COURSE SYLLABUS

COURSE INFORMATION Course Number: ENGL 1301 Course Title: Composition I Course Description: Intensive study of and practice in writing processes, from invention and researching to drafting, revising, and editing, both individually and collaboratively. Emphasis on effective rhetorical choices, including audience, purpose, arrangement, and style. Focus on writing the academic essay as a vehicle for learning, communicating, and critical analysis. Lab required. Course Credit Hours: 3 Lecture Hours: 3 Lab Hour: 1 Prerequisite: Placement in ENGL 1301; College-Level Reading Student Learning Outcomes: State-mandated outcomes: Upon successful completion of this course, students will: 1. Demonstrate knowledge of individual and collaborative writing processes. 2. Develop ideas with appropriate support and attribution. 3. Write in a style appropriate to audience and purpose. 4. Read, reflect, and respond critically to a variety of texts. 5. Use Edited American English in academic essays. Additional Collin Outcome: Upon successful completion of this course, students should be able to do the following: 1. Demonstrate personal responsibility through the ethical use of intellectual property. Withdrawal Policy: See the current Collin Registration Guide for the last day to withdraw. Collin College Academic Policies: See the current Collin Student Handbook The College District may initiate disciplinary proceedings against a student accused of scholastic dishonesty. Scholastic dishonesty may involve, but is not limited to, one or more of the following acts: cheating, plagiarism, collusion, use of annotated texts or teachers editions, use of information about exams posted on the Internet or electronic medium, and/or falsifying academic records. Collin faculty are required to report alleged violations of scholastic dishonesty to the Dean of Student Development, who then investigates the case, and renders an administrative decision. Faculty are not allowed to assign a grade to the work in question until the Dean of Student Development renders a decision Students found responsible for scholastic dishonesty offenses will receive an authorized disciplinary penalty from the office of the Dean of Student Development. Additionally, students found responsible for scholastic dishonesty will be assigned a penalty in this class that ranges from a grade of F on the assignment to a grade of F for the course

Americans with Disabilities Act: Collin College will adhere to all applicable federal, state and local laws, regulations and guidelines with respect to providing reasonable accommodations as required to afford equal opportunity. It is the students responsibility to contact the ACCESS office, SCC-G200 or 972.881.5898 (V/TTD: 972.881.5950) to arrange for appropriate accommodations. See the current Collin Student Handbook for additional information. Religious Holy Days: Please refer to the current Collin Student Handbook. INSTRUCTOR INFORMATION Instructors Name: Sean Ferrier-Watson Office Number: D-120 Office Hours: MW 1:00-2:00PM TR 10:30-1:00PM or by appointment Phone Number: 972-516-5053 Email: sferrier-watson@collin.edu Website: WebCT/Blackboard and www.seanferrierwatson.wordpress.com Class Information Section Number: 1301.S51 Meeting Times: TR 1:00-2:15PM Meeting Location: B126 Minimum Technology Requirement: Computer with internet access and ability to send emails and login to our class website Minimum Student Tech Skills: Students are expected to be familiar with typing papers on a keyboard, surfing the internet, and other basic computer literacies Netiquette Expectations: Students are expected to send emails with clear subjects and appropriate signatures for identification purposes; responses to emails should be expected within 48 hours during weekdays; emails will rarely receive responses on weekends. Course Resources Textbooks: Bullock, Richard H. The Norton Field Guide to Writing, 3rd ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2013. Print. ISBN: 0393919560. Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers or Research Papers, 7th ed. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2009. Print. ISBN: 978-1-60329-024-1. Other Texts: Anything published to our classs Blackboard account or website as marked on our weekly calendar. Supplies 1. Three-ring binder for storing class work

