Sioban Dillon English 103 Section 4036
How to Contact Me: My email is
Email is the quickest way to get a response! My phone number is 323-241-5208.
Otherwise, make an appointment or come to my office during my office hours. You may also reach me on the 3rd floor of the library, but during those hours my primary obligation is to LSC students; however, if I am free, I will meet with you.
If you need technical help, please go to TEC 340during the following hours:
Mon-Thurs. 8am-1pm and 5pm-8pm
Fri and Sat. 8am-12pm
If I tell youthat you need tutorial help, or youwant some extra help, go to the 3rd floor of the library during the following hours (see Cheike [Shake] or William) or see me during the hours posted below:
Mon. thru Thurs. 8am-4pm
Fridays 8am-1pm
Proofread all your papers OUT LOUD!
My Office: LL Building, room 233B:
Mondays and Wednesdays, 3:00pm-5pm
Thursdays, 3pm-5pm
Or by appointment
CAWE Hours for English 103 help in addition to office hours (Library, 3rd floor):
Mondays and Wednesdays, 1pm-3pm
Thursdays, 10:00am-3pm
Required Texts (3) and Supplies
1. Maasik, Sonia and Jack Solomon. Signs of Life: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers. 4th Edition. Boston: Bedford-St.Martin’s, 2003.
2. Breitman, George. The Last Years of Malcolm X: The Evolution of a Revolutionary. New York: Pathfinder Press, 1984. (cost is $15)
3. Langan, John. English Brushup, 4rd Edition, McGraw-Hill, 2004.
You will also need a pen for taking notes, a mini-stapler, and a large folder for hand-outs.
All texts are available in the LASC Bookstore. Book grants are available in CRT or contact Linda Larsen-Singer in Student Services on the 4th floor of the COX Building.
EVERYONE MUST HAVE HIS OR HER OWN TEXTBOOK! NO EXCEPTIONS!
Course Description
English 103 is a critical thinking and composition course which combines and expands the objectives of the standard 101composition course. English 103 is intended to help you develop and exercise your critical thinking, reading, research, and writing skills, and most of our time in this class will be spent on reading and discussing the writing of others , and creating and producing our own.
You will be asked to read the texts of this English 103 class with a critical eye, engage in thoughtful and productive discussion of the texts and attendant issues, and ultimately to write on those issues and/or ideas in the texts or on the topic that you find particularly interesting, engaging, or otherwise important.
Through reading critically and thinking deeply about what you've read and through “discussing” the readings with myself and your classmates, such exposure will encourage you to read more widely, investigate your ideas more thoroughly, and find your own particular voice in your critical writing for this class and others--to become, yourself, a better reader, thinker, and writer as you respond to such works.
You must be prepared to spend a great deal of time and energy on this class. I have made an effort to spread the reading load out as evenly as possible and major papers will be due at fairly regular intervals. I believe, however, that you will be pleasantly surprised to find that the readings are thought-provoking, often compelling, and very enlightening.
Assignments
· Readings and Papers
· Class Participation (Online Quizzes, activities, etc.)
· Online Discussion
· Final Paper
· Final Exam
There is no extra-credit. All assignments must be done, with the exception of ONE less-than-four page paper. The final paper and final exam must be done to pass the class, along with all but ONE paper under four pages long (all 5-page papers must be completed to pass the course).
Late Assignments
It is essential that you pace yourself so as to avoid doing assignments after the due date. You MUST keep up with the reading in order to participate in the Discussions; our class activities are aligned with the assigned material. Writing assignments will be accepted up to 2 weeks overdue, after which time they will not be accepted. If you don’t do your assignments on time, you will not be thoroughly prepared for the quizzes and exams.
What’s Required
It is essential to do the following:
1. Learn how to adjust the balloon text comments BEFORE you upload your documents (papers) to the Document Libraries (Paper folders). You can do this by going to:
You will receive a “D” grade on any paper where the balloon text comments are not adjusted to the 12 point, Times New Roman font before I grade the paper.
