COURSE NUMBER:English 100(Fall 2009)

COURSE TITLE:Composition Enhanced

NUMBER OF CREDITS:5

PREREQUISITE: Placement Test or English 095.

TRANSFERABILITY:Three credits transfer to all institutions in Nevada as ENG 101

INSTRUCTOR:Jim Kolsky

EMAIL ADDRESS:

CANCELED CLASS HOTLINE: 445-3030

OFFICE PHONE NUMBER:(775) 445-4297

OFFICE LOCATION: Aspen 229

OFFICE HOURS: MWF: 9:30 am to 10:30 am TTh: 11:00 am to 12:00 pm

COURSE DESCRIPTION: English 100 is an intensive reading and writing course focusing on writing the expository and argumentative essay. Emphasis is on revising and editing essays for development, coherence, style, and correctness as well as on the investigative, reasoning, and organization skills necessary to create successful research papers. In addition, there will be extra assistance in reviewing and developing English writing skills: grammar, sentence structure, usage, and punctuation.

COURSE OBJECTIVES: Upon completion of English 100, students should be able to do the following:

  • Approach writing as a process.
  • Read and analyze a variety of academic texts, and learn to appreciate the contributions of the writings of authors from diverse cultural backgrounds.
  • Use invention strategies—listing, brainstorming, clustering, mapping, etc.—to develop and organize ideas.
  • Write coherent college-level essays that include a clear, arguable thesis statement.
  • Create essays with effective introductions, well-developed body paragraphs, and effective concluding paragraphs.
  • Use clear topic sentences in paragraphs, and use effective transitional expressions to move from one idea to another.
  • Apply the conventions and rules of Standard English—grammar, mechanics, and usage—in written assignments.
  • Develop skill-building techniques and apply them in written assignments.
  • Participate in class discussions and group activities in the classroom.
  • Document research using MLA format.

LINKAGE: English 100 links to both the general education and the AA/AS programs at WNC. Students who pass this class should be able to demonstrate the following:

  • College level writing skills
  • Oral communication skills
  • College level reading skills
  • Critical thinking skills
  • Reasoning and decision-making skills
  • Ability to locate and evaluate information
  • Knowledge of and ability to use effective and efficient learning skills
  • Ability to work effectively with others
  • Sense of appreciation for, and value of the importance of ethics in their professional and personal lives

COURSE CONTENT: Your work this semester will be divided into several units, and each unit will focus on a particular writing strategy. Within these units you will also review relevant rhetorical principles, including appropriate style and usage, as well as grammar.

As you practice your writing this semester, I would like you to consider the following words of Peter Drucker from his book How to Be an Employee:

“As soon as you move one step up from the bottom, your effectiveness depends on your ability to reach others through the spoken or written word. And the further away your job is from manual work, the larger the organization of which you are an employee, the more important it will be that you know how to convey your thoughts in writing or speaking. In the very large organizations, whether it is the government, the large business corporation, or the Army, this ability to express oneself is perhaps the most important of all the skills a person can possess.”

TEXTS: Reinking, James A.,and Robert von der Osten. Strategies for Successful Writing: A Rhetoric, Research Guide, Reader, and Handbook,8th.

Langan, John. College WritingSkills, 7th.

EVALUATION: To determine your course grade, you will submit a minimum of 5 essays and a research paper,take 3 sentence-skill tests anda number of unannounced quizzes over the assigned readings, and write a final essay in class during final exam week. The essays must be more than 3 pages long and the research paper more than 6pages. You can revise each of the essays once, and I will average the results. The essays will count 35% of your grade, the sentence-skills test 15%, the quizzes 15%, the research paper 25%, and the final essay 10%. For each of the assignments you can earn as many as 100 points. At the end of the semester I will average these scores and convert them to the following grade equivalents: 94-100 = A/ 90-93=A-/ 87-89 = B+/ 83-86 = B/ 80-82 = B-/ 77-79 = C+/ 73-76 = C/ 70-72 = C-/ 67-69 = D+/ 63-66 = D/ 60-62 = D-/ below 60 = F or W.

THE RESEARCH PAPER: Your task for this assignment is to explore a controversy that is of interest to you and then write an essay in which you state a proposition (assertion), support that proposition with credible evidence, and document your argument with a minimum of 10 sources using the Modern Language Association’s (MLA’s) name-and-page system. You should choose from the list of topics provided. By Monday, September 21, you will submit your topic as a question on a 3” x 5” index card. For example, if your interest is the military, you might explore the following question: “Should the military draft be reinstated?” You will search for relevant information that informs you onboth sides of the question, and you will confine your search to the databasesavailable in the WNC library (most of which, if not all, can be accessed from your home computer). We have outstanding librarians who will help you in every way they can. In fact, you will attend a workshop at which one of them will explain and demonstrate the research tools that are available to you. At that workshop, you will be assigned to complete a Worksheet. (Please note that if the Worksheet is submitted late, you will receive a 2-point penalty on the research paper. In addition, if you do not submit the Worksheet at all, there will be an additional 10-point deduction on the research paper.) The final draft is due Monday,December 7.

ABSENCES: I record all absences. If you must be absent, you are still responsible for the work assigned for the sessions you missed.

If you decide to quit the class, be sure to complete the paperwork for officially withdrawing from a class. If you fail to do this and your name appears on the grade sheet at the conclusion of the class, you will receive a final grade that will take into account all class work that you did not complete.