2. Flash drive or other means (dropbox.com account, for example) of storing digital versions of essays and other written material you generate (always, always keep a backup of everything you turn in!) 3. A valid, working email address that you check everyday 4. Regular access to a computer and internet (additional readings may be available online) Method of Evaluation Grade Scale: A= 90 to 100 B= 80 to 89 C= 70 to 79 D= 60 to 69 F= 0 to 59 Lab/Participation/Attendance 10% Participation may include class discussion activities, readiness for class, quizzes, homework, attendance, or any other classroom activity. The Lab grade constitutes your peer review workshops and subsequent drafts and revisions. Attendance is mandatory and vital to your grade. You cannot hope to pass the class without attending regularly. If a student misses more than four class sessions, a deduction will be applied to the students participation grade, and students can fail for the semester if they miss the equivalent of three class weeks (attendance is an important part of your grade, so please do not underestimate the attendance policy). Absences are considered to be unauthorized unless officially sanctioned by the university or school. Students must present proof of the incident before an excuse will be issued. If, through a misfortune, a student should arrive after I have recorded absences, it is the students responsibility to talk with me immediately after class in order to discuss changing the unauthorized absence to a tardy. If the problem is serious enough to miss a significant amount of class, then the student should consider dropping the course or speaking with the university. Daily Writing Journal 10% Weekly journal entries are designed to help students engage the writing the process on a daily basis. These response papers can be handwritten or typed and should always be legible. I encourage students to write about what they learned in the previous class and to go beyond merely summarizing the reading or class discussion. These papers are due before the end of class every weekday. The average response paper should be roughly to 1 page in length. They are graded credit or no credit, which will be indicated by a check or a zero. All daily entries should be kept in the writers portfolio (see below). Late journal entries will not be accepted. Writers Portfolio 5% The Writers Portfolio is simply a binder containing your journal entries, previous essays and drafts, and other class work. It will be submitted the final week of class and graded based on how well you have kept up and organized your writing over the semester. Such portfolios allow writers to observe their progress and mine old works for new ideas. Essay #1: Literacy Narrative 15% Using Debora Brandts Literacy Sponsors, Barton and Hamiltons Literacy Practices, and other readings as a lens, examine the way language, rhetoric and literacy have shaped your life. In essence, you will be investigating where your literacy (reading and writing) practices come from and how they shape the way you

have learned to write (i.e. parents, friends, school, books, etc.). The paper should take the form of a personal narrative (story) or first-person essay and cover the following questions: What or who is the controlling agent(s) or sponsor(s) of these practices? What events lead you to believe this? What in your writing do you feel has been positively or negatively shaped by these events and practices? The completed assignment should be between three and five pages in length, not including the works cited page. Essay #2: Rhetorical Fallacy 20% Rhetorical fallacies are falsehoods told to intentionally mislead or distract an audience from critical flaws or shortcomings in an argument, often masked as indisputable truths or legitimate and well founded departures from the task at hand. Fallacies have a long history in the discussion and study of rhetoric, harkening back to the ancient Greeks and beyond, but they can also be found throughout modern times as well. We see fallacies employed in political debates, around the dinner table, in classrooms, and just about anywhere else where arguments are being made, but ethical scholars and savvy interlocutors try to avoid and unravel fallacies at all costs. This essay will call upon you to study the nature of modern fallacies through examining modern advertisingprint, broadcast, or digital mediums. You will need to select an ad or series of ads and explain their use of rhetorical fallacies. Drawing from our class discussions and readings, your essay should try to answer the following questions: Who is the target audience of the ad? How do the ads you looked at attempt to persuade their target audience? What kinds of fallacies appear in the ad? Do you believe they are being used effectively? In other words, do you believe the ads actually con their target audiences? The completed assignment should be between three and five pages in length, not including the works cited page. Essay #3: Writing to Inform 20% An informative essay attempts to explicate a particular topic or issue for the purpose of disseminating knowledge; its primary purpose is to inform rather than to convince. For an academic or professional audience, this kind of essay is typically designed for two purposes: to present complicated findings to a knowledgeable audience or to train and educate a novice in the field. While it is debatable to call any essay purely objective, an informative essay should attempt to be as unbiased as possible. For this assignment, practice informative writing in one of two ways: write a fake news report about a recent event in your life or write a scientific report about your favorite animal. This essay should be between three and five pages in length, not including a works cited page, and should rely on scholarly research (library research) or observations/interviews. Essay #4: Writing to Argue 20% A persuasive or argumentative essay is one of the most common types of academic writing. The purpose of this essay is to argue a specific perspective on any debatable topicpolitical, social, cultural, scientific, or artistic. The essay should recognize discrepancies and offer practical solutions to those discrepancies. Write your persuasive or argumentative essay about a topic you are interested in and that serves an academic interest (i.e. this paper should not focus on personal or private issues). Since this paper is being written in an academic setting, you must follow the argumentative methodology common to academic researchers, meaning your arguments and evidence will meet the rigorous standards expected of members of the academe. This essay should be between three and five pages in length, not including a works cited page.
Rewrite Policy All major writing assignments, with the exception of the final writing assignment, may be rewritten once for full credit. Please speak with me after assignments are returned to discuss rewriting for a higher grade.

