English Composition (ENGL&101)

This course is a college-level introduction to effective written composition for academic, voca-
tional, and occupational students, with emphasis on exposition. Prerequisites are an appro-
priate placement test score, completion of ENGL 099 with a grade of 2.0 or better, completion
of ENGL 098 with a grade of 3.0 or better, or permission of the instructor. The following syl-
labus, while a good guide to the course, is subject to change. If this happens, I’ll announce it
in class and distribute it electronically. Please contact me if you have questions.

Materials
I’ll provide handouts and online resources containing the information necessary for the course
via Canvas and the WikiEdu website (which you can access from Canvas).

Attendance and participation

Attendance Are you present?
Participation Your participation grade will be ≤ your attendance grade.
Discussion In class discussions and small groups, were you active? Did you regularly ask
questions, and respond to questions, and stay focused?
Self-monitoring Did you avoid talking too much, or talking over other people? Were you
polite in interactions, and curious about other people’s responses?

Grade scale
I’ll use rubrics to grade papers in this class according to the following scale:

A 95 Far above expectations.

A- 90
B+ 87
B 82 Above average in all respects.
B- 80
C+ 77
C 70 Acceptable application of the rubric.
D+ 67
D 60 Poorly realized necessary elements.
F <60 Worse than the above, or missing.
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Revision
If you’re satisfied with the grades you’ve earned, you don’t have to revise. However, there are
two opportunities available. All revisions are due on the last regular day of class.
You have the option to revise either your article critique or your research argument (not both).
You’ll write a short statement informing me which you’ll work on, and what you propose to
improve about it. The due date for this statement is listed on Canvas. If you’re hoping to
achieve a very high grade, it’s probable that I’ll ask you to go “above and beyond” in terms of
the writing you produce. During the second half of the quarter, you’ll produce a draft of your
creative narrative, which we will discuss, if you choose, during your individual meeting with
me.

Plagiarism
It is the policy of the College that you neither take the work of others as your own nor partic-
ipate in helping someone else in such an effort. You can read more about the policy in your
student handbook. If you plagiarize, you will fail the assignment without option of revision.
We’ll discuss plagiarism as a separate topic during the quarter.

Late work
Late “small” assignments (such as quizzes) are not accepted. Late major assignments lose
points as time passes according to a qualitative depreciation schedule determined by the level
of inconvenience I am caused.

The two Σ problem

Educational researcher Benjamin Bloom’s 1984 study of educational method, popularly known
now as the “2 Sigma Problem” compared students in conventional learning environments with
those in one-on-one tutoring environments. From the study itself:

Most striking were the differences in final achievement measures . . . Using the
standard deviation (sigma) of the control (conventional) class, it was typically found
that the average student under tutoring was about two standard deviations above
the average of the control class (the average tutored student was above 98% of the
students in the control class). . . The variation of the students’ achievement also
changed under these learning conditions such that about 90% of the tutored stu-
dents . . . attained the level of summative achievement reached by only the highest
20% of the students under conventional instructional conditions.

For a conventional learning situation like ours, one takeaway here is that working with a tutor
in the Writing Center could be an effective way of improving your understanding of course
materials. I recommend using all of the resources the college makes available.
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A final note
The writer George Orwell (author of 1984 and Animal Farm) spent some time as a young man
in the late 1920s working as a dishwasher in several Parisian restaurants. He noted that if
you want to turn a dirty plate into a clean plate, there is only one way to do it, but if you want
to make a dirty plate “look” like a clean plate, there are several ways.
This idea relates strongly to education: there’s only one way to learn, but there are
plenty of ways to “appear” to learn. I didn’t understand this idea until my own education was
almost complete. I spent my high school years slacking off and getting by with passing grades
because I knew how to play the game. I knew how to meet requirements, how to pretend to do
research without actually researching, how to cram five minutes before a quiz, how to pass a
class by keeping up appearances. When I reached college, the most important lesson I learned
as a student was how to try. I learned that learning is not the same thing as appearing to
learn.
As an instructor now, I have no way of mandating anything about how you approach
this class. I may not ultimately even know whether you got anything out of it or not, in the
same way that a customer at a restaurant can’t tell whether a plate is actually clean or just
looks clean. I can only point out this idea, and encourage you to do what you think is best.

College core abilities

• Engage and take responsibility as active learners Students will be involved in the learn-
ing process as they gain deeper levels of understanding of the subject matter. They will
design, complete and analyze projects while developing group interactions and leader-
ship skills.
• Think critically Students will develop and practice analytical skills, problem-solving
skills and quantitative reasoning skills. Using creativity and self-reflection, they will
be able to engage in inquiry that produces well-reasoned, meaningful conclusions.
• Communicate effectively Students will develop the organizational and research skills
necessary to write and speak effectively. Students will demonstrate awareness of differ-
ent audiences, styles, and approaches to oral and written communication.
• Participate in diverse environments Students will gain an awareness of and sensitivity
to diversity, including one’s own place as a global citizen. Students will attain knowledge
and understanding of the multiple expressions of diversity, and the skills to recognize,
analyze and evaluate diverse issues and perspectives.
• Use information literacy skills Students will develop and employ skills to recognize when
information is needed and to locate, evaluate, effectively use and communicate informa-
tion in various forms.
• Demonstrate computer and technology proficiency Students will use computers and tech-
nology as appropriate in their course of study.
• Identify elements of a sustainable society Students will integrate and apply economic,
ecological, and eco-justice concepts into a systems-thinking framework.

ENGL101 competencies
• Students will develop and practice skills addressing the overall writing process, the dy-
namics of sentences and paragraphs, critical thinking, and coherent composition.
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• Understand the college writing process.

• Master pre-writing techniques.
• Demonstrate competency in planning, organizing, writing, revising, editing and proof-
reading college-level essays.
• Demonstrate competency in writing a variety of sentence and paragraph patterns.
• Work collaboratively in small groups to revise and edit writing.
• Read and Discuss diverse writers and ideas.
• Analyze and integrate material and viewpoints from multiple sources.
• Present views clearly in writing while addressing and qualifying others’ perspectives.
• Understand the relation of speaker, argument, and audience and the effect of each on
essay form.