COURSE POLICIES	Alexis Khourv
English 125 College Writing Skills	638-3641 ex. 3406
Office Hours:  TTh 2-3:15  W 4-6

Required Texts: Patterns for College Writing; The Longman Pocket Writer’s Companion; and The Ladder of the Yeas.

Materials:  Students must purchase an easily transportable college dictionary. Students will also need to purchase a floppy disk on which to save compositions.

You will write five essays for this class. All essays, except for the final, will he based on personal experience; you will learn how to employ various rhetorical strategies to prove clear thesis statements. The concept of thesis is central to this class, and close studies of professional writing will he an essential part of learning to develop theses. The final essay will be a literary analysis of Ladder of the Years.  Final drafts of essays will be approximately five hundred words. That is a ballpark figure and I don’t count words, so please please please please don’t ask me if your paper is long enough.

I.	Some essays may be submitted to turnitin.com. an anti-plagiarism site, before being submitted to me.  I will guide you through this process in class, and will not accept any papers that have not been processed if I have required that you run them through. I will also spot check papers on the site. Any student who plagiarizes a paper will automatically fail the course.

2.	Final drafts must be typed and double-spaced and have ample margins.  Please provide both of our names, the date and number of the assignment, and the course number. Do not submit individual essays in folders.  Simply staple the upper left hand corner.

3.	Late papers will not he accepted under any circumstances. Each student, however, has the option of dropping one essay during the course of the semester, except for the final on Ladder of the Years.  Use this option wisely.

4.	I give mindless Vanna White quizzes in classes where students fail to keep up with their reading.  The quizzes are stupid, boring, and a waste of time, and I won’t allow you to make them up if you missed a class where one is given. If given, quizzes will be averaged together to count as one essay grade at the end of the semester.

5.	Show up for this class. If you’re going to miss class, please don’t ask if you will miss anything important. I’m almost certain that is the only stupid question I have ever been asked by a student. I am quietly irritated by students who are excessively absent, and will drop you if you miss more than two weeks of class.

6.	I reserve the right to make changes in the syllabus as the need arises. This happens every single semester, because the needs of individual classes vary and require flexibility.  YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR STAYING INFORMED ABOUT WHAT IS GOING ON IN CLASS. ABSENCES ARE NOT AN EXCUSE FOR MISSED WORK OR FOR BEING UNAWARE OF CHANGES. It is a smart idea to get a few phone numbers from  people in class in case you can’t get in touch with me immediately.

7.	Papers are evaluated on the value and clarity of their content as well as on the accuracy and fluency of presentation. Content and form are inextricably bound.  In order to earn an “A,” an essay must be almost flawless in terms of grammar, spelling, and punctuation.  However, even more importantly, an “A” paper must have a clearly stated and valuable thesis.  That is, your thesis must be far more than a simple observation.  In order to qualify as such, a thesis must make a valid connection of some kind.  In addition, every paragraph in the essay must be a cohesive and fully developed effort to support the thesis; the writer needs to insure that all ideas are relevant and that the paper leads up to a logical conclusion.  A conclusion ought never to simply restate the points of the essay.  An “A” paper must also be completely free of logical fallacies of any kind.  

Grading Scale:  A= 90-100; B=80-90;  C=70-80; D= 60-70

8.	I don’t give extra credit assignments.

9.	Final grades are calculated by averaging together your essay and (perhaps) quiz grades.

10.	Any student who types on a computer during a discussion or lecture that occurs in the lab will he asked to leave after one warning.

SYLLABUS
English 25 College Writing Skills
Alexis Khourv

Week of 9 January: Introduction to the course. Sentences and paragraphs.

Week of 16 January : Read narration chapter in Patterns.

Week of 23 January: Continue narration and paragraphing.

Week of 30 January:  Begin drafting first essay. Continue narration.

Week of 6 February: Begin description. ESSAY ONE (narration) DUE 9 February.

Week of 13 February: Continue description. Begin drafting second essay. 

Week of 26 September: Begin exemplification.

Week of 3 October Continue exemplification. ESSAY TWO (description) DUE 5 OCTOBER FOR MW CLASS AND 6 OCTOBER FOR TTH CLASS.

Week of 10 October: Review use of handbook. Begin drafting third essay. Begin discussion of process analysis.	

10/14: LAST DAY TO DROP A FULL-LENGTH CLASS.

Week of 17 October: ESSAY THREE (exemplification) DUE 19 OCTOBER FOR MW CLASS AND 20 OCTOBER FOR TTH CLASS. Continue process analysis.

Week of 24 October: Begin definition.

Week of 1 November: Continue definition. Begin critical thinking unit: read the chapter on Argumentation.

Weeks of 7 and 14 November: Argumentation and critical thinking. Begin drafting fourth essay. Class will not meet 11 November (Veteran’s Day).

Week of 21 November: Begin discussion of comparison contrast. TTh class will not meet on 24 November (Thanksgiving).

Week of 28 November: ESSAY FOUR (definition) DUE 30 NOVEMBER FOR MW CLASS AND 1 DECEMBER FOR TTH CLASS. Begin discussion of Ladder of the Years.

Weeks of 6 December: Ladder of the Years.   Wrap things up.

FINAL EXAM (ESSAY FIVE)	MW CLASS: 1-2:50 12 December
TO BE WRITTEN IN CLASS	TTH CLASS: 1-2:50 13 December

IMPORTANT DATES: 5 SEPTEMBER: LABOR DAY; 11 NOVEMBER: VETERANS DAY; 24-25 NOVEMBER: THANKSGIVING; 12-16 DECEMBER: FINAL EXAM WEEK.