Syllabus - English 101

9:30 – 10:45 am T/TH section 09

11:00 - 12:15 pm T/TH section 13

“…the point of semiotics in general – is that all social behavior is political in

the sense that it reflects some personal or group interest.”
- Maasik and Solomon

Instructor: Gary Schmitz Office: 319 - C Main Building

Phone 989-5589

E-mail: gschmitz@sc4.edu

Office Hours: Mon. 11:15 – 12:00, 1:15 – 2:00 pm

Weds. 11:15 – 12:00, 1:15 – 2:00 pm
Thurs. 12:15 – 1:45 p.m.
Fri. 10:00 – 11:30 am . . . and by appointment

Course Materials:
(Materials available at SC4 Bookstore, at www.sc4bookstore.com, or online)
° Maasik, Sonia, and Jack Solomon. Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for
Writers. 6th edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009.
° Hacker, Diana. A Writer’s Reference. 6th edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007.
° College dictionary, loose-leaf paper, pens, a stapler, a folder for your work
° Access to the internet
° A means to store your work electronically, and access to a computer that has Microsoft Word
° Blue Book or Green Book for the final exam

Appropriate Placement in This Course:

Each student is required to take the writing skills assessment given by the Academic Achievement
Center. The placement that results from this assessment is mandatory. Students must place into
English 101 either by their assessment scores (Compass or ACT) or by completion of English 050
and/or English 075.

Because English Composition courses are primarily skills courses, being in the course to which
your skills are suited is essential to your long-term success. However, even students appropriately
placed in Eng 101 are not automatically assured of success. Nothing assures success. Hard work
does help, though.

Course Description:
ENG 101 English Composition I. This course includes various types of current prose, a study of
English usage, and intensive practice in composition, all of which is designed to improve a
student's ability to express ideas in a clear, logical and forceful manner. Prerequisite: Successful
completion of writing assessment or ENG 050 or ENG 075. 3 credits = 3 lecture WR

Course Objectives:
 Eng 101 2

English 101 is a course in critical reading, thinking, and writing. An important goal of this course
is to prepare you for the academic level of writing required in college classes. By the end of this
course, you should be able to:

1. Read and interpret clearly texts and essays

2. Write various types of essays that:
A. Demonstrate critical thinking through a specific thesis supported with evidence

B. Are grammatically correct

C. Are clear and well-organized
D. Are correctly formatted, using the MLA format

Assignments:
You will be required to write four essays for this course. Initially, you will write the opening
paragraphs of a rough draft, and an outline, both of which I will critique. Later in the course, other
writers will look at your work as well. As your writing skills improve, you will take on more and
more responsibility for revision, and for asking for my feedback for the revisions. In addition, you
will be writing at least four “interpretive response papers” (IRP’s), which are homework
assignments that will be graded on a scale of one to twenty.

Please keep all of your work in a single folder, as well as copies of essays (rough and final drafts)
backed up, whether cd, USB thumb drive, or elsewhere. This way, you will have concrete
evidence of your work (and my responses), which will be available if a grade dispute should
occur. Crashed computers and lost disks are no excuse for late assignments. Therefore, you are
responsible for backing up all your work. Getting your work to me safely and on time is your
responsibility. Finally, I will not accept work via the Internet or on disk. It often does not open,
and I do not want to have to print out your hard copy for you.

• Rough Drafts:

For the first of your essay assignments, I will record my comments and suggestions in an
MP3 audio format, using a corresponding minimal marking system in your draft. I will
send the audio file as an attachment to an email sent to your college email address. You
can then open the MP3 file and listen to my feedback.

Rough drafts must be typed and stapled. No paper clips or folded corners.

For your other essays, your proofreading and rewriting skills should improve over the
course of the semester, so I will make fewer written or oral comments. Remember, you are
responsible for the quality of your work. Following my suggestions does not mean your
work will automatically be of “A” or “B” quality. One hint: I’ve found that the more work
a student puts into a rough draft—such as writing two or three rough drafts before handing
one in—the more successful the final draft is likely to be.

