Instructor: Dr. Roberts
Office: SS/C 222
Phone: 271-5810
Office Hours: By appointment
E-mail: robertsi@missouriwestern.edu
URL: http://staff.missouriwestern.edu/~robertsi

Course Philosophy and Objectives

I write when I'm inspired, and I see to it that I'm inspired at nine o'clock every morning. -- Peter de Vries

In  English 108, you will learn:

• to write for different audiences and purposes
• to use active reading and critical thinking
• to use writing processes
• written conventions
• to write for different audiences and purposes
• to use active reading and critical thinking

Communicating:

• Analyze and evaluate their own and others’ speaking and writing.
• Conceive of writing as a recursive process that involves many strategies, including generating material, evaluating sources when used, drafting, revising, and editing.
• Make formal written and oral presentations employing correct diction, syntax, usage, grammar, and mechanics.
• Focus on a purpose (e.g., explaining, problem solving, argument) and vary approaches to writing and speaking based on that purpose.
• Respond to the needs of different audiences and choose words for appropriateness and effect.

• Recognize the problematic elements of presentations of information and argument.
• Formulate questions for clarifying issues and solving problems.
• Use linguistic, mathematical or other symbolic approaches to describe problems, identify alternative solutions, and make reasoned choices among those solutions.
• Analyze and synthesize information from a variety of relevant sources and use the results to address complex situations and problems.
• Defend conclusions using relevant evidence and reasoned argument.
• Reflect on and evaluate their critical-thinking processes.

• Access and/or generate information from a variety of sources, including the most contemporary technological information services.
• Evaluate information for its currency, usefulness, truthfulness, and accuracy.
• Organize, store, and retrieve information efficiently.
• Reorganize information for an intended purpose, such as research projects.
• Present information clearly and concisely, using traditional and contemporary technologies.

Required Materials

Texts:

• Manor, Martin. The Research Process: A Complete Guide to and Reference for Writers . Second Edition. Mountain View, CA: Mayfield Publishing Company, 2000.

• A Student E-mail Account at MWSC.
• To participate fully in this course, you must have ready internet access and be able to complete the assignments in a timely manner. Assignments are due every Monday and Thursday, at noon CST, and no late work is accepted, except as outlined in the Course Policies.
• Students must  find adequate time to go to the college's library to complete assignments. NOTE: While public libraries are nice places to gather general information, they are not considered research libraries and so do not often have many specialized research materials. You must have access to a college libraries specialized resources in order to do well in the course.
• For word processing, you must use Microsoft Word, or another compatible program. Compatibility means that files converted from some other program to MSWord retain their original format and layout and conform to MLA manuscript guidelines. One way to make files compatible is to save them as .rtf (Rich Text Format) files.
• To get started, read over the Syllabus and the linked Getting Started Instructions and  Unit Overview Pages on the Course Schedule below.

Pre-Writings and Research Exercises
To find and develop topic ideas, students will do a number of brainstorming, freewriting, and invention exercises for each project. Students will also develop their skills at research by doing a number of exercises designed to introduce them to the library and the other information sources. Students must  find adequate time to go to the college's library to complete assignments. NOTE: While public libraries are nice places to gather general information, they are not considered research libraries and so do not often have many specialized research materials. You must have access to a college libraries specialized resources in order to do well in the course.

Research Project
For their research project, students will learn how to find topics, generate arguments, find and evaluate sources, write a prospectus with an annotated bibliography, and write and edit a formal academic research paper. Researching and writing a prospectus allows the beginning college researcher to become more comfortable with the process of researching, topic formation, and formal documentation.

Course Policies and Requirements

Saving Work

Students should save all their work, both graded and ungraded, for this class--from notes to drafts to final papers. There may be occasions when work needs to be re-submitted or grades verified. Back up disk copies should be made religiously at the end of each day's work, and if possible, make a current print copy as well.

