MONTGOMERY COUNTY COMMUNITY COLLEGE
Fall 2007ENG 101 (Sections IF and JD)
English Composition I
Section IF: TTH 9:35AM—11:00 AM, Parkhouse Hall 317
Section JD: TTH 11:10AM—12:35 PM, Parkhouse Hall 317 /
DR. HAROLD WILLIAM HALBERT
Office Phone: 215.641.6371 / Email: ;Office: Parkhouse Hall 434 / Office Hours: Mondays 1PM—4PM and by appointment. Please email to arrange.
WWW: http://faculty.mc3.edu/hhalbert
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
English Composition I is based on the premise that clear thinking generates clear writing. The student learns how to use the tools of effective writing and how to develop ideas through such expository patterns as example, process analysis, cause and effect, classification, comparison/contrast, definition, argument, narration, and description.
PREREQUISITES:
A placement test score of 07 to 12 or a grade of "C" in ENG 011 is required for ENG 101. It is expected that students entering ENG 101 have met the standards for passing ENG 011.
LEARNING GOALS:
English Composition I at its core is a skills course designed to help students begin to master the expectations of American academic writing needed for success in college and in professional pursuits. The writing goals of the course include:
· Coherent Writing: the ability to write coherent, unified, and well-developed 500-700 word essays using various expository patterns.
· Clear Thinking and Critical Analysis: the ability to recognize careless generalities, unsubstantiated claims or judgments, illogical associations, and the like.
· Sentence Sense: the ability to write without errors in sentence structure, punctuation, spelling, or usage.
To address these skills goals, I have designed the course around a specific theme: education and identity. Through an intensive reading schedule, class discussions, and individual writing, we will examine how the 12+ years individuals spend in school shapes them, their opportunities, and their communities. Thus, this course has an additional learning goal beyond the traditional English 101 course:
· Educational Metaknowledge: an emerging understanding how the cultural institution of education shapes individuals and different groups within a society through the personal relationships inherent in school, the politics of curriculum design, and access to very different educational opportunities.
TEXTBOOK AND REQUIRED MATERIALS:
· The Longman Reader, 8th Edition.
· A Writer's Reference by Diana Hacker, 6th Edition
· Course Packet (provided by instructor)
· Two 9"x12" envelopes
· A pink and a yellow highlighter, which must be brought to each class
· A 1.5" 3-ring binder with pockets dedicated to this course alone
· Pen and paper for each class
COURSE REQUIREMENTS:
English 101 will be one of the most challenging courses of your academic career because it moves quickly, requires a wide range of academic skills, and demands more time than the average course. We will complete five major essay cycles consisting of content readings, skills readings, prewriting, drafting, peer revisions, and final drafts. A breakdown of the assignments and relative point values is as follows:
Final drafts of papers / 200 pointsIndividual drafts of papers / 5 points if completed;
-5 if not
Required emails / 5 points
Submitting to Turnitin.com / Zero on final draft if not done
Reading checks / 5 points
Formal responses and peer reviews / 20 points
Formal grammar revisions / 50 points
Missed conference / -10 points
Your grade is calculated by adding the total points earned and then dividing them by the total points possible. That average will then be plugged into the college's grading scale.
Montgomery County Community College's Grading Scale:
A / 90-100 %B / 80-89%
C / 70-79%
D / 60-69%
F / 0-59%
Be advised that you must complete all five major papers in order to pass the course. Even if your paper is too late to be accepted under the late work policies, it must be completed by the end of the semester. If it is not, then you will automatically fail for the course, regardless of what your point total is.
In addition, please keep all of your drafts and prewriting together during each essay cycle: when you turn in the final draft of each paper, you will be required to submit all of the drafts that went into the final version as well.
COLLEGE POLICIES:
All College policies must be followed and are a binding part of this syllabus. Details on the Student Code of Conduct can be found at http://www.mc3.edu/policy/sa/conduct.htm.
