May 2nd

This is just a reminder about what's due tomorrow. The final paper needs to be submitted to the D2L dropbox (titled "Argumentative Paper--Final Draft") by 11:59pm CST tomorrow, Thursday, May 2nd. You do not have to turn in a hard copy, as we are not meeting in person. If you don't receive a confirmation that your dropbox submission went through, please email me to confirm that I received it. If you have any questions about the assignment guidelines, please reference the Assignment Sheet. I am available via email to answer questions about the guidelines, should anything on the assignment sheet be unclear or in need of further explanation.

A few additional notes: I will have grades updated in D2L today, but they will not include extra credit points. Those points will be tallied onto your final grades, if you completed those opportunities. I have rolled the final workshop grade into the grade for your second argumentative draft, so those people whose partners didn't turn in or participate in the workshop aren't penalized. If you haven't conducted the online course evaluation, please do so as soon as possible; it shouldn't take too long.

I look forward to reading your final papers. Thank you for all of your hard work this term, and have a great summer!

Homework for Tuesday, April 23rd

In a blog post, please provide a counter argument to your position. Doing so will help you see where the other side stands on your topic, which will help you empathize with the opposition and create a stronger argument for your own paper. Your post should include the following:

1. State the opposite of your thesis.
2. Make one claim that helps support this new thesis.
3. Find at least one piece of cited evidence that supports the claim.
4. Draw the connection between the evidence and the claim through sound reasoning.
5. List the cited source in the post (don't worry about the formatting).

Make sure the content from numbers 2-4 are written in paragraph form. This post needs to be on your blog by Tuesday, April 23rd. Also, I have uploaded an student example of an argumentative research paper to D2L. Please read this and be prepared to discuss it on Tuesday. The assignment sheet for the rough draft and final paper is also up on D2L. Please review it and let me know if you have any questions.

Homework for Thursday, April 18th

After having watched the video debate in class, please respond to the following questions in a blog post. Your post should total at least 250 words.

• What's the purpose of the debate?
• How does each speaker connect to his respective audience?
• Identify at least one rhetorical trap/fallacy/misstep from each speaker.
• Was the debate worthwhile?
• Based on what you've seen here, is the act of debating necessary?

Please have your responses up by Thursday, April 18th. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Class for Thursday, April 11th

Due to the weather, I am canceling class for Thursday; please check your MavMail for more details. I will have an assignment for Tuesday posted here tomorrow. Stay tuned.

In-Class 4/9 and Homework for 4/11

After examining the purpose of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," I want you all to ask yourselves why you are arguing for the topic you chose. What is the purpose of your stance? Why is it important? Think about these questions and respond to them in a blog post. Your responses could become the basis of your paper's conclusion.

For Thursday, April 11th, please compose a Works Cited page, consisting of at least 5 sources you plan on using for your paper. The assignment sheet is available under the Content section of D2L (titled, "Works Cited Assignment") for download. Your Works Cited page should be submitted via the D2L dropbox with the same title as the assignment sheet.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me via email.

Homework for Tuesday, April 9th

Please read the essay "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," by Martin Luther King Jr., found in the content section of D2L. In order to help facilitate an in-class discussion, you will need to write a response to the essay, following the guidelines in the assignment sheet. The assignment sheet also can be found under the Content section of D2L. If you have any questions about the assignment, please feel free to contact me.

Next Thursday, there will be another extra credit opportunity. We will be ending class early so that anyone interested in earning extra credit can attend the Good Thunder Craft Talk. Just a heads-up: I would like you all to submit a draft of your Works Cited page on Thursday, April 11th. I will have an assignment sheet for you on Tuesday, but I wanted to let you know in advance.

For Thursday, April 4th

I have setup a discussion forum for your very rough drafts in D2L. Please post your draft--including an introduction with thesis, three body paragraphs, and conclusion--before class on Thursday, so that we can peer review them during our class time.

Remember: If you have cited research in your paper, include a properly formatted Works Cited page.

