Syllabus and Course Outline
English 102 Instructor: Joe Napora
For a quick preview of course requirements go to:
English 102: Assignments
Checklist of assignments completed and an explanation of due dates
Office: ACC Rm. 438 Telephone: 326-2037; Email: Joe.Napora@kctcs.edu
Office Hours: Hours are posted on my office door and will be announced at the first class meeting.
Materials: There is two texts required, and students are required to have access to an online computer for the examples and explanations of assignments. The texts are: The Girl a novel by Meridel Le Sueur and Rules of Thumb by Jay Silverman (7th edition).
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Argumentative writing. Emphasis on development of a fluent, precise, and versatile prose style. Continued instruction and practice in reading critically, thinking logically, responding to texts, developing research skills, writing substantial essays through systematic revisions, addressing specific audiences, and expressing ideas in standard and correct English. Prerequisite: ENG 101 or equivalent.
COURSE OBJECTIVES: This course is designed to help college students improve their ability to communicate through writing. Major emphasis is the organization of the basic elements of writing [the form of the essay, the paragraph, and the sentence], on the standard, educated usage of grammar, punctuation, and spelling in presenting expository material in assigned essays.
LEARNING OUTCOMES: English 102 continues the work and retains the goals and theme requirements of English 101. English 102 offers students additional experience and instruction in writing by continuing the disciplines initiated in 101 by adding the practical study of logic and persuasion, by providing the necessary training in using elementary principles of research, and devoting considerable time to papers based on ideas generated by literary works.
Make up work:
Work can be made up without penalty if there is a legitimate excuse for missing the assignment; however, there are several deadlines that must be met. Not meeting these deadlines means getting no credit for the assignments that are missed; in other words, if you miss the deadline for an assignment, you will receive a grade of E for that assignment.
Incomplete work:
If you are passing the course but are unable to finish all of the assignments, you may receive an Incomplete for your course grade. To receive an incomplete, you must first see me before exam week, and you must have completed at least 75% percent of the course work, which in English 102 means everything but the research paper. For assignment deadlines, see the Course Calendar.
Written Work Policy. The papers must be word-processed in MS Word and double-spaced (using the format features of the word processor, NOT double-spaced by hitting the Enter key, the Works Cited pages must use the Hanging Indent feature of the word processor program). IMPORTANT: If you do not have MS Word as your word processor, you do not have to buy it. You can get a free copy of a MS Word compatible word processing program online. There are several, but the one I use is OpenOffice, a complete office suite that includes a word processing program, spreadsheet, etc. Click the link above to download the program.
What to do if you decide to drop this course: Up until the midterm, students may drop the course without the permission of the instructor. All you need to do is notify the people at Admissions. After midterm, students need the permission of the instructor. Once you have that permission, you will need to go to Admissions and get a drop slip. This form must be filled out and then signed by the instructor. It is not possible to drop the course once the last day of course instruction is over, which is usually a couple days before the beginning of exam week.
Disability Student Statement: If you have a disability that requires any type of accommodation, please see me as soon as possible. I will direct you to the Disabled Students Coordinator, and the three of us will discuss the appropriate accommodation (s) to be made.)
ATTENDANCE: Success in this course requires that you participate in every class meeting. Attendance will be recorded, and the result of frequent absences will be that you will fail the course.
ATTENDANCE FOR ONLINE STUDENTS and PARTIALLY ONLINE STUDENTS: Obviously, attendance is a completely different matter when taking the course completely or partially online. For totally online classes, there are no regular class meetings. Attendance for online students, however, has this requirement: the student must email the instructor at least once a week unless there is an emergency (family medical problems, a crashed computer, a vacation). Once the emergency is over, the student must write a brief not explaining the absence from the weekly email contact. Ten percent, one theme grade equivalent, of your grade depends upon you adhering to this attendance policy. For partially online classes, the regular attendance policy is in effect until such time as the individual student is given permission to complete the remainder of the course online, and then the requirement for the online attendance policy is in effect (emailing the instructor once a week).
