Course Syllabus

Fall 2025 | ENG-1062-VO03 - English Composition II

Online Class

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

Faculty

Erik Kaarla
View Faculty Credentials
View Faculty Statement
Hiring Coordinator for this course: Heath Fuller

General Education Requirements

Research and Writing Intensive

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

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 computer recommendations Support page.

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.

Fall 2025 textbook details will be available on 2025-05-19. 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-1062-VO03 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.

Artificial Intelligence(AI) Policy Statement

CCV recognizes that artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI tools are widely available and becoming embedded in many online writing and creative applications.

Integrated: This course's generative AI policy acknowledges the use of AI is an essential skill in today's world. By using genAI for specific purposes, students become equipped with relevant skills and tools necessary to thrive in a technology-driven society. Emphasizing the mastery of generative AI should empower you to harness its potential, enhancing your problem-solving abilities and preparing you for future challenges and opportunities. Be aware, however, that any time generative AI is used at any point in the assignment without attribution it may be considered a violation of CCV's Academic Integrity Policy.

Chat GBT and Other AI Platforms Policy

I am offering you the ability to use AI in this class, BUT you have to have a citation in all of your work that you are doing so: (ChatGBT “free jazz definition”). The example here shows that you used AI in writing up a definition for your topic. Note that you used AI to invent/compose a small unit of writing.

Please also include this in-text citation in the Works Cited / References at the end of your paper. This is the standard reporting back convention of academic writing. AI seems to be a tool that is here to stay; please use it responsibly in composition class. Avoid charges of plagiarism and faulty attribution by using MLA / APA citation style correctly.

Methods

English Composition 2Online is designed to cultivate several learning styles, although LIVE interaction with the instructor is not a focus of the course. Students will interact with the textbook and with online materials that will assist with working on the student's personal writing process in order to achieve writing success. Many elements come together in the course to allow the student to develop particular styles of essays organically. Students will quickly get a sense of their own rhetorical choices as they move through the composition process.

Students will tend to compose their essay work alone, but class interaction will happen through shared discussion posts and through student-to-student connections made through email. An emphasis is placed on being both creative AND organized within the writing process. There will be an effective road map to follow through the semester.

Students will be urged to share their writing with others within the parameters of the course! The instructor asks that you only bring in work into the classroom environment that you are comfortable sharing.

Please be aware that the course will contain solid amounts of readings that will be geared toward helping students to understand particular concepts and writing applications.

Evaluation Criteria

Essays …………………...….60% Final Shared Presentation of Final Research Paper.….………..10% Class Activities and Discussion Posts, etc.…...……..30%

Each essay will be evaluated through a specific rubric which will provide considerable clarity for the goal of the assignment. All essays will be written with an academic audience in mind and students will be free to choose between MLA or APA citation systems.

Any AI generated text needs to be cited at the bare minimum with an in-text citation that states what text is specifically AI generated. As an example: (Havannah Syndrome definition generated by ChatGPT).

Essay Assignment Percentages:

Comparison Contrast Essay….20% Rhetorical Analysis............…...20% Annotated Bibliography…..…..20% Research Essay …………..…40% 100%

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

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

To earn full participation points for the week, students should:

• Read the assigned material and demonstrate an understanding of those resources in your assignments and posts. Readings and resources should be cited using either APA or MLA format.
• Please post an original response to the weekly prompt(s) before Friday at midnight (11:59 PM) and a minimum of two responses to peers before Monday at midnight (11:59 PM). You are welcome to post early and/or more frequently, as your schedule allows, but you will not receive full credit if you do not meet these minimum requirements and/or deadlines.
• Posts should be substantive and demonstrate college-level writing. A substantive post is well-developed, a minimum 150 words, and references the reading or another appropriate source. A substantive post is NOT one or two sentences of general statements or unsupported opinion. The temptation will be there to use AI for posts -- don't do it!

Missing & Late Work Policy

Composition 2 Online is tailored for the student who is working independently and therefore obligatory class meetings are not included in the course.The timeline that the instructor establishes for the completion of assignments is intentional and is meant to guide the instructor and the student toward success with the completion of the work cycle. Specific work such as Discussion Post topics and responses need to be posted promptly so that the class can interact with all shared concepts. The instructor respectfully asks that if any late work seems to be inevitable that the student reach out to the individual instructor to discuss modified assignment elements or submission times.

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

Apply Now for this semester.