Skills: For a list of skills taught in this class, click here
Overview
Course code: 53038, 53963
Instructor: S. Bowie
E-mail: sydney.bowie@reedleycollege.edu
Catalog Description:
Writing expository prose, including the research paper. Analytical reading and discussion of other writing. Designed primarily for transfer students.
English 1A is the equivalent of freshman composition at the University of California and at the California State Universities such as Fresno State. Students taking this class must know the fundamentals of good writing and be able to read and critique college-level texts, both fiction and non-fiction.
Special note: this is an intensive 18-week
course. It is designed for students who can devote 10 to 15 hours a week for
class work, which will involve preparatory research, reading, writing papers,
and posting responses to the Discussion Forum.
Required textbooks:
Outlooks and Insights-4th Edition, Eschholtz and Rosa (ISBN 0-312-10110-4).
Concise Wadsworth Handbook, 2d Edition, Kirszner (ISBN1-4130-1030-X, or ISBN-10:1-4390-8183-2) [Both are right, just make sure it’s the 2d Edition]
Books are available in the Reedley College
bookstore, or online at amazon.com, Barnes&Noble
online (www.bn.com)
General Policies and Grades
Attendance:
Although the online class differs from the regularly attended classes, students must be in contact with the instructor. Students' online contact will be monitored through the discussion forums and E-mail. Students are required to make substantive contributions to the discussion forum each week. Students may address the topics suggested by the instructor, devise their own topics, or respond to their classmates.
Students who do not participate in discussion may be dropped after two weeks.
Last day to drop without grade: 7 October
Grades
The final grade for the course will be based on the following major assignments (and suggested word counts) :
|
Assignments |
Points |
|
Essay 1-4--Four papers (500 words) [See calendar for due
dates] |
200 |
|
Midterm
(10/14) |
50 |
|
Grammar and Mechanics Quizzes (25 each) (10/25, 11/15) |
50 |
|
Research paper draft (11/29) |
50 |
|
Participation in Discussion Forum* (5 each week for Week 2
to 17) |
50 |
|
Final (12/16) |
50 |
|
Completed Research (12/16) |
150 |
|
Homework (10 each) [See calendar for due dates] |
50 |
|
Total
Points |
650 |
*Discussion grades are based on the number of messages and their quality.
Grades will be posted in on Blackboard as soon as possible after a paper or test, usually within one week. Late papers are usually not acccepted or are heavily penalized.
For paper grading standards, see Grading
Rubric (posted in Course Documents).
Major Assignments
Research paper: 5-10 pages on one of the research topics. The papers need to be in presentable form; we use the MLA-format found in the English handbook. There is much useful information in the handbook, and on-line students will be more dependent on it than other students. Sample papers and other help are available at the class web site. Students will need to turn in a draft paper for this assignment. "A" and "B" papers will show research and substance beyond the minimum 10 sources; they also will show the use of a variety of research sources, including books, magazines, newspapers, encyclopedias and journals.
Essays: Students are required to turn three 500-word and one 300-word papers. The point of these papers is to support a thesis statement using information from the assigned reading. These assignments should only be attempted after careful reading of the texts. "A" and "B" papers are longer than the minimum and show thoughtful analysis and careful organization.
Discussion: Students are required to make
contributions to the discussion forums weekly. Three messages a week indicates
a good level of class involvement--students seeking higher grades often
contribute more. Discussion grades are based on the number of messages and
their quality. Good messages show thought and a knowledge
of the reading assignment.
Guidelines and Expectations
In order to have success this semester, please take note of the following:
1. English 1A is a difficult course under the best circumstances. It will require at least 10 to 15 hours of activity from you per week--more if your typing/computer skills are low.
2. While English 1A Online is a convenient way of taking the course, it is by no means an easy way of taking the course. Because all the class discussion, questions, and dialogue normally spoken needs to be typed out, you may find English 1A more time-consuming than the traditional courses.
3. You need the following in order to get hooked up to the class:
* an E-mail address or account. You are responsible for making sure the email address on Blackboard is correct. You will have to access your mail daily!
* good, consistent access to a computer. There are 200+ computers on campus for student use. If you are going to use one of these, you should know that they are heavily used most of the time, especially near the end of the semester.
* a good sense of self-motivation and self-direction. You will not have teachers to prod you to do the course work and that may make it easy to fall behind. However, if you are able to set and reach goals, then you may have success in this class.
Some additional requirements and hints:
[1]You will send assignments to me via Blackboard before midnight on the day they are due. All assignments are stamped with a time and date. If you have some technological difficulty, I want to know about it before the assignment is due. You can call and leave a voice-mail message or email me at sydney.bowie@reedleycollege.edu. We will work out an alternate plan. If you have technological difficulty after the assignment is due, it will be marked late.
[2]Formatting papers: The following method for turning in papers applies to most assignments: Write your paper using your favorite word processor; put an extra "Enter" between the paragraphs and mark each paragraph with its number in brackets, like these paragraphs. Make sure your name is on the first page of any documents you submit for the class. Then save it as a Word document or as a "rich-text-format" document(<--this is important. Word (.doc) and .rtf documents work perfectly in Blackboard--If this confuses you, read my file "How to Save Documents" in the Course Documents section of the Blackboard site). After grading, your papers will be returned to you through your grade book.
[3]Check your email and the course home page each day. I use both methods for communicating with you. I also post information on the class calendar. If you send me an email message, remember to put your real name somewhere in the message. I can't figure out who "corvetteguy@yahoo.com" is.
[4]Work to post three messages on the discussion forum each week. Your messages are the way I take roll and know that you are attending the class. The messages should be well-thought opinions or reactions to the assigned readings or responses to the posed question of the week or responses to other's ideas. However, you will not be given credit for "Yeah, me too" sorts of responses.
The discussion forum grows significantly during the course and becomes a permanent record of our work. It also forms a major part of your grade. Don't try to stuff your discussion messages in at the end of the semester--cramming like this is nothing like real discussion.
[5]Take note of
the length of the assignments. All assignments will have a word length to which
you must adhere in order to receive credit. This counting is easily done on
word processors. I will transfer your assignments to Word documents, which will
happily count the words for me. Those not meeting the required length will be
shipped back to the writer ungraded.
|
Skills to Learn: Students successfully completing this course will learn a variety of skills. Students will be able: To read a text closely for meaning and style, testing it against the student's experience and judgment. To write a college-level essay of about three pages that is organized and contains few errors in Standard English. To write organized paragraphs that are coherent, unified and fit the purpose intended (illustration, contrast/comparison, etc.). To improve sentences by eliminating weakness of style and usage. To understand basic terms of grammar and to understand the reasons for such knowledge. To be familiar with common errors of punctuation, usage and to avoid these errors. To write a college-level research paper in the MLA style, using various methods to make the process easier and more accurate. To judge their composition skills against known college-level standards. To read and understand quality essays and works of literature by well-known British and American authors. |
21 Aug 2009 stb