English-Writing 300 Online

Fall 2015

Instructor:
Office:
Office Hours:
Office Phone:
1.
2.
3.

Mr. Patton

Website: http://www.scc.losrios.edu/marcuspatton/

Rodda Hall South 214 (RS-214)

E-mail:

Monday Thursday: 10:30 11:30 a.m.

saccity300@gmail.com Please use this address

pattonm@scc.losrios.edu My Sac City address

Desire2Learn (D2L) site:

558-2557

d2l.losrios.edu

The following subjects and due dates may be adjusted if necessary.

Dates given below are the days that assignments are due or the days that they should be completed.
Additional readings may be added during the semester.
Week 1, August 24 28

Orientation, Introduction to the course

Bring your prerequisite verification today.
Audience
Persona
Middle style
The summary

*First assignment: Send me an e-mail by Sunday, August 30.

If you dont hear from me by Wednesday, September 3, call me.
Week 2, Aug. 31 - Sept. 4

Reading assignment: Read chapter 1 & 2 in D2L

The summary
Thursday, September 3: E ex 4-2 due (a Rules for Writers exercise in Quizzes at D2L)

Thursday, September 3: Respond to the Purpose statement questions in the Discussion Board
Friday, September 4: Turn in questions for Mike Roykos article
Friday, September 4: General vs. specific & Abstract vs. concrete exercise due
Week 3, September 7 11

Monday, September 7, Labor Day, Campus Closed

Thesis statements

Wednesday, September 9: Summary due

Thursday, September 10: E ex 41-2 due (a Rules for Writers exercise in Quizzes at D2L)
Friday, September 11: read and turn in questions for How to Say Nothing in 500 Words.
Week 4, September 14 18

Quotation marks
The research paper: our topic
The abstract
The works cited

Thursday, Sept. 17: E ex 37-3 & 37-4 due in Quizzes at D2L

Week 5, September 21 25

The Single-source essay

Avoiding plagiarism

Monday, September 21: Abstract and a list of sources for the research paper due.
Thursday, September 24: E ex 32-8, 32-9, & 32-10 due in Quizzes at D2L
Week 6, Sept. 28 Oct. 2

The single source essay

Introductions and conclusions

Thursday, October 1: E ex 33-3 & 33-4 due in Quizzes at D2L

Friday, October 2: read and turn in questions for Workers.
Week 7, October 5 9

The classification essay

Compare-contrast articles

Monday, October 5: Single-source essay due.

Thursday, October 8: E ex 34-3 & 34-4 due in Quizzes at D2L
Friday, October 9: read and turn in questions for The Ways of Meeting Oppression

English-Writing 300 Online

Fall 2015

Week 8, October 12 16

The classification essay

Week 9, October 19 23

Midterm: class section 17276Tuesday, October 20, 6:00 pm in RS-326

class section 17277Wednesday, October 21, 6:00 pm in RS-326
class section 17278Thursday, October 22, 7:30 pm in RS-326
The compare-contrast essay

Monday, October 12: Turn in summary of two articles for compare-contrast.

Thursday, October 15: E ex 35-2 due in Quizzes at D2L
Friday, October 16: read and turn in questions for College Pressures

Thursday, October 22: E ex 13-5, 13-6, & 13-7 due in Quizzes at D2L
Friday, October 23: read and turn in questions for Jason Voorhees, Meet Count Dracula
Week 10, Oct. 26 30

The multiple-source essay

Incorporating quotations

Thursday, October 29: E ex 9-2 & 9-4 due in Quizzes at D2L

Friday, October 30: read and turn in questions for Anglo vs. Chicano: Why?
Week 11, November 2 6

The multiple-source essay

Week 12, November 9 13

Wednesday, November 11, Veterans Day, Campus closed

The Research paper

Monday, November 2: Compare-contrast essay due.

Thursday, November 5: E ex 36-3 & 36-4 due in Quizzes at D2L

Thursday, November 12: E ex 19-3 & 19-4 due in Quizzes at D2L

Friday, November 13: read and turn in questions for The Case for Torture
Week 13, November 16 20

Tuesday, November 17: last day to drop a class

Week 14, November 23 27

Thurs., Nov. 26 & Fri. Nov. 27, Thanksgiving Holiday, campus closed
Research paper

Monday, November 16: Multiple-source essay due.

Thursday, November 19: E ex 20-4 & 20-5 due in Quizzes at D2L
Friday, November 20: read and turn in questions for Children Need to Play, Not Compete

Wednesday, November 25: E exs 56-7 & 57-3 due in Quizzes at D2L
Week 15, Nov 30 - Dec. 4

Final Exam: Class section 17276Tuesday, December 1, 6:00 pm in RS-326

Class section 17277Wednesday, December 2, 6:00 pm in RS-326
Class section 17278Thursday, December 3, 6:00 pm in RS-326

Friday, December 4: E exs 59-1, 59-2, 59-4, 59-5 due in Quizzes at D2L
Week 16, December 7 11

Thursday, December 10: E exs 57-6, 58-1, 58-2, & 59-8 due in Quizzes at D2L

Finals WeekFriday, December 11 to Thursday, December 17

The research paper is due on Saturday, December 12 by 11:30 pm.

