English 1200: Freshman Composition II

Assignments	Course Description	Course Objectives	Grades
Policies	Projects	Studentship	Textbooks

Section 017 meets in Bate 2015 at 1 o'clock MWF

Tentative Syllabus for Fall 2006

Hal Snyder's Tentative Daily Syllabus

Date	Topic	Reading	Remarks/Assignments
#1 Aug. 23-25	Introduction, Overview, Fact Sheet & Grades
#2 Aug. 29-31-Sept. 1	Intro to English 1200	Instructor's Packet	Introductions; Spongebob Squarepants; My Spell Checker;
#3 Sept. 4-6-8	Intro to MLA Style	MLA Handbook	No Class on Sept. 4 (State Holiday--Labor Day)
#4 Sept. 11-13-15	Intro to MLA Style (continued)	MLA Handbook	MLA Style Exercise; Remembering 9/11/2001
#5 Sept. 18-20-22	Project #1	Pirate Papers (106-113)	Project #1 Site Study (due 9/27); "What It Was, Was Football"
#6 Sept.25-27-29	Site Study (cont'd); Intro to Project #2	TBA	Workshop for Project #1 (9/25) Project #1 (due 9/27); Project #2 Archival Research (due 10/23)
#7 Oct. 2-4-6	North Carolina Collection	Pirate Papers 87 + 89-97	visit Joyner Library Joyner (Room 1021); artifacts; "Alice's Restaurant Massacree"; Readability
#8 Oct. 9-11-13	Analysis, Invention & Context	Pirate Papers 98-104	Project #2 draft (final draft due 10/23)
#9 Oct. 16-18-20	Intro to Research & Problem Solving	Pirate Papers 23 + TBA	No Class Oct. 16 (Fall Break Day); Workshop for Project #2 (due 10/23)
#10 Oct. 23-25-27	Project #3 Beginning a Research Project	TBA	Project #2 due; Research and Problem Solving (due 12/4); possible topics; Research ?s; Research Project Deadlines;
#11 Oct. 30-Nov. 1-3	Finding & Evaluating Sources	Pirate Papers 23, 24-34	(Early Registration for Spring Semester 2007 runs all week) Joyner Library Visit #2; Doing Research; Research Prospectus (due 11/6)
#12 Nov. 6-8-10	Documentation	Pirate Papers 45-51	Annotated bibliography (due 11/27); How to Write an Annotated Bibliography; 231st Birthday of the USMC (Ooh Rah!)
#13 Nov. 13-15-17	Summaries & Paraphrases	TBA	MLA Style; Citing Online Sources; Annotated Bibliography draft workshop (11/15--due 11/27); MLA Style Exercise
#14 Nov. 20-22-24	Argumentation	None	Review MLA; No Class Nov. 22 & 24 (Thanksgiving Break)
#15 Nov. 27-29-Dec. 1	Writing About Research	TBA	When to Cite, Paraphrase, or Summarize; Citing Online Sources; How to Integrate Sources Into Your Writing
#16 Dec. 4-6	Conferences; Review	TBA	Conferences for Project #3 (due 12/6); Take Home Final Exam
Dec. 13  (Wednesday)	Final Exam		11:00-13:30 Section 017

 

Textbooks

Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. 6^th ed. New York: MLA, 2003.

Pirate Papers: A Collection of Student Writing from English 1200. 2nd Updated ed. Freenville, NC: Dept. of English, ECU, 2005.

In addition, students will need something electronic (a floppy disk, USB flash drive, etc.) large enough to hold the work for this class (if students are planning on using the Writing Center to save their work on)

Assignments

• General Remarks
• East Carolina University and the Americans with Disabilities Act
• Format Standards
• Late Assignments
• Online Matters
• Submitting Assignments
• Summary of Assignments

General Remarks

Please notice that your fees for this semester include a Computer & Technology Fee, which entitles you to any empty seat at most of the computer labs located around campus. Although some labs are restricted (the BVTE Lab is reserved for BVTE students, the Writing Lab is reserved for freshman composition students, etc.), most students use the lab in Austin.

Also, it's a pretty good idea to keep a backup copy of everything you write. You'll need a 3.5" DS/HD (1.44 MB) "floppy" or a USB flash drive, and these are available at the bookstores.

East Carolina University and the Americans with Disabilities Act

East Carolina University seeks to comply fully with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Students requesting accommodations based on a covered disability must go to the Department for Disability Support Services, located in Slay 138, to verify the disability before any accommodations can occur. The telephone number is 252-328-6799.

