College Composition I -- Spring 2007

My Website

http://luna.moonstar.com/~acpjr/index.htm

All documents on my website are considered addenda to this course outline. Please report any inconsistencies or errors in this course outline or related documents so that I may correct them.

DESCRIPTION OF COURSE

Develops writing ability for study, work, and other applications based on reading and analyzing essays, researching and defining rhetorical terms, documenting sources, organizing writings, and editing and proofreading work.

TEXTS

Axelrod, Rise B. , Charles R. Cooper, and Alison M. Warriner. Reading Critically: Writing Well. 7^th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2005.

Hacker, Diana. Bedford Handbook. 6^th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2002.

INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES

Reading assignments in Reading Critically: Writing Well
Essay assignments based on the reading assignments

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

For this course you will read forty-eight essays from Reading Critically: Writing Well and write eight essays of no less than five-hundred words.

Length Requirements for Essays

Each completed essay must be at least 500 words. There is no limit on length, but all essays should be concise, informative, and correct. Longer essays that multiply errors simply provide more justification for a poor grade. Microsoft Word will tell you how many words there are in a document.

Information Literacy

Every student at the college is required to complete instruction on how to use the library. This instruction is offered online at this web site. You must complete all eight of the modules and tests, print off the test results and turn them into the library staff on the Daniel Campus.

If it is not convenient for you to drive to the Daniel Campus, you may mail the test results. Make sure you write your name, your customer identification number and the name and number of this English course on each page of your work. All eight of the tests must be submitted by the last day of class.

Schedule for Submitting Essays

Because I usually have a large number of students in my Internet courses, I ask for essay assignments to be turned in every two weeks. For example, while some classes will turn in essays on the first, third, and fifth weeks of the semester, others will turn in essays on the second, fourth, and sixth weeks of the semester. The schedule for you to turn in your essays is given below.

EVALUATION SYSTEM

Your grade in this course will be based on the average grade of the eight essays you submit. You will receive a bonus of three points on your final grade for completing the information literacy assignment or receive a penalty of three points for not completing it.

GRADING SCALE

I will grade each essay by giving it a number from 1 to 100. An "A" grade is from 100 to 90; a "B" grade is from 89 to 80, etc. At the end of the semester, I will average the eight essay grades to determine your semester grade.

In calculating your final grade, if your grade falls one point short of the next higher grade, I will give you the extra point and the higher grade, but only if you have completed all the assignments.

When you send me an essay as an email attachment, I will read it, insert comments, assign it a grade, and return it to you. In order to understand the basis for the grade, you should open the file and read the comments. This is important since I do not accept revisions. Click on the button below to see a list of the criteria I use in grading essays. Read the documents that are linked to this list of criteria.

Grading Criteria

ATTENDANCE POLICY

Because this is an Internet course, class attendance is not required. However, you must submit essays on time in order to avoid a grade penalty.

TOPICS COVERED

Narration
Description
Topic Sentences
Reasons for Holding a Position
Evidence
Examples
Commentary
Responses to Opponents

Classification and Division
Comparison and Contrast
Cause and Effect
Problem and Solution
Definition
Super Sentences
Introductions and Conclusions

LATE WORK

This course has a definite schedule for work assignments. The reading and writing assignments have been apportioned so that you can easily keep up if you do the work according to the schedule. There are four reasons why you should meet the requirements on time:

You will automatically lose points when an assignment is late (see Administrative Matters below).
When you get behind, you hurry to catch up, and work done under pressure is never as complete or correct as work done in the allotted time.
When an assignment is late, you do not get the benefit of feedback so that you can make corrections on the next assignment; therefore you are likely to repeat errors that will cost you points.
Late papers create an avalanche effect giving me less time over the course of the semester to grade more papers; therefore, I cannot do as careful a job.

Work assignments are due on Mondays of the weeks designated. If I do not receive the work on the designated Monday, five points will be deducted from your grade. Five additional points will be deducted for each subsequent Monday that an assignment is not received. No assignment will be accepted after the last day of class.

HONOR CODE

Proscribed Conduct is specified on page 164 of the 2006-2008 Catalog/Student Handbook. Proscribed conduct includes "all forms of dishonesty including cheating, [and] plagiarism . . . ." Students who commit plagiarism or who are otherwise dishonest in their conduct in this course will be dealt with according to college policy.

