ENG 102, Freshman Composition
Spring 2012: sections 28811, 28814, 28819, and 28824
Please read this document carefully before proceeding to the rest of the course. It's also a good idea to read "MCC's Distance Learning Tutorial" before you proceed. The tutorial is available at http://www.mc.maricopa.edu/distance/ If you have questions after reading both the tutorial and the syllabus, don't hesitate to contact me.
Instructor: Mark Gooding
Instructor's office: EO 5 on MCC's Southern & Dobson campus
Instructor's phone: 480-461-7624
Instructor's email: gooding@mesacc.edu
Instructor's office hours: Monday - Friday, 11:00 a.m. to noon
Student Responsibility
Please remember that you are responsible for knowing and understanding the material in this course syllabus. I will interpret your receipt of this syllabus as acknowledgement that you have read and understood it. You are also responsible for familiarizing yourself with Mesa Community College policies outlined in the college catalog and student handbook.
English 102 is a follow-up to its prerequisite, English 101. If you're taking this class, I assume you already possess basic essay-writing skills, that is, I assume that you can do such things as select and focus a topic; plan and structure an essay; develop a thesis; write cohesive, unified paragraphs; provide good topic sentences and transitions; etc. All those skills are necessary in English 102, but they are not the primary focus of instruction. So when I make references to those things, as I frequently will in regard to homework assignments as well as in response to your own writing, I assume you know what I'm talking about. If you don't, you will need to let me know.
This course emphasizes two things: argumentation and research. Roughly the first half of the course is devoted to the study of some of the basic principles of argumentation in the Western classical tradition. Most of the second half of the course focuses on research, that is, on finding and evaluating information, and on incorporating that information into your own argumentative writing. Additionally, you will learn (if you do not already know) a particular style of documentation, MLA style.
Course Competencies for English 102 Classes in the Maricopa County Community College District
Ramage, John D., John C. Bean, and June Johnson. Writing Arguments: A Rhetoric with
Readings. 8th ed. Brief ed. New York: Pearson-Longman, 2010.
You cannot complete this course without this textbook. Students often justifiably ask, based on their experience in other courses, "Are we really going to use the textbook?" In this case, the answer to that question is "Yes." You will need the textbook for all assigned readings as well as for homework assignments. By the time the course is finished you will have read virtually the entire textbook. You will also, of course, be reading outside sources in the research component of the course. But you should not need any textbook other than the one I've specified here. MLA formats, for instance, are provided in this textbook, and I will also refer you to at least one other site that can help you out with MLA style.
Textbook availability (This is important!) If you do not live near the MCC Southern & Dobson campus, this textbook should be available in most college textbook stores. If you are unable to find it in a store near you, you can order it online at efollett.com. Please be aware that shipping charges will be applied to the purchase price if you have to order the book online. Bear in mind also that you will need this book by the first week of class.
In this high-tech age, you may also be able to acquire the textbook through other means. Students have recently been telling me, for instance, that they have found the book online at a significantly lower price than the print version. And when I say "significantly," I mean "significantly." One student told me she spent approximately seventy percent less for the online version of the book than she would have spent for the print version. To me, that's significant. What you have to remember, in exploring other options for procuring the book, is that we're using the 8th edition. Previous editions of the textbook will not work for this course.
All late assignments are docked ten percent, and no assignment will be accepted more than one week after the original due date. This policy does not, of course, apply to quizzes, which are only available at certain intervals during the course. Nor does it apply to extra-credit opportunities, which must be posted by the specified due dates to receive credit.
You will write three formal essays for this course. You will have the opportunity to rewrite each of those essays after it's been graded and returned to you. The goal of rewriting the essays is to improve both your argumentation and writing skills, so your final grade on each essay will be the grade on the best draft you submit, whether it's the original "final" paper or the rewrite. However, all rewrites must be turned in within one week after they've been graded and returned to you. The clock on rewrites starts running on the day I return your graded paper to you. Finally, no rewrites can be submitted after the date specified at the end of the "Due dates" page for the course, even if you've had less than a week to do your revision.
If you have not contacted me by the end of the first week of class (four o'clock p.m. on the first Friday), I will withdraw you. Contact can be established by any of the following means:
You can post Homework #1, which is due during the first week.
- You can email me and notify me that you are unable to post Homework #1 on time but intend to continue in the class.
- You can telephone me and notify me that you are unable to post Homework #1 on time but intend to continue in the class.
I will not under any circumstances reinstate a student who has been withdrawn for not posting Homework #1 or contacting me during the first week of class. Please do not request reinstatement.
