English 1102/11 & 14 Dr. Cynthia Bowers

MW 2-3:15/MW 3:30-4:45 Phone: 423-6133

Office Hours: MW 5-6 p.m., TR 1:30-2 p.m and apt Office: HU259

website: http://ksumail.kennesaw.edu/~cbowers/ E-mail: cbowers@kennesaw.edu

Description

Composition II emphasizes the development of students' argumentative and research skills. We will focus on producing clear and effective argumentative prose as we produce our research assignments.

Our writing will demand critical reading skills, analytical thinking, and the ability to synthesize multiple sources. We will practice writing with a clear aim and audience in mind. Argument and research will be the primary focus of the course; consequently, students are expected to have mastered fundamental technical aspects of writing, including, for example, basic skills of grammar, punctuation, and organization.

Required Texts

Reading Rhetorically, Bean, Chappell, Gillam

A Rhetoric of Argument, Fahnestock and Secor

The Fifth Child, Doris Lessing

Recommended

The New Century Handbook, Hult & Huckin

Guidelines

• Attendance is mandatory. Four absences will reduce your final grade by one full letter grade; five absences will reduce your final grade by two full letter grades; more than 5 absences will result in failure of this course. If you must be absent, it is your responsibility to make up missed work and/or get notes from your peers.



• Similarly, tardiness will not be tolerated. Coming in late is disruptive and discourteous. I will take the roll at the beginning of each class period. Two tardies (more than 2 minutes late) will count as a half absence.



• All written assignments must be completed ON TIME (that means at the beginning--not middle or end--of class). Except in the case of some serious reason, I will accept no late work. This point is non-negotiable. If a serious and unavoidable conflict forces you to submit work late, 2 points per day for each day following the due date will be deducted from the final grade for that project/component/assignment.

• Under no circumstances place written assignments in my mailbox or under my office door without my previous permission. Papers have been known to get lost or go missing. If you must leave a paper in my mailbox early (i.e. before it is due), please make arrangements with me beforehand to do so.

• NEVER email any documents to me without my previous permission.



• All written assignments must be typed and flawlessly proofread. Please do not rely exclusively on your spellchecker!

Papers should have 1" margins on all sides. Use 10 or 12 pitch fonts. Please do not attempt to "stretch" papers by manipulating margins and/or fonts!

No cover sheets or plastic document covers, please.

And please staple your papers together in the upper left-hand corner. No paper clips, or folded-over, torn corners will be accepted!

Grade Calculation

Your final grade will be calculated on the following point-values for written and oral assignments:

Homework, In-Class Assignments

and Quizzes 10 points

Argument/Counterargument 10 points

Summary Essay 10 points

Midterm 10 points

Researched Report 10 points

Proposed Argument with Bib 5 points

Draft of Argument 10 points

Peer Critique 5 points

Powerpoint 10 points

Revision 10 points

Essay on Novel 10 points _________

100 points

Final letter grades will be calculated according to the following scale:

A = 90-100 B = 80-89 C = 79-70 D = 69-61

F = Below 60

Projects and Expectations

• Students will prepare a number of essays and other assignments including an argument and counterargument of about 3-4 pages, a summary, a researched report of about 4-5 pages, and a researched argument of about 6-7 pages. The researched argument, as indicated by the grade breakdown above, carries the most grade "weight" in the course, its components (not including the documentation quiz) in all totaling 50 grade points. More detailed instructions for each of these components will be given during the semester.



• All papers should be printed on 8-1/2 x 11" paper with 1" margins in 10 or 12 pitch font. Do not try to stretch papers by adjusting margins and fonts!



• Your research projects may be on any topics EXCEPT: Pro-Life/Pro-Choice issues; gun control; gay marriage/rights/military, stem cell research, euthanasia; cloning; NDEs; feminism/masculinism (includes topics like alimony, palimony, men's rights); animal rights; athletes' salaries; legalization or nonlegalization of drugs; affirmative action; substance abuse; school prayer; motorcycle helmet laws; government conspiracy theories (e.g. JFK assassination, UFOs); issues of epistemology, faith or philosophy (e.g. does God exist); literary criticism; biography; anybody named Clinton; pop psychology; the Internet generally or Internet or any other sort of censorship; MP3s.



• You MAY choose topics related to business, industry, consumerism, law or legislation, technology, the environment, foreign policy, history, sports, science, social science, economics, culture, anthropology, sociology, politics, news or sports media, or the arts (dance, painting, sculpture, theatre, film, radio, television, or music). CHOOSE A TOPIC THAT INTERESTS YOU, NOT ONE YOU THINK WILL "PLEASE" ME!! You should confer with me about your choice of independent topic no later than February 27. We will brainstorm for topics in class.



• You may not use more than one website as a source for your final independent research project. You will be expected to depend upon print media sources. My reason for this is simple: though websites are plentiful, they often provide little more than the most superficial information on their given topics. Secondly, it is difficult to identify and/or evaluate the authority of the website's producing entity. Though many websites provide useful and accurate information, many are also highly speculative if not simply wrong!



• Please note that the Independent Research Paper has a number of components and each of them is graded. Failure to produce these components on the due dates will cost half of the points that component is worth.



• Failure to produce a draft of your paper on March 25 will cost you the entire 10 points the draft is worth, and the 5 peer critique points. My policy on this point is rather severe for two reasons: I need to have a copy of your draft on that date in order to grade it and return it to you in a timely fashion for revisions; you need to have the opportunity to participate in the peer critique process. The draft must be a minimum of 5 pages long and it must be fully documented including internal cites and a bibliography.



• Students will be expected to produce a brief Powerpoint presentation (worth 10 grade points) of their final researched argument to be presented to the class. Additional instruction on this project will be provided later in the semester.



• There will be a brief unit designed to help students as they prepare to take English 2110. We will read and analyze The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing. Students will be quizzed on the readings and will write a short (2-3 page) analysis of the novel.

Finally, some grammatical pet-peeves:

• ANY appearance of comma splices, run-on sentences, or sentence fragments will cause a 1-point deduction EACH from the final paper grade.



• People are referred to with "who" and not with "that." Example: "They are the people who developed the irrigation technology."



• AVOID at all costs using "you" in your essays. Example: "The situations all show you that First Amendment rights do protect you." Better: "These situations demonstrate that First Amendment rights protect citizens." You should, however, use "I."



• AVOID at all costs using "positive" and "negative" without providing specifics. Examples: "positive behavior," "positive effect," "negative effect," "negative behavior" Also please avoid using the phrases "in today's society," or "society today."



• Finally, AVOID using the verb "to prove"-in rhetoric, we argue, we do not prove.

KSU Academic Integrity Statement:

Every KSU student is responsible for upholding the provisions of the Student Code of Conduct, as published in the Undergraduate and Graduate Catalogs. Section II of the Student Code of Conduct addresses the University's policy on academic honesty, including provisions regarding plagiarism and cheating, unauthorized access to University materials, misrepresentation/falsification of University records or academic work, malicious removal, retention, or destruction of computer facilities and/or services, and misuse of student identification cards. Incidents of alleged academic misconduct will be handled through the established procedures of the University Judiciary Program, which includes either an "informal" resolution by a faculty member, resulting in a grade adjustment, or a formal hearing procedure, which may subject a student to the Code of Conduct's minimum one semester suspension requirement.

Tentative Course Schedule

Please note: Final day to withdraw without academic penalty is October 18. Readings are due on the date they appear. In other words, RR Chapt 1 should be read and prepared for class discussion on 8/25.

RA = Rhetoric of Argument

RR = Reading Rhetorically