ENGLISH 102: COMPOSITION II

Syllabus, Spring Quarter 2014 Cara N. Stoddard carast@bigbend.edu | Office # 1618 Office Hours: 1:00-3:00pm Mon-Thurs, or by appointment 10:30-11:35 AM | Room 2031 (gymnasium, 2nd floor)

COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This course is an advanced composition course designed to improve your critical thinking, reading, and written communication skills. Via an immersion into poetry, drama, fiction, and creative nonfiction, this course aims to teach the terminology of literary devices, strategies for close reading, and habits of independent research in order to prepare you to write formal and informal literary analyses. This course will also review the conventions of MLA citation and grammar and usage as time allows.

LEARNING OUTCOMES:
By the end of the course, you should be very good at doing the following: 1. Comprehending college-level literature and defining the themes presented using textual, critical, social and/or historical analysis 2. Identifying literary devices in both poetry and prose and analyzing their effect on readers 3. Developing a central claim (thesis) in response to a literary text and supporting/illustrating your central claim (thesis) clearly and logically 4. Assessing and interpreting multiple possible solutions to a problem posed by a literary text 5. Gathering and evaluating information using library resources 6. Situating your ideas as related to, but clearly distinguished from, the ideas of others (including the ability to paraphrase, summarize, and correctly cite and document borrowed material) and recognizing your place as a participant in an academic conversation about a particular text. 7. Distinguishing between writing for an academic audience and writing for a personal blog and adjusting your tone accordingly 8. Accurately proofreading your own work in order to produce writing that maintains the conventions of published English 9. Giving and receiving constructive feedback during peer review 10. Developing and improving habits of lifetime literacy Of course, I expect that you are able to carry out some of these tasks already.

REQUIRED BOOKS:
The Bluest Eye, 2007 By: Toni Morrison ISBN # 978-0307278449 Water by the Spoonful, 2012 By: Quiara Algeria Hudes ISBN # 978-1559364386
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DEADLINES FOR MAJOR ASSIGNMENTS:

Friday, April 4 Monday, April 14 Tuesday, April 15 Wednesday, April 30 Thursday, May 1 Monday, May 5 Monday, May 19 Tuesday, May 20 Thursday, May 29 Thursday, June 5 Monday, June 9 Tuesday, June 10 LAST DAY TO ADD A CLASS Essay 1, 1st Draft due for Peer Review Essay 1, Final Draft due The Bluest Eye Exam Essay 2, 1st Draft due for Peer Review Essay 2, Final Draft due Essay 3, 1st Draft due for Peer Review Essay 3, Final Draft due LAST DAY TO DROP A CLASS Essay 4, 1st Draft due for Peer Review Essay 4, Final Draft due Final Exam (covers Drama and Poetry Units)

COURSE TRAJECTORY:
Mon March 31Intros Tues April 1Helget, Stain You Red Wed April 2Beard, Cousins Thurs April 3meet in room 1801, discuss Spragg, A Boys Work; intro annotations Mon April 7meet in room 1801, intro blog Tues April 8discuss Sharlet, Inside the Iron Closet Wed April 9Wallace, Getting Away from Already Pretty Much Being Away from It All Thurs April 10Wallace, Getting Away from Already Pretty Much Being Away from It All Mon April 14Peer Review Tues April 15Essay 1 due, Intro to Toni Morrisons The Bluest Eye Wed April 16Morrison, The Bluest Eye Thurs April 17Morrison, The Bluest Eye Mon April 21Morrison, The Bluest Eye Tues April 22meet in room 1801, blog re: Morrison, The Bluest Eye Wed April 23Morrison, The Bluest Eye Thurs April 24Morrison, The Bluest Eye Mon April 28Morrison, The Bluest Eye Tues April 29Wall, On Dolls, Presidents, and Little Black Girls Wed April 30meet in room 1801, The Bluest Eye Exam Thurs May 1Peer Review Mon May 5Essay 2 due, intro to Hudes Water by the Spoonful Tues May 6Hudes, Water by the Spoonful Wed May 7No Class, Cara in Colorado Thurs May 8No Class, Cara in Colorado Mon May 12Hudes, Water by the Spoonful Tues May 13Hudes, Water by the Spoonful Wed May 14Hudes, Water by the Spoonful Thurs May 15Hudes, Water by the Spoonful Week 1 Week 7 Week 6 Week 5 Week 4 Week 3 Week 2

