Course Syllabus

Spring 2025 | ENG-1061-VO16S - English Composition

Synchronous Class

Synchronous courses are delivered through a combination of online and regularly-scheduled Zoom sessions. In synchronous classes, students must attend Zoom sessions and actively engage with each other and faculty in course activities and discussions.

Faculty

Richard Isenberg
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 is a no cost textbook or resource class. ***

This course only uses free Open Educational Resources (OER) and/or library materials. For details, see the Canvas Site for this class.

Methods

Welcome to English composition. Language is the core skill through which all other learning takes place. The ability to communicate clearly, efficiently, and eloquently in writing will serve you well regardless of the path your personal and professional life may take. This course is designed to develop each student’s writing skill, focus on the compositional forms most common in academic and professional writing, focus on standard usage and fluency, build competence and confidence to succeed at any writing task, and enjoy and appreciate good writing.To accomplish these goals we will work to develop a class atmosphere of mutual support and collaboration.

The class will meet together online via Zoom once a week on Monday evenings from 6:00-8:00 pm. During those meetings the instructor will provide instruction and answer questions on that week's topic, review responses to weekly readings, practice exercises will illustrate the main instructional points, students will share their own writing as well as critique and help edit the work of classmates.

The best way to learn to write is to write a lot. In this course you will be asked to write in every class and will have regular reading and writing tasks between meetings. You will also be asked to share your own writing, read the writing of others, participate in discussions, and contribute productive comments and suggestions.

There will be assigned readings each week. To avoid the expense of a textbook, both instructional and literary readings will be available online through our Canvas page. Instructional readings are for your information. Literary readings are examples of good writing. Poetry is to illustrate the beauty of thoughtful word-craft.

You will be asked to respond to the weekly class reading. Responses should be thoughtful, but brief (100-200 words). Responses will be posted on our discussion forum. You are expected to read and encouraged to comment on the reflections of classmates.

There will be seven formal writing projects. The seven tasks represent the most common composition forms in academic and professional writing. These will be submitted electronically, edited and revised.

You are encouraged to read and listen to good, topical language from a variety of information and entertainment sources. Each week you are expected to identify and post on the Canvas Discussion site at least one quotation that you think is particularly interesting and well crafted.

While you will end up writing a lot, each task is focused on a specific composition skill where quality is more important than quantity.

Evaluation Criteria

The purpose of assessments is to encourage and praise, identify strengths and weaknesses, guide instruction, determine progress over time, and determine performance based on standards. Successful completion of each tasks will accumulate into your final evaluation for the course.

· 70% of your final evaluation will be the seven formal compositions

· 15% will be earned by completing your weekly reflections on the assigned readings.

· 15% will be your class participation in discussions, peer editing, asking questions, posting weekly quotations, and sharing your own ideas and work.

You may continue to revise, edit, and resubmit a paper as many times as necessary until you are satisfied that it is as good as it can be. Everyone who does the work will do well. Everyone who also has fun, will do better.

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.

Missing & Late Work Policy

It is important for students in online courses to manage their time and keep pace with assignments. While late work and additional revisions may be accepted, falling behind the pace of the course will make success more difficult. Be sure to contact the instructor in advance if you know you will be delayed in completing a task.

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