English-Writing 300 Online

Fall 2015

General Information & Course Requirements

Course Description
English-Writing 300 offers students the opportunity to develop critical thinking, reading, and writing skills that are
essential for successful completion of a four-year college program. Students will be required to write essays, a midterm, a
research paper, and a final exam.
Upon completion of this course, the student will be able to do the following:
compose effective college-level essays using a variety of rhetorical strategies and applying appropriate citations and
formatting standards.
research, evaluate, and synthesize sources to support a thesis.
critically analyze, compare, and evaluate various complex works.
apply the conventions of standard written English, employing a variety of sentence structures and college-level diction.

Prerequisites
To remain enrolled in English-Writing 300, you must meet one of these prerequisites: 1) you have been assessed into
English-Writing 300 by the assessment process, or 2) you have completed English-Writing 100 with a grade of C or better. You
must verify during the orientation that you meet the English-Writing 300 prerequisite, or you will be dropped from the class.

Textbooks

1. The College Writer Brief 5th edition by Randall VanderMey, Verne Meyer, John Van Rys, & Pat Sebranek
2. Rules for Writers 7th edition by Diana Hacker
Both of these books are available as a physical book or as an e-book. You may choose either the physical book or
the e-book; it is up to you. The physical books are available at the college store. The e-books are available from
online sources. Check in the News on the home page of Desire2Learn for directions on acquiring access to the ebooks.

Rules for Writers

Rules for Writers is a popular book that has been around for many years. I will assign specific chapters from Rules
for Writers for you to work on. You will then go to the Quizzes area in D2L to complete the assignment for that chapter by a
given due date.

Grading

In English-Writing 300, you will receive a final course grade of A, B, C, D, or F. To receive a passing grade of C or
higher, you must earn 70% or more of the total points possible, AND you must turn in ALL of the writing assignments. Failure to
turn in any of the writing assignments can result in a failing grade for the course.
The six writing assignments are the largest part of your course grade. In addition, on a few occasions, students may
write short response papers.
In addition to the papers mentioned above, you will also be graded on weekly homework assignments and quizzes,
which will be derived from the weekly reading assignments or other class work. I DO NOT GIVE EXTRA CREDIT
ASSIGNMENTS!
To compute your course grade, I add up all of the points you have earned on your assignments. I then divide the
resulting figure by the total points possible on all of the assignments given in class. This final number is a percentage, which
indicates your course grade. The following table shows the percentage values for grades.

Percentage Values for Grades (for individual assignments and the overall course grade)
A = 100 - 90%

B = 89 - 80%

English-Writing 300 Online

C = 79 - 70%

D = 69 - 50%

F= below 50%

Fall 2015

Strategies for Success

Strategies for This Online Course

1.

Stay connected: Check Desire2Learn (or D2L) and your e-mail regularly (a few times a week). To succeed in the course,
you must have reliable Internet access.

2.

Read carefully: All of the instruction in this course is delivered through written material, so to learn about critical thinking
strategies and ways to improve your writing, you will have to read all of the materials available to you (the textbooks, writing
prompts and other instructions, course materials online, feedback on graded essays, etc) carefully whether they are
assigned or not.

3.

Dont fall behind: In a traditional classroom course, students must be on time and turn in assignments on time. In this
online course, come to the three required sessions on time. In your online work, dont fall behind, and make sure you
observe the deadlines for assignments.

4.

Be Respectful: Students must respect each other in a classroom. Likewise you should always respect your classmates
online. Please observe the conventions of netiquette. For example, when YOU USE ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, YOU ARE
YELLING. Please avoid such behaviors.

5.

Practice good writing: Please avoid using text language often used in e-mail. U should use prpr english whenever u wrt.
I assume that you care about your writing skills, so please practice good writing in this classalways. Emoticons are
nifty, but you should use words to communicate rather than these symbols from the Internet.

6.

Quality and Quantity: Completing every single assignment will not assure a passing grade. Turning in every assignment
is a good practice, yes, but make sure that your work is high in quality. Turning in all of the assignments and assuring their
high quality are a perfect recipe for success.

7.

Be Productive: Be sure to complete all of the assignments. I allow you just one late assignment.

Class ParticipationThe Discussion Board

An important component of this course is an online discussion board presented via Desire2Learn (or D2L). This
discussion board is similar to a discussion in a classroom, except it is done over the Internet, so students can participate in it at
any time of day, whenever they are able. Participation in the discussion board is mandatory. Failure to participate will lower your
grade or cause you to fail the course. When I post assignments or questions about the material we are studying, you will respond
in two ways: first, you will post your own feedback to the assignment; second, you will post a response to remarks made by one
or two of your classmates. For many discussion board assignments, you must do both: you will post your own response to the
assignment; then, you must respond to comments made by one or two of your classmates.

Oops!

