Missouri Western State University

Division of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Department of English, Foreign Languages, and Journalism

English 108-01 • College Writing and Research

8:00 a.m., MWF, Murphy 112

 

Instructor: Susan Garrison

Home phone: 816-262-1082

Office Hours: By appointment

E-mail: garrison@missouriwestern.edu

 

Required Texts/Materials:

  1. The Bedford Reader Guide for College Writers, Eighth Edition, X.J. Kennedy, Dorothy Kennedy and Marcia F. Muth, 2008.

 

  1. A spiral notebook dedicated exclusively to journal writing.

 

  1. Flash drive or way to save papers.

 

Course Description & Objectives:

 

            Students will:

• Learn to write for different audiences and purposes focusing particularly on academic audiences and scholarly purposes.

           

                        • Learn to use active reading and critical thinking.

 

                        • Learn to use writing processes.

 

                        • Learn written conventions.

 

Please see the Internet site: http://www.missouriwestern.edu/EFLJ/eng108.asp for more details.

 

Attendance Policy:

            In order to improve student learning and to achieve compliance with federal financial aid policies, MWSU has a mandatory attendance policy for all 100- and 200-level courses. Because of that, this course has a very strict attendance policy. If you miss five class periods for a Monday/Wednesday/Friday class before the October 10 midterm, you will receive an F in the class. Thus, when you have six 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.

For each unexcused absence after the fifth one (after midterm), you will lose one-half of a letter grade of your final grade (or five points). For example, if you have an 84% “B” in the class and miss six classes, your final grade will be a 79% or “C.”

A student will be given an excused absence when acting as an official representative of the university, provided the student gives prior written verification for the faculty/staff supervisor of the event; however, there are no other excused absences, exceptions or “make-ups” for this attendance requirement.           If you miss a class session, you are responsible for material covered or assignments given which you missed because of absence, so ask another student to inform you of what happened while you were gone. Quizzes or other graded assignments done in class the day you miss cannot be made up. All out-of-class assignments are due at the beginning of the class period. No late assignments will be accepted.

 

Participation:

            Come to class prepared to participate.

 

Students with Disabilities Policy:

            Any student in this course who has a disability that requires any special consideration needs to meet with me as soon as possible to discuss class requirements.

 

Academic Honesty:

Do your own work. In the event that you do turn in an assignment using someone else’s work, you will fail the course. We will discuss plagiarism and the importance of crediting your source in this course.

 

Center for Academic Support:

            The Center for Academic Support is staffed by professionals and trained student tutors. It is an excellent resource for the English 108 student. There is no cost for the tutoring. The Center is located in LRC 213.

 

Journals:

            You will keep a journal for the entire semester. Sometimes we will write in it in class, sometimes at home. Do not write anything in your journal that you do not want me to read.

            I will occasionally pick up and give participation points for the journal. Please use a new page each time you write in your journal, date it, and “title” with the writing assignment.

 

Format:

            All papers must be typed. The English Department at MWSC has a policy that all drafts are typed. If you do not have access to a computer at home, as a student you can use the computer labs on campus. Make sure you have a flash drive or disk in case you have computer problems. Always save your work on disk or flash drive because you will make changes to it as each draft evolves.

 

Grading Policy:

            Grades will be figured on a point basis totaled throughout the semester. 90–100=A; 80–89=B; 70–79=C; 60–69=D; 59 and below=F.

 

Assignments:

            A tentative schedule is attached. Your points in the class will be based on:

 

  1. Three major research papers
  2. Annotated Bibliography
  3. Letter writing project
  4. Journal
  5. Quizzes
  6. Library Search and/or Homework Assignments
  7. Class Participation