English 098Professor Geoffrey Bellah
Spring 2014Sections 30204, 34653
OFFICE LOCATIONSocial Sciences Faculty Building, Office H
OFFICE PHONE(714) 432 - 5136
OFFICE HOURST, W 11:30 -12:30, F 9 - 11 (Virtual)
COLLEGE E-MAIL
REQUIRED BOOKS AND CLASS MATERIALS
Fawcett, Susan. Grassroots. Tenth Edition. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company,
2011.
Goldstein, Janet and Beth Johnson. Voices and Values: A Reader for Writers.
West Berlin, NJ: Townsend Press, 2002.
A three-ring binder or folder separated into three sections
1) Course Materials Section. This section will keep all handouts, down-
loaded documents, and all returned graded papers, quizzes, and exams.
2) In-class writing Section. This section will be reserved for any extended
writing done in class, including free-writing, brainstorming, and drafts.
3) Notes Section. All notes on lectures should be recorded, revised, and
maintained here.
This three-part notebook will comprise a small part of your course grade. It will
be submitted at the end of the semester for evaluation. See below for the its value
and due date.
COURSE PROCEDURES
- Expect to be working very closely and regularly with the workbook Grassroots. Most of the assigned exercises in Grassroots will be done at home, and the responses will be checked by your classmates and by me. A few exercises will be done in class. Also, examples of your writing may be displayed in class, discussed openly, and critiqued. Finally, at many class meetings, we will discuss current writing assignments, review or peer-edit each other’s drafts, and correct exercises in Grassroots.
- Expect to be reading many essays in our anthology, Voices and Values, and to react to the assigned readings in class discussions, in in-class-writing, and in papers prepared at home. We will also devote class time to answering the questions posed by Voices and Values following each selection.
- Expect to listen to lectures, to take notes on those lectures, and to ask or respond to questions regarding the lecture topics.
COURSE WORK
Four papers (including final in-class paper)60%
Two major examinations20%
Notebook 10%
Preparedness, participation, attendance (PPA)10%
CLASS POLICIES
Students should attend all class meetings for the entire semester; any absence could mean a serious loss of information. With four absences the PPA value of 10% will be lost entirely, and with the fifth absence the student will be dropped from the class or receive a failing grade, whatever the situation allows. There are no excused absences. A student who arrives 20 minutes late to class or who leaves early will also be counted absent unless prior arrangements have been made.
It is your responsibility to withdraw from the class before the official drop date if you have stopped attending it or are no longer actively part of it.
Late papers are not accepted; any student not turning in a paper on the due date must see me on or before that date. Papers are due at the beginning of the class meeting. The first three papers must be typed, double-spaced, and accompanied by rough drafts and peer-editing forms. Papers submitted without rough drafts or lacking in-class peer-editing cannot earn a passing grade and may be returned unmarked or uncredited.
Announced peer-editing sessions are a mandatory part of three out of four papers; non-participation could mean a failing grade on an assignment. Revision of a paper is allowed but only with prior permission; the revised grade does not replace the original grade but is averaged with it.
All 098 students must take advantage of the Writing Center at the Student Success Center on campus in order to address problems in writing, reading or study skills as identified on essays or in exams. Five sessions are required to be completed by the end of the semester. Students who do not fully meet this requirement will lose the PPA value of 10% entirely.
All cell phones and other electronic communication devices, including laptop computers, must be turned off before class begins. Students who take out such devices during class will be asked to leave and will be counted as absent.
Students must download, print, and have available in class hard copies of this document and all writing assignment sheets. These documents and any others posted at the course site should be placed in the appropriate section of the notebook.
If leaving a phone message, students should identify themselves by full name, course, and section number, and should leave a return call number. If sending an e-mail communication, students should identify themselves by course and section numbers. (Also, a sloppily or casually written e-mail may be disregarded or trashed, so present it carefully and precisely.)
Academic dishonesty - cheating on exams or quizzes or plagiarizing language or content in the papers - will be met with harsh penalty, ranging from a failing grade on the specific assignment or a failing grade in the course to expulsion from the college. Any verified instance of cheating or plagiarism will be referred to the Dean of Students’ office, where a permanent record of the instance will be placed in the offender’s file.
STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES
The accrediting agency for Orange Coast College now requires that these items be included in the course syllabus.
Writing Outcomes:
Students will be able to apply various types of writing conventions on the sentence and paragraph levels and avoid common errors in grammar and punctuation.
Students will be able to compose a paragraph that demonstrates an effective topic sentence; coherent, unified, and well-developed support; and employs an appropriate rhetorical mode for its subject.
Reading Outcomes:
Students will be able to identify implied or directly stated controlling ideas in paragraphs and full-length texts, recognize support and demonstrate an understanding of new vocabulary from the texts.
Study Skills Outcomes:
Students should be able to develop the behaviors and attitudes conducive to success in a college course. class materials, take notes, and maintain a notebook.
SYLLABUS
Week 1Introduction to course
(Jan 27 - 30)VV: Learning Survival Skills
Week 2GR: Chapter 7
(Feb 3 - 6)
Week 3GR: Chapter 7, cont’d
(Feb 10 - 13)
Week 4GR: Chapter 8
(Feb 18 - 20)VV: Rowing the Bus
Week 5GR: Chapter 14
(Feb 24 - 27)VV: Bullies in School; Peer-editing for Paper #1
Week 6GR: Chapter 17
(Mar 3 - 6)VV: What Do Children Owe; Paper #1 due
Week 7GR: Chapters 15, 16
(Mar 10 - 13)VV: Flour Children
Week 8GR: Chapter18;Exam #1
(Mar 17 - 20)VV: Rudeness at the Movies
Week 9GR: Chapter 19; Peer-editing for Paper #2
(Mar 31 - Apr 3) VV: An Electronic Fog
Week 10GR: 24, 25;Paper #2 due
(Apr 7 - 10)VV:The Quiet Hour
Week 11GR: Chapter 26;Peer-editing for Paper #3
(Apr 14 - 17)
Week 12GR: Chapters28, 29
(Apr 21 - 24)VV: “Reading” Selections
Week 13GR: Chapter 3; Exam #2
(Apr 28 - May 1)Paper #3 due
Week 14GR: Chapters 3, 4
(May 5 - 8)VV: “Reading” Selections, cont’d.
Week 15GR: Chapter 4; Notebook due;
(May 12 - 15)
Week 16GR: Chapter 4, cont’d.
(May 19 - 22)Paper #4 in-class
The above syllabus is subject to revision. Any changes will be announced ahead of time in class and posted on-line.
ABBREVIATIONS
VV refers to Voices and Values
GR refers to Grassroots
HOLIDAYS
February 14 (Lincoln’s Day)
February 17 (Washington’s Day)
March 24 - 30 (Spring Recess)