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EWRT 200: Fundamentals of Writing (Fall 2006)Units: 5
Repeatability: (May be taken twice for credit.)
Call Number: 1040
Schedule ID: EWRT-200-05
Location: MQ-10
Time: 1:30PM- 3:40
Days: Tuesdays & Thursdays
Instructor: Mary Schultz
Prerequisite: Qualifying score on the English Placement Test.
Co-requisite: English Writing 200 students must also enroll in English Writing 150, at the Readiness Lab.
Instructor Contact Information:
General Course Description: This course is designed to help students prepare for college-level reading and essay writing, and is graded on a Pass-No Pass (P-NP) basis. Focus is on writing fluency and familiarity with the conventions of standard written English. Students develop the ability to respond in writing and orally to written texts. Assignments show the interconnection among readings, class discussion, personal experiences, observation, and social issues.
Goals:
Students will:
- Read and analyze a variety of texts.
- Develop topics and ideas for informal and formal writing projects.
- Write and support thesis statements.
- Organize ideas in writing projects.
- Identify and practice writing for different audiences and purposes.
- Practice writing as a multi-step process.
- Practice composing organized, developed writing projects that increase in complexity.
- 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 Newsweeksubscription 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. (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.
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 comprehension of and engagement with a variety of texts.
- Formal writing projects seem to have purpose and overall focus.
- 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 appropriate to the
intended audience.
- Formal writing projects demonstrate basic control of the conventions of standard written English, i.e., comprehension, readability and respectability are not impeded by excessive 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 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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