**note: this syllabus adapted from sample Achievement Requirements document provided by the General Studies Writing Program at Bowling Green State University.
English 111: Introductory Writing
Instructor: Erin Dietel-McLaughlin
Office: East Hall 315C
Office Hours: Mondays, 10:45-11:45 a.m.; Fridays, 10:45-11:30 a.m.; other times by appointment
Email: edietel@bgsu.edu
Mailbox: 210 East Hall (mailbox is above my name)
Writing Center: 303 Moseley Hall; 372-2221 (call ahead to make an appointment)
Required:
English 111 has been designed
to provide first-year college students with an introduction to academic writing
– the kind of writing students are asked to do throughout college and often
beyond. Most students who are new to
college have had little experience with academic writing and may find this new
type of discourse overwhelming. To this
end, English 111 has been designed to help students transition more from high
school writing to college-level writing.
English 111 is a highly
interactive “workshop” class in which you, your classmates, and I will read,
write, and discuss writing together. You
will participate in a variety of activities in this class, including invention
strategies, drafting, audience analysis, revision, proper use of academically
credible sources, and more. You will learn to critically examine your own
writing, as well as that of others. In
addition to receiving feedback from me, you will receive frequent feedback from
your peers and will also offer your own constructive responses to the writing
of your classmates.
Ultimately, you will write five well-developed essays, some of
which will use credible sources. Throughout
the course you will assemble all of the drafts you write for each essay in a
portfolio in order to demonstrate your progress as a writer over the semester.
Each of the five major essays
you will write will be based on chapters from The St. Martin’s Guide to
Writing. You will also work with Simon & Schuster Handbook for
Writers for assistance with revising the multiple drafts you will be
required to write for each essay. At the
end of the semester your entire writing portfolio will be judged by other
members of the General Studies Writing staff (following my evaluation of your
work). This portfolio evaluation will
determine whether or not you will pass English 111.
To ensure that you are ready
for the portfolio evaluation process at the end of the semester, you will need
to keep your prewriting, drafts, and peer review comments for every paper you
write. Though evaluators primarily will
examine your final drafts, they will also assess the steps that you took to
reach those final drafts, looking for improvement and progress in your
writing.
Please follow these format
requirements for submitting your work:
--A GSW Rubric should be on
top, with the “Student Process Analysis”
completed.
--The assignment sheet should
be included next.
--The final (or most recent)
draft of your essay should be included next.
--The various drafts of your
paper should be included next, in reverse
chronological order. Only drafts which
contain substantial revisions or which I have
commented upon should be included.
--On the bottom of the stack
should be a completed Values Exploration Sheet
and all other prewriting you have done for
the assignment.
Please be sure to secure
these various documents together with a staple or large paper clip.
Since this is a writing
course, you will be writing during at least part of almost every class
period. You will be asked to write from
daily writing prompts, which you will respond to in a writer’s journal (a
simple one-subject notebook is fine).
You will also be asked at various points to respond to readings, class
discussions, or to reflect on your writing process. These assignments are designed to reinforce
what you are learning in class and to help you better understand your own
reading and writing processes. When you get in the habit of reflecting upon
your work in this way, you may find that you better recall and better
understand what you read, and you may discover ways of improving your own
writing habits.
The first page of your
writing journal will be devoted to an “Idea Log,” which is a tool that many
writers find helpful. As writing topic
ideas occur to you (through journal entries, our class discussions, other
classes, etc.), you should record them on your idea log as potential topics for
future papers.
You should bring your writing
journal and idea log to each class and should date each journal entry. I will
frequently ask students to share their writer’s journal entries as a way to
start discussion. I will also ask you to
bring your writer’s journal and idea log to conferences with me so that we may
discuss parts of it.
Note: Although your journal
entries and idea logs will not be graded, they are required elements of the
course. I reserve the right to collect
journals at any time; if you fail to adequately participate in this
requirement, your portfolio may not be submitted for evaluation.
To
ensure that you receive necessary encouragement and feedback about your writing
and class performance, you will meet with me for at least two 10-minute conferences
in my office so that I can give you personalized help and assistance. As stated above, you will bring your writing
journal to these conferences, as well as the most current draft of the essay you
are currently working on at that time and specific questions you wish for me to
respond to. You should view these conferences as an opportunity to get informed
feedback on issues that are of concern to you and should be prepared to direct
our conversation. While only two
conferences are required, I encourage you to make additional appointments with
me when issues arise.
In order to familiarize
yourself with academic library research skills, you will be required to take a
self-guided tour of the Jerome Library which will help you become acquainted
with research databases; searches for articles, books and periodicals; and the
library’s general layout. As part of the
tour assignment, you must complete an answer sheet and return it to me by September 22. The library tour information can easily be
accessed online, via the library’s website. We will discuss this assignment
further in class.
