English 101C-05: Critical Thinking and Composition

Ohlone College, Newark Campus

Fall 2009
TTh 1:15–2:50pm
NC 2123

INSTRUCTOR: Assistant Professor Jennifer Hurley

OFFICE: Newark Center 2115
EMAIL: jhurley@ohlone.edu
BLOG: http://hurleyenglish101c.blogspot.com
PHONE: (510) 742-2377
OFFICE HOURS (BY APPOINTMENT): MW 10–11am; TTh 8:45–9:45am & 11:30am–noon
TUTORING HOUR, NC 2306 (NO APPOINTMENT NEEDED): TBA

HOW TO CONTACT ME
I encourage you to contact me if you have any questions about your writing assignments,
course readings, or the material we’ve covered in class. If you were absent, please don’t
contact me about what you missed; instead, get in touch with another student.

For quick questions, feel free to approach me before or after class, or send me an email.
For longer discussions, please make an appointment to see me in office hours.
Appointments can be made in person or via email. If you have a schedule conflict during
office hours, let me know. Usually I can offer you an alternate time.

WHAT IS ENGLISH 101C?

English 101C will introduce you to the skills of critical thinking. It is similar to English
101A, with a stronger emphasis on critical reading, the use of logic, and exposing flawed
arguments.

COURSE GOALS
By the end of the course, you should be able to:
1. understand what it means to think critically;
2. apply specific critical thinking skills to a variety of readings and subject matter;
3. demonstrate your ability to think critically through in-class discussion and writing
tasks; and
4. feel a greater sense of confidence in your ability to think critically.

COURSE MATERIALS
1. To prevent the need for an expensive anthology, I will ask you to print some of your
readings from the course blog (about 10 pages per week on average). (See the top of this
syllabus for the website address of the blog.) After printing, number the paragraphs in
the margins so we can refer to specific sections during our discussions. Please do not
take this course if you cannot commit to printing the readings and bringing a paper copy
with you to class. A laptop or iphone is not an acceptable alternative. You are welcome to
shrink the readings or print double-sided to save paper.
2. College-level dictionary, to be brought to class every day
3. Notebook for in-class notes

OTHER REQUIREMENTS
Part of your role as a college student and a citizen is knowing what is going on in the
world. From time to time I will quiz you about the news. You need not memorize details,
but you should know the basic headlines and issues. To prepare for these quizzes, sign up
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for daily email updates from the New York Times. Go to www.nytimes.com and click on
“Register Now” in the upper right-hand corner. For a fun take on current issues, watch the
Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert shows on Comedy Central from 10–11pm on
weeknights.

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY
All of the work you do for this class must be your own. Any instance of cheating or
plagiarism will mean immediate dismissal from the course with a grade of F. Ohlone’s
policy on academic integrity appears later in this syllabus.

CELL PHONE/LAPTOP POLICY

So that you can devote your full attention to learning, I prohibit cell phone and personal
laptop use in the classroom. Before class begins, please completely turn off all electronic
devices and put them out of sight.

GRADES
I strive to offer you a system of grading that is fair and easy to understand. If at any time
you would like an explanation of the grading procedures, please come talk to me. My
standards for your performance are high, but I am rooting for your success.

The following is a breakdown of your grade:

Attendance: 15 points
Participation: 15 points
Homework: 20 points
Rough Drafts: 1–3 points each
Formal Papers (includes the midterm and final exam): 20–30 points each
Group Presentation: 10 points
Pop Quizzes: 1–3 points each

At the end of the semester, I will determine your final grade by figuring the percentage of
points you have earned out of the total number of points possible. Plus and minus grades
are not given at Ohlone College.

A: 90–100
B: 80–89
C: 70–79
D: 60–69
F: below 60

ATTENDANCE
Regular attendance is crucial to succeeding in this course. I will drop students who
demonstrate poor attendance during the first half of the semester. Additionally, if you
miss FIVE or more classes, or if you are late to class on a regular basis, you will
automatically receive a zero for attendance. This usually means that you will fail the
course. Please keep track of your attendance to avoid unpleasant surprises at the end of
the semester.

If you are absent for any reason, it is your own responsibility to get the assignments from
another student and complete them on time. Please do not ask me what you missed.

Arriving to class on time demonstrates your respect for me and for the other students in
the class. If you must come late to a class, please come in quietly and take a seat by the
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door instead of walking in front of me while I am talking to the rest of the class. After
class let me know that you were late; otherwise you will be marked absent.

PARTICIPATION
The ability to express your ideas in a group setting is an important skill for college and
the workplace. This class requires that you participate in discussions. Please note that if
you do not contribute to in-class discussions, the highest participation grade you can
receive is a D.

HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENTS
Written homework will be assigned for every class session. For homework, I ask that you
write a response (minimum of one page double-spaced) to the reading assigned. If there
is more than one reading assigned that day, the minimum is one and a half pages.

SUBMITTING YOUR HOMEWORK

Please email your homework to me at jhurley@ohlone.edu before class begins that day.
When you email me your assignment, please do not send attachments; instead, copy and
paste the text into the body of an email. (You might lose the formatting when you do this,
but that’s fine.) Write the following in the subject line: your last name, class and section
number, and the due date of the homework assignment. It is not a requirement that you
bring a printed copy of your homework to class, but it is a good idea to do so. I may open
the discussion by asking a few students what they wrote about.

If your email bounces back, usually that means that Ohlone’s spam blocker was
triggered. Try sending it again as an attachment in .doc or .rtf format.

Homework is meant to be practice, so you will not be graded on each individual

homework assignment. Your homework grade is based on the overall effort and
thoughtfulness you give to your homework during the semester. If you would like
feedback on your homework, please see me in office hours.

