ENGLISH 0310 SPRING 2013 SYLLABUS
HCCS-CENTRAL
MONDAY & WEDNESDAY 3-5 P.M.
Iris Rozencwajg PhD
Office FAC 319
Iris.rozencwajg@hccs.edu
CRN 30142
713-718-6665/71
Office Hour: after class
Prerequisite: Must be placed into ENGL 0310 (or higher) in writing.
Required Texts: Buscemi and Smith, 75 Readings Plus, 10th edition
Any recent handbook or use The Purdue OWL [online writing lab]
Texts may be photocopied in the Library (on Reserve—get your free HCCS Student I.D. to do so)
College-level dictionary—Oxford recommended (Bring to every class)
Other required materials: notebook with lined 8 1/2x11 paper; blue or black pens for in-class
writing; blue/greenbooks for final exam (available in Bookstore)
Students are responsible for the HCCS Student Handbook (online) for HCCS policies and
procedures and are also responsible for MLA guidelines (online, in handbooks, at Purdue OWL)
for correct academic writing formatting.
Course Description: A course designed to prepare students for ENGL 1301. ENGL 0310 provides
a basic review of the principles of grammar, word usage, and mechanics and uses the writing
process to teach students to write short essays (around 500 words/two 12-point-typed doublespaced type-written pages with no extra space between paragraphs). This two-hour class
includes a lab hour for grammar review.
By the end of this course, students should be able to
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use a variety of sentence patterns in writing;
comprehend and respond to assigned readings;
employ the writing process (planning, drafting, and developing a thesis and its topic
sentences, and then editing and revising pertinent material) for an assigned writing;
incorporate the ideas and words of other writers into their own essays by quoting,
paraphrasing and/or summarizing these inside their own texts—these incorporations
are called in-text citations and, finally,
cite correctly all sources for in-text citations taken from their own Works Cited page—
every scrap of information from which students will have printed out or written down
systematically while doing research. It is the last page but the first page organized after
your research.
Attendance: Students must attend class regularly, are responsible for material covered during
their absence and are also responsible for consulting instructor about make-up work (not every
assignment may be made up). No more than six hours (not classes) of absence permitted.
Complete each assignment by due date or write instructor a paragraph explaining the lapse.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
5 essays, 3 out of class
Instructor’s choice: responses, quizzes, presentations
Midterm in-class essay
Final in-class essay
50%
10%
20%
20%
You must be able to write satisfactory in-class essays in order to pass this course, though that
alone will not guarantee course credit.
Please save all your papers: failure to produce them when asked to do so may result in an F.
SCHOLASTIC HONESTY: Students are expected to behave with honesty and integrity in the
writing of papers and in-class discussions.
Plagiarism—unacknowledged use of another person’s words or ideas—earns a ZERO for the
assignment, no recourse.
IMPORTANT NOTICES
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Students who repeat a course face significant tuition/fee increases at HCC and other
Texas public colleges and universities. If you are considering course withdrawal, confer
with your instructor or counselor about your study habits, homework, attendance,
course participation, and opportunities, for tutoring or other assistance that might be
available.
IF YOU INTEND TO WITHDRAW FROM THIS COURSE YOU MUST DO SO BEFORE
MONDAY, APRIL 1ST, AT 4:30 P.M., OR I will be forced to give you an IP (or an FX if it’s
your second time taking this course) for the final grade if you stop attending, no
possibility of appeal. I will not be able to withdraw you at semester’s end. The FX
compares poorly to an earned grade of F, which is due to poor performance. Please note
that HCC will not disburse financial aid funding for students who have never attended
class. Students who receive financial aid but fail to attend class will be reported to the
Department of Education and may have to pay back their aid. A grade of FX is treated
exactly the same as a grade of F in terms of GPA, probation, suspension, or
unsatisfactory academic progress. This policy is mandated by the Texas State
Legislature.
TURN OFF ALL PHONES AND OTHER ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT BEFORE entering class
(see College notices reinforcing this prohibition). Put your phone on my desk before
leaving the room during an in-class assignment. Otherwise I may give you a zero for the
day. Using a phone during a writing assignment will be construed as cheating and will
result in a zero for the assignment (no recourse).
EGLS3—Evaluation for Greater Learning Student Survey System
At Houston Community College, professors believe that thoughtful student feedback is
necessary to improve teaching and learning. During a designated time, you will be asked to
answer a short online survey of research-based questions related to instruction. The
anonymous results of the survey will be made available to your professors and division
chairs for continual improvement of instruction. Look for the EGLS3 of the Houston
Community College Student System available online; hccs.edu/EGL53.
REASONABLE ACCOMMODATION: Any student with a documented disability (e.g., physical,
learning, psychiatric, vision, hearing, or other) who needs to arrange reasonable
accommodation must contact the Ability Support Services Offices at the beginning of each
semester. Faculty are authorized to provide only the accommodation requested by the
Disability Counselor. Please visit the Ability Support Services Office on the first floor of the
Learning Hub, Room 106; or call them at 713-718-6164
SUPPORT SERVICES
Tutoring: free tutoring is available in FAC 321b starting the second week of classes—check door
for schedule, usually 8 a.m.-7 p.m. Monday-Thursday, and before 1 p.m. Friday.
Library: The Library is on the 3th floor of the Learning Hub. Get free student I.D. right away so
you can photocopy there if necessary.
Open Computer Labs: available in the Library (3rd floor of Hub) and in FAC 302; check open
hours.
