Eng 112: College Composition II



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Eng 112 College Composition II

Section 45

Instructor Susanna Ferrara

Mondays to Wednesdays online

Thursdays * 11am-12:15pm * CS238

Instructor Contact Information

Email: sferrara@nvcc.edu

Office phone: 703-323-3461

Office location: CC 105

Office hours: Tuesdays: 11am-12:15pm and 2-2:30pm; Thursdays: 10:15-10:45am and 2-2:30pm.; additional hours available by appointment

NOVA Webpage:

Course Description

Eng 112 continues to develop college writing with increased emphasis on critical analysis essays, argumentation, and research, developing these skills through examining a range of texts about the human experience. The course requires students to locate, evaluate, integrate, and document sources and effectively edit for style and usage.

Prerequisites

Before taking English 112, students must successfully complete ENG 111 or its equivalent and must be able to use word processing software.  Reliable Internet service and a basic knowledge of Blackboard functions are required to complete the course.

This course is offered in hybrid format. This means that approximately 50% of the class will take place online in the Blackboard classroom. Online activities and lectures are essential to the course; they are not supplemental to the activities taking place in the classroom. Therefore, students are expected to treat each portion of the class with equal care and attention.

For students who need to brush up on Blackboard navigation skills and/or appropriate tone and content for online communication in this course, please see the folders with resources for these elements of the course in the syllabus.

Disabilities

Accommodations for students with disabilities are available. Please contact the Office of Disability Services (703-323-3200; ) if you need accommodations. Accommodations can only be provided with the appropriate documentation from the Office of Disability Services.

Course Goals

This course encourages critical thinking, analysis, and writing; helps students to improve the persuasiveness of writing; and helps students to refine their ability to locate, evaluate, use, and document information to support an argument. By the end of the course, students will be able to:

• engage in all phases of the writing process: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and reflecting

• develop strategies for critical thinking, reading, and writing processes

• examine subjects from multiple perspectives and formulate and express their own perspectives

• gather, evaluate, and present evidence effectively

• recognize and employ the parts of an argument including proposition, concession, refutation, and confirmation

• analyze and incorporate reading and experience into writing

• apply logical reasoning to evidence while avoiding logical fallacies

• make choices for evidence, language, organization, and other strategies that appropriate for the writing situation

• apply organizational strategies to open and close texts and to move the reader between and within ideas, paragraphs, and sentences

• follow grammatical and mechanical conventions in the preparation of readable manuscripts

• write a text of a minimum of 1,000 words that incorporates documented research

Course Texts & Required Materials

The Bedford Reader, 11th edition by X. J. Kennedy, Dorothy M. Kennedy, and Jane E. Aaron

A looseleaf binder with lined paper

Access to a computer so that you can log into Blackboard at least 3 times each week for hybrid learning activities and general access to class materials

Optional Digital Course Resources

You must be able to log into Blackboard to access our virtual classroom for the hybrid portion of this course. You can do this in a couple of ways, either from a computer (desktop or laptop), or using a mobile device if you have one. The Blackboard Mobile Learn app is free for you to download and you can use it to access your course materials on the go. It may help you to enable notifications on your mobile device so that when I post an announcement in Blackboard, the app will alert you there is something new to view. Note: The Blackboard Mobile Learn app does not use HTML for the course content pages; you will need to click on the links to view content on mobile browser to access multimedia in order to view Blackboard exactly as it would look on a computer.

Grading Information and Coursework

Your course grade will be determined by your scores on the quizzes, journals, discussions, homework assignments, annotated bibliography, formal essays, and exams according to the following percentages.  Please note: You must pass the midterm exam with at least a D (more than 60%) to move onto the subsequent units in the course.  You need to earn passing grades on all formal papers and both exams (at least a D -- more than 60%) in order to pass the course.

|Assignment |Weight % of |

| |Final Grade |

|Blackboard Quizzes |2% |

|Journals |8% |

|Blackboard Discussions |15% |

|HW collected at Class |10% |

|Meetings | |

|Unit One Essay |10% |

|Unit Two Essay |15% |

|Annotated Bibliography |10% |

|(Unit Three Project) | |

|Unit Four Essay |10% |

|Midterm |10% |

|Final Exam |10% |

|Total: |100% |

 

Grades for most homework assignments and weekly activities will be posted within approximately one week after the assignment is collected.

