EN 120, Spring 2020
Professor: Bob Boon
Office: Cuples 425
Email: rboon@centralmethodist.edu
Office Hours: MWF 10-10:50, and by appointment
COURSE INFORMATION
EN 120 A, Composition 1 & 2
Spring 2020
Stedman 303, MWF 9-9:50 am
Final Exam Schedule:
CATALOG COURSE DESCRIPTION
EN120 focuses on the development of inquiry and research methods, writing as a process, and the conventions of academic prose. 3 hours
TEXTBOOK INFORMATION
The Water Will Come: Rising Seas, Sinking Cities, and the Remaking of the Civilized World. Jeff Goodell. Back Bay Books; Reprint edition, 2018. ISBN-10: 9780316260206, ISBN-13: 978-0316260206
Oryx and Crake: A Novel. Margaret Atwood. Seal Books, 2004. ASIN: B00D825SVS
How to Write Anything. John Ruszkiewicz. Bedford, 4th ed., 2019.ISBN: 9781319282363
COURSE LEARNING OBJECTIVES
EN120: In the course of EN120, students will...
• Continue practicing and applying the lessons from EN110 within the conventions of academic research and writing
• Articulate a purpose for research and their positions relative to the positions of others
• Find and evaluate research sources
• Summarize, contextualize, and synthesize information
• Document sources honestly and within appropriate conventions
• Create complex sentences that are stylistically and tonally varied
CMU MISSION STATEMENT
Central Methodist University prepares students to make a difference in the world by emphasizing academic and professional excellence, ethical leadership, and social responsibility.
CMU LEARNING OUTCOMES
Communication (articulate, multimodal, professional)
- Students are articulate, able to speak and write clearly and effectively.
- Students are multimodal, able to interpret and express ideas through multiple modes of communication.
- Students are professional, able to adapt to and interact with others in a confident, responsible, and engaged manner.
Curiosity (discover, analyze, create)
- Students can discover, explore, and seek solutions based on accumulated knowledge and current research.
- Students can analyze, evaluate, interpret, and summarize data.
- Students can create and innovate using critical thinking and collaborative skills.
Community (serve, respect, lead)
- Students will serve others and be ethical and informed citizens.
- Students will understand and respect diversity, including other’s viewpoints, positions, and beliefs
- Students will lead creatively and collaboratively to produce positive changes in the broader world.
STUDENTS REQUIRING SPECIAL ACCOMODATIONS
Central Methodist University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, sexual preference, religion, sex, national origin, age, or federally defined disability/state defined handicap ("disability"). This includes but is not limited to recruitment and admission of students, educational programs, services, activities, financial aid, and scholarship programs. The University complies with all federal and state non-discrimination requirements. The Center for Learning & Teaching at Central Methodist University is committed to ensuring nondiscrimination and equal access to all programs, service, and activities for qualified students with a disability. It is the responsibility of any student who wishes to claim a disability and seek an accommodation to file official documentation confirming the disability and a completed Disability Services Student Information Form with the Center of Learning and Teaching prior to seeking any accommodation based on the disability.
GRIEVANCE POLICY
Central Methodist University has established a grievance policy and process designed to provide students and others with a process to resolve potential issues. This policy and process is established to provide persons with an avenue to file a written concern and to establish a process to track and implement changes as a result of said concern. For more detailed information, consult the CLAS catalog at: http://www.centralmethodist.edu/academics/catalog/clas-catalog/policies/index.php.
If an issue cannot be solved through consultation with the faculty or division chair, students can report an incident/issue within 30 days of the event via the online web form https://cm.maxient.com/reportingform.php?CentralMethodistUniv&layout_id=3
ACADEMIC INTEGRITY AND ACADEMIC CONDUCT
ACADEMIC CONDUCT: Any student found guilty of academic misconduct on any assignment, quiz or exam in this class will earn a zero for that assignment, quiz or exam. Furthermore, that student will come under the auspices of the Academic Conduct Policy of CMU. It is the student's responsibility to review and understand the CMU Academic Conduct Policy. Plagiarism falls under this code. I have no sense of humor nor forgiveness for any plagiarism. At best, plagiarized work will receive a zero and be formally reported to the Provost. Plagiarized work cannot be done over. Severe or repeated episodes of plagiarism will likely guarantee an F in the course and may result in the offender being dropped from the course.
