Freshman Composition - Accelerated English 101 zoooom!

"The truth is out there... .
Believe the lie."
chris carter

English 101 -- John Corbally -- jrcorbally@gmail.com
Note: for summer classes I will not be on campus; please contact me via e-mail

English 101 is the primary transfer-level English composition course. It is designed to help a student develop increased competence in writing which is lively, informative and carefully structured; increased competence in research techniques and documentation; increased competence in critical thinking and reading. This 3-unit course is fully transferrable to both UC and CSU.

who took the box?
the theme of this section of English 101

The focus of this section of English 101 is looking closely at the world around us in fresh and different ways. We have a lot of assumptions about the nature of life, the universe, and everything, but many of our ideas are things we have never really challenged or even thought about. We believe a lot of things because we have been told them, and we sometimes just accept what we are told. Consider that one of the most defining beliefs in many people's lives is religion. How many people know and will sometimes fight to the death the idea that Hinduism is the one true religion or that Christianity is the one true religion or that the Native American Church is the one true religion? Now, how many of those people believe this just because their parents told them, "You are a Hindu? You are a Christian? You are a member of the Native American Church?" Stop and consider how many people there are in the world. There are that many perspectives about what is true and real in the world. Based on different backgrounds, different experiences, different strengths/weaknesses, different imaginations, there are billions of "truths" in the world, and our job, in college/university, is to try to understand and be able to articulate more and more of them.

This semester you will be expected to look incredibly closely at everything from video games to Barbie dolls. You'll chart past and current trends and speculate on the future, all the while trying to analyze the significance of this stuff that seems so common and insubstantial but which actually is the material signaling many of our values and ideas. We are going to explore many ways people are trying to break free from conventional thinking; ideally we will not only think outside the box, with luck we may lose sight of that box entirely.

This is not a class in personal beliefs or opinions or abstractions or vague, general thoughts. It is a course in concrete details, examples, incidents. You WILL make a number of claims about the world and the things in it this semester.

What I will always require you to do is to back up those claims with evidence.

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: Our Class Schedule is the most important page on our class website; it is the hub that allows you to reach nearly everything (lectures, discussion questions, paper topics, etc.) in the class. 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 (mark as "Favorite") the Class 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.

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: 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 a Canvas 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.

Student Learning Objectives

Students who complete this course successfully should, minimally, be able to

• Apply critical reading and thinking skills to various freshman composition level readings including essays and the novel.


• Write freshman-level essays that follow the various stages of essay writing, including prewriting, thesis development, illustration and support of the thesis using concrete, specific evidence/examples, editing, proofreading and which are free of most errors in syntax, grammar, punctuation, diction, and spelling, and which demonstrate understanding of effective college-level argumentation by producing logically supported arguments and by recognizing and avoiding common logical fallacies.


• Produce a research paper which utilizes the various elements of research production, such as designing a research plan, compiling research notes, developing a draft, producing a finished paper that utilizes at least five sources and has a complete MLA-format Works Cited page.

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. Likewise, using AI (such as ChatGPT) to write your papers for you is cheating; it is not YOU demonstrating that YOU can articulate YOUR OWN IDEAS.

• 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.

• Title IX (of the 1972 Education Amendments) protects students and staff alike from discrimination based on sex, including Sexual Harassment and Sexual Assault, which are forms of Sexual Misconduct. Under Title IX, all people in the educational environment must be treated equitably, regardless of sex, sexual orientation or expression, and/or transgender identity. For more information: http://www.laccd.edu/Departments/DistrictResources/OfficeOfDiversity/TitleIX/Pages/default.aspx
  If you have experienced or learned of a possible violation of Title IX and/or would like to know about options, resources (including confidential services), the law, or District policy, please do not hesitate to contact a Title IX Coordinator.
  LAHC Campus Title IX Coordinators : Peggy Loewy Wellisch (310) 233-4321 loewywp@lahc.edu & Dawn Reid (310)233-4237 reidd@lahc.edu District Title IX Office: Office for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (213) 891-2315 TitleIX@email.laccd.edu

If you do not agree to all of the above requirements, do not take this course.

Textbooks and Software

                Required Texts

• There are several readings available to you on Canvas in the Files section. These are not optional readings, and, in fact, many of the assignments you do absolutely require you to quote and cite directly from these readings.

• There are also some links to readings/videos on the Class Schedule page; those are also required.

• You will also be locating some sources on you own which you will read and use to put together your assignments/papers.

                  Required Software

  You do need some sort of browser (such as FireFox or Chrome or Safari), an e-mail program and word processing software. You will need to check your laccd e-mail account periodically (all broadcast announcements go to those accounts), but it is easy to have that e-mail forwarded to your personal e-mail account (which is often more reliable). Instructions on forwarding from the laccd e-mail are on the LAHC website.

  NOTE: do not try to take this course on a tablet or on a smartphone. If you do not have your own laptop or desktop, I would normally suggest you use one at the college library or at a public library (once those re-open, that is still a good plan); for now, though, you might have to ask friends or relatives. The volume of word processing and the need for MLA formatting (a college/university standard) make a computer a must for this class. NOTE: during Spring, Student Services on campus had a program to actually give students in need chromebooks, yes, free. You could check with Dean Dorado's office to see if that program is still available.

  You will need to be able to open/read .pdf and .docx files; the readings on Canvas are stored in these formats. This should not be a problem because Adobe Reader is a free download (and is likely on your computer already). Newer versions of Word actually open .pdf documents.

  For essays I use Word, so you do need some software that will allow you to save your files as .doc, .docx or .rtf documents (most do). I can also read .pdf.

  DO NOT send me files via Google DOCS or OneDrive for Business. Yes, Google is convenient, but the required MLA format is often lost in Google DOCS, and papers not in the corrrect format will not be accepted. Also, about 1/2 of the files on OneDrive are not available to me.

  There is no reason for you not to use Word. Every student in the LACCD has access to Word 365 for FREE. Click here for information on accessing the free Student Version of Word 365. You can also set up (and forward) your student e-mail here; Announcements to the Class go to your school e-mail account, so you must either look at that regularly or have the mail forwarded to your private e-mail account. Please DO NOT TURN ANNOUNCEMENT NOTIFICATIONS OFF.

  More on how to submit your essays, how to set up your papers in MLA format, etc. can be found here on our Writing Assignments page.

  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.

  Grades will be available for view on Canvas.

  For more information about what constitutes an "A" paper (or not), click here. Note: if you would like to see what an "A" paper for this class looks like, there are links to sample papers from both the grades page and the writing assignments page.

  And for specific information on extra credit, revisions, essay requirements, visit the class Writing Assignments page; for more details on how to score high on class discussions, visit the class Discussion page.

John Corbally
Los Angeles Harbor College
(310) 233-4239
JRCORBALLY@GMAIL.COM

copyright © John Corbally