English 101-Written Expression

Fall Quarter 2004

11:30-12:20  L210

Instructor:         Laura Burns

                        Office: C207

                        Off. Hrs: 10:30-11:30 M-F

                        Phone: 564-2373

                        email: lburns@bcc.ctc.edu

REQUIRED TEXTBOOK:

Civilization and Its Discontents, by Sigmund Freud

Krik? Krak!, by Edwidge Danticat

A Writer’s Reference, by Diane Hacker

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course aims to help you write better, clearer English.  To achieve this, we will be writing frequently in many different ways:  four major papers, in-class writings and journaling.  The major papers will use different rhetorical forms (such as narrative, analysis, comparison/ contrast), which will be useful to you in future college classes as well as outside of school.  We will also study various methods of editing your writing, through workshopping of your own essays and reading the books by Freud and Danticat.  Workshop sessions, where student papers will be shared and discussed, will also help you build editing skills.  As we discuss and write about what we’re reading, we will also be developing some of the tools for critical analysis.

ATTENDANCE

We will be doing a great deal of in-class writing and group discussion, so attendance is important.   If you miss a day, you are responsible for obtaining and completing the material that you missed.   Attendance is taken on workshop days.  If you're absent for more than two of these days, 2 points will be deducted from the gradebook for each subsequent absence.  Consistent tardiness bothers me almost more than absences, since it disrupts the class.   Frequent tardiness will mean a talk with me and point deductions from the gradebook. 

MAJOR PAPERS

All four of the major papers you turn in during the quarter must be typed and double-spaced.  Do put your writing on a computer; doing this will save you much time and effort in revision.  Your computer use fee pays for free access to our computer labs if you need them.  Paper topics will always be related to our two works, so be sure to keep up with our readings. 

JOURNALS

Journal writing is required and you must write in your journal at least four times a week.   Use 8 ½ x 11 paper (a spiral notebook works quite well), and your entries must usually be a single-spaced page or more.   It is the place for you to write on any subject you choose, and to write without worry of being evaluated on content or mechanics.   Use it to think over our course texts, draft papers, think over your day, record dreams and ideas, freewrite, etc.  Any topic is fine! I do check your journal three times during the quarter to see that you have the required number of entries.

IN-CLASS ESSAYS

These must be done on the scheduled day, unless you arrange by that day due to illness or other unforeseeable circumstances.  You must do all three in-class essays.

 PORTFOLIOS

Portfolios will teach you how to edit and revise your own writing, and give you the time and additional input to do it.  The four papers won’t be graded during the quarter, but they will be checked on in the gradebook.   During the course of the quarter they will be looked at by me and your workshop group, probably more than once.  After a quarter of revising, workshopping and more revising, you will gather much of your work in a portfolio to be graded.  Your portfolio will consist of:

a self-evaluation (approximately two pages)

3 of your best major papers, revised

1st drafts of the 3 major papers

2 in-class essays (these will be graded during the quarter)

all journal entries

NOTE: all in-class writing assignments and out-of-class papers must be done during the quarter.  If you fail to complete all assignments, your portfolio will not be accepted.

WORKSHOP SESSIONS

These sessions will be before each paper due date, and we'll have 2-3 sessions at the end of the quarter.  Since you're responsible to our writing community on these days, I do take attendance during workshops by collecting or checking off your copy of your rough draft. 

These sessions will help build your editing skills and will help you gain a sense of an audience.  After recovering from early workshop "willies", you should find them rewarding and fun.  Bring enough copies of your draft for your group (2-3) and be ready to help each other.

LATE PAPERS

Papers will be accepted through 5:00 p.m. of the due date. Papers later than the due date will not be accepted.  However, once during the quarter you may request a three day extension.  Your request needs to be in writing or through a telephone message.  Your request needs to be given to me by the due date. Without this request, a late paper will receive no credit.

PLAGIARISM

This is the use of someone else's words or ideas as your own.  You are plagiarizing when you copy someone else, in part or whole, or when you receive "help" to the extent that the paper is no longer in your words or is no longer your own idea.  Obviously, copying an article or book, or even using a sentence from one of these sources without putting quotation marks around it and citing the author is plagiarism.  If you do use other sources, whether they are books, magazines, or literary journals, etc., you must document them.  Since many of the papers in this course focus the writings of others, we'll learn early on how to document sources, using the MLA method.  Plagiarism can be grounds for failing the course.  If I suspect you of plagiarism, I reserve the right to place more weight on your in-class writing to calculate your final grade.

GRADING POLICIES

Grades will be determined on a point system as follows. All assignments must be turned in to receive credit for the course.

PORTFOLIO

Three revised Major Papers                                          60        (20 points each)

Self Evaluation                                                              10

Two in-class essays (graded during quarter)                          18        (9 points each)

OTHER POINTS

Writing Journal                                                             12 (4 points each checkpoint)

TOTAL POINTS:                                                        100

BONUS POINTS (earned in addition to the 100 points above):

Outstanding Participation and 100% Attendance:                       3 points

GRADING SCALE FOR FINAL COURSE GRADE:

A  = 95-100     B   = 83-86                  C   = 69-75                  D  = 50-59

A- = 90-94      B- = 80-82                  C- = 65-68                  F  =    0-49

B+ = 87-89      C+ = 76-79                 D+ = 60-64

HW GRADES

Please be aware that I only award HW grades in cases of medical emergency or military service, and you must discuss the HW grade at the time the situation arises.  A HW grade will not be issued to replace a low grade.  

A&H STUDENT POLICIES

This course follows the policies set forth in the Arts & Humanities student policies.  You can view these document on the web at www.bcc.ctc.edu/Artshum/materials.