English 106: Introductory Composition

Spring 2009

Instructor: Liz Johnston

Course Website: www.digitalparlor.org/sp09/johnston1/
Office: HEAV 209
Tel: 49-47808
Office hours: Monday 2:30-4-30 p.m. and by appointment
Email: edjohnst@purdue.edu

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

Classroom Conference Classroom Conference Computer Lab
HEAV 104 HEAV 225 HEAV 104 HEAV 225 WTHR 214
4:30-5:20 4:30-5:20 4:30-5:20 4:30-5:20 4:30-5:20

Writing Your Way Into Purdue

The description of our syllabus approach from Introductory Composition at

Purdue (ICaP) states:
By requiring students to identify and interact with other
members of the Purdue community, each of the
assignments in the Writing Your Way Into Purdue
sequence enables student to become more integrally
involved in social action that affects them on the
Purdue campus while developing their college-level
writing abilities and research skills.

English 106 is the standard 4-credit hour composition course for entering
students at Purdue. The ability to communicate creatively and effectively is
an integral skill, no matter what your field of study, whether it is English,
engineering, or athletic training. Learning to compose capably, both in
written communication and through various other media, will allow you to
have a voice in the multiple academic, civic, and personal situations you will
encounter here at Purdue and in your life beyond the university.

To meet all your goals in this one-semester course, you should expect to
produce between 7,500-11,500 words of polished writing (or 15,000-22,000
total words, including drafts) or the equivalent. Some of this text production
will be done using multimedia, and some of it may be given through short
assignments. Your writing topics will be tied to the course’s theme (issues
directly or indirectly related to Purdue and your experience here) and will
include arguments based upon personal experiences as well as those which
are research-based. In addition to your major assignments you will write
numerous drafts, revise, edit and review your peers’ work, compose
annotated bibliographies, plan your projects, analyze things visually, do in-
class writing, write reflections, and blog.
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Required Texts

You need to purchase the following three textbooks. They are available at
Borders, University Bookstore, and Follett’s. I do expect you to have your
textbooks within the first week. We will begin readings in them right away.
Also, I expect you to bring your books to class at every class meeting.

1) The Norton Field Guide to Writing with Readings and Handbook by Richard
Bullock, Maureen Daly Goggin, and Francine Weinberg, Norton, 2008.
ISBN 13: 978-0-393-93020-7.

2) They Say/I Say: The Moves That Matter in Academic Writing by Gerald
Graff and Cathy Birkenstein, Norton, 2006.
ISBN 13: 978-0-393-92409-1

3) Thomas and Beulah by Rita Dove

ISBN 13: 978-0-887-48021-8

Grading Scale

77-79 C+ You did what the assignment asked of you. Work in this range
74-76 C tends to need some revision, but it is complete in content and the
70-73 C- organization is logical. The style, verbal and visual, is
straightforward but unremarkable.
87-89 B+ You did what the assignment asked of you at a high quality level.
84-86 B Work in this range needs little revision, is complete in content, is
80-83 B- organized well, and shows special attention to style.
97-100 You did what the assignment asked at a high quality level, and
A+ your work shows originality and creativity. Work in this range
94-96 A shows all the qualities listed above for a B; but it also
90-93 A- demonstrates that you took extra steps to be original or creative
in developing content, solving a problem, or developing a verbal
or visual style.
67-69 You did what the assignment asked at a low level of quality. Work
D+ in this range tends to need significant revision. The content is
64-66 D often incomplete and the organization is hard to discern.
60-63 D-
59-below Incomplete, unsatisfactory work.
F

Although such instances are rare, I reserve the right to reward students who
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have shown dramatic progress with higher grades than the scale suggests.

Assignments

Quizzes and in-class writing……………………………………………………………….5

Blog Entries (min. 300 words/week)………………………………………………...10
Peer Reviews/Workshop……………………………………………………………….....10
Literacy Narrative………………………………………………………………………….....
10
Draft 1
Draft 2
Final Copy
Public Service Announcement (Group Project)………………………………….10
Proposal
Annotated Bibliography (min. 4 sources)
Storyboard and Script
Video and Presentation
Reflection (one per member)
Thomas and Beulah Essay………………………………………………………….……10
Draft 1
Final Copy
Profile……………………………………………………………………………………………
20
Proposal with Interview Questions
Contact Letter to Profilee
Thank You Note
Draft 1
Draft 2
Final Copy (formatted with visuals)
Final Research Paper………………………………………………………………………25
Proposal
Annotated Bibliography (min. 5 sources)
Draft 1
Draft 2
Final Copy
Presentation and Visuals

Total………………………………………………………………………………………………
100

Blog Posts:

Please create an account for the course website as soon as possible. Your
weekly blog entries will be a place for your observations and growth as an
analytical reader and writer. Summaries of reading assignments do not
constitute acceptable posts. Your entries should be a minimum of 300 words,
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though it might be significantly more for some assignments. Often I will

assign specific exercises for you to do to fulfill your weekly blog entry, but
otherwise you may feel free to use your entries to discuss the subject at
hand, draw connections to other things you have seen and read (both online
and off), rage against an idea, or respond to someone else’s entry.

Unless otherwise stated, you should post your blog entries before class on
Wednesdays. Remember, just because this writing takes place online does
not mean that I have lower expectations for the quality of writing. I expect to
see proper spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and grammar.

Class Participation & Assignments

All reading and outside assignments are to be completed prior to class. It is

expected that you will read carefully and critically, take notes, jot down
questions, and bring all required materials to class each day. You should
expect to be quizzed on your readings about once a week. Class
investigations are participatory assignments that may include critical and
active discussions as well as in-class collaborative work. Respectful,
prepared, and engaged participation is one of the most important
components to the success of the course.

