Composition 3140: Advanced Writing for Human Services
Spring 2007
Class:This is Comp 3140, Section 6
Meets:MWF, 11–11:50 a.m., Humanities 458
Instructor: Marty Sozansky
E-mail:
Office:Humanities 424 (inside the Composition Department, which is 420)
Office phone:726-8485
Office Hours:noon-1:30 Monday and Wednesday, and by appointment
Web page:
Texts:
Kolin, Philip C. (2007). Successful Writing at Work, 8th Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Other mandatory materials:
- A reliable dictionary.
- Access to the means to word process your work.
- Access to a laser printer or laser quality ink-jet printer.
- A style guide to APA style; preferably, a handbook.
Course overview:
COMP 3140 is designed for students who write papers for courses in their fields and who write the kinds of discourse appropriate to human service professions. Comp 3140 is a writing-intensive, student-centered course in which you will develop your writing and thinking skills through frequent writing experiences. Assignments are designed to be similar to the writing that you are likely to encounter in your respective fields.
Goals of the course:
- Improve your ability to plan, draft, and revise written communication;
- Provide practice in approaching issues critically;
- Enhance your research and investigation skills;
- Teach you some of the common types of writing used in the human services fields.
Course Policies:
Students are expected to be prepared for each class meeting, to attend class regularly, to participate actively in class discussion and peer workshops, and to turn in all assignments on time.
Attendance in Comp 3140 is mandatory. Because this course relies heavily on in-class discussion of sample texts, student drafts, and in-class exercises, your on-time attendance and active participation is required. Should you miss class due to illness or family emergency, please contact me as soon as possible to discuss your options. Failure to come to class prepared will be noted.
I will use the class e-mail alias to inform you of changes to our schedule, or for other notifications, such as my inability to be in class. After the first few weeks of class, both this syllabus and the class schedule will be linked to my Web page.
All out-of-class writing assignments, unless otherwise noted, must be word-processed using a letter-quality printer. Papers must be stapled and all pages must be numbered.
Can you e-mail drafts to me before assignments are due and ask me to comment? Yes, but only under these circumstances:
- You ask me to look at no more than twospecific issues in your draft. Asking me if your thesis is clearly stated is fine; asking me if yours is an A paper is not. Asking me if your introduction clearly states the problem is fine; asking me if you have sufficiently proved your thesis is not.
- You e-mail your draft to me no fewer than 72 hours before it is due in class, not including weekend days.
Late assignments will be penalized accordingly. Papers are collected at the beginning of class, and papers handed in after the beginning of class will be considered one day late. For each day an assignment is late, it will be lowered one FULL letter grade. This penalty includes Saturdays and Sundays. So, an “A” paper on Thursday becomes a “B” paper on Friday and a “C” paper on Saturday, and so on. Disk and printer problems are not adequate reasons for a late paper. Back up your work often (especially when you are working on large assignments), print hard copies of your work periodically, and keep a spare printer cartridge on hand. Papers turned in more than a week late will not receive comments.
All assignments must be completed to pass this course.
At the end of the semester, you are required to hand in all graded assignments in a folder. I will keep your assignments until the end of fall 2007 semester, at which time you may ask me for them. Papers will not necessarily be kept past the end of fall semester.
Plagiarism will not be tolerated. Appropriating someone else's work as your own will be grounds for failing this course; individual colleges may take further disciplinary action. When we use peer workshops to generate revision and editing suggestions you may incorporate these into your writing. However, your final product should be written in your own words and reflect your own work. Likewise, passages from sample texts should not be copied verbatim; they are simply meant to suggest approaches to particular assignments. If you are in doubt about how or when to cite sources, please ask me.
In addition, submitting the same paper in more than one class violates the University standards for academic integrity. Students caught submitting a paper to multiple classes will receive an “F” on that assignment and will meet with the CLA Assistant Dean to determine whether further action is warranted.
Grading:
Writing assignments will be graded based on the following components:
* Development: is there an argument?
* Organization: do you march your reader through?
* Style and tone: is it right for the audience?
* Mechanics: grammar, punctuation etc.
Each assignment will have specific criteria that we will discuss in advance.
For you to receive an "A" in this course, your work must be consistently superior throughout the semester.
"A" writing is superior in both form and content.
"B" writing is superior in either form or content, and is at least competent in the other category.
"C" writing is competent but unremarkable in both form and content.
"D" writing is deficient in either form or content, but competent in the other category.
"F" writing is deficient in both form and content.
Special needs:
Individuals who have any disability, temporary or permanent, which might affect their ability to perform in this class should inform me at the start of the term or disability. Special adaptations may be made as required for equitable participation in class.
Your final grade will be determined as follows:
Assignment / % of final grade / Notes“Daily” written aAssignments / 15% / Usually short written pieces
Resume / 05% / Re-submit for final A
Cover Letter / 05% / Re-submit for final A
Re/I-search Proposal* / 10%
Research or I-Search Report* / 15% / Based upon approval of the proposal
Group Project / 10% / All group members earn the same grade
Re/I-search Report Revision* / 05%
Final Exam (Essay) / 05% / Probably “take-home”
Grammar Log / 05% / Keep, add to, use, and show to instructor for an A.
Oral Presentation / 05%
2 to 4 on-the-job assignments / 20%
*These projects are related; your research or I-search project in total is 30% of your grade.