Dr. Koch (Bob) Office Hours: 4:30-5:30 p.m., Monday & Wednesday Office in Communications South: C-151 Office telephone: (314) 513-4743 Campus Closing/Weather Hotline: (314) 513-4949 E-mail: rkoch@stlcc.edu Web site: http://users.stlcc.edu/rkoch (Not Blackboard)

English 101—College Composition I 3 credit hours August 25–December 21, 2008 Section 551, 5:40–6:55 p.m., MW Room C-106 Section 552, 7:05–8:20 p.m., MW Room C-106

Prerequisites

ENG:030 with a grade of “C” or better, or recommendation of Department and Reading Proficiency or concurrent enrollment in RDG:030.

Course Description

This course is designed to meet the writing needs of a wide variety of students in the following ways: 1) prepares students who will continue in college to write acceptable college-level expository essay, 2) provides career students with a strong base for technical and business writing, 3) familiarizes all students with the kinds of writing skills that will be valuable in their everyday experience, 4) provides students with some awareness of the way language functions and affects their lives. To help reach these goals, the course will focus on the elements of clear writing, well-organized expository essays, the necessary critical thinking that must always precede expository writing, analytical reading, and, when necessary, a review of the principles of grammar.

Learning Objectives

1. Understand words as a center of writing and communicating, what a dictionary and thesaurus offer, and the social reality of dialects

2. Discriminate among informal/formal, and general/specific levels of diction and appropriate usage

3. Understand and demonstrate college-level writing produced through a process of prewriting, drafting, revising and editing

4. Understand the application of skills learned in Composition 101 to workplace and other academic departments

5. Be able to use extra-course resources of the College such as the Writing Center, computer lab(s), and the library

6. Write clear, precise, concise, expository prose in Edited American English

7. Demonstrate ability to read critically and respond to non-fiction selections

8. Demonstrate critical thinking in exposition

9. Learn to listen critically and give constructive feedback on writing in group and individual settings

Expected Knowledge Goal Performance Outcomes

1. Give evidence of pre-writing techniques like listing, free writing, clustering and outlining

2. Write standard paragraph structure (topic sentence + support) in body paragraphs

3. Write themes in essay structure (thesis + evidence; introduction, body, and conclusion).

4. Write for variety of audiences (readers) in the workplace and in other academic contexts, using accepted conventions for presentation of written, quantitative, and graphical material.

5. Demonstrate critical thinking skills in exposition and persuasion

6. Reduce errors in syntax, grammar, punctuation, spelling and usage from the student’s own writing and editing

Expected Skills Goal Reinforcement Outcomes

1. Valuing

2. Higher Order Thinking

3. Managing Information

4. Mathematics

Reading Requirements

Students are expected to read all assigned pages in the textbook. Reading assignments average approximately 41 pages per week. Students will also read extensively in sources as they work on their research papers.

Writing Requirements

Students will write six short papers (500-750 words each) and a research paper (1,000–1,750 words). In connection with the research paper, students will also turn in a proposal, note cards, bibliography cards, copies of sources, and a thesis and outline. Students will also bring a full draft to class for peer review. There will be five short quizzes.

Final/Culminating Experience

A short paper written in the final examination period will be the final experience in English 101. Some students may consider the research paper as the culminating experience, as I do.

Plagiarism

When you include in an essay information, ideas or wording from someone else’s writing, you must document your source. That is, you must name the source of the material and provide a page number, when one is available. Exact wording from a source must be enclosed in quotation marks. Paraphrases of another person’s writing should not be enclosed in quotation marks but must be sufficiently different from the original wording and must be documented. Disregarding these rules is intellectually dishonest and is considered plagiarism. Students who plagiarize will receive a grade of 0 for the assignment, which cannot be made up.

Required Course Materials

Clouse, Barbara. The Student Writer: Editor and Critic. 7^th ed. Boston: McGraw-Hill, 2008.

Raimes, Ann. Keys for Writers: A Brief Handbook. 5^th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2008.

A good dictionary, such as the American Heritage Dictionary or the Random House Dictionary.

A yellow highlighter

Some 4 X 6 note cards

A folder with pockets for keeping and turning in materials for the research paper

“Required” means that you must obtain these materials. If you don’t, you will receive an F for the course. Please bring to class whatever book contains the day’s assignment.