Conferences

English 106 has a conference component, which means you will meet with
me nearly every week. You may not be in your conference for the entire class
period. I will provide for you a conference schedule that will tell you when
you need to be ready for your conference. Missing your conference is
counted as an absence. Please be on time. Our time will be more
productive if you come prepared with something written down, either a draft
that you want help with or a list of questions and concerns. In other words,
come to our meeting with an agenda. Know what you would like to achieve
from our conference, and your time will be well spent.

Peer Editing Workshops & Revisions

Students will plan their compositions and work through multiple drafts.
Revision is an essential part of the writing process, helping you to
communicate your ideas in the clearest and most convincing way possible.
Through revision you should do more than correct surface errors. It is an
active rethinking/reworking process in which you will need to add material,
cut out extraneous information and words, reorganize your thoughts and
arguments, and develop your ideas more. In later drafts, I expect you to do
more sentence level editing for style and to proofread your work carefully. I
will give you peer review handouts that will guide you though this process as
you work with each others' papers.
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Writing does not happen in a vacuum. It is a social activity, and for this
reason feedback from readers is invaluable. Students will be responsible for
participating in in-class writing workshops where they can benefit from the
constructive criticism of their fellow students. You will be graded on your
participation in peer workshops. Attendance, as always, is mandatory, and
you will not be able to make up a missed peer review session. Workshopped
drafts of all longer papers with peer comments must be submitted with the
final draft. I will be looking to see not only whether the writer incorporates
suggestions and revises effectively, but also whether the peer comments are
thoughtful and constructive. Thus, you should take peer review seriously and
strive to give feedback that helps the writer to significantly improve his or
her argument.

Mandatory Attendance

Because discussions, in-class activities, and participation are integral to this

class, your success in English 106 depends upon your presence in class.
Attendance is mandatory.

You are considered absent if 1) you are more than 15 minutes late and/or 2)
you are unprepared for class. There will be regular in-class work to record
your attendance and preparation for class. You will not be allowed to make
up missed in-class work. You may miss four sessions without penalty. For
every class after the first four, I will lower your final grade by two percentage
points, regardless of the reason for your absence. I strongly encourage you
to save your “free absences” for times when you truly need them (i.e.
sickness or family emergencies).

Ten absences constitute automatic failure of the course.

Writing Deadlines & Submissions

You are expected to submit assignments and drafts by the deadlines listed.
Final drafts of assignments will lose one letter grade for every day they are
late. If you do not bring drafts when they are due for peer review, you will
receive a zero for your draft, and you will not be able to participate in peer
review (receiving a zero for the peer review and an absent for the class
period). All written work is due at the beginning of class unless otherwise
noted. In order to be considered for a grade, all assignments must be
complete, of the minimum word count, and must conform to MLA
documentation and format (word-processed, 12 point legible font, double-
spaced, with one inch margins).

Back up all of your work on a disc or flashdrive. I will not accept computer or
printing problems as an excuse for late work.
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Classroom Behavior

Please conduct yourself professionally at all times. You should listen

respectfully to the views of others. Your cell phones and iPods should be off
and in your bookbag (not on your desk) and you should not be reading the
newspaper in class unless it is part of our assignment that day. Do not IM or
email, play video games, mess with your cell phone or MP3 player, surf the
net, tinker with your keyboard or engage in other disruptive behaviors when
someone is speaking in class. It's very rude, and I expect you all to offer
each other common respect.

The classroom will be a place of respect and dignity. Insults, slurs, or attacks
of any kind will not be allowed in my class. I will ask any student who
engages in this type of behavior to leave the classroom, and I will report him
or her to the Dean of Students. See the Purdue University Student Code of
Conduct (www.purdue.edu/ODOS/osrr/conductcode.html). In order to have an
effective teaching and learning environment we must practice both respect
and tolerance, without question.

Adaptive Programs

Students with disabilities must be registered with Adaptive Programs in the

Office of the Dean of Students before classroom accommodations can be
provided. If you are eligible for academic accommodations because you have
a documented disability that will impact your work in this class, please
schedule an appointment with me as soon as possible to discuss your needs.

Resources

Besides seeing me during your conference time or in my office, you have

other resources at Purdue to help you with your writing and writing
assignments. The Writing Lab in Heavilon Hall, Room 226, offers FREE
tutorials to students by appointment or on a drop-in basis. For more
information or to make an appointment, call 494-3723. You may also access
the Online Writing Lab (OWL) at http://owl.english.purdue.edu. You may also
use the Digital Learning Collaboratory (DLC) to help you create
multimedia projects. You can check out equipment, use the computers, learn
new software, or reserve space to work collaboratively on a class project. For
more information, go to http://www.dlc.purdue.edu.

Plagiarism

All written work submitted for a grade in this course must be the product of
your own composition. Ideas generated due to reading and group discussion
may provide the inspiration for your work, but should not be the sole ideas
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represented. With collaborative projects, of course, ideas should be

representative of the group’s work.

Plagiarism is the act of presenting as your own work another individual’s

ideas, words, data, or research material. The concept applies equally to
written, spoken, or electronic texts, published or unpublished. All ideas and
quotations that you borrow from any source must be acknowledged: at a
minimum, you should give the name of your author, the title of the text
cited, and the page number(s) of the citation. You should know that
penalties for plagiarism are severe and can entail suspension from
the University. Students are responsible for reading and understanding the
University policy on Cheating and Plagiarism set forth in Purdue University’s
Academic Integrity: A Guide for Students available at
http://www.purdue.edu/odos/osrr/integrity.htm.