Thursday, March 28th

I want you all to begin drafting your final papers. Next Thursday, April 4th, you will need to turn in your first draft of the final paper. I want you to have an introduction with a clear thesis, at least three body paragraphs, and a tentative conclusion. You are not required to include cited research (we haven't covered this formally yet) for this draft, but if you do, please be sure to cite it properly and include a Works Cited page (please see The Little Seagull Handbook for formatting guidelines).

We will continue to discuss the essay about Abigail Fisher on Monday; otherwise, the only work you have for the weekend is to compose your first draft of the research paper. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

In-Class 3/26 and Homework for 3/28

Please review the list of logical fallacies and the health care letters, found in the Content section of D2L. In a blog post, identify the errors in reasoning that occur in the first letter. Then discuss why you believe changes were made to the second letter.

For Thursday, please read and be prepared to discuss the article titled, "Race Didn't Cost Abigail Fisher Her Spot at the University of Texas." If the hyperlink does not work for you, please contact me as soon as possible.

Due Tuesday, March 26th

On your blogs, write a short (about 250 words) proposal for your argumentative research project. Please include the following information:

• Identify the broad topic(s) you'll be covering
• State your tentative thesis
• Discuss how you've narrowed down your topic
• Identify the sources you've used to assist you
• Discuss additional areas and information (possibly sources, too) that you still wish to explore

Make sure to write down all of the necessary information you need to retrieve your sources and document them properly. Works Cited (MLA style) information can be found on pages 103-130 of The Little Seagull Handbook.

In-Class 3/19/2013

Today, we looked at ways we can evaluate sources on the web. The areas we focused on included Credibility, Bias, Accuracy, Relevance, Significance, Intended Audience, and Currency (please see the notes on Evaluating Sources, found in the content section of D2L for additional details).

In class, begin searching for potential web sources that are related to your paper's topic. Find at least three sources and evaluate them on your blog. For each source evaluation, please include the following information:

• Identify the source (article/source/website title) and its author.
• Determine source's credibility, accuracy, relevance, bias, currency, significance, and intended audience.
• Explain how you figured out this information.
• Discuss whether or not you'll use the source in your research.

Please be sure to bring your Little Seagull handbook to class on Thursday.

In-Class 03/07/2013

The thesis statement is a paper's main idea, expressed as a provable claim. It needs to narrow a broad topic down to a specifc focus of investigation. In order to do this, you might need to brainstorm ideas by asking yourself questions about the broad topic. On your blog, address the following questions:

• What is the topic?
• What's invovled?
• Who's involved?
• What do I know about my topic?
• What problems/issues are found within my topic?
• What do I want to learn about the topic and its issues/problems?

After you've answered these questions, formulate a tentative thesis statement in the post that could be used as the main idea for your argumentative research paper. I will upload the sample breakdown (titled Narrowing the Topic) that we reviewed in class to the Content section of D2L. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

In-Class 03/05/2013

After watching the TED talk from Elaine Lui, identify the following pieces of information in a blog post:

• Broad topic of the talk
• Issues and/or problems related to the topic
• The speaker's main idea (Lui's thesis)
• The broad subtopics
• The specific examples
• Lui's reasoning and conclusion

Please construct a complete paragraph that addresses each of the items listed above. Also, please generate a list of broad topics that you are interested in/passionate about that could be synthesized into a focus point for discussion. We will be referencing pages 61-88 in the book Everyone's an Author over the course of the next few weeks.

For Thursday, February 28th

Please remember to post the rough draft of your personal narrative essay to the discussion forum (titled, Personal Narrative--Rough Drafts) by 2:00pm on Thursday. You and a partner will read each other's draft and address at least five questions (at least 250 words) from the Personal Narrative Questions for Consideration document, posted to the Content Section of D2L. Make sure to focus on providing each other with constructive feedback, elaborating on the advice and suggestions you're offering to your partner. Since we will not be meeting in person on Thursday, this feedback needs to be posted in reply to your partner's draft by 11:59pm.

If you have any questions about the questions for consideration, the assignment, or the due dates for Thursday, please feel free to email me. I will be providing everyone with audio feedback for their rough drafts, in preparation for the final version of this paper. Please reference the Personal Narrative Assignment Sheet for additional details and grading criteria.