 Grades for formal essays will be posted one to two weeks following the date collected. If a formal essay is not submitted to SafeAssign, it will not be read or graded and it will not count towards your work in the course.

Your final grade will be based on your weighted average in the Blackboard Grade Center.  The following scale represents final grade calculations:

|Grade |Percent |

|A |90-100 |

|B |80-89 |

|C |70-79 |

|D |60-69 |

|F |0-59 |

Course Policies & Grading Criteria for Formal Essays

Formal papers will each have detailed instructions provided well in advance of due dates. All formal papers will have a separate rough draft due date. Each formal paper assignment will provide its own grading criteria specific to that assignment.   All formal papers must be formatted according to MLA guidelines.  All formal papers must be written in a sequence of steps as indicated by the weekly assignments list.  Process steps are not optional and must be completed on time in order to receive credit for a formal writing assignment.  All final drafts of formal essays must be posted to the Blackboard “SafeAssign” link by the specified date and time in doc, docx, or rtf format.

Peer review is an essential step in the writing process.  It will help you develop a sense of audience awareness and it will also set you up to learn from and with your peers about how to structure and organize good academic writing.  Every semester, students tell me that they find it so much easier to see the "good" and "bad" stuff of writing in other students' papers--this building block, being able to see the elements of good and bad writing in other students' work, is the first step towards developing an awareness of what is working and not working in your own writing. 

Revision is also essential to the writing process, and true revision means making substantive changes to your first draft so that it's clear you put fresh thought and renewed perspective into the structure, organization, language, and idea of your paper.  Even if your rough draft is "good," that doesn't mean you're off the hook for revision.

But what if something happens?  FAQs:

• If you miss a rough draft deadline and/or peer review due to unavoidable circumstances for which you can provide documentation, then I may provide you with an alternative plan for completion of the assignment, such as required tutoring at the AN campus writing center or one-on-one conference(s) with me.  As long as you provide documentation that the circumstances are unavoidable, there will be no grade penalty.

• If you miss a rough draft deadline and and you cannot provide documentation to show that the circumstances were unavoidable, but you participate actively in peer review and you work with me to develop a plan for your revision, then your final draft will be penalized 10%.  

• If you do not receive feedback from your peer review group that you find helpful towards revision, it is your responsibility to contact me immediately for additional guidance.  If you post a rough draft to your peer review group on time, and you complete peer review, but you do not make any substantive revisions to your final draft, then your paper will not be eligible to earn a grade higher than 65 or D.

• If you post your rough draft to the peer review forum on time, but you fail to complete peer review feedback for all of the members of your assigned group by the deadline, then your paper will receive an automatic failing grade.  

• Essays submitted more than a week after the final draft due date will not be accepted.

All formal papers will be graded according to the following standards:

An A paper is characterized by outstanding writing marked by superior readability and demonstrated insight into the subject matter. These traits are demonstrated in the following ways:

1. The substance and organization follow a clear, logical sequence that makes the information easily accessible to the reader.

2. The purpose is clearly expressed, and the selected details of the assignment reflect this purpose.

3. The audience is accommodated throughout the assignment as reflected in effective communication and style.

4. Words are chosen and sentences are constructed to make the information understandable.

5. The grammar, mechanics, and format are flawless.

A B paper is characterized by distinguished writing that successfully fulfills the requirements. The writing responds directly to the assignment; it is essentially well organized, and sentences are usually clear and grammatically correct,

A C paper is characterized by competent, satisfactory writing. It responds to the assignment. It may fail to offer insight into the topic and may not organize its points in a consistently clear manner. Readability is usually clear but may occasionally be hindered by consistent or repeated sentence problems.

A D paper struggles to communicate information and contains weak writing, but responds to the assignment.

An F paper should not occur with the drafting process that is part of the course. Fs are usually assigned due to extremely late submission, absent drafts, or a failure to meet the minimum standards of the assignment.

