ENG 1020 Introduction to College Writing
Instructor: Dr. Thomas Trimble
Office address: Room 10201.3, 5057 Woodward
Email address: ttrimble@wayne.edu
Office Hours: Thursdays 10:30-12:30 and by appointment
General Education Designation
With a grade of C or better, ENG 1020 fulfills the General Education Basic Composition
(BC) graduation requirement. Successful completion of Basic Composition (BC) with a
grade of C or better is a prerequisite to enrolling in courses that fulfill the General
Education IC (Intermediate Composition) requirement for graduation (e.g., ENG 3010,
3050, Literature & Writing courses).
Course Placement
Students are placed into ENG 1020 via ACT score (ACT English >21), the English
Qualifying Examination, or a passing grade in ENG 1010. Neither instructors nor the
Department of English will override placement.
English Department Course Description
Building upon students’ diverse skills, English 1020 prepares students for reading,
research, and writing in college classes. The main goals of the course are
1. to teach students to consider the rhetorical situation for any piece of writing;
2. to have students integrate reading, research, and writing in the academic
genres of analysis and argument; and
3. to teach students to develop analyses and arguments using research-based
content, effective organization, and appropriate expression and mechanics, all
while using a flexible writing process that incorporates drafting, revising, editing,
and documenting sources.
Learning Outcomes
Students who pass ENG 1020 will produce writing that demonstrates core abilities in
four key areas:
Writing
Use key course concepts (genre, rhetoric, discourse community, metacognitive
learning), a flexible writing process, and varied technologies to write effectively
for various audiences.
Reading
Use analytical and critical strategies to read complex texts in a variety of media,
and to identify and evaluate rhetorical elements, genre conventions, and
discourse community features.
Researching
Conduct research by finding and evaluating print, electronic, and other sources;
generate information and ideas from research; and appropriately integrate material
from sources.
Reflecting
Use reflective writing to describe developing knowledge about writing and oneself
as a writer and to reflect on the thought processes involved in planning,
monitoring, and evaluating one's composing process and resulting texts.
Required Textbooks and Materials
The Wayne Writer. Devitt, et al. Custom ed. New York: Pearson, 2013. Print,
eText available. ISBN: 1269416456.
The Wayne Writer is the common text for ENG 1010, 1020, and 3010. The text is
available only through the University Bookstore.
Computer Use
Because this section of ENG 1020 is an online course, it is essential that you confirm
before the course begins that you will have daily access to a computer that is connected
to the internet. To participate in this course, you must have an active WSU ID. For
assistance getting connected, consult the help desk in the Undergraduate Library or go
to support.wayne.edu. Our course will make extensive use of WSU’s official course
management software, Blackboard. You can find the Blackboard site for our class at
http://blackboard.wayne.edu. You will need your WSU ID and password to access the
site.
You must be able to create word processed documents with the .doc, docx extension
using either Microsoft Word or another program like Google Drive. Both of these
requirements are non-negotiable; without them you will not be able to participate in our
course. If either of these requirements is a problem, you should consult with your WSU
adviser to find an alternative version of ENG 1020.
Finally, you will need a Google account to participate in the course.
Assignments
Students are required to write a minimum of 32 pages (8000 words) in ENG 1020
(including drafts and informal writing).
To pass this course, students must complete a final portfolio and reflective argument
assignment required by the WSU Composition Program. This assignment is designed to
prepare students to transfer knowledge and skills from ENG 1020 to subsequent
courses and other writing contexts. It is based in research in psychology and writing
studies. This research shows that metacognition, or analysis of one’s own thinking
processes, is key to helping people transfer knowledge and skills from the context
where they were initially learned to future contexts. To help students prepare to draft the
Reflective Argument, this course includes reflective assignments designed to promote
metacognition.
This section of ENG 1020 has four major projects:
In Project 1, you will begin by using your existing knowledge of the film review genre to
write a review of a film of your choosing that’s been released over the past two years.
You will then use genre analysis to analyze a small sample of film reviews written for
The New York Times and then revise or rewrite your original review using your acquired
knowledge of the genre. You will annotate your final drafts to point out the relevant
genre features you’ve appropriated from your analysis of the sample corpus.
In Project 2, you will begin by writing a persuasive essay that takes a stand on a
controversial topic. You will then use analysis to study how writers use different
argument types and persuasive strategies for various persuasive scenes of writing. You
will finish the project by revising your persuasive essay for a specific rhetorical situation
and scene of writing using secondary research to find and evaluate evidence supporting
your position.
In Project 3, you will use primary research to write an MLA-style academic essay about
a discourse community to which you currently belong.
Project 4, called the Reflective Argument, is the one common assignment for all
sections of ENG 1020. This assignment, which is the last major assignment of the
semester, consists of two student deliverables: a 2000-2500—word essay (8-10 pages)
in which students make an argument about how their work over the course of the
semester demonstrates their fulfillment of the course learning outcomes (reading,
writing, researching, and metacognitive thinking), and a portfolio containing selected
pieces of work that students use as evidence of their accomplishments.
