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Syllabus English 5Critical Thinking Online

Spring 2013 Berkeley City College

Instructor: Georgie Ziff

Email:

Code: 23906

Course Websites:

Moodle -Berkeley City College: online.peralta.edu/spring2013

Turnitin.com: (Course #5986510: Password: english) You must register at the site to be able to upload the final drafts of your essays. The process is explained in detail online.

My website: In addition to Moodle, the class syllabus, schedule, essay information, peer review sheets, presentation guidelines, and reading journal information are all posted on the class page on my website.

Online Grade Book: you will login with the access code provided by me, and then will create your own username and password

Video Central – to view some of the videos in the weekly lessons, you will login with my email address and the password: english.

Required Texts/Materials:

Writing Logically, Thinking Criticallyby Cooper and Patton

ISBN 978-0-205-66856-4

Email and Internet Requirements:

You will be accessing websites for articles, videos, and powerpoints, in addition to submitting assignments and essays,so youmust have reliable and consistent access to a computer and the internet in order to pass the course.

Contact Information:

If you experience technical or Moodle issues, please contact the Moodle Help folks directly for assistance.

If you have questions about the course, please be sure to read the Orientation, FAQs, Syllabus, Calendar, and links on Moodle thoroughly for requirements, assignments, and due dates.

I am available by emailthrough Quickmail on Moodle. If emailing from outside Moodle, youmustput this in the subject line: “Berkeley City College Eng 5 Your Name”. Emails with the correct information in the subject line received between 9am and 5pm will be responded to the same day; emails received after 5pm or on the weekend will be responded to on Monday, or the first working day of the week.

Course Description:

English 5 is designed to develop your ability to analyze, evaluate, and form a critical response to primary and secondary works from a range of academic and cultural contexts. You will be expected to develop the critical methods of inquiry and evaluation that are widely used in written analysis and argument across disciplines, and you will be asked to apply these methods of analysis and argument in analytical papers and in class discussions and presentations.

Student Learning Outcomes:

* Apply active reading strategies in order to identify main ideas and critically analyze and explain ideas in texts

* Evaluate the pattern of reasoning present in an argument and related critical evaluation, including induction, deduction and the logical fallacies

* Apply fundamentals of critical thinking to writing well organized, well developed, effective, well edited, cited, logically sound essays and a research paper

*Practice the conventions of academic writing, including introduction to Modern Language Association (MLA) documentation style of citation.

Course Assignments:

Summary/Response/Evaluation Weekly Assignment Topics:

Your task is to read the hyperlinked article, watch the video, and view the powerpoint, and then write three paragraphs:

1. Paragraph one summarizes the assignment; this describes the main points of the article/video/powerpoint.

2. Paragraph two is your response: what you learned, how it may influence your writing.

3. Paragraph three evaluates by comparing and contrasting how the topic is discussed and explained in the different media formats. How does audience and purpose affect the creation of the video, for example? Look at the fonts and styles used in the powerpoints. Examine the language of the article. Which media did you find most effective and why?

Assignments are due Friday 5 pm. Type your work directly into the text editor window on Moodle, DO NOT use file attachments for assignments.

Full credit of 5 points for work submitted on time; 3 points for late work the following week; 1 point thereafter.

Essay Assignments:There will be multiple essay assignments.Due dates are on the Moodle Calendar.Late work is discouraged and will receive a full grade deduction.

You will write multiple drafts, which will be peer-reviewed online in a group workshop, and the final draft is submitted through Turnitin.com., a plagiarism detection website.

Each paper will be 3 – 4 pages.

Read the descriptions of the assignments in the text and on the Guide to the Writing Logically Thinking Critically Major Writing Assignments page on my website.

Writing Format Guidelines: MLA formatting

  • double spaced
  • one inch margins
  • size 12 standard fonts
  • your name in the upper left corner of your first page
  • page numbers in the upper right corner.

Online Group Presentations:

On Moodle, you are organized into groups of 7. Together, using the chat tools or by email, your group will create a power point or video and upload it to Moodle to share with the class. You will present a topic or an article about writing, a broad topic that will need narrowing down. You and your group may browse my website for ideas, but you aren’t limited to those resources. Topics must be approved by me. Presentations are due last week of class, by Wednesday; your classmates will view your presentation and post an evaluation to provide feedback by Friday.

Grading in this course:

  • Essaysare worth 60% of your grade.
  • Assignments are worth 15% of your grade.
  • The Class Presentation counts for 10% of your grade.
  • Forum participation counts for 15% of your grade

Forum Discussion Board:

Consistent participation in the Forum and assignment submission is crucial to your success in the class. Posts are due inthe Forum by Wednesday midnight, and responses to TWO of your classmates’posts no later than 5 pm Friday, after which the Forum is closed. Late posts are not accepted, andwill not receive credit.

Forum Etiquette

In this class, there will be a lot of discussion. We will all be attempting to answer questions, voice opinions, agree and/or disagree with each other, and present findings. None of this is possible unless we create a comfortable environment. To do this, a few rules apply:

  1. Show respect for your classmates and their ideas. During discussions, many different opinions will be expressed. All are welcomed and none are to be ridiculed.
  2. Use appropriate language during discussion.
  3. Refrain from expressing disgruntlement during class.

Academic honesty and plagiarism policy:

Cheating or plagiarism will not be tolerated and will result in severe disciplinary action. Students are required to view and respond to the lesson on plagiarism provide a signature pledging that work submitted is their own.

Cheating is defined as possessing unauthorized sources of information during an exam; copying the work of another student during an exam; completing an assignment for another student; submitting out-of-class work for an in-class assignment; retaining exams or other materials after they were supposed to be returned to the instructor; submitting the same paper for two different classes without approval of both instructors; and inventing data or falsifying an account of data collection.

Plagiarism is taking the words of another and either copying or paraphrasing those words without giving credit to the source (through parenthetical citations, quotation marks, reference citations, all of which we will go over in class). This includes using material from the Internet without citing correctly. I am required to file a report of academic dishonesty with the Department of Academic Affairs should an act of plagiarism occur. The first incidence of plagiarism will result in an “F” on the assignment and you will be reported to the Dean of the College. If plagiarism occurs a second time, you will fail the course.

Grievance Policy

English Department Grievance Policy: All student grievances concerning grading or other areas are to be brought to the attention of the course instructor before any other action can be. If you cannot find a resolution to your grievance, then you and your instructor will meet with the head of the composition program or the Dean of the English Department.

Disability Accommodations

If you have a documented disability and wish to discuss academic accommodations, or if you would need assistance in the event of an emergency, please contact me as soon as possible.

Final notes:This syllabus is subject to change as needed. I may also assign individualized homework to help you improve particular writing skills.