COURSE SYLLABUS
ENGLISH 201
SPRING 2007

Peru State College's Teacher Education Unit
Conceptual Framework
Creating Exemplary Educators: Reflective Decision-makers

Class: Advanced English Composition

Time: Tuesday, 6:30-9:15, 205 Fine Arts

Instructor: Bill Clemente

Office: FA 201

Office Hours: 9:00-11:00, TTH; 1:00-2:30 MW; 5:00-6:30 Monday and Tuesday.

Teaching Schedule:

6:30-9:15 Monday: Film Studies (FA 205)

6:30-9:15 Tuesday: Advanced Composition (FA 205)

E-Mail: bclemente@oakmail.com

Homepage: Click here.

Home Telephone Number: 872-3073 (You can leave a message.)

Required Texts:

Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum, by Behrens and Rosen

SF Compact by Maxine Hairston

A Good, College-Level Dictionary

Course Description and Objectives: English 201 offers the opportunity to hone skills developed in 101. Viewing writing as a dynamic process, we will pay considerable attention to improving your writing, ensuring that by the conclusion of the semester you feel more confident about your ability to read critically and to write clearly and persuasively in ALL your college classes.

Thus, while English 201 is a composition course, this class is neither strictly a course in using correct grammar nor simply another English course--and certainly not a literature class, although we will read and analyze selected poetry and fiction over the next weeks.

In effect, Advanced English Composition seeks to make you better researchers, writers, thinkers, and readers

As the title of our primary text, Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum, suggests, this term will introduce you to ideas, controversies, and problems from the perspective of various disciplines common to a college environment, including Sociology, Political Science, Biology, History, and Cinema. The class, however, does not assume that you possess an in-depth knowledge of any area addressed, such as issues related to E-Mail, Folk Tales, Business Ethics, Film, and Obedience to Authority. Instead, English 201 requires enthusiasm on your part and seeks to further your understanding of the issues discussed in the context of your personal research and experience.

All the selections emphasize their societal significance--that is to say, how they affect your life now and in the near future. This class, moreover, embraces your opinions and concentrates on showing you how to state them effectively, using evidence from a variety of sources to support your assertions.

Other Goals and Objectives: English 201 supports Peru State's mission to excel as a liberal arts institution by helping students acquire the writing skills essential to success in school and in their professional careers.

This class likewise reinforces the college's purposes by playing an important role in supporting the goal of the school's general studies program, to provide students with a solid foundation for life-long learning.

Advanced Composition also supports the English Department's pedagogical goals through its emphasis on developing effective communication skills, this course's additional focus on improving computer literacy, and composition's requirement that individuals express independent critical thought.

The class also supports English Department's goals relating both to students' learning basic language skills in grammar and composition and to their developing sufficient critical reading and thinking skills to succeed in English 201 and other classes across the curriculum.

Instruction Method/Mode of Delivery:In addition to lecture materials offered by the instructor, students in this class will engage in discussions over reading material--these discussions will take place in class and on-line, utilizing the Blackboard Template.

Short films will also be utilized.

Students will submit work for peer review; essays will be published on the internet for discussion.

Assessment Methods and Student Requirements:

Grades:Your final grade will be determined on the basis of the following (subject-to change) percentages:

Attendance: ----------------------10%
Quizzes and Participation:-----10
Short Assignments:-------------15
Essays: ---------------------------65

Grading Policy:

A 90-100

B+ 85-89

B 80-84

C+ 75-79

C 70-74

D+ 65-69

D 60-64

F Below 60

Attendance:COME TO CLASS, especially as English 201 meets only once a week.

If you must miss class, contact me ahead of time.

Remember that responsibility for making up missed work falls on your shoulders. You are allowed one excused absence.

You begin this semester with 100% for 1/10 of your final grade. This percentage decreases at the rate of 10% for the first class missed and 30% for each subsequent absence.

Short Assignments:Nearly every week, you will complete a short written assignment--no more than two pages, double spaced.

These "ditties" will help you generate ideas for your formal essays. In general, the short essays address material not yet discussed in class. And you will usually have a choice of topics from which to choose and an opportunity to revise work turned on time.

Quizzes: Each week, you will be quizzed over assigned readings from the SF Compact Handbook.

Essays:In addition to an in-class essay during the week of final examinations, you will write (and revise) three to four formal essays of at least three, double-spaced paged in length.

These persuasive essays will incorporate material from our text and your independent research. You will be expected to use and to document sources both effectively and correctly.

Use of internet sources will be limited to one source for each topic. Proper documentation is required for all sources.

A Few Words About Grading: For all written assignments, grades are determined on the basis of the writer's ability to fulfill all requirements for the specific assignment; to incorporate material from the text and from independent research into well organized, persuasive essays; to write with clarity and with good grammar; to show initiative and to use imagination.

Due Dates and Late Material:Turn in all your work on the assigned dates. If you must turn in something after the due date, let me know in advance. Grades for late work will be lowered at the rate of one-half a grade each day. In addition, no make-ups are allowed for missed quizzes or for missed short assignments. Remember that English 201 meets one night a week, so budget your time; and make all your deadlines.

