Xiaoping Yen
ENG101 Office: E103 Tel: 482-5682 Email: yenxi@lagcc.cuny.edu
Office Hours: Wednesday 1:00-2:00, Thursday 11:45-12:45.
Welcome to your first college-level writing course. This class will prepare you to write the kind of full essays required in college coursework. Writing is a process, and this course will guide you through it. Hence, you will learn how to gather ideas, draft, write, revise, and proofread. During class, you will discuss your ideas and drafts with your peers and your instructor. You will also learn how to consider audience, voice, and purpose; how to synthesize and evaluate material; and then how to shape it into organized essays that support a thesis or central idea in vivid, effective language.
1. During the term you will do a good deal of formal and informal writing in response to various texts (written, visual, and aural). Formal writing will include an ungraded diagnostic in addition to a minimum of five graded essays including an in-class midterm and an in-class two-hour final exam. Two out of three take-home essays will integrate at least two sources, and the other essays, including those written in class (excluding the diagnostic), will integrate at least one source. Any failing essays, except the diagnostic and final, must be revised. Essays with a grade of “D” or above may be revised at your instructor’s discretion (except for the diagnostic and final). Students must follow their instructor’s policies for revisions. In-class and out-of-class essays must be a minimum of 600 words.
2. You must have met the prerequisites in order to take this course, such as passing the ACT Tests; see the “University Testing Policies and Procedures” section in the College Catalog.
3. You will need to buy the required text(s) and materials including a dictionary (which you may also use for in-class essays), appropriate size paper, and, if required by your instructor, a computer disk or USB stick (flash drive). During the semester, you should keep all of your papers.
4. Your instructor may ask that your essays be written on theme paper or typed. In your physical preparation of the manuscript – including titles, margins, spacing, and documentation – you will be required to follow MLA style.
5. You will discuss and analyze various types of texts for their style and content. Observing the ideas and strategies of writers and artists will help you make effective choices in your own writing.
6. Research plays a key role in college writing and beyond. To help you gain skills in this area, all essays (excluding the diagnostic) will integrate primary and/or secondary sources. You will attend a library orientation session in order to learn how to find books, newspaper, and magazine articles, and other sources to cite and discuss in your essays. Your instructor will guide you through the process of finding, evaluating, analyzing, and integrating relevant sources, using quotations, paraphrases, and summaries in your papers, and using correct MLA format for parenthetical documentation and the Works Cited page. You may be required to submit your sources for research essays. You will also learn to avoid plagiarism. Any student who plagiarizes will be given a failing grade.
7. Your instructor will respond to your papers in written, typed, and/or recorded comments, and/or in conferences. The instructor will evaluate and grade your written work according to content, organization, style, grammar, and/or other criteria. Your instructor will also make suggestions for revision. You must satisfy the requirements for each assignment. Your instructor may also require that you do supplementary work in grammar, including attending tutorial sessions in the Writing Center. Part of this feedback may come from in-class peer review.
8. Tutors in the Writing Center (E-111) are available for additional help in improving your writing skills. The Writing Center provides free tutoring in writing. You are encouraged to use the Writing Center to help you revise your essays, to practice your writing, and to work on areas that are giving you problems. Your instructor may require that you go to the Center to work on specific writing problems that s/he identifies.
9. Classroom learning is essential to this course. Therefore, class participation and punctuality are mandatory and are requirements for passing ENG101. You may have no more than four hours of absences. According to the College’s 2007 – 2008 Catalog, “Absences are counted from the first day of class even if they are a result of late registration or change of program” (117).
10. Your course grade will be computed on the basis of the quality of the written work, e.g. essays, quizzes, tests, journals, ePortfolios, which you hand in on time. Your instructor will inform you of exactly how your grades will be determined. There are no incompletes in this course.
12. Your instructor will give you a detailed syllabus.
Textbooks:
Skloot, Rebecca. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. New York: Broadway, 2011.
Print.
Raimes, Ann. Keys for Writers: A Brief Handbook. Latest edition. New York: Houghton
Mifflin. Print.