Reading. I do expect each of you to read the course materials. I do consider consulting or copying from online summaries instead of reading the material itself to be a form of academic misconduct.
Group activities: I do expect each person in a group to participate reasonably and fairly. It is not acceptable to simply show up for a presentation without doing any of the preparation work. Do let me know if one or more group members is not contributing.
CLASS CONDUCT: In class, we need to be alert, civil and courteous to others. Partly this means being prepared for the day’s work; this also means staying reasonably focused on our activities. So, you shouldn’t be on Facebook or Snapchat or whatever other social media, not texting, not listening to music, not playing games, not watching sports during class. No earphones at any time. Don’t bring your phones out, especially not during group work. Use your iPads, but if you abuse the privilege, you may be asked to leave class and not return until we have a talk with your advisor.
Do be civil—we will discuss a number of controversial issues. You certainly don’t have to agree with everyone, or with me, but we do need to discuss issues, to argue productively, not insult or name-call. But you know these things.
ATTENDANCE: Regular attendance is not only expected, but is vital to academic success. We will have activities every class that add to the overall learning experience. In general, except for official school activities, I do not excuse any absences. However, please let me know if there are exceptional circumstances.
Like every teacher, I expect everyone to be in class each day and to arrive on time. And because this class depends on your active participation, it’s especially important that you be here to contribute. Of course, I understand that sometimes the circumstances of life may cause you to miss class (and maybe even to be a little late once or twice, but surely not every day). If you miss more than ten classes, however, your chances of getting at least a D will be in jeopardy, and so I reserve the right to drop you from the class or lower your final course grade. In general, except for official school activities, I do not excuse any absences. However, please let me know if there are exceptional circumstances.
Tardiness: If you are late to class, you may be marked tardy, which may reduce your final course grade. If you are late to class as many as 10 times, I will consider lowering your whole semester grade by at least one letter grade.
WRITING STUDIO: All on-campus sections of EN111/120 have a writing studio component. I’ve assigned 12 points for this activity, spread over the semester, three points for each of the 4 required sessions.
All 110, 111 and 120 students are required to attend at least two writing studio sessions in the first 8 weeks, and at least two more before the last day of class. Writing Studio will be held weekly (starting in week 2), but there will be fewer writing studio times per week.
Students can sign up for writing studio times with our new scheduling system, centralmethodist.mywconline.com . There will also be an icon on their iPad home screens that will take them to the scheduler. Be sure you sign up and get the tutors to check you in. If you don’t accomplish this, you won’t get points for the visit. I need to get an official email from the Writing Center to give you points.
A couple more specifications—you do need to work on this course during the session. You need to not skip this class to do your Writing Studio. You can only attend the Writing Studio/Center for course points once during any given week.
WRITING CENTER: Please take advantage of the Center throughout the semester. This extra attention to your writing can make a significant difference in what you learn about writing. Schedule appointments here: http://www.centralmethodist.edu/academics/english/writingcenter.php
ANNOUNCEMENTS
I tend to make frequent use of the Announcements in myCMU. You are responsible for information and course materials in the Announcements.
CLASS CANCELATION
If there is a weather emergency, please check the CMU website for school cancellation. If I have a personal emergency or illness, I will attempt to post that in the course Announcements.
MAKE-UP AND LATE WORK: We have a fairly tight schedule, and so a caution—late work will put you at many disadvantages throughout the course, not only in terms of grades. Not being prepared is more than a little rude to the group and class members who depend on your active contribution. So, I do reserve the right to penalize or refuse entirely any late work throughout the semester. Any make-up work must be done within two weeks of the original due date. Do not email papers without asking me first.
