COURSE SYLLABUS

Course Number
EN 100-add section / Course Title
Introduction to College Writing
Fall Semester
XX / Spring Semester / Summer Semester / Credit Hours
Name of Instructor
Meeting Day, Time, and Room Number
Final Exam Day, Time, and Room Number
Saturday May 6th 10:00-12:30 room TBA
Office Hours, Location, Phone
E-mail and Web Site
Course Description
A college-level course designed to develop writing skills through analysis of the writing process and the practice of a variety of techniques and strategies. Emphasis on essay development based on personal experience and observation. Analysis of paragraph structure and organization as well as audience and purpose. A minimum grade of C- is necessary for successful completion of this course. It does not fulfill major or Liberal Arts Core requirements, but counts as an elective. (2)
Through a focus on essays, this course provides students with the practice and confidence necessary to strengthen their writing skills and prepare them for success in their next writing course, EN 101 Composition I.

UNIVERSITY STATEMENTS

ACADEMIC INTEGRITY

By accepting this syllabus, you pledge to uphold the principles of Academic Integrity expressed by the Marymount University Community. You agree to observe these principles yourself and to defend them against abuse by others.Items submitted for this course may be submitted to TurnItIn.com for analysis.

STUDENT COPYRIGHT INFORMATION

For the benefit of current and future students, work in this course may be used for educational critique, demonstrations, samples, presentations, and verification. Outside of these uses, work shall not be sold, copied, broadcast, or distributed for profit without student consent.

ACCOMMODATIONS AND ACCESSIBILITY CONCERNS
Please address any special challenges or needswith the instructorat the beginning of the semester. Students seeking accommodations for a disability must complete the required steps for obtaining a Faculty Contact Sheet from the Office of Student Access Services (SAS). Students are then responsible for meeting with their instructors at the beginning of the semester to review and sign the Faculty Contact Sheet and develop a specific plan for providing the accommodations listed. Accommodations cannot be granted to students who fail to follow this process. Appointments with the SAS director can be scheduled through the Starfish "Success Network" tab in Canvas. For more information, check the SAS website, e-mail , or call 703-284-1538 to reach the SAS director or an academic support coordinator.

EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION POLICY

When students are absent due to a crisis situation or unexpected, serious illness and unable to contact their individual instructors directly, the Division of Student Affairs can send out an Emergency Notification. To initiate an Emergency Notification, students should contact the Division of Student Affairs703-284-1615 or gency Notifications are NOT appropriate for non-emergency situations (e.g. car problems, planned absences, minor illnesses, or a past absence); are NOT a request or mandate to excuse an absence, which is at the sole discretion of the instructor; and are NOT a requirement for student absences. If a student contacts instructors about an emergency situation directly, it is not necessary to involve the Division of Student Affairs as arrangements are made to resolve the absence.

For non-emergency absences, students should inform their instructors directly.

ACCESS TO STUDENT WORK

Copies of your work in this course, including copies of any submitted papers and your portfolios, may be kept on file for institutional research, assessment, and accreditation purposes. All work used for these purposes will be submitted anonymously.

UNIVERSITY POLICY ON WEATHER AND EMERGENCY CLOSINGS

Weather and Emergency closings are announced onMarymount’s web site: through MUAlerts, area radio stations, and TV stations. You may also call the Weather and Emergency Hotline at (703) 526-6888 for current status. Unless otherwise advised by local media or by official bulletins listed above, students are expected to report for class as near normal time as possible on days when weather conditions are adverse. Decisions as to inclement closing or delayed opening are not generally made before 6:00 AMand by 3:00 PM for evening classes of the working day. Emergency closing could occur at any time making MUAlerts the most timely announcement mechanism. Students are expected to attend class if the University is not officially closed.If the University is closed, course content and assignments will still be covered as directed by the course instructor. Please look for communication from the course instructor (e.g.,Canvas) for information on course work during periods in which the University is closed.

1. BROAD PURPOSE OF COURSE

A college-level course designed to develop writing skills through analysis of the writing process and the practice of a variety of techniques and strategies. Emphasis on essay development based on personal experience and observation. Analysis of paragraph structure and organization as well as audience and purpose. A minimum grade of C- is necessary for successful completion of this course. It does not fulfill major or Liberal Arts Core requirements, but counts as an elective. (2)

Through a focus on essays, this course provides students with the practice and confidence necessary to strengthen their writing skills and prepare them for success in their next writing course, EN 101 Composition I.

