Office Location: HL 126
Office Hours: TR 11:00 – 12:30, F 12:00 - 2:00 or by appointment
Office Phone: (903) 886.5261 (there is no voice mail)
Office Fax: (903) 886.5980
Email Address: jisip@leo.tamu-commerce.edu
COURSE INFORMATION
Textbooks and Supplementary Readings:
- Textbook Required: Adkins. Guide to Writing at Texas A&M University-Commerce. Fountainhead, 2011.
- Textbook Required: Wardle, Elizabeth and Doug Downs. Writing about Writing: A College Reader. Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011
- Regular internet access (additional readings available online)
- Email: I will only communicate with you through the email address given to me through the university’s distribution list. It should be the same email through which you receive all university communications.
Materials
- Flash drive or Dropbox account
- College-Rule Composition Book (will be your journal for course)
- You will print a combined total of about 50 pages of typed work in this class including essays, homework assignments, and drafts
Course Description:
Our goals in this course are both simple and complex. On the simple side, you are here to grow as a writer, a reader, and a contributing member of the academic community, an “academic.” On the more complex side, we will try to understand what terms like rhetoric, composition, argument, literacy, ethnographic research, and discourse mean. We will place ourselves into the continuing conversations around these terms and around what is expected of college writers.
Writing and reading are at the heart of this course and you will do a lot of both. Be prepared.
Student Learning Outcomes:
Students who are successful in ENG 1301 will leave the course have fully developed:
- an ability make a “claim” when discussing a topic (rather than restating data)
- understanding of the diversity of rhetorical contexts and the need to recognize and negotiate these contexts
- an understanding of process of writing, which may include multiple drafts
- an awareness of audience in composition
- an ability to read critically and offer informed analysis
Attendance Policy
- Students may miss up to four (4) times without penalty. After the fifth absence, the student’s final grade will drop by one letter for each additional absence (i.e. if you otherwise have an A, 5 days absent = B, 6 days = C, etc.). After the seventh absence, the student cannot pass the course.
- There is no such thing as “partial attendance”—students are either present for the entire course or they are absent. This also means that you are ready for class; if you have not done the reading and, therefore, cannot participate in discussions, you will be marked as absent
- Excessive tardiness will be penalized as an absence (more than once is excessive).
- The university has no policy for “excused absences” except for university sanctioned events, so please save your absences for illness, court appearances, child care arrangements, and other situations when you must miss class. Tragedies happen (deaths, car breakdowns, sick children, etc.)—my suggestion is that you save your “free absences” for these instances. If you, however, use all of your absences up and a tragedy hits after you have used them, please remember this suggestion before asking me to grant you an additional “free day”—the answer will be a firm, “I am sorry, but no.”
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
The Writing Assignments/Formal Essays:
WA1: Me in My Writing: Using the model essay found in Writing About Writing pages 292-297, analyze your own writing process or processes. To complete this analysis, you will need to employ one of the strategies or techniques described by the scholars you read in unit one. For example, the sample essay uses Swales’ CARS model. In this essay, be explicit about the methodology or analysis tool you’re using, and use a lot of examples. The more thorough your analysis, the stronger your essay will be. Length: 3-4 pages. I do change my prompts every semester to discourage plagiarism or “recycling” papers from earlier attempts at 1301.
WA2: What is a Good Academic Argument: Now that you’ve read about Academic Writing in Unit One and different ideas about what makes writing “good” in Unit Two, it’s time to synthesize those two concepts to create your theory of how you personally define good academic argument. Your theory will be informed by all the texts you have read so far. You might, for example, use these texts to help explain your theory, quote sections of texts that help illustrate your theory, or even point to elements of the texts with which you disagree. Length 3-4 pages.
WA3: Where We Are, Where We Are Going: The prompt titled “Assignment Option 2. Portrait of a Writer” on page 325 in Writing About Writing asks you to “consider the story you have to tell about yourself as a writer.” For this assignment, you will expand that description and “consider the story you have to tell about yourself as a writer” and as a reader. Use Pausch’s The Last Lecture as an example of “telling a story about learning” and use the questions in the prompt (325-327) to help you get started, but be sure to connect your own experiences to the readings from Unit 3—you’ll want to quote from those texts to show the connections between your experiences and the authors’ experiences and/or claims. Length 4 pages.
WA4: Letter to a Literacy Sponsor: Using Brandt’s definition of a literacy sponsor, identify someone who has been a literacy sponsor to you. Using the model essay on pages 271-277 in Writing About Writing, compose a letter to the literacy sponsor you’ve identified, using at least five texts you’ve read in this course (six counting Brandt) to discuss how their sponsorship has affected you as a reader and/or writer. One objective of this letter is certainly to illustrate that you understand the concept of the literacy sponsor, but another objective is to demonstrate that you can synthesize all the concepts major and texts from the course. Length 2 pages.
