Syllabus
Welcome to the course site for ENG 111 Composition 1. The SVSU Catalog describes this as a course about reading, thinking, and writing at the university level. The course is offered on most post-secondary campuses across the United States, and is a foundational experience for your success in higher education.
Course Description
The SVSU Course Catalog description of Composition 1.
Frequent writing assignments to produce informal and formal texts, with emphasis on academic thinking and writing. Develops effective writing processes, from inventing and investigating through organizing, drafting, revising, and editing. Helps students meet the needs of their readers. Includes workshop approaches to develop students' ability to analyze and evaluate their own writings as well as the writings of others.
Course Objectives
The SVSU English Department has established the following goals for ENG 111. The student who successfully completes English 111 will be able to:
- Use writing processes that develop exploratory drafts into revised prose for specific audiences, including the ability to:
- Generate, select and focus writing topics;
- Plan, organize, and structure writing to develop a focus and purpose;
- Use specific and credible evidence to support positions in a convincing manner;
- Review, critique, revise; and
- Edit writing to conform to the general conventions of Standard English.
- Produce formal college-level essays that exhibit the requisite skills to attain a C level or better on the course rubric, which signals that a student is prepared to enter Communication Intensive courses and engage in academic discourse at the university level.
- Conduct introductory library and other research, integrate facts and evidence from multiple sources, and document appropriately.
- Read critically and analyze material written for multiple audiences and purposes.
- Effectively participate in interactive/collaborative reading and writing activities.
I teach a variety of writing and design courses for SVSU. I include some of the objectives for those course here as well to offer you some additional context for how I approach my responsibilities of preparing students for success within and beyond the context of SVSU.
- Explore strategies and practices of effective, context-appropriate, audience-aware information design. Effective information design demonstrates awareness of and respect for the needs, knowledge, expectations, and work habits of audiences, and takes advantage of the most appropriate and contextually effective media for expression. All information is designed in some manner. Some is crafted carefully and well to fit the context in which it is offered and encountered. Some falls short of audience needs and expectations in one or more ways. We study design with a critical eye because we want to do it well.
- Examine cultural, professional, and disciplinary standards for communication. Quality communication is created to meet or exceed a spectrum of standards for excellence. Many professions have adopted their own particular standards to guide their members. Accessibility and inclusivity drive design in a variety of ways. Industries and economic unions maintain their own as well. It is thus important to explore what standards apply to each kind of communication we create.
- Examine links among communication, professional authority, and ethical responsibility. Professional and disciplinary credentials carry with them both the authority to communicate and the expectation that you will do so responsibly. Ethical action demands that professionals examine the ways power knowingly and inadvertently influences the effectiveness and impact of design thinking, design action, and professional conduct more generally. Because technical communicators work within, and thus perpetuate, the language(s) of social, political, and economic power active in and beyond professional spaces in the United States, they must seek understanding of how to do so consciously, critically, and inclusively.
- Demonstrate the ability to execute effective communication in the context of the other objectives. Professionals and scholars earn privileges and opportunities with their credentials and certifications. Observation of cultural practices in a variety of contexts consistently reinforce that the most respected and enduring professionals communicate effectively. Such success does not come easily, even to those who possess seemingly natural gifts and abilities for communication. Whether you are an accomplished communicator, or someone who struggles to succeed in this endeavor, my baseline goal is to help you become more aware, better prepared, and more effective as a communicator than you are when you enter the course.
Course Practices
The SVSU English Department asks that instructors share the following common practices with you so you understand the general expectations for ENG 111.
- Students will write approximately 10,000 words in the course: a minimum of 20 double spaced pages of formal essays, and the equivalent of 20 double spaced pages of informal writing (such as essay drafts, discussion posts, responses to readings, journals, etc.) divided into multiple assignments with appropriate feedback.
- Students will write a minimum of four formal essays; two or more of these essays will incorporate multiple outside sources, documented appropriately.
