........................Skyline College

.....................English 801: Basic Writing Skills -- Fall 2000

Course Meetings: Daily 11:10-12pm
Meets in room 2106 and in the Lab Tues--Bldg 2
Schedule #80352 - Engl 801AD, Units 3.0

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"Nothing is more satisfying than writing a good sentence." -- Barbara Tuchman

"Get it down. Take chances. It may be bad, but it's the only way you can do anything really good." -- William Faulkner


Course Prerequisites: Recommended-Eligibility for Reading 801 and English 801 by appropriate scores on college placement tests and other measures as necessary. Corequisite-Reading 801 if indicated by college reading placement test.

Course Objectives: The objective of this course is to guide students toward becoming more 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. In this class we work at the sentence level looking at structure, grammar, and punctuation, and we will also study the writing process and the movement from writing unified paragraphs to creating essays focused on a central argument and supported with specific and appropriate detail.

Required Materials:
"The only good thing you can say about banning certain books is it gets kids to read them"
- Dennis Miller, The Rants
.
Here are the books you'll be reading this semester:

America Now, by Robert Atwan
Rhythms of Writing by Pamela Dykstra
8 Ball Chicks: A Year in the Violet World of Girls Gangs by Gini Sikes
A Computer Usage card-can be purchased at the Bookstore for $5

Course Policies:

(1) Attendance-- Your active participation is necessary for you and your classmates to realize the objectives of this course. Therefore your attendance is crucial. A maximum of 8 (eight) absences is permitted; each absence after the eighth will significantly lower your grade.

(2) Late Assignments-No late work will be accepted. All due dates are given well in advance; therefore I feel that it is 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 the following class period after the due date. Late assignments beyond this will not be accepted.

(3) 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 can result in failure.

(4) Class participation--- Remember that participation counts--both for your grade and in your life. It is essential that you become consciously involved in class by participating in discussions and contributing thoughtful comments, questions, and answers.

"There is no such thing as good writing, only good rewriting" -- Louis Brandels


Papers: In addition to in-class writing and quizzes, three papers will be written for this class.
The requirements are as follows:

(1) Due Dates--Paper #1 (1-2 pages, 250-500 words), Draft due 9/14, Revised 9/22
.........................Paper #2 (2-3 pages, 500-750 words), Draft due 10/12, Revised 10/20
.........................Paper #3 (3-4 pages, 750-1000 words), Draft due 11/16, Revised 11/27
.........................Final Exam: December 12th in-class

(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. Each student will receive feedback and suggestions on each of his/her papers through class workshop/discussion groups; then each student will be asked to revise each paper based on peer feedback. Please note: if the first due date for a paper is missed, the paper cannot be turned in at all.

(3) Workshopping-- This class will serve as a sort of a writing community in which each student can draw, as well as contribute, valuable ideas, insight, and advise on writing and presenting arguments. Each paper will be read, discussed, and commented upon by student workshop groups of three. Workshop days are very important, and therefore a missed workshop day will count as two (2) absences and a late paper will not be accepted. Students without a completed paper (meeting page and format requirements) will not be allowed to participate in the workshop. Below are the workshop dates--students must bring a copy of their paper for themselves as well as for the other members of their group:

Workshops for Paper #1: Thurs Sept 14th & Fri Sept 15th
Workshops for Paper #2: Thurs Oct 12th & Fri Oct 13th
Workshops for Paper #3: Thurs Nov 16th & Fri Nov 17th


(4) Format--Papers must meet the required minimum length or run the risk of not being accepted. All papers must be typed, double-spaced, have 1" margins, and have a font of 12.

"In many ways writing is the act of saying I, of imposing oneself upon other people,
of saying listen to me, see it my way, change your mind" -- Joan Didion


Course Grade:................................................ Record Your Own Grades:

Paper 1................................10%...........................................Score for Paper 1 ______ x .10 = ______
Paper 2
................................20%...........................................Score for Paper 2 ______ x .20 = ______
Paper 3
................................20%...........................................Score for Paper 3 ______ x .20 = ______
Paper 4-Final Exam 12/12
..10%...........................................Score for Paper 4 ______ x .10 = ______
Quizzes
................................15%.......................................Average Quiz Score ______ x .15 = ______
Homework
...........................15%......................................% of HM completed ______ x .15 = ______
* Participation
.....................10%...................................................Participation ______ x .10 = ______
................................................................................................ *TOTAL: (convert total to %) ________
* Participation includes being prepared each day, meeting
with me at least once during the course of the semester,
...........* Deduct 1% for each absence over allowed 8.
adding to daily discussion, and giving your classmates
......................Scoring as follows: 100-90=A, 89-80=B
thoughtful responses to their writing in workshops.
...............................79-70=C, 69-60=D, 59-0=F

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