English 84

English 84
Fall 2008

Professor: Jennifer McBride
Office Phone: 384-6376
E-mail: mcbride.j@mccd.edu
Meeting Hours: MWF 10:00 am to 11:00 am; or by appointment
Office: IAC Humanities 239

Course Description	Required Texts and Supplies	Required Work	Rough and Final Drafts	Classroom Behavior
Grades	Attendance	Group Exam	Writing Assignments	Holidays

Course Description: English 84 is designed as a beginning level composition course. Students will learn and practice the basics of written communication, beginning with paragraphs, concentrating on essays, and ending with the basics of using research in essay writing. Students will write, revise, and edit a number of paragraphs and essays as they practice the skills discussed in class.

Expected Student Outcomes:

By the end of English 84, students should know how to:
A. Evaluate the form and function of the paragraph and short essay
B. Compose clear, specific topic sentences
C. Support topic sentences with well-developed paragraphs
D. Analyze a subject and develop a thesis
E. Compose a thesis with appropriate details
F. Organize material appropriately
G. Compose unified and coherent prose
H. Demonstrate a basic competence in grammar, syntax, and punctuation
I. Demonstrate basic reading comprehension.

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Required Texts and Supplies:

Interactions, Moseley and Harris

Night, Wiesel

ANY COLLEGE LEVEL DICTIONARY AND THESAURUS

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Required Work:

*Assigned readings from texts

*Graded writing activities (Approx. 2 paragraphs and 6 essays)

*Reading quizzes over Night

*Comprehensive final exam

(Note: Everything turned in may be handwritten; however, typed final drafts would be greatly appreciated if you have access to a computer.)

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Rough Drafts and Final Drafts: For each essay that you write, a rough draft will be required. As we near the end of a section, I will hand out a sign-up sheet of times for you to come to my office so that I may look over your rough draft. I will give you my comments and suggestions, so that you can revise your draft into a final draft, which will be graded. If you miss your appointment or do not bring your rough draft, your final grade for that essay will be lowered by at least a full letter grade. These conferences usually last 15-20 minutes, and you may sign up for any time at all which fits your schedule.

Rough drafts are very important because they show me that you have worked through certain problems, remedied them, and they show me how you have arrived at your final draft. Your final draft grade is based on how well you revised from your rough draft and worked through problems discussed in your conference. You will turn your rough draft in with your final draft.

The Writing Center: The Writing Center is housed in Study Central (located at the back of the cafeteria). The Writing Center is staffed by English teachers, as well as trained students who work alongside the teachers. Simply stop by and sign up for a 15 minute appointment, and the teacher will help you with your writing project, from brainstorming a topic, outlining, developing your paragraphs, and editing the final draft. The Writing Center is open daily from 9:00 am to 1:00 pm. An extra credit point will be given to students for each appointment they make in The Writing Center.

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Collegiate Behavior and Common Courtesy: Everyone deserves the right to study and learn in an atmosphere that is relatively free from distractions; therefore, before you enter class, please turn off and put away all beepers/pagers, cell phones/text messaging devices, I Pods, headphones, and all other personal electronic equipment that can cause disruption. During discussion students should listen respectfully, both to other students and to the teacher. I will not tolerate disruptive behavior in class and will ask you to leave if the problem persists. In addition, persons not enrolled in the class should not be in the classroom.

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Grades: Your final grade in the class is based on the number of points you accumulate throughout the semester. These points will be converted into a percentage that will give you a letter grade at the end of the semester.

Paragraphs:	Essays:	Quizzes:
10-9 A	50-45 A	15 points each
8 B	44-40 B	Extra Credit:
7 C	39-35 C	1 point for each Writing Center visit
6 D	34-30 D	Final Exam:
5-0 F	29- 0 F	approx. 60 points

Any plagiarized paper will automatically receive a failing grade.

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Attendance: Attendance is crucial for this course. Students are expected to be punctual, prepared, and ready to participate. Everyday, we will be learning something new or practicing our writing skills. I do not differentiate between excused and unexcused absences. Students with excessive absences (five or more) may be immediately dropped from the course.