- Students will learn about documentation with a focus on MLA and APA; they will be provided with opportunities for in-class writing as well as instruction in essay exam strategies.
- Students will receive library orientation, including a tour and an introduction to hands-on and online research resources.
- Students will be provided with hands-on opportunities to develop technological skills for creating and/or sharing documents (i.e., word processing, e-mailing, and online workshopping or online discussion).
- Instructors will assess students' products using clearly defined criteria, including course rubric, sample papers, and other materials provided by the instructor.
- Instructors may take product and process (journals, drafts, portfolios and conferences) into account when assessing student performance in the course.
- Instructors will base at least 75% of a student's final course grade on the evaluation of formal essays.
- Instructors can only give the grade of C or higher to a student who earns 70% of total points possible in the course, and demonstrates significant competency in all course outcomes.
- Instructors will actively engage in strategies that work toward student retention and student success.
Disability Accommodations, Mental Health Needs, and Academic Integrity
The SVSU English Department asks that instructors share information about disability accommodations and mental health support for ENG 111 classes. Details about compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) are presented in the course policies.
The passages below are from the English Department's official statements for mental health and academic integrity.
Mental health. As a student, you may experience a range of issues that can cause barriers to learning. These issues can include strained relationships, increased anxiety, alcohol/drug problems, feeling down, difficulty concentrating and/or lack of motivation. These health concerns or stressful events may lead to diminished academic performance or reduce your ability to participate in daily activities. Saginaw Valley State University's services are available to assist you with addressing these and other concerns you may be experiencing. You can learn more about the Student Counseling Center's confidential mental health services by going to their website at svsu.edu/studentcounselingcenter.
What I can't do for you:
- The longer you wait to ask for help, the less I may be able to help you: I cannot accommodate disability-related needs retroactively.
- If you choose to stop attending class, I am unable to support your well-being and intellectual growth.
Academic Integrity Statement. Some of this language comes from svsu.edu/studentconductprograms/academicintegrity/resourcesforfaculty and has been supplemented with existing language from the ENGL 111 syllabus template. The full academic integrity policy can be found here, svsu.edu/studentconductprograms/academicintegrity/academicintegritypolicy.
The primary purposes of a university are to produce new knowledge and to share knowledge acquired from others. These purposes can be achieved only when intellectual property rights are recognized by everyone within the university. Thus academic integrity is essential; university citizens must take responsibility for their own work and give credit when using the work of others.
Academic integrity is undermined whenever one is dishonest in the pursuit of knowledge. Dishonesty takes many forms, including cheating, plagiarism, and other activities for undermining the educational process:
- Cheating occurs whenever one attempts to gain an advantage through violation of rules regarding the relevant behavior. It should be assumed that collaboration is cheating unless explicitly authorized.
- Plagiarism involves intentionally or unintentionally presenting another person's expressions -- ideas, opinions, illustrations, data, style-as one's own expression. Forms of plagiarism include directly transcribing (copying) without quotation and attribution, summarizing without attribution, paraphrasing or patchwork paraphrasing without attribution, patching electronic materials (including pictures, graphs, and/or charts) without attribution.
Additionally, because this is a writing class, you should be actively engaged in generating new writing or in significantly revising existing writing. You may not use your own writing from previous or other classes. You should write new material for this course. If I determine that someone else has written an assignment that you submitted as your own work, you are subject to discipline under the University's Academic Integrity policies and could fail the assignment or the course.
- Undermining the Educational Process occurs whenever one attempts to prevent another's learning or subverts the recognized means by which learning occurs.
No student shall engage in conduct that disrupts or interferes with the educational activities in classrooms, computer laboratories, or any other place where education and teaching activities take place. This includes, but is not limited to, such behaviors as talking at inappropriate times, drawing unwarranted attention to him or herself, engaging in loud and distracting behaviors, displaying defiance or disrespect to peers or threatening any University employee or student. No student shall engage in conduct that is disruptive or interferes with the rights of others on University property, nor shall a student obstruct, disrupt, interfere, or attempt to interfere with another student's right to learn or complete academic requirements.
