Skyline College

English 100 Online: College Composition—Spring 2017

Course Theme—Memoir: Journeys Through War

Professor: Rachel Bell	Course Number 40697 and 40878, 3.0 units
Office Location: 7306 and Office Phone: 738-4349	Online Classroom: smccd.instructure.com
Web Address: http://accounts.smccd.edu/bellr/	Office hours: Tues/Thurs 2:30-5pm Call or email to book an appointment
E-mail: bellr@smccd.edu	Course dates: 1/17/17 to 5/22/17
English office & mailboxes: Room 8112-8114, 738-4202 Online course orientation: http://accounts.smccd.edu/bellr/Orientation.htm Online Classroom: smccd.instructure.com	Take advantage of campus support services: The Learning Center (bldg 5) provides support for writing, reading, math and other subjects. Sign up for LSKL 800 for general tutoring, or LSKL 853 for reading and writing support. Librarians, on the 2nd floor of bldg 5, can assist with research and library questions. Academic counselors, health services, and other student support services are available in the Student Services Center in bldg 2.

Course Prerequisites:
Writing Prereq: Completion of ENG 836 or ESOL 400 or ENGL 846 with a grade C or higher or appropriate scores on approved college placement tests. Reading Prereq: READ 836 or ENGL 846 with a grade of C or higher, or eligibility for 400-level Reading courses on approved Reading placement test.

The Online Environment:

Online is not easier than the traditional educational process.  In fact, many learners say it requires much more time and commitment, so be prepared for this as you take an online English course. You need to be a strongly self-motivated learner and be willing to commit 5 to 10 hours per week per online course. Also, you will need a "Plan B" in case your home computer experiences any difficulties. The Skyline campus has computers for student use in the Library (bldg. 5), in the Learning Center (bldg. 5), and in the Business Lab (rooms 8119-8121, bldg. 8). Missing deadlines for any online quizzes, exams, postings, papers or assignments due to technical difficulties will not be a valid excuse. Due dates are given well in advance so don't wait until the last minute and risk a blackout or computer crash that occurs right on a deadline. With that said, taking an online course can open up new ways of learning for you and often increases student participation with the pressures of public speaking in the traditional classroom removed.

Course Description:
Course designed to help the student recognize and critically evaluate important ideas in short and book length texts, and express facts and thought logically and gracefully in clear and correct prose. Students will write critical expository essays dealing with a variety of ideas at a skill level appropriate to a college transfer level class. Transfer credit: UC; CSU (A2, 3).

Course Objectives:

The purpose of this course is to help students develop their ability to write thoughtfully and effectively. The premise of this course is that writing is an integral part of the thinking process and that successful essay writing depends on a mixture of creative thinking and an awareness of writing styles and forms. The objective of this course is to guide students toward becoming critical readers, writers, and thinkers through recognizing the effective writing strategies of other writers, through becoming aware of their own processes of writing, and through learning to discern logical relationships between words, ideas, and arguments.


Student Learning Outcomes: By the end of the semester, students will be able to do the following:

1. ESSAYS: Write focused, organized, well-developed, and text-based essays appropriate to the college
transfer level using effective paragraphs, which support a clear thesis statement, and
demonstrate competence in standard English grammar and usage.
2. CRITICAL ANALYSIS: Demonstrate critical reading, writing, and thinking skills through analysis, synthesis,
and evaluation of important ideas.
3. SOURCES: Effectively evaluate and fluidly integrate relevant sources, using appropriate research
strategies and tools, and documenting them according to according to MLA guidelines.




Required Email:

SMCCD EMAIL ACCOUNT: All the course emails (about 2 to 5 per week) will be sent to your smccd.edu email account so you must set it up (activate your account by logging in at http://my.smccd.edu/) and then check it daily throughout the semester. If you would rather use your own email, you will need to forward your my.smccd.edu email to your regular email account:

Follow these steps to forward your email:

1. Go to Websmart at https://websmart.smccd.edu/

2. In your student account area, click on the link that says "New! Student Email"

3. Here, you may view your email address and password, and you may reset your password.

4. IMPORTANT: Open your my.smccd.edu email.

5. Click “Settings” at the top of the page.

6. Click the “Forwarding and POP/IMAP” tab.

7. Under Forwarding, click the “Forward a copy of incoming mail” button.

8. Enter the email address you want to forward your email to

9. Click “Save Changes.”

Required Textbooks (Connected under the course theme “Memoir—Journeys through War”):

(1) Night by Elie Weisel

(2) I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Malala Yousafzai

(3) Jarhead: A Marine's Chronicle of the Gulf War and Other Battles by Anthony Swofford

(4) Breaking News: A Stunning and Memorable Account of Reporting from Some of the Most Dangerous Place in the World by Martin Fletcher

(5) Department Rhetoric--Optional: Unless you prefer a print version (which you can
purchase in Skyline’s Bookstore). The Rhetoric is provided for you electronically at:
http://www.skylinecollege.edu/skyenglish/

Course Policies:

(1) Participation—Remember that participation counts both for your grade and in your life. Active
participation means regularly logging in, posting discussions and assignments on time, and providing
thoughtful written feedback for workshop peer review. It also means emailing your instructor when you
have questions or want quick feedback, or when you want more detailed feedback, making an office or
phone appointment.

