TU/TH 9:30-10:50
AM, Murphy 109
Kori Binette
Office: Eder 213
Office Hours: by
appointment
E-mail: kbinette@missouriwestern.edu
Course Overview:
The
goal of this course is to develop your writing abilities and confidence in
preparation for the assignments you’ll receive during your career at Missouri
Western AND in preparation for the writing and thinking you’ll do throughout
life. English 100 will introduce you to some of the habits of writers,
thinkers, academics, professionals, citizens. During the term, you’ll get
extensive practice in narrative, descriptive and expository writing. You’ll be
asked to read and respond to pieces written by writers outside of class.
Sometimes, as we practice writing, we’ll do something like a supervised
swimming lesson. Together, we’ll paddle, tread water, dive for quarters. You’ll
be directed through a writing prompt; you’ll be given a specific suggestion
about something you’ve written. We’ll have a conversation about a sentence. At
other times, you’ll find yourself in deep water, alone, without a life
preserver. From the shore, I’ll shout encouragement. I’ll say, “You’re doing
just fine. Keep at it!” If all goes as planned, by the end of this course,
you’ll more thoroughly believe that, when it comes to writing, you can keep at
it. You’ll believe that you’re going to do just fine.
Beyond
increased confidence in your writing, there are a few fundamentals we’ll address
during the semester. You’ll examine
writing in various contexts, analyze the choices available to you as a writer
and aim to improve your ability to:
write for different audiences and purposes, develop and extend your
thinking by questioning your own ideas and others’ ideas, revise your own
writing in a substantive manner, and constructively read and respond to your
writing and others’ writing.
Attendance Policy:
In order to improve student learning
and to achieve compliance with federal financial aid policies, Western has a
mandatory attendance policy for all 100-level courses. This course has a very strict attendance
policy in class as well as in Writer’s Workshops. If you miss 5 classes or 4 Writer’s Workshops
for the entire semester, you will receive an F in the class. A student will be given an excused absence
when acting as an official representative of the university, provided the
student gives prior written verification from the faculty/staff supervisor of
the event; however, there are no other excused absences, exceptions, or
“makeups” for this attendance requirement.
Furthermore, the maximum number of absences allowed before the midterm
report is 3. Thus, when you have 4 absences, you will be reported to the
Registrar’s Office, who will automatically withdraw you from this class. The Financial Aid Office will reduce
financial aid as appropriate. If you miss a
class session, you are responsible for all material covered and assignments
given during your absence. All
out-of-class assignments are due at the beginning of the class period.
Required Texts and Course
Materials:
Introduction
to College Writing – ENG 100, McGraw-Hill, 2008 (Fourth
Edition)*
*This
text contains your Writer’s Workshop booklet as well
A Troubleshooting Guide for Writers,
McGraw-Hill, 2008
Notebook,
folder, writing utensils, access to a computer and a printer
Grading Policy:
Your grade will be determined on the basis of your
progress as a writer, the writings you submit, and your class participation
over the course of the semester. You
need a C or higher to pass ENG 100 and enter ENG 104. NOTE: If you do not turn in complete
responses to ALL four major task papers, you will not pass the course, no
matter what your grades are on the other assignments.
Your semester grade is determined as follows:
|
Unit Portfolios |
60% |
There are four tasks assignments in this
course, and at the end of each you will submit a unit portfolio. The most important element of your unit
grade will be the quality of your final essay, but I also expect you to turn
in all the work that went along with the process: drafts and revisions, peer
responses, and any reflective writing.
I will assign one grade for all of this material, but remember that the
more work you put into the process, the better the finished product will be! |
|
Writer’s Notebook |
15% |
You will keep a notebook of generative
writing, free writes, in class writing, and homework assignments. You are expected to complete all of these
assignments. Periodically and unannounced,
I will collect your notebooks to check that you are keeping up with the
work. I am not going to assign a grade
based on content, but rather on your efforts to complete all the work. |
|
Final Reflection Paper |
15% |
At the end of the semester, you will write a
final reflection paper, an extensive reflection on the progress of your
writing throughout the semester. This
is in lieu of a final exam. |
|
Class Participation/Community Membership |
10% |
This is
a holistic grade, based on your willingness to contribute in a meaningful way
to the class—through discussion, in-class work, completion of homework, and
peer response. Your Writer’s Workshop
Portfolio, turned in at the end of the semester (read below), will also
factor into this grade. |
Unit
Portfolios: This course is based on the belief that writing
is a process. In order to develop as writers we must write, write, write. The
more we write, the more likely we’ll be to discover and deepen the habits of
intellectual inquiry and reflection—habits that will help us as writers, as
citizens, as learners. Each major essay you write will go through a four-step
writing process: generative writing, an initial draft which will receive
feedback from me and your peers, a revised draft and a copy-edited “final”
draft. You’ll spend significant time in each of these four steps—generating,
drafting, revising and copy-editing—with every major assignment. Be prepared to
make substantial changes to your written products in each step. Be prepared to
take some risks in your writing. Because the course is based on the belief that
writing is a process, you will be graded on the totality of your effort, the
global nature of your revisions and your willingness to experiment and take
risks with your writing. Additionally,
since your portfolios will contain all materials that contributed in some way
to your final draft, you must NOT throw anything away! Your grade will suffer if you have an
incomplete portfolio, so this is essential.
Finally, your portfolios will serve as source material for your final
reflection paper, so hang on to them after they are returned to you.
Reflective
Writing: I want you to consider the choices available
to you as a writer. Throughout the semester, then, you will write short
reflective pieces about the choices you have made and why you’ve made them. The
final piece of writing you’ll generate this semester is a much more extensive
“Final Reflection” where you’ll assess and reflect upon the choices you’ve made
throughout the course.