Final Project/Showcase Piece: You will also create a showcase piece to highlight what you’ve learned about “Writing About Writing.” The medium you select is your choice – you could do a video, a song, a poem, a short story, a painting…there are many possibilities. If you are considering an option not mentioned above, you must discuss your idea with me.GRADING
This showcase piece takes effort and time, and especially planning and critical thinking about what writing means to you. You might consider how to represent your initial views of writing and your current views. You might consider how to represent how you view writing and reading, versus how others see those topics. You might consider representing what forms of writing and reading are valuable in your life. These are just some ideas to help you get started critically thinking. Remember - you are flexing your creative muscles to think critically about writing - so be creative!
You should include a typed reflection essay, 4 pages discussing the significance of your showcase piece. Analyze what this piece represents to you about writing, and connect your showcase to the issues we’ve discussed in the course. To make these connections, you’ll quote from the readings, your essays, your reading responses, and maybe even class discussions. This essay should be heavily cited in MLA style. You must cite at least five of the readings we have done for this class and two of our warm-up videos.
Here’s a breakdown of how your grade will be calculated:
WA1-WA4 (40% of final course grade):
I will provide a grading rubric for each writing assignment so that you may see exactly what I am looking for in each one (emphasis will vary). Overall, you will need to turn in your best work, work that shows effort and has been through several drafts. All writing assignment grades may be improved by up to TEN points by visiting the Writing Center and providing me with your feedback sheet stating that you worked specifically on whichever assignment you would like the points to go toward (should read something like “Worked on WA3” somewhere on your feedback sheet).
Final Project: (30% of final course grade):
- Your final project must contain the following:
- Reflectived essay about your project
- A version of the project that I can keep (a disc, an uploaded file, etc.)
- Citation of five of our readings and two of our videos (minimum)
Reading Responses (20% of final course grade):
Each week you must respond to the readings with a two (sometimes three) page reading response. This response should simply tell me the gist of what you learned. Here’s what I am looking for: for each reading, one paragraph that briefly explains the major point of the article/story and one paragraph that tells me your opinion of what you read. You do not have to fill the page, but you should use a separate page for each reading (thus the two pages).
Reading responses are due by Saturday at midnight (via email).
Participation (10% of final course grade):
More than just attendance, participation is based on both your physical and mental presence in the class. Please be here, but know that your attendance will not be counted if:
Each week you must respond to the readings with a two (sometimes three) page reading response. This response should simply tell me the gist of what you learned. Here’s what I am looking for: for each reading, one paragraph that briefly explains the major point of the article/story and one paragraph that tells me your opinion of what you read. You do not have to fill the page, but you should use a separate page for each reading (thus the two pages).
Reading responses are due by Saturday at midnight (via email).
Participation (10% of final course grade):
More than just attendance, participation is based on both your physical and mental presence in the class. Please be here, but know that your attendance will not be counted if:
- You have not done the reading and/or completed the writing required for that day of class (measured with periodic oral and written quizzes)
- Come unprepared – without required materials (i.e. text book, journal, “attention”)
- Are more than ten minutes late for class
- Fall asleep/close your eyes/ lay your head down at any point during the class
ACCESS AND NAVIGATION
You must have Internet access to read and/or view these supplemental texts at the class web page: isiplessonplans.blogspot.com
In addition, you must be sure to check both the Lesson Plan and Notes tab each time you log on to ensure you are aware of any updates.
COMMUNICATION AND SUPPORT
Interaction with Instructor Statement:
Please contact me with any questions you may have. My communication preference is e-mail, and my address is: jisip@leo.tamu-commerce.edu. Also, each instructor in the department of literature and languages is required to keep at least three office hours per course per week – you may request an appointment if my office hours do not fit your schedule.
Grievance Procedure:
Grievance Procedure:
If you have concerns about the class or about me as an instructor, please speak to me about those concerns. If you are not satisfied with the outcome of our conversation, the next person in the chain of command is the Director of the Writing Program, Dr. Tabetha Adkins. Her e-mail address is Tabetha_Adkins@tamu-commerce.edu.
COURSE AND UNIVERSITY PROCEDURES/POLICIES
Course Specific Procedures:
Writing Center
COURSE AND UNIVERSITY PROCEDURES/POLICIES
Course Specific Procedures:
Writing Center
The Writing Center offers writers free, one-on-one assistance. We welcome all writers, majors, and disciplines—undergraduate and graduate students alike. In fact, we work from the premise that all writers, no matter their ability level, benefit from the feedback of knowledgeable readers. The Writing Center staff is trained to provide writers with just this service. In short, we are here to help you help yourself.
In order to ensure the most effective session possible, we offer visitors the following suggestions: (1) Get started on your writing project early, and visit the Writing Center at least one day before your final draft is due. You will need time to work with the ideas and suggestions generated in your tutorial sessions. (2) Bring a written copy of your assignment, any relevant readings, and one or two specific questions or concerns you would like to discuss with us.
The Writing Center is located in the Hall of Languages, Room 103 (903-886-5280) and online:
In order to ensure the most effective session possible, we offer visitors the following suggestions: (1) Get started on your writing project early, and visit the Writing Center at least one day before your final draft is due. You will need time to work with the ideas and suggestions generated in your tutorial sessions. (2) Bring a written copy of your assignment, any relevant readings, and one or two specific questions or concerns you would like to discuss with us.
