WR115 INTRODUCTION TO WRITING
Instructor: Debbie Killingsworth
Office: SSH 205
Office Hours: MWF: 12m – 1pm
Telephone: 917-4524
E-Mail:
Course Canvas Shell:
Course Info: CRN 30022 MWF 2:00pm – 2:50pm Takena Hall 217
Final Exams: Monday, March 14 @ 12 – 12:50 and Tuesday, March 15 @ 11:30 – 12:20
Text & Materials:
- Models for Writers, Short Essays for Composition, 11th edition, Rosa & Eschholz
- The Little Seagull Handbook, Bullock & Weinberg
- Writer’s Notebook (3-ring folder) and pocket folder to turn in writing projects
- Access to the internet (Canvas shell)
- Jump drive for saving work in the computer lab
- Two Examination Blue Books for WR115 Final Exam Practice and WR115 Final Exam
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
Welcome to WR115, a workshop and discussion class in introductory writing. You can look forward to
- Practicing a variety of techniques for writing and revising paragraphs and essays
- Reading a rich assortment of essays to develop your good critical reading skills and enhance your writing
- Reviewing and using strong study skills, grammar and mechanical skills, and collaborative skills throughout the term
I will always try to be enthusiastic, honest, fair, and inspiring. I will expect you to be interested, consistently present, engaged, a contributor to class workshops and discussions, and a diligent reader and writer.
Learning Outcomes: With your successful completion of this class, you will be able to:
1. Write thoughtful, clear, and effective expository paragraphs and essays for a variety of purposes.
2. Read critically; paraphrase, summarize, and directly quote from readings.
3. Write clear, focused, and well-organized summary and response paragraphs using in-text citations.
4. Focus a thesis and develop this thesis clearly and logically using examples and illustrations in a well-organized essay.
5. Revise writing using standard college editing and proofreading conventions (grammar, syntax, spelling, and punctuation).
6. Enjoy confidence in your own writing.
Attendance / Participation and Time Management
Attendance is essential for many reasons. In this class, we expect you to be a team player in reading responses and writing processes. Also, material is often covered in class that is not in your texts. Plan to attend every class session. If you miss a class, you are responsible forgetting the missed information.
Organize and plan your time wisely. Allow at least two hours outside class for every hour spent in class. Please, do your work on time.
To ensure that your attendance is satisfactory, you will only be allowed to miss a total of 6 days throughout the term before incurring a reduction of your final grade. Every additional missed day of class will result in a 3.33% drop in your final letter grade; for example if you miss 9 days (3 more than you are allowed), your grade will drop from a B to a C.
Tardiness is also very distracting to the classroom environment as a whole. Please come to class on time. If you are tardy more than 4 times, I will start counting every tardy as 1/3rd of an absence.
PLEASE COMPLETE READINGS AND WRITING ASSIGNMENTS BEFORE COMING TO CLASS.
The LBCC community is enriched by diversity of all kinds. We all share the privilege of thinking, learning, and working together in an encouraging environment. In our classroom community, we will work toward creating and enjoying a community of mutual respect, appreciation, and goodwill.
Additional Guidelines:
- Word-process final revised paragraphs and essays.
- Turn in rough drafts and peer comments (workshop notes) with polished, revised essay assignments.
- An assignment is not considered “turned in” until I have a hard copy of that assignment. While electronic submissions are useful, any work that is not turned in to me as a hard copy will be considered late regardless of whether or not you have emailed me an electronic version of your assignment.
- Do your work on time. Our class is organized around extensive revision: therefore, your rough drafts and final papers need to be on time.Late work is not accepted without prior written permission from me.This means that if you need more time on an assignment, you must ask (not tell) me if you can turn that assignment in at a specific later date. Be prepared for me to say no.
- Do your own work. Simply put: Don’t plagiarize (using someone else’s work as your own without proper in-text citations and documentation).
