Course Syllabus

Spring 2023 | ENG-1062-VO02Y - English Composition II

Online Class

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

Faculty

Richard Isenberg
View Faculty Credentials
View Faculty Statement
Hiring Coordinator for this course: Cindy Swanson

Course Description

This course is an introduction to interdisciplinary writing and an opportunity to refine critical reading and writing skills. Students construct complex essays, enhance their writing skills, and experiment with a greater variety of strategies to interest, inform, and persuade. Students must complete a final research paper with a grade of C- or better in order to pass this course. This course fulfills the research and writing intensive requirement. Prerequisite: English Composition.

Essential Objectives

1. Explore through reading, writing, and critical discussion a broad range of texts from a variety of genres such as memoir, travel, argument, satire, humor, and reflection.
2. Write and revise essays that demonstrate a variety of rhetorical strategies designed to meet the needs of specific audiences.
3. Develop complex positions or arguments through writing, synthesizing personal ideas with other information, arguments, and perspectives in order to support a claim and create new meaning, insight, and understanding.
4. Analyze and evaluate underlying strategies in selected works to define specific rhetorical components and evaluate their purpose and power.
5. Distinguish among opinions, facts, inferences, and persuasive approaches in primary and secondary sources.
6. Demonstrate the ability and willingness to approach a particular idea, problem, task, or writing goal from multiple perspectives.
7. Develop a process for getting started, developing, and structuring drafts, as well as revising toward a final product.
8. Examine and practice variations in style with an aim of developing a distinctive writing style of one's own.
9. Demonstrate information literacy skills: distinguish between and utilize both primary and secondary sources; perform library and web-based literature searches; and evaluate data and resources for credibility, reliability, and validity.
10. Demonstrate the ability to apply either APA or MLA citation styles in academic writing by parenthetically citing sources in the text and correctly compiling them in the relevant end sources page.
11. Compose, revise, and edit a final paper that includes a thesis, integrates five or more scholarly and professional sources, including primary and secondary evidence as needed, to address an academic research question and demonstrate writing proficiency by achieving a grade of C- or better.

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

Methods

Good writing is the key to academic success. While we all approach writing from different backgrounds and have various future goals in mind, learning to communicate effectively in writing is a fundamental skill to master.

This course focuses on writing academic research papers. While this is a critical skill to succeed in school, it will also help prepare you for the various writing tasks you will likely encounter in your professional and personal life as well. Learning to gather information, establish a clear point of view, and draw reasonable conclusions from the evidence at hand is a life skill as much as an academic exercise. Crafting language to share those ideas is the goal of this class.

Since you have advanced to this stage in your academic career, this should not be a surprise. Because you have chosen an accelerated class, it is also assumed that you understand that we will compress a full semester of work into 49 days. So let's begin.

How the Course Will Work

The only way to learn to write well is to read and write a lot. Each week you will have both reading and writing assignments to complete. Because this is an accelerated class, it is critical that you keep up with the pace. Each week you will have the following assignments.

Compositions

This course requires that you complete three shorter essays and one full research paper. This will include background reading, drafting, revising, and submitting publishable final copies.

Peer Feedback

You will work with a partner for each composition to critique each other's work and make helpful suggestions for improvement. This will be done through a Canvas Discussion Forum.

Writing Journal

You will keep a weekly writing journal to reflect upon your own writing experiences and process. These are intended to help you analyze your strengths and weaknesses and to consider strategies for growth.

One Question Quizzes

Each week there will be reading to review core grammar points. These will be followed by short quizzes to solidify your understanding.

Due Dates

Most assignments will be due by either Wednesday or Sunday night. I have set aside Mondays and Thursdays as my own reading days. New assignments will be posted each week by Monday evening.

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

As there are only seven weeks in the accelerated semester, you are expected to participate each week. As an asynchronous online class you have a great deal of flexibility about when you do the work, but due dates must be adhered to closely. Please contact the instructor immediately if an emergency situation arises.

Missing & Late Work Policy

It is assumed that by choosing an accelerated course you are prepared to do a full semester's worth of work in seven weeks. It is critical that you keep to the weekly pace for both your own benefit, but also for your class partners and the instructor. All work must be turned in on time.

Having said that, if submitted on time, a composition can be revised again and resubmitted as many times as your own time and effort will allow.

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