Course Syllabus

Spring 2024 | ENG-1061-VO05 - English Composition

Online Class

Online courses take place 100% online via Canvas, without required in-person or Zoom meetings.

Faculty

John MacKenzie
View Faculty Credentials
View Faculty Statement
Hiring Coordinator for this course: Cindy Swanson

General Education Requirements

VSCS Introductory Written Expression

Note

Many degree programs have specific general education recommendations. In order to avoid taking unnecessary classes, please consult with additional resources like your program evaluation, your academic program catalog year page, and your academic advisor.

Courses may only be used to meet one General Education Requirement.

Course Description

In this course, students develop effective composition skills and research techniques. Students learn strategies for organizing, evaluating, and revising their work through extensive reading of a variety of essay styles and literary texts; apply writing and research techniques to their papers; and demonstrate proficiency in first-year college-level writing and information literacy.

Essential Objectives

1. Consistently apply an appropriate writing process that includes planning, drafting, revising, and editing.
2. Demonstrate in written work an awareness of the relationship among writer, subject, audience, and purpose.
3. Demonstrate writing proficiency with a range of rhetorical approaches to include narration, exposition, argument, and critical analysis and recognize the stylistic and structural strategies in the writing of others.
4. Discuss writing by authors from diverse (such as racial, ethnic, socioeconomic and gender) backgrounds to explore how perspectives and experiences may shape voice in composition.
5. Focus written work around an explicit central thesis, a position statement or proposition advanced by the writer that is arguable and supportable and develop the thesis systematically, using specific details and supporting evidence.
6. Compose written work that demonstrates effective use of sentence structure, paragraphing, grammar, syntax, punctuation, and spelling.
7. Demonstrate proficiency in research writing skills by completing one or more papers that:
a) Develop and support an arguable thesis;
b) Locate, evaluate, and incorporate appropriate scholarly and professional sources, including primary and secondary evidence as needed, to address an academic research question;
c) Appropriately acknowledge and document sources, using standard MLA or APA styles.

Required Technology

More information on general computer and internet recommendations is available on the CCV IT Support page. https://support.ccv.edu/general/computer-recommendations/

Please see CCV's Digital Equity Statement (pg. 45) to learn more about CCV's commitment to supporting all students access the technology they need to successfully finish their courses.

Required Textbooks and Resources

This course uses one or more textbooks/books/simulations.

Spring 2024 textbook details will be available on 2023-11-06. On that date a link will be available below that will take you to eCampus, CCV's bookstore. The information provided there will be specific to this class. Please see this page for more information regarding the purchase of textbooks/books.

ENG-1061-VO05 Link to Textbooks for this course in eCampus.

The last day to use a Financial Aid Advance to purchase textbooks/books is the 3rd Tuesday of the semester. See your financial aid counselor at your academic center if you have any questions.

Methods

--Reading (examples of good writing from The English Composition Readeror teacher-selected texts).

--Discussion boards (to discuss readings, and to workshop student writing in process).

--Writing (free-writing, brainstorming, drafting, and revising)

--Grammar (four units with readings, practice exercises and a culminating quiz)

Evaluation Criteria

Discussion Board Participation--20%

Being well-prepared and taking an active role in the weekly discussion boards will not only ensure better grades for you, but it will also impact the other students in our online learning community. For discussion boards: your initial post is due at 11:59 pm on Thursday, and you must post a reply to at least one classmate by 11:59 pm on Monday. Failure to keep up will affect the quality of your work, and your grade!

Essays--50%

Since this is an online class, you will be writing (and reading) a lot during the week, both informally and formally, sharing your writing with me and with your peers in our weekly discussion boards. You will have fiveformal essays during the semester (good writing assignment,descriptive, definition and researched argument). Unless I specify otherwise, all assignments will be accessible to you on Canvas from 12 a.m. on Tuesday and will be due at 11:59 pm on Monday.There will be no exceptions: if you submit an assignment late without warning me ahead, you will lose one letter grade for this work. If you submit the work more than one week late or never submit the work, you will receive a zero on that assignment.

Please complete all your formal writing assignments on Word before uploading them to Canvas. Word gives you the formatting benefits of a word-processing program, which is essential in this class. You should double-space all essays and use Times New Roman font, size 12 with one-inch margins around the page. Please access Word via the 365 OneDrive account connected to your CCV email.

Final Portfolio—25%

This is the culminating document containing your five formal essays in their best possible shape. The portfolio is due at the end of the last class meeting. You will receive a single grade for this assessment.

Grammar--5%

Through four key grammar topic readings, you will learn specific tricks to use in your writing to make it clearer and more effective. There will be opportunities for online practice and review before a quiz the following week. I will expect you to demonstrate your understanding of each new grammar topic in your written work, and there will be a cumulative grammar quiz towards the end of the semester.

Grading Criteria

CCV Letter Grades as outlined in the Evaluation System Policy are assigned according to the following chart:

	High	Low
A+	100	98
A	Less than 98	93
A-	Less than 93	90
B+	Less than 90	88
B	Less than 88	83
B-	Less than 83	80
C+	Less than 80	78
C	Less than 78	73
C-	Less than 73	70
D+	Less than 70	68
D	Less than 68	63
D-	Less than 63	60
F	Less than 60
P	100	60
NP	Less than 60	0

Weekly Schedule

Attendance Policy

Regular attendance and participation in classes are essential for success in and are completion requirements for courses at CCV. A student's failure to meet attendance requirements as specified in course descriptions will normally result in a non-satisfactory grade.

• In general, missing more than 20% of a course due to absences, lateness or early departures may jeopardize a student's ability to earn a satisfactory final grade.
• Attending an on-ground or synchronous course means a student appeared in the live classroom for at least a meaningful portion of a given class meeting. Attending an online course means a student posted a discussion forum response, completed a quiz or attempted some other academically required activity. Simply viewing a course item or module does not count as attendance.
• Meeting the minimum attendance requirement for a course does not mean a student has satisfied the academic requirements for participation, which require students to go above and beyond simply attending a portion of the class. Faculty members will individually determine what constitutes participation in each course they teach and explain in their course descriptions how participation factors into a student's final grade.

Participation Expectations

Being well-prepared and taking an active role in the weekly discussion boards will not only ensure better grades for you, but it will also impact the other students in our online learning community. For discussion boards: your initial post is due at 11:59 pm on Thursday, and you must post a reply to at least one classmate by 11:59 pm on Monday. Failure to keep up will affect the quality of your work, and your grade.

Missing & Late Work Policy

If you do not post to the discussion board during the week, you will get a zero in the grade book for the week’s discussion board grade (and the discussion board participation is 20% of the semester grade).

More than 2 missed weeks of work may result in a non-passing grade for the course. If you know ahead that you will be unable to participate in a particular week's discussion boards and written assignments, it is your responsibility to let me know beforehand, and you must be prepared to make up any missed work.

Accessibility Services for Students with Disabilities:

1. Provide disability documentation to the Accessibility Coordinator at your academic center. https://ccv.edu/discover-resources/students-with-disabilities/
2. Request an appointment to meet with accessibility coordinator to discuss your request and create an accommodation plan.
3. Once created, students will share the accommodation plan with faculty. Please note, faculty cannot make disability accommodations outside of this process.

Academic Integrity