Mon May 19Peer Review Tues May 20Essay 3 due; intro to how to read a poem Wed May 21Poems Thurs May 22Poems Mon May 26no class, Memorial Day Tues May 27Poems Wed May 28Poems Thurs May 29Poems Mon June 2Poems Tues June 3Poems Wed June 4Poems Thurs June 5Peer Review Mon June 9Essay 4 due; Review for Final Exam Tues June 10Final Exam (Water by the Spoonful + Poetry)

ATTENDANCE:
Attendance in English 102 is mandatory. More than eight absences (two weeks) from class is grounds for failing the course. After 5 absences, your grade will be negatively affected. Anywhere from 6-8 absences will result in a 10% deduction from your overall score in the class. 9 or more absences equals an F (0.0) in the course. Thus, plan for unforeseen illnesses or travel plans later in the quarter. Only absences for bereavement, hospitalization, jury duty, or pre-arranged college Sponsored Events or Activities (see Student Handbook for definition) are considered excused absences. Every other kind of absence including illnesses and doctors appointments are considered unexcused and count toward your eight allowed absences. Whenever possible, please notify me before the excused absence to be sure to get any handouts you might miss in class. In the case of a personal or family emergency, please be in contact with me via email about the situation, and I will do my best to accommodate you. In the case of bereavement leave or a mental/physical health emergency for you or one of your dependents requiring you miss more than one day in a row, you will be expected to keep up with your coursework via Canvas. Arrangements will be made on a case-by-case basis. Being in attendance means being physically present, awake, coherent, and fully prepared for class with the readings completed. If you do not meet all of these conditions you will be marked absent for the day. Coming in more than 10 minutes late, leaving early, and inappropriate use of cell phones, laptops, or tablets in class will result in an unexcused absence. You are responsible for making up all of the work that you missed during an absence. Please see me during office hours or schedule an appointment before the next scheduled class.

LATE WORK:
Blog posts, comments, annotations, and essays are due at the beginning of class. I do not accept late homework. You will receive a zero on the assignment if you do not have it with you, in class, the day it is due. The one exception to this no late work policy is when using your Stuff Happens coupon . You may only use
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Week 11

Week 10

Week 9

Week 8

this coupon once per quarter, and it is only applicable on homework assignments (not on essay drafts).

For the four major essays in this course, I strongly discourage you from submitting them late. In the case of a late 1st Draft: You will be marked absent for Peer Review, though you may stay in the computer lab and work on your essay if youd like You will lose 10 of the possible 20 points for Peer Review for not having your draft ready in-class on the day of Peer Review You may still participate in Peer Review for the other 10 of the possible 20 points if another classmate was also absent on Peer Review day Due to grade deadlines, I cannot accept a late final draft on your Essay 4. A late final draft for Essays 1-3 will be graded as follows: Within 24 hours = 10% point reduction 2 days late = 20% reduction 3 days late = 30% reduction 4 days late = 40% reduction 5 or more days late = 50% reduction All writing assignments are to be typed and correctly formatted according to MLA standards (see the Purdue OWL website for details).

COURSE ETIQUETTE:
Classroom citizenship. The classroom is a learning community. Any behavior that disrupts this community will not be tolerated. This includes speaking to other students while I am talking, sleeping in class, passing notes, being rude or belligerent to me or other students, etc. This is a discussion-based course, and I expect you to treat each other with dignity and respect. We may be discussing sensitive topics and reading each others personal writing in this course. Please be considerate of others ideas and beliefs and do not discuss the content of others papers with students outside of this class. In accordance with Big Bends Discrimination Policy, disrespect or discrimination towards students based on race, color, national origin, ethnicity, citizen status, sex, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity or chosen gender, veteran status, age, or religion will not be tolerated. If you feel your well-being is being jeopardized or you have observed someone else being treated disrespectfully, please come speak to me about it privately after class or during my office hours.
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Readings. In accordance with Big Bends mission statement to encourage multiculturalism, this class has been intentionally designed to include contemporary literature that represents a diverse set of cultures and peoples. In this class we may discuss, read, write about, or view texts that you disagree with or find offensive. Such texts are not necessarily condoned, but rather used to prompt discussion and explore ideas that may be outside of our individual preferences and comfort levels. In this college classroom you are required to engage maturely and academically with all texts, regardless of their content or rating. Please email or see me privately during office hours if you have any questions about this policy.