PLAGIARISM AND ACADEMIC DISHONESTY:
Plagiarism constitutes a serious breach of academic honesty and will not be tolerated. Unless I deem an act of plagiarism or cheating an honest mistake, I routinely assign students an "F" in the course for any act of academic dishonesty without the option of withdrawing from the course. Especially egregious acts will receive an "F" with an additional notation of academic misconduct on the student's transcript. Please note that submitting work from another class as original work for this course constitutes academic dishonesty. For a full discussion of the Academic Honesty policies, please see http://www.mc3.edu/policy/aa/ethics.htm.
All students in my English 101 will submit their papers to TurnItIn.com, a tool that checks your papers against other sources. You will have a chance to see your report and revise it before the final draft is due, should you choose to.
SERVICES FOR STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES:
Montgomery County Community College (MCCC) welcomes qualified students with disabilities and endorses the principles of nondiscrimination and reasonable accommodation as described in Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (504) and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). To see if you are eligible for services and reasonable accommodations in this course please review the policy on the Disabilities website at http://www.mc3.edu/policy/sa/disable.htm.
ATTENDANCE POLICY:
Regular attendance and punctuality are expected. Students are allowed only three absences during the semester. If you have more than three absences, you must withdraw from the course. Should a fourth absence occur after the end of the withdrawal period, you will receive an F in the course. Under special circumstances (usually involving a documented medical emergency or a death in the family), you may request permission to remain enrolled in the course with a fourth absence, but such circumstances are rare. Attendance will be taken by sign-in sheet at the start of class: students arriving after the sign-in sheet will receive half an absence. If you arrive late, please wait until the end of class to sign the sheet. Failure to sign the sheet at all constitutes an absence. Students who leave class early must ask for permission prior to the start of class; if you leave without permission before the I dismisses the class will be marked absent for the whole period. Good manners suggest that if you know you will miss a course, you will contact me and let me know.
CLASS CANCELLATION:
In the event of inclement weather or other emergency, the MCCC School Closing Code is
320 for day classes and 2320 for evening classes. Announcements will be made on KYW
(1060 AM) and other local stations. In the event that I have to cancel a class, I will email the class and post a message on Blackboard (assuming I have power at home to access the Internet).
WITHDRAWAL POLICY, INCOMPLETES, AND AUDITS:
Should you wish to withdraw from the course, the deadline to withdraw without my signature is September 18, 2007. The deadline to withdraw from the course with my signature is October 23, 2007. If you do not formally withdrawal, you will receive an F for the course even if you stop attending.
Applications for an "Incomplete" will only be entertained in cases of documented medical emergencies or military call-ups. Audits will not be permitted unless you start the course as an audit student and can convince me that you are willing to do all that work for no grade.
LATE WORK
All work is due at the beginning of class on the day listed for the syllabus unless otherwise noted. I hate late work from students: it complicates my ability to grade or simply keep track of your work. More importantly, it devalues the efforts of your classmates who work very hard to meet their deadlines. To discourage late work, I have the following policy:
· Final drafts of papers lose 25 points (out of the possible 200 points) for each 24-hour period they are late. This penalty includes Saturdays and Sundays.
· Other late assignments have a 24-hour period to be submitted. They will be graded, and that grade will be divided by 2 and entered into the grade spreadsheet.
Late work will kill your grade, so don't do it. If you know ahead of time that you will not be able to complete a task, contact me for an extension. I reserve the right to make an exception to the late policy in the case of an extreme (and documentable) emergency, but that almost never happens.
THE LEARNING ASSISTANCE LAB:
The Learning Lab, located on the upper floor of the library in College Hall, has computers that students may use. In addition, help from professional tutors on papers for English and other courses is available every day of the week on a walk-in basis. Use of the Learning Lab is strongly encouraged: I've run centers like this, used centers like this, and I believe they are a valuable resource for both struggling and gifted writers because they provide a pair of professional eyes to review a paper and give you the kind of feedback we all want.
