Syllabus
for ENG 104-18
College
Writing and Rhetoric
Department of English, Foreign Languages, and Journalism
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
English 104-18 -- College Writing and Rhetoric
Fall 2009
TTH 2:00-3:20 pm, Murphy Hall 104
Instructor: Craig Goad
Office: 213 Eder Hall
Office Phone: 816-271-4577
Office Hours: 1:00-2:00
TTH, and by appointment
Email: cgoad@missouriwestern.edu; cmg2244@yahoo.com
(The latter is the one to use if you really need to e-mail me; I often don’t
look at my Western e-mail for days at a time.)
Required Text:
The Norton Field
Guide to Writing (2nd edition), ed. Richard Bullock and Francine
Weinberg, Norton, 2009
Required
Materials:
*Computer
disks/jump drives for revising and saving work.
*Notebook for
notes, class work, and the like.
*Folder(s) to
keep all writing and portfolio work.
You will also need to have easy access to the Web, as I will at
times ask you to read something that’s on the ‘Net. If you do not have access, you will have
great difficulty.
Course
Description:
This course asks you to participate in two of the most fundamental
activities of education: reading and writing.
Anyone who cannot do both these things with considerable skill will be
at a terrible disadvantage in trying to take university level courses or work
at other than entry-level jobs. To fail
this course is declare one’s unfitness to belong to the class of educated
people. That probably sounds harsh and
elitist, but it’s fundamentally true. If
you can’t do the work this course asks of you, it’s time to reconsider your
life ambitions.
Course Goals:
*Read and respond to various texts, such
as textbook readings, media such as television, movies, and advertising, and
your peers' work.
*Read and study written texts to improve
and refine your own writing, and to take quizzes over the written work.
*Summarize, analyze, and evaluate texts.
*Understand,
find, shape, address, and write arguments.
*Revise your written work.
*Participate in
peer revision groups.
For common objectives/means and institutional competencies for ENG
104, also refer to the English department website at http://www.missouriwestern.edu/~engdept/eng104.html
Methods of
Instruction:
Methods of instruction include readings in the textbook and on the
Web, lectures, class discussions, group work, informal writing assignments, and
formal writing assignments. Students
will be expected to participate in peer revision groups and in-class writing
exercises.
Peer Revision Groups: Prior
to submitting your formal writing assignments, you will be required to participate
in peer revision groups to which you will bring word-processed copies of your
rough draft to share with your group and receive feedback from that group in
order to help you strengthen and revise your own written work. This is a required activity and will be part
of your grade for the portfolio and the course.
Portfolio System: The
portfolio system will be explained in a forthcoming handout.
Policies:
Attendance and Class Preparation/Participation: In order to improve student learning and
to achieve compliance with federal financial aid policies, Western has a
mandatory attendance policy for all 100 and 200-level courses. 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. A student will also be given
an excused absence if he or she can provide documentation and prove that the
absence was unavoidable. Please feel
free to speak to me about any extenuating circumstances. All other absences will be deemed
unexcused. The maximum number of
unexcused absences allowed before the midterm report for this class is 3. Thus, when you have 4 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 exceed the allowed absences after midterm, your final grade will be
affected. As a result, attendance is
vital to your grade and success in this class and excessive absences will lead
to failure.
Students are expected to attend every scheduled class meeting and
arrive on time. Arriving to class late
is disruptive. As a result, chronic
lateness will likely affect your final grade.
Students are also expected to come prepared to every class meeting and
participate in class discussion for this is the only way we can all share
ideas, ask questions, and learn.
Late Work: All writing
assignments are due at the beginning of the class period on the due date. Each student is allowed one late paper (and
only one late paper) and this must be discussed with the instructor. I will not
accept/grade any other late papers. This
is important because you must complete, turn in and receive a grade for all
papers in order to pass this class. Consequently,
if you submit more than one late paper, you will fail the course. If you are not in class on the due date you
are still responsible for submitting your assignment on time. Late in-class writing assignments will not be
accepted, and quizzes missed because of unexcused absences may not be made
up.
Revision: All formal, graded writing assignments can be
revised and resubmitted for a “new” grade.
You will have two weeks from the date the paper is returned in class to
revise and resubmit each paper. However,
you cannot revise other portfolio work. If
you miss the two-week deadline, you forfeit the right to revise that specific
paper. It is required that your
original, graded essay accompanies your revised essay. Revision is important because each paper
covers important skills that you will need to know for the next paper.
Grading Policy: Your grade
will be determined on the writings and portfolios you submit, quizzes, and
final examination. Please note that
smaller assignments and class preparation/participation are very important and
do affect your grade. The components of
your grade in the course are:
1. Formal writing assignments.
A student who does not turn in
responses to all writing assignments will not pass the course even if the
grades achieved in the other writing assignments are satisfactory.