Revisions: For most written assignments (exceptions include the final essays), you will have an opportunity to revise work and to elevate the grade.

Bear in mind, however, that a rewrite does not automatically raise the essay's grade. If the revised essay receives a higher mark than the original, the better grade goes into the book, replacing the earlier effort. A revision never lowers your grade.

In general, revisions are due a week after the assignment is returned.

ATTENTION: You will turn in all written assignments utilizing the correct link on Blackboard, located in the "Assignment" section of the template. If you use software other than Microsoft Word, you must send essays in RTF format. Do not use Microsoft Word.

Peer Evaluation: As the semester turns, we will experiment with peer evaluation which means that you must come to class armed with completed assignments, for you will share work with fellow writers. This exercise takes a variety of forms, all painless.

From time to time, for example, you will exchange work in class, offering your fellow writers constructive criticism.

In addition, to discuss an assignment, I supply the class with copies of student work on my web page. These in-class and out-of-class discussions will help all of you compose effective revisions.

And Finally: Unless I instruct you otherwise, all out-of-class work should be typed. In addition, double space all your work, for doing so gives me sufficient room to comment.

And maintain a positive attitude.

Write with VIM and with CONFIDENCE.

Academic Standards: Academic integrity is a basic principle that requires the student to take credit only for ideas and efforts that are his/her own.

Cheating is defined as the submission of materials in assignments, exams, or other academic work that is based on sources prohibited by the faculty member. Cheating shall include, but is not limited to, situations in which a student:

1. References during an academic evaluation to material sources not authorized by the faculty member.

2. Utilizes devices during an academic evaluation that are not authorized by the faculty member.

3. Provides assistance to another student or receives assistance from another student during an academic evaluation in a manner not authorized by the faculty member.

4. Presents as his/her own the ideas or words of another person without customary and proper acknowledgment of sources.

5. Knowingly permits his/her words to be submitted by another person without the faculty member's permission.

6. Acts as a substitute or utilizes a substitute in any academic evaluation.

7. Fabricates data in support of laboratory or field work.

8. Possesses, buys, sells, obtains, or uses a copy of any materials intended to be used as an instrument of academic evaluation in advance of its administration.

9. Alters grade records of his/her own or another student work in a course or a component of a course.

10. Presents as his/ her own material found on the internet or in other sources.

If you have questions about plagiarism, see me.

Incomplete Course work: To designate a student's work in a course as incomplete at the end of a term, instructors record the incomplete grade (I). Students may receive this grade only when serious illness, hardship, death in the immediate family, or military service during the semester in which they are registered prevents them from completing course requirements. In addition, to receive an incomplete, a student must have completed a majority of the course's major requirements. Unless extenuating circumstances dictate otherwise, students must initiate requests for an incomplete by filing out an Incomplete Grade Completion Contract, which requires the student and faculty signature.

The Incomplete Grade Completion Contract cites the reason(s) for the incomplete and details the specific obligations the student must meet to change the incomplete to a letter grade. If students agree to complete required work prior to the normal deadline for making up an incomplete--the end of the subsequent semester--this date must appear in the contract. The division chair, the instructor, and the student receive signed copies of the incomplete Grade Completion Contract.

Even if the student does not attend Peru State College, all incomplete course work must be finished by the end of the subsequent semester. Unless Faculty Senate approves an extension, if the student does not fulfill contract obligations in the allotted time, the incomplete grade automatically becomes an F.

Students who have filed an application for graduation are not eligible for a grade of Incomplete.

Accommodation Statement:

The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (public law 93-112) section 504, provides that "no otherwise qualified disabled individual in the United States shall solely by reason disabled, be excluded from the participation in, be denied the benefits of, or by subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance."

1. It is the student's responsibility to notify the institution of any special circumstances that would affect his/her ability to complete equally in the college environment. Learning disabilities must be appropriately documented.

2. While students are encouraged to self-identify at the earliest possible time, students may not know or choose to self-identify, but can still receive services at any time once they self-disclose and document.

3. Students should contact the office of Student Support Services, Vice President for Student Affairs or the Director of Admissions for further advisement.

Tentative Schedule: Over the course of the term, you will write a number of essays. As a rule, we will spend three weeks on various topics.

The following schedule is subject to change:

Weeks One to Three: Introductory material and "The Wal-Mart Controversy"

Weeks Four to Seven: "Cyberspace and Identity: The E-Mail Revolution"

Weeks Eight to Ten: "Obedience to Authority"

Weeks Ten to Twelve: Fairy Tales: A Closer Look at "Cinderella"

Weeks Thirteen to Sixteen: "Weight Debate"

This particular link contains additional readings and material for the text book.

In Conclusion: Improvement counts in this class. So maintain a positive attitude, be enthusiastic, and communicate your ideas and your questions. Remember that writing is a skill you master by hard work and that we can have a lot of fun this semester.

Write without fear, and let's have a "mud-luscious" (e. e. cummings) semester.

Eng 202 Syllabus in PDF

Eng 202 Syllabus in Word

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Last Modified: 01/02/2007