CLASSROOM POLICIES:
As adults, students and the instructor should know to do the following in class:
· Be prepared for class with work completed and required materials available.
· Refrain from non-class related conversations once class has started.
· Keep cell phones and pagers in "silent" mode and refrain from answering them or using them to send text messages. Should a student expect an important call (because of family emergencies or issues of similar magnitude), please make the instructor aware of that possibility before class.
· Treat each other with mutual respect: while we can challenge each other's ideas in class, personalized attacks or use of inappropriate language directed at another member of the class community is unacceptable.
· Ask for help if you need it.
· Make the most of this course. It will help in the future.
FINAL WORD:
I enjoy teaching writing courses: I believe they can be the most empowering classes a person can take in college because the skills you learn can help you in virtually every part of your life. I took this job to help people discover their potential: as long as you are willing to do the work, I will do everything in my power to help you not only pass the course, but to be the best writer you can be.
Daily Assignments
Work is due at the start of class on the date immediately above the listing.
Thursday, September 7, 2007
· First Day of Class.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
· Email contact information (see handout).
· Purchase and label a 1.5" 3-ring binder dedicated to this course. I strongly advise one that has pockets in it.
· Read "How to Really Read this Book" (handout).
· Read and mark the following essays:
o "First They Changed My Name" by Allen (Packet)
o "The Sanctuary of School" by Barry (Packet)
o "I Just Wanna Be Average" by Rose (Packet)
o "And Then I went to School" by Suina (Longman 254-258)
· We will have our first reading check: markings will be evaluated on amount of underlining/highlighting and marginalia per page.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
· Read and mark the following essays and stories:
o "On Being 17, Bright, and Unable to Read" by Raymond (packet)
o from Honor Bound by Steffan (packet)
o from Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself by Douglass (packet)
o "The Conversion of the Jews" by Roth (packet)
o "Theme for English B" by Hughes (packet)
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
· Read and mark the following sections from Longman:
o "Narration" (123-131)
o "Description" (71-77)
· Prepare a list of three potential topics for Paper #1
· Class Discussion Topics: 5-paragraph essay framework, prewriting techniques
Thursday, September 20, 2007
· Using at least two prewriting techniques, prepare three pages of prewriting on your final topic for Paper #1. One technique must be either a formal outline or a point outline.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
· Draft 1 of Paper #1 Due. Print two copies for class and post a copy on our Blackboard discussion board in the "Paper 1: Draft 1 (09/25/2007)" topic.
· In-class activity: guided peer review.
· We will sign up for conferences in class today.
Thursday, September 27, 20007
· NO CLASS: Conferences.
· Draft 2 of Paper #1 Due. Bring a REVISED version of your paper to your conference along with the original.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
· Final Draft of Paper #1 Due. See checklist for requirements.
Thursday, October 4, 2007
· Read and mark "How to Say Nothing in 500 Words" by Roberts (Longman 314-325).
· Read and mark "Process Analysis" (Longman 280-288)
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
· Draft #1 of Paper #2 Due. Post a copy to the discussion board in the "Paper #2: Draft 1" forum. Bring two copies to class for peer review. Bring textbook.
Thursday, October 11, 2007
· NO CLASS: Conferences.
· Draft #2 of Paper #2 Due. Post a copy to the discussion board in the "Paper #2: Draft 2" forum. Bring a copy of the revised version and the marked first draft to the conference.
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
· Final Draft of Paper #2 Due. See checklist for details.
· Bring your reading packet to class.
Thursday, October 18, 2007
· Read and mark pages 258-262 of Paulo Freire's "The 'Banking' Concept of Education" (packet). Stop at the beginning of the paragraph that begins, "Implicit in the banking concept."
· Complete the "Formal Response" assignment. Post your response on the discussion board in the "Freire #1 (10/18/2007)" Forum.
· WARNING: This reading is incredibly difficult. You will need to budget at least two hours to read these three pages. Read the requirements of the Formal Response assignment before you begin reading. Use a dictionary and write questions you have about the text in the margins along with your other comments.