General Nature of the Course
This course functions very much like a correspondence course; the chief difference is the electronic environment and your relatively immediate access to your instructor (me). Also instead of students submitting work on paper, assignments are submitted, commented upon and returned via e-mail; lecture material, course deadlines, assignment information are available via the internet.
Class Schedule: You will need to regularly keep track of assignment (reading and writing) due dates by referring to the Class Schedule. It is up to you to keep up with assignment deadlines. I highly recommend that you bookmark the Schedule page.
Lectures: There are a series of online lectures on topics related to your reading and writing. Be sure to read the lecture material for each week listed because this should help you to understand what some of my expectations and special concerns are about your reading and writing. To get to the different lectures, click on the links to Lecture 1, Lecture 2, etc. on the Class Schedule.
Essays: Much of your grade is based on your written assignments. There are detailed instructions on how to produce and submit essays on the class Writing Assignments page. Read over this material very carefully; there are requirements on length, file format, MLA format, etc. that you need to know. Specific paper topic instructions can be reached through the links on the Class Schedule page or the Writing Assignments page.
Class Discussions: Most of the rest of your grade will be based on class discussions of certain questions relating to the readings. Discussions will be conducted with the entire class on an ETUDES message board (more information is available on the Discussions page). Be sure that you read this page thoroughly so that you can earn maximum discussion points. To get to individual discussion questions, click on the links to Discussion 1, Discussion 2, etc. on the Class Schedule.
Miscellaneous: There may be some miscellaneous short activities (such as the class Orienatation Assignment) that will be done in the Assignments/Tests section of ETUDES. These will be noted on the Class Schedule.
Are you starting to see why I recommend you bookmark the Class Schedule page? It is leads out to all other sections of the class :)
Student Learning Objectives
Student who complete this course successfully should, minimally, be able to- read and critically evaluate college level material from a variety of sources
- analyze, synthesize, and evaluate ideas found in a variety of sources
- differentiate fact from opinion in critical and scholarly works
- detect prejudice and recognize the tone used by the author
- distinguish and use both inductive and deductive reasoning
- distinguish and use both denotative and connotative aspects of language
- demonstrate continued development in writing sophisticated English prose, including MLA-format research
Student Responsibilities
Your responsibilities for this course are really the same as those of any student taking any course with the following addition: you have to keep reminding yourself what is required (assignment dates, rules, etc.) because you don't have an instructor in the front of a room reminding you every class.
You will do all of the assignments. This means you need to look at the Course Schedule often to make sure when work (reading, writing, lectures, discussions) are due. Keep up with all lectures, readings, discussions, writing assignments.
You will have all of the textbooks for this course. You need not buy them, but all assigned readings are required.
You will seek all legitimate help with your course work. That means that when you have questions you will e-mail me immediately or come see me during my office hours on campus. You should also consider taking English 67 (the Writing Lab) if you need additional tutoring.
You will not cheat. It's fine to get legitimate help; it's not all right to plagiarize. I am well aware that papers can be bought. I am also very savvy about finding those papers (both in print sources and on the internet). The English Department at LAHC has several resources (one is Plagiserve; there are several others) which allow us to track stolen or bought papers.
You will not threaten or belittle (or flame) other students in class discussions. DO feel free to present opposing arguments on ANY subject, but do not personally attack others in the class.
You will be bound by all other codes of student conduct listed in the college catalogue.
If you do not agree to all of the above requirements, do not take this course.
Textbooks
Required Texts:
Station Eleven, Mandel
Antigone, Sophocles
Various shorter readings
(these are listed on the Class Schedule or the Writing Assignments pages) are in the Resources section on Etudes. My sixteen-week class has these readings (and more) in an anthology; the amount of time we would lose as students waited for textbook financial aid in this eight-week class would make 1/2 the class fall behind and never catch up, so the readings are there for you day one (alas, that means you have no excuses not to do all of the reading :)
NOTE: see the information on where to get textbooks in the sidebar (the pinkish box to the right).