READING AND ESSAY ASSIGNMENTS

The reading assignments for each week and the writing assignments are posted on my Website. Click on the button below to view the reading assignments, the writing assignments, and the due dates for the writing assignments. Review this entire document and be careful to note the due dates. A grade penalty of five points will be imposed if I do not receive an assignment by the Monday due date designated. For each additional Monday that an assignment is late, another penalty of five points will be imposed.

Assignments

UNRETURNED WORK

If you want confirmation that I have received an essay that you have sent, look for an option in your email program that says something like "Return Receipt Requested." Barring illness, injury, or computer failure, I should be able to return your essays within a week.

Sometimes things get lost in the mail and I do not receive your work, so if you do not get an assignment back within seven days, you should resend it. In your email message, tell me that you are resubmitting your work because you have not gotten the assignment back. If you wait longer than seven days to resend work which I may not have received, it will be considered late and a grade penalty will be imposed.

Naming Your Files

Please name each file using this convention:

The initials for your complete name. There have been cases when two people in the same class have had the same initials for their first and last names.
The number of the assignment

As an example, acp1 would be read like this: Alison Charles Phillips, assignment one.

Leave no spaces in the file names.

Each file must have a unique and correct identification. If your file name is not correct, ten points will be deducted from your grade.

Changes in Assignments

During the semester it may be necessary to change course assignments or procedures. If this becomes necessary, I will post a notice on the announcements page. Click on the button below to see the announcements page. Changes may involve modification or substitution of assignments or changes in due dates. No change will increase the work load or reduce the amount of time allowed for an assignment.

Announcements

BACK-UP COPIES

You should maintain back-up copies of your work. Copies should be saved to the hard drive of your computer, a floppy disk, a RW-CD, a zip disk, or a jump drive. If an assignment is lost and cannot be recovered by means of a back-up copy, the assignment must be rewritten.

COURSE ASSIGNMENTS

Assignment 1 -- Course Orientation. Everyone must complete this assignment. Due date -- January 15.

Assignment 2 -- Narration or Description. Do one or the other. Due date -- January 29.

Assignment 3 -- Topic Sentences or Reasons. Do one or the other. Due date -- February 12.

Assignment 4 -- Evidence or Examples. Do one or the other. Due date -- February 26.

Assignment 5 -- Commentary or Responses. Do one or the other. Due date -- March 12.

Assignment 6 -- Classification and Division or Comparison and Contrast. Do one or the other. Due date -- March 26.

Assignment 7 -- Cause and Effect or Problem and Solution. Do one or the other. Due date -- April 4.

Assignment 8 --Definition, Super Sentences, or Introductions and Conclusions. Do one of the three. Due date -- April 23.

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR ESSAYS

E-mail

PROOFREADING

I will not try to correct all of the grammatical and punctuation errors in your your work but will only mark some instances of the errors to indicate the nature of the problems. If the number and severity of grammar and punctuation errors are extensive, the assignment may receive a grade of "D" or "F" regardless of the quality of the content. I do not accept revisions; therefore, it is important that you read my comments on each essay so that you can do better on the next assignment.

Report Errors

ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS
MAKE-UP WORK AND REVISIONS	Make-up assignments will not be given and revisions will not be accepted. Students are expected to read the comments on returned essays, study the notes and web documents they are referred to, and do better on the next assignment.
DEADLINE FOR RESOLVING PROBLEMS	The deadline for resolving problems of missing or unreturned work is the last day of the exam period. If any assignments have not been returned to you, it is your responsibility to resolve the problem either through a telephone conversation or by a face-to-face meeting. If you do not do this before the last day of the exam period, you will receive a grade based on the work that has been received and graded, and no additional work will be accepted.
WITHDRAWAL FROM THE COURSE	If you want to withdraw from the course without a grade penalty, you must do so by March 16, 2007; otherwise, you will be assigned a grade. See the College Catalog (page 20) for complete information concerning withdrawal. You can check your enrollment status at anytime in the VCCS Student Information System.
INCOMPLETE GRADES	An incomplete grade will only be granted under extraordinary circumstances. No incomplete grades will be granted to students who have not completed at least seventy percent of the course work.

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