Parkland College



Parkland College

ENG 102 –Composition II:

“Civic Engagement through Writing”

Spring 2009

Sections 004 & 014

Instructor: Dr. Brian Nudelman

Office: C220

Office/Writing Lab Hours:

______________________________________________________________________

And by appointment.

E-mail: bnudelman@parkland.edu (please put ENG 102 in subject line of any emails sent)

• I will contact you through your Parkland email account

• Please check you Parkland account regularly

Office Phone: 351-2534

Required Texts:

Loeb, Paul Rogat. Soul of a Citizen: Living With Conviction in a Cynical Time. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin, 1999.

Deans, Thomas. Writing and Community Action: A Service-Learning Rhetoric with Readings. New York: Longmans, 2003.

Optional, Yet Suggested Text:

Lunsford, Andrea A. Easy Writer: A Pocket Guide. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2006.

Other Required Materials:

• Composition notebook or saved Word document for service-learning journal

• 1 folder to hold all papers, quizzes, and other work

• Access to a good dictionary and a good thesaurus

• A stapler!

Course Description:

College Composition II is designed to help students develop the necessary skills to communicate their ideas and write effectively. Students will regularly participate in invention writing, class discussions and debates, critical reading, and peer workshops. Designed to build upon the repertoire of strategies for successful writing you learned in English 101, English 102 focuses on persuasive and researched academic writing, and will help you develop critical thinking and writing skills as you learn to synthesize your own perspectives with those of other writers. English 102 will also address grammar and vocabulary issues as needed.

This writing course will incorporate a learning framework called service-learning to utilize the writing skills learned in class to critically analyze and discuss local community needs and the underlying public issue(s) affecting those needs. Service-learning combines service to the community with student learning in a way that positively impacts both the student and the community. Students will have the opportunity to work with the students of area elementary schools, where you will volunteer 10-13 hours of tutoring during this semester.

The overall goal of this class is for you to feel a sense of increased confidence with using writing as an effective tool for communication and knowledge-making. By exploring local community issues and sharing your service experiences with others, you will bring increased awareness to specific local needs, help to work towards potential solutions, and become a more engaged citizen.

All that being said, I recognize that for many of us, writing can be quite tricky to “successfully” pull off. It sure was for me (and continues to remain so). It is my wholehearted belief, however, that with an honest and committed effort on your part, combined with thoughtful feedback and sincere support provided on mine, we can all successfully make it through this semester, along with becoming more confident and successful writers as a result.

Course Objectives:

In this course you will produce academic essays that demonstrate your ability to

• understand the work of writing as involving a series of processes. We will develop and workshop strategies for the planning and invention of ideas, the drafting of essays, giving and receiving peer feedback on those essays, and critical revision

• narrow and support a thesis/position that is developed thorough a consideration of multiple perspectives on significant issues.

• use a variety of rhetorical strategies for a range of audiences and purposes, chiefly for persuasion and argument.

• use a variety of research methods – including computerized databases – to gather, evaluate, analyze, and synthesize material from a variety of sources.

• control the conventions of written English for academic writing, including summary, paraphrase and appropriate documentation procedures.

• proofread and edit writing to conform to accepted standards for academic writing in English.

Service Activities:

For those students who choose to volunteer, they will be responsible for serving 11 hours throughout this semester at a local elementary school in the Champaign/Urbana school district. This should break down to once a week, for an hour. If you miss a week as a result of your own actions, you should be prepared to make up that week before the semester ends. If you missed a week due to actions by the school district, you will not need to make up that week.

Also important, please sign-in each time you volunteer at the schools. There will be folders of sign-in sheets in the offices of the schools that you volunteer in. Each day, please find yours, and fill it out appropriately. If you have questions, please ask the office assistants for help.

Ultimately, the service portion of this class will not only help you to produce stronger, more successful writing, but will provide you an experience that will benefit you in a myriad of ways. In addition to the increased sense of connection you will feel to the communities you live in, your writing will have an stronger "real-world" feel to it as you write about experiences which can and should be included on your current and future résumés.

For those students who choose not to work at the elementary schools, a fourth writing project will be assigned.

Course Projects (more information on each of these projects to come):

Service Reflection Journal – Once you are placed in a school/program, you will be required to keep a weekly journal of your service activities, experiences, and opinions. The purpose – to help you reflect on your service experiences, the community needs that you are volunteering for, and how the issues that are raised in the classroom might possibly intersect with and/or inform those experiences in the community.

Project 1 – “The Politics of Witness”: This 6-page minimum paper will ask you to explore your own experiences with particular public issues or problems, and reflect on how those “stories” might inform public policy.