Campus Resources
Conferences with your teacher (917-4524) – Please visit with me (SSH205) early in the termand often throughout the term with interests, questions, problems, or concerns.
LIBRARY (917-4638)
Writing Helps: a cooperative writing service including ESOL, Writing Center, Writing and
Study Skills Labs and more.
Writing Center and OWL (Online Writing Lab)
Writing Center Assistants and Writing Peer Tutors will provide assistance (not copy editing, not correcting!) with specific paragraph and essay assignments.
GRADING Your final grade for WR115 (100%) will be composed of your class grade – see following Assignment Log – (70% of Final Grade) and WR115 Final Exam (30%).
“Writing is like making a table. With both you are working with reality, a material just as hard as wood.Both are full of tricks and techniques. Basically very little magic and a lot of hard work are involved . . . What is a privilege, however, is to do a job to your own satisfaction.” Gabriel Garcia Marquez
WRITING CENTER
From invention to revision, beginning to end, the LBCC Writing Center can help you take your writing to the next level. Please feel free to drop in during regular hours to work one-on-one with a Writing Assistant. In addition to your draft, bring your assignment and any questions you have. You may also submit your writing online at lbcc.writingcenteronline.net where you will get a personalized response within 1 – 2 business days.
WR 115 STUDENT LOG SHEET
“I never quite know when I’m not writing.”
James Thurber
SUMMARY/RESPONSE WRITING(100)
_____ Summary/Response #1 (50)
_____ Summary/Response #2 (50)
ESSAY WRITING(200)
_____ Essay #1 Literacy Narrative (100)
_____ Essay #2 Using Sources (100)
FINAL PRACTICE/PRETEST (100)
_____ Practice Summary #1 (20)
_____ Practice Summary #2 (20)
_____ Practice Summary #3 (20)
_____ Final Practice Summary Paragraph (20)
_____ Final Practice Response Paragraph (20)
WRITING EXERCISES (100)
______#1 Introductory Writing
______#2 Summary and Response Outlining
______#3 Revision Workshop
______#4 Shaping and Outlining
______#5 Peer Review Workshop Essay 1
______#6 Integrating Quotations
______#7 Sentence Play
______#8 Working Outline Essay 2
______#9 Postscript Essay 2
______#10 TBA
Schedule of AssignmentsWeek / Day / Before Class / In Class / Handouts to Receive / Work To Turn In:
1 / W 1/6 / Welcome and Overview / Syllabus
“Superman and Me” by Sherman Alexie
"Writing Exercise #1" / "Using Sources"
“Summary Response”
"Writing Exercise #1"
F 1/8 / MODELS: “From Reading to Writing” pp. 47-55 / Discuss: "From Reading to Writing" and "Superman and Me"
HANDOUT: "Superman and Me" / Practice: Note taking, critical reading and writing strategies
2 / M 1/11 / "Summary and Response Paragraph Assignment" / Summary and Response Paragraph Assignment / "Response Writing"
MODELS: "Salvation" pp. 230-234 / MODELS: "Salvation"
MODELS: "Becoming a Writer" pp. 204-209 / MODELS: "Becoming a Writer" / WE #2
MODELS: "What's In a Name" pp. 376-80 / MODELS: "What's In a Name"
W 1/13 / HANDOUT: "Summary Response" / HANDOUT: "Using Sources"
HANDOUT: "Using Sources" / HANDOUT: "Summary Response"
"Response Writing" / WE#2 Summary and Response Outline
"Response Writing"
F 1/15 / Re-read the essay you've chosen for summary / response / Practice: Writing a Summary Paragraph / WE #3 and Summary and Response Paragraph Checklist / Practice Summary #1
WE#3 Summary and Response Paragraph Checklist / Essay #1: Literacy Narrative Guidelines
LSH: Revising, Editing, and Proofreading pp. 13-15 / “Ghosts”
“Through the Darkness”
“Sink or Swim”
“To Destroy Fear”
3 / M 1/18 / MLK JR Birthday - No Class!