FORMAL PAPERS
A formal paper is any paper that is graded, including the midterm and final. You will
always be given clear instructions and deadlines for any formal paper. Formal papers
should always be printed out and submitted directly to me at the beginning of class;
otherwise your grade may be penalized. If you miss one of the formal papers, you will fail
the class.

TYPED DRAFTS
I will ask you to complete at least one typed rough draft of your formal papers before the
final draft is due. Do not submit your rough draft via email; instead bring a printed copy
to class. If you are not present in class on draft day, you will not receive credit for your
draft—no exceptions. While I cannot respond in writing or email to your drafts, I am
happy to give you feedback on your draft in office hours. Please don’t hesitate to make
an appointment for this purpose.

GROUP PRESENTATIONS
I will ask you to sign up for your group presentation topic early in the semester. You can
find detailed guidelines for the group presentation on the blog.

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WRITING ASSIGNMENT GUIDELINES
All writing assignments (including homework and rough drafts) should be typed and
double-spaced unless I indicate otherwise. Please format your papers according to MLA
style, with a header including your last name and the page number, and 12 point Times
New Roman as your font. See http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/557/01/ and
look under Paper Format for guidelines on MLA style. Professionalism counts: Papers that
are unstapled, poorly proofread, or printed using a dying ink cartridge automatically
receive lower grades.

It is your responsibility to keep a copy of every writing assignment you turn in. If an
assignment gets lost, I cannot give you a grade unless you supply me with another copy.
In addition, please keep all of the graded work that you receive back from me.

EARLY WORK
If you know ahead of time you will be absent on the day an assignment is due, send your
assignment to my email. For formal papers, please also hand me a printed version on the
next class meeting.

LATE WORK
Late homework is accepted within two weeks of the date it was assigned. One or two late
homeworks over the course of the semester will not make a significant impact on your
grade, but if your homework is frequently late, your grade will suffer.

You can turn in one formal paper (not the midterm or final) up to one week late with no
penalty using the coupon below. Papers more than one week late will not be accepted
under any circumstances. Late formal papers without a coupon are not accepted.

Please note that absence is not an excuse for missing an assignment deadline. If you
have a late assignment due to an absence, it is treated the same as any other late
assignment. The same is true of assignments that are late due to computer/printer
errors. I appreciate those students who hand in late work with a willingness to accept the
penalty and without making excuses.

MAKE-UP WORK
There is no such thing as “make-up work” in this class. If you miss the final exam, an in-
class writing assignment, or a quiz, you cannot make these up, nor can you rewrite a
paper for a new grade. Please do not ask me if you can miss the final exam.

OUTSIDE HELP
Most students dealing with college-level work need outside help or feedback at some
point during the semester—and this is especially true in writing classes. Students who
make appointments with me in office hours usually do better than those who don’t. In
addition, if you are struggling with grammar, I urge you to sign up for a peer tutor in
room NC 2306 at Newark.

Please cut out this coupon and staple it to the front of your late paper.
Name_______________________________________
Class/Section#_______________________________
Due Date of Assignment_______________________
Today's Date________________________
COUPON FOR ONE4LATE FORMAL PAPER*
*No paper more than one week late will be accepted.
 POLICY ON ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

Obviously, cheating of any kind will not be tolerated. Any instance of cheating or
plagiarism, intentional or unintentional, will result in your immediate dismissal
from the course with a grade of F. There are no second chances or “make-ups” for
these offenses; therefore, it is essential that you understand how cheating and plagiarism
are defined.

Definition of Cheating:
Ohlone College defines cheating as “the act of obtaining or attempting to obtain credit
for academic work through the use of any dishonest, deceptive, or fraudulent means.”
Cheating in this course includes:

1. Copying from another student’s exam, essay, or homework

2. During an exam, using sources or materials not authorized by the instructor
3. Altering grades
4. Having someone take an exam for you, or taking an exam for someone else
5. Representing someone else’s work as your own (plagiarism)

Definition of Plagiarism:
Ohlone College defines plagiarism as “the act of representing the work of another as
one’s own (without giving appropriate credit) regardless of how that work was obtained
and submitting it to fulfill academic requirements.” In plain language, plagiarism is
copying someone else’s words or ideas without giving that person credit.

There are two types of plagiarism. You are committing intentional plagiarism if you
intentionally misrepresent someone else’s work as your own. Examples of intentional
plagiarism:

1. Taking an essay or part of an essay from the Internet, a magazine, a book, or a

friend, and submitting it as your own
2. Incorporating someone else’s ideas, paragraphs, sentences, or words into your
paper, with the intention of representing them as your own
3. Turning in any writing that you yourself did not do

You are committing unintentional plagiarism if you fail to give credit to any author
whose ideas or words you use in your writing. Examples of unintentional plagiarism:

1. “Borrowing” paragraphs, phrases, or words (three or more in a row) or from an

author without giving credit to that author
2. Failing to give the name of the author whose ideas you are using in your paper
3. Failing to put quotation marks around phrases or passages that you have taken
directly from a source

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 STUDENT SIGNATURES

I ask you to sign the following statements to show that you have read and understood
these key elements of the course.

I have read the course policy on academic integrity in this syllabus, and I
understand how cheating and plagiarism are defined. I am aware that the
penalty for cheating or plagiarism is immediate dismissal from the course with
a grade of F.

_____________________________________________ _______________
Student Signature Date

I am aware that it is my responsibility to print the readings for this class

(about 10–15 pages per week) from the course blog, and I am able and willing
to meet this requirement. I am aware that my grade will be lowered if I fail to
bring my own printed copy of the readings to class.

_____________________________________________ _______________
Student Signature Date