Course Syllabus
Winter Quarter 2013
ENGLISH 092; ENGLISH O93 - DEVELOPMENTAL WRITING
Instructor: Kathleen White
(425) 564-2123
kwhite@bellevuecollege.edu
This course is the training zone to get you into fighting
form for college writing. Students will write complete essays, both personal
and academic, composing them through drafts and tweak them in editing sessions.
092/093 will also address the basic grammar errors that cause students injury:
sentence structure errors, agreement problems, punctuation mysteries. The goal
is to write confident, grammatically correct work, and to achieve an overall
grade of C- or higher, which will qualify the student for 101 placement.
This section of Developmental writing mixes both English 092 and
English 093, two different forms of the same class. There may be
slightly different supplementary grammar assignments and readings, so make sure
to note on the syllabus where your section asks for something different:
otherwise, the assignments posted below are required for both sections of the course.
English 092/093 is taught completely on line; students are not
required to attend classroom sessions. However, this is not a correspondence
course, completed on your own timetable in isolation. Also, if you sign up for
this course thinking that it will have less work than a course in the
classroom, you will be unhappily surprised. On-line courses require the
student to be responsible for reading the syllabus, tracking the posted
deadlines, and proactively asking questions of the instructor through the
appropriate communication methods, for instance the website e-mail.
Finally, this is an English class, not a computer class. If
you are not comfortable on a computer, if you are not familiar with uploading
and downloading files, if the terms .doc or .rtf are unknown to you, seriously
ask yourself if an on-line class is a good choice for your education. The
website does present a brief overview of how to get around it, but beyond that,
students need to be willing to troubleshoot for themselves, or contact Distance
Education or the instructor as soon as concerns appear.
It's also worth remembering that in on-line classes, the
instruction comes through written text, not verbal instruction. It is very rare
even to have occasional phone conferences or the odd, desperate office meeting.
Students should be prepared to read from the computer screen, or print
out lectures for home reading.
TEXTBOOKS
There is one textbook for this class: Real Writing with
Readings, (6th Ed) by Susan Anker. This book contains the materials
for studying essay form, readings to give us a sense of what works and what
doesn't in writing, and even grammar materials. If you feel you're going to
need added grammar work, I also recommend The Least You Should Know
About English, a text that has basic grammar information and exercises
for self-drill. Also be familiar with the support links under the Course
Information icon on the home page: there are several good on-line
grammar sources and references.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Throughout the quarter, English 092/093 will generate 4 essays,
2-4 pages long. These will be run through different levels of development, and
some drafts will be edited in group sessions. Participation in the editing will
factor in with the essays as part of the quarter grade. Students will also
write four shorter written assignments, testing out different methods of
development and practicing issues covered in the weekly reading.
Participation in threaded group discussion is also required.
Topics will be posted every week, and each student must make a minimum of one,
three-to-four line comment responding directly to each question in the topic,
and at least one further reply to another student's post. (More comments are
warmly encouraged.)
GRADING
The largest part of a student's grade (70%) will come from
writing; however, the group editing and written editing notes, as well as the
threaded discussion factor in 20%. That leaves a 10% instructor slush fund
reserved for crediting student progress.
Work turned in late will lose credit points every day it's past
the due date, roughly to one-third of the grade. No papers will be accepted one
week beyond the due date without prior agreement.
A FINAL WORD ABOUT HONESTY AND THE ON-LINE FORMAT:
This being an on-line course, we will never actually see each
other as a whole, trapped in a class room together on a cold winter evening or
fighting to stay awake on a sleepy, overheated afternoon. Be advised, though,
that teachers actually can pick up a student's individual style fairly quickly,
and therefore, can detect when essays come from sources other than the
student's own hand. We also now have software which runs checks on suspected
plagiarized essays, and I will run such a check at the slightest
provocation. If any work done for this course is plagiarized, the
student will receive a zero for the assignment with no chance of rewriting it,
and the episode will be reported to the Dean of Students. More than one such
episode, and the student will receive an F for the course. Do not be
tempted by on-line essays floating out there in the ether; to tell you the
truth, most of them aren't really all that good anyway.
SCHEDULE: (Note: All assignments due to
me via Canvas submission tool by midnight of the due date)
Week One: January 2-5th
Read Getting Started on the home page
Under Course Content, read Lecture One: How Did We Get
Here?
In Real Writing read pages 27-35
Begin Diagnostic Writing Assignment posted
under Course Content icon
Post Comments and Follow Instructions on Beginning Discussion
Thread
Week Two: January 6th-12th
Discussion Thread
Lecture Two: Process Writing and the Writing Process
Real Writing:
Chapters 8, 9; 19-21
093 Read Also Chapter 30
"Fish Cheeks" 126 Amy Tan
"Weirdest Job Interview Questions" 144
Susan Adams
"Memories of New York City Snow" 164 Oscar Hijuelos
Diagnostic Essay Due Monday, January 7th
Week Three: January 10th-16th
Discussion Thread
Lecture Three: What do Teachers Want?
Real Writing
Chapters 3-5, 22, 23
Essays: "to Stand in Giants' Shadows" 629
"Why Are We So Angry?" 634
"Po-Po in Chinatown" 642
Short Writing Assignment One due 1/14
Week Four: January 20th-26th
Discussion Thread
Lecture Four: Examining Mechanical Issues
Real Writing Chapters 6, 7, 24, 26
Essays: "Passage to Manhood" 671
Essay One Due Tuesday, January 22nd
Week Five: January 27th-February 2nd
Discussion Thread
Lecture Five: A Brief Review
Real Writing: Chapters 11, 13; 27, 28
Essay: "The Ways We Lie" 661
"This I Believe" (attached to weekly module)
Short Writing Asst Two Due 1/28
Week Six: February 3rd-9th
Discussion Thread
Lecture Six: Punctuation
Real Writing: Chapters 12, 14; 34, 37
Essay:
Essay Two Due 2/4
Week Seven: February 10th-16th
Discussion Thread
Lecture Seven: Loose Ends
Real Writing 15,26, 36
Essays:
"Yes, Money Can Buy Happiness" 692
Short Writing Asst Three 2/11
Week Eight: February 17-23rd
Discussion Thread
Lecture Eight: Tightening the Screws
Real Writing:
Essay: "Thinking as a Hobby" by William
Golding attached to weekly module
Essay Three Due 2/20
Week Nine: February 24-March 2nd
Discussion Thread
Lecture Nine: Further Fine Tuning
Real Writing 16
Readings:
"Which are Smarter?" by Martha Brockenbrough attached
to weekly module
"Honest Look Reveals There Are No 'Others'" By
Donna Britt
Short Writing Assignment Four Due 2/26
Week Ten: March 3-9th
Discussion Thread
Lecture Ten: Can We Go Now?
Reading:
Essay Four Due 3/4
Week Eleven: March 10th-16th
Closing Thread discussions
BC Finals March 18th-20th
There is no final for English 092-093
Grades will be available on the BC Website no
later than 3/25