Personal Narrative Drafts

In case you missed class this past Thursday, please check the Content section of D2L for the Personal Narrative assignment sheet. It has all of the submission details and due dates listed on it. (FYI: the first draft is due Thursday, February 28th.) If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. This weekend, I will be setting up the discussion forum for the workshop.

Reading for Thursday and Extra Credit

For this Thursday's class (2/21), please read the essay, "Shitty First Drafts." This can be found under the Content section of D2L. We will highlight the key points of the essay before continuing to work on the blog post about tragedy. 

If you are interested in an Extra Credit opportunity, then please consider attending one of the Good Thunder events this Thursday. The craft talk will take place from 3:00pm - 3:50pm in Ostrander Auditorium, and the reading will be at 7:30pm in CSU 253. If you go to either event, please take notes and report your observations, thoughts, and/or questions about the material presented in a blog post.

This extra credit assignment will need to be posted prior to next Tuesday's class (2/26), and it should be at least 200 words in order to get credit for it. Remember to identify the writers by name and any of the work they read from. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Reading for Tuesday, February 19th

I have posted an essay by Jo Ann Beard to the Content section of D2L titled, "The Fourth State of Matter." Please read this piece before class, in preparation for our discussion. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Class this Thursday, February 14th

We will not be meeting in person tomorrow. Instead, we will be workshopping each other's very rough drafts that we started on Tuesday. Please have the narrative (about two pages) about a time that represents the concept of truth posted to the D2L discussion board (titled "Truth" Drafts) by 2pm tomorrow. 

Like the last time we had an online workshop, you will need to reply to each member of your discussion group with 5-7 sentences of feedback (questions on details, suggestions for improvement/clarity, points of contention, etc.) by midnight tomorrow. If you have any questions, please feel free to email: daniel.dewolf@mnsu.edu. I will update D2L tomorrow with a reading assignment for Tuesday.

Narrative Writing Prompts

The first writing prompt for this unit is to tell the story of your experience with a horrible teacher or boss. After you have zeroed in on one person/event, write a scene that best exemplifies the situation and proves the point you are trying to make about him/her, as well as yourself.

The second writing prompt for this unit is to tell a story from your life that exemplifies truth. This is a broad and general prompt, but I want to see in which direction you take this idea. Are you going to simply tell a story that actually happened, or are you going to tell a story that you don't remember well but has been a poignant moment in your life, told to you by the people who raised you?

For Thursday, February 14th, I would like you to compose a very rough draft of the second prompt and post it to the discussion forum titled, "Truth" Drafts, before class.

Final Draft of Profiles Due

This Thursday, February 7th, the final draft of your Profile assignment is due. Once you have revised your papers, using feedback from peers and me, please submit an electronic copy of your paper to the D2L dropbox titled, Profile--Final Draft, and bring a printed copy to class (we are meeting in person). If you have any questions about my feedback or the assignment, please contact me as soon as possible, so that I can get back to you with enough time for you to apply that additional feedback to your paper. Also, please reference the assignment sheet that is available under the Content section of D2L for policy and grading questions.

Rough Draft/Workshop Assignment

We will not be meeting this Thursday, so our assignment (and classwork) will be submitted (and conducted) on D2L. There are two aspects of the assignment.

For the first task, you will need to complete is composing a rough draft of the material you’ve gathered on your classmate whom you’ve interviewed. This draft should consist primarily of reporting, but if you are able to expand on their information with research and reflection, feel free to move forward. For now, you are only required to introduce this classmate to the rest of your group, based on the information you have acquired from them in your interviews. If you still need to ask additional questions, make sure to do so as soon as possible, this rough draft needs to be posted to the D2L discussion page by 2:00pm, this Thursday (January 24^th).

I have setup a discussion titled, “Profile Workshop,” on D2L. You will need to upload your draft, in a compatible document (.doc, .docx, .pdf, .rtf) file format, to this forum. Your draft should be about two pages, double-spaced, with no additional white space between paragraphs. Make sure to set your font to 12-point, Times New Roman, and your margins to 1” on all sides. Also, include a header, a heading, and a title in MLA format (there’s an example on page 446 of Everyone’s an Author textbook).

