English 100: Introduction to College Writing
Fall 2008
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Department of English, Foreign Languages, and Journalism
Section 60: 9:00-9:50 MWF, Murphy 108
Writer’s Workshop:
10:00-10:50 TTh,
This is a Learning
Community course and will be paired with the RDG 095 course in theme
and in some
assignments using one of the course texts (Newsweek).
Section 8: 10:00-10:50 MWF, Murphy 112
Writer’s Workshop:
11:00-11:50 MW,
Instructor: Tom Pankiewicz
Office:
Phone: 816-271-4156
Office Hours: MW 2:00-4:00, T or Th 9:00-12:00, and by appointment.
(As the Dual Credit Liaison, I conduct high school visit on either Tuesday or Thursday morning. I will announce my office hours each Monday.)
E-mail: pankiew@missouriwestern.edu
Required Texts and Course Materials:
Introduction
to College Writing: English 100. Fourth Edition.
Clouse,
Barbara Fine. A Troubleshooting Guide for
Writers. Fifth Edition.
Newsweek. Subscription available online at
Newsweek.com. By the way, if you are enrolled in
Course Description:
“One thing that is always with the writer – no matter how long he has written or how good he is – is the continuing process of learning how to write.” -Flannery O’Connor
In this course we will study the process of writing. The truth is, no one just sits down and instantly produces a perfect piece of writing. There are many steps a writer goes through when producing a text, including pre-writing (or gathering and organizing ideas and thoughts), writing, revising and editing, and we will discuss these steps in this course. In discovering writing as a process, you will discover the reading and writing strategies and processes that work best for you. The emphasis here is on you and your attention to the topics.
Course Theme:
The theme of this course is “My Turn.” I believe you cannot learn without becoming engaged by the subject, without being able to relate material to your own life, and without discussing and sharing your ideas about the subject with others. “My Turn” provides you with the opportunity to examine closely topics that matter to you. The work for this course places the focus on you, on your experiences, on your knowledge, on your reading, and on your words. You will have time to reflect on, to study and to express your ideas about events and yourself. You will have your turn to read, discuss and write.
Course Expectations:
For English 100 objectives and institutional competencies also refer to the English department website at http://www.missouriwestern.edu/EFLJ/eng100.asp
Please expect a reading assignment from one of the textbooks for every class. Please expect to read Newsweek each week.
Writer’s Notebook:
Every student will be required to maintain a writer’s notebook to discuss impressions of, responses to, and reflections on assigned readings and on Newsweek issues. The writer’s notebook will also collect exploratory writings, drafts, revision notes, and in-class writing. Your writer’s notebook will be a resource to you as well as a record of your reading and writing.
Be sure you identify and date each piece you collect. Since you will periodically turn in specific assignments and since you will include a variety of handwritten and word-processed texts, it would be best to use a loose-leaf binder for your notebook.
Writer’s Workshop:
Throughout the course of the semester, you will attend the 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. Your teacher may also consider you Writer's Workshop participation as part of your grade.
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, freewrites 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.
Conference Writer’s Workshops:
In this section of English 100, you will participate in conferencing and tutoring in your Writer’s Workshop. One of the major goals of English 100 is to become an independent writer, a writer who has discovered strategies and processes to write competent and thoughtful essays. As in all sections of English 100, you have been assigned a mandatory, small group Writer’s Workshop which meets once a week. Your Writer’s Workshop will differ from the traditional workshop in that it will be a tutoring session focused on your writing rather than the planned workshop sequence of activities. In this section of English 100 you will confer with both your instructor and workshop leader during the workshop. You will receive personal responses and suggestions to help you develop and revise each essay and to help you grow as a writer. You will also be allowed time, in workshop, to write and revise. Your writing will become the central text of both the class and the workshop and your needs will become the content of the instruction.
This pilot project requires commitments from you. First, you must confer with your instructor, workshop tutor and/or small groups in workshop. Second, you must bring a work-in-progress to each writing workshop/conference or be prepared to write, with the help of your tutor, in workshop. Your instructor and workshop leader will discuss your progress weekly. This is a labor-intensive effort on the part of your instructor and tutor, but it is one that we feel will benefit you.
Workshops/Conferences:
· Be on time.
· Missing a workshop/scheduled conference will be counted as a workshop absence.
· If you do not come prepared to the workshop/conference, you will be marked absent. If a new draft or revised draft is required then coming to a workshop/conference without one will lead to a workshop absence. In addition, if the workshop/conference is one that requires you to write, then you must come prepared to write and spend the workshop hour writing and seeking help from your tutor and peers; if you do not, then you will be marked absent for workshop.
· Come to the workshop/conference with a question or concern about your latest assignment/draft. You must initiate the conference, showing your interest in your work and focusing on where you need a response.