All work for this course must be word processed and submitted in the format specified by the assignment. Be sure to follow submission guidelines provided with each assignment carefully in order to receive full credit for your submissions.

Learning is a cumulative process and each assignment in this course is designed to build on the last assignment; therefore late work disrupts this important aspect of the learning process. Since this is a very short summer session, no late work will be accepted under any circumstances. Further, no work can be accepted after noon CST on Thursday, June 24, 2004.

. . . it is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation. -- Herman Melville

Plagiarism is literally the stealing of others' words and ideas and using them as your own. Make every effort to give credit where credit is due, and if you are not sure of "how"--ASK. Students are responsible for proving that all work turned in for grading is their own original work. Plagiarism is a serious offense and, therefore, will receive harsh punishment. Work with evidence of plagiarism will result in failure of the course.  Don't think that you won't be caught; writing style is distinctive and verifiable.

Students are expected to be courteous and respectful in all of their exchanges with the instructor and other students. Because this course is conducted without face-to-face encounters, one should be particularly careful to note how tone, rhetoric, and language all contribute to the overall impression of one's communications.

Any student in this course who has a disability that prevents the fullest expression of abilities MUST contact me by May 30, 2003, so that we can discuss class requirements.

You must have daily access to a computer with internet capability in order to do well in this course. For this course, you must use your MWSC email account for all correspondence and assignment submission.

Most students can set up their email accounts via the MWSC homepage. Go to: http://www.missouriwestern.edu and click on the Student Life link and then on Email Password (Original) for more information.

As with all college courses, a steady devotion to duty is expected. The readings and assignments are exactly the same as those given in my on campus version of this course, and you are expected to devote the same amount of time to completing the course requirements that you would be required to devote were the class held on campus. As a summer course, the time expectations are high since each "class day" represents a full week of a regular semester course. This means that you can expect to do three hours of course activities in lieu of three hours of traditional classroom time daily and that you may have up to twelve hours of additional time in homework per week.

Thus, keep in mind that you cannot hope to do well if you wait until the last minute to complete the your work--you may miscalculate how long it will actually take you to do the work or you may have computer problems that interfere with the completion of your duties. Remember: no late work is accepted under any circumstances, so anticipate that there will be occasional glitches, whether personal or technical, and strive to turn in your work a little ahead of the deadlines.

Students will do a variety of writing assignments over the course of the semester, including pre-writing exercises, research exercises, a formal prospectus, annotated bibliography, and a formal researched essay. In order to pass the course, students must complete the prospectus, annotated bibliography, and research paper; in addition, the quality of their work and the percentage of the other assignments completed will determine the final grade.

A word of caution: don't underestimate the value of small assignments since they make up a substantial number of points in the project total and can mean the difference between passing and failing.

Final Point Distribution:

Reading Questions and Writing/Research Exercises: 83 points
Formal Prospectus with Annotated Bibliography: 150 points
Formal Researched Essay: 100 points

Getting Started

Day One (May 27)

• Meet on Campus, MC Building
• Getting Started Instructions

Research Project Schedule (May 28 - June 24)

Description

For this project, you will learn how to find topics, generate arguments, find and evaluate sources, write a prospectus and annotated bibliography, and write and edit a formal academic research paper. Researching and writing a prospectus allows the beginning college researcher to become more comfortable with the process of researching, topic formation, and documentation before trying to write the actual research paper. Other Project objectives include learning to evaluate topics and thesis statements, to write statements of topic, to generate counterarguments, to take notes, and to write abstracts. These tasks will give you practice in thinking analytically about what you have read and practice in synthesizing others' ideas, skills that you will be called upon to use often in your college career. Writing objectives include learning about effective introductions, conclusions, and paragraphing. You will also receive some practice in editing.

Calendar Expectations

Since readings are meant to build upon each other, the readings are assigned in the order in which they should be completed. Readings also need to be completed in conjunction with the writing tasks.