2. Send me an email with your class name, e.g. English 103, in the subject line. You will be added to the class list. If your email address changes, or you are not receiving regular class emails--usually 2 or 3 per month—you are required to send a new email message to you indicating a change in your email address. If you drop the class, you will continue to receive my emails until the end of the semester so just delete them if you are no longer in the class.
3. Learn how to correctly use apostrophes, quotation marks, and capitalization. I expect you all to use the campus resources and the class web site to study all grammatical rules that you are unfamiliar with. Passing English 103 papers are generally free of grammar-errors.
4. Learn how to utilize the Lectures/Lessons for every week in order to properly understand the readings and do the paper topic assignments.
5. Memorize your username and password.
Use your username and password to upload documents to the Document Libraries, such as the “Paper 1” folder.
Your username and password will be as follows:
username = first name and last name, no spaces
password = last 4 digits of your social security or student ID number
All lower case letters for username and password. For example, if your name is Jane Smith, your username and password will look like
username = janesmith
password = 3456
6. Also, you must password protect all of your essays. You will save your essays in MS word. Your password will be your social security number with no dashes. Go thorough the following steps to password protect your document:
1. Open the document.
2. On the File menu, click Save As.
3. On the Tools menu in the Save As dialog box, click General Options or Security Options.
4. In the Password to open box, type a password, and then click OK.
5. In the Reenter password to open box, type the password again, and then click OK ONCE ONLY (do not set a password to modify).
6. Click Save.
Lastly, remember that it is YOUR responsibility to save all of your work. Lost work can only be replaced by you, no matter what the circumstances. I cannot be responsible for giving grades for lost work; you must provide me with a new copy of any lost work. Save your work!
All students dropping the class must do so themselves. Any student still on the roster at the end of the term who has not participated in the class will receive a D grade.
Papers not turned in the MS Word format will receive a D grade on the paper until it is resubmitted. Papers that do not have the balloon text comments properly adjusted will receive a D grade. If your version of MS Word is older and you do not have the balloon text capability, you must complete your papers and put them on a diskette and go to TEC 340, where an assistant will help you save a new version with the balloon text comments.
Attendance
In order to “attend” class, you are required to check in to the web site 2 times per week. Make sure that you answer the Discussion questions, participate in the online activities, and of course, upload your papers to the web site. This is how I see that you are “attending” class. There is no set time to check in to class; work at your own pace, but keep up with the course schedule.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the act of presenting someone else's words or ideas as your own (for example, checking the Internet for a little information on your topic and then using that information as if it were something you thought of). Plagiarism in this class consists handing in work including research papers that you did not write 100% of yourself. Any student who presents another's work or ideas as his or her own will fail this course and risk further action taken by L.A. Southwest and the L.A. Community College District, including expulsion from the college.
Grading Policy:
Category / Grade PercentagePapers 1 and 2 / 10%
Papers 3, 4, and 5 / 25%
Final Paper / 25% (class cannot be passed without a passing Final Paper)
Final Exam / 30% (class cannot be passed without a passing Final Exam)
Chapter Quizzes / 10%
Total for all work / 100%
My email address:
Course Schedule for English 103
All assignments must be completed before coming to class on the first class day of the week!!
Week 1—Week of February 6th
Paper 1: Your first assignment is to a two-paragraph description of what you hope to achieve in this course. (Don't forget, one paragraph must have 5-8 sentences minimum.)
Papers must be double-spaced, typed with your name and date on the upper left-hand side of the page. See the sample paper for help.
Go to Discussion 1 – Introductions.
Week 2— Week of February 13th
Read the Introduction, pp1-16 in John Langan’s English Brushup
NOW Read the following from _Signs of Life in the USA_:
“Introduction,” pp1-18;
“Consuming Passions: The Culture of American Consumption,” pp47-55; and
“Masters of Desire: The Culture of American Advertising,” pp160-170.
