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2023-24

Essential Objectives

Course Syllabus


Revision Date: 24-Dec-23
 

Spring 2024 | ENG-1061-VU03 - English Composition


In Person Class

Standard courses meet in person at CCV centers, typically once each week for the duration of the semester.

Location: Winooski
Credits: 3 (45 hours)
Day/Times: Wednesday, 04:30P - 07:15P
Semester Dates: 01-24-2024 to 05-01-2024
Last day to drop without a grade: 02-11-2024 - Refund Policy
Last day to withdraw (W grade): 03-24-2024 - Refund Policy
This course has started, please contact the offering academic center about registration

Faculty

Erik Kaarla
View Faculty Credentials
View Faculty Statement
Hiring Coordinator for this course: Ashraf Alamatouri

General Education Requirements


This section meets the following CCV General Education Requirement(s) for the current catalog year:
VSCS Introductory Written Expression
    Note
  1. 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.
  2. 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-VU03 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

  • I teach writing from the standpoint of it being a process that CAN be negotiated successfully if you can put together a few simple techniques.
  • Generally, I advocate learning in small groups in the classroom -- this can be helpful for figuring out techniques and tips! Ultimately writing can be quite a solitary process in which you discover more and more about yourself even as you are negotiating the generating of content on academic subjects.
  • Please attempt to find definitive examples of essays and nonfiction works that move you and try to figure out why they do. Much time in the course is spent on identifying the qualities of good writing.

  • If you have difficulties with particular grammar issues, please work to fill the gaps in your knowledge through consulting books or credible campus writing tutors. Our Composition 1 course offers great connected resources with tutor.com being a good example as a resource that will help move your writing and editing into a positive direction.

  • Please come to class prepared to examine writing and to make a contribution. Class participation is vital in order for our weekly meetings to produce positive results in your writing process. In my classes I promote ENGAGEMENT and not just the sound of my own voice.

  • Please have your assignments ready on the date that they are due. I cannot evaluate your essay fairly if it is handed in a week late – nor can your peers. We peer review all of your writing as we move through the semester and you will always receive ample feedback.

  • Your written assignments should be computer generated and double-spaced. We all strive to make our writing look as professional as possible!


Evaluation Criteria

Evaluation Methods

CONTENTMy assumption is that the quality of your written work indicates: a) the amount of time, effort and thought you have put into the assignment and b) the grade you hope to receive. I read and listen to determine whether your written work:

  • Answers the questions, or carries out the tasks, given in the assignment.

  • Shows clear evidence that required informational sources have been carefully read and understood.

  • Adds depth and breadth to the assigned core by drawing on additional, related library or electronically-accessible resources, interviews, or description of relevant personal experience.

  • Relies on current research withproper notation of sources.

  • Possesses a professional appearance.

  • Employs proper English (i.e., is not written in broad generalities, slang or street language).

  • Contains original ideas that go beyond the questions asked or the tasks assigned (i.e., is imaginative and creative;takes the assignment and runs with it).


Grading Criteria

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

 HighLow
A+10098
A Less than 9893
A-Less than 9390
B+Less than 9088
B Less than 8883
B-Less than 8380
C+Less than 8078
C Less than 7873
C-Less than 7370
D+Less than 7068
D Less than 6863
D-Less than 6360
FLess than 60 
P10060
NPLess than 600


Weekly Schedule


Week/ModuleTopic  Readings  Assignments
 

1

Class introductions, policies, understanding assignments and methodologies.

Why do we write and compose? What is the nature of good writing? Understanding the product of solid writing. Composing of a diagnostic essay with a specific theme.

Class introductions, policies, understanding assignments and methodologies.

Why do we write and compose? What is the nature of good writing? Understanding the product of solid writing. Composing of a diagnostic essay with a specific theme.

Negotiating the writing process. Finding the proper writing process for you. Testing the writing process in practice. The thesis of an essay and its progression within the academic essay. Read chapters 1, 2 and 3 in Patterns for College Writing.



  

Patterns for College Writing

  

Basic essay invention strategies are methods.

 

2

Understanding Topic, Purpose, Thesis, and Audience. Looking at narrative strategies and techniques. Navigating the pathways through producing drafting and revision. Sharing your topics fleshed out for Essay #1: “My Happiest Experience.”

Applying ideas related to simile and metaphor within a solidly crafted essay draft.

