Study COURSE OUTLINE
COLLEGE COMPOSITION II
English 112-K6
Spring 2005
 Study

Instructor:  Dr. Charles Phillips            Telephone: 804-736-2038   
Course: English 111-K6 credits 3        E-mail: svphilc@svccdan1.sv.vccs.edu   
Office:  46B                                                Office Hours: By appointment   
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Web Site:      http://luna.moonstar.com/~acpjr/index.htm  
Postal mail:  200 Daniel Road    
                        Keysville, VA 23947 

Read This First
English 112 Resources

My Website

Note: All documents related to this course may be accessed independently of Blackboard by going to this website:

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

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.

COURSE MATERIALS

  • Phillips, Charles Ed. Primis English for College Composition II New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000. (ISBN 0-390-15861-5)

  • Raimes, Ann. Keys For Writers. 4th ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005.

  • Harmon, William and C. Hugh Holman. A Handbook to Literature. 9th ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2003.

    NOTE: This book may be found in the reference sections of some libraries. Earlier editions will be equally useful for most course assignments.


    You Will Also Need The Following

  • Access to Internet
  • E-mail account
  • Microsoft Word. If you have Microsoft Works, save your files in Rich Text Format. I will not accept work in other word processing formats.
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FIRST ASSIGNMENTS

For the first week of the semester, you have two assignments. One of these is to write an autobiographical sketch and to post it on the Blackboard Discussion Board. To see the directions for this assignment, click on the button below.

Autobiographical Sketch

Your second assignment for the first week is given on the Blackboard Assignments page for this course. To log on to Blackboard and see this assignment, you must have a Blackboard user identification. Go to this page to get it. Your Blackboard password will be your birthdate in MM/DD/YY format.


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DESCRIPTION OF COURSE

This Internet course will have the following components:

  1. Reading assignments in the Primis anthology
  2. Weekly journals on the reading assignments.
  3. Essays related to the reading assignments.

GOALS OF THE COURSE

  1. To read and enjoy different types of literature: essays, poetry, short stories, and plays.
  2. To analyze the literature for a better understanding of an author's ideas and of the literary techniques he or she employs to present them.
  3. To express your understanding of the literature in your journals.
  4. To learn to document Internet and library sources using the Modern Languages Association (MLA) style.

METHOD OF INSTRUCTION

This is an Internet course. We will communicate using E-mail and a program called "Blackboard. " On the Blackboard Assignments page, I will post reading assignments and questions on the assignments for you to answer in essays. On the Blackboard Discussion Board, I will post questions on the reading that you will respond to by writing a journal and posting it on the Discussion Board.

You are responsible for understanding the requirements of the course, including the correct way to name your documents and to communicate using email. Read my directions and follow them, or confusion and delays will occur. If something is unclear after you have read the instructions, ask for an explanation, but I expect you to read the instructions first. Click on the button below to read important instructions about communicating by email.

E-Mail Directions

During the semester it may be necessary to change course assignments or procedures. If this becomes necessary, you will be notified. I will do this by posting a message in the Announcements section of Blackboard. 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.

BACK-UP COPIES

You should be careful to maintain back-up copies of your work. Copies should be saved to a floppy disk and to the hard drive of your computer if you are working at home. You cannot save files to the hard drive of a computer in the SVCC labs. If an assignment is lost and cannot be recovered by means of a back-up copy, the assignment must be rewritten.

COURSE ASSIGNMENTS

READING ASSIGNMENTS

Your reading assignments in the Primis anthology for each week will be posted on the Blackboard Assignments page.

JOURNALS FOR THE DISCUSSION BOARD

Each week I will post a question in the Blackboard Discussion Board on your reading assignment. After reading the assigned pages, you will write a journal response to the question. For instructions on how to submit your journals, click your mouse on the "Discussion Directions" button below.

LENGTH REQUIREMENTS FOR JOURNALS

Each journal must be at least 400 words which is about one page of single spaced text. Microsoft Word will tell you how many words there are in a document.

