English 110: Writing and Research

Class Syllabus English 110: Writing and Research

Notice to Students: You may retrieve your graded work from Kathy Hafler’s office (Faculty Towers 102D), Beginning Monday, 12/04/06 at 9 a.m. All work will be placed in a box with my name on it.

Thanks for being a student in my class.

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English 110, Section 2 (CRN 42290) Instructor: Neal Stanifer Class Time and Location: Website: www.csub.edu/~nstanifer T 8-10:05 a.m. in DDH 103G Office: FT 204F R 8-10:05 a.m. in EDUC 128 Office Hours: TR 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Lab Time and Location: Office Phone: 654-3069 W 9:30-10:50 a.m. in WSL 202 e-mail: [email protected]

Prerequisite: Total English Placement Test score of 155 or higher OR a grade of C- or higher in English 100 or its equivalent OR other equivalent test scores.

Students must earn a grade of C or higher in English 110 to satisfy the General Education requirement for A2 (Writing and Reading). This grade is also a prerequisite for upper- division composition courses and the Graduation Writing Assessment Requirement exam.

To be eligible for a C in English 110, students must earn a C or higher on at least one in- class writing assignment.

Course Description: Practice in expository writing, including the college term paper. Includes frequent reading and writing assignments. The Library Lab is required (4 one- hour twenty-minute sessions per term, starting the fourth week of classes). Texts and Materials: The texts and materials listed below must be secured by all students attending this class. Students should be sure to obtain the proper editions of listed texts. Required Texts Ehrenreich, Barbara. Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America. New York: Holt, 2002. This text is available in our bookstore, even if it is not on the shelf with our class texts. Lester, James D., and James D. Lester, Jr. Writing Research Papers: A Complete Guide. Eleventh Edition. New York: Pearson Longman, 2005. Maasik, Sonia, and Jack Solomon. Signs of Life in the U.S.A: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers. 5th edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006. Troyka, Lynn Quitman. Quick Access: QA Compact. Pearson/Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2007. Collegiate dictionary. Any publisher. Required Materials Notebook or filler paper Pens and pencils Stapler At least three large examination bluebooks for in-class work Course Goals: At the end of ten weeks, students in English 110 should be able to do the following: 1. read and write literally, interpretively, and analytically or critically; 2. recognize the differences among thesis statements, topic sentences/main ideas, and supporting details/evidence; 3. understand how the thesis statement, topic sentences, and supporting details work together; 4. recognize a writer’s tone and how it informs a text’s statements; this includes analyzing diction and syntax; 5. identify an author’s thesis statement and abstract the main points of support; 6. present a clear and complete thesis statement; 7. present appropriate details, examples, and definitions as support; 8. fully develop arguments and write cohesively using adequate transitions; 9. analyze a potential audience and use an appropriate style and tone; 10. use a variety of sentence structures; 11. use exact and concise words and phrases; 12. identify good, reputable sources that are useful to a particular assignment; 13. abstract information from sources and synthesize it; 14. integrate sources and original thoughts smoothly; 15. outline, draft, write, revise, and edit a persuasive college-level term paper using standard, edited American English; 16. write a research paper using correct documentation (APA, MLA, CSE, or Chicago Manual); 17. identify and avoid plagiarism; 18. understand the difference among a summary, a paraphrase, and a direct quotation; 19. use basic library research techniques.

Class Theme: Our class will center on the theme of “popular culture,” and this theme will be reflected in our course readings, as well as the students’ choices of research topics. We will be using a semiotic approach to our theme whenever possible, in an attempt to provide students with a complex but manageable theoretical tool with which to critically examine cultural objects, trends, and other phenomena.

Assignment Types:

1. Summary – Students will be asked to write several objective, informative summaries of class readings. These summaries should identify the thesis and major points of readings, while cutting out minor details, and examples. All summaries must be properly documented, and must contain attribution which connects them to the source reading. At least one of these summaries will be completed in class. 2. Paraphrase – Students will be asked to write several objective, informative paraphrases of portions of class readings. A paraphrase must represent every idea in the original source, but must completely change the wording and syntax of the original. Paraphrases must be properly documented, and must contain attribution which connects them to the source reading. At least one of these paraphrases will be completed in class. A paraphrase completely alters the words and sentence structure of a source, while effectively conveying the ideas of the original. Paraphrase is most often used to blend the ideas of another writer’s text with the prose style of our own work.

3. Critique – The critique analyzes and evaluates another writer’s argument, paying careful attention to its structure, style, tone, logic, and/or use of evidence. Students will be provided with a source for their critique. The critique will be 3-4 pages in length, and must clearly address the strengths and weaknesses of the source argument.

4. Argumentative Synthesis – The argumentative synthesis brings together the arguments of three separate sources in order to establish and argue an original position. Students will be asked to select their three sources from among their own research sources, and their resulting argumentative synthesis may form a part of their final research paper. The synthesis assignment itself will be 3-4 pages in length, and it must be organized along a point-by-point model, not a source-by-source model. In other words, students must not simply summarize each source in turn, but must instead synthesize all the sources throughout the paper, in the service of an original position.