A second hint: take the first hint seriously. The failure to put time into your writing is
probably the single greatest factor in a lack of success. Conversely, the more you put into
your writing assignments, the greater your chances of success.

I will accept one "free" late rough draft per student per semester. Any other rough drafts
handed in late will receive less commentary from me -- or perhaps none at all, depending
on how late the draft is handed in. I will not accept a final draft if you have not handed in a
required rough draft.
 Eng 101 3

• Final Drafts:

Must be typed. I will not accept handwritten final drafts. Final drafts must also be
stapled. No paper clips or folded corners.

I will accept one “free” late final draft per student per term with the following restrictions:

1. Late papers must be turned in no later than one week from the original due date.
2. No late papers will be accepted for the final essay assignment.
3. Once you've used your "free" late final draft, any subsequent late final drafts will lose
three points per weekday. If a paper is due at the beginning of a class, and it is turned
in after that class, it will be considered late.

Conferences:
I have a variety of conference hours and an available by appointment as well. You are welcome to
drop in. You are paying for my time - get your money's worth! The students who come in to
discuss ideas and drafts are usually more successful than those who do not. If you don’t
understand something – an assignment, a word, a grammatical concept – ask! This can be done
after class, during conference times, or via phone or e-mail. More and more, students are finding
the use of e-mail a handy and quick way to get their questions answered.

Paper Format:
Final drafts must be typed. Use standard typing paper (no onion skin or neon colors) and double
space with about one and one half-inch margins (the default setting for your program). Please use
Microsoft Word.

Please put your name, course (English 101), time the class meets, and my last name in the upper
left-hand corner. These lines can be single or double spaced. Then skip a space, and write the date
in the upper left-hand corner as well. Skip another space, then center your title. From there on,
it’s all double spacing. On subsequent pages, put only your last name and, beneath that, the page
number in the upper right-hand corner. This means learning to insert a header. Not knowing
how to do so does not excuse you. Finally, please do not use a title page, but do title your work.

Please see the appropriate handout (“Getting the Format Right”) for a guide.

Grading:
Essays:

Grades for essays will be based on the four areas described under #2 of "Course Objectives"
section of this syllabus.

Rough drafts will not be graded, but you must, when asked, write and hand in a rough draft before
a final draft of that essay will be accepted. Final drafts will be assigned numerical grades, based
on the following scale:

• Essay #1 - 50 points
• Essay #2 - 100 points
• Essay #3 - 100 points
• Essay #4 - 100 points
 Eng 101 4
Interpretive Response Papers

Interpretive Response Papers (IRP’s) are homework assignments. These, too, must be typed. You
will be assigned seven IRP’s over the course of the semester, and you must do four of the seven for
a grade. You may write more than four and take the best four scores, or you may choose to write
only four of the seven. Since you need to do only four of the seven, there will be no makeups
allowed, particularly as the purpose of the IRP’s is to jump-start that day’s class discussion. IRP’s
are always due at the beginning of class. Always. The intention of the IRP’s is to encourage
students to do the readings and to come to class equipped to discuss the readings. Each IRP will be
worth twenty points, for a total of eighty.

Your grade for the course will be based on the following:

1. Four Essay grades. These will carry the most weight. (350 points)
2. 101 Library orientation (25 pts).
3. Attendance. Please see below.
4. Four Interpretive Response Papers (IRP’s) @ 20 points each – (80 points)
5. Final exam (100 pts)

The total number of points possible, then, will be 555. To figure your grade at any point in the
semester, simply divide the number of points possible into the number of points you’ve earned. For
example, at mid-term you should have grades for the first essay, plus maybe three IRP’s,
each worth twenty points. You would figure your grade like this:

Points Possible Points Earned

Assignment #1 50 36
IRP #1 20 14
IRP #2 20 15
IRP #3 20 16

Total: 110 81

By dividing 110 into 81, you will find you have an average of 73.6%.

The resulting percentage can be translated into a letter grade as follows:

100 - 93% A 79-78% C+

92 - 90% A- 77-73% C
89 - 88% B+ 72-70% C-
87 - 83% B 69-68% D+
82 - 80% B- 67-63% D
62-60% D-

Please note that excessive absences must be taken into consideration when figuring final grades (see
below).