Project 2 – Problem/Solution Research Paper: This 12-page minimum paper will utilize both your work in the community and your work as a college writer to both establish the importance of a particular public problem in our community, and present possible solution(s) to that problem. An Annotated Bibliography will also be explained and required for this particular project.

Project 3 – Revising the Research Essay for a Different Audience: This piece of writing will ask you to revise your more academic research essay for a more general or public audience and formally submit/send that piece of writing to its respected audience.

Course Policies:

Compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (A.D.A.):

If you believe you have a disability for which you may need an academic accommodation (including special testing, auxiliary aids, non-traditional instructional formats), please inform the instructor immediately after the second class meeting and contact one of the following for assistance:

Becky Osborne

          Coordinator, Office of Disability Services

          X148    353-2082

    bosborne@parkland.edu

Class Attendance and Tardiness: Attendance is mandatory for this course. The course is designed as an interactive writing workshop, with emphasis on discussion and collaboration. So, you must be here to benefit from it. As a result, I make no distinction between “excused” and “unexcused” absences...there are no excused absences. For this class, more than 3 hours of absence (or excessive tardiness) will result in a lowered final course grade. For each hour of absence over 3 (or coming into class more than 10 minutes late), you will lose 5 points off your final point total. Students who miss 8 or more classes will fail the course.

If extremely unusual circumstances arise (e.g. surgery and a hospital stay), please talk to me; we might be able to negotiate a solution.

If you must miss a class, it is your responsibility to contact your classmates (or myself) to see what you have missed, and to see what the readings/assignments/expectations are for the next class. Please note...ignorance will not be accepted or appreciated as an excuse.

Late Papers: As a general rule and like the real world, late work is looked unfavorably upon. At the same time, I understand that emergencies do happen. Thus I will allow you to turn in one formal paper (not including our last paper) up to one week late. Your grade on that paper, however, will be lowered one letter grade for every 48 hours that I have not received your project. Once you have used up that one late paper, late work will not be accepted and will automatically receive 0 points. Note that late work has my lowest priority, which means sometimes I may get to it long after you turn it in. I reserve the right to respond to late work in a perfunctory fashion, maybe with a grade and a final comment. No papers will be accepted more than one week late; they will receive an automatic 0 points.

*As you can see, I fully expect students to understand and enact the specific responsibilities adults who are enrolled in college should meet. Thus, you are ultimately responsible for meeting the stated requirements of this course as they are explained in this syllabus. Please keep track of both the due dates for the papers you will write and your attendance.*

Other Important Issues:

• You must maintain a file of all your course work – both before and after it has been responded to. Please keep all documents till the end of the semester.

• Please learn how to take control over the computers you will be writing on. Maintain backup copies of your work, both on disk and in print, as you complete particular projects. “Computer malfunction” will not be an accepted excuse for turning in papers late. Please see me if you have any questions about computer word processing, saving your documents, etc.

• The “process” of your writing is important for this class. Thus, when final drafts are due, you must submit all required materials with your final draft as established on the project’s assignment sheet in a folder I will supply. You must turn in a paper version of the final drafts of you projects…an emailed copy will not be accepted. Do not just email me or drop off your final draft. You cannot pass the assignment if you do.

• All formal work will be typed, following MLA styles concerning citation and document form. In general, this amounts to:

o setting your margins at 1 inch; 12 point font, New Times Roman or Arial

o double spacing throughout your entire document

o in the upper-left hand corner of your paper, putting your name, my name, ENG 102, and the date.

Plagiarism: Plagiarism is a form of theft. It means presenting the work of someone else as though it were your own, that is, without properly acknowledging the source. Sources include published material and the unpublished work of other students. If you do not acknowledge the source, you show an intention to deceive. Plagiarism can take several forms:

• If you use someone else's words without enclosing them in quotation marks and identifying the author and work cited, you are plagiarizing.

• If you put someone else's ideas in your own words without identifying the author and work cited, you are plagiarizing.

• If you present new, unique, or unusual ideas and facts that are not the result of your own investigations or creativity without identifying whose they are, you are plagiarizing.

Some of you may have previously turned in papers that followed one or more of the practices above, and some of you may even have been encouraged to think that these practices were acceptable. In the world outside of high school and the college, however, such practices regularly lead to lawsuits, lost jobs, and permanent disgrace. Parkland’s responsibility is to prepare you for that world, and so it takes plagiarism very seriously. In this course, plagiarism will result in academic failure. You should remember, as well, that plagiarism is almost always easy to spot.