Working with subjective and objective description.

Working with simile and metaphor. Example essays of narratives. First draft of Essay #1 (The Narrative Essay) is due. Please bring your essay to class in both paper form and on a CD or travel drive.

  

Patterns for College Writerson description and illustration.

  

Learning description techniques. Creating drafts that are focused on particular foundational concepts and models.

 

3

Sharing our first essay: "My Happiest Moment". Students are asked to bring their essays printed out to class.

  

The Narrative Chapter within Patterns for College Writing

  

Essay #1 is due

The Narrative Essay:

Assignment #1: “My Happiest Moment”3 pages

As human beings, we are constantly on the move and growing. Sadly, it is a rare occasion when we bother to notice what events and experiences profoundly influence us. Most of us can look back to certain moments that really have infused us with a sense of happiness. Some of us may have experienced something amazing; others may have had a quieter experience based on a more or less mundane experience. In this assignment, I am not asking for a retelling of a fringe adventure, instead, I ask for you to analyze and recount an event that made you smile inside and out!

In this assignment, I am asking that you write an effective narrative. A solid narrative contains many elements working in concert. The most relevant devices that tend to move us in a well-told narrative essay include the use of:

  • Profound and diverse description: Use the five senses in your writing including sight, touch, smell, taste, and sound.

  • Meaningful use of a timeline: The element of time is crucial when telling a story. Be clear when choosing your method; do you tell it all in the simple past tense, or do you prefer to choose certain flashback sequences for recounting and analyzing the action that took place?

  • Concentration on Me Then vs. Me Now: If you are describing how you experienced some profound happiness that changed you during a particular period in your life, it is exceedingly important to lead your readers to really understand you before and after a certain event. Be sure to use details and some concentration on self-description within your narrative.

 

4

Identifying and understanding the Greek rhetorical modes. How is it best to utilize the various rhetorical modes?

  

Examining the rhetorical modes:8: Rhetorical Modes - Humanities LibreTexts

Patterns for College Writing

  

In classroom activities with concern towards recognizing the rhetorical modes.

 

5

Where will you be in 5 years?The ability to describe a complex process in its entirety is an essential skill for the proficient technical writer. Here we hope to merge these 2 ideas: Tell us what you plan to do for your career in the next five years and detail it with proficient writing. Knowing how to clearly describe particular steps in a process comes through practice and by employing precise language.

We will now begin examining the writing mode of process analysis.

  

Please read Chapter 9 in Patterns for College Writingstarting on page 259. We will be discussing process analysis at length for the next classes.

  
 

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

SPECIFIC EXPECTATIONS

It is my responsibility to arrange a learning experience for you, but I cannot teach you how to write and research. So many elements come together during the composition process that it is impossible for me to connect all the dots for you. Instead, I would ask that you follow the following suggestions:

  • Attempt to find definitive examples of essays and research works that move you and try to figure out why they do.

  • If you have difficulties with particular grammar issues, please work to fill the gaps in your knowledge through consulting books or credible writing tutors.

  • Please come to class prepared to examine research writing and to make a contribution. Class participation is vital in order for our weekly meetings to produce positive results in your writing process.

  • Please have your assignments ready on the date that they are due. I cannot evaluate your research work fairly if it is handed in a week late – nor can your peers.

  • Your written assignments should be computer generated.



Missing & Late Work Policy

Preparation & Participation are evaluated as Good Faith

Effort/ Not Good Faith Effort.

Solid class attendance is required

with two absences allowed. Beyond two absences you will begin losing

points for participation, which may eventually culminate in your being

dropped from the course.

Policy on late work: Assignments may be turned in up to 24 hours late only if absence from class is unavoidable and (except in an emergency) prior arrangements are made.


Accessibility Services for Students with Disabilities:


CCV strives to mitigate barriers to course access for students with documented disabilities. To request accommodations, please
  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


CCV has a commitment to honesty and excellence in academic work and expects the same from all students. Academic dishonesty, or cheating, can occur whenever you present -as your own work- something that you did not do. You can also be guilty of cheating if you help someone else cheat. Being unaware of what constitutes academic dishonesty (such as knowing what plagiarism is) does not absolve a student of the responsibility to be honest in his/her academic work. Academic dishonesty is taken very seriously and may lead to dismissal from the College.