W 1/20 / Essay #1: Literacy Narrative Guidelines / Essay #1: Literacy Narrative Guidelines / Narrative Pre-Write Guidelines / WE#2
“Ghosts” / “Ghosts” / WE#3
“Through the Darkness” / “Through the Darkness” / Summary and Response #1
“Sink or Swim” / “Sink or Swim”
“To Destroy Fear” / “To Destroy Fear”
F 1/22 / Narrative Pre-Write Guidelines / No formal class. Instead, meet at the Learning Center to Work on Narrative PreWrite.
4 / M 1/25 / LSH: Writing Process pp. 9-top of 12 / WE#4: Shaping and Outlining
MODELS: “Thesis” p 79-81; “Unity” p 98-101; Organization, p 121-126; “Beginnings and Endings p 144-152; “Transitions” p 192-195
W 1/27 / Review Grammar Diagnostic
F 1/29 / Practice Summary #2 / Practice Summary #2
5 / M 2/1 / WE#5 Peer Review of Literacy Narrative
W 2/3 / Discuss Practice Summary #1 and #2 / Post Script, "I Have A Dream" / Essay #1: Literacy Narrative, WE #3, #4, #5, Post Script, all PreWriting
F 2/5 / I Have A Dream by Martin Luther King, Jr. / I Have A Dream by Martin Luther King, Jr. / "Using Sources: Direct Quotations "
Models: Figurative Language pp.320-321 / Models: Figurative Language
6 / M 2/8 / "Using Sources: Direct Quotations " / WE #6 Integrating Quotations / Duncan Farver’s model Summary Response of King’s “Dream”
MODELS: "Writing with Sources" pp. 240-257
Little Seagull: “Integrating Sources” pp.97-108
W 2/10 / MODELS: “The Barrio,” by Robert Ramirez pp 204-209 / MODELS: “The Barrio,” by Robert Ramirez / Grammar Worksheet
MODELS: “Anxiety: Challenge by Another Name” pp. 93-97 / MODELS: “Anxiety: Challenge by Another Name”
Duncan Farver’s model Summary Response of King’s “Dream” / Duncan Farver’s model Summary Response of King’s “Dream”
F 2/12 / Good, solid draft of Summary / Response #2 / Peer Review Summary / Response #2
7 / M 2/15 / Faculty Workday - No Class
W 2/17 / WE#7 Sentence Play - Bring Essay #1 / Practice Summary #3
Practice Summary #3 / Summary / Response #2, WE #6, #7
F 2/19 / MODELS: "Anxiety: Challenge by Another Name" / Essay #2: Assignment Guidelines / “Waste Not, Want Not”
MODELS: "Using Your Reading in the Writing Process" pp. 61-63 / “Home is Where”
Choose 2 possible candidates from the essays in Modelsfrom which to write your next essay / Discuss the readings / “Struggling Against the Current"
8 / M 2/22 / “Waste Not, Want Not” / Pre-Write / WE#8: Working Outline
“Home is Where”
“Struggling Against the Current" / Discuss the readings
W 2/24 / WE#8: Working Outline
F 2/26 / Peer Review Essay #2 / WE#9: Post Script
9 / M 2/29 / WE#9 PostScript / Rangefinder Essay / Essay #2, WE#8, WE#9, all prewriting
WR115 Final Exam and Scoring Guide
W 3/2 / WR115 Final Exam and Scoring Guide / Rangefinder Discussion
Rangefinder Essay
F 3/4 / Rangefinder Discussion
10 / M 3/7 / Practice Final Exam / Practice Final Exam
W 3/9 / Practice Final Exam / Practice Final Exam
F 3/11 / Discuss Practice Final Exam
Finals / M 3/14 - 12-12:50 / Bring 2 "Blue" books and pens and pencils to the exam
T 3/15 - 11:30 - 12:20
115 Syllabus
pg. 1