Eng 1010-001
PH 327
MWF 6:50-7:45 a.m.
PH 329 (MTSU Box 70); faculty mailbox
located in PH 303
E-mail address: mclayton@.mtsu.edu
Phone: 898-2585 (office); 849-8369 (home; no calls after 10:00 p.m., please). You may leave a message
on my answering machines, but you must try to catch me at another time to insure
I received the information.
To learn more about your instructor, access About the Instructor on the website.
Please Note: Students who miss the first day of class must make an appointment with the instructor for the purpose of course orientation and to obtain course syllabus. Students with disabilities that affect classroom performance must inform the instructor and provide certification form the Office of Disabled Student Services (898-2783), so arrangements can be made as soon as possible to accommodate their difficulties.
Another Note: While I love all electronic devices, I do ask that you turn off your cell phones and refrain from using ipods, etc. during class time. We will arrive at a 'designated phone person' who will have his/her phone on to receive messages in the event of a campus emergency. If there is a personal emergency situation for which you need to be reachable, let me know in advance, and I'll make an exception for you. We need to be courteous of one another and avoid distractions from the tasks at hand during class. Thanks.
| Texts & Materials | Course Requirements | Course Policies |
| Course Objectives | Grades | Writing Center |
Cantrell, Ayne. Portfolio Composition: A Student's Guide and Reader for English 1010 Portfolio Sections. Rev. ed. McGraw-Hill/Primus Custom Publishing, 2000. e-book
Glenn, Cheryl, et al., eds. Hodge's Harbrace Handbook. 17th ed. Boston: Thomson/Heinle, 2010.
Random House College Dictionary (Dept. Standard)
Loose-leaf Folder of your choice which includes a printed out copy of the Freshman Standards
Digital storing device of your choice to store all your work (it's a good idea to back up your work on a second location also, for example, on your own PC)
One two-pocket folder for your Writing Portfolio
Internet access and e-mail access through our D2L course website. Make a habit of checking email and announcements on the website regularly, three to four times a week, particularly during times of unavoidable absences and when you are in the process of sharing information with your peer group.
Be sure to have all necessary materials for each class (refer to the schedule for each day's activities).
English 1010 will introduce you to the writing process and give you much practice in writing, particularly in adapting your skills to the specific requirements of various rhetorical situations. You will become a better, more confident writer, and the skills you acquire will benefit you in college and throughout life. More specifically, you will learn1. To use vocabulary associated with writing for the purpose of communicating
about the writing process and the forms of academic writing,
2. To generate ideas for writing through prewriting strategies and to explore
and limit subjects for writing,
3. To demonstrate an awareness of purpose and audience in your writing,
particularly the extended audience created by the use of shared drafts through
our course website,
4. To draw content for your writing not only from your imagination and
experience, but from library and interview sources as well and to summarize,
paraphrase, analyze, quote from, and document these sources in your
writing,
5. To adapt the structures of sentences and paragraphs to the purposes of a
given piece of writing,
6. To become aware of the strengths and weaknesses in your writing and to become
a critical reader of your own writing,
7. To revise your writing to create interesting, unified, coherent essays that
are adequately developed,
8. To edit your writing (a) to ensure that you have used specific, appropriate
language and varied sentence types and (b) to eliminate serious grammatical and
mechanical errors, and
9. To become a critical reader of your classmates' writing so that you can help
them write effectively,
10. To become adept at maximizing the computer's capabilities for every step in
the composition process mentioned above.
Essay Writing & Revising--Effective writing, of course, is the major goal of English 1010, so you can expect to write a good deal. In addition to an early in-class introductory writing, you will write four essays (min. 1000 words each). You will learn that effective writing is a matter of rewriting, a process that is made efficient by the use of the computers. Both your peers and I will respond to your writing via D2L attachment or hard copy with suggestions for revisions. These suggestions will ask you to rethink and reshape content and organization (not just to correct errors in grammar and mechanics). Then you will have an opportunity to rewrite before you submit the essays for grading. The writing and rewriting activity in CAI Portfolio English 1010 is designed to help you produce a body of work, called a Writing Portfolio. Like the artist's portfolio (paintings that best present the artist's vision, style, and achievement), the writing portfolio will represent you as a writer. From Essays 1-4 you will choose three fully revised essays for your portfolio (your first essay and two from 2, 3, 4) and submit them for a grade at the beginning of the fifteenth week of the term. Each assignment, however, must be taken seriously and adhere to all requirements as if each were to be submitted for the final portfolio. An essay could be returned without comment if not deemed a credible effort and counted as a late draft, which will prohibit subsequent assignments from being accepted; this situation could lead to course failure.
[To expand our writing community and to further develop our sense of audience, beginning with the second essay assignment you will participate in cross-1010-section peer response activities. For this second essay, you will collaborate with students from another CAI, Portfolio 1010 section to produce a collection of essays that profiles places and activities for students at our University. This collaborative assignment, built into the syllabus so that it does not require extra work, will involve your writing drafts of the Essay 2 assignment (Profile of a Place or Activity) for which you will share draft 2 via the website (Communication/Discussion) with an assigned peer response group composed of students from both 1010 sections. As in the other essays you will be writing, the specific requirements/due dates for the assignment will be outlined in the schedule and handouts for the assignment.] Not applicable for Fall 2009.