Except for the first Tuesday, writing tasks are due either on a Monday or Thursday, NOON, Central Time. Remember to pace yourself to allow yourself plenty of time to complete the necessary work each week. I will be in to my office to grade your work on Tuesday and Friday mornings, so the work must be there for me.  During this time, I will reply to your work and send out additional information to help you with your upcoming assignments.

Notes About Reading Question and Exercise Assignments

The assignment  links below include instructions on how to send your answers in. Be sure to follow these instructions carefully.

Further, although the assigned Exercises are in your textbook, the manner in which you are to do them can vary from the textbook's instruction. Therefore, it is very important that you read the Instructions for Completing the Exercises link for each assigned Exercise so that you will know precisely how to do the Exercise and how much you must do to complete the Exercise.

Due Tuesday, June 1

Reading Assignments

• Getting Started Instructions
• Advice on Assignments Due June 1
• What Does "Well Edited" Mean?
• Research Project Assignment
• From The Research Process: A Complete Guide and Reference for Writers :
• "Introduction: Research--Who Needs It," pp xvii-xx
• Chapter One, pp 1-10


Writing Assignments

• Reading Questions over Introduction
• Reading Questions over Chapter 1
• From The Research Process: A Complete Guide and Reference for Writers :
• Exercise 2, pp 11-12
• Instructions for Completing the Exercise

Reading Assignments

• Advice on Assignments Due June 3
• From The Research Process: A Complete Guide and Reference for Writers :
• Chapter Two, pp 13-25
• Chapter Three, pp 29-43


Writing Assignments

• Reading Questions over Chapter 2
• Reading Questions over Chapter 3
• From The Research Process: A Complete Guide and Reference for Writers :
• Exercise 4, p 28
• Exercise 5, p 28
• Exercise 7, pp 45-46
• Instructions for Completing the Exercises

Reading Assignments

• Advice on Assignments Due June 7
• From The Research Process: A Complete Guide and Reference for Writers :
• Chapter Four, pp 47-110


Writing Assignments
 

• Reading Questions over Chapter 4
• From The Research Process: A Complete Guide and Reference for Writers :
• Exercise 3, pp 26-28
• Exercise 9, Treasure Hunt, Part 2, pp 113-114
• Exercise 10, p 114
• Instructions for Completing the Exercises

Reading Assignments

• Advice on Assignments Due June 10
• Taking Notes over Research Materials
• From The Research Process: A Complete Guide and Reference for Writers :
• Chapter Five, pp 115-123
• Chapter Six, pp 125-149


Writing Assignments

• Reading Questions over Chapter 5
• Reading Questions over Chapter 6
• From The Research Process: A Complete Guide and Reference for Writers :
• Exercise 8, p 46
• Exercise 12, pp 150-151
• Instructions for Completing the Exercises

Reading Assignments
 
• Advice on Assignments Due June 14
• Tips for Using MSWord in Formal Documents
• Citing Resources Found on Ebscohost or Other Online Index
• More Examples of MLA Citations
• From The Research Process: A Complete Guide and Reference for Writers :
• Chapter Seven, pp 153-192

Writing Assignments

• Reading Questions over Chapter 7
• The Prospectus with Annotated Bibliography

Reading Assignments

• Advice on Assignments Due June 17
• From The Research Process: A Complete Guide and Reference for Writers :
• Chapter Nine, pp 268-294
• Chapter Ten, pp 301-320
• Formal Paragraph Formats


Writing Assignments

• Reading Questions over Chapter 9 and Formal Paragraph Formats
• Reading Questions over Chapter 10

Reading Assignments

• Advice on Assignments Due June 21
• From The Research Process: A Complete Guide and Reference for Writers :
• Chapter Eleven, pp 321-349


Writing Assignments
 

• Reading Questions over Chapter 11
• From The Research Process: A Complete Guide and Reference for Writers :
• Exercise 19, p 350
• Instructions for Completing the Exercise

Reading Assignments
 
• Advice on Assignments Due June 24


Writing Assignment
 

• The Researched Essay