Sometimes I may give you an assignment and something that you need to complete it is not available to you because
of an error on my part. If there is a document, a discussion board item, dropbox link or any other item that is not visible to you
and it should be, please e-mail me to correct the problem as soon as possible. I try hard to have everything properly set up for
you at D2L. Still, every now and then I may miss something. Let me know if a problem occurs at D2L, and I will address the
matter as soon as I can.

Notes about E-mail

E-mail is our main means of communication. Be sure your e-mail settings do not filter out e-mail from me. If
necessary, change your e-mail settings so that e-mail from me does not end up being deleted or landing in your junk mail folder.
Please note that I check my e-mail daily Monday through Friday, except holidays. If you send me an e-mail, I will get back to you
as soon as I can, but it may not be for a day or two if you e-mail me over a weekend or holiday.
Sometimes, you may have to send an assignment to me via e-mail. Please remember the following when sending an
assignment by way of e-mail:
First, remember to save for yourself a copy of any assignment you e-mail to me.
Second, when you send the document, please include an identifier in the subject line of the e-mail message: enter
your name and the name of the assignment. For example, Jane Smith, comma exercise 2 would do fine.
Third, for short assignments (such as the answers to reading questions), pasting your document directly into your email program is easy and works well. For the short assignmentsthe assignments that are not essaysI would prefer that you
do the assignment in a word processor on your computer and then copy it and paste it into your e-mail program to send it.
English-Writing 300 Online

Fall 2015

Finally, if you must e-mail an essay to me, send your essay as an attachment so that it will not lose any of its
formatting. You should send any assignment that has intricate formatting (such as an essay with documentation) as an
attachment.

Rich Text Format (Alias RTF)

Microsoft Word is the preferred word processing program at Sac City, so when you send an attachment, you should
use Word or another program called WordPad to ensure that my office computer will be able to download your attachment. If you
want to send an attachment, but you use a computer program other than Word (such as Word Perfect, Microsoft Works, or a
different word processor on an Apple computer) to type your assignment, first, create your document. When you save your
finished assignment, give it a name. Below the file name, click on save as type, and from the menu choose rich text format,
which is a universal format that all computer word processors should be able to read. Using this format improves the chances
that my computer will be able to read your attachment. After saving your document in rich text format, attach it to the e-mail you
send me.

Important Notes to Remember

1.

How to access D2L:

a. Go to http://d2l.losrios.edu
b. Enter your username, which is a lower case w and your student ID number.
c. Enter your password, which is your Los Rios network password.
d. Click login.
e. On the welcome page, click on the link for our class.

2.

When you submit a paper, it will be checked for plagiarism, so be meticulous in your documentation of sources, and be sure
to avoid plagiarism. Remember, a plagiarized paper gets a zero as mentioned below.

3.

Receipts: When you submit a document to the Dropbox in D2L, you will receive via e-mail a receipt verifying the delivery of
your document. Do not delete these receipts. Keep them for a while.

4.

Please remember that this online class is not an automated class. I check D2L twice a week (as often as I would meet a
traditional class in a classroom), so if you post a question or concern on the discussion board, you will receive a response
within a day or two, depending on when you posted the question or concern.

5.

Remember to save all of the assignments you submit.

6.

Double-space all essay assignments you submit.

7.

I will save all of your graded documents until gbvMarch 1. I will then discard them.

Some Difficulties to Avoid

Late Essays and Late Homework

YOU MUST TURN IN YOUR ASSIGNMENTS BY THE STATED DEADLINE. You may turn in only ONE late
assignment. The MAXIMUM grade possible on this late assignment is a C (75% of the total points possible), AND you must
turn it in within one week of the original due date, or I will not accept it.

Attendance
This class has three required class sessions: the orientation, the midterm, and the final. Failure to attend any of these
sessions will result in a failing grade in the course. Furthermore, in my traditional face-to-face classes, I drop students on their
fourth absence. Likewise, in this online class, I will drop students if they fail to turn in four assignments.

Plagiarism and Cheating

When writers plagiarize, they present someone elses ideas and/or words as their own. Their work leads readers to
believe that they have thought something that actually is the product of another persons mind. If you plagiarize, you
misrepresent yourself; you mislead your readers; you commit an act of fraud.

English-Writing 300 Online

Fall 2015

At all costs, avoid plagiarism. If you use someone elses data, ideas, or words, then cite the source to give the author
credit. You should know how to cite sources, and we will study the proper methods for citing sources, so there will be no
excuses for plagiarism.
Turn in your own work. Do not turn in a paper that has been done by someone else. Your papers should be your own
ideas and your own writing. They should represent you, not someone else.
If you do plagiarize a paper, you will receive a zero on that assignment, which very possibly will cause you to fail the
course. Remember, use quotation marks and cite the source if you borrow another persons words. Also, cite the source if you
use ideas that are not yours and that are not common knowledge. Most of all, see me if you have any questionsany doubts
about plagiarism or citing sources.
Also, if you cheat in any way on a quiz or test, you will receive a zero on that quiz or test. The easiest way to get a
zero on an assignment is to get caught cheating, to turn in homework done by someone else, or simply not to do the assignment.
Using a cell phone during an in-class essay or quiz will result in a zero.

See you online!

English-Writing 300 Online

Fall 2015