ENGLISH 0310 SPRING 2013—DR ROZENCWAJG’S COURSE CALENDAR
Please read the material indicated by the week they’re due before coming to class. Number
your pages and include the following heading (obligatory)—in upper left corner for each paper,
including in-class writings.
Student’s first & last name
Essay packet will include the following:
ENGL 0310
Grading Profile ON TOP
Rozencwajg
Final Draft of your essay
Month/Day/Year
Freewriting, early drafts
Assignment sheet on BOTTOM
Instructor reserves the right to make changes to calendar assignments.
WEEK ONE
January 14-16
Monday
Introductions to each other and the textbook, the course and the Grading
Profile.
Wednesday Playing around with verbs and their tenses (time and number)
and the sentences which come from them: subject verb object
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WEEK TWO
January 23rd only: Monday is Dr King’s Holiday
WEDNESDAY DUE: NARRATION Orwell: Shooting an Elephant 2; DESCRIPTION Cofer: A Partial
Remembrance of a Puerto Rican Childhood 66; Erdrich: Beneath My House 79
Looking at the paragraphs Essay #1 assigned: Personal Experience 500 words
WEEK THREE
January 28th-30th
MONDAY
PROCESS ANALYSIS John (Fire) Lame Deer and Richard Erdoes. Alone on the
Hilltop 96;
Peter Elbow: Desperation Writing 108
WEDNESDAY DEFINITION Students’ choices among these extended definitions (bring your
dictionaries, of course)
*****Essay #1 DUE at start of class
Prepositions (OWL or any grammar book)
WEEK FOUR
February 4th-6th
MONDAY
DIVISION AND CLASSIFICATION 148 Sheehy: Predictable Crises of Adulthood 149;
Noda: Growing Up Asian in America 159 Compare the two essays.
WEDNESDAY (continued) And ESSAY #2 assigned—compare criteria—due February 20th
WEEK FIVE
February 11th-13th
MONDAY
Catton: Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts 194
Belong in America 212 Note uncapitalized titles.
Mukherjee: Two Ways to
WEDNESDAY COMPARISON & CONTRAST Sanders: The Men We Carry in Our Minds 203
WEEK SIX
February 20th (Monday closed: Presidents’ Day)
WEDNESDAY ESSAY #2 Due at start of class Compare two________________________
WEEK SEVEN
February 25th -27th
MONDAY
ESSAY #3 Due March 4th EXAMPLE & ILLUSTRATION 230
readings (2-3) from this chapter (7th)
WEDNESDAY CAUSE & EFFECT Steele: White Guilt 268
Electrocute a Stranger, Would You? Probably 286
Meyer: If Hitler Asked You to
WEEK EIGHT
March 4th -6th
MONDAY
Midterm Exam Essay (#4)—hand in Essay #3
WEDNESDAY Possible Film
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Students choose
******SPRING BREAK IS MARCH 11-17—NO CLASSES******
WEEK NINE
MONDAY
March 18th-20th
ANALOGY
Eiseley: The Cosmic Prison 344
WEDNESDAY
WEEK 10
MONDAY
Brown: Extreme Reading 354
In-class essay, #5
March 25th-27th
PURDUE OWL
MLA formatting
WEDNESDAY ARGUMENT AND PERSUASION 363 Kornblum/Rubinkam :Texting 364 & 369
WEEK ELEVEN
APRIL 1ST -3RD
MONDAY
Last day for administrative withdrawal
Been Expelled? 373 Dershowitz: Shouting “Fire!” 382
Hentoff: Should This Student Have
WEDNESDAY ARGUMENT AND PERSUASION 398 Swift: A Modest Proposal 398 Nye: To Any
Would-Be-Terrorists 413
Foer: Let Them Eat Dog 428 What’s the Thesis?
WEEK TWELVE
APRIL 8TH -10TH
MONDAY
MIXED STRATEGIES 447
and the Extinction of Dinosaurs 448
Thesis + Support
WEDNESDAY Tan: Mother Tongue 457
Cisneros: Only Daughter 476 Implied Meaning
Gould: Sex, Drugs, Disasters,
WEEK THIRTEEN
April 15th -17th
MONDAY
Bures: Test Day 487
Alexie: Superman and Me 493
WEDNESDAY Salopek: Shattered Sudan 300 Casey: Our Oceans Are Turning into Plastic . . . Are
We? 314
WEEK FOURTEEN
MONDAY
WEDNESDAY
April 22nd -24th
Essay #6 in class
Review of moral issues worth writing about
WEEK FIFTEENTH
April 29th –May 1st
MONDAY
Exam Review: Thesis and Support
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WEDNESDAY
Reading paragraphs aloud, back to front, sentence by sentence
WEEK SIXTEEN: EXAM WEEK
No classes, exams only
Final exam is in this room Monday, May 6th 3-5 p.m.
Exam must be written bluebooks or greenbooks and in blue or black ink, or instructor will not
read exam. It’s ESSAY #7—make it a good one! YES! You may scratch out, write corrections
between lines, draw a carat ^ like that to show me where to read next.
Include all material in both books, because no other material, paper, may be used, even for
rough drafts or freewriting or scratch.
Fill out the cover of your main book—the one with the FINAL essay that you want me to read
for a grade. Put everything else in the back of that booklet: scrap, drafts, scribble. On the
main bluebooklet put your name, my name, date, title of course and semester. Include my
assignment sheet for FINAL exam in the main booklet.
It’s been a pleasure having you in class. (I can already tell I’m going to say that to you.)
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