Late Work Policy

Please submit each written assignment in class on the day it is due. You may turn in late assignments at the next class meeting or to me during my office hours. However, during the first week the assignment is late, the grade will be reduced by a full letter grade. During the second week, the grade will be reduced by two letter grades, etc. I will accept most of the short essays until the end of the semester—with grade reductions, of course. Materials related to the research paper will have shorter absolute deadlines.

If you are unable to attend when a paper is due, you can e-mail it to me. I will give you credit for turning it in on the day you e-mailed it. Please attach your paper as a MS Word or text file. My computer cannot read documents produced with any other program. If you use another word-processing program, try converting the file into a text file and e-mailing it that way. You can also highlight the text, copy it, and paste it into your e-mail message instead of sending it as an attachment. When you e-mail me, be sure to type in my address correctly. Note that the final letter of my last name is h, not k.

The department office no longer accepts student papers, so you cannot submit them there.

Attendance Policy

Attending class is necessary for your success in the course; if you miss more than four classes, you are unlikely to pass the course. I expect you to attend all class sessions, to arrive on time, and to stay till dismissed. You are allowed four absences to be used only when you are sick or otherwise unable to attend. For each additional absence, your final average will be reduced by 1.5 percent. Each time you are tardy or leave early will count as 1/5 of an absence. However, the greatest damage to your grade will come from your not understanding or learning the material covered in class, for you are responsible for all the concepts and information presented whether or not you have always been present. There will be no make-ups for quizzes.

In addition, attendance is mandatory on peer review days. If you miss a peer review, the grade on the paper that would have been reviewed will be reduced a full letter grade.

If you decide to drop the class, be sure to withdraw officially by filing the proper form with the Registrar by November 14. If you stop attending without filing the form, you will receive an F for the course. I cannot withdraw you for non-attendance; you must do it.

Communications

If you want to reach me outside of class or office hours, you are best off e-mailing me. Please note that my name ends with h, not k. You are required to use your college e-mail account. Please see the hand-out concerning that topic.

Classroom Behavior

1. Be aware or academic policies and requirements.

a. Read and reread the syllabus and tentative schedule.

b. Follow minimum guidelines for written and oral assignments.

c. Ask me about any requirements or policies that you do not understand.

d. Keep all handouts, returned work, etc., until you have received your final grade from the Registrar.

2. Be prepared.

a. Take careful notes.

b. Keep up with all assignments and class activity, getting information from another class member if you must be absent.

c. Revise class notes periodically.

d. Take notes on all assigned readings.

e. Spend at least two hours on outside work for every one hour of classroom work.

f. Be prepared to discuss readings in class.

3. Be attentive.

a. Listen carefully to my comments, noting information that is stressed.

b. Pay careful attention to films, student reports, guest speakers.

c. Avoid distracting behavior such as sleeping or wearing headphones.

4. Be punctual.

a. Attend class on time.

b. Attend all conference appointments on time.

c. Get required work in on time, or see me if that is impossible.

d. Be on time for all examinations.

5. Be respectful.

a. Tell me if you must leave early or arrive late.

b. If you arrive late, enter quietly and sit in the available seat closest to the door.

c. Be polite and respect each other and me.

d. If you have criticism of the course or need to talk to me, see me in my office.

6. Be serious.

a. Work hard.

b. Ask and respond to questions in a serious manner.

c. Take responsibility for your attendance, participation and learning in the course.

d. Make sure that your other responsibilities do not conflict with the class schedule.

e. Abide by the honor system during exams, quizzes and in-class writing assignments; do not cheat or assist in cheating.

7. Be aware of Student Rights and Responsibilities.

Grading System

Six short essays 66% total

Proposal for research paper 4%

Outline and note cards for

research paper 4%

Research paper 16%

Quizzes 10%

I reserve the right to add quizzes to the final grade computation if it seems to me that students are not reading their assignments.

Scale for Final Grade

90–100 A

80–89 B

70–79 C

60–69 D

0–59 F

On-Campus Labs

Writing Center: Lower Level, Student Center (across from the book store at the far end of the quiet study area, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Thursday; 8 a.m. to
2 p.m., Friday; 9:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m., Saturday.

