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.

Sp 15 Eng 1B Harwood

Monday, August 18, 2014

Syllabus here!