English 092

Topic: Defining American Culture

Fall 2003

Instructor: Anne Forester

Office: R230

Office Hours: Available 7:15-7:45 p.m. Tuesday/Thursday or by appointment

Phone: (425) 564-4185 (voice-mail--I check it M-F at 4:00 p.m.)

E-Mail: anneforester@hotmail.com (I will respond to your message by 4:00 p.m. M-F)

For student procedures and expectations please go to http://www.bcc.ctc.edu/artshum/studentinfo/html

Required Texts: Note: You do not have to buy these books at the BCC bookstore, but you must have the editions stocked at the bookstore!

A Writer’s Reference, Diana Hacker

The Europeans, Henry James

The Natural, Bernard Malamud

Maus I, Art Spiegelman

Required Materials: One report folder to hold your response journals. Please make sure you bring it to class every day as I may ask you to turn it in.

Course Description:

In this course we will explore the act of writing and how to become more dynamic writers. Reading will play an integral part in this course as reading and writing are interconnected; therefore, we will read published works and those that you will write in and out of class. We will examine the voice, audience, and purpose of our writing. Every piece of writing has a voice (a tone used in the writing), which reaches the audience (the reader). We write with a purpose in mind, whether it be to amuse, analyze, reflect, argue, or inform. Writing assignments will have guidelines, but will remain open-ended because the thoughts behind the thesis (main idea or argument of your paper) are a large part of the writing process. I want you to become confident enough in your writing to use the writing topic as merely a starting point for your own thoughts. Good writing occurs when the writer is interested in their topic; therefore, it is important that you choose your thesis

Course Objectives:

1. To practice both subjective (informal) and objective (formal) writing for an audience using a variety of forms including a summary/analysis, an informative essay, an argument essay, and a literary essay in order to become more fluent across a whole spectrum of discourses.

2. To become comfortable with your own voice and confident in your ability to analyze ideas and express them verbally and in your writing.

3. To understand the process of writing a paper; this will include forming a thesis, finding support for your thesis, and using the Modern Language Association (MLA) format properly.

4.To assess your writing and your classmates' writing in order to improve the content, style, and mechanics of the work.

Course Requirements:

This class will not contain many lectures because it is designed as a workshop and a seminar; therefore, the class will primarily involve in-class activities that will be assessed. They will include:

1.) In-class writing--there will be various forms of writing including drafts of the assigned papers, reflection on discussions, and writing about the required readings.

2.) Group activities--you will discuss the readings and your own writing as a whole class, as well as in small groups. The small groups will also be used to critique your work

3.) An in-class reading of your summary/analysis

4.) Expert on a topic

5.) An in-class final essay

6.) An American culture example

Outside of class you will be responsible for the following:

1.) The readings that will be assigned in class

2.) A response journal—bring it to every class session

3.) A summary/analysis (1 page with double spacing, 12 font)

4.) An informative essay (2-3 pages each with double spacing, 12 font)

5.) An argument essay (2-4 pages with double spacing, 12 font)

6.) A literary essay (3-4 pages each with double spacing, 12 font)

Attendance:

You will be required to complete all of the assignments listed here. The in-class work cannot be made up because it includes class discussion and responses to your classmates' writing; consequently, attendance is very important. This means you may not miss more than three days of class over the quarter. Each absence after three will result in a loss of three points from your participation grade, and over ten absences will equal an automatic fail grade. If you know you will be absent from a class please make sure you let me know before the class. As this class is only two days a week, it is extremely important that you are not absent or tardy; therefore, five tardies (over five minutes late) equals one absence.

Grading:

The following is a rubric which explains the criteria I will use to grade your papers.

A: Outstanding/Excellent--Displays unusual insight, treats the subject in an interesting or original analysis, has a consistent voice, written for an audience, clear purpose and support, smooth transitions, mechanically correct.