Technology. In order to promote habits and skill-sets unique to scholars of the 21st century, this course has a heavy emphasis on the use of technology. You will be expected to check our Canvas page every day for a detailed description of the homework, and you will be submitting your homework and essays on Canvas and receiving important margin notes and feedback on your writing from your instructor on Canvas. This course also requires you to create and post weekly to an online (public) blog using Wordpress (http://english2565.wordpress.com/) and comment on your classmates blogs. There will be some direct instruction on using Wordpress during class time, but if you find you are struggling with the technology components of the coursework, please do not hesitate to seek help. I am available during office hours or by appointment to help with tech support, or you can be in contact with librarians Zach Wellhouse (zachw@bigbend.edu) or Tim Fuhrman (timf@bigbend.edu) for additional support. Having said that, more often than not, during class time, technological devices serve as distractions to you and the people around you, so please silence and put away your phones upon the start of class. There will certainly be exceptions to this rule, when I will allow you, even encourage you, to use your smart phone or device in class, but I will notify you when it is appropriate to take out your phone. Texting, taking calls, and checking the time on your cell phone is not permitted in class. Unless you have been given explicit permission to use your laptop in class, all laptops should be shut and stowed away. Any use of technology in class, including receiving audible texts or calls, will result in an unexcused absence for that day. Email etiquette. I certainly welcome your emails if you have questions about the course, your work, meeting times, etc., please dont hesitate to message me on Canvas or at carast@bigbend.edu. However, you should treat this as professional correspondence: that is, it should have a greeting, complete sentences, and your name at the bottom.

PLAGIARISM:
I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt and assume that you will do honest work and that you will work with me on improving writing that is your own. But plagiarism is a serious matter, and incidents of it have been on the rise nationally. So I feel that it is important to explain what the consequences are. The two basic kinds of plagiarism: 1. Malicious or intentional. This is the most serious kind of academic theft. It involves using someone elses work as your own without citing the source, including direct copying, rephrasing, and summarizing, submitting someone elses paper as your own, or re-submitting your own work from a different quarter or different course. It also includes paraphrasing by changing only a handful or words per sentence (using a thesaurus). Even if several different sources were copied or amalgamated, it is still plagiarism. 2. Plagia-phrasing or mosaic plagiarism. This includes: 1) taking someone elses idea and putting it in different words (paraphrasing) without clear attribution; 2) not indicating sources for directly quoted passages or ideas within your essay even while citing the work as a general source at the end of the essay in a Works Cited; 3) relying heavily on one particular source for your ideas; 4) using the wording or ideas from sources like Wikipedia, SparkNotes, GradeSaver.com, etc (this could be in your essays, blog posts, or essay exams) The consequences of plagiarism: If a paper involves plagiarism of the second kind, I will ask you to rewrite the paper, using correct forms of documentation. However, if you persist in committing this kind of plagiarism, even after I have explained it to you once or more, you will receive an F on the paper and could be subjected to a more severe penalty of the type described below. If a paper involves plagiarism of the first kind, I am empowered by the Student Code of Conduct to assign a grade of F for the entire course, a penalty that may be imposed in particularly serious cases. In most cases of plagiarism, I will also make a complaint to the Vice President of the college, who is responsible for enforcing the regulations in the Student Code of Conduct. So in addition to the academic penalty of receiving an F in the course, you may also be subject to other disciplinary penalties, which can include suspension or expulsion. Although such severe penalties are rarely imposed for first-time offenders, the Vice President maintains disciplinary records as part of a students overall academic record. A final word on plagiarism: I understand the occasional temptation to plagiarizebut I am surprisingly good at recognizing plagiarism. My basic message is Do Not Do It. When you need to take something from another persons workan idea, a powerful statement, a set of facts, or an explanationcite your source.

