ParklandCollege

ENG 102 –Composition II:

“Civic Engagement through Writing”

Spring 2009

Sections 004 & 014

Instructor: Dr. Brian Nudelman

Office: C220

Office/Writing Lab Hours:

______

And by appointment.

E-mail: (please put ENG 102 in subject line of any emails sent)

  • I will contact you through your Parkland email account
  • Please check you Parkland account regularly

Office Phone: 351-2534

Required Texts:

Loeb, Paul Rogat. Soul of a Citizen: Living With Conviction in a Cynical Time. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1999.

Deans, Thomas. Writing and Community Action: A Service-Learning Rhetoric with Readings. New York: Longmans, 2003.

Optional, Yet Suggested Text:

Lunsford, Andrea A. Easy Writer: A Pocket Guide. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2006.

Other Required Materials:

  • Composition notebook or saved Word document for service-learning journal
  • 1 folder to hold all papers, quizzes, and other work
  • Access to a good dictionary and a good thesaurus
  • A stapler!

Course Description:

College Composition II is designed to help students develop the necessary skills to communicate their ideas and write effectively. Students will regularly participate in invention writing, class discussions and debates, critical reading, and peer workshops. Designed to build upon the repertoire of strategies for successful writing you learned in English 101, English 102 focuses on persuasive and researched academic writing, and will help you develop critical thinking and writing skills as you learn to synthesize your own perspectives with those of other writers. English 102 will also address grammar and vocabulary issues as needed.

This writing course will incorporate a learning framework called service-learning to utilize the writing skills learned in class to critically analyze and discuss local community needs and the underlying public issue(s) affecting those needs. Service-learning combines service to the community with student learning in a way that positively impacts both the student and the community. Students will have the opportunity to work with the students of area elementary schools, where you will volunteer 10-13 hours of tutoring during this semester.

The overall goal of this class is for you to feel a sense of increased confidence with using writing as an effective tool for communication and knowledge-making. By exploring local community issues and sharing your service experiences with others, you will bring increased awareness to specific local needs, help to work towards potential solutions, and become a more engaged citizen.

All that being said, I recognize that for many of us, writing can be quite tricky to “successfully” pull off. It sure was for me (and continues to remain so). It is my wholehearted belief, however, that with an honest and committed effort on your part, combined with thoughtful feedback and sincere support provided on mine, we can all successfully make it through this semester, along with becoming more confident and successful writers as a result.

Course Objectives:

In this course you will produce academic essays that demonstrate your ability to

  • understand the work of writing as involving a series of processes. We will develop and workshop strategies for the planning and invention of ideas, the drafting of essays, giving and receiving peer feedback on those essays, and critical revision
  • narrow and support a thesis/position that is developed thorough a consideration of multiple perspectives on significant issues.
  • use a variety of rhetorical strategies for a range of audiences and purposes, chiefly for persuasion and argument.
  • use a variety of research methods – including computerized databases – to gather, evaluate, analyze, and synthesize material from a variety of sources.
  • control the conventions of written English for academic writing, including summary, paraphrase and appropriate documentation procedures.
  • proofread and edit writing to conform to accepted standards for academic writing in English.

Service Activities:

For those students who choose to volunteer, they will be responsible for serving 11 hours throughout this semester at a local elementary school in the Champaign/Urbana school district. This should break down to once a week, for an hour. If you miss a week as a result of your own actions, you should be prepared to make up that week before the semester ends. If you missed a week due to actions by the school district, you will not need to make up that week.

Also important, please sign-in each time you volunteer at the schools. There will be folders of sign-in sheets in the offices of the schools that you volunteer in. Each day, please find yours, and fill it out appropriately. If you have questions, please ask the office assistants for help.

Ultimately, the service portion of this class will not only help you to produce stronger, more successful writing, but will provide you an experience that will benefit you in a myriad of ways. In addition to the increased sense of connection you will feel to the communities you live in, your writing will have an stronger "real-world" feel to it as you write about experiences which can and should be included on your current and future résumés.

For those students who choose not to work at the elementary schools, a fourth writing project will be assigned.

Course Projects (more information on each of these projects to come):

Service Reflection Journal – Once you are placed in a school/program, you will be required to keep a weekly journal of your service activities, experiences, and opinions. The purpose – to help you reflect on your service experiences, the community needs that you are volunteering for, and how the issues that are raised in the classroom might possibly intersect with and/or inform those experiences in the community.

