City
College of San Francisco
English
1A: University Reading and Composition
Course
Syllabus Fall 2014
Section: 360 CRN: 75606 Meetings: Mondays 6:00-8:50PM
Instructor: Seth Harwood Location:
Mission Campus Rm. 363
Email: sethharwood@gmail.com Office Hrs: Monday 5:30-6:00
Office: MiC
Rm 262 Phone/voice
mail: 206-350-4998
Course Description
English 1A is a rigorous, transfer-level course
designed to improve your ability to read and think critically, develop your
academic writing skills, and enable you to produce thoughtful critical
responses to the writings and ideas of others. Frequent writing assignments
will be based on two full-length nonfiction works. You will be asked to write
three primary essays, including one research paper, produce at least one draft
and a final version of each, as well as complete a variety of shorter writing
assignments designed to develop skills.
To
help ensure your success in this course, attend every class, take the texts
seriously, and never get behind in the reading. Expect a substantial writing or
reading assignment for every class meeting and a longer writing assignment
every three to four weeks. If you are concerned that this might not be the
right class for you, please come talk to me.
Required
Texts
- Eric Schlosser, Reefer Madness
- Underground America:
Narratives of Undocumented Lives (Voices of Witness), Peter Orner, ed.
- The Merriam-Webster Dictionary (Pocket edition) or similar – this will help you a great deal with
your readings and our class discussions. Keep this on hand as you do your
homework and bring it to class. I will have regular dictionary checks
where you can get extra credit.
·
In addition, you should
have a notebook with pockets (for handouts) to use for taking notes and doing
in-class writing assignments for this class.
Alternative sources for your
books:
All
of the above books are available in your college bookstore. I suggest you purchase
Reefer Madness immediately, if
you haven’t already. For your other books, it may pay to search a few alternative
sources where you may be able to find the other books for less than the
bookstore charges. These will require use of the internet and a credit card.
You should order these immediately to leave ample time for delivery.
- www.Abebooks.com A good source for used books. This is
a collection of booksellers compiled nationwide. Good rates and very
reliable.
- Amazon.com Be sure to click on the “used and
new” listing to see the used prices and list of sources when you search
for your books.
- www.half.com Cheap books. Not as good as
abebooks, but always handy to have as many sources as you can get.
Class Participation
Because this course is strongly dependent on
discussion, attendance is critical to your success and the success of your
classmates. You must come to class every
week prepared to speak about the material at hand. I expect each of you to
engage actively in classroom conversations while leaving space for others’
voices to be heard. If you can foresee any problems with this, come see me as
soon as possible. Part of your grade will depend on your participation, so
don’t come to me at the end of the term to try and explain why you have not
participated.
Class Preparation
You are expected to show up every night for class
having actively read the current assignment and ready to contribute to
the discussion. In addition, I will
assign short writing or thinking assignments to go along with the
readings. These selections will be
announced in class. If you do not get
this assignment because you missed class, it is your
responsibility to contact a classmate
to learn the assignment.
Attendance
If you are absent you and
your particular insights will be missed.
If you must be absent from class for a necessary reason, you must
contact me by email to explain. Per college rules students are allowed to miss
a total of 6 class hours per term. Be
very careful about attendance. Your
absences are your own to use wisely for emergencies, necessary events, whatever
may arise. Do not use them unwisely and leave yourself in a hole if something
comes up. Note: If you must miss two classes in a row, definitely email me.
Grading
Policy:
Your grade will be made up
of the following:
Midterm Exam
(in-class essay) – 10%
Final Exam – 10%
Primary Writing Projects – 60%
This
consists of the major essays for this course. Each of these will require a
rough draft, some level of pre-writing, and a peer-review session with your
peers. I will evaluate your essays based on an examination of the development,
organization, and coherence of your ideas, as well as sentence clarity and your
ability to explain your thoughts. I will also evaluate your revision process.