Any student found guilty of consciously committing plagiarism will, upon review, fail the assignment, and thus, fail the course.

If you are uncertain whether you are making the proper use of sources in your papers, do one or both of the following:

• Play it safe, and cite the source even if the ideas you are using may turn out to be common knowledge.

• Consult you instructor (not your friends) in advance

Academic Assessment Release Statement:

The Parkland College Academic Assessment Committee, Humanities Department Assessment Committee, and your instructor focus on the continuous improvement of learning at Parkland and within the department by gathering and analyzing samples of many students' works. By allowing us to use your work for this purpose, you will be contributing to the improvement of teaching and learning at Parkland.

If your course will be assessed this semester, your teacher will inform you which assignments are being requested for assessment. The Assessment Committee will be evaluating student progress in order to ensure that what is being taught and learned is consistent with course goals.

You will not be identified in the analysis. Your participation does not affect your grade in the course.

By submitting assignments designated by your instructor for assessment, you acknowledge that you understand our purpose for collecting your work for analysis and that you give us permission to use a copy of your written work.

If you choose not to have your work used to improve learning at Parkland, please write "I do not give consent for the use of this work by the Academic Assessment Committee or other college assessment committees" at the top of your paper, and it will not be included in the analysis.

Grade Distribution and Miscellaneous Course Issues:

Your final grade for this class will be born out of a point system. After the semester’s work has been completed, your earned points will be added up and allotted a grade based on the following distribution:

550- 495 = A 439- 385 = C 329-0 = F

494- 440 = B 384- 330 = D

-Grade Breakdown-

Project 1 – "Politics of Witness" Essay 100

Project 2 – Problem/Solution Essay 150

Project 3 –Revised Research Project 100

Annotated Bibliography for Project 2 50

Project 4 - Service-Learning Hours completed 100

*Or 10 page "Research Argumentative Essay"

11+ hours – 100 points

9-10 hours --85 points

7-8 hours --75 points

5-6 hours --65 points

1-5 hours --0 points

Reflection Journal 25

Class Participation 25

You must successfully complete all four projects for this course (meeting all basic requirements for each of the projects) to be eligible for a grade of C or higher. A grade of C or higher is necessary to receive transfer credit for English 102 at college/universities in Illinois.

An extra note on class participation: commitment and involvement are crucial to this class and will be a part of your grade. I hope you understand that --in this class and others – you have control over your success or failure; you have power over your attitude and behavior, which will determine how much or how little you learn. You need to bring appropriate attitudes to class.

This also means not using cell phones during class time, nor surfing the web during class discussions. I reserve the right to ask you to leave (and mark you absent) if you continue pursuing these activities after being formally identified.

Withdrawal Policy: The withdrawal policy can be found in the College Catalog. It states that at midterm (date varies by course depending on start/end date), the faculty member is required to certify students’ attendance, and students who have ceased to attend must be withdrawn. “After midterm, faculty cannot withdraw any student; withdrawal from a course must be done by the student prior to 5 p.m. on the last day to withdraw as published in the Parkland class schedule."

Center for Academic Success:

If you find yourself needing assistance of any kind to complete assignments, stay on top of readings, study for tests, or just to stay in school, please contact one of the following staff at the Center for Academic Success:

Anita Taylor (Phone: 353-2005) or Gail Hoke (Phone: 351-2441) in D120.

You may also email the CAS at: CenterForAcademicSuccess@parkland.edu.

ps. You should also have in your possession a good dictionary. Some suggestions are American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, The Random House College Dictionary, and Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary.

p.p.s. As you will learn, I am a very fair and understanding instructor. My expectations for each of you are to do the assigned readings and writings, come to class prepared for the day's topic of discussion, and overall, show an interested and active attitude towards the work.

These goals being met will, in addition to your passing the class successfully, greatly increase both your written and vocal techniques for explaining and defending your values and beliefs, both important and necessary out there in the "real world."

In addition, if you find yourself falling behind in the materials and work, please write, call or come talk to me immediately. If you feel at all lost in the work, or simply not sure what we are doing, again, come talk to me. My office door is always open (for the most part) and I welcome and encourage you to come in anytime to discuss whatever.

Calendar

This calendar is subject to change

Jan 12–– In-class diagnostic essay

Jan 14–– Intro to class: Policies and Course Overview

Jan 16–– Intro to class cont. +Reading and discussion of “Community Service Work” on page 258

Jan 19— No Classes – MLK Day

Jan 21— Joanna Pelafas from Champaign Schools Visiting Class – Service-Learning Sign-Ups

Jan 23–– Reading and discussion: “Introduction” and “Chapter One” in Loeb

Jan 26— Reading and discussion: “Chapter Six” and "Chapter Eight" in Loeb

Jan 28— Introduction to Writing Process; Writing Process Tip Sheet. Read "Shitty First Drafts" (12-15) in Deans; Hand out Project I.