The second part of this assignment is to provide feedback to each member of your group. As a response to each rough draft, you’ll need to offer suggestions to your peers in regards to follow-up questions, areas that should be focused on/developed, or any other feedback that is constructive and helpful. Avoid saying you like or dislike what your peers have written to this point. Your feedback can be a bulleted list, a short paragraph, a series of questions—whatever form you want, so long as it provides feedback. Please have these replies posted by 11:59pm Thursday.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. I will update this blog with a reading assignment on Thursday.

First Week Assignments

On the first day of class, I had you all setup blogs. Here are the directions for the process, along with the prompts for the first two prompts, for those of you who have not completed the assignments or were not present on the first day.

First, you will need to setup a blog. You can choose from blogger.com, wordpress.com, or tumblr.com. The site will walk you through the steps of creating a new blog. Once you have completed this, make sure to write down your login information (username and ID), so that you can access the blog in the future. You also will need to write down the URL (example: blogtitle.blogspot.com), so that I can view the material you post on it.

After you have setup your blog, I want you to visit the class blog (http://dewolfsyllabus.blogspot.com) and click on the link that says How to Email a Professor, which appears under the Site Links heading on the right-hand side of the page. Read that material and send me an email, following the directions contained in the article. In the body of your email, let me know that you understand the assignment and provide me with the URL address of your blog.

For the first blog post, I asked everyone to respond to this prompt: what do you expect from this course? It’s a broad topic, and I want you to respond in any way you see fit (you can check your classmates’ blogs for ideas, too). The second blog post should be the interview notes from Thursday’s class.

READING ASSIGNMENT FOR TUESDAY, JANUARY 22ND: 

• "The American Male, Age Ten," by Susan Orlean
• Pages 5-17 in Everyone's An Author

English Composition Syllabus

Minnesota State University

Spring 2013

Course: ENG 101–30 Composition

Course Meeting: 2:00pm–3:45pm Tuesdays and Thursdays

Course Location: AH 327

Instructor: Daniel DeWolf

Office: AH 201K

Office Hours: 1:00pm–2:00pm T; 1:00pm–2:00pm H (e-hours)

Office Phone: 507-389-5540

Email: daniel.dewolf@mnsu.edu

Website: http://dewolfsyllabus.blogspot.com

Course Goals:  To develop writers who use the English language effectively and who read and write critically. The course objective is to prepare students for the writing that they’ll be required to do throughout their college careers. By the end of the class, students will be able to do the following:

a)     demonstrate and practice strategies for idea generation, audience analysis, organization of texts, drafting, evaluation of drafts, revision, and editing;


b)    write papers of varying lengths that demonstrate effective explanation, analysis, and argumentation;


c)     become experienced in computer-assisted writing and research;


d)    locate and evaluate material, using PALS, the Internet, and other sources;


e)     analyze and synthesize source material, making appropriate use of paraphrase, summary, quotation, and citation conventions;
demonstrating knowledge of proper source documentation;

f)     employ syntax and usage appropriate to academic writing and the professional world.

Required Texts:        The Little Seagull Handbook by Richard Bullock and Francine Weinberg

ISBN-10: 0393911519 

ISBN-13: 978-0393911510

                                    Everyone’s an Author by Andrea Lunsford, et al.

                                    ISBN-10: 0393932117

ISBN-13: 978-0393932119

Required Coursework/Grading:

Weekly Writing Responses                                                          20%

Each week we will have a written assignment due. These assignments include reading responses, critiques, and rough drafts of your formal essays. I will provide you with detailed guidelines for each of these writing assignments prior to their due dates.

