Julia Glassman
juliaglassman at yahoo com
Course Description
In this course, you’ll be practicing the basic forms of composition, including paragraphs and essays, to prepare you for 801B or English 105. Throughout the semester, we’ll be working on fundamentals like grammar, sentence structure, and paragraph development, but we’ll also be investigating ways to make writing satisfying and fun.
Student Learning Outcomes
Upon completion of this course, 801A students should be able to:
1. Read texts to generate ideas for a short piece of writing.
2. Write paragraphs with a clear beginning, middle, and end.
3. Support ideas with relevant details.
4. Write sentences that demonstrate rudimentary control of written English.
801B students should be able to:
1. Read, summarize, and respond to texts to generate ideas for writing short essays.
2. Write a short essay with a clear beginning, middle, and end.
3. Support ideas with relevant and convincing details.
4. Write sentences that demonstrate increasing control of written English.
Texts
1. Kirszner, Laurie and Mandell, Stephen. Focus on Writing. Boston: Bedford St. Martin’s, 2008.
2. Rosa, Alfred and Eschholz, Paul. Models for Writers. Boston: Bedford St. Martin’s, 2010.
3. Westerfeld, Scott. Peeps. New York: Razorbill, 2005.
4. College Dictionary (very strongly suggested)
Grading Policy and Assignments
801 is a pass/fail course. 801A students must achieve 70% in order to pass, and 801B students must achieve 80%. The workload is broken down into three general areas – essays, short assignments, and participation. Your overall grade will be calculated by adding the average grade of your essays to the number of short assignments you turn in and participation points you receive. Detailed descriptions of each area are as follows:
Essays:
You’ll be required to write 4 1-2 page essays, which will be given letter grades. Essays will be graded on grammar, focus, clarity, and response to the prompt. You will be allowed to rewrite one essay if you’d like to try for a better grade; see me if you’d like to do this. Your final exam will consist of a timed essay.
Short assignments:
Each class session will begin and end with journal writing. You must obtain a separate notebook to serve as your journal! Other short assignments will include weekly paragraphs that may or may not be incorporated into longer essays, and exercises from the textbook. You’ll also be required to annotate your reading, and I’ll be conducting random checks throughout the semester.
Participation (worth about 25% of your overall grade):
Active participation is required in every class session. I’ll be calling on random students to answer questions about readings or assignments, so come prepared! If it’s clear that you haven’t done the reading, you’ll be marked absent. If I catch one student using an electronic device, the entire class will be given a pop quiz.
You’ll be granted two freebie absences this semester; four absences will lower your grade by one letter, and five or more absences will result in your being dropped from the class. Three tardies equal one absence, and leaving class early or taking excessive breaks counts as a tardy. This policy is strict because we have a tremendous amount of material to cover in eighteen weeks, and it’s simply not possible to keep up if you miss two or more weeks’ worth of class. If you have a medical or family emergency and suspect you may miss three or more sessions, I highly recommend you drop the class and get a fresh start next semester.
Your participation grade also includes the supplemental learning assistance requirement, detailed in the next section.
This course requires a significant amount of work outside of class per week, so be careful about how you manage your time! As long as you keep track of your essay grades and the number of assignments you’ve turned in, you should know whether you’re passing. You can also ask me via email, but please give me about two business days to respond.
One more note: I do not accept late assignments. I don’t surprise you with extra homework after you’ve turned in an essay, so don’t surprise me with extra grading.
Supplemental Learning Assistance Requirement:
All students enrolled in English 801, 105, or 1 are required to complete 3 activities,
approximately one hour each, in the Writing and Reading Success Center at LAC or the
Multidisciplinary Success Center at PCC. These activities are designed to prepare you
for and reinforce essential concepts covered in this course. These activities represent 5%
of your class grade.
The types of activities are described below:
• Directed Learning Activities (DLA): Independent activities including a one-on-one
review and discussion with a Success Center Instructor or Tutor.
• Workshops: Interactive, instructor-led mini presentations on key topics related to
this course.
The English Department has made it a requirement that at least one of the activities you complete must be accomplished as a workshop.
The activities can be completed in the Writing and Reading Success Center in the lower
level of the E Building at the LAC campus or at the Multidisciplinary Center in LL206 at
the PCC campus. For the centers hours and more information, view their website at
http://successcenters.lbcc.edu. When you go to the Success Center, you will need to take
your student ID card.
Student Responsibilities
Like I said, student participation is required. Please take notes and take part in discussions, and refrain from rude, disruptive, or intolerant behavior. This includes sleeping in class and talking while I’m talking. It goes for emails, too – don’t demand that I get back to you “ASAP.” Use your judgment. Again, electronic devices are not allowed in the classroom.
Plagiarism is strictly prohibited, and any plagiarized work will result in a non-passing grade and a report to the Dean’s office. Plagiarism includes submitting any portion of another student’s work as your own, presenting someone else’s ideas as your own, including another writer’s work in an assignment without giving him or her credit, or submitting an assignment you wrote for another class.
If you ever have any questions about the course, please email me or see me after class. I look forward to a great semester!
Course Outline
Because schedules often change depending on the pace of the class and the needs of the students, this outline may change at any time. Whenever a change is made, I’ll email you or distribute a revised syllabus. Please have all reading before the date on which it’s listed. You are responsible for getting any information or assignments you miss because of absences or tardies.
Unless the words “with exercises” follow the reading assignment, you don’t have to complete the exercises in the book. When you do complete exercises, you may write them on a separate sheet of paper.
Week 1
9/7: Introduction, course policies, and diagnostic.
9/9: Focus 625-631
Week 2
9/14: Focus 632-634, 567-568, Peeps chapters 1 and 2
9/16: Focus 3-13, Models 76-79
Week 3
9/21: Focus 14-22, Models 186-189, Peeps chapters 3 and 4
9/23: In-class movie (Microcosmos)!
Week 4
9/28: Focus 73, Models 389-390, Peeps chapters 5 and 6
9/30: Focus 22-27, Models 312-315, Peeps chapters 7 and 8
Week 5
10/5: Storytelling day!
10/7: Focus 63-68 with exercises, Models 373-380, Peeps chapters 9 and 10
Week 6
10/12: Focus 161-166 with exercises, Models 361-364, Peeps chapters 11 and 12
10/14: Focus 195-200, Handout
Week 7
10/19: Essay #1 due. Peer Review 1.
10/21: Handout, Peeps chapters 13 and 14.
Week 8
10/28: Focus 107-111, Peeps chapters 15 and 16.
Week 9
11/2: Models 484-486, Handout, Peeps chapters 17 and 18.
11/4: Essay #2 due. Peer Review 2.
Week 10
11/9: Peeps chapters 19-22, handout
11/11: Peeps chapters 23-epilogue, handout
Week 11
11/16: TBA.
11/18: Essay #3 due. Peer Review 3.
Week 12
11/23: Focus 133-137 with exercises, Models 435-437
Week 13
11/30: Models 439-441, Handout
12/2: Handout
Week 14
12/7: Essay #4 due. Peer Review 4.
Final exam date and time TBA.