Jan 30— Introduce Project One: The Politics of Witness; Read pages 25-29 in Deans

Feb 2— Strategies to move from ideas to paper; organization workshop; audience and purpose;

working on/setting up paragraphs. "Margarita Model." Hand out Thesis Builders and Organization Maps. Read pages 60-64 in Deans

Feb 4— Thesis Draft Builder due; Research Workshop

Feb 6— Integrating Research into our writing (Summarizing, Paraphrasing, Incorporating); Read Freire “The Banking Concept of Education” (69) in Deans; Organizational Maps due.

Feb 9— Working on introductions: 1½ pages of introduction due; MLA Documentation format

Feb 11— Go Over Tutoring Protocols and Etiquette + Service-Learning Journals.

Feb 13–– Reading and Discussion: “Traveling Away from Everything Known” (56-59) in Deans

Feb 16––1st Draft of Politics of Witness essay due (Bring 2 Copies): peer revision workshop. Read pages 64-67 in Deans

Feb 18–– Writing Workshop/Conferences

Feb 20—6 page Politics of Witness essay due

Feb 23— Class Cancelled for Community Service

Feb 25— Go over big argumentative research project: Project II - Problem-Solution Research Project assignment

Feb 27— Brainstorming for topics (Bring service-learning journals); class discussion on topics. Read pages 273-279 in Deans

Mar 2–– Reading and Discussion: “Pursuing an Educated Mind” (279) in Deans. (+hand out Project 4 as necessary)

Mar 4— Research day; topic proposal due; Hand out Annotated Bibliography Instructions

Mar 6 – Library Workshop (R227)

Mar 9— Read pages 291-295 and 301-304 in Deans / Research Workshop

Mar 11— MLA Works Cited Workshop

Mar 13— Research Workshop / Individual conferences

Mar 16— Research Workshop / Individual conferences

Mar 18 – Research Workshop / Individual conferences

Mar 20— MLA formatted working bibliography due / Discuss Interviews

Mar 23-27— Spring Break

Mar 30— Hand out Thesis Builder and Organization Map / Discuss

Apr 1— Read pages 318-320 and the essay “Who Deserves a Head Start” (321-329) in Deans

Apr 3–– Research/workshop day; conferences

Apr 6–– Introduction Problem–Solution essay due; Workshop on Integrating Research / Thesis Builders and Organizational Maps Due

Apr 8— Discuss MLA Parenthetical Documentation

Apr 10 – Research/workshop day; conferences

Apr 13— Full 1st Draft of Problem-Solution Essay: 10 pages minimum (Bring 1 Copy)

Apr 15– Research/workshop day/ individual conferences

Apr 17–– Research/workshop day/ individual conferences

Apr 20— 12 page Final Draft Due in class

Apr 22— Introduce Project III – Public Research Project

Apr 24— Brainstorming genres and approaches to writing. Look at some examples of Public

Writing.

Apr 27— Writing day

Apr 29— Proposals due for Public Writing Project; Writing day

May 1— Writing day/ individual conferences

May 4—1st Draft Public Research Essay Due (Bring 2 Copies) / Peer Review

May 6— Last Class!! / Service Learning Journals Due

May 11 -15—Finals Week

*Final Drafts of Project III due no later than noon on Monday, May 11th *

Have a Great Summer!

Statement on a Service-Learning-based Composition II Course

This Composition II (ENG 102) class presents an idea of the college experience that goes beyond many traditional notions of the community college classroom. Within the context of this class, we will be knocking down the walls of the college, if only briefly, to engage and learn from the complex discourses and cultures that reside all around our campus. To that end, several of our projects for this semester will include making concrete connections between our writings, our readings, and our own experiences serving for a short time as tutors at several area elementary schools. In the initial weeks of the semester, our readings and subsequent discussions will lay the groundwork for intellectually and ethically engaging the public. More specifically, we will establish together an understanding of service-learning as a specifically reciprocal knowledge-making experience, with tangible benefits for both students and members of the community. And ultimately, through our service, we will see how our work and studies as Parkland College students can have a great effect on not only ourselves, but for our communities as a whole.