Note: Students have the option of revising one of the first two essays for a different grade. Please note that a revision does not guarantee a higher grade for the essay, as expectations for quality work will be higher. A revised essay must be turned in within one month of the original being returned to the student. It is suggested, but not required, that students meet with the instructor prior to turning in a revised essay. The revision option cannot be used for papers that were never turned in the first time, or for papers that were given a “zero” due to plagiarism.

Course Policies

This class is a small community of learners. From the first day of class to the last, we are all learning from each other. The following policies help to ensure a safe, cooperative, and focused learning environment for all.

Attendance

Because Eng 112 focuses on the process of writing, and because each section is rather small, regular attendance is critical not only to individual success but also to the success of the class as a whole. This section of Eng 112 is a hybrid class that meets half in a classroom and half online. Online attendance is measured by visible posts. If no work is posted during the specified time period, the student is counted as absent.

Any and all work completed in class, such as a quiz, reviews of drafts, and of course class discussion cannot be made up. Therefore, the class participation grade will be negatively affected by frequent absences. Please note that any combination of three significant late arrivals or early departures from classes will count as one absence.

Online discussion boards rely on active and timely participation from all participants. Discussion board work is interactive and usually geared toward the upcoming essay assignment. Discussion board work must be posted within the week assigned and cannot be made up. 

You should plan to log onto Blackboard at least 3-4 times every week throughout the entire semester to ensure that you consistently post your work on time and have access to any announcements and and/or changes to instructions that may take place.

Minimum Passing Standards; Dropping or Withdrawing from the Course

You can choose to drop the course with a full refund by January 26th.

After January 26th, you can choose to withdraw from the course with a grade of “W” through March 23rd.  You should withdraw from the course by that date if you do not feel able to complete the course assignments.

You will automatically fail the course, and therefore should withdraw in time, if any of the following circumstances comes to pass:

1. More than 25% of the class meetings – that is, more than eight meetings – are missed. Please note that both face-to-face classes and online discussion forums count as meetings.

2. Two consecutive weeks of class meetings – that is, four classes in a row – are missed without any efforts to contact the instructor (e.g., email, phone call, etc). Again, please note that both face-to-face classes and online discussion forums count as meetings.

Email

You have been assigned a VCCS email address for use in this and other courses that you take through NOVA or other colleges in the Virginia Community College System (VCCS). You are required to use this email account for any course-related email communication so that we can insure your privacy as required by law. If you don't know your VCCS email address, go to My NOVA and look for your address.

Academic Dishonesty

Academic dishonesty is unacceptable. The first time a student submits an assignment demonstrating evidence of academic dishonesty, he or she will receive a grade of “0” on the assignment and have his or her name recorded in a department database. Any student who is found to have committed a second act of academic dishonesty will fail the course in which the instance occurred and may be referred to Ray Jones in the Office of Student Conduct.

According to the Student Handbook, academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, cheating on an assignment by giving, receiving or soliciting information or using unauthorized materials; obtaining or distributing material purported to be on an upcoming assignment; substituting on an examination for another person, plagiarism; collusion with another person on an assignment; and knowingly furnishing false information to the college.

In classes such as this one, the most common form of academic dishonesty is plagiarism.  Plagiarism is any act wherein you do not properly acknowledge the thoughts or words of another or attempt to present those thoughts or words as your own.  Please note that this includes failing to submit a works cited page with your assignment or even accidentally forgetting in-text citations or quotation marks.

All work should be independently produced by you for this specific course without outside assistance.  Collusion, or working with another person in the preparation or editing of assignments submitted for credit, is also unacceptable, unless such collaboration has been specifically approved in advance by me.  In this course, you may only use the academic support services provided by NOVA to get additional assistance on your assignments.  On campus, you have access to the writing center for tutoring and revision help on your papers. (Here is the website for more information: ). Whenever you use the services of the writing center, you must get a note from your tutor to verify your participation with the service. If you use online tutoring, you must forward the details of your online tutoring session to your instructor before the deadline for the final draft of the paper. If you have questions about what constitutes academic dishonesty, please discuss it with your professor before you submit your assignment.

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