Grading/Return Policy

My policy is generally to return major grades at least two weeks after the assignment has been submitted, not including assignments accepted after the deadline or works to be rewritten. On rare occasions, there may be an exception to this return policy, but I will alert students immediately if such an occasion occurs. If you have not received an assignment by the two week deadline, it is your responsibility to contact me with your concerns. It is sometimes the case that students have missed days when papers were returned or have missed an email indicating a change in the return date. A quick email or conversation with me can easily clarify the matter, so please dont hesitate to contact me with your concerns.
All major writing assignments, with the exception of the final writing assignment, may be rewritten once for full credit. Please speak with me after assignments are returned to discuss rewriting for a higher grade.

Hybrid Course Requirements This course makes use of an online learning component provided by the Blackboard platform, accessible by logging into CougarWeb with the ID and password provided by the university. Our blackboard section will house readings, handouts, grade-book(s), a dropbox folder to submit essay assignments, links to important websites and documents, and the class syllabus. You are required to visit this site before every class to access the schedule and check for important updates and announcements. You will submit major essays and receive grades on them through this online platform and by using the dropbox feature. Criteria for grading and regulating essays are the same as listed above. Assignments are due at 11:59PM on the day they are listed as due. Late work may be subject to penalty. Students are also responsible for turning in assignments in an Office Word friendly format. Note: the Blackboard grade-book does NOT reflect your official grade for the class, but merely the average of your major essay gradesparticipation, attendance, the daily writing journal, and the portfolio grade will NOT be reflected in this grade-book. Course Calendar: Fall 2013 NFG=Norton Field Guide to Writing BB=Blackboard August Week 1 27First Day! Class Introduction Review of Syllabus & Class Schedule Select Peer Groups Homework: print syllabus for next time and upload two sentence bio to dropbox 29 Rhetorical Situation: Purpose, Audience, & Occasion Purpose, pages 3-4 (NFG) Audience, pages 5-7 (NFG) Genre, pages 9-10 (NFG) Peer Group Activity Week 2 3Understanding Rhetoric: A Classical Approach Rhetoric through the ages Using Ethos, Pathos, & Logos Writing Introductions 5 Literacy Practices & Sponsors Literacy Practices, Barton & Hamilton (BB)