2. COURSE OBJECTIVES: Upon successful completion of this course students will be expected to:

  • write clear, wellorganized essays with the following characteristics: a sense of purpose and audience; a focused thesis; appropriate supporting examples and details based on observation and/or personal experience; correct and appropriate sentence and paragraph structure.
  • proofread both sentences and paragraphs accurately, following the conventions of standard written English.
  • understand and practice the stages of the writing process.

3. TEACHING METHOD

lecture, audio-visual, discussion, conference, workshop, peer review, small group discussion, student presentations, and inter-disciplinary team projects

4. GRADING POLICY

Your final grade in the course will be calculated based on the following formula. Students should expect to write 12-20 pages of formal, revised prose in addition to essay exams and more informal writing assignments. A minimum grade of C- is necessary to receive credit for EN 100.

50%Completed Portfolio: 4-5 revised, instructor-graded essays

40%2 staffgraded essay exams, Midterm (15%) and Final (25%)*

10% Class activities, assignments, and attendance

February 17 is the last day to withdraw from a class without academic record.

March 24 is the last day to withdraw from a class with a grade of W.

Midterm exam date: February 27 or 28

*Final exam date: Saturday May 6th 10:00-12:30

*The composition final exam has been scheduled so as not to conflict with other classes. Any student who has a scheduled course that conflicts with the final exam should report the conflict to his or her instructor immediately.

Staff grading means that two or more readers from the English faculty (not necessarily including the student’s own class instructor) evaluate students’ unsigned exams, judging them according to criteria outlined in the syllabus course objectives.

ATTENDANCE: Being successful in a writing class requires more than writing and

turning in papers; it requires participating actively in all stages of the writing process as well as giving

input to and receiving it from other members of the class. To benefit fully from each class meeting,

students are expected to arrive for class on time and remain in class until the end of the session. Students should leave the room during class only for emergencies. ABSENCE FROM SIX OR MORE CLASSES MAY, ALONE, RESULT IN FAILURE OF THIS COURSE

ESSAY ASSIGNMENTS: You should expect to write and/or revise an essay each week as part of this course. Your instructor will give you guidelines about how to organize each of the four to five individual essays that will become part of your portfolio. (See the next paragraph, “THE PORTFOLIO”.) You must type all your work, including preliminary drafts. Since you will be revising your work many times, you are urged to use a computer and save all of your drafts on your hard drive and/or a disk to simplify the revision process.

THE PORTFOLIO: Over the course of the semester, you will be creating a portfolio, a collection of the essays that you write for this class. Each of your essays will be revised at least twice, and you will often be working on more than one essay at a time. All of the initial drafts and subsequent revisions (from the first revision through the final, polished version) become part of your portfolio. Therefore, it is important that you save all drafts that are returned to you by your instructor. At the end of the semester, you will submit your “completed” portfolio – every draft of each essay - for a grade. The end-of-semester portfolio grade will constitute 50% of your final course grade.

WORKSHOPS: Much of your work will be shared with other students in workshops. Therefore, you will handicap not only yourself but your classmates if you are absent or don’t have your work ready on time. If you come to a workshop class unprepared, you may be marked absent.

CONFERENCES: You will have at least two individual (one-on-one) scheduled conferences with the course instructor during this semester. These conferences may be scheduled during class meeting times and/or during the instructor’s office hours. At each conference you will discuss specific papers and your writing in general. Attendance is required. If you miss a conference or come unprepared, you will be marked absent as though you had missed a class meeting.

CENTER FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING – ENGLISH WRITING SUPPORT SERVICES
All writing, however strong, can benefit from a careful reader’s response. In addition to feedback from your instructor and your classmates, writing assistance is available from peer tutors in the Center for Teaching and Learning. Tutors can help at any stage of the writing process – from getting started to final editing. They can help you figure out an assignment, overcome “writer’s block,” or discover your thesis. Remember, however, that tutors are not allowed to revise or edit students’ papers for them. All changes, revisions, or corrections must be your work. You can sign-up for an appointment with a writing tutor on starfish.

5. CLASS SCHEDULE

The first half of the semester will focus on essays of narration and description. The midterm exam will be a narrative essay. The second half of the semester will focus on more overtly thematic or thesis driven essays. The final exam will be a thesis driven essay.

6. REQUIRED TEXT

Mangelsdorf, Kate and Evelyn Posey. Choices: A Basic Writing Guide with Readings. 4th ed.

Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2008.(This is our default text. Instructors can change this as needed.)