GRADING
100%-90% = A
89%-80% = B
79%-70% = C
69%-60% = D
59% or below = F
ASSIGNMENTS AND POINTS BREAKDOWN
DESCRIPTION OF MAJOR ASSIGNMENTS
Notice that all of these assignments involve several steps along the way. This will always include various brainstorming/invention activities, such as freewriting, so you will need to bring something to write with/on to every class. We will almost always work through stages of writing through group activities. When we do peer review, you will need to bring multiple copies of your work. We will decide how many copies depending on class/group sizes.
For this section of 120, we will focus on semester-long topic, the impact of humans on the earth—especially, global warming. We will read one non-fiction book, The Water Will Come, to learn basic information, and then go into one novel, Oryx and Crake, that extrapolates one future we may (hopefully not!) reach.
Plagiarism exercise: Please go to this website, http://www.lib.usm.edu/plagiarism_tutorial/, which contains a plagiarism tutorial. Work through the exercises and take the test at the very end. Print that result for me, sign it, and turn it in. I consider this your statement that you understand plagiarism and what you will be held accountable for.
What I Know and How I Know It: In this paper, each of you should sketch out your initial ideas about our main class topic, global warming and perhaps the Anthropocene. This is not a research activity. Instead, this essay will let you establish and share what you know and believe coming in to this class. There is no one set form for this essay, but you should try to identify major ideas, where you learned these, when possible, and perhaps talk about what you feel are major controversies or interesting contentions. The purpose here is to sketch out how you know or why you don’t know much about this issue. 3 pages, typed, double-spaced.
Summary: This short exercise will help us practice the skill of summarizing, working from a designated text, to a short summary paragraph. ½ to 1 page, typed, double-spaced.
Rhetorical Analysis: For this exercise, we will examine a section of The Water Will Come in terms of rhetorical categories. 1-2 pages, typed, double-spaced.
Response papers: These are short, informal papers, meant to let you explore ideas from our readings and films (I’ll point out specific material to respond to for each one). These are explicitly not to be summaries or simple overviews. This is a space for you to try out new ideas, explore, consider, pull things together, have a viewpoint. 2 pages each, typed, double-spaced.
Film project/presentation: This is a group project. I’ll supply you with a list of film choices and ask each group to view and discussion its chosen film, in terms of what we learn about place and how people adapt to places from the film. Each group should then present an overview of the film and the group’s ideas about it to the class. If possible, show a very brief film clip to the class to illustrate key points. Do write, individually, a one-page paper to turn in to me, giving your key ideas, or disagreements with the group’s conclusions. This one page is due with the presentation.
Group Project on The Water Will Come chapters: We will use Chapters 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 in The Water Will Come for this project. Each group should share and explain the key ideas in its given chapter, but also go further—help make the information lively and interesting. Do use various visuals, which might include short film clips. Do turn in to me a formal list of sources in MLA style, with the name of the contributor of each source in [ ] at the end of the citation. Aim for a 17-20 minute presentation.
Research activity: For this activity, you should explore some issue related to our main course material, growing out of The Water Will Come or perhaps Oryx and Crake. Your task is to identify, research, and clearly explain such an issue, making clear why your audience needs to understand it. 3-4 pages, plus Works Cited
Reflection essay: This last essay should provide an evaluation of and reflection on what you have learned and considered throughout this course, in relation to our two main texts, including materials from films and discussions, and about the writing process Its purpose is for you to think back on what you have learned from your overall reading and writing experiences, to make sense of it. This is not a simple summary exercise, but rather more a personal meditation on your own learning. This essay is also part of the CMU English Department’s assessment process. 3 pages, typed.
Portfolio: This activity is the other part of the assessment process. Each of you should, all semester long, be collecting samples of your writing, in all its many aspects. So, you might decide to include some of your freewriting, various drafts, part of your blogs, some finished essays…rather up to you. We’ll talk more about this as we go—but start right away, making a habit of keeping your writing. Your responsibility! At the end of the semester, we’ll talk more about how and where to upload this material.
