ENC0025-W35 Developmental Writing II
Spring 2013
Professor: Sinya Wilson
Phone: (407) 683-4978
E-mail: (link on Atlas)
Office:
Office Hours: Before/After class
Course Objectives
ENC0025 is designed to provide students with the opportunity to develop the
skills necessary for success in college-level writing courses. These skills will include choosing suitable topics for essays; gathering and organizing ideas; and composing, revising, and editing essays which conform to the rules of standard written English.
Core Competencies
The specific competencies that students are expected to develop in this course are directly related to Valencia’s core competencies. Refer to the Valencia College catalog for a complete explanation of the core competencies, which are Think, Value, Communicate, and Act.
Required Textbooks
Focus on Writing by Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandel (with an access code for the lab program Writing Class)
Required Materials
A college-level dictionary
A 1" three-ring binder to be used for preparing a writing portfolio
Blue examination booklets for essay tests
Blue or black ink for all in-class writing
Reliable electronic storage for all writing assignments – a USB drive is required
for saving documents word-processed in our labs
Course Requirements and Grades
Each student will be required to maintain a portfolio of all writing assignments. The portfolio will allow us to assess your progress. A portfolio system allows the instructor to use exit standards to evaluate work in progress, but the final grade on your writing portfolio can be based on the level of competence which you have achieved at the end of the course. Revision is the key to success and good grades with this system.
A final exam, which will be administered college-wide, will assess mastery of the course outcomes and the competencies which indicate readiness for college-level work. Students must demonstrate mastery of those skills to successfully complete the course.
If you pass the exit exam, then your course grade will be averaged as follows:
Working Portfolio 30%
Display Portfolio (“best work” – two revised essays) 30%
Lab assignments, short quizzes on homework and class activities 20%
Final Exam 20%
In ENC0025, classroom instruction is supplemented with lab work – intensive and individualized skill-building practice. All of your writing assignments are also a particularly important kind of “lab” work. With the aid of technology, much of your lab work can be done from any location where you have a computer, the appropriate software, and Internet access. But we also have an actual lab – this actual lab, the Communications Center in 5-155, is both a computer lab and a writing center. In the Communications Center, students may work on their writing assignments, drill particular problem areas of English grammar, and get assistance from composition instructors and professional tutors.
The lab is open Monday through Thursday from 8:00am until 7:00pm, on Friday from 8:00am until 12:00pm, and on Saturday from 9 until 2. It is an open lab, so students can have great flexibility in scheduling their lab time according to their individual needs and around changes in their non-academic schedules (on a seat-available basis, of course).
The amount of time which a student spends in the lab will vary, depending primarily on individual progress in demonstrating competence with the rules of standard written English and on individual needs for the services and the computers available in the lab. Generally speaking, the lab is the best place for students to complete most of their out-of-class work.
Attendance Policy
Regular, on-time attendance is required of all students at Valencia College; therefore, students who are not able to attend class or to be on time will be officially withdrawn from the course after 3 absences. No exceptions! Students who have difficulty attending class because of conflicts with their jobs or personal lives must resolve those conflicts. Students who come to class late or leave early not only jeopardize their own education but also disrupt the educational process for their colleagues; this kind of disruption is among the distractions that cannot be permitted in this learning environment. Every time that you are late or leave early 5 points will be deducted from your grade.
Classroom Protocol
A classroom is a space in which the distracting behaviors of one or two students can have a negative impact on the entire learning environment; therefore, distractions cannot be permitted.
TURN OFF CELLPHONES AND ALL OTHER ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT BEFORE CLASS BEGINS.
Format of Writing Assignments
Essays written out of class must be typed, using standard word-processing
software. Computers are available for all students in the lab on the first floor of the library, and the Communications Center has Microsoft Word installed on all of its computers. You will be given a format to follow for all essay assignments. It is a standard form which is required in most college-level writing courses. This standard format was developed by the Modern Language Association, so it’s usually referred to as the MLA format.
On page 188 of your textbook, you will find a visual illustration of the basic requirements for formatting your essays. Always compare your essays to this model to make sure that you have followed the guidelines for headings, titles, margins, paragraph indentations, and double-spacing.
Deadlines
All assignments are due at the beginning of the class period on the specified date. Absence is not an excuse for late papers. Essays submitted late will be penalized up to one letter grade for each day past the due date.
Plagiarism
Academic honesty requires that all written work submitted by the student must
actually be the student’s own work. No credit (a zero, not an “F”) will be given for any written assignment which is found to have been authored by anyone other than the student whose name appears at the top of the paper.
Course Outline
The course outline which accompanies this document is meant to give students the overall plan for course content and a basic schedule for out-of-class assignments. More specific directions for assignments will be part of the classroom instruction and getting that information is the student’s responsibility. Circumstances may require insignificant changes in this document.
Course Outline / Class Schedule
Note: On this outline/schedule, for each day that our class meets, the topic for that day is given first and then the assignment which must be completed before the following class.
The assignment is a task which you should begin as soon as possible after the class for which it is listed. Often such assignments are referred to as homework, but most of your out-of-class work would most effectively be done on campus, particularly in the Communications Center.
Feb 11 Course Introduction
Assignments:
1. Preview your textbook thoroughly. Notice not only
what kind of instructional material it contains but also how its content is organized.
Skim Chapter One to indentify the main concepts and to see how your textbook presents and reinforces those concepts.
2. Read Chapter One with a pen or pencil, marking key points and noting the
definitions and illustrations of key terms.
