Syllabus
Faculty:
Dr. Deborah Barshay
Email:
dbarshay@bridgew.edu
Office Hours:
I will respond to your questions, comments, etc., generally within 24 hours.
If you wish to drop by my "physical" office on campus, please feel free to
do so during my office hours. My office is in Tilly and my office hours are
T/Th 11:30-12:15.
Required Texts:
The Structure of Argument,
5th ed., by Annette T. Rottenberg and Donna Haisty Winchell. Bedford/St.Martin's,
2006.
The Research Process,
2nd ed., by Martin Manner. Mayfield Publishing Co., 2000.
Technical Support
If you have any technical questions, problems, etc., please call the Help
Desk at ext. 2555 (508-531-2555)or drop by the Open Access Lab on the first
floor of the Moakley Center, Room 130. You can also email them at: itsupport@bridgew.edu.
In addition, you can drop by the Support Center on the ground floor of the
Maxwell Library, Room 011. Their email address is: itsupport@bridgew.edu.
Course Description
Pre-requisite: ENGL 101
This writing course will continue to develop essential skills that the
student learned in the previous composition course, ENGL 101, but in this
course the student will practice the various techniques of
argumentation-persuasion, working individually and with a peer partner. The
writing will reflect the student's views from reading several
argumentative-persuasive essays and debates. A 5-week research component
will also be incorporated for learning basic research skills and integrating
the ideas of others into one's own text. Emphasis in this course is on
longer and more substantive essays as well as a research paper.
Course Objectives
1. Demonstrate the major components of an effective argument.
2. Demonstrate how to use logic and sound reasoning.
3. Demonstrate how to be a credible source for the reader.
4. Critically read and respond to argumentative essays.
5. Critically read and respond to advertisements.
6. Demonstrate the writing process: how to find a topic, narrow it,
generate an argument, organize material, draft and revise.
7. Demonstrate the research process: how to use research with writing
-- specifically, find sources, evaluate them, incorporate them smoothly into
one's own paper, document them in proper MLA format.
8. Clearly and concisely state one's points of view.
Teaching Approach:
Please keep in mind that this is not an Independent Study or correspondence
course. Consider each lesson as if you are going to class in a typical
(traditional) classroom. Other components of our course are as follows:
DISCUSSION BOARD POSTINGS (Threaded Discussions): The Discussion Board is
the place where you communicate with me and your peers. For many of the
chapters you will be required to respond to specific questions, exercises,
etc., and place your responses on the Discussion Board in the threaded
discussion. Please be sure your ideas are thoughtful and insightful, and
bear in mind my comments to the other students.
Ongoing student interaction is very important for the success of this
course. You will benefit gradewise from being active on the Discussion
Board at least 4 times a week, especially when it includes focused,
substantive comments on your peers' work and responding to my comments as
well.
I will consider the following categories to assess the quality of your
postings:
Promptness
and Initiative:
Refers to the student's ability to participate in the threaded discussions
in a timely fashion which demonstrates self-motivation. It permits
commentary on whether or not the student is actively engaging in the course
content.
Delivery of
Post:
Addresses the student's attention to detail in terms of being grammatically
correct with rare misspellings.
Relevance
of Post:
Permits an objective assessment of the student's ability to post topics that
are relevant to the original discussion with acknowledgement of references
if provided. It addresses the student who stays on topic as well as the
student who appears to disengage from the course content.
Expression
within the Post:
Addresses the issue of how well opinions are expressed and how ideas or
comments are presented.
Contribution to the Learning Community:
The assessment of whether or not the student makes an effort to further the
development of a collaborative learning experience.
(Adapted from "If You Build It, They Will Come: Building Learning
Communities Through Threaded Discussions" by Susan Edelstein and Jason
Edwards. Southwestern Assemblies of God University)
PEER PARTNERS: Throughout this course you will be working with a peer
partner (students acting as critical readers for each other) in order to
build upon and perfect your critical reading and writing skills. This will
assist you in acquiring a better perspective on your own writing.