Community Service-Learning will be a central and distinguishing factor in this class, a factor I believe will make this class an enriching experience for all of us. And while your full participation within the actual service learning experience will be your choice, the class will proceed with an idea that we are all in this together. Those students who choose not to perform their service will be assigned an additional research paper to be completed at the end of the semester.

I know that many of you have very busy lives outside of the college, thus I will make a serious effort to balance the work I expect from you both inside and outside the classroom. I believe, however, that taking part in a service-learning framework will not only effect the positive development of your writing, but will provide all students with a real-world diversified learning experience. That is, this ENG 102 will be an experience that will lead to an enhanced engagement with our communities as committed and confident citizens. Indeed, I believe that establishing (or re-establishing) while in college that connection with community as an ideal of democracy, especially in our post 9/11 times, is an important goal for all of us. In its promotion of praxis, that is, the movement back and forth between action within the community and critical reflection of that action, the creation of knowledge through service-learning is encouraged and supported through all of us making sense of our own real experiences in situations which mirror the ideas that are raised within the classroom. The discussions within our class will be enacted in each of our lives, and knowledge, as a result, will become a truly lived experience.

Composition II Service-Learning Journal

The purpose of this journal is to offer you an opportunity to reflect – through writing – on you service-learning experiences and to connect those experiences to the work of this class. Remember: the intelligent writer does not simply report information; he/she also interprets that information. Asking the right questions – sometimes tough questions – is as important as reporting tentative answers. Since the information in this journal will ultimately lead to your focus for the second and last essays you will write this semester, it's important for you to keep a good record and report of your insights about your service-learning experiences on a regular basic. Also, please bring your journals with you to each class meeting.

Instructions for Journals

• Record the date and time of each service-learning site visit.

There are two primary sections for each entry of your journals:

• Describe your experiences at that visit. For example, report the specific details of your service-learning responsibilities, the people with whom you worked, details about the site, the atmosphere or the organization, etc.

• Next, reflect on your reactions to and insights about each experience. This reflection entry helps you critically analyze your experiences in light of the readings you will be doing as we embark on academic research. You might consider – but you are by no means limited to – the following questions to prompt your reflection.

-How did the service-learning experience make you feel? Why?

-What most surprised you about the experience? Why?

-How would you connect the experience to our discussion in class?

-What did you feel you offered to students at the elementary school today? What did it offer you?

-Consider your impressions of the people with whom you worked. What surprised you? What biases or stereotypes were challenged? Why? What biases or stereotypes were upheld? Why?

-What was the most gratifying aspect of your experience? Why?

-What was the least gratifying aspect of your experience? Why?

-Examine the ways in which your experience links to larger community/cultural issues (e.g. literacy, poverty, community, childcare, education, etc.)

-What issues, based on this experience, would you like to know more about? Why?

-What might Paul Loeb say about your experience at the site?

-How does the service-learning experience relate or contradict other readings/discussions about the issues that arise as you work at the site? (This question is in reference to your research on the issues you will/have read about)

• You should make these journal entries immediately after each of your service-learning visits; fresh insight is too easily lost if wait for a long period of time between experiencing and writing.

• You journals will be evaluated based on the depth and thoughtfulness of your entries, the insight your journals promote, and the ways in which you connect your journalled experience to the more formal writing assignment for these upcoming projects. Journals will be due at two intervals: I will first collect them on an unannounced date to insure that you're keeping up with all of the required entries. I will then collect them at the end of the individually scheduled service-learning commitment.

Name________________________

ENG 102 – Spring 2009

Syllabus Sample

1-Poor 2-Weak 3-Average 4-Good 5-Excellent

Rhetoric

A clearly stated and interesting thesis that is maintained throughout essay; shows evidence of critical thinking; effective introduction and conclusion

1 2 3 4 5

Development/Organization

Strong overall structure; adequate paragraph development, logical progression of thought, creative supportive details and transitions; successful integration of research

1 2 3 4 5

Total Rhetoric = ______x 4 = _____

Style

Honesty, individuality, memorable, liveliness

1 2 3 4 5

Varied sentence structure, diction (effective word choice)

1 2 3 4 5

Total Style = ______x 3 = ______

Writing Process/Revision

Evidence of successful process 1 2 3 4 5 Total Revision =_____x 2 =______

Assignment

Successfully responded to assignment goals

1 2 3 4 5 Total Assignment=_____x 1 =_______

Peer Workshop

Shows evidence of solid effort 1 2 3 4 5 Total P. Response=_____x 1=______

Editing

Control over Stan. Edit. English 1 2 3 4 5

Format 1 2 3 4 5 Total Editing = _____x 1 =________

Total Points = __________

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