Project 1 – “The Politics of Witness”: This 6-page minimum paper will ask you to explore your own experiences with particular public issues or problems, and reflect on how those “stories” might inform public policy.

Project 2 – Problem/Solution Research Paper: This 12-page minimum paper will utilize both your work in the community and your work as a college writer to both establish the importance of a particular public problem in our community, and present possible solution(s) to that problem. An Annotated Bibliography will also be explained and required for this particular project.

Project 3 – Revising the Research Essay for a Different Audience: This piece of writing will ask you to revise your more academic research essay for a more general or public audience and formally submit/send that piece of writing to its respected audience.

Course Policies:

Compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (A.D.A.):

If you believe you have a disability for which you may need an academic accommodation (including special testing, auxiliary aids, non-traditional instructional formats), please inform the instructor immediately after the second class meeting and contact one of the following for assistance:

Becky Osborne
Coordinator, Office of Disability Services
X148 353-2082

Class Attendance and Tardiness: Attendance is mandatory for this course. The course is designed as an interactive writing workshop, with emphasis on discussion and collaboration. So, you must be here to benefit from it. As a result, I make no distinction between “excused” and “unexcused” absences...there are no excused absences. For this class, more than 3 hours of absence (or excessive tardiness) will result in a lowered final course grade. For each hour of absence over 3 (or coming into class more than 10 minutes late), you will lose 5 points off your final point total. Students who miss 8 or more classes will fail the course.

If extremely unusual circumstances arise (e.g. surgery and a hospital stay), please talk to me; we might be able to negotiate a solution.

If you must miss a class, it is your responsibility to contact your classmates (or myself) to see what you have missed, and to see what the readings/assignments/expectations are for the next class. Please note...ignorance will not be accepted or appreciated as an excuse.

Late Papers: As a general rule and like the real world, late work is looked unfavorably upon. At the same time, I understand that emergencies do happen. Thus I will allow you to turn in one formal paper (not including our last paper) up to one week late. Your grade on that paper, however, will be lowered one letter grade for every 48 hours that I have not received your project. Once you have used up that one late paper, late work will not be accepted and will automatically receive 0 points. Note that late work has my lowest priority, which means sometimes I may get to it long after you turn it in. I reserve the right to respond to late work in a perfunctory fashion, maybe with a grade and a final comment. No papers will be accepted more than one week late; they will receive an automatic 0 points.

*As you can see, I fully expect students to understand and enact the specific responsibilities adults who are enrolled in college should meet. Thus, you are ultimately responsible for meeting the stated requirements of this course as they are explained in this syllabus. Please keep track of both the due dates for the papers you will write and your attendance.*

Other Important Issues:

  • You must maintain a file of all your course work – both before and after it has been responded to. Please keep all documents till the end of the semester.
  • Please learn how to take control over the computers you will be writing on. Maintain backup copies of your work, both on disk and in print, as you complete particular projects. “Computer malfunction” will not be an accepted excuse for turning in papers late. Please see me if you have any questions about computer word processing, saving your documents, etc.
  • The “process” of your writing is important for this class. Thus, when final drafts are due, you must submit all required materials with your final draft as established on the project’s assignment sheet in a folder I will supply. You must turn in a paper version of the final drafts of you projects…an emailed copy will not be accepted. Do not just email me or drop off your final draft. You cannot pass the assignment if you do.
  • All formal work will be typed, following MLA styles concerning citation and document form. In general, this amounts to:
  • setting your margins at 1 inch; 12 point font, New Times Roman or Arial
  • double spacing throughout your entire document
  • in the upper-left hand corner of your paper, putting your name, my name, ENG 102, and the date.

Plagiarism: Plagiarism is a form of theft. It means presenting the work of someone else as though it were your own, that is, without properly acknowledging the source. Sources include published material and the unpublished work of other students. If you do not acknowledge the source, you show an intention to deceive. Plagiarism can take several forms:

  • If you use someone else's words without enclosing them in quotation marks and identifying the author and work cited, you are plagiarizing.
  • If you put someone else's ideas in your own words without identifying the author and work cited, you are plagiarizing.
  • If you present new, unique, or unusual ideas and facts that are not the result of your own investigations or creativity without identifying whose they are, you are plagiarizing.