Essays                                                                                           55%

Summary/Response Essay                                         15%

Personal Narrative Essay                                            15%

Argumentative Research Essay                                  25%

The majority of your grade will be determined by the quality of work you produce when composing three major essays: a Summary/Response, a Personal Narrative, and an Argumentative Research paper. Each essay will be generated from an in-class prompt.  Students will engage in the three steps of writing: pre-writing, drafting, and revising. Rough drafts are to be posted to D2L for in-class, peer editing. The final draft of each essay will be submitted to D2L on the assigned due date and a hard copy will be required, as well. Essays will be graded on how well the students follow and apply the criteria for each essay outlined on the assignment sheets, which will be available to students on the day each essay is assigned.

Participation                                                                                 25%

Students will be required to engage in free-writing (to be posted as a blog) during specified times, conduct peer reviews of essay drafts via D2L, and participate in class discussions based on the assigned reading.  Failure to participate in any of these activities will result in the loss of some or all of a day’s participation points. During lectures, discussions, and presentations, you will be required to TURN OFF your computer monitors and pay attention.  If you are caught using your computer or surfing the internet when you have been directed to turn off your monitor, you will not receive participation points for that day. Working on your computer during lectures, discussions, and presentations is distracting to everyone.

Attendance                                                                                                                                                           

While attendance doesn’t make up a portion of your final grade, failure to show up to class can have a negative impact on it. You cannot receive participation points if you aren’t in class. You are allowed two (2) absences without penalty. After the allotted two absences, you will receive a 5% deduction from your final grade for each absence thereafter. An absence is an absence: there are no distinctions between excused and unexcused absences. If you aren’t able to attend class, please refer to D2L or the syllabus blog for homework and missed assignments.

Grading Scale:

A = 100-90           B = 89-80        C =79-70         D = 69-60       F = 59-0

NOTE: the lowest PASSING grade a student can earn in English 101 is a C. If a student earns a grade lower than a C, he/she will have to repeat the course. This is a policy that has been set by the university.

Class Policies:  Failure to turn in work at the beginning of class on its due date will result in a full letter grade deduction for that assignment. Students who need to meet with the instructor and are unable to do so during scheduled office hours can make an appointment via email. Cell phone use in class is not permitted. Please silence or power off phones while in class. If an emergency arises, please exit the classroom quietly to take the call outside. Drinks and food are not allowed in the computer lab. You will be asked to discard or put away any food or drink you bring to class. Writing done for this class is considered public text. Assignments are tentative and subject to change.

Academic Dishonesty: MSU has a zero tolerance policy regarding Academic Dishonesty.  Students caught plagiarizing, cheating, or colluding will receive an automatic failing grade, and they will be required to retake the course. Academic Dishonesty—per MSU Policies and Procedures—is defined as follows:

Plagiarism – Submission of an academic assignment as one’s own work, which includes critical ideas or written narrative that are taken from another author without the proper citation. This does not apply only to direct quotes, but also to critical ideas that are paraphrased by the student. Plagiarism includes but is not limited to:

• submitting the work of others as your own

• submitting others’ work as your own with only minor changes

• submitting others’ work as your own without adequate footnotes,

  quotations, and other reference forms

• multiple submission of the same work, written or oral, for more than one

  course without both instructor’s permission, or making minor revisions

  on work which has received credit and submitting it again as new work.

Cheating – Use of unauthorized material or assistance to help fulfill academic assignments. This material could include unauthorized copies of test materials, calculators, crib sheets, help from another student, etc.

Collusion – Assistance to another student or among students in committing the act of cheating or plagiarism.

Center for Academic Success:  In addition to working with the instructor, students are encouraged to take advantage of the services offered by MSU’s Center for Academic Success located in the basement of Memorial Library (ML 116). These services include free tutoring sessions in nearly all subject areas, including composition. By appointment or walk-in, the Center is open to students Monday through Friday.  MavCard required.  Go to http://www.mnsu.edu/supersite/academics/success or call 507-389-1791.

Note for Students with Disabilities: From the Office of Disability Services: “MSU provides students with disabilities reasonable accommodation to participate in educational; programs, activities, or services. Students with disabilities requiring accommodation to participate in class activities or meet course requirements should first register with the Office of Disability Services, located in 0123 Memorial Library, telephone 389-2825, TDD 711 and then contact me as soon as possible.”