Course Syllabus

Summer 2024 | ENG-1061-VO05 - English Composition

Online Class

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

Faculty

Janice Mitchell-Love
View Faculty Credentials

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

ENG-1061-VO05 Link to Textbooks/Resources Information 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

The methods and materials for English Composition will include weekly writing and reading assignments. Writing will be in a variety of forms such as but not limited to journals/reading logs, formal essays, research assignments, and a mini research project. Students will read essays and other writings in order to explore writing possibilities, study different writing styles, and develop/hone critical analysis skills. There will be active participation in the discussion forum, submission of essay drafts to the discussion board for peer review, constructive feedback to peers, and submissions of journals. Students will review grammar/punctuation conventions weekly and study related topics in-depth as needed. Finally, there will be work on vocabulary development in the area of commonly confused words/homonyms.

Overview:

Your work this semester is to improve your writing through close reading, drafts of your own writing, revisions of your own writing, and critiques and discussions of your own and classmates' writings. I will give you detailed comments on your work. Your classmates will also comment on your work through peer review. Both of these types of comments will help you to improve as a writer. However, the major driver of your success will be you; online courses are much more self-directed than if you were in the traditional classroom. That's a good thing in that the online format gives you significant freedom to choose when and where to do your week's work, but do make sure you keep up with the schedule of assignments and feel free to ask me any questions that you might have. I'm always, always here for you.

It is critical for your success in English Composition I to complete the reading assignment before starting the essay assignment. The reading will inform your work with both information and examples.

Each week you might have the following kinds of assignments: reading about the type of writing we are discussing that week in instructor handouts and in The English Composition Reader and reading several essays that illustrate that kind of writing in The English Composition Reader; either a practice writing, a short essay, or a rough draft of a longer essay; a journal that is either a reading log on essays you've read or an examination of your own writing strategies; grammar exercises; and a few commonly confused words or homonyms to make your own. Midway in the semester when work begins on the short researched argument, you will also have weekly homework assignments involving preparation tasks for that essay.

Course Structure:

For purposes of this course, the week begins on Tuesday morning, when the Discussion Board for the week opens. Generally the due dates for homework tasks are Monday nights at 11:59 p.m. (most journals, writing, and discussion forum tasks). Occasionally, drafts of writing exercises, whether they are practice writings, drafts of short essays, or rough drafts of longer essays, will be due earlier in the week, generally Saturday nights at 11:59 p.m., to allow time for peer review comments before the week's end. As a general rule, please remember the following: the later you post your work and responses, the less time people have to respond to your work and to engage in any meaningful dialogue. Occasionally, this could affect your grade. Each week ends at 11:59 p.m. on Monday nights.

Note: I attempt to establish generous due dates for posting to the forum and for final drafts of your writing assignments, knowing that many of you are taking this class online because of complex professional and familial commitments. However, you will be required to post on the weekly discussion forum several different times during the week; this is not a task you can accomplish in one day. For the discussions of essays, in particular, the goal is to have as closely as possible the one-on-one conversations we would have in the traditional classroom.

Late Work:

Unless you have an emergency situation, have talked to me before the assignment is due, and have gotten permission from me to be late, no late assignments are accepted. Note: simply notifying me does not give you permission to be late; I have to answer you and give you that permission.

Evaluation Criteria

Your grade will be derived from the following: participation in discussion forums (which requires complete homework preparation); formal essays, one of which is a mini research project; informal essays that are homework practices for the graded writing assignments; journals/reading logs on some of the readings; grammar exercises (homework); and vocabulary development (homonyms and commonly confused words).

The final grade will be derived using the following weighting of components:

30% Participation in discussion forums

55% Six formal essays:three @ 5% each (description, cause/effect, and process analysis), two @10% each (personal narrative and comparison/contrast),and a mini research essay (argumentation with 5 pages in body) @ 20%

5% Journal/reading logs and examinations of writing strategies (10)

5% Research tasks -- 10 tasks having to do with mini research essay

5% Grammar and Vocabulary (Commonly Confused Words) Exercises (9)

Evaluation of Essays:

Grading details and/or rubrics will accompany essay assignments.

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.

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