Format Standards

A professional appearance establishes a writer's credibility and improves reader understanding. All work submitted for evaluation should follow the criteria below:

• use 20 lb., white, bond paper (or whatever paper is available for printers in the various writing centers around campus).
• visit http://www.ecu.edu/itcs/lab/ for an up-to-date list of lab locations.
• should you discover one or two typing mistakes after a page of an assignment has been printed, neatly correct the mistake(s) by crossing our the error and writing the correction above it (three or more typos require correcting and then reprinting the entire).
• maintain a one inch margin (top, bottom, left, and right margins).

Should you have occasion to contact me via e-mail, please identify yourself and the course section in the subject line (e.g., Assignment #1 Question John Doe 1100-008).

Late Assignments

There aren't any, but if an assignment is submitted after a deadline has passed, 10 points per class meeting will be deducted from the grade awarded.

Online Matters

Students should visit http://personal.ecu.edu/snyderh/Messages/studinfo.html often, especially during inclement weather.

 

Be sure to check your ECU e-mail account daily.

 

From time to time, some students encounter a printer problem. If you have a paper due and you develop a printer problem, e-mail yourself and attach the paper to your message. Go to the Writing Lab (Bate 2005), check your e-mail, open your attachment, and print it out on their printer.

 

Should you have occasion to contact me via e-mail, please identify yourself and the course section in the subject line (e.g., Assignment #1 Question John Doe 1200-008).

Submitting Assignments

Assignments are submitted in either of two ways:

• Turning it in at the end of the class when it is due, or
• Delivering to the instructor (or his office) by the end of the day the assignment is due; actually if it's in the file on office my door by the beginning of the next class day, that'll be okay, too (but remember that I get here around 7:00 a.m.)

Some students may encounter a "printer" problem just before an assignment is due. If this should happen to you, send yourself an e-mail and attach the assignment. Go to the Writing Lab (Bate 2005), check your e-mail, open your attachment, and print it out on their printer--then you can submit your assignment(s) on a timely basis.

Do NOT e-mail me an assignment. Under no circumstances will an assignment be accepted after it has been critiqued in class.

Table 1: Summary of Assignments & Percentage of Final Grade
Project #1 (Site Study or The Constitution Day Writing Contest) Paper	20%
Project #2 (Archival Research)	20%
Project #3 (Research and Problem Solving or Constitution Day Writing Contest) Research Prospectus (05%) Annotated Bibliography (10%) Research Process Reflection Piece (05%) Research Paper (20%)	40%
Final Exam	10%
Studentship	10%
total	100%

"Excellence is not a sometime thing; it's an all-the-time thing.  You don't perform at that level once in a while; you don't do things right once in a while; you do them right all the time.  Excellence is a habit. Unfortunately, so is mediocrity." From the NPR "Scenes I Wish I Had Written." 

Table 2: Grades and What They Mean
Letter Grade	What the Grade Means
A (100 - 92)	Your boss would be impressed and remember you at promotion time.
B (91-83)	Your boss would be satisfied with the job but not over impressed.
C (82-70)	Your boss would be disappointed and ask you to revise before others saw it.
D	(This grade is rarely awarded because assignments are either acceptable--and thus at least a C--or unacceptable--no higher than an F)
F (69-0)	Your boss would start looking for someone to replace you!

Course Description

This course builds on students’ understanding of rhetoric and the processes involved in academic writing.  The focus is on research writing:  on conveying the results of our search for knowledge to a variety of audiences that will learn from and potentially act on the results of that research. Students will conduct research in a variety of forms, learn how to formulate research questions, identify and search both print and electronic sources, incorporate information gained from the library and other sources into their writing, cite secondary sources accurately and responsibly, and apply research writing to problem-solving in the academic and social spheres.

Policies

• Attendance
• Cell Phones
• Conferences
• Laptops in Class Policy
• Participation
• Plagiarism
• Workshops

Attendance

Attendance is required, as is promptness with all assignments

• Missed classes and late assignments will be penalized.
• All drafts submitted to the instructor must be printed out (i.e., not handwritten).
• Missing scheduled conferences with the instructor will be penalized.
• Students are expected to behave professionally (active participation in class activities and support for the work of others)

Although "life's little problems" often come up at the darnednest times, students are expected to be in class on time, every time, for all the time allotted to this course because it is in the classroom that information essential for the successful completion of this course is presented. However, if circumstances require your presence elsewhere, you are still responsible for material presented in class. If you anticipate any absences, please see me before hand.