Objective tests and outlines of reading assignments--You will be responsible for taking notes or outlining selected chapters in The St. Martin's Guide to Writing and then for follow-up objective tests over the material. The ten question, multiple choice tests are accessed through our website (Course Content/Assignments), so when you come to class on a test date, you will access the appropriate test, and the system will score it for you. You will be able to use your notes or outlines during the tests; the more complete and clearly organized your notes/outlines are, the better they will serve you for the tests.
Student/teacher conferences--Students often tell me that they learn best how to improve their writing in student/teacher conferences. At times indicated on our schedule you are asked to schedule two conferences with me in my office to discuss your writing--one optional and one mandatory. Because the one conference is mandatory (see schedule), missing it will result in course failure unless rescheduled appointments are kept. Of course, I invite you to set up additional conferences as you need them. If you have questions, if you need help, please see me during my regular office hours by making an appointment. Seeking assistance before portfolio submission is far smarter than doing a post mortem after your work has been turned in for a grade.
To be eligible to earn course credit, you must (1) complete at least three drafts of all four essays following all guidelines, requirements, and deadlines--all drafts must be turned in no later than one week beyond the due date or result in course failure (2) meet all attendance requirements for classes, the conference, and peer groups, (3) submit Final Portfolio following all guidelines, requirements, and deadlines. Then your course grade will be determined as follows based on a ten point scale (A = 90-100; B = 80-89, etc.):
70% Final Writing Portfolio (three fully revised essays, 1 and 2 and two from 2, 3, & 4)20% Objective Tests with Outlines
10% Daily Work and Class Participation
Students who fulfill all course requirements but fail to achieve C or better and who are attempting the course for the first time will receive a course grade of N (not passing), which gives them another opportunity to pass the course without lowering their GPAs. Because I feel they are detrimental to your GPA, I do not use the + or - system in reporting your final grades.
A word about final course grades: the responsibility for earning the necessary grade to retain financial aid, scholarships, etc. lies on your shoulders. The best way to insure you earn as high a grade as possible is to meet all course requirements, putting forth your very best effort in terms of quality of work, during the entire semester, not just at the end of the course.
Here's some general information about the scholarships:
To retain Tennessee Education
Lottery Scholarship eligibility, you must earn a cumulative
For additional Lottery rules, please refer to your Lottery Statement of Understanding form, review lottery requirements on the web at http://scholarships.web.mtsu.edu/telsconteligibility.htm, or contact the Financial Aid Office at 898-2830.
Therefore, you are expected to attend all classes. I will take roll daily, and if you (1) miss more than three of the required classes, (2) participate in fewer than three of the required four peer response groups, or (3) do not attend the mandatory out-of-class teacher/student conference, you will fail the course. Exceptions will be made to this policy only under extraordinary circumstances and then only when the student makes up the class time missed by working with a tutor in the University Writing Center. It is the responsibility of the student to keep up with all assigned work, either reading or writing.
Only University sponsored functions (for instance, trips relating to sports, chorus events, livestock judging) are excused. In such cases you are responsible for notifying me of the absence well in advance, and you are responsible for getting your work in early--before you have to be absent. Absences due to illness, death in the family, and the like must be covered by the three allowable absences.
Being prepared for class is expected, even after any absence. For backup, look around the room, select two or three reliable looking classmates and exchange phone numbers & email addresses to use as support in keeping informed.
Tardiness--Two late arrivals/departures will equal an absence. If you arrive after I call roll, it is your responsibility to alert me to your attendance.
Late Work--It is important that you submit your work on time. Ordinarily, I do not accept late work. Exceptions will be made only for extraordinary circumstances but only if the work can be submitted within the one week limit set by the University. Even though each essay does not receive a grade, I will keep track of late drafts (discovery, peer, teacher) and adjust your final portfolio grade accordingly--1/2 a letter grade penalty per late submission; this will affect the final grade dramatically rather quickly.
Plagiarism You know that using another's work as your own is wrong. The most flagrant instances of plagiarism are (1) submitting an essay that is copied from another's writing, (2) having someone dictate what is written (such as having a typist rewrite a paper, substituting his/her language for the student's), and (3) using sources without proper documentation. Often such violations are very easy for writing teachers to spot because we get very familiar with the student's prose style (and you should know that writing teachers at MTSU often read the writing completed in each other's classes). We do not hesitate to fail students in English 1010 when we find students misrepresenting someone else's work as their own.
| Intro to CAI Portfolio | Syllabus | Schedule | The Peer Process | Requirements & Guidelines | Writing Tools | Communication | Five Writing Assignments |
Dr. Maria A. Clayton
English Department
P.O. Box 70
Middle Tennessee State University
Murfreesboro, Tennessee 37132
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