Grading
Each assignment will receive a point score; letter grades are based on percentages (90-100% = A; 80-89% = B; etc.); for example, if a discussion is worth 20 points possible, and if you score a 16, then you have scored 80% which equals a B for that assignment.
At the end of the semester, your overall score will be converted into a percentage of the points possible for the entire course to determine your letter grade for the course.
Points Break Down Like this:
- There is the initial orientation assignment (20 points possible)
- the first four regular discussion questions are worth 20 points each (4 X 20 = 80 possible)
- The three shorter essays are worth 50 points each; however, I will drop the lowest of those three scores, (so they add up to 100 total)
- Station Eleven Project Research Paper (100 points possible)
- Station Eleven Final Project (100 points possible)
That = 400 total points possible, and everything counts: consider this:
If you do well on just about everything (let's say you average 95% on the shorter essays, the research paper, and the final project). 95% of 300 is 285 points--really excellent! But wait, there are 400 points in the class. If you tanked on the orientation quiz and if you just did not do the discussions, your percentage would now be 71.25% (oops! your A turned into a C-). So do your best, turn everything in, grab the highest point total you can.
Here's a little something to help you out: if you looked at the Class Schedule, you might have noticed FIVE discussions (not four). That last discussion is a Bonus Discussion. It is completley optional, but it is worth 20 extra credit points. So if you have to miss a discussion (don't miss lots of them), or if you have to turn a paper in late and take a penalty, the extra credit will wipe out that penalty :)
General Information about Essays
The 50-point essays will generally require you to develop papers of a minimum of two to four full typed pages (the research paper will be longer) in standard MLA format (see below) to adequately cover the topic. You'll want to use specific examples whenever possible. Feel free to draw on personal experience, but that's generally not enough to support your thesis. Content is most important with these essays, but I will look closely at the form of the essays as well, so you'll need to edit and proofread to eliminate as many of the spelling, punctuation, grammar, syntax errors as possible to earn a high score.
NOTE: these are not just personal opinion papers.
These are, for the most part, analytical essays. Even if you find an occasion where it is appropriate to include personal experience, you will be supporting a thesis (the central idea/point you are trying to develop/prove) with examples/evidence--that is the essence of an argument/analysis. Depending on the writing task, you will generally be required to include a lot of supporting examples (documented quotations) from the readings themselves. This is true both for the essays and the class discussions.
For more information about what constitutes an "A" paper (or not), click here.
MLA Essay Format
All essays must be in standard MLA (Modern Language Association) format; this is the format you should have learned in English 101. College and university academic standards require that papers written in the humanities (there is a different format for scientific papers) be submitted in this format.
For complete information on what this format looks like, refer to your Engish 101 writer's handbook (if you still have it). I have also included a copy of a sample MLA paper with some instructions that you can look at here (I've saved the files in two formats; you should be able to open at least one); please open and read this file, and review it before you do your first essay (or print it out to refer to as you write your papers)::
Sample MLA Essay in Word (.doc) Format
Sample MLA Essay in Rich-text (.rtf) Format
You can also find information on the MLA format and more general information on academic writing at the following web site:
You can also visit the school's Writing Lab in the Learning Assistance Center for more help.Please look over the format of your essay before you submit it. You will lose points for incorrectly-formatted papers; in some cases, essays will not be accepted if the format is too far from the MLA standards.
Late Work and Revisions
Try to get all work in on time. Late essays will always be penalized. A late essay will lose 10% of the total score. NOTE: Any essay that is more than one week late will receive no credit! To avoid a late penalty (or a zero), it's a very good idea to submit work early. Always keep a copy of your work in case it gets lost or misplaced in the e-mail.
Revisions are super, but in an eight-week class, there's just no way. Instead, I will drop the lowest of your shorter-paper scores. You can use that to your advantage too: if you do really well on the first two shorter papers, then you can just skip paper 3. I do not recommend skipping either Paper 1 or Paper 2 assuming you will nail Paper 3; what if you have to move your sister to a new apartment? what if you get a bad cold? what if you are called in to work extra shifts? It happens. It's not worth the risk :)
Extra Credit
The Final class discussion is optional and is worth 20 bonus points.