Portfolio #1: 100 points—due September 10
Portfolio #2: 100 points—due
October 13
Portfolio #3: 100 points—due
November 3
Portfolio #4: 100 points—due December 1
2. Quizzes over reading assignments: 100 points—quizzes are
unannounced but are over assigned material.
If you have not read the material, chances are you will do badly; if you
have read it with even a reasonable degree of care, chances are you will do
well. Thus these quizzes amount to
nearly free points that will total as much as one of the portfolios or the
final exam. The quizzes are low-hanging
fruit, and those who fail to pick them will regret it.
3. Final exam: 100 points (mandatory)—December 8
Students with Disabilities:
Anyone who has a disability that prevents the fullest expression of his
or her potential to succeed in this course must notify me as soon as possible
so that we can discuss class requirements and accommodations. You must also
contact Michael Ritter, Special Needs Coordinator, and submit all necessary documentation
to his office.
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. 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 (beginning on page 23). This
handbook is also available online at http://missouriwetsern.edu/handbook/index.pdf.
Miscellaneous: Civility and
Cooperation: Missouri Western requires
all students to help us maintain good conditions for teaching and
learning. All students will treat their
classmates and teachers 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, specifically sections of Community Expectations and Code of
Conduct and Procedures, for further information. This handbook is also available online at http://missouriwetsern.edu/handbook/index.pdf
Please note that you must complete all writing assignments in
order to pass this course. In addition,
admission into ENG 108 requires a "C" or higher in ENG 104. All drafts and final papers for this course
must be word-processed. It is also
important to save all work on disks, jump drives, etc., keeping back-ups if
necessary.
Please feel free to come see me if you have any problems or questions. I
believe communication is very important between an instructor and his/her
students and, as a result, I will make myself available to you as much as you
need (within reason, of course—I’m not devoting my life to you). As I am an adjunct instructor, I am not
required to have office hours, but I have arranged to have two a week, in the hour
just before this class meets. If that is
not enough time to meet your needs, I will arrange other times. It’s up to you to seek additional help or
consolation or whatever. I won’t track
you down and ask you to let me help you.
Schedule of
Assignments
(A one-time colleague of mine said that by “Syllabus” he meant “What I’m not doing at the moment.” This schedule of assignments is not so wholly irrelevant, but I refuse to be held to a slavish following of it; if something needs an extra day of work, we’ll do the extra day on it, schedule or not.)
Tuesday, August 25—First meeting, with necessary milling about, issuing of threats, and the like. Pay attention to the assignment given at the end of the class period.
Thursday, August 27—Bullock and Weinberg (hereafter B&W), 3-17; HB, 4-11
Tuesday, September 1—B&W, 21-37; HB, 11-20
Thursday, September 3—Bring to class first draft of literacy narrative; class period will be devoted to peer response and editing; read B&W, 235-236
Tuesday, September 8—B&W, 237-252
Thursday, September 10—First Portfolio due; HB, 20-24
Tuesday, September 15—B&W, 38-49; HB, 24-28
Thursday, September 17—Internet assignment, TBA; HB, 28-34
Tuesday, September 22—HB, 36-41
Thursday, September 24—Bring to class first draft of text analysis essay; class period will be devoted to peer response and editing; read HB, 41-46
Friday, October 9—Mid-term “break”; doesn’t affect us, but lets you know how rapidly the semester is going by
Tuesday, October 13—Second Portfolio due; B&W, 283-293
Wednesday, October 14—Mid-term grades are due; possibly time to begin thinking about how to explain things to Mom and Dad
Thursday, October 15—B&W, 293-299; HB, 56-63
Tuesday, October 20—B&W, 300-313; HB, 63-72
Thursday, October 22—B&W, 314-332; HB, 73-80
Tuesday, October 27—B&W, 384-399; bring to class a first draft of an argumentative essay; most of the period will be devoted to peer response and editing
Thursday, October 29—B&W, 400-419
Tuesday, November 3—Third Portfolio due; B&W, 420-427
Thursday, November 5—B&W, 432-439; HB, 80-87
Tuesday, November 10—B&W, 439-448
Thursday, November 12—B&W, 449-467
Tuesday, November 17—B&W, 468-476
Thursday, November 19—B&W, 477-508
Tuesday, November 24—B&W, 509-519; bring to class a draft of a documented essay; most of the period will be devoted to peer response and editing
Thursday, November 26—No class: Thanksgiving
Tuesday, December 1—Fourth
Portfolio due
Tuesday, December 3—Last regular class meeting
Tuesday, December 8—Final examination, 2:00-3:50