Some of you may have previously turned in papers that followed one or more of the practices above, and some of you may even have been encouraged to think that these practices were acceptable. In the world outside of high school and the college, however, such practices regularly lead to lawsuits, lost jobs, and permanent disgrace. Parkland’s responsibility is to prepare you for that world, and so it takes plagiarism very seriously. In this course, plagiarism will result in academic failure. You should remember, as well, that plagiarism is almost always easy to spot.

Any student found guilty of consciously committing plagiarism will, upon review, fail the assignment, and thus, fail the course.

If you are uncertain whether you are making the proper use of sources in your papers, do one or both of the following:

  • Play it safe, and cite the source even if the ideas you are using may turn out to be common knowledge.
  • Consult you instructor (not your friends) in advance

Academic Assessment Release Statement:

The Parkland College Academic Assessment Committee, Humanities Department Assessment Committee, and your instructor focus on the continuous improvement of learning at Parkland and within the department by gathering and analyzing samples of many students' works. By allowing us to use your work for this purpose, you will be contributing to the improvement of teaching and learning at Parkland.

If your course will be assessed this semester, your teacher will inform you which assignments are being requested for assessment. The Assessment Committee will be evaluating student progress in order to ensure that what is being taught and learned is consistent with course goals.

You will not be identified in the analysis. Your participation does not affect your grade in the course.

By submitting assignments designated by your instructor for assessment, you acknowledge that you understand our purpose for collecting your work for analysis and that you give us permission to use a copy of your written work.

If you choose not to have your work used to improve learning at Parkland, please write "I do not give consent for the use of this work by the Academic Assessment Committee or other college assessment committees" at the top of your paper, and it will not be included in the analysis.

Grade Distribution and Miscellaneous Course Issues:

Your final grade for this class will be born out of a point system. After the semester’s work has been completed, your earned points will be added up and allotted a grade based on the following distribution:

550- 495 = A439- 385 = C 329-0 = F

494- 440 = B 384- 330 = D

-Grade Breakdown-

Project 1 – "Politics of Witness" Essay100

Project 2 –Problem/Solution Essay150

Project 3 –Revised Research Project100

Annotated Bibliography for Project 2 50

Project 4 - Service-Learning Hours completed100

*Or 10 page "Research Argumentative Essay"

11+ hours – 100 points

9-10 hours --85 points

7-8 hours --75 points

5-6 hours --65 points

1-5 hours --0 points

Reflection Journal 25

Class Participation 25

You must successfully complete all four projects for this course (meeting all basic requirements for each of the projects) to be eligible for a grade of C or higher. A grade of C or higher is necessary to receive transfer credit for English 102 at college/universities in Illinois.

An extra note on class participation: commitment and involvement are crucial to this class and will be a part of your grade. I hope you understand that --in this class and others – you have control over your success or failure; you have power over your attitude and behavior, which will determine how much or how little you learn. You need to bring appropriate attitudes to class.

This also means not using cell phones during class time, nor surfing the web during class discussions. I reserve the right to ask you to leave (and mark you absent) if you continue pursuing these activities after being formally identified.

Withdrawal Policy: The withdrawal policy can be found in the College Catalog. It states that at midterm (date varies by course depending on start/end date), the faculty member is required to certify students’ attendance, and students who have ceased to attend must be withdrawn. “After midterm, faculty cannot withdraw any student; withdrawal from a course must be done by the student prior to 5 p.m. on the last day to withdraw as published in the Parkland class schedule."

Center for Academic Success:

If you find yourself needing assistance of any kind to complete assignments, stay on top of readings, study for tests, or just to stay in school, please contact one of the following staff at the Center for Academic Success:
Anita Taylor (Phone: 353-2005) or Gail Hoke (Phone: 351-2441) in D120.
You may also email the CAS at: .

ps. You should also have in your possession a good dictionary. Some suggestions are American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, The Random House College Dictionary, and Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary.

p.p.s. As you will learn, I am a very fair and understanding instructor. My expectations for each of you are to do the assigned readings and writings, come to class prepared for the day's topic of discussion, and overall, show an interested and active attitude towards the work.

These goals being met will, in addition to your passing the class successfully, greatly increase both your written and vocal techniques for explaining and defending your values and beliefs, both important and necessary out there in the "real world."