Sponsors of Literacy, Deborah Brandt (BB) Group Activity September

Week 3 10Understanding Literacy Literacy in Three Metaphors, Sylvia Scribner (BB) Activity and Discussion 12 Understanding Literacy Cont. Mother Tongue, Amy Tan, pages 633-9 (NFG) Literacy Behind Bars, Malcolm X, pages 640-3 (NFG) Creating Titles Activity Week 4 17Proofreading & Peer Review Proofreading: The Skill Weve Neglect to Teach, (BB) Bring draft of essay to class Peer Review for Essay #1 19 Understanding Fallacies Arguing, pages 337-40 (NFG) Essay #1 Due (submit to dropbox by 11:59PM tonight) Week 5 24Rhetorical Fallacy Fallacy as Rhetorical Device List of Common Fallacies (BB) Group Activity 26 Platos Cave Allegory of The Cave, Plato (BB) Homework: for next week during student conferences, bring in two questions you have about the class and one about the second essay October Week 6 1 Mandatory Student Conferencing Meet in my office (D120) during scheduled appointment Will count as participation and attendance No classroom meeting on this date, so please do not go to our class 3 Mandatory Student Conferencing Meet in my office (D120) during scheduled appointment Will count as participation and attendance No classroom meeting on this date, so please do not go to our class Week 7 8 Contemporary use of Rhetorical Fallacy Cont. Contemporary advertising review The accidental fallacy Video samples Class Activity

10 The Risks of Deception Should we use rhetorical fallacies Discussion Week 8 15 Peer Review Bring completed draft of Essay #2 Be prepared to workshop with peer group 17 Informative Writing What is informative writing? Reporting Information, 87 (NFG) Essay #2 Due (submit to dropbox by 11:59PM tonight) Week 9 22 Informing Others Does Texting Affect Writing, Michaela Cullington, 87-95 (NFG) Rural>City>Cyberspace: The Biggest Migration in Human History, Nicholas Carr, 95-100 (NFG) Group Activity 24 Informing Others Throwing Like a Girl, James Fallows, 100-105 (NFG) The Strange Economics of Engagement Rings, Matthew OBrien, 105-108 (NFG) Week 10 29 Writing in the Sciences The Pedagogy of Writing Across the Curriculum, McLeod (BB) Excerpt from Disciplinary Discourses, Ken Hyland (BB) MLA & Library Workshop Discussion 31 Writing in the Sciences Cont. The Effect of Biofeedback Training, Sarah Thomas, 165-168 (NFG) Informative Abstracts, 150 (NFG) Class Activity November Week 11 5 Informing About Yourself; Writing Rsums or Job Letters Rsums and Job Letters, 222-234 (NFG) 7 Peer Review for Essay #3 Bring completed draft of Essay #3 Be prepared to workshop with peer group Week 12 12 Writing to Argue Discussion & Overview Organ Sales will Save Lives, Joanna Mackay, 119-123 (NFG) A Guide to Writing Arguments, 138-149 (NFG) Essay #3 Due (submit to dropbox by 11:59PM tonight) 14 Writing to Argue Cont.

The Dark Side of Science, Heather E. Douglas, 124-126 (NFG) Some Like it Hot, Lawrence Lessig, 127-130 (NFG) Class Activity

Week 13 19 Writing to Argue & Propose Black Friday: Consumerism Minus Civilization, Andrew Leonard, 131-135 (NFG) Dont Make English OfficialBan It Instead, Dennis Baron, 886-889 (NFG) Class Activity 21 Writing to Propose and Persuade The Singer Solution to World Poverty, Peter Singer, 902-909 (NFG) Training the Next Teacher for America: A Proposal, 890-901 (NFG) Discussion Week 14 26 Writing to Evaluate An Online Art Collection Grows Out of Infancy, Roberta Smith, 790-(NFG) The Help: A Feel-Good Movie That Feels Kind of Icky, Dana Stevens, 775-778 (NFG) Discussion 28 Thanksgiving Holiday! No Class December Week 15 3 Annotated Bibliographies Annotated Bibliographies, 155 (NFG) Teen Film$, Michael Benton, Mark Dolan, and Rebecca Zisch, 155-156 (NFG) Global Warming, Jessica Ann Olson, 157-158 (NFG) 5 Peer Review Bring completed draft of Essay #4 Be prepared to workshop with peer group Essay #4 Due (submit to dropbox by 11:59PM tonight) Week 16: 10 Final Exam: Writers Portfolio Due ENGL 1301.S51 Room B126 Tuesday Dec. 10th @1-3PM