College Composition II -- Spring 2007

All documents on this 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 make the necessary corrections.

DESCRIPTION OF COURSE

Continues to develop college writing with increased emphasis on critical essays, argumentation, and research, developing these competencies through the examination of a range of texts about the human experience. Requires students to locate, evaluate, integrate, and document sources and effectively edit for style and usage. Prerequisite: Students must successfully complete ENG 111 or its equivalent, and must be able to use word processing software.

TEXTS

Crusius, Timothy W. and Carolyn E. Channell. The Aims of Argument. 5^th ed. Boston: McGraw Hill, 2006.

The following grammar handbook is recommended. You may already have a copy if you have taken English 111 at SVCC. If you have another handbook, you may use it since most such handbooks cover the same topics.

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

INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES

Reading assignments in The Aims of Argument.
Research of a chosen topic for duration of the semester.
Four annotated bibliographies based on reading and research.
Four argumentative essays based on reading and research.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Submit for grading four annotated bibliographies and four argumentative essays.

Each completed essay must be at least 800 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.

EVALUATION SYSTEM

At the end of the semester, I will average the grades for the essays and multiply the average by .70. I will also average the grades for the bibliographies but then multiply this average by .30. I will add the two figures derived from the multiplications to get your semester grade.

When you send me an essay as an email attachment, I will read it, insert comments in it, assign it a grade, and return it to you. In order to understand the basis for the grade you receive, you should open the file and read the comments. This is important since I do not accept revisions.

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.

GRADING SCALE

I will grade each essay and bibliography 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.

ATTENDANCE POLICY

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

TOPICS COVERED

Writing Research-Based Arguments
Preparing an Annotated Bibliography
Arguing to Inquire
Arguing to Convince
Arguing to Persuade
Arguing to Mediate

LATE WORK

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.

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.

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.

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 have not 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.

E-Mail Directions

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

SCHEDULE FOR SUBMITTING ASSIGNMENTS

Because I usually have a large number of students in my Internet courses, I ask for 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 work is given below. 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.

FIRST ASSIGNMENT

Your first assignment is to complete the Course Orientation questions and to send your work to me as a Microsoft Word document attached to an email message.

Assignment 1 -- Course Orientation. Due date -- January 15.
Assignment 2 -- Annotated Bibliography. Due date -- January 22.

Assignment 3-- Writing to Inquire. Due date -- February 5.

Assignment 4 -- Annotated Bibliography. Due date -- February 19.

Assignment 5 -- Arguing to Convince. Due date -- March 5.

Assignment 6 -- Annotated Bibliography. Due date -- March 19.

Assignment 7-- Arguing to Persuade . Due date -- April 2.

Assignment 8 -- Annotated Bibliography. Due date -- April 16.

Assignment 9 -- Arguing to Mediate. Due date -- April 30.

Explanation of Essays

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR ESSAYS AND BIBLIOGRAPHIES

You should use Microsoft Word to write your essays. If you have Microsoft Works or WordPerfect, save your files in Rich Text Format. You will submit your essays as Email attachments. Click on the button below for important directions.

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 I see 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; 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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