Mt.
Hood Community College
Writing
090: Writing: Paragraph to Essay
Spring
2014 Syllabus – March 31
Sections:
01 Instructor: Joe Van Zutphen
Room:
AC 3311 E-mail: vanzutpj@mhcc.edu
Class
meeting times: 8:00 - 9:10 a.m. MWF
Blogspot:
http://vanzutphenwriting90.blogspot.com/
Office:
9:15- 9:55 in Humanities
Course
Description:
The Mt Hood Community
College 2013-2014 Catalog describes Writing 090 as such:
“This course provides continued instruction on
producing clear, mechanically correct sentences of maturing quality while
providing students with both an introduction to and practice with the
expository essay. Summarization skills are further developed and practiced in
an effort to build upon and sharpen students’ analytical reading and thinking
abilities in preparation for college-level writing. The course emphasizes and
provides tools necessary for clear, correct writing aimed at a defined
audience.” Prerequisite: Placement into WR090 is based on the college
writing placement (CPT) test scores, a grade of “C” or better
in WR080, or instructor referral.
Concurrent enrollment in RD090 is encouraged.
Course
Requirements:
In
this class, you’ll write three essays. You will research, draft, and revise
each essay, polishing each one until it is a successful piece of college-level
writing. These essays will be based on challenging, college-level readings,
some of which you may be asked to find yourself using the MHCC Library
databases.
In
addition to the four essays listed above, you will do quite a bit of in-class
writing (freewrites, brainstorming, note-taking, drafting, etc.) in your Class
Notebook. The Notebook is an essential part of learning that will be graded
only on compliance (whether you did the work) rather than on quality of work.
Be sure to bring it to class every day; having all your notes in one place will
help you and you may be asked to use it at any time.
You
will also have two in-class exams. During those exams, or at other times, I may
collect and grade your Class Notebook.
Peer
response groups are also an important part of the class. We’ll use them
frequently, and you will be graded on the quality of your participation in
these groups.
Prerequisite: C or better in Writing 080 or
instructor referral
Official MHCC Outcomes:
|
Upon successful completion of
this course, the student will be able to:
1.
Demonstrate an awareness and/or the use of campus
resources, especially the Learning Success Center, campus computer labs, and
other student services pertinent to writing;
2.
Demonstrate intermediate mastery of note-taking skills,
including annotation of texts, discussion notes, and lecture notes for the
purpose of writing;
3.
Demonstrate intermediate skill in deconstructing an
expository piece of writing in order to find the central idea and identify
key support of that idea, in addition to recognizing different kinds of
evidence used by an author;
4.
Demonstrate intermediate mastery of a one-paragraph
formal summary of an expository essay, including the use of embedded and
properly punctuated quotations, paraphrasing of an author’s thesis, and
inclusion of all key supportive ideas;
5.
Demonstrate intermediate ability to focus writing
towards a particular audience;
6.
Demonstrate the use of prewriting activities to create
expository essay drafts;
7.
Demonstrate intermediate mastery of unified body
paragraphs within essays using transitions between major supporting
information;
8.
Create a more complex topic sentence that clearly
communicates a point using transitions, coordination, and subordination;
9.
Demonstrate intermediate mastery in the hierarchical
development of the topic sentence using examples and explanation derived from
both personal experience and ideas from assigned readings;
10. Demonstrate beginning mastery
of the ability to organize and write simple, standard expository essays
clearly showing introductory, body, and concluding paragraphs;
11. Create a complex thesis that
clearly communicates a point using transitions, coordination, or
subordination;
12. Demonstrate intermediate
mastery of the revision process by writing and revising drafts and by
incorporating peer review into the process;
13. Demonstrate intermediate
mastery in joining sentences using coordination and subordination to improve
the logical relationship between sentences and reduce choppiness;
14. Demonstrate intermediate
mastery in the use of adjective (relative) clauses and noun phrase
appositives to embed information within a sentence and eliminate choppiness;
15. Demonstrate beginning mastery
in the use of concession to advance one idea while giving acknowledgement to
another, especially in thesis statements and topic sentences;
16. Identify run-together
sentences, fragments, and comma splice errors and demonstrate intermediate
mastery in fixing them;
17. Demonstrate an intermediate
understanding of how to recognize and correct common proofreading errors;
18.
Demonstrate intermediate mastery in correctly
formatting a page following MLA guidelines.
|
|
|
Grading
|
Assignment
|
Points
of Final Grade
|
|
Summaries
(2)
|
20
|
|
Essay 1
|
25
|
|
Essay 2
|
30
|
|
Essay 3
|
50
|
|
Exams 1
and 2
|
40
|
|
Class
Notebook
|
30
|
|
Homework (including additional summaries)
|
70
|
|
Attendance
|
35
|
|
Total
|
300
|
Late
Work Policy:
Late
work is accepted only with the one-time-due-date extender located on the
blogspot (see above); therefore late work receives a grade of zero after the
extender is used ONCE.
All
papers must be typed, double-spaced, in MLA format, and stapled. You are
welcome to print double-sided to save paper. Papers are due at the start of
class, and an assignment that is turned after is considered late. If you
must miss class, email your work.
Please
understand also that I will always grade assignments which have been turned in
on time before I will grade a late assignment; therefore, if you turn in work
late, it will not be graded as promptly, and you may need to remind me.