5. Common Essay – This is an in-class writing assignment in which all English 110 classes participate. You will be presented with a prompt, and you will be asked to write an essay in response to that prompt. Your resulting essays will then be sent for group- grading by instructors other than your own. The purpose of this assignment and the group-grading is partly to ensure that CSUB’s English composition instructors are grading within reasonable parameters. But this assignment isn’t just a graded essay; it’s also a chance for good writers to distinguish themselves. There will be a winner chosen from among the Common Essay participants, and that winner will be mentioned prominently in English Department communications, among other things.

6. Research Project – This assignment is made up of several smaller assignments, and it will form the focus of our work for most of this quarter. Its parts are listed below. Note: Students must complete each step of the research project before moving on to the next step. If a student skips a step, no further work will be accepted for a grade until the skipped step is completed and submitted. A. Topic Proposal – This is a brief (half-page) proposal which clearly presents the student’s narrowed topic, and which provides adequate research questions to demonstrate that the student has given at least some thought to how the topic will be researched. The key here is that the topic should be narrowed and presented in a way which excites curiosity and shows a genuine strategy for research. “Role- playing games” is not an acceptable topic, but the following topic proposal would be accepted: “I plan to examine the differences in community structure between online role-playing gamers and more traditional table-top gamers. I suspect I’ll have to do some field research, but I’m curious to discover whether the distance and anonymity created by the online environment significantly alters the personal in-game goals of RPG players.” B. Tentative Thesis Statement – This is a declarative sentence (not a question) which shows what the student expects to be able to prove by researching and writing his or her paper. The best thesis statements will include the topic to be researched, a central claim about the topic, and some indication of how the paper will prove the claim. For example, a thesis statement on the topic of “antebellum bachelorhood” might read something like this: “A careful examination of popular literature and other documents of the middle nineteenth century suggests that Americans’ perceptions of the unmarried adult male were undergoing dramatic changes as the middle-class versions of marriage and family were being altered by the rise of consumer culture.” Note: the tentative thesis statement is just what it says: tentative. Students should not feel bound to hold onto a thesis their own research has disproved. C. Working Bibliography – This is a list of sources collected early in the research process. This list must be presented in the form of MLA bibliographical entries, and should demonstrate the student’s advancing research skills by including a variety of kinds of sources, and by excluding shallow and non- academic sources such as dictionaries and encyclopedia/Wikipedia entries. The working bibliography should contain no fewer than eight sources. D. Sentence Outline – This outline provides the “plan” for the paper, and must demonstrate the student’s ability to break the topic into parts and deal with those parts as distinct units, incorporating evidence from researched sources. The best sentence outlines will include material which can later be incorporated directly into the rough draft. E. Annotated Bibliography – This is an alphabetical listing of the sources retained for use in the research paper. Each entry must be given in MLA bibliographical form, followed by a précis summary. The annotated bibliography should include no fewer than eight sources, and should represent a balance among books, articles, and online sources. No more than one-fourth of the sources may be Internet sources. F. Rough Draft – This is a completed draft of the research paper. It must be typed, double-spaced, and readable, though it need not show the polish of the final version. We will be using this rough draft for in-class peer review, and all students are expected to bring a rough draft for review. Students who fail to provide a rough draft will forfeit 20% of their final research paper grade. G. Final Draft – This is the final version of the research paper. It must adhere in every way to MLA presentation and documentation guidelines, and it must be 7- 10 pages in length, using 7-10 sources. It must scrupulously avoid plagiarism by attributing all borrowed material to its original author according to MLA guidelines. It must include summary, paraphrase, and properly blended quotation, but direct quotation should make up no more than 20% of the paper. The sources must reflect a blend of source types, and should include books, journal articles, and other print documents, with Internet sources making up no more than 25% of the sources used. As always, spelling and neatness count. The final draft of the research paper must be accompanied by photocopies of sources used in the paper, as well as the rough draft.

Rewrites Students in this class may turn in rewrites of any two (2) writing assignments whose original version scored a grade of C or below. The following policies apply to rewrites. 1. No student may submit more than one rewrite for any given assignment. 2. Grades for the original version and the rewrite will be averaged together, if different. 3. Rewrites will not be permitted for in-class writing assignments or the Research Paper, which already follows a draft/revision model. 4. Rewrites will be due no later than one week after I hand back the graded original version. 5. Rewrites must be accompanied by the original graded version, or they will not be accepted. 6. Rewrites must do more than simply edit the original assignment. Rewrites which do not reflect a global revision of the original version will not be graded, but will count against the student’s two rewrites.

Library Lab You are responsible for attending the Library Lab that is assigned to your class. The grades you earn in this Library Lab are 10% of your English 110 grade. This lab will meet four times, beginning the fourth week of the quarter. Your thesis statement must be approved by your English 110 instructor before the first meeting of the lab.

Writing Workshop Humanities 277: Intensive Writing Lab, which provides individual tutoiring to meet your writing needs, is available to you this quarter. To earn one unit of credit, you must work with a tutor for 17 hours, then complete and turn in the proper paperwork to the Assistant Tutor Coordinator. This course is especially recommended for English 110 students. Assignments and Grade Summary Assignment Pages Due Date Percentage Critique 3-4 11/7 10% Argumentative Synthesis 4-5 10/26 10% Working Bibliography. 8+ sources 10/12 05% Formal Sentence Outline 10/17 05% Annotated Bibliography 8+ sources 10/19 10% Homework (incl. in-class writing) 10% English 110 Common Essay (in-class) 10/12 05% Library Lab 10% Research Paper (incl. draft) 8-10 TBA 30% Participation (incl. conference) 05%