
3 - Students registered for both composition and literature take literature quizzes twice, once in their literature section and once in their composition section. The highest of the two grades is the one which "counts" in both sections.
4 - Students post literature discussion messages in both classes. [Copy and paste from one class to the other.] And, they have the benefit of reading discussions in both classes -- a help in writing essays and in taking quizzes.
5 - Students registered for both composition and literature classes reinforce reading and writing skills, as well as critical thinking skills, simultaneously.