Course Evaluation:
Essay #1 15%
Essay #2, in-class 15%
Essay #3, research 20%
Essay #4, research 20%
Essay #5, in-class 15%
Other writing assignments 15%
Grade Equivalents:
| A = 93.0 + A- = 90.0 – 92.9 B+ = 87.0 – 89.9 B = 83.0 – 86.9 B- = 80.0 – 82.9 C+ = 77.0 – 79.9 | C = 73.0 – 76.9 C- = 70.0 – 72.9 D+ = 67.0 – 69.9 D = 63.0 – 66.9 D- = 60.0 – 62.9 F = 59.9 or below |
Tentative Weekly Schedules:
9/9 Introduction to English 101. Diagnostic essay.
Homework: “The Exam” (13-17).
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9/14 How to summarize and quote. Writing assignment #1.
Homework: “Clover” (18-26).
9/16 How to summarize and quote continued. Writing assignment #2.
Homework: “Diagnosis and Treatment” (27-33) and “The Birth of HeLa” (34-41).
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9/21 How to respond to readings. Writing assignment #3.
9/23 No class.
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9/28 Discussion of the readings. How to respond to readings continued. Essay #1 topic.
9/30 No class
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10/5 Essay #1 due. Grammar review.
Homework: “Blackness Be Spreadin All Inside” (42-48) and “A Miserable Specimen” (63-66).
10/7 No class
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10/12 Essay #1 review: “They say, I say, structure and grammar.” Writing assignment #4.
Homework: “The Devil of Pain Itself” (83-86)
10/14 Writing assignment #5. Discussion of the reading. Grammar review.
Homework: “The Storm” (89-92).
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10/19 Writing assignment #6. Discussion of the reading. How to prepare for an in-class essay.
10/21 Essay #2, in-class.
Homework: “The Helen Factory” (93-103) and “Too Young to Remember” (110- 117)
Last day to officially withdraw-October 25
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10/26 Essay #2 review. Discussion of the reading. Introduction to research: Lexis-Nexis.
Homework: “Illegal, Immoral, and Deplorable” (127-136).
10/28 Discussion of the readings. Essay #3 topic
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11/2 How to structure a researched essay. Model research paper. MLA format.
11/4 Research workshop
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11/9 Introduction to research continued: Academic Search Premier.
11/11 Essay #3 due.
Homework: “Night Doctors” (158-169).
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11/16 Essay #3 review. Discussion of the reading. Essay #4 topic.
11/18 Research workshop.
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11/23 Research workshop
11/25 No class.
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11/30 Research workshop
12/2 Essay #4 due.
Homework: “’Who Told You You Could Sell My Spleen’” (199-206) and other readings.
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12/7 Essay #4 review.
12/9 Discussion of the readings. How to prepare for the final.
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12/12 Monday redefined as Wednesday. Essay #4 rewrite due.
12/14 Essay #5, in-class.
12/16 Individual conferences. Grades distributed.
Important Information:
1. Prepare for class by completing reading assignments at home.
2. Submit all writing assignments on time. Late work will receive a lower grade. Assignments that are more than one week late will not be accepted.
3. You may revise your essays (except for the final) for a higher grade. The initial grade and the rewrite grade will be averaged. You must revise your essays if they receive failing grades. When you hand in the revised essays, you also need to submit the original essays on which the revision is based.
4. If your essays have serious grammar errors, you must go to the Writing Center for additional help.
5. Do not plagiarize. Any student who plagiarizes will be given a failing grade.
6. Attend class regularly. More than four hours of absence will result in failing the course. Even if you have legitimate and documented excuses, you may not have more than eight hours of absences.
7. When absent, you are responsible for having all assigned work-both reading and writing-done by the time you return to work. Exchange phone numbers and email addresses with two classmates so you can help one another obtain specifics of an assignment or lecture/discussion notes.
8. Tardiness will also affect your grade: three late arrivals = one hour of absence, more than 20 minutes late = one hour of absence, and early departure without permission = one hour of absence.
9. Turn off cell phones before you enter the classroom. Do not use any electronic devices.
10. Do not eat or sleep in class.
11. It is my job to help you. Please let me know if you have any comments or suggestions about the class. You can talk to me in person, or if you prefer, you can leave notes in my mailbox.