LATE WORK: All work is due on time. If you do turn an assignment in late, your score for that assignment will be reduced by five points for each session it is late, regardless of the reason. If you have an emergency and you cannot find someone to get the essay to me, then you can send it via email, but only as an attachment And if you know that you are going to be absent on the day an assignment is due, then you will turn it in early. Note that an assignment that is submitted more than two weeks late will receive a non-negotiable zero. IN ADDITON, A 10-POINT-A-DAY PENALTY APPLIES TO A LATE RESEARCH PAPER. NOTE ALSO THAT I WILL ACCEPT NO LATE WORK, INCLUDING THE RESEARCH PAPER, AFTER THE FINAL DAY OF INSTRUCTION FOR THIS CLASS,FRIDAY, December 11, 2009.

ACADEMICSKILLSCENTER (ASC): The AcademicSkillsCenter, a free tutoring facility, is located in Bristlecone 330.

MANUSCRIPT FORM:

  1. Type all writing assignments, double-spaced, using a font size of 12-point.
  2. Write your name, date, and a description of the assignment at the top of the first page, upper right-hand corner.
  3. Be sure to include a title that relates to the point of the piece you have written and is centered on the first line of the first page.
  4. Number your pages.
  5. Establish margins of 1 inch.
  6. Bind your pages with a staple in the upper, left-hand corner. Do not submit any of the writing assignments in a folder or binder.

PLAGIARISM POLICY: Anyone caught turning in an intentionally plagiarized assignment will receive no credit for the course.

DISABILITY SUPPORT SERVICES: If you have a disability for which you will need to request accommodations, please contact the Disability Support Services office (Bristlecone building, Room 103) as soon as possible to arrange for appropriate accommodations.

RESEARCH PAPER TOPICS: Create a controversial question that relates to one of the topics listed below. For example, for topic #6, you might consider the following: “In order to fight terrorism, must we be willing to give up some of our civil liberties?”*

  1. America’s health-care system
  2. Mainstreaming (Inclusion)
  3. Family values
  4. YuccaMountain
  5. Divorce and children
  6. Terrorism and civil liberties
  7. Affirmative Action
  8. America’s welfare system
  9. Legalization of drugs
  10. Gender bias
  11. Victims’rights
  12. The K-12 public education system
  13. Physician-assisted suicide
  14. America’s prison system
  15. The death penalty
  16. The media and violence
  17. Theglobal economy
  18. Environmental degradation
  19. America’s homeless
  20. The income tax
  21. America’s colleges and universities
  22. The stock market and middle-income Americans
  23. National security
  24. Legal immigration
  25. Children and discipline

*If you really cannot respond to any of the topics listed, then see me.

ASSIGNMENTS (Assignments in Reinking and von der Osten are designated as R and those in Langan as L.)

Week 1:R: Chapters 1-4 (Review)

Chapter 5 (Study) – “The Beach Bum” (89)

L: Chapters 6 and 9 – “The Yellow Ribbon” (212)

______

Week 2: R: “The Perfect Picture” (484) and “The Scholarship Jacket” (493)

L: Chapter 23 (Review)

Chapters 24 and 25 (Study)

______

Week 3:R: Chapter 8 – “If It Is Worth Doing” (132)

“Rambos of the Road” (532) and “Binge Drinking a Campus Killer” (528)

L: Chapter 10 – “Dad” (232)

Chapters 2 -28

Essay 1 (Narrative) is due.

______

Week 4:R: Pages 363 – 392 (Review)

L: Chapter 21 (Review)

Chapters 29 and 30

Topic for the research paper is due.

We will meet in the library with one of our reference librarians who will orient you to the data bases that you will use to write the research paper. At this session, you will be assigned a worksheet.

______

Week 5:R: Chapter 10 – “Different Shifts, Different Actions” (162)

“Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts” (559)

L: Chapter 13 – “Born to Be Different? (298)

Chapters 31 – 33

Essay 2 (Illustration) is due.

Sentence-Skills Test #1

Week 6:R: Pages 392-403 (Review) – “Taking Notes”

L: Chapters 34 – 36

Library Worksheet is due. Please note that if you submit the library worksheet late, you will receive a 2-point deduction on your research paper.

Essay 3 (Revision of Narrative) is due.

Week 7:R: Chapter 11 – “Why Students Drop Out of College” (170)

L: Chapter 12 – “Taming the Anger Monster” (272)

Chapters 37 and 38

Essay 4 (Comparison/Contrast) is due.

Week 8:R: “Black Men and Public Space” (587)

L: Chapter 39

Essay 5 (Revision of Illustration) is due.

Week 9:R: Chapter 12 – “Rediscovering Patriotism” (193)

“The Sweet Smell of Success Isn’t All That Sweet” (590)

L: Chapter14 – “Television Addiction” (320)

Chapters 39 and 40

Essay 6 (Causal Analysis) is due.

Week 10:R: “When Is It Rape?” (598)

Chapter 22 (Review) – “House Arrest: An Attractive Alternativeto Incarceration” (406)

L: Chapters 42 and 43

Essay 7 (Revision of Comparison/Contrast) is due.

______

Week 11:R: Chapter 13 – “Can U.S. Citizens Be Held as Enemy Combatants? (228)

L: Chapter 16 – “Ban the Things. Ban Them All” (362)

Chapter 5 (Pages 106-107 and Review Tests 1 and 2)

Essay 8 (Extended Definition) is due.

______

Week 12:Analysis of argumentative writing

L: Chapter 5 (Pages 108-111; Pages 115-117; Review Tests 3 & 4; Review Tests 8 and 9)

Essay 9 (Revision of Causal Analysis) is due.

Week 13: Research-paper conferences (TBA)

Essay 10 (Revision of Extended Definition) is due

______

Week 14:Research-Paper conferences (TBA)

Sentence-Skills Test #3

Week 15:Final Draft of Research Paper is due on Monday, December 7.

Student Evaluation of the Course (Friday, December 11)

Review for Final

______

Week 16:FINAL – Monday, December 14.

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English_100_Syllabus_Fall 2009.doc