Northwest-Shoals Community College / Spring 2003

English 101, Composition I

M/W Class, 8:00 am – 9:15 am

 

Instructor: Michael Patrick McClung, B.A., M.A.

256/331-6313

Office: AV-16

E-mail: mcclung@nwscc.edu

 

Required Texts: Writing With a Purpose, Joseph Trimmer (13th Edition)

                            Salvation on Sand Mountain, Covington (ISBN: 0-14-025458-7)

                            As I Lay Dying, Faulkner (ISBN: 0-679-73225-X)

 

Class Attendance: Students should attend all class meetings.  Students who miss more than 5 class meetings (that is, more than 20% of the course) will receive an F for the course regardless of the grades they have earned thus far.  Thus, students are discouraged from missing any class meeting unless a genuine emergency arises.  If you are absent due to sickness, you do not need to bring a doctor’s excuse to the instructor; unlike high school, there are no “excused” absences—absent is absent for whatever reason.

 

Make-up Policy: Students who miss essays or exams are allowed to make up the assignment, but the missed work must be completed within one week of its due date.  No work will be accepted beyond this extra time allowance.  Make up essays and exams are painful and inconvenient for everyone involved, so the student is advised to be here any time an essay or exam is scheduled.

 

Conferences: Students are encouraged to speak with the instructor at any time during the semester about their progress and improvement.  However, students should not at any time during the semester tell the instructor what grade they “just have to have.”  Example: “Oh, Mr. McClung, I need to bring up my GPA, and I just have to have a B in this class!”

 

Grades: Your final course grade will come from performance on essays, exams, and any other assignments that the instructor gives (such as daily reading quizzes).  Essays will comprise much of the course content, and they will be judged based on development and support, grammar and mechanics, thesis and organization, unity, coherence, and diction.  Essays turned in late will be graded more stringently than those written and turned in on time.

 

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA): It is the policy of NW-SCC to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).  Any student covered under this act needing and desiring reasonable accommodations for this class should notify the instructor by the end of the second week of classes.  Students may not claim to have a disability at the end of the term and then request special treatment, change of grade, etc.

 

Academic Citizenship: The following are some things you need to know about being a student in this course or any other college course.  (1) You may not habitually come to class late; tardiness is rude and it is a distraction.  Repeated or habitual tardiness indicates gross ignorance of academic amenities.  The instructor will take special notice of those who are repeatedly late to class, and habitual tardiness will result in a lower final course grade for the student; (2) You must purchase the required books for the course; the books are not optional; (3) You may not talk and carry on conversations with your friends and neighbors while the instructor is talking; (4) You may not sleep in class or work on class work for other courses; (5) It is your job to look interested during class time even if you are not; this is one of the most important lessons you can learn in life; (6) You will not allow a cell phone to ring under any circumstances during class time; in fact, throw your cell phone in the garbage today on your way out of class—every time you use a cell phone, it decreases your intelligence substantially; (7) If you copy essays or portions of essays off the Internet and turn them in as your own work, you will be found guilty of plagiarism and will have an F in the course as of that day; taking someone else’s writing—whether from the Internet or any other print source—and presenting it as your own is a serious academic offense.

 

About Your Professor: Mr. McClung received his B.A. degree in English from the University of North Alabama (1993) and his M.A. degree in English from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (1995).  He has taught in the English Departments of UAB, UNA, and NW-SCC.

 

Course Schedule:

 

1/13:  Introduction

          Seating Assignment

          Syllabus

 

1/15:  Writing With a Purpose, 1-25

          Short Lab – Diagnostic Writing Assignment

                ** Bring a new, labeled, formatted diskette to class

 

1/20:  King/Lee Holiday; No Class

 

1/22:  WP, 26-78; (recommended: pages 116-117

                              on paragraph writing)

 

1/27:   Description

          WP, 109 (bottom) – 111; 413-24

 

1/29:   Assignment TBA

 

2/3:    Description Essay (written in class by hand)

 

2/5:    Comparison & Contrast

          WP, 112-14; 434-44

 

2/10:   Lab – 2X, C/C Essay Draft #1

 

2/12:   Comparison & Contrast Discussion cont.

           Photocopied handouts

               

2/17:   Lab – 2Y, C/C Essay Draft #2 (on paper, in classroom)

 

2/19:   Begin Salvation on Sand Mountain

 

2/24:   Lab – 2A, C/C Final Draft

 

2/26:   Conclude Salvation on Sand Mountain

 

3/3:     Quiz and Essay on SoSM (in classroom, on paper)

 

3/5:     Videos on SoSM

 

3/10:   Definition

           WP, 117-19; 453-59

 

3/12:   Lab – 4X, Definition Draft #1 (in classroom, on paper)

 

3/17:   Definition discussion continued

    

3/19:    Lab – 4Y, Definition Draft #2 (in classroom, on paper)

 

3/24:    No Class / Spring Break

3/26:    No Class / Spring Break

 

3/31:    Process Analysis

            WP, 111-12; 424-33; “The Value of C”

                   p. 303+

 

4/2:     Lab – 4A, Definition Final Draft (in classroom)

 

4/7:     Argument / Persuasion

           Source & Documentation handout

           WP, 131-63; 468-82

 

4/9:     Lab – 5A, Process Essay (in classroom, on paper)

 

4/14:   Lab – 6A, (1st of 3 labs)

 

4/16:   Begin As I Lay Dying

 

4/21:   Continue As I Lay Dying

 

4/23:   Lab – 6A, (2nd of 3 labs)

 

4/28:   Lab – 6A, (3rd of 3 labs)

 

4/30:   Complete As I Lay Dying

 

 5/5:    Résumé – handouts and discussion

 

Final Exam Time: Wednesday, May 7, 8:00 am – 10:00 am

7A, Essay and Quiz on Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying


___________________________________________________

 

 

If you feel you need more basic information on writing than our class discussion has yielded, consider the following chapters in your Writing With a Purpose book:

 

bullet Chapter 7 on writing paragraphs
bullet Chapter 8 on constructing sentences
bullet Chapter 9 on diction/word choice
bullet Chapter 10 on tone and style