(2) Late Assignments—No late work will be accepted. All due dates are given well in advance so it’s unfair
to the students who complete their work on time to accept the work from those who do not. However,
because “life happens,” each student will be allowed two “late tickets” during the semester; twice
students may choose to turn an assignment in 48 hours after the due date. Late assignments beyond
this will not be accepted. You cannot use late tickets on timed exams.
Please note: When you post a late assignment, please also email me to let me know or you may not
receive proper credit.

(3) Saving and Submitting Work—You must create a backup file of every piece of work you submit for grading. All files should be in DOC, RTF or PDF file formats (note: Do not post .docx files as not all students can open this type of file). When sending any email, identify yourself fully by name. I will check email frequently and will respond to course-related questions within 24-48 hours.

(4) Disabled Students— In coordination with the Disability Resource Center office, reasonable accommodation will be provided for eligible students with disabilities. For more assistance, please contact the DRC Bldg 5, Room 5132, phone 650-738-4280, email skydrc@smccd.edu.

(5) Plagiarism-- Paraphrasing or directly copying any text and using it as your own without proper attribution, whether you’ve done it intentionally or not, is plagiarism and is unacceptable and will result in failure. We will carefully look at how to integrate and properly document outside sources. Students will also submit an “Honesty Pledge” at the beginning of the semester, stating that all work submitted will be their own: http://www.skylinecollege.edu/skyenglish/10Plagiarism.htm

Papers:
Five major papers will be written for this class. The requirements are as follows (all due by 12am on due date):

(1) Due Dates-- Paper #1 (2-4 pages, 500-1000 words) Draft due 2/14, Revised 2/21

Research Paper #2 (3-5 pages, 750-1250 words) Draft due 3/14, Revised 3/21

Paper #3 Midterm 75-minute essay exam on Tuesday, April 11th
Collaborative Research Paper #4 (4-6 pages, 1000-1500 words) Draft 5/9, Revised 5/16

Paper #5 Final essay exam—2 ½ hours on Thursday, May 18th

For detailed paper guidelines and topics, visit: http://accounts.smccd.edu/bellr/papertopics100S17online.htm

(2) Revision-- E.B. White said, “The best writing is rewriting.” Because revising or “re-seeing” a piece of writing is such an important aspect of the writing process, each of the papers has two due dates. The first draft is not graded and is used for class workshopping, so students can give and receive advice to apply to the graded revision due a week later. If you would like instructor feedback on your draft, make an office or phone appointment. On papers, you must meet the page minimums. 5% deducted for half a page under and minus 10% for each full page under the minimum.

(3) Workshopping—Each draft will be read and commented upon by student workshop groups. You do not want to use a late ticket on a draft because: (1) you cannot participate in the workshop without a draft; (2) you won’t get any peer feedback on your draft; (3) you won’t be able to give written feedback on your peers’ drafts so will receive zero scores and peer review counts as 5% of your overall course grade; (4) if you do not submit a draft, you cannot turn in a revision a week later for a grade and you cannot pass this class if you fail to turn in one of the major papers. Below are the important workshop dates:

Paper #1 Workshop: 2/14 Paper #2 Workshop: 3/14 Paper #4 Workshop: 5/9

(4) Format— All papers must meet the required minimum length, and they must be typed, double-spaced, have 1” margins, and have a font of 12.



Course Grade: Record Your Own Grades:

Paper 1 10% Score for Paper 1 ______ x .10 = _____

Paper 2 10% Score for Paper 2 ______ x .10 = _____

Paper 3—Midterm 10% Score for Paper 3 ______ x .10 = _____

Paper 4 20% Score for Paper 4 ______ x .20 = _____

Paper 5—Final 20% Score for Paper 5 ______ x .20 = _____

Peer Paper Review 5% Average Peer Review ______ x .05 = _____
Assignments 5% Average of Assignments ______ x .05 = _____
Discussion posts 10% Average of Discussions ______ x .10 = _____
Quizzes 10% Average Quiz score ______ x .10 = _____

TOTAL: (convert total to %) ________

Scoring as follows: 100-90=A, 89-80=B, 79-70=C, 69-60=D, 59-0=F

Departmental Grading Standards: http://www.skylinecollege.edu/skyenglish/6EvaluatingWriting.htm
Online grade calculator: http://accounts.smccd.edu/bellr/GradingMenu.htm


TITLE IX:
The San Mateo County Community College District is committed to maintaining safe and caring college environments at Cañada College, College of San Mateo and Skyline College. The District has established policies and procedures regarding Sexual Misconduct, Harassment, and Assault. A District website has also been developed which provides you with important information about sexual misconduct and sexual assault. http://smccd.edu/titleix/.  To learn more about these issues and how you can help prevent them, you are encouraged to view the “Not Anymore” videos, which can be found on WebSMART under the Student Services link.