Attendance in this class is
mandatory. Class time will be devoted to
actively building writing skills by writing and revising, discussing, and
critiquing your own writing and the writing of others; such activities cannot
simply be “made up.” Additionally, since this is a small class, attendance and
participation from every student is even more essential – your peers need you
in class every day. Two absences equates
to a week of missed class time and is therefore considered a serious lack of
participation. Three absences may lead to me not submitting your portfolio, and
four or more absences (two weeks of missed class time) will guarantee that your
portfolio will not be submitted.
I realize that sickness or
emergencies can occur. If you must miss
class due to illness or an emergency, please be sure to contact me, preferably
beforehand, to discuss what might be done to get you back on track. If an
assignment is due on the day you are absent, you must contact me about turning
in the assignment that day. An absence
does not excuse you from the due date (see below).
All work must be handed in
when I request it in class. I will not
accept late work unless you have made previous arrangements with me. Similarly, I will not accept late work in my
department mailbox or via e-mail unless you have made previous arrangements
with me.
Lost Essay Policy
You are responsible for
maintaining a copy of each draft of your essays. Your essays will be returned to you no later
than a week after they have been submitted to me, and all essays must be
present in the portfolio at the end of the semester. It is your responsibility to compile these
essays in your portfolio folder so that a portfolio assessor can further review
them. Since occasionally essays (or
backpacks) are stolen, lost, or destroyed, you should keep an additional hard
copy of each essay and a back-up disk in a safe place. Ultimately, it is your responsibility to
submit a complete portfolio. Incomplete portfolios will not be
evaluated; students without portfolios will not pass the course.
Knowing how to revise your
writing is an important aspect of being a successful writer; therefore, you
will be required to write multiple drafts of your papers, and we will work hard
on the development of your personal revision and editing skills. Taking advantage of our class time, your own
homework time, my office hours, the
Sometimes,
though, even with hard work students submit final drafts that are not
passing. If you encounter this situation
you may revise two of your non-passing essays (you may choose
from essays #2, #3, or #4) once more after their original final evaluation – but
only if you first schedule a conference with me to discuss your revision
strategy. Note that a revised essay is
due within one week after I return the original graded essay, and it
should be turned in with the original graded essay and rubric as well as a new
rubric.
Academic Honesty Policies
Please refer to BGSU’s Student
Affairs Handbook and to your GSW portfolio materials for information
regarding BGSU’s academic honesty policies.
These policies and penalties apply to our class, as well as to all other
classes at BGSU. We will discuss
plagiarism and academic honesty in more depth this semester.
In compliance with federal
regulations governing research with human subjects, when conducting field
research (that is, interviews, questionnaires, and observations), students in
GSW classes must adhere to the guidelines approved by HSRB for students in GSW
classes. If you do not meet the HSRB
guidelines provided to you in your portfolio materials, the information you
have gathered cannot be used, and any essay in which such information appears
cannot be accepted. We will discuss HSRB
regulations in more detail a bit later in the course.
General
Studies Writing must obtain approval from HSRB on an annual basis in order to
permit GSW students to engage in field research. The consent forms—which GSW students are
required to use if they conduct field research—include the approval date as
well as the date on which the approval expires.
To assure a comfortable teaching
and learning environment for everyone, discriminatory language of any kind will
not be tolerated. Differing opinions
will likely emerge during our class discussions; while you are not required to
agree with your peers, you are expected to be respectful and courteous during
these discussions. You should feel free to express your opinion on any issue,
but be sure to keep your focus on the ISSUE and not the PERSON you may be
disagreeing with. Finally, please turn off all cell phones and electronic
devices before class begins.
ADDITIONAL ASSISTANCE WITH ENGLISH 111
The
I encourage you to contact me
by e-mail with any questions about your writing or the course in general. Please note, however, that e-mail can be
unreliable – servers may be down, computers may malfunction, etc. I cannot be responsible for any e-mail
messages that are lost or addressed incorrectly. If you do not receive a
reply from me (ordinarily within 24 hours), then I probably did not receive
your message.
I am committed to giving
students prompt and thoughtful feedback and therefore respond to student
e-mails in as timely a manner as possible.
However, due to other responsibilities and time constraints, I may not
be able to respond to your e-mail immediately.
In most cases I will respond to your e-mail within 24 hours. If you submit a draft to me through e-mail,
please be specific about what you want me to respond to, and allow at least 48
hours for my response.
Throughout the term, I will
collect and comment upon rough drafts of every essay you write, and I will give
them back to you within a week’s time so that you can use my comments as
guidelines for revision. Your rough
drafts will not receive a grade.
However, when you submit
final drafts of your essays I will provide you with both written comments and a
grade. I will also fill out an
evaluation chart (called a “rubric”) for each final draft to indicate the paper’s
strengths and weaknesses. The grade for each final essay will be a Pass,
Almost-Pass, or No-Pass.