GRADES: To a large measure, grades are determined by your participation (see above, ATTENDANCE). By the midterm you will have a good idea of how you are doing in the class; you have the option of withdrawing and receiving a grade of W. Please note that grades are determined by many factors, all addressed in the criteria for each assignment; however, there is one additional thing that you must keep in mind. It is assumed that since you have completed English 101, you have mastered the skills of basic writing. The minimum of these skills are addressed in this handout: The Most Common Punctuation Mistakes. Keep a copy of this with you whenever you work on an assignment. If the final draft of any assignment contains more than one of these mistakes, it will not be acceptable. I will return the assignment with the mistake marked but not corrected.
How to appeal your grade
If you believe that your course work has been graded unfairly, there are procedures in place for to make an appeal. First, check with me. Perhaps I made a mistake in copying your grade from my grade book onto the official grade report. If I determine that I did not make a mistake, you can then contact the Humanities Division Head, Karen George. Make an appointment with her to have a meeting about your grades. I will also attend the meeting, and we will review your complaint. Bring all of your graded assignments.
ACTIVITIES: The three units of instruction for this class will include (1) persuasive / argumentative writing, (2) preparing and writing a research paper, and (3) writing convincingly about literature.
ESSAYS: The essay requirement will include an Introduction Only of a persuasion essay and a literature essay (1-2).
RESEARCH: The research requirement will be met by successfully researching and writing an extended length paper that includes the use of appropriate citations from research sources. The Preliminary Research Paper (3). A Rough Draft of the research paper and an Abstract (4) must be done at the due date to receive a passing grade. The Research Paper is NOT an argumentative paper. Also included in this requirement is a research assignment -- a Library Log (5). And, finally, the research paper rough and final drafts (6 &7).
A research diary ( your library log) (8); A Literary Log on The Girl (9); your Participation in the course (10). All of this results in a total of TEN theme grades. [See below for the percentage each assignment is worth of your total grade.]
SUMMARY OF COURSE REQUIREMENTS
The Preliminary Research paper = One and 1/2 Theme Grades [15 %]
Structural Analysis Exercise= One Half of a Theme Grade[5%]; Go to Student Example of Structural Analysis
[Be sure to read Introductory Techniques]
Library Log = One Theme Grade [5%]; Go to Explanation & Student Example
Literary Log (Log on The Girl) (100 Questions) = One Theme Grade [10%];
Literary Paper = One and 1/2 Theme Grades [15%]; Go to Literary Paper Suggestions, then Go to Student Examples ;
Rough Draft of Research Paper (Rough Draft) = One and 1/2 Theme Grades [15%] ;
[You must fill out and hand in this form before starting your personal research paper.]
[For a review of research writing techniques, go the Frequently Asked Questions about the Research Paper]
Final Draft of Research Paper = Three Theme Grades [30%]; [The research paper assignment includes a short presentation during the final week of class.] Go to Student Examples
FINAL EXAM: There is no final exam.
Participation & Attendance = One Theme Grade [5%]. (Participation includes being prepared for the in-class writing exercises, prepared to discuss the assigned readings, and as well as attendance and / or weekly emails.)
GRADES: To a large measure, grades are determined by your participation (see below, ATTENDANCE). See also the Grading Criteria for each assignment : the Log on The Girl; the Library Log; the Preliminary Research Paper, the Rough Draft of the Research Paper; the Final Draft of the Research Paper. By the midterm you will have a good idea of how you are doing in the class; you have the option of withdrawing and receiving a grade of W. If you have not completed the preliminary research paper by mid-term, you receive a failing grade and a recommendation that you drop the class. A grade of Incomplete can only be given if the student has complete 3/4s of the assignments. In this class that would be everything but the research paper. Since it is assumed that any student in English 102 has successfully completed English 101, the grading standard for English 102 papers is higher than for English 101. Any assignment that contains errors that are explained and illustrated in the site called The Most Common Punctuation Mistakes will not be accepted. These papers must be corrected before being submitted for a grade.
Academic Dishonesty Policy: See your Code of Student Conduct handbook for an explanation of "plagiarism." If any of your work in this class indicates that you have plagiarized --or aided another student in doing so--you will receive a "0" for the assignment and possibly, depending on the nature of the infraction, an "E" for the course.
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