N. b., Paper format: all papers should be typed, double-spaced, in 12-point font, and stapled. I prefer Times New Roman. Page lengths: when a paper assignment asks, for example, for 2 pages, that means two full pages; a partial second page will not get full credit. Yes, go find a stapler!
GRADING
Assessment of Student Learning:
Your final grade in the class will be largely determined from these activities:
What I Know…
peer draft/process 6
final draft 15
Summary 6
Rhetorical Analysis 6
Responses 45 (3 x 15)
Film Project 15
Group Project on Water Will Come 15
Citation list for project 5
Research activity
peer draft/process 6
final draft 15
Reflection essay
peer draft/process 6
final draft 20
Portfolio 10
Writing Studio 12 (3 x 4 sessions)
In-class writing/activities, as time permits.
Reading quizzes (0-40): I dislike reading quizzes, but really do expect you to read…
Points open-ended
COURSE SCHEDULE: This schedule is subject to change or modification, though hopefully we will stay close to this outline. Readings should be done prior to class. When we are reading a section of any of our textbooks, please bring your book to that class. Outside readings will be given as copies in class, or as web links. Notice that I haven’t included the grammar chapters on the schedule. We will address grammar, depending on general class needs.
Week 1 (January 13-17)
Course introduction
The technique of freewriting— How to Write, Chapter 3// assign What I Know
Plagiarism exercise due // Explore more ideas for the first essay
Week 2 (January 22-24)
Monday, MLK Day, no classes
Explore structure for the first essay // How to Write, Chapters 2 and 6
Peer review of What I Know
Week 3 (January 27-31)
What I Know… due // talk about Summary // How to Write, Chapter 25, Smart Reading
Water Will Come, Prologue and Chapter 1 // practice summary
Water Will Come, Chapter 2 // practice summary
Week 4 (February 3-7)
Summary due // Water Will Come, Chapter 3 // Assign first Response paper
Water Will Come, Chapter 4
Film: An Inconvenient Truth
Week 5 (February 10-14)
Continue An Inconvenient Truth
Finish An Inconvenient Truth
How to Write, Chapter 14, Rhetorical Analyses // Response 1 due
Week 6 (February 17-21)
Begin Oryx and Crake // Set up Group presentations on Water Will Come
Oryx and Crake
Rhetorical analysis due // Water Will Come, Chapters 5
Week 7 (February 24-28)
Assign Research activity // How to Write, Chapter 53, MLA
Water Will Come, Chapter 12 and Epilogue // Oryx and Crake // Assign second Response paper
Group presentations on Water Will Come, chapters 7 and 8
Week 8 (March 2-6)
Group presentations on Water Will Come, chapters 9 and 10
Group presentations on Water Will Come, chapter 11 and 6 / Oryx and Crake
Set up film projects / Film: Merchants of Doubt (96 min.)
Week 9 (March 9-13)
Film: Merchants of Doubt
Film: Merchants of Doubt
Oryx and Crake // How to Write, Chapter 27, Thesis // Response 2 due
Week 10 (March 16-20)
Oryx and Crake
Research activity draft/peer review
tba
Spring Break March 21-29
Week 11 (March 30-April 3)
Oryx and Crake
Assign Final Reflection Essay // Research activity due
Film project presentations
Week 12 (April 6-10)
April 6 and 8, I’ll be out of town at the AAG convention. No classes.
Good Friday
Week 13 (April 13-17)
Film project presentations
Film project presentations
Finish Oryx and Crake // How to Write, Chapter 19, Position papers and Chapter 18, Synthesis // Brainstorm further on Reflection essay
Week 14 (April 20-24)
Film: Gattaca (106 min.)
Film: Gattaca
Film: Gattaca // Response 3 due
Week 15 (April 27-May 1)
Peer review of Reflection Essay
To be arranged…
Thursday, April 30, last day for Writing Studio points!
Reflection Essay and Portfolio due