As you won’t be as experienced at writing in the beginning of the course, the
first two essays will count less than the others: First=10%, second and third=15%,
four paper (research) =20%
Homework and Shorter Writing
Assignments – 20%
You
will write short responses to the essays we read for class. These will be
graded as homework. At the end of the term your homework grade will be the
number of assignments you have done.
Late
homework will NOT be accepted unless you have made
arrangements with me beforehand. If you are sick, all homework will be due on
the date you return to class, including that day’s assignments—it is your
responsibility to find out the assignments from a peer.
There
will be three kinds of homework:
· Journaling: either in class
freewriting, or producing a certain number of pages in your journal.
· Short answer and response:
these may be graded but the main focus in evaluation will be to see if you have
done the reading and considered it adequately.
· Active reading: I will
explain more about what this is during the first weeks of class. Once you’re
comfortable with it, I will come around checking your books to see if you’ve
actively read the assignment. Doing this effectively will be worth a full
homework grade.
Active reading is essential
for good paper writing. The sooner you get proficient with this skill, the
better you will do in all of your college writing classes. See Quiz in Week
3.
In-Class Work &
Participation
Attendance
and participation in this course are essential.
As each of us has our own way of writing and learning, the group can
learn from each one of you and your insights.
Therefore you are each encouraged to raise any questions you may have
about assignments or your concerns about writing. Often you will find that
someone else has the same question as you do. In class writing, including
freewriting and brainstorming sessions, as well as active participation in
class discussion will be evaluated.
A special note on Peer
Review: Any good essay goes through
several revisions, and getting reader feedback is key. Hence, not having a
satisfactory rough draft on a class peer review day will result in a 1/3 of a grade
(3 points) reduction on your final draft. Not coming to class that day at all
will result in a 2/3 of a grade (six points) reduction on your final draft,
as you can’t help out your peers when you’re not there.
Graded Writing Assignments – Turning These in Late:
In the case of any extenuating circumstances, try to
make every reasonable effort to contact me before
the day the assignment is due. Late essays will be accepted—you must turn in
all essays to pass the course. Any late essay that does not have a
legitimate reason that I have approved
will be lowered one letter grade per day that it is late. If you know that you must be absent on the day a paper is due, you may email
your paper to me. But you should also print it to hand in the next time I see
you.
Revision
Because
I value improvement, you may revise and resubmit the papers you write
this semester. After reviewing my comments on your grade sheet, you may want to
clarify main ideas, produce more support, reorganize your paragraphs, and/or
work on your sentence structure and mechanics. If you decide that you would
like to revise a paper, come meet with me so we can determine a due date
together.
Plagiarism
Most
easily defined, plagiarism is the handing in of someone else’s work or ideas as
your own, whether intentional or not. Plagiarism is a very serious offense: any
student found plagiarizing can receive an F in the course and possible
administrative penalties, ranging from probation to suspension. You will receive
a grade of zero for any paper that you plagiarize. If you have any questions about plagiarism, contact me as soon as
possible or raise your question during class time and we’ll discuss it.
Additional Resources
If you would like additional consultation on your
writing, I encourage you to stop by the Writing Lab in the Rosenberg Library
(second floor) at Ocean Campus. The tutors here are a tremendously helpful
(free) resource. You can also visit Cyberia II in the Library, rm. 403 for
computer use and help on your English assignments.
From home you can take advantage of 1) Reading Plus
Online: More to come on that.
2) Online Resources from
the English Dept. at http://www.ccsf.edu/Departments/English/labpage/webresources.htm
You can also come to my office hours for help, which
are listed above. I’m always happy to see you in my office.
Students with Special Needs
I
need to hear from anyone who has a disability that may require some
modification of seating, testing or other class requirements so that appropriate
arrangements may be made. Please see me
after class or Email me as soon as possible.
LAB REQUIREMENT: All
students are required to spend at least 16 hours (sixteen) using the online and
lab-based tools offered by the English dept this term, including Library
workshops (on campus and online) and Reading Plus. We will discuss Reading
Plus, how to use it, and get you started there during class in the next weeks.