Computer Labs: Communications C-134, Business Administration BA-201, Learning Resources

Access Office

If any student in this class has a need for special testing arrangements, note-taking assistance or other accommodations because of a documented disability, please feel free to discuss this with me during the first week of class. Such needs may include seating closer to the front of the class, a note-taker, extended time for testing or any other approved accommodation. I will hold any information you share with me in strictest confidence unless you give me permission to do otherwise. The college has an office to guide, counsel, and assist you with disabilities. It is called the ACCESS office. If you have accommodation needs, you will need to get them approved by the ACCESS office. The phone number is 513-4549.

Course Assessment

St. Louis Community College is committed to the continuous improvement of student academic achievement. The college undertakes assessment of its academic programs and courses to assure that student learning is not only occurring but improving. Further, classroom assessment by individual instructors discovers what is working in the particular classroom to facilitate learning. At each of these levels of academic achievement—classroom, course, and program—you, the student, will be asked to participate to enable the College to improve its product, which is your learning. Assessment is a means to evaluate the learning process and is separate from the grading process. Your participation will be solicited and appreciated.

Web Page

I maintain a Web page for this course at http://users.stlcc.edu/rkoch. This Web page is not on Blackboard. To get there, type the address into your browser’s address window. On the Web page, I will post this syllabus and copies of all hand-outs and presentations as I develop them. If you miss a class, you can go to the Web page to see any presentation or hand-out you missed. If you lose this syllabus, you can view it on line or print a hard copy.

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

Assignments that must be turned in are listed in bold type.

Aug. 25 – Introduction to the course.

Aug. 27 – Read Student Writer, pages 32-63 (Getting Started).

Sep. 1 – Labor Day—no class.

Sep. 3 – Read Student Writer, pages 64-101 (Organizing and Drafting).

Sep. 8 – Turn in Essay #1. Read Keys for Writers, pages 353-62 (Common Sentence Problems).

Sep. 10 – Quiz #1. Read Student Writer, pages 216-49 (Exemplification).

Sep. 15 – Read Student Writer, pages 102-22 (Revising for Content and Organization).

Sep. 17 – Write Essay #2 in class.

Sep. 22 – Read Student Writer, pages 282-311 (Comparison-Contrast).

Sep. 24 – Read Keys for Writers, pages 362-69 (Sentence Fragments, Run-ons & Comma Splices).

Sep. 29 – Quiz #2. Read Student Writer, pages 2-30 (Connection between Reading and Writing).

Oct. 1 – Bring draft of Essay #3 to class for peer review.

Oct. 6 Read Student Writer, pages 408-29 (Combining Patterns of Development).

Oct. 8 – Turn in Essay #3. Read Keys for Writers, pages 398-408 (Subject-Verb Agreement).

Oct. 13 – Read Keys for Writers, pages 97-109 (Beginning a Research Project and Finding Sources).

Oct. 15 – Quiz #3. Read Keys for Writers, pages 109-26 (Finding Sources & Evaluating Sources).

Oct. 20 – Turn in Proposal for Research Paper. Read Student Writer, pages 312-42 (Cause-and-Effect Analysis)

Oct. 22 – Read Keys for Writers, pages 321-34 (Style).

Oct. 27 – Read Student Writer, pages 124-50 (Revising for Effective Expression).

Oct. 29 – Bring draft of Essay #4 to class for peer review.

Nov. 3 – Turn in Essay #4. Read Keys for Writers, pages 126-37 (Avoiding Plagiarism).

Nov. 5 – Read Keys for Writers, pages 137-50 (Writing the Research Paper).

Nov. 10 – Read Keys for Writers, pages 155-66. Look over pages 166-204 (MLA Documentation).

Nov. 12 – Quiz #4. Read Student Writer, pages 432-58 (Argumentation).

Nov. 14 – Last date to withdraw from classes.

Nov. 17 – Turn in Outline and Note Cards for Research Paper. Read Student Writer, pages 458-82.

Nov. 19 – Bring draft of Essay #5 for peer review.

Nov. 24 – Turn in Essay #5. Read Keys for Writers, pages 369-74 (Sentence Snarls).

Nov. 26 – Read Keys for Writers, pages 374-79 (Sentence Snarls).

Dec. 1 – Bring draft of Research Paper for peer review.

Dec. 3 – Read Student Writer, pages 184-215 (Narration).

Dec. 8 – Turn in Research Paper. Read Keys for Writers, pages 334-50 (Style).

Dec. 10 – Quiz #5.

Final Exam Period during the week of December 15-19 – Write Essay #6 in class.