ENG 1302 – Composition II

Instructor: Kathryn LaityOffice: 1050SPhone: 713.222.5372Email:

MW 11.30-12.45 (CRN 10350) A622Office Hours: MW 10.30-11.30 or by appointment

REQUIRED TEXTS:

Shelley, Mary. Norton Critical Edition: Frankenstein (1818 edition).

Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers (6th ed).

OBJECTIVES:

This course will sharpen the skills learned in Composition I and introduce you to the skills necessary to join academic discourse—the kind of writing required in most of your college classes. We will focus on reading and more importantly, critically re-reading a variety of texts, writing effective arguments about those texts, improving persuasiveness through revision, as well as supplementing analysis with outside sources. You will learn to synthesize multiple sources, to wield the various tools of rhetoric, to find suitable research materials in the library, and to document your research according to the appropriate academic conventions. Our focus this semester will be on turning you into an independent scholar, well versed in research techniques and able to critically evaluate sources of all types. (3 credit hours, prerequesite 1301).

GRADING:

Although the heart of this course lies in the papers you will write, many factors affect your final grade. A total of 1000 points comes from the following:

In-class exercises and assignments 100 points
First Critical Analysis Paper 200 points
Second Critical Analysis Paper 200 points
Research Paper (divided as follows):
Research Proposal 100 points
Annotated Bibliography 100 points
Paper 250 points
Final Exam (short essay) 50 points

Attendance in this course is central to your success in it. If you miss four classes, your final grade will be lowered by a full letter grade. If you miss eight classes, you will fail the course. Your instructor may make allowances in the case of documented emergencies and illness. When you return to class, it is your responsibility to contact your instructor during her office hours.

WEBCT ():

Our daily assignments will be listed on the calendar of our WebCT home page. Check frequently for information including reading assignments. You will also find links to many sources to help you succeed in this class (and your other courses as well).

GENERAL POLICIES:

  • Always bring the day’s reading to class with you. You may wish to refer to the text during our discussions or while you work on an in-class writing assignment.
  • Papers are due at the beginning of class; late papers are penalized.
  • DROP DATES: Sep 3: Last day to drop w/o grade; Oct 27: Last day to withdraw
  • Electronic devices (cell phones, beepers, etc.) should be turned off or disabled during our class; it is rude to disrupt the class with beeps or ringing.
  • Similarly, tardiness also disrupts the other students, and is unacceptable.
  • Students with disabilities must register with Disabled Student Services (221-5227) and contact instructors in a timely manner to arrange for appropriate accommodations. UHD adheres to all federal, state and local laws, regulations and guidelines with respect to providing reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities.
  • All students are subject to university-wide policies set forth in the Catalog and Student Handbook.
  • Plagiarism is the theft or appropriation of another person’s ideas or writing. You will be guilty of plagiarism if you do not properly cite the words of others in your paper, if you buy or borrow an essay, or if you download information and paste it into your paper. Plagiarism is a serious charge; not only will you receive a zero for the assignment, but it may lead to failing the course. Any incident of plagiarism will be entered into your permanent academic record; repeat incidents may result in expulsion from the University. Consult your student handbook for UHD’s Academic Honesty Policy, or go to:

FIRST ASSIGNMENTS (All future assignments are on our WebCT calendar):

READING: For our next class meeting, please read pages 3-25 in the MLA handbook as well as both of the Prefaces to Frankenstein. While reading be sure to make notes (either in the margin or in a notebook) about the things that interest or surprise you. If you’re writing in a notebook, get in the habit of writing down the page number from which you take this information; when we get more deeply into research, such habits will pay off.

WRITING: Write a page or two on your expectations on reading Frankenstein. Have you read it before? If not, what do you know (or think you know) about the story? How do you know about it? What do you think the story will be like, or if you’ve already read it, how do you think you will approach it differently now? You will not be graded on what you say, but rather how you say it.

See more of Jan Eliot’s Stone Soup at