·
A Passing (P) essay shows good control in
all of the categories of the rubric.
Although there may be a few minor problems, the entire essay is
generally well-written and clearly and effectively communicates its ideas.
·
An Almost-Passing (AP) essay shows a
combination of strengths and weaknesses on the rubric. There is room for improvement in some rubric
categories of the essay and the essay does not consistently communicate its
ideas clearly and effectively. An
Almost-Pass means the essay is not
passing, but it is getting close to being a passing essay.
·
A No-Passing (NP) essay shows a serious
weakness in at least one category of the rubric, and other categories may need
attention, too. The overall quality of
the essay is significantly hindered because of these weaknesses.
If your work passes the
portfolio assessment at the end of the term, you will receive an S (Satisfactory)
grade for the course. An S will appear on your transcript, but it will
not be calculated into your grade point average.
Since English 112 is a
challenging course which focuses exclusively upon research-supported,
argumentative academic writing, it is extremely necessary for students to enter
into English 112 with a solid grasp of the writing skills taught in English
111. However, the General Studies Writing Program acknowledges that writing is
a skill which takes some people longer than others to master. For both of these reasons, if your work is
not eligible for the Portfolio Assessment, or if you have met all of my
requirements but your work does not pass the Portfolio Assessment, you will
receive an NR (No Record) for English 111. A “No Record” grade means that no notation of
the course will appear on your grade report.
An NR grade allows a student to repeat English 111 without any
negative effect upon his or her grade point average.
It is possible to receive a WF
(Withdraw Fail) in this course, however. If you should stop attending
this class for any reason without going through the University's official
procedure for dropping the class, you will receive a WF, the grade will
appear on your grade report, and an F will be calculated into your grade
point average.
During the last week or two
of class, I will let you know whether your essays are eligible for a portfolio
assessment. If your writing has not reached a minimal level of proficiency in
English 111 or if you have not satisfied my achievement requirements for this
class, your work will not be eligible for a portfolio assessment. This means that I will not be able to submit
your portfolio and that you will be required to re-enroll in English 111.
If I submit your portfolio
for evaluation, during the last week of the semester your essays will be judged
by one or more English 111 instructors in addition to me. These portfolio evaluators will determine
whether or not your writing has reached proficiency at the 111-level. Please note that unlike other courses where
one or two weak assignments can ensure failure, GSW’s portfolio assessment
allows you to make improvements in your writing and to grow as a writer. Even if you struggle with an essay or two, as
long as your portfolio shows that you can write proficiently at the 111 level
by the end of the term, you can pass the class.
If your portfolio is passed
by a first evaluator, you will receive the grade of “S” (Satisfactory) and will
be eligible to take English 112. If the
first evaluator determines that your writing, overall, does not demonstrate proficiency
at the 111 level, however, he or she will not pass your portfolio. Subsequently, a second evaluator – often a
member of the General Studies Writing staff – will evaluate your work, again
looking at your writing as a whole, and will make a final determination
regarding whether your writing is proficient enough for you to enroll in
English 112 or whether you will need to take English 111 again.
GSW Portfolio Appeals
Students may appeal an instructor's decision
not to submit their portfolios for evaluation if they have evidence that they
have met their instructor's achievement requirements and that they have
fulfilled the minimum criteria for passing the course. Likewise, students may
appeal no-passing portfolio assessments if they have reason to believe that the
two evaluators (both of whom are trained, experienced GSW instructors) have
overlooked important evidence that their portfolio, in fact, successfully meets
the established criteria for passing the course. Students should not, however,
routinely appeal no-passing portfolios simply because they are unhappy with
their instructor's or the portfolio evaluators' decisions.
Following is
the timetable for retrieving portfolio results and for appealing a portfolio
decision; please note that any students wishing to appeal a portfolio decision
must adhere to this timetable.
·
Monday,
December 11,
Deadline
for students to appeal an instructor’s decision not to submit a portfolio for
assessment.
Students must pick up their evaluated
portfolios during the time period which is designated by their instructor; this
time period is ordinarily after
If you are absolutely unable to retrieve your
portfolio and your evaluation results from me at the designated time, it is
your responsibility to provide me with a large self-addressed, stamped envelope
so I can mail the portfolio to you. Flat rate priority mail envelopes work well
for this purpose – they can be purchased at any post office, including Stampers
in the Student Union.
Deadline
for appealing a non-passing portfolio result.
SUMMARY: REQUIREMENTS FOR PASSING ENGLISH 111
In summary, to pass
English 111 and go on to English 112, you must meet the following
requirements:
If
you have not satisfied the Achievement Requirements for this class, your work
will not be eligible for a portfolio assessment. This means that I will not be able to
submit your portfolio for assessment, and you will be required to re-enroll in English 111. |
If you have any questions about these achievement requirements or other class matters, please feel free to talk to me. I look forward to working with you and helping you develop your academic writing skills.