Finally, keep in mind that no assignment may be turned in for any reason after
the last regular class day of the quarter.
Texts
and Materials
Text:
Wordsmith Custom, Author: Arlov ISBN 9781256685890.Publisher
Pearson Ed 05 Required
Other
Materials:
You
will need:
1)
A spiral notebook for day-to-day writing in your Class Notebook.
2)
An electronic storage device to store your work.
3)
Access to a computer with Internet access to do assignments, download handouts, and search library databases.
Class
Policies
Attendance:
Please
come to class and be on time. Missing class destroys your ability to do work
successfully, is distracting to others, and is a huge waste of tuition. In
addition, missing class may cause you to miss points. Assignments are due at
the beginning of class. Late assignments will receive 0 credit after the
one-time-due-date extender is used ONCE. Missed tests cannot be made up
except in case of emergency, and students earn credit for peer response
workshops only if they participate in the workshops during class time. In
short, you need to be here regularly if you want to do well.
You
are responsible for finding out what work you missed. Therefore, have a peer or
two you can contact to find out what you missed.
Your
assignments are due whether or not you are in class. If you are sick, for
example, you must email or deliver your work to me before the start of class.
During
Week One, in accordance with English department policy, I will drop any student
who misses a class during the first two class meetings and does not get in
touch with me.
Class
Courtesy: Having
a safe and civil atmosphere for learning depends on all of us. When we speak
with one another, especially when disagreeing, it is vital that we do so with
mutual respect. Students who are disruptive or abusive towards others will be
asked to leave. Also, any “side conversations” will not be tolerated and those
students will be asked to leave. On a related note, it is both disruptive and
rude to leave your cell phone or beeper on in the classroom. Please turn them
off when you come to class. If you subscribe to the flash alert system, you may
leave your phone on vibrate.
Plagiarism:
Students
who copy the words or ideas of any other writer without acknowledging the
original author of those words or ideas are engaging in plagiarism. Plagiarism
is grounds for failing this course. One of the goals of this course is to
understand how to use information effectively and ethically in your writing.
Once those concepts have been introduced, any instances of plagiarism will
result in severe grade penalties for the
student.
|
Disability Services
|
Please allow the kind and helpful people in the Disabilities
Services Office to guide you in documenting your disability and in
helping you attain the accommodations that you need to succeed in college.
Please do contact this office or stop by to make an appointment.
|
Tentative
Schedule (Note: this schedule is designed to be filled in with your notes
based on announcements made in class). Also, there are live updates (additions
as we move through the quarter).
Scheduled college closure days for holiday: May 26.
|
Date
|
Independent
Activities (take notes here!)
|
Class
Activities
|
What’s
Due?
|
|
Week 1
|
Buy
textbook and spiral for Notebook, get syllabus,
|
Introduction
to the course; discussion of syllabus; discussion of active reading and
summaries; introduction to writing process. Summaries 1 and 2 assigned. Writing Notebook assigned.
|
Diagnostic
Writing
Summary 1
|
|
Week 2
|
|
Introduction
to sentence grammar; introduction to peer response; review of paragraphing;
basic citation methods introduced; discussion of common readings for essay 1.
Peer response to summaries.
Essay 1
assigned.
Last day to drop without a "W" on transcript.
|
Summary
2
|
|
Week 3
|
|
Sentence
grammar (fragments and run-ons); paragraphing techniques, continued;
discussion of revision strategies.
|
|
|
Week 4
|
|
Discussion
of thesis. Sentence grammar (fragments and run-ons); paragraphing techniques;
discussion of common readings for essay 2. Essay 2 assigned
|
Essay
1
|
|
Week 5
|
|
Advanced
citation methods introduced; peer response of essay 2. In-class exam 1
|
|
|
Week 6
|
|
Discussion
of common punctuation, continued; discussion of common readings for essay 3.
Essay 3 assigned
|
Essay
2
|
|
Week 7
|
|
Note:
last week to withdraw from the class.
|
|
|
Week 8
|
|
Discussion
of subject-verb agreement;discussion of pronoun-antecedent agreement; discussion
of common readings for essay 3.
|
|
|
Week
9
|
|
In-class
revision of Essay three. Grammar: pronouns, parallelism.
|
|
|
Week 10
|
|
Discussion
of pronoun case, continued; discussion of parallelism, continued. Discussion
of revision strategies.
|
Essay
3
In-Class Writing
|
|
Week 11
|
|
In-class Exam #2
|
|
Please
note: This syllabus is subject to change; any changes will be announced in
class so that you can make edits. Also, many assignments like readings,
specific grammar exercises, and in-class writing exercises do not appear on
this schedule, as their scheduling depends on how quickly or slowly the class
proceeds. Please attend class and talk with me regularly so that you will not
be surprised by changes.
You can significantly
boost your performance in WR090 by working with a learning specialist in the AVID Center or a writing
tutor in the Learning Success Center. Both Centers are located on the third floor
of the MHCC Library. When you meet with a learning specialist or a tutor,
please bring the written directions for the writing assignment, any
prewriting materials and drafts you have produced, an extra-credit form, and if
pertinent, a worksheet.
SCHEDULED STUDENT OFF-DAYS: Monday, May 26 Memorial Day.