Students will be rewarded for their professional conduct, including active participation in class and support for the work of others.

Cell Phones

Don’t bring your cell phone to class. If you forget and bring your cell phone to class, turn it off. If you bring it to class and forget to turn it off, and the damn thing rings, your cell phone will magically become my “new” cell phone. If you don’t like this policy, don’t bring your cell phone to class with you. The best way for you to not lose (i.e., keep) your cell phone is this: don’t bring your cell phone to class!

 

Laptops in Class Policy

Laptop computers are wonderful tools (I will use mine in this class from time to time); however, students who bring their laptops to class often use them for something other than taking notes (e.g., checking e-mail, instant messaging, surfing the net for porn, etc.), and laptops are frequently a distraction to other students. If you are caught using your laptop for anything except taking notes, you will be given the choice of receiving an F for this semester or donating your laptop to your favorite professor: me!

Participation

Class participation is an important element of the learning process, and students are expected to feel free to freely and openly discuss the subject at hand. Since participation demonstrates (at least in part) your preparedness for each class, you are expected to:

• Participate in class discussions and honor the Honor Code (read: Don't Plagiarize!).
• Be honest--don't try to B. S. me.

Plagiarism

In the past, I have encouraged students to review their assignments as they prepare for future assignments. In order to do this, students necessarily have to have each assignment returned to them. Some students have allowed their friends (fellow members of clubs, fraternities, or sororities, not to mention those they are dating or their best bud) to make photocopies of their assignments (or worse yet) place their original, corrected copy in club/fraternity/sorority files).

Know this: such action violates the university's Honor Code and does a disservice to students who "copy the 'right' solution" from past assignments. Although former students have thought they'd help their friends, they have really harmed them (by robbing students of the opportunity to learn from their mistakes). The "real world" doesn't follow this unethical practice, and if I find that any of my students (either present or former) participate in this form of plagiarism (by either copying a completed assignment of a former students or by providing an assignment for you to copy), both students will be prosecuted to the fullest of my ability. This is not a warning; it's a promise!

Furthermore, the ECU Student Handbook defines plagiarism as "Copying the language, structure, ideas, and/or thoughts of another and adopting some as one's own original work." Be aware that the writing you do in this course must be your own work and, primarily, your own words. It is okay to incorporate the words of others from articles, essays, and interviews as evidence to support your ideas, but when you do this, you should be sure to cite your sources appropriately. We will talk about documentation and citations during this course. Penalties for plagiarism are severe--the can include failing this course, suspension, or even expulsion from the university, so be sure to see me about any doubts you may have before you turn in an assignment. You can access the student handbook at http://www.ecu.edu/studenthandbook/III.htm.

Academic integrity is a fundamental value of higher education and East Carolina University; therefore, I will not tolerate acts of cheating, plagiarism, falsification or attempts to cheat, plagiarize or falsify.  Should I determine that an academic integrity violation has taken place, I reserve the right either to assign a grade penalty or to refer the case to the Office of Student Conflict Resolution for an Academic Integrity Board hearing. The minimum grade penalty that I will assign is an F for the assignment/course. Should it come to my attention that you have had a prior academic integrity violation, or if there are other aggravating circumstances, I will refer the case directly to the Office of Student Conflict Resolution.  Should the Academic Integrity Board determine that you committed an academic integrity violation, you may be assigned a grade penalty and/or any other sanction allowed in the student Code of Conduct, up to and including suspension from the University.

Workshops

Part of the writing process is revision, and for most of our writing projects, we will have a writing workshop (or peer review); it makes sense that if you are to obtain "feedback" from your peers, you must first have a good first/rough draft. Thus, if you have no draft, don't waste the valuable time of classmates by coming to class!

Projects

Project #1 Site Study
Project #2 Archival Research
Project #3 Issue-Based Argument

(Note: All projects will involve research. All projects will require that you keep a detailed research notebook or journal that documents your research process and developing knowledge on your topic; furthermore, all projects will require responsible, correct, and thorough documentation of sources both in-text and on a Works Cited page. Also, this course adopts a process approach to writing--this means that each project will ask you to complete several drafts and demonstrate a commitment to revision.)

Project One:  Site Study: Observation, Interview and Analysis (20%)