Attendance:
If you miss more than three classes, your final grade will be dropped by one third of a grade for
each absence in excess of three. For example, if your final grade for the course is an A-, and you
have missed four classes, your final grade for the course would be a B+. If you miss five classes,
 Eng 101 5
your grade goes from the original A- to a B. And so on. If you miss more than six classes, be
prepared to either drop the class or fail. You have a responsibility to yourself, to your classmates,
and to me. Please attend, and be awake. If you appear to be asleep in class, or come to class late, I
will mark you as absent for that period of time.

This policy is much more generous than those in the workplace. Our class is scheduled to meet
thirty-one times; you get three “sick days.” That’s the equivalent of about thirty-five sick and
vacation days in the workplace for a year. Therefore, the three days should cover sickness, family
emergencies, deaths in the family, vacations, cars breaking down, working overtime, unreliable
friends, and just about everything else. Therefore, there are no “excused” or “unexcused”
absences. Please see the college catalog on the grade of “I” (incomplete); note there must be
extenuating circumstances for this to occur.

IMPORTANT: Please note that a final grade of a C- is the equivalent of a 1.7 grade point
average and will not transfer to many colleges and universities. A C- means below
average.

Technology in the Classroom

Any use of cell phones, including texting or checking messages, is prohibited in the classroom. If
you have an emergency and need to be available, keep your cell phone on vibrate and leave the
classroom to take the message. You will be counted as absent for the number of minutes you are
outside the classroom taking messages, texting, or talking. The use of cell phones in the
classroom is disruptive and disrespectful to your classmates and professor.

Laptops are also prohibited in the classroom unless you clear this with me first. Any use of a
laptop outside of note taking or research for English 101 is prohibited.

Class Participation:
Here I would like to include "ground rules" about class participation that came from a colleague,
Ed Stanulis. He has stated the case for the ground rules of participation so well that I reproduced
them here:

Class participation is EXPECTED -- that includes discussion, workshop sessions, and adequate
outside preparation. Yes, some people are shy – but will that excuse those people from having to
participate in meetings in the workplace? Probably not. Learning can be hard work, but it also
can be fun and exciting. I encourage open debate and honest discussion of issues. Here are my
ground rules for class participation:

_ I'm looking for discussion that generates light, not heat. It's O.K. to attack an idea with
reason and information. It's NEVER acceptable to attack the individual for his or her ideas.

_ Mutual respect and courtesy is to be extended to all class participants. Disruptive and rude
behavior will not be tolerated. Disruptive behavior cheats not only the individuals involved but
also other members of the class who have paid good money for a quality learning experience.

Plagiarism:

Plagiarism is using someone else’s words or ideas without crediting that person. Here are some
common examples, though this is not an exhaustive list:

1. Copying from another student’s paper, getting a paper from the Internet, or using words or
ideas from any source without giving credit (See Hacker or Maasik/Solomon for how to give
 Eng 101 6
credit to your sources).
2. Having a relative, friend, or someone else “revise” your work is plagiarism. If the paper has
your name on it, it’s supposed to be your writing. Yes, it’s okay to get suggestions and
feedback, but when someone starts writing words and sentences into your paper, changing
your language, that’s plagiarism. It’s supposed to be your work.
3. Using someone else’s words without quotation marks around those words is plagiarism –
even if you introduce that person (whose words you used) as a source.

Please see Hacker 344-47 and 358-61 on avoiding plagiarism

Plagiarism is unacceptable. A paper containing plagiarism will be failed, even if it is

unintentional, and the Vice President of Academic Services may be notified. If you are unsure at
all whether something you’ve written is plagiarism, please check your Hacker text (section
MLA-2) or see me before you turn it in. You are responsible for your work.

Please see the St. Clair County Community College Catalog (under “Academic Honesty”) for a
description of possible consequences of plagiarism. Remember, plagiarism is easily avoided and
will not be tolerated.

FINAL NOTE: If you have any questions about the syllabus, outline, or any concepts presented in
this class, ask. Feel free to ask questions.