| Jim Neal--001 Division of Liberal Arts and Sciences Department of English/Foreign Languages/Journalism Missouri Western State College Syllabus Course: ENG 108-90N College Writing and Research, 6:30-9:20 p.m. Mondays, MC 211 Semester/Year: fall 2000 Office and Phone: JGM 312; 271-4239; my e-mail address is neal@planetkc.com Office Hours: I have no office hours, but I would be happy to meet with you before or after class. Required Texts: Language in Thought and Action by S. I. Hayakawa (fifth edition) Writing from Sources by Brenda Spatt (fifth edition) Students will engage in exploratory writing exercises in which they learn how to *analyze, *synthesize, and *evaluate the thinking of others in order to *discover, *develop, and *test their own points of view. Students will complete a minimum of three researched writing projects and a final exam in ENG 108. Students will keep complete portfolios of all writing that is done in ENG 108. Before any grade appeal will be processed for a student in ENG 100, 104, or 108, the complete portfolio of writings will have to be submitted to the Department Review Committee. Grading Formula: All students are required to submit all work within the assigned specifications and on time and to come to class prepared. Attitude, effort, and attendance are a must. Students must complete all assigned papers to pass the course. The students’ grade will be based upon the scores received on the assigned papers, pop quizzes and in-class themes, the final exam, and bonus and penalty points. The following grading scale will be used in this class: 0 - 59% = F, 60 - 69% = D, 70 - 79% = C, 80 - 89% = B, and 90 -100%= A. The papers must fulfill the assignment completely to be accepted. The papers will be graded holistically and receive a letter grade of A for excellent, B for above average, C for average, D for below average, and F for unsatisfactory. This grade will then be translated into a percentile reflecting the grading scale in the previous paragraph. The percentile grade will be recorded. The criteria I will use to arrive at this grade are unity, support, coherence, sentence skills, and following directions. Students must avoid these serious errors, any single instance of which has the potential of lowering a grade one letter: ruptures in paragraph unity, choppiness, sentence fragments, fused sentences, verb ruptures (time and number unity), pronoun ruptures (in unity, ambiguous antecedent, use of improper case), misplaced modifiers, comma splices, and rambling sentences (more than two independent clauses joined by a repeated conjunction). Students should also avoid these minor errors: spelling, typing, or capitalization errors; abbreviations; use of low or improper diction, such as "you," "just," "get," "got," or "a lot"; omitted or repeated words; use of the adjective rather than the adverbial case, or vise versa, such as "secondly," "more importantly," or "hopefully"; ending sentences with prepositions; split infinitives; parentheses; use of double prepositions or double negatives; faulty parallelism or faulty coordination; one-sentence paragraphs; ending a list with a non-specific term or etc.; or punctuation errors. I do not grade on style; opinion; or topic, unless it falls outside the perimeters of the assignment. Assigned papers will be considered late at the end of the class period on which they are due regardless of things like computer problems. Late papers will be penalized ten percentage points for each class session they are late, though I will not accept papers which are more than two weeks late, meaning the student will not pass the course. Penalty points may not be made up. Failing papers may be rewritten once, though the revised grade will not exceed 70%; however, if the paper is very good except for one problem area, I might, at my discretion, allow a student to correct it and split the difference. Rewrites of papers 1-3 must be accompanied by the graded copy and submitted to the instructor within three weeks of the paper's original due date; rewrites of paper 4 are due by the end of the final exam. Students who simply omit a problem indicated on a graded paper will still be charged for the error on the rewrite. Rewrites that are not rewritten will be recorded as 20%. I claim at least a week to grade papers. At the conclusion of the term, I will figure a percentage, which will break down as follows: papers 85% (papers 3 and 4 count as two papers each), pop-quizzes and in-class themes 5%, and the final exam 5%. To this average I will add up to five percentage points for perfect attendance, consistent and constructive class participation, effort, and courtesy. I will subtract up to five percentage points from the averages of those students who have come to class ill-prepared or displayed rude or inconsiderate behavior such as talking other than when called upon, eating, drinking, smoking, eye rolling, desk diving, yawning or sighing loudly and blatantly, sitting with feet propped up on chairs or desks, note passing, or sleeping. Tobacco chewing is not allowed. Students who engage in any of these activities will receive two verbal warnings before being required to move to seating assigned by the instructor and/or meet with the dean. Rudeness toward the instructor or fellow students will not be tolerated. These points will be awarded or deducted entirely at the instructor's personal discretion. Objectionable material: This class may contain frank and open discussions of gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity. There is a possibility that religion, politics, drugs, and alcohol may pop up as well. The class discussions may include words that some consider profane. Occasionally, the instructor might, at his personal discretion, cross-dress and/or interject humor as an attempt to enliven the discussion and render the experience more palatable. . Academic Honesty: Since honesty in the classroom is required, cheating, plagiarism, or knowingly furnishing false information to the college constitutes a violation. Portfolios: Students must maintain a portfolio of graded papers to verify assignments completed or dispute a grade. This must be turned in one week before the final exam, and it will be returned on the day of the final. Course grades will not be issued until the portfolio is handed in. Students with Disabilities: Any student in this course who has a disability that prevents the fullest expression of abilities should contact me as soon as possible so that we can discuss class requirements.