Writer’s
Notebook: Much of
what writers produce is never seen by their readers. Many keep logs or
notebooks of growing ideas, starts and stops on various topics; they use this
“low stakes” notebook as a place to work out their thinking. In this course,
all of your generative work (along with responses to prompts given throughout
the semester) will be kept in a writer's notebook. The notebook will be graded
on the basis of completion, that is, on whether you use it, rather than on
“quality.” Feel free to write however you please in the notebook. Remember,
I’ll be reading your notebook but will not be grading it on content. So, write
a poem or a song. Take notes on ice cream. Rant in sentence fragments.
Seriously.
Participation/Community Membership: It is
imperative that you be an active member of this class, because this class works
most smoothly and beneficially to all when everyone is participating. This means that you contribute in
discussions, take class work seriously, and work well with your peers. I encourage you to say something at least
once per class meeting; though I’m not going to keep track of who says what, I
will know if you are being silent and haven’t said a word all semester.
Late
Work/Resubmission of work: Obviously, work should be turned in
by the due date. You will be allowed one
late portfolio, but your grade will be lowered by 1/3 letter grade per class
period it is overdue. Please see me if
you think you must use this option.
After your one late portfolio, you are not allowed another; therefore, a
second late paper means failing the course.
You are also allowed one resubmission of a portfolio for a new
grade. The revised portfolio (which must
contain all the original documents turned in the first time) must be
resubmitted within two weeks of its return to you. You cannot use this option if you turned the
portfolio in late originally.
Additionally, because of the due dates of assignments, you cannot use
this option with Unit 4.
Writer’s Workshop:
Throughout
the course of the semester, you will attend once-a-week small group Writer’s
Workshops (listed as “labs” in the class schedule). Some of your Writer’s Workshop materials may
be used in class, and some of your class papers will be critiqued and proofread
in Writer’s Workshops. You must ensure
that you have the right materials in the right place.
If you miss four Writer’s Workshops, you will fail ENG 100. You can make-up an absence, but you must
attend the make-up session on Friday of the week you missed. You can only attend the make-up session three
times throughout the entire semester. If
you wish to appeal your failure due to absences, you must be able to provide
valid documentation for ALL absences and you must have an A or B grade in ENG
100 at the time (see Appeal Procedure in textbook). In addition to not showing up for workshop,
you can also be counted absent for the following reasons (these situations also
apply to class as well):
-arriving
very late; tardies will be added up for an absence
-not
having required materials (textbook, draft of paper, portfolio, etc.)
-not
participating/not paying attention to the SA and the lesson
-sleeping
-unacceptable
behavior that impedes others’ learning such as being disruptive, showing
disrespect to your SA and/or peers, using foul language, using a cell phone or
other electronic devices, working on other coursework
Writer’s Workshop Portfolio:
Throughout the semester, you will be required to keep a notebook or
folder that will serve as your Writer’s Workshop portfolio. Each week, you will record all of the
activities and responses for workshop which may include the textbook lessons as
well as mini-reflective writings, freewriting and/or work on your ENG 100 task
papers. In addition, it is required that
you always have a current assignment sheet and task paper in your Writer’s
Workshop portfolio. If you miss a
workshop, you will not be able to make-up that week’s lesson unless you attend
the make-up session on Friday. At the
end of the semester, you will write a cover letter for your Writer’s Workshop
portfolio. Then your completed portfolio
will be submitted to your ENG 100 instructor, graded and will count towards
your final ENG 100 course grade. As a
result, attending and participating in workshop will be vital to your ENG 100
grade. Furthermore, if you take
advantage of this time to learn new writing skills and apply them to your ENG
100 coursework and to work on and receive feedback on your task papers, you
will see an improvement in your writing and in your course grade.
Student Disability Policy:
Any student in this course who has a disability that
prevents the fullest expressions of abilities should contact Missouri Western's
special needs coordinator, Michael Ritter, for possible certification of
special needs and expert recommendations for assistance. You should also speak with me as soon as
possible so that we can together work out accommodations.
Academic Honesty Policy:
Academic honesty
is required in all academic endeavors.
Violations of academic honesty include any instance of plagiarism,
cheating, seeking credit for another’s work, falsifying documents or academic
records or any other fraudulent classroom activity. Cheating and plagiarism are not
acceptable. If your teacher finds
evidence of cheating or plagiarism, you have the burden of showing that the
paper has in fact been written by you.
You should keep thorough evidence of your writing processes for all
papers so that you can meet this burden of proof. You will receive a grade of F (0 points) for
any paper/assignment/exam that shows evidence of cheating and/or
plagiarism. You have the burden of
proving that a paper/assignment/exam showing evidence of cheating and/or
plagiarism has been in fact written by you.
You should keep thorough evidence of your writing processes for all papers
so that you can meet this burden of proof.
If you plagiarize a paper, you forfeit the right to revise that paper;
if you cheat on an exam, you will not be allowed to retake the exam. Violations of academic honesty will be
reported to the Provost or the designated representative on the Academic
Honesty Violation Report Forms. Please
see the Student Handbook for specific activities identified as violations of
this policy and the student due process procedure. This handbook is also available online at http://missouriwetsern.edu/handbook/index.pdf.
Civility and Cooperation:
Missouri Western requires all students to help us
maintain good conditions for teaching and learning. All students will treat their classmates,
teachers, and student assistants with civility and respect, both inside and
outside the classroom. Students who
violate this policy may, among other penalties, be counted absent and asked to
leave. You should review your Missouri
Western student handbook for further information. This handbook is available online at http://missouriwetsern.edu/handbook/index.pdf.