In English 080 and 111, any student who engages in any of these behaviors that undermine the educational process will be asked to leave the class immediately and lose any possible credit for that class period. To return to the class, the student will be required to schedule a meeting with the instructor to discuss his or her plans for modifying their behavior in question.
Important Note: In any case of cheating, plagiarism, or engaging in behavior that undermines the educational process, in addition to the consequences outlined above, the instructor will follow the protocol outlined by the Office of Student Conduct, svsu.edu/studentconductprograms/academicintegrity/academicintegritypolicy.
Textbooks
This course requires you to have access to the following textbook.
- Wardle, E., and Downs, D. Writing about Writing, 4th Edition.
Do not purchase an earlier edition of this text. If you purchased an older version of the text, you will need to exchange it for the current version.
I will assign readings from other sources as well. I will provide or direct you to materials for these assignments through our course space in SVSU Canvas.
Other Course Materials
To support your work here this semester, you will use the following services, tools, and technologies.
- SVSU Canvas. I post supporting materials (e.g., articles, sample documents, documents for workshops) to Canvas Files. I typically use the Announcement page to facilitate communication with the whole class. Although I create assignments in Canvas, it is only so I can use the Grades page. (No detail about workshops or projects appears on the Assignments page in Canvas. All descriptions are posted here on this course site.) You will post most of your workshop submissions through the Discussion page.
- SVSU Vmail. Use campus Vmail (aka Outlook Mail) for all correspondence with me. (Yes, our campus email package has a name.)
- Dropbox.com. You will create and manage a shared folder on this service. All of the file exchanges between you and me for course projects (e.g., your submissions, my feedback and project evaluations) will happen through Dropbox.com. Dropbox offers a free service option. That will be all you need for this course.
- Microsoft Word, Google Doc. All projects and workshops for this course require you to create documents of one sort or another. We will switch back and forth between Word and Doc for different kinds of writing engagements. Generally speaking, you will use Doc for workshops and project drafts, and Word for final project submissions.
- Screencasting software. I use screencasts to deliver some of the content for most courses. You will create screencasts to facilitate some of your work, including at least one workshop and one project. There are many free tools available to you for creating screencasts. I often recommend Techsmith Capture for quick work or class-context projects. If you have access to tools that are more powerful, you are welcome to use them when appropriate.
- Screencast.com. We will use Screencast.com to share and stream the video content that you generate, because even a short video can result in a large file. Screencast.com offers a free service option. That will be all you need for this course.
Although you will use several communication tools and technologies during your work this semester, all of these things are either provided by SVSU, or are available to you for free. If you have questions about such details, please follow up with me. Among the most important priorities in your academic and professional development should be identifying successful strategies for acquiring and refining technological knowledge, and finding comfort in learning new tools and processes. If technology intimidates you in any way, then emphasize achieving this goal this semester.
Some of the work you do might be made more convenient or easy if you have access to the following additional materials.
- Portable storage device. Always carry a portable storage device (e.g., flash drive, external hard drive) with you to store project and workshop files, or anything else you might need for your work in this course. Although SVSU provides you space on the Microsoft OneDrive system, I recommend that you use it as a backup, rather than as your primary work space.
- Scanner or scanning app for your phone/tablet. You will at times integrate visual content that you draw from source material into your work. Although you can use a camera to accomplish this task, the results are typically unprofessional. Scanners and scanning apps allow you to digitize such content at a much higher level of professionalism. Several apps are available for free, or at little cost. I strongly recommend that you acquire one, and learn to use it.
- Headphones. Because you will use audio and video for some of your course work, and because we use both media in class from time to time, headphones are a convenient item to have on hand.
- Microphone. Because you will record screencasts this semester, a microphone (even an inexpensive one) is a useful addition to your toolkit. It will raise the quality and professionalism of your audio.