B: Above Average/Very Good--Displays good analysis, although without the freshness or originality characteristic of the A paper, somewhat clear voice, audience, and purpose, some support of purpose, transitions may be obvious, some mechanical errors.

C: Average/Adequate--Displays superficial understanding of the components considered in the text and in class, no independent analysis, very little personal voice, lack of audience, does not have clear purpose, support is vague, incomplete, numerous mechanical errors.

D: Below Average/Weak--No personal voice or analysis, lack of audience, no purpose or support, incomplete, constant mechanical errors.

Breakdown of Course Grade:

Expert on a Topic=35

Summary/Analysis = 50 + 50 = 100

Essay #1--Informative = 50 + 50 = 100

Essay #2--Argument = 100 + 100 = 200

Essay #3--Literary = 200

Essay #4--In-Class Final Essay = 200

Critiques/ Drafts = 60 points (15 points per critique)

Response Journals = 60 total (12 journals total. 5 points are given for each journal with a + and 3 for each journal with a . Each journal that is turned in on time and is at least one page long will receive a +. A late journal will receive a .)

American Culture Example (show-and-tell) = 20

Participation = 25 (this includes any in-class quizzes, discussion, practice in-class essay, and attendance)

You must complete every essay, the Summary/Analysis, Expert on a Topic, ten out of twelve of your journals, and the American Culture Project in order to receive a passing grade. Even if you have more than 600 points, you cannot pass without completing these assignments.

The total in the class is 1000 points.

The grading scale is as follows:

967-1000 A+

933-966 A

900-932 A-

867-899 B+

833-866 B

800-832 B-

700-799 C

600-699 D

Below 600 F

Grading Policy: Work may not be e-mailed to me unless arrangements are made before the due date. An essay will go down one grade if it is turned in one class late, after that it may not be turned in. You may not turn in more than one late essay. You may revise any of your work, but your final essay. Anyone who chooses to revise an essay will have until the date listed on the schedule to do so; however, I suggest you turn it in as early as possible because I often ask for more changes to be made before I raise your grade. If you choose not to revise your essay then your points will simply be doubled.

Format of Papers:

All papers, including journal entries and essays, are to be completed with the MLA manuscript format as described in your writing handbook. Use 8 1/2" X 11", 20-pound white paper. If there is more than one paper, put one staple in the upper left corner of the papers. All essays outside of class must be written on computer. You may use your own computer, or a computer in the Writing Lab (D222).

You should not use a title page. In the upper left corner, one inch from the top of the page, place your name, my name, the course name, and the date on separate lines; double-space between all lines. The title should be placed in the center of the page. Capitalize the first letter of every word in the title except articles, prepositions, and coordinating conjunctions (unless they are the first word of the title).

Your top and bottom margins should be set at 1". Your left and right margins should be set at 1.25". You should always use a size 12 font and "Times New Roman" style. Double-space between lines and indent the first line of each paragraph five spaces from the left margin (usually 1 tab). Indent each line ten spaces from the left margin when a quotation is longer than four typed lines of prose or three lines of verse. Double-space between the lines of the quotation and between the quotation and the body of the paper. When a quotation is indented quotation marks are not needed.

Leave one space after words, commas, semicolons, and colons and between dots in ellipsis marks. You may use either one or two spaces after periods, question marks, and exclamation points. To form a dash, type two hyphens with no space between them; do not put a space on either side of the dash.

Put your full last name and the page number in the upper right corner of each page (first page is optional). It should be under "Header Margin" at .5". Use Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, etc.). Do not put a period after each number or enclose the number in parentheses.

Plagiarism:

Note that plagiarism is against BCC rules. This means that you may not borrow from another source without proper quote marks and citation. Bellevue Community College has a policy that plagiarism is grounds for failure in a class and expulsion. Of course, this does not mean you should never present outside ideas. If you are unsure of how to use another person’s thoughts without plagiarizing their work, please bring the source to me, and I can assist you with this.