After the first week of class I do not withdraw students from the class unless they ask to be withdrawn. You can voluntarily withdraw from the class at any time during the semester. If we have reached the point in the semester at which you need my permission to withdraw, simply request it. I will happily take care of the withdrawal for you. However, if you do not withdraw from the course (or request a withdrawal from me), you will receive the letter grade you earned even if you do not finish the assignments. In other words, if you have earned five hundred points in the course and then just stop turning in the assignments, you'll have a fifty percent in the class and thus your grade will be an F for the semester.
This is quite simple. Each assignment, including homework assignments, will bear a certain point value. So for each assignment you complete you will receive a certain number of points out of the total possible (for example, 9/10, or 79/100). At the end of the semester, I figure your total points earned as a percentage of total possible points, and that percentage determines your letter grade for the course. 90-100%=A, 80-89%=B, 70-79%=C, 60-69%=D, lower than 59%=F.
In other words, since the course is worth one thousand
points total, 900-1000 points = an A, 800-899 points = a B, 700-799 points = a
C, 600-699 points = a D, 599 or fewer points = an F.
| Five reading quizzes @ 20 points each: | 100 |
| Homework: | 100 |
| Mini-argument | 100 |
| First Argument (first of the three formal essays). | 200 |
| Source Critique (second of the three formal essays): | 200 |
| Researched Argument (third of the three formal essays): | 200 |
| Visual Argument: | 100 |
| Total: | 1,000 points |
All of your written work for the course will be submitted in one of the following ways: 1) as an email message to me; 2) as a posting to the electronic "bulletin board" (discussion group) for the course, in which case all other students in the class will be able to read your posting; 3) as an online multiple-choice reading quiz that you will take using a program designed specifically for that purpose (links will be provided to each of the five reading quizzes); or 4) as an attachment to an email message to me. This last method you will use only for the three formal essays. You must write your essay on a word processor, the same as you would if you were going to print it out and hand it in to me in person, and then attach the essay to an email message and send it to me.
Specific instructions will be provided for submitting each assignment. Please follow those instructions explicitly. If, for instance, you submit a formal essay to me in html (as an email message instead of a wordprocessed document), I will not read it. You will have to submit it in the proscribed format before I respond to it.
Important note! Please read this carefully and make sure you understand it. If you don't understand it, ask! Not often, but occasionally, a student claims to have turned in an assignment and not gotten credit for it. I keep every message you send me for the duration of the semester. So if I've forgotten to give you credit for an assignment (and it happens), I pull it up in my email and correct my mistake. However, if I can't find the assignment (and that also sometimes happens), I can't give you credit for it, no matter how insistently you claim to have done it. Therefore, for your own protection, you should make sure you keep every message you send me throughout the course. If you completed an assignment and didn't get credit for it, and I can't find it in my mail from you, you can forward the original, dated email message with the assignment as proof that you completed the work and submitted it to me. If you don't forward that original message, you'll either not get credit for the work at all (if it's more than a week late), or you'll be docked the 10% late penalty (if I still get it within a week after it was originally due). Sorry, but I make no exceptions to this rule.
There are, as I mentioned, five 10-question, multiple-choice reading quizzes in this course. The material covered by each quiz is specified below.
Quiz 1: chapters three and four
Quiz 2: chapter five
Quiz 3: chapters six and seven
Quiz 4: chapters ten, eleven, twelve, fourteen, and fifteen
Quiz 5: chapters sixteen and seventeen (along with my short lecture on "advice for the research project" in Unit Three)
To help you plan for the course, I have organized the material in four "units."
EARS (Early Alert Referral System)
Mesa Community College is committed to the success of all our students. Numerous campus support services are available throughout your academic journey to assist you in achieving your educational goals. MCC has adopted an Early Alert Referral System (EARS) as part of a student success initiative to aid students in their educational pursuits. Faculty and Staff participate by alerting and referring students to campus services for added support. Students may receive a follow up contact from various campus services as a result of being referred to EARS. Students are encouraged to participate, but these services are optional.
Early Alert Web Page with Campus Resource Information can be located at: http://www.mesacc.edu/students/ears or
on the MCC Home Page, click on “Current Students” and then click on EARS Student Resources under “Services” which will take you to the EARS Web Page including the MCC Resources Page.
Special needs
If you require special accommodation for a disability, including learning disabilities, please notify me during the first week of the course. I am happy to make reasonable accommodations when necessary. For information on disability resources at MCC Southern & Dobson campus, contact Disability Resources & Services by phone at 480-461-7447 or online at http://www.mesacc.edu/students/disability/