The Writing Center is located in the Hall of Languages, Room 103 (903-886-5280) and online:
http://web.tamu-commerce.edu/academics/colleges/artsSciences/departments/literatureLanguages/writingCenter/
Academic Honesty
The official departmental policy: “Instructors in the Department of Literature and Languages do not tolerate plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonestly. Instructors uphold and support the highest academic standards, and students are expected to do likewise. Penalties for students guilty of academic dishonesty include disciplinary probation, suspension, and expulsion. (Texas A&M University-Commerce Code of Student Conduct 5.b [1,2,3])
If you ever have any questions about a particular use of a source, always ask your instructor. They want you to avoid plagiarism, too, so they will help you do so whenever and wherever they can. Do what you can to take advantage of this support—to look innocent in addition to being innocent when it comes to charges of plagiarism.
Students guilty of academic dishonesty of plagiarism can expect to fail the assignment in question or the entire course depending on the nature of the incident.
On University-Sanctioned Activities
To accommodate students who participate in university-sanctioned activities, the First-Year Composition Program offers sections of this course at various times of the day and week. If you think that this course may conflict with a university-sanctioned activity in which you are involved--athletics, etc.--please see your instructor after class on the first day.
Academic Honesty
The official departmental policy: “Instructors in the Department of Literature and Languages do not tolerate plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonestly. Instructors uphold and support the highest academic standards, and students are expected to do likewise. Penalties for students guilty of academic dishonesty include disciplinary probation, suspension, and expulsion. (Texas A&M University-Commerce Code of Student Conduct 5.b [1,2,3])
If you ever have any questions about a particular use of a source, always ask your instructor. They want you to avoid plagiarism, too, so they will help you do so whenever and wherever they can. Do what you can to take advantage of this support—to look innocent in addition to being innocent when it comes to charges of plagiarism.
Students guilty of academic dishonesty of plagiarism can expect to fail the assignment in question or the entire course depending on the nature of the incident.
On University-Sanctioned Activities
To accommodate students who participate in university-sanctioned activities, the First-Year Composition Program offers sections of this course at various times of the day and week. If you think that this course may conflict with a university-sanctioned activity in which you are involved--athletics, etc.--please see your instructor after class on the first day.
University Specific Procedures:
ADA Statement
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal anti-discrimination statute that provides comprehensive civil rights protection for persons with disabilities. Among other things, this legislation requires that all students with disabilities be guaranteed a learning environment that provides for reasonable accommodation of their disabilities. If you have a disability requiring an accommodation, please contact:
Office of Student Disability Resources and Services
Texas A&University-Commerce
Gee Library 132
Phone (903) 886-5150 or (903) 886-5835
Fax (903) 468-8148
All students enrolled at the University shall follow the tenets of common decency and acceptable behavior conducive to a positive learning environment. (See Code of Student Conduct from Student Guide Handbook).
Cell Phones, iPods, and other devices
Cell Phones, iPods, and other devices
All devices are to be turned off and put away out of sight from the start of each class to the end of each class (unless I specifically say you may take them out during a group activity to look up a web page or find a definition).
There are many instances in life when you will simply not be able to (or shouldn’t) respond to a phone call: driving, flying, participating in a group exercise class, intercourse, attending a funeral, sitting down to a formal dinner, etc. You can just add “being in class” to that list.
You have signed up to be in this class and the expectation is that you knew you would need to be 100% present. Even in the direst of emergencies, what difference will your finding out in the middle of class do? The honest answer is none at all. The other honest answer is that the likelihood of the direst tragedy happening in the middle of your English class is pretty slim…and it is likely the reason you chose this particular section at this particular time. There are absolutely no exceptions to this rule.
If a device goes off in the class, you will write a 5 page essay on the subject of my choosing and it will be integrated into your final grade for the class. I hope this lengthy diatribe gives you some indication of how serious I am about this rule. Also, I saw a sister through cancer and a mother through debilitating illness and never used them as an excuse for keeping my phone on in class (or for missing a class)—I never ask students to do what I would not do.
There are many instances in life when you will simply not be able to (or shouldn’t) respond to a phone call: driving, flying, participating in a group exercise class, intercourse, attending a funeral, sitting down to a formal dinner, etc. You can just add “being in class” to that list.
You have signed up to be in this class and the expectation is that you knew you would need to be 100% present. Even in the direst of emergencies, what difference will your finding out in the middle of class do? The honest answer is none at all. The other honest answer is that the likelihood of the direst tragedy happening in the middle of your English class is pretty slim…and it is likely the reason you chose this particular section at this particular time. There are absolutely no exceptions to this rule.
If a device goes off in the class, you will write a 5 page essay on the subject of my choosing and it will be integrated into your final grade for the class. I hope this lengthy diatribe gives you some indication of how serious I am about this rule. Also, I saw a sister through cancer and a mother through debilitating illness and never used them as an excuse for keeping my phone on in class (or for missing a class)—I never ask students to do what I would not do.
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