Jeremy T.
Mumford
Division:
Humanities
Department:
English/
Developmental
Contact Info:
Phone: (209) 384-6178
mumford.j@mccd.edu
Current* and Previously Taught Courses:
English 80
English 81
English 84
English A*
English 1A
English 41
English 1B
Useful Student Links (includes online sites, class PowerPoint presentations, etc.)
Useful Teacher Links (includes online sites, links to journals, teaching websites)
Clubs:
Phi Theta Kappa
Students for Social
Justice
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English 1A Online Short Term
Schedule Number 2345
Spring 2006
3 units
Course Introduction
English 1A is a workshop
class in college essay writing and reading. This class will help sharpen
your conceptual, analytical, and interpretive skills as you learn processes
and strategies that will help you to improve your ability to critically read
and write English. As you become more proficient readers and writers, you
will also learn rhetorical skills like the ability to develop and support a
main idea, claim, or set of assertions for an audience using both your own
experiences and the words and ideas of other writers. You will also practice
developing your ideas with evidence, and revising and editing to strengthen
your writing and clarify your style.
You will do so as we look at our communities and the
issues that pertain to them. For example, in the first essay you will look
at your personal sense of being American, and in the second and third essays
you will examine official and unofficial stories pertaining to the discovery
of America, first peoples, current events, political and social issues. For
the final research project, you will apply your developing research skills
and ever widening sense of community to a local community organization of
your choice, under my guidance. Be advised that the content of this course
deals with a wide assortment of potentially controversial and somewhat
radical political and social issues. I expect you to approach these issues
critically and with an open mind. If you do not wish to be in this type of
class, please consider taking another section of the class.
We will read many types of writing and learn how to
discuss and use the issues and ideas we find in these writings for different
ends. As you do so, you will develop an understanding that writing is for
reading and reading leads to writing. Also,
see the Power Point presentation Semester
Overview.
Course Description
English 1A is a course that stresses critical readings, scholarly compositions, and research applications. You will write exploratory and argumentative essays—including one annotated research paper—based on class reading and discussions. You will be expected to understand basic English skills upon entering the course and will be expected to acquire more sophisticated reading and composition skills throughout the semester. You will apply matters and measures of critical thinking skills to your assignments.
Required Texts and Materials
I begin My Life All Over: The Hmong and the American Immigrant Experience by Lillian
Faderman with Ghia Xiong, Beacon Press, Boston 1998, ISBN: 0-8070-7235-4.
Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James W.
Loewen, Touchstone, NY 1995, ISBN: 0-684-81886-8.
Better Together : Restoring the American Community by Robert D. Putnam
The Everyday Writer by Lunsford and Connors, St. Martin's Press, ISBN: 0-312-09569-4
Email account and internet access
Printouts and copies of book excerpts and articles, online and newspaper, as required.
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Netiquette: Please be aware of the tone and content of your email postings. Just because there is not a physical person present, does not excuse you from all of the formalities of social etiquette expected and required in a physical class. This includes use of profanity, sexually ambiguous or harassing language, and physical or violent threats. Violations of this policy will be warned, fail assignments, and then asked to leave the class.
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Journals: The journals need to be two single spaced pages in length. They should respond as closely as possible to the prompts that I will provide.
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Attendance: You must attend each monthly class session, Tuesday evenings at 7pm. You must also attend the monthly Chat sessions. Failure to do so may result in a lower course grade or being dropped from the class.
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Excessive missed or late work will result in being dropped from the course.
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All required material must be included for drafts to be considered complete.
Essays
The writing assignments will ask you to provide effective analysis of and argumentation based on material covered in class. Assignments will also require you to strategically present evidence and recognize both sound logic/reasoning and identify fallacious reasoning. When you turn an essay in, it will need to have all the appropriate supporting documents including all rough drafts (drafts in this sense means versions of the essay with significant changes in each version), partner’s and group’s revision and editing responses, paragraph outlining, rhetorical strategies, and all supporting, in-class writing. There will be four (4) formal essays 1,250 words or four to five (4-5) pages in length. Lastly, there will be one annotated research project 2,500 words or eight to ten (8-10) pages in length. All drafts will need to be typed, double spaced, and formatted with 1 inch margins and a 12-point font (Times New Roman). Essays not turned in with this format will not be read; I will hand them back to you without responding. I will email your essays back to you within 5-7days after you email them to me.
The final portfolio will include three essays: essay one; essay two OR three; and the final research project. Each essay needs to be accompanied with all previous drafts, grade sheets, revisions and a letter stating what specific revisions were made to the essays.
Course Grading
Your final grade will be based on the following:
Journals and
Participation (30%) 30
points
Final essays 1,2, 3, and 4 (40%) 40
points
Final Research Project (10%) 10 points
Final Portfolio (20%) 20 points
____________________________________________________
Total points possible (100%) 100 points
The grading scale is as follows:
A: 100-90 of total points possible
B: 89-80
C: 79-70
D: 69-60
F: 59 and below
Plagiarism Policy
Cheating is the actual or attempted practice of fraudulent or deceptive acts for the purpose of improving one's grade or obtaining course credit; such acts also include assisting another student to do so. Typically, such acts occur in relation to examinations. However, it is the intent of this definition that the term 'cheating' not be limited to examination situations only, but that it include any and all actions by a student that are intended to gain an unearned academic advantage by fraudulent or deceptive means. Plagiarism is a specific form of cheating which consists of the misuse of the published and/or unpublished works of others by misrepresenting the material (i.e., their intellectual property) so used as one's own work. If I suspect you of plagiarism, I will give you an oral and written examination on the material to be evaluated by the English Department chair and myself. Penalties for cheating and plagiarism range from a D or F on a particular assignment, through an F for the course, to expulsion from the college.
Entry Level Skills/Course Outcomes
Entry Level Skills/What You Should Already Know
Upon entering the course, you should be able to:
A. Make best use of the facilities and offerings of Merced College and have acquainted yourself with study techniques and skills necessary for success in college
B. Make the appropriate connection between reading, critical thinking, and writing
C. Write at the English 1A entrance level by:
1. making a claim/thesis
2. supporting a claim with relevant examples and details
3. developing support with appropriate methods such as:
a. narrative
b. comparison/contrast
c. illustrations/examples/cause/effect
d. argument
4. organize a multi-paragraph essay (of approximately 100 words) with appropriate structure
D. understand thoroughly sound grammatical principles
E. have an understanding of writing resource tools, such as thesaurus, handbook of writing skills, and dictionary.
Before or during the course you should have acquired or be acquiring the skills from English 41, College-level Reading.
Expected Outcomes and Course Goals
Upon successful completion of the course, you will learn to write clear and logical prose and to read college-level texts closely and effectively. Specific areas in composition include:
A. Organization
B. Strong paragraphing
C. Effective language and style
D. Tight and logical claims and premises with adequate elaboration and support
E. Research skills
F. Revision
Specific areas in reading include:
A. Identifying main ideas and supporting ideas
B. Studying historical and theoretical backgrounds of published material
C. Analyzing rhetorical modes or techniques
D. Recognizing voice, tone, and point of view
E. Building critical vocabulary
F. Formulating critical evaluation
Instructor's Disclaimer
I reserve the right to make changes and additions to this syllabus as I see fit through the semester. You, the student, are responsible for any and all changes to the syllabus, should they occur.
Updated 4/04/06 by Jeremy Mumford