· Leave the conference with a new text/draft, revision or written revision plan.
· Make-up workshop/conference: If you miss a workshop or are not prepared you will be marked absent; however, you have the opportunity to make it up. You can attend the general make-up session on Friday at 2:00 or 3:00 pm in Eder 222 U-V. However, in this makeup session, you will be required to complete a specific lesson or activity and you will not be able to receive feedback on your writing or to do your own writing. Moreover, you will be allowed only three make-up opportunities. Please remember that you and your writing will benefit the most by attending your regularly scheduled workshops/conferences and working on your writing.
Conferences:
Writers need readers. There is no better way to improve. I know that I am a close reader and willing to offer my responses to help you write the strong and effective essays. If you wish to have my help, please schedule a conference with me as often as needed.
Center for Academic Support:
In addition to conferences and writer’s workshop sessions, you will find readers who will discuss your writing with you at the Center for Academic Support. There is no cost to students for using these services. I encourage you to make use of these services throughout this course. The CAS, which is located on the northeast corner of the library, also provides online responses to your writing.
Writing Tasks:
You will complete four major writing tasks and submit a course portfolio. A student who does not turn in all four tasks or submit a course portfolio will not pass the course even if the grades achieved in the other writing tasks are satisfactory.
Since writing is a process, I encourage you to revise your essays throughout the semester. I will respond to your essays with formative and supportive comments; I will confer with you about your writing throughout the semester. But I will not assign a grade to any essay until it is published in the portfolio.
· Task One - My Turn: The Significant Person.
·
Task Two
– My Turn:
·
Task
Three - My Turn: Looking for
· Task Four – My Turn: Who Am I?
· Portfolio and Writer’s Notebook Audit.
Essay Format:
Tasks must be word-processed, double-spaced and use 12-point Times New Roman. Be sure to save each assignment on the university’s “P” drive, and on a computer disk or jump drive. Keep a hard copy of each assignment for yourself. Every semester at least one student struggles to complete the final portfolio because of computer problems or a disk failure. Save and back up all of your work.
Because of the variety of word
processing programs, operating systems, printers and email accounts, it would
be best to save material as an rtf (Rich Text Format) file.
Place your name, course, date, and draft number in the upper left hand corner. Center the title. Number the pages.
Portfolio:
This section of English 100 requires an end-of-semester portfolio. In a portfolio-course, final grades for each task are with the publication of the portfolio. This concept encourages revision and allows your final grade to be based on your best writing; it places you in control of the quality of your writing.
The portfolio will account for two-thirds of your course grade. The portfolio will include the portfolio-ready draft of your task essays, previous drafts and teacher and peer responses, reflection letters as well as a Writer’s Notebook Audit or Self-Evaluation Essay. The graded portfolio will be returned at the final exam.
Check Grading:
This is an experiment to reduce the anxiety
caused by grades and to emphasize the need for frequent reading and writing and
serious revision. You will have to let me know if it works.
I will read a piece of your writing or section of your writer’s notebook each week. If the selection is on task, reveals an honest effort, and shows your thinking about the topic, I will record a check mark. (No more than one checkmark per week.) For each task essay revision with a conference with me, I will assign a check mark. At the end of the semester, I will add the checkmarks and assign the following grades: A = 27 or more checkmarks; B = 26 – 20 checkmarks; C = 19 – 16 checkmarks; D = 18 -15 checkmarks; F = 14 or fewer checkmarks.
Grading Policy:
The components of your grade in the course are:
· Portfolio including a self-reflection essay, portfolio-ready copies of all tasks, previous drafts, instructor and peer comment………………………………………….. 66%
· Check Grading of the Writer’s Notebook including reading responses, exploratory writing, drafts, reflection letters and in-class writing…………………………34%
· Please note that you must complete all writing tasks in order to pass this course.
· Admission into ENG 104 requires a “C” or higher in ENG 100.
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 seven class periods or
four 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, October 15, 2008, for this class is five (5). Thus, when you have six (6) 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. No late assignments will be accepted unless you have received prior permission from your teacher.
Late Work:
If you miss a class session, you are responsible for all material covered and assignments given during your absence. All assignments are due at the beginning of the class period. Late assignments will not be accepted.
If you find yourself facing difficulties in completing a task paper, schedule a conference (a phone call, leaving a message on my answering machine or sending me an e-mail are insufficient) to discuss the problems with me. During our conference, we will set a new deadline.
Student Disability:
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 contact me personally as soon as possible so that we can discuss class requirements.
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.
Final Note:
If you know of any circumstances likely to make any of these policies or expectations difficult for you to meet this semester, consult with me as soon as possible to review your options.
Tentative Weekly Schedule: