Course Policies

Course Description 

This course focuses on your writing skills, as you respond to films, reading, and your own experiences. You will write weekly responses as well as three essays, using a process of free writing and drafting to develop and articulate your ideas. This is a course in which your voice matters, both in discussion and on the page in written form.

EN 1101 Learning Outcomes

After completing this course, you will be able to:

• read and respond to a variety of texts in writing and speech
• produce effectively written texts in a variety of forms
• use revision as a way to rethink and refine writing
• analyze written texts as a way to develop critical thinking skills
• utilize appropriate research methods to develop and support a point of view

Grade Breakdown

Essays: 60% total

1st Final Draft (Film Analysis)—20%

2nd Final Draft (Personal Essay)—20%

3^rd Final Draft (Persuasive Argument)—20%

Rough drafts: 10%

Freewriting/Weekly Responses: 10%

Verbal Participation: 10%

Final exam: 10%  – you must pass the final in order to pass the course

Attendance and Participation

This course relies on discussion and other in-class activities, such as peer-review and free writing.

It is essential that you participate in class: attentive listening, contributions to group work, questions,         and insights offered for discussion will help all of us make progress. Our discussions will directly                     pertain to your writing assignments, so the more engaged you are in discussion the more likely it is that       you will succeed with your essays. Unexcused absences may affect your final grade.

Blog responses

Assigned responses to films and readings are due here on Open Lab. The length of the responses should be about 700 words and should reflect your feelings, thoughts, and questions, pertaining to that week’s assignment. How the film or reading made you feel and what thoughts and questions it prompted for you are perfectly appropriate ways to respond. Please avoid summarizing as much as possible.

Late Work

Late assignments will receive a 1/3 penalty for every 24 hours they are past due.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is presenting someone else’s ideas, words, or work as your own. Students using someone else’s work, ideas, or intellectual or artistic property must identify and acknowledge the source within their work.

Examples of plagiarism include but are not limited to submitting:

• papers, works of art, or written or design material created in whole or in part by someone else
• written or design material that has been taken or copied from a website or bought
• sentences, phrases, key words, or ideas used without acknowledgement
• someone else’s ideas or work paraphrased without acknowledgement

Classroom expectations

Please refrain from using your cellphone in class. Texting while you are in class is            not allowed and hurts your participation grade.

Required Texts

The required texts are They Say/I Say 3rd Edition and a notebook dedicated to       work for this class, which you must bring with you each week. All other texts   will be provided for you on Blackboard, including films. Please be aware that this course has content that some may find upsetting. Feel free to contact me for more information if you are concerned or worried.