(Remember, all assignments must be completed before coming to class on the first class day of the week!!)
Take Reading Quiz One.
Go to Discussion 2. Post one paragraph on the readings plus respond to two other students. Check in twice this week—once to post your paragraph and a second time to read other students’ responses to your posting and to respond to two other students.
Week 3— Week of February 20th
Do the exercises on Subjects and Verbs, and Subject-Verb agreement in John Langan’s English Brushup, 19-28 and 41-50.
Take Grammar Quiz One. Go to Grammar Quizzes on the home page, log in to Exercise Central (be sure you’ve registered with my correct email address, , and:
go to the tab “Exercises” and find “Subjects and Predicates" under the “Basic Grammar” section and follow the links to quizzes #1 and 2.
Then find “Subject-Verb Agreement” under the “Sentence Grammar” section and follow the links to quizzes #17, 19, 84, and 138.
Then find “Verb Forms” under the “Sentence Grammar” section and follow the links to quizzes #72, 85, and 240.
Paper 2 is due on the last day of class this week: Write a FULL 2-page paper on any of the articles we've read so far. Include a two-paragraph summary at the beginning (what the author said). The rest of your paper should be interpretation (what you think the article MEANS in your opinion).
Take Grammar Quiz One.
Week 4— Week of February 27
Do the exercises on Fragments in John Langan’s English Brushup, 61-72.
Do Grammar Quiz 2. Go to Grammar Quizzes on the home page, log in to Exercise Central, go to the tab “Exercises” and find “Sentence Fragments" under the “Sentence Grammar” section and follow the links to quizzes #82, 15, 122, and 298.
Read the following from _Signs of Life in the USA_: “Writing About Popular Culture,” pp25-44.
Go to Discussion 3. Post one paragraph on the readings plus respond to two other students. Check in twice this week—once to post your paragraph and a second time to read other students’ responses to your posting and to respond to two other students.
Do Grammar Quiz 2.
Week 5—Week of March 6th
Do the exercises on Run-Ons in John Langan’s English Brushup, 73-82.
Do Grammar Quiz 3. Go to Grammar Quizzes on the home page, log in to Exercise Central, go to the tab “Exercises” and find “Fused/Run-On Sentences” under the “Sentence Grammar” section and follow the links to quizzes #13, 14, 15, 83, 125, and 299.
BEGIN Reading from _Malcolm X: The Evolution of a Revolutionary_, pp13-29.
Print the hand-out article, "Malcolm X" by Shelby Steele.
Print the hand-out article, "Goin' Gangsta, Choosin' Cholita," by Neil Bernstein.
Print the hand-out article “How to Tame a Wild Tongue,” by Gloria Anzaldua.
Visit the link at http://www.malcolm-x.org/docs/.
Take Reading Quiz 2.
Go to Discussion 4. Post one paragraph on the readings plus respond to two other students. Check in twice this week—once to post your paragraph and a second time to read other students’ responses to your posting and to respond to two other students.
Do Grammar Quiz 3.
Week 6—Week of March 13th
Do the exercises on Apostrophes in John Langan’s English Brushup, 103-114.
Do Grammar Quiz 4. Go to Grammar Quizzes on the home page, log in to Exercise Central, go to the tab “Exercises” and find “Apostrophes” under the “Punctuation” section and follow the links to quizzes #100, 200, 201, 203, and 204.
Paper 3 is due on the last class day of this week: Write a full 3-page paper on any of the articles we've read since PAPER ONE BUT NOT on the George Breitman book. You must discuss the ARTICLE in your paper, AS YOU MUST DO IN EVERY PAPER YOU WRITE FOR THIS CLASS.
You should also include 1 or 2 quotations in your essay that are clearly connected to a title and author of the article.
Example:
As Nell Bernstein states in his article, "Goin' Gansta, Chosin' Cholita: Claiming Identity," "In many parts of the country, its television and radio, not neighbors, that introduces teens to the allure of ethnic difference."
Do Grammar Quiz 4.