The Papers These are subject to change! All papers may be made up or contain fictional information. I never assume that what students write actually happened or reflects their personal opinions. The students may be as creative or frivolous as they wish, as long as they satisfy all aspects of the assignment. Feel free to add Richard Simmons, Elvis's ghost, and/or flying saucers. These papers can be fun. Papers #2-4 inclusive must be documented in accordance with the specifications and guidelines covered in chapter nine, especially pages 372-81, pages 397-409 except 407, and pages 442-51 in Writing from Sources. Each must contain a minimum of six cites from a minimum of two works cited entries. Of these, at least one must be from a book-length source other than a reference work or a computer-accessed source, and one must be from a periodical source other than a computer-accessed source. This documentation must be in current MLA style, and I want parenthetical cites. Introduce your quotes and paraphrases and identify your sources. Some of you may be tempted to respond to these assignments by turning in papers written for another class, perhaps written by someone else. This temptation must be resisted! Don't do it! It will not work! Papers 2 and 3 must contain and develop with a minimum of three proof points a thesis which says, in effect, "this is bad," "this is good," "we should do this," or "we should not do this" and be organized in the "persuasive appeal" format presented in class. Paper #1: "Contrasting Views" This is a warm-up paper, in which students contrast the political views of two groups of people in response to a certain problem. Or, if the students wish, they may discuss a minimum of three differences between two groups of people based on race, gender, nationality, political persuasion, sexual orientation, or other socially significant criteria. Documentation is neither required nor desired, even if the paper contains statistics or quotes. This is your basic five-paragraph paper (I'm referring to the format rather than the number of paragraphs--a "five-paragraph" paper must have at least five paragraphs, but it may have more than three proof paragraphs if the student desires). The paper must have an introduction, a minimum of three proof points, and a conclusion. I want two sentences in the introduction: a thesis statement and a proof summary. The thesis statement must be "This group (women, Democrats, pro-lifers, etc.) is different from this group (men, Republicans, pro-choicers, etc.)," or "Americans and Mexicans have different opinions concerning NAFTA." The proof summary would be "Three (or more) ways in which men (or whatever) are different from women (or whatever) are x, y, and z. I want the proof paragraphs developed in the order in which the proof points were summarized, with transitional expressions; clear topic sentences; and unified, detailed support. I want the first part of each proof paragraph to cover certain criteria regarding that category from one group's perspective, followed by a transitional expression, followed by an explanation of how the second group's response differs regarding those same criteria, in the same order they were covered in the first half of the paragraph. I want a two-sentence conclusion, the first of which must be introduced by a transitional expression, followed by a re-affirm the thesis. The next sentence is an editorial comment. I DO NOT want a proof summary in the conclusion. Though the papers must cover difference in two actual, distinct groups of people, the main proof points as well as the minor support points may be inaccurate, stereotypical, or even silly. As students write about the differences in any two groups, I think they will conclude that no group is monolithic, that the differences between groups are more apparent than real, and that these differences shrink to insignificance when compared to the similarities. Paper #2: The conclusion of this paper must contain one of the "short cuts" presented in the "ethical appeal" lecture. You may, if you wish, present one in the introduction and/or refutation as well. In addition, this paper must be accompanied by a separate piece of paper upon which the argument will be reduced to the form of a syllogism. Here is the checklist I use to grade paper #2: 1. a clear thesis and proof summary in the introduction or statement of fact. 2. 1,000 words of text (if either step one or two is missing, I stop and return the paper, which is then late, to the student, as it is not what was assigned). 3. One of the "short cuts" to the ethical appeal in the conclusion. 4. Syllogism. 5. A proper works cited page, with a book-length source and periodical source. Paper #3: The conclusion of this paper must present a specific object which will elicit a specific emotional response from the reader. The introduction and/or refutation may contain the same or similar objects as well. The checklist on three is the same as on paper #2, except that there is no syllogism, and instead of the ethical appeal, I look for the emotional appeal in the conclusion. Paper #4: This paper must follow the "two-scenario appeal" format presented in lecture. Points 2 & 5 of the checklist on paper #4 are the same as for papers two and three. In addition, I look for a pair of paragraphs after the introduction and statement of fact, one of which begins with a clear transitional expression and proposed solution and the other of which begins with a transitional expression which shows contrast, introducing a counter solution. If I don’t see these paragraphs, I stop and return the paper, which is then late, to the student, as it is not what was assigned. The text of this paper must also contain a labeled figure of speech (at least as specific as scheme or trope). The conclusion contains neither emotional nor ethical appeal, nor does the paper contain a syllogism. This is subject to change!
