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EWRT 100B: Preparatory Reading and Writing Skills (Fall 2006)Units: 5
Call Number: 2608
Schedule ID: EWRT-100B-27
Location: MQ-10
Time: 3:45PM- 5:55
Days: Tuesdays & Thursdays
Instructor: Mary Schultz
Prerequisite: English Writing 200 and Reading 201 (or Language Arts 200), or English as a Second Language 261, 262 and 263; or an English Placement Test score of 41 or above.
Co-requisite: English Writing 100B students must also enroll in English Writing 160 or 161, at the Readiness Lab.
Instructor Contact Information:
Email: schultzmary@deanza.edu
Faculty website: http://faculty.deanza.fhda.edu/schultzmary/
Phone: (408) 864-8999 x3087
Office: F11-J (In F-1 Building, near the Turtle Statue)
Office Hours: Tuesdays 6:00—6:30 p.m. and by appointment
Online Office Hours: by appointment (AOL Instant Messenger Username: tastefulfool)
General Course Description: This course is designed to help students develop the skills necessary for college-level reading and essay writing, and is graded on a Pass-No Pass (P-NP) basis. Students who satisfactorily complete the required coursework must submit a Portfolio of their writing for departmental assessment and approval in order to pass the course.
Goals:
Students will:
- Read and analyze a variety of college-level texts, predominantly expository.
- Develop topics and ideas for essays
- Write and support thesis statements
- Organize ideas in essays
- Identify and practice writing for different audiences and purposes
- Practice a variety of rhetorical strategies to develop a foundation for handling many writing tasks
- Practice writing as a multi-step process with particular attention to planning and revision
- Practice composing organized, developed essays that increase in complexity ending at the transfer level
- Proofread for recurrent usage and sentence-level errors
Required Materials:
- Weekly issues of Newsweek magazine and a variety of short Texts (available online at my faculty website). The cost of the 10-week Newsweek subscription is $6.00, and is payable in cash to your instructor by the second week of class.
- Computer, printer and internet access. (Access to computers is available on campus in ATC 102/103, the Library, and the Open Media Lab. Printing the assigned online texts is optional, and printing is available on campus for 10 cents/page in the Open Media Lab.)
- Registration (free) at Bedford/St. Martin’s online Exercise Central
- Students will be required to join a private electronic Discussion Group located at my faculty website for access to course announcements, readings and resources, and for submission of writing assignments and exercises.
Assignments and Grading:
Students will complete three assignment sequences, each of which will culminate in a final writing project. Each assignment sequence will include assigned readings, informal writing exercises and quizzes, and rough, working, final and possibly revised drafts of the final writing project for the sequence.
Assignment Sequence 1: “Becoming a Writer”
Assignment Sequence 2: “Op-Ed Piece”
Assignment Sequence 3: “Letter to the Editor”
You must receive a Passing grade on the final formal writing projects for Assignment Sequences 1 & 2, according to the Evaluation Criteria (below) in order to pass the course and become eligible to submit the Portfolio for departmental review. (Multiple revisions of the final writing projects for Assignment Sequences 1 & 2 are allowed, at the instructor’s discretion.)
All components of each Assignment Sequence must be completed in order to pass the course and submit the portfolio for departmental review.
Evaluation Criteria:
To receive a “Passing” grade, writing projects must meet the following criteria:
- Informal and formal writing projects show individuality, independent thinking, and intellectual engagement with matters of significance.
- Informal and formal writing projects show critical comprehension of a variety of texts.
- Formal writing projects seem to have purpose and overall focus, in which the main idea, thesis or argument is clearly articulated.
- Formal writing projects use standard essay structure (Title—Introduction—Body (the main idea, thesis or argument developed through description, discussion, analysis, argument and/or elucidation)—Conclusion).
- Paragraphs in formal writing projects are focused on one main point which is developed through illustration and explanation, and which has with a clear connection to the overall purpose of the piece of writing as a whole.
- Formal writing seems to know its audience and keep it in mind, e.g., by defining terms that may be unfamiliar to the intended audience, and by using a rhetorical style that is appropriate to the intended audience.
- Formal writing projects demonstrate competency in standard written English, i.e., comprehension, readability and respectability are not impeded by errors in grammar, usage, punctuation and spelling.
Course Policies:
Submission of assignments. Assignments should be sent to me by e-mail attachment and posted to the online group before class on the day they are due. Informal writing assignments, quizzes and exercises should be submitted in class and/or or posted to the online group on the day they are due, and may not be made up.
Late assignments (Not!). I do not comment on, nor do I allow re-writes of assignments that are not submitted on time, and I tend to be much less generous in grading these assignments, unless you have talked to me about a revised deadline before the due date, so talk to me first!
Formal writing projects may be resubmitted for a Passing grade, provided you have received my permission, and a working draft of the revised essay signed by a writing tutor or peer editor (who has made substantive marginal comments on the draft) is submitted along with the final revised writing project. (The in in-class writing projects in Assignment Sequence 2 may not be made up without a written medical excuse.)
Academic conventions. Students will be encouraged to develop a consistently effective writing style, which in many cases means discovering or re-discovering their natural, conversational “voice.” Students will focus on understanding grammar, usage, diction and punctuation as tools for effective communication, diagnosing their own and others’ errors as symptoms of weak communication rather than transgressions against grammatical “rules.” Effective writers know that clear communication requires knowledge of the conventions under which their intended audience operates. Because effective writing respects the standards of its audience, formal essays for this class must meet minimum standards of written academic English to receive a passing grade.
Attendance. If you miss more than two classes for any reason, I may drop you; if you miss more than three classes for any reason, I will drop you, even if the fourth absence is late in the quarter. I’ll do my best to help you if you are having trouble getting yourself to class, so talk to me before you start missing classes. If you do miss a class, be sure to obtain any handout or assignment I gave out in class, either from the online group or from other students (get some phone numbers!), and come to the next session fully prepared. Do not skip a class because you don’t have an assignment to turn in when it’s due. Come anyway. I’ll probably be nice about it, especially if you are sufficiently tortured and contrite.
Pedagogical approach: While the P-NP grade ultimately will be based solely on the quality of your final writing products, the course’s pedagogy will be process-oriented. Process-oriented pedagogy is based on the assumption that an effective writing process is what leads to effective writing products. Students will work on developing an efficient writing process by analyzing and improving their reading, writing, and study habits and strategies, and by seeking out and availing themselves of the many De Anza student support services available to them, when needed.
Plagiarism: Plagiarism is a problem when students seek only to pass a course, rather than achieve the goals of the course. It is a vexing problem for the instructor since s/he is required to detect it, report it, and penalize the student for it, all of which is a great waste of time, and not fun for anyone, especially since it will automatically result in an F on an assignment (and in serious cases will be reported to the Dean of the Language Arts Division and will result in an F for the class). If you are unsure, always err on the side of giving credit to your sources. (By the way, the Dean of the Language Arts Division is a really nice guy-- don't hesitate to drop by his office for other, happier, reasons or circumstances. When it comes to bureaucratic stuff, he can help!)
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