Syllabus

English Composition I (ENG 101-SK03)
John Jay College of Criminal Justice, Summer 2022
524 West 59th Street, New York NY 10019

Instructor: Olivia Wood (she/her/hers)
Class Time and Place: M-Thurs 9:30 am-12:30pm, NB 1.123  
Office: English Department Adjunct Space (N.B. 7.63.40)        
Email: [email protected]
Office Hours: After class, any day except for 7/13 and 7/27    
Prerequisites: None

Coronavirus Statement

Please prioritize your physical/emotional health, your ability to care for your loved ones, and your financial/safety needs. If life circumstances make it difficult for you to complete activities for this course, please email me so we can figure out a plan. 

Please wear your mask at all times, over both your nose and your mouth.

Do not come to class if you are experiencing Covid-like symptoms. Even if it’s just a cold, better safe than sorry. Let me know, so I can help you stay caught up.

Course Description

This composition course introduces students to the skills, habits, and conventions necessary to prepare inquiry-based research for college. While offering students techniques and practices of invention and revision, this theme-based composition course teaches students the expectations of college-level research, academic devices for exploring ideas, and rhetorical strategies for completing investigative writing.

Course Objectives

  • Invention and Inquiry: Students learn to explore and develop their ideas and the ideas of others in a thorough, meaningful, complex and logical way.
  • Awareness and Reflection: Students learn to identify concepts and issues in their own writing and analytically talk and write about them.
  • Writing Process: Students learn methods of composing, drafting, revising, editing and proofreading.
  • Rhetoric and Style: Students learn rhetorical and stylistic choices that are appropriate and advantageous to a variety of genres, audiences and contexts.
  • Claims and Evidence: Students learn to develop logical and substantial claims, provide valid and coherent evidence for their claims and show why and how their evidence supports their claims. 
  • Research: Students learn to conduct research (primary and secondary), evaluate research sources, integrate research to support their ideas, and cite sources appropriately.
  • Sentence Fluency: Students learn to write clear, complete and correct sentences and use a variety of complex and compound sentence types.
  • Conventions: Students learn to control language, linguistic structures, and punctuation necessary for diverse literary and academic writing contexts.

Required Texts

This is an Open-Access course, meaning that as long as you have internet access, all materials will be free to you. You do not need to purchase any books; instead, I will post PDFs and/or links on the course website.

Grading

Creative Nonfiction Essay: 15%
Rhetorical Concepts: 10%
Participation/Attendance at Academic Support Sessions: 20%
Process Assignments: 20%
Final Inquiry Paper: 20%
Portfolio: 15%

Course Website and Blackboard

Most of our assignments and other class activities will take place on our course website on the CUNY Commons (https://eng101summer22.commons.gc.cuny.edu/). You will be required to make an account and participate by posting and commenting throughout the semester. On the Commons, you will always have the option to make your content private, so that only you and I can see it. Some assignments (like drafts) will be submitted by Blackboard instead, and all grades will be posted to Blackboard. 

Each day, I will post our class outline/lesson plan on the Course Site to assist you in keeping up with/remembering information.

Attendance and Participation

Everyone has a unique perspective and set of experiences that brings value to the classroom. If you are absent, you cannot share your perspective and knowledge with us, and you cannot learn from the perspectives and knowledge that others share during class. Many activities are designed so that we can learn from each other as well as from our participation in the activity itself. Everyone benefits from your presence!

If you are running late, emailing me from the train/bus/etc. to let me know you are on your way is not required, but I do appreciate it! It helps with planning activities.

Remember that per Summer Academy policy, you are required to attend at least 3 hours of academic support every week. 

Late Work Policy

Rhetorical concept examples may be turned in late, but you will receive a partial score for each late post. While I would prefer you do the assignment late than not doing it at all, part of the purpose of the assignment is to develop a habit of noticing rhetoric in the world around you.

Turning in drafts on time will be part of the final grade for each major writing assignment. You cannot make up these points, but you can still receive full credit for other parts of the rubric.

You are permitted UNLIMITED revisions of your assignments up until the end of the semester, so I strongly encourage you to turn in a draft on time and plan to revise it later.

Classroom Conduct

As writing students, it is your responsibility to choose the best way to express your ideas. However, I have the following expectations for you in this regard:

  • Respect everyone in our classroom community and keep an open mind about their experiences.
  • When considering your words, ask yourself, “Am I contributing to the learning environment, or am I hurting the learning environment?”

Phones, Laptops, and Tablets

Please keep your devices on silent during class. Feel free to use your devices for class-related activities or urgent personal matters that cannot wait until after class. This will be done via the honor system unless you are doing something disruptive to the rest of the class. If you are using your device for something unrelated to class, please be mindful of how you may be distracting others from their own learning. (Keep your volume off/low!)

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is the act of presenting another person’s ideas, research or writings as your own. The following are some examples of plagiarism, but by no means is it an exhaustive list:

  • Copying another person’s actual words without attributing the words to their source
  • Presenting another person’s ideas or theories in your own words without acknowledging the source
  • Using information that is not common knowledge without acknowledging the sources
  • Failing to acknowledge collaborators on assignments

For an overview of John Jay’s academic integrity policy and a link to the full policy, please visit https://www.jjay.cuny.edu/academic-integrity-0

You must be the author of all work you turn in for class, unless I specifically ask you to find examples of someone else’s writing.