Weeks 1-4: "The Honeymoon" Everyone likes everyone else; school is new, fun, and interesting. Everyone should try it. We’re lucky to be here. Week 1 August 21: We get acquainted; handouts distributed and explained, “standard format” lecture, paper #1 assigned, read chapters 1 and 2 in Hayakawa (all assigned readings will be in Hayakawa) August 28: “research and documentation” lecture, readings discussed Week 3 September 11: “persuasive appeal” lecture, paper #2 assigned, peer tutorials, read chapters 3 & 4 Week 4 September 18: paper #1 due, "logical appeal" lecture, "ethical appeal" lecture, readings discussed and assignment reviewed, read chapters 5 & 6 Weeks 5 and 6: "The Days of Rage" You’ve just received your first paper back. You hate me. You say bad things to and about me. You glare at me and mutter in class. I don’t seem to realize that you may not be as fascinated by this boring, stupid subject as I am. I don’t realize that you have other classes and other interests and that you have to work to pay your bills. You fabricate a Voodoo fetish doll in my likeness and stick pins into it while burning a black candle and chanting a litany of all the terrible things you hope will happen to me, most of which already have. Week 5 September 25: readings discussed, peer tutorials, read chapters 7 & 9 Week 6 October 2: paper #2 due, paper #3 assigned, “emotional appeal” lecture, readings discussed Week 7 October 16: last day rewrites will be accepted on paper #1, assignment reviewed, read chapters 10-12 October 23: readings discussed, peer tutorials October 27 is the last day to drop courses without academic assessment. If you are failing the course, I would advise you to withdraw. Weeks 9-11: "The Black Hole" You hate school. You’re sick and tired of the teachers, the assignments, going to class, studying--the whole thing. Your relationships and health are suffering. You’ve lost your sense of humor. You’re behind on your bills, and your car needs work, but you can’t afford to have it fixed. The attendance policy is catching up with some of your fellow students, and they are dropping like flies. Some of your classmates have appealed my grading criteria and attendance policies but have lost, and now they’re considering hiring a lawyer. You would rather fail—let’s be honest, you’d rather die—than have to write another paper or sit through another boring lecture. That job at McDonalds doesn’t sound so bad any more, and in some moments it is downright appealing. All is darkness. No end is in sight. You’ve gone into the "ultraglide" mode. The clutch is in, and you’re coasting. This will basically continue until the end of the term. Week 9 October 30: paper #3 due, “two-scenario appeal” lecture, paper #4 assigned, last day rewrites will be accepted on paper #2, read chapters 13 & 14 Week 10 November 6: “figures of speech” lecture, assignment reviewed, read chapters 15 & 16 Week 11 November 13: peer tutorials, readings discussed, read chapter 17 Weeks 12-13: "There’s Light at the End of the Tunnel!!" All those people who were complaining are gone. Summer vacation is just around the corner! Finals are only a couple weeks away, and I’ll be done! Can I make it? Are you kidding me? Are bears Buddhists? Heck yes I can make it! Week 12 November 20: paper #4 due, “the writer's tools” lecture, last day rewrites will be accepted on paper #3, read chapter 18 Reminder: rewrites which are not rewritten will receive a grade of 20%, and students who do not complete all assigned papers will not pass the course Week 13 November 27: readings discussed, review for final exam, portfolio due, grades verified Final Week: Give thanks! Rejoice! Praise your God, Allah, Jehovah, Buddha, Confucius, Baal, Tophet, Emanuel Kant, and/or whom/whatever. It’s over! It’s Over!! IT’S OVER!!!!! Final exam: Monday, December 4, at 6:30 p.m.
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