Discussion Directions

ESSAY ASSIGNMENTS

Because I usually have a large number of students in my Internet classes, 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. To establish this rotating schedule, this class must follow the essay schedule given below.

Late essays will incur a grade penalty.

Assignment 1--Course Orientation. Everyone must complete this assignment.
Due date -- January 17.

Assignment 2 -- Symbols. Everyone must complete this assignment.
Due date -- January 24

Assignment 3 -- Irony or Dramatic Monologue. You get to choose.
Due date -- February 7

Assignment 4 -- Character or Point of View. You get to choose.
Due date -- February 21.

Assignment 5 -- Carpe Diem Poetry or Foreshadowing. You get to choose.
Due date -- March 7.

Assignment 6 -- Metaphor and Simile or Conflict. You get to choose.
Due date -- March 21.

Assignment 7 -- Satire or Concrete Language. You get to choose.
Due date -- April 4.

Assignment 8 -- Argument, Setting and Atmosphere, Autobiography, or Informal Essay. You get to choose.
Due date -- April 18.

LENGTH REQUIREMENTS FOR ESSAYS

Each completed essay must be more than 500 words but no more than 1000 words. Microsoft Word will tell you how many words there are in a document.

Essays

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR ESSAYS

You must write your essays using Microsoft Word. If you have Microsoft Works, 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

GRADING OF WORK

Discussion Board Assignments

The grade for the journals that you post on the discussion board will be determined by dividing the number of journals you actually write by the number required. For example, if 50 journals are required, and you write 50 journals, 50/50 = 1 or 100% which would give you an "A." Any number less than 50 would reduce your grade. The journals will count 25% of your final grade.

In order to receive credit for a journal, it must meet these criteria:
  1. It must be at least 400 word long.

  2. It must be a direct response to the question; you can't just write about some topic loosely related to the question.

  3. It must show that you have read and thought about the assigned reading. Proof of this lies in the validity of your observations and the illustrations you provide though appropriate quotations from the reading.

ESSAYS

Each essay assignment will carry equal weight. I will grade each assignment by giving it a number from 1 to 100 using a ten-point scale. The essays will count 75% of your final grade.

READ THE FILES I RETURN TO YOU

When you send me an essay assignment as an email attachment, I will read it, insert comments, give 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. Use this feedback to improve your next paper. This is critical since I do not accept revisions. Click on the button below to see the criteria I use in grading essays.


Checklist

If you want confirmation that I have received an essay that you have emailed to me, 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 to ten days. After ten days, you should write and ask me about work that has not been returned. When you write, you must tell me the course you are in, the title of the assignment, and the file name of the assignment.

Calculating Final 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.
ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS

LATE WORK

 The Discussion Board topics are blocked after two weeks. After a topic has been blocked, you will no longer be able to submit your work and get credit for it. Late essays will incur a grade penalty. No assignment will be accepted after the last day of class.

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, or any grades have not been posted in Blackboard for assignments, it is your responsibility to resolve the problem with the professor 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.

HONOR CODE

 The SVCC Honor Code Policy is stated on page 144 of the 2004-2006 Catalog/Student Handbook. Students are expected to adhere to this policy. Appropriate action will be taken for plagiarism or other violations of the policy.

PARTICIPATION

 Because this is an Internet course, class attendance is not required. However, you must submit essays and complete Discussion Board work on schedule. Students who fall behind in submitting work will be withdrawn from the course before March 11, 2005. At the time you are withdrawn from the course, you will also be removed from the Blackboard class roster, and so you will no longer be able to access the course. To confirm that you have been withdrawn from the course, check your enrollment status in People Soft.

WITHDRAWAL FROM THE COURSE

 If you find it necessary to withdraw from the course, you must do so by March 11, 2005; otherwise, you will be assigned a grade for the course. See the College Catalog (page 20) for complete information concerning withdrawal.

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 sixty percent of the course work (i.e. sixty percent of the essay assignments and sixty percent of Discussion Board assignments.
Dr. Charles Phillips' English Courses