GRADING:
The majority of the points for this course come from the four major essays and the daily reading quizzes, so be sure to keep up with the readings and homework. Simply turning in final papers will not result in a passing grade in this class. Your percentage in the class is based out of 830 points (subject to change). You must turn in all 4 final essays and receive at least 494 points to pass this class. In order to receive a 2.0 (the grade required for this course to count at most 4-year colleges), you will have to receive a minimum of 602 points.
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Grading Scale:
% 95-100 94 92-93 91 A = GPA = 4.0 = 3.8 = 3.7 = 3.6 B % 89-90 87-88 86 85 84 83 82 81 80 = GPA = 3.5 = 3.4 = 3.3 = 3.2 = 3.1 = 3.0 = 2.9 = 2.8 = 2.7 % 79 78 77 76 75 74 73 72 71 70 = GPA = 2.6 = 2.5 = 2.4 = 2.3 = 2.2 = 2.1 = 2.0 = 1.9 = 1.8 = 1.7 C % 69 68 67 66 65 64 63 62 61 60 <60 D = GPA = 1.6 = 1.5 = 1.4 = 1.3 = 1.2 = 1.1 = 1.0 = 0.9 = 0.8 = 0.7 = 0.0 (F)

Represents achievement that is outstanding or superior relative to the level necessary to meet the requirements of the course. B Represents achievement that is significantly above the level necessary to meet the requirements of the course. Grades of A or B are honors grades. You must do something above and beyond the min. requirements in order to earn an A or B. Represents achievement that meets the basic requirements in every respect . It signifies that the work is average, but C nothing more. Represents achievement that meets some but not all of the basic requirements. It signifies that a significant amount of D coursework is either missing or received not-passing grades. If you receive less than 554 points in the course or fail to hand in one of the 3 major writing assignments, you will automatically earn an F. If your average grade is a D but you did not complete one of the major components of the F course (one of the 3 major papers or all of the homework assignments or drafts), you will automatically earn an F in the course. Accumulating more than eight absences also will result in an F. There is no reason for receiving an F in this course unless you simply fail to submit the required work. Stands for Incomplete. Under very unusual circumstances you could be assigned an Incomplete in the course if I something happened to you within the last two weeks of the quarter that made it impossible to complete the course (a serious accident or illness that left you hospitalized and very significant personal tragedy, etc.) A

Re-doing Final Drafts. I will allow you to re-submit Essays 1, Essay 2, and Essay 3 again after the Final Draft due date if you received a D or F (except in the case of a grade reduction for tardiness, plagiarism, or academic dishonesty), and I will average the two Final Draft grades. All revised Final Drafts must be turned in on or before Monday, June 9. A Note on Transferring. While any grade above a .7 (60%) is considered passing, many programs and colleges require a 2.0 or higher in order to transfer credits earned in a class. In addition, students who fall below a 2.0 are particularly likely to struggle in other classes that require academic writing. Speak to your advisor or transfer colleges for details about this issue.

RESOURCES:
English Skills Lab: If you would like another reader for any of your essays or if you would like help on an essay in between your first and final drafts, you may schedule an appointment with a tutor at the English Lab. The English Skills Lab is Located the 1800 Building, Room 1832.
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Spring Quarter Hours: Monday - Wednesday....8:00am - 8:00pm Thursday........................8:00am - 4:00pm Friday.............................9:00am - 4:00pm To make an appointment simply stop by or call 509.793.2361. The English Skills Lab can help with all stages of the writing process and all levels of writers, so it is not always necessary to have a completed draft prepared for your appointment. Student Success Center: If you need to use a computer, to check out a laptop, or if you are struggling in any of your classes, you can sign up for peer mentoring or supplemental instruction, contact Diana Villafana at 509.793.2369. The Student Success Center is located in the 1400 Building and is open Mon-Thurs 8am-5pm and Fri 8am-2:30pm. Disability Services: Big Bend Community College is committed to providing reasonable accommodation in academic programs to ensure maximum participation by all students with disability and to minimize the functional limitations their disabling condition has on their education. Proper procedures are in place to obtain equal access wherein the student and college staff work together to facilitate reasonable accommodations. The Disabled Student Services Office is located in the 1400 Building. Loralyn Allen is the disabled students liaison. Her office, located inside the Counseling Center, is open Monday - Thursday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. and Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. To schedule an appointment contact her at 509.793.2027. For the hearing impaired TDD is available in the Registration/Admissions Office for incoming and outgoing calls at telephone number 509.762.6335.