It is imperative that you and your peer partner send each other your rough
drafts for each essay and comment on them. Failure for one of the partners
to consistently do so is not fair to the other partner and will result in a
lowered grade for your essay (one letter grade deducted). By the end of Week
2, I will post a list of peer partners.
WEB FIELD TRIPS: Occasionally I will mention online sources that might be
useful for you to take a look at. (for example, sources for grammar,
documentation, etc.) There is no need to post responses on the Discussion
Board for these online "field trips." They are just for your own use.
Course Activities and Grade Weights
3 essays (4-5 pages): 45%
Research Paper (6-8 pages): 35%
Discussion Board Postings: 20%
Please send all drafts to your peer partner and to me in order to have final
versions accepted.
Grading Scale
94-100%=A
90-93%=A-
87-89%=B+
84-86%=B
80-83%=B-
77-79%=C+
74-76%=C
70-73%=C-
67-69%=D+
64-66%=D
60-63%=D-
Below 60%=F
Format for Papers
*Use standard margins: 1" on all sides.
*Use 12 point font.
*Use double spacing throughout (Do not leave spacing between paragraphs).
*Indent each new paragraph.
*Number pages in upper right corner. Leave first page unnumbered.
*No subtitles within paper.
*Use MLA documentation.
*Do not use a cover sheet.
*Paper must have a title (in middle of page, 1/3 from top)
Format for name, etc., as follows:
Susie Student
ENGL102
Date Due
Essay #
Sending Papers
Please send the rough drafts and final versions of your essays via the
Digital Drop Box and not via the Discussion Board.
Due Dates
Due dates are very important to abide by. Generally, I will not accept late
assignments. Each lesson's assignments must be completed by the end of that
week's lesson (i.e. Sunday at 11:59 p.m., as our week runs from Monday 12:00
a.m. to Sunday evening at 11:59 p.m.)
If there are extenuating circumstances that are preventing you from meeting
the deadlines (personal problems, technical problems, etc.), please notify
me and we can make other arrangements for turning in your work. However,
as a general rule, there are no extensions for work in online courses; all
work must be completed within the required deadlines. Also, if you need
to withdraw from the course, please let me know.
Academic Honesty
Plagiarism is stealing someone else's ideas and/or words and presenting it
as your own. This is a very serious academic offense and can result in
failing the course and/or being terminated from the college. All research
must be properly documented so that credit may be given to the appropriate
source. If you are not clear about what needs to be documented, please ask
me.
Turnitin.com
Bridgewater is using Turnitin.com, an online plagiarism prevention service
and class management tool for students' and instructors' use. The service
allows both students and instructors to submit papers online and get
detailed Originality Reports with direct comparisons for each match. Each
submission is checked against the public Internet (2 billion+ pages),
Turnitin's database of submitted papers (1 million+), and proprietary
databases such as Project Guttenberg containing all the "classics." In
addition, multiple submissions of the same paper are not allowed. Violation
of this policy will result in an F for the course. If a paper has already
been submitted to Turnitin.com, when the second rendition of the paper is
submitted, it will check the second paper against the first, it will show
line by line the similarities in the two papers, and it will calculate the
percentage of similarity.
Class Etiquette
1. Respect fellow classmates. There is a great deal that we can learn from
each other, but this cannot happen if students feel uncomfortable in class
about speaking up (afraid that their ideas will be treated harshly or not
listened to respectfully) or are worried about what will be said to them or
about them once they do speak up. Make sure you do everything you can to
make our classroom culture a comfortable learning environment for everyone
in this class. There might be students from many different backgrounds and
with many different levels of academic preparation. You should all feel
comfortable and make each other comfortable with discussing the issues.
2. Use an appropriate tone of voice. Say what you need to say, but say it in
an appropriate tone of voice -- one that is respectful and calm. Sarcasm,
heavily judgmental or confrontational comments break down good will and
create an inhospitable classroom atmosphere. Bullying comments are
inappropriate and unacceptable in this class. If you are able to be funny
without offending others, feel free to do so, but please be careful.
3. Take responsibility for making this class successful. I am the
facilitator/professor, but class discussion will be largely the "work" of
you. Ask yourself what you can do during each class discussion to move the
class forward in a positive way.