3. Complete Practices 1-3, 1-6, 1-9, 1-12, 1-13, and 1-20.
Feb 13 Overview of the Writing Process / Essay Structure / Qualities of Good Writing
Assignments:
1. Read Chapter 12, with a pen or pencil -- notice again that your textbook is designed to be written in – you should be using this opportunity to develop habits of annotating your textbooks. Notice that the key points about the writing process, which were illustrated in Chapter One with paragraphs, are illustrated in this Chapter with short essays. Make note of those terms from Chapter One which are repeated and note the new terms which are introduced for essay structure.
2. Complete Practices 12-1, 12-2, and 12-5.
3. Read “The Most Important Day” by Helen Keller (handout). Read with a
pen or pencil. Identify the central idea of this essay. Notice what kind of supporting details it has and how it is organized. Write a summary of the essay. Your summary must explain how Helen Keller develops her central idea (thesis).
4. Journal Writing (handout) – pre-writing for Portfolio Essay #1
Feb 18 Grammar Review
Feb 20 Writing Introductions and Conclusions
Assignments:
1. Complete Practices 13-1 and 13-2.
2. Complete Collaborative Activities 1 and 2.
Feb 25 Patterns of Essay Development
Assignments:
1. Complete Practices 14-4, 14-5, 14-7, 14-13, 14-16, 14-23, and 14-25
Feb 27 Organizational Pattern and Narrative Details in an Autobiographical Essay
Assignment: Draft Portfolio Essay #1
March 11 Effective Use of Resources for Learning Support
Assignment:
Revise and prepare a first final draft of Portfolio Essay #1
March 13 SUBMIT ALL OF YOUR WORK FOR ESSAY #1
Grammar Review: Parts of Speech and Basic Sentence Structure
Assignment:
Read Judith Ortiz Cofer’s essay “Don’t Call Me a Hot Tamale” (pg. 636). Reread the essay with a pen. The questions on pages 638 & 639 tell you what you
should be making note of as you mark appropriate places in the text and write
notes in the margin (you may, of course, write additional notes on paper if you
wish). Notice that the questions take you back through the essay four times to
examine different aspects of the essay (look again at the explanation on pg. 634).
For the next class, you must be ready to write responses to selected questions that
will demonstrate that you have done a thorough job of analyzing this essay.
March 18 Analysis of the Model Essay “Don’t Call Me a Hot Tamale”
Review Pre-drafting Strategies
Grammar Review: Independent and Dependent Clauses / Using Conjunctions to
create Compound and Complex Sentences.
Assignment:
Plan and draft Portfolio Essay #2.
Study the examples in Chapters 16 and 17 and complete Practices 16-1,
6-2, 16-6, 16-7, 17-1, 17-2, 17-3, 17-4, 17-5 and 17-6.
Study the example in Chapters 21 and 22, which review sentence
structure issues by focusing on the two major sentence structure errors
(fragments and run-on sentences).
March 20 Using Our Rubric to Focus on Revision and Editing
Examining Sentence Patterns and Eliminating Major Sentence Structure Errors
Assignment:
Revise Portfolio Essay #2 and then do a very serious sentence-by-
sentence editing to prepare a first final draft.
March 25 Examining Sentence Patterns / Punctuating Compound and Complex Sentences
Assignment:
Read and do a thorough analysis of John Hartmire’s essay “At the Heart of an Historic Moment” -- pgs. 670 – 673 (your textbook provides a guideline for this five-step process: (1) read thoughtfully to get the author’s overall message; (2)re-read, using the Focus on Meaning questions to make sure that you have full literal-level comprehension of the essay; (3) analyze the author’s strategy, using the questions provided for that level of meaning; (4) move deeper into critical reading, using the Focus on the Pattern questions to analyze the cause-effect relationships in the essay; (5) complete your analysis by thinking critically about the ideas presented in the essay, using the questions provided for that level of analysis). This assignment is part of the pre-writing for Portfolio Essay #3.
March 27 Eliminating Major Sentence Structure Errors
Assignment:
Draft Portfolio Essay #3 (use one of the writing prompts on page 674)
Use Chapters 15 – 17 to check your understanding of the three major sentence patterns. Use Chapter 21 and Grammar Bytes to review the methods for eliminating run-on sentences. Complete Practices 21-4, 21-6, and 21-7.
April 1 Mastery Check (super important quiz) on sentence structure problems
Writing for a Portfolio vs. Impromptu Writing
Assignment:
Portfolio Essay #3
Use Chapter 22 and the activities in Grammar Bytes to review and to practice eliminating sentence fragments.
April 3 Impromptu Essay Overview
Assignment:
Edit and prepare a first draft of Portfolio Essay #3
April 8 Impromptu Essay #1 (Be sure to have a blue examination booklet.)
Assignment:
Revise draft of Portfolio Essay #3
April 10 SUBMIT ALL OF YOUR WORK FOR ESSAY #3
Holistic Scoring vs. Evaluation and Grading of Specific Skills
Review Verb Problems
Assignment:
Read and do a thorough analysis of Jhumpa Lahiri’s essay “My Two Lives”
– pgs. 674 - 677. Again, use the questions in your textbook as a guideline to the process of moving from surface-level reading to full critical thinking.
Draft Portfolio Essay #4.
April 15 Review Subject-Verb Agreement Problems
SUBMIT ALL OF YOUR WORK FOR ESSAY #4
Assignment:
The basic topic choices are on page 371
Continue lab activities on verb problems. Chapter 23 reviews verb agreement issues.
April 17 Final Exam
Portfolio Due
Review Verb Tense Problems
Assignment:
April 22 Retakes
Important Dates
Important DatesFeb 18 – No Class- President Day
March 4-8 Spring Break
April 5 – withdrawal deadline (last day for students to request a “W” grade)
April 17- Final Exam