Distribution of Points
Summative Assessments
Points
%
p1 final draft
110 10
p2 analysis essay
100 15
p2 argument essay
100 15
p3 argument essay
100 15
p4 portfolio
100 10
TOTAL
510 65
Formative Assessments
Points
%
Class Profile Blog
5
1
Syllabus Quiz
5
1
Wordpress Blog
5
1
Quiz: chapter 5
5
1
15
3
Grow Your Brain Letter
5
1
Quiz: scene, situation, and genre
5
1
Reading Response: scene, situation, and genre
5
1
Reflective Blog: Analysis Essay
5
1
Quiz: Rhetorical Analysis
5
1
Reading Respnse: Persuasive Appeals
5
1
20
4
Reflective Blog: Genre Analysis Worksheet
5
1
Quiz: Discourse Communities
5
1
P3 Blog #1
5
1
P3 Blog #2
5
1
Genre Analysis Worksheet
P3 Research Packet
Quiz: MLA Style
5
1
15
3
Reflective Argument Planning Worksheet
5
1
Reflective Argument Section Draft
5
1
WP blog: Earliest Memories of Writing
5
1
Short assignment
5
1
Short assignment
5
1
Short assignment
5
1
Short assignment
5
1
Short assignment
5
1
Short assignment
5
1
Instructor Meeting
5
1
P2 Annotated Bibliography
TOTAL
175 35
GRAND TOTAL
685 100
WSU Grading Scale:
A
94-100%
A-
90-93%
B+
87-89%
B
84-86%
B-
80-83%
C+
77-79%
C
74-76%
A grade of C (74%) or better fulfills the
C-
70-73%
General Education BC requirement
D+
67-69%
and the prerequisite for General
D
64-66%
D-
60-63%
F
59% or less
Education WI courses.
Conferences
One on one conversations between instructors and students have traditionally been an
important part of teaching writing. There are a number of options for conferencing in our
course:
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In-person conferences in my campus office at 5057 Woodward (Thursdays,
10:30-12:30am or by appointment)
Phone calls
SKYPE video calls
Google hang-outs
For SKYPE calls and Google hang-outs, a computer vid cam is necessary.
Class Policies
Late Work
I will accept one late project and one short assignment within 48 hours of the due date,
no questions asked. If you do submit late work, please notifiy me by email. Otherwise, I
do not accept late work.
Adds
Students may add ENG 1020 during the first week of class if a spot is available.
Withdrawals
Students may withdraw from ENG 1020 through the date listed in the official WSU
Academic Calendar. After this date, no W grades will be given and students will be
given a failing grade for the course. Per WSU policy, the grade of WN is given to
students who do not attend any classes and/or do not complete any assignments by the
withdrawal date. If a student withdraws after having received a grade for any component
of a course, then W grades must be either WP (withdrawal with a passing grade earned
to date) or WF (withdrawal with a failing grade earned to date).
Incompletes
No ‘I’ grades will be given in ENG 1020. Students must complete all course projects in
order to pass the course.
Email Netiquette
Analyzing your audience is critical to designing any effective communication and that
applies to email as well. The kinds of email we write, and the style we use to write
email, is very different for friends, families, employers, and instructors. With this in mind,
I'm going to ask that you use a fairly formal style with me this semester which will be
good practice for the kinds of email you'll have to write to other professors, university
administrators, and potential employers as you continue your academic career. As
such, please use the following guidelines in your email:
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Please communicate with your WSU email account only; emails received from
other email accounts will not be opened.
Please do not click “reply all” when responding to an email I have sent to the
entire class unless you wish for all of your classmates to see your response.
Please do not give out my email address or send out non-course related emails
to me or your classmates unless you have prior permission to do so.
Please remember that since email does not include the advantage of us being
able to observe one another’s body language and tone, be careful with sarcasm
and humor; you may unintentionally communicate the incorrect message.
Please do not use all caps in emails as it is considered shouting; likewise, please
do not bold or underline unless you need to emphasis a very important point.
Begin the first email in a thread with a salutation such as Dear Alisa, Hello Dr.
Smith, or Dear Classmates; feel free to use my first name but greetings such as
"Hey," "Yo," or "How's it Going?" are not appropriate.
Include an ending salutation such as "Thank You," "Thanks," or "Best."
Please only tag emails as having “high importance/priority”, if they are truly
urgent.
If you choose to “BCC” (blind carbon copy) or “CC” (carbon copy) me on an
email, please let me know why you have chosen to do so.
Please check your email, at least, once daily.
Check all email for spelling. Most email clients do so automatically.
Please always include “ENG 1020” in your subject line if you are not emailing
directly from Bb which will automatically include “ENG 1020” in the subject line.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is the act of copying work from books, articles, and websites without citing
and documenting the source. Plagiarism includes copying language, texts, and visuals
without citation (e.g., cutting and pasting from websites). Plagiarism also includes
submitting papers that were written by another student or downloaded from the internet.
Plagiarism is a serious academic offense: the minimum penalty for plagiarism is an F for
the assignment; the full penalty for plagiarism may result in an F for the course. All
cases of plagiarism in ENG 1020 will be reported to the Department of English.
Information about plagiarism procedures is available in the Department of English (9 th
Floor, 5057 Woodward).
The Undergraduate Library’s reSearch program includes a module on avoiding
plagiarism:
http://www.lib.wayne.edu/services/instruction/searchpath/mod6/04-plagiarism.html
Student Resources
WSU Writing Center
The Writing Center (2nd floor, UGL) provides individual tutoring consultations free of
charge for students at Wayne State University. Undergraduate students in General
Education courses, including composition courses, receive priority for tutoring
appointments. The Writing Center serves as a resource for writers, providing tutoring
sessions on the range of activities in the writing process – considering the audience,
analyzing the assignment or genre, brainstorming, researching, writing drafts, revising,
editing, and preparing documentation. The Writing Center is not an editing or
proofreading service; rather, students are guided as they engage collaboratively in the
process of academic writing, from developing an idea to editing for grammar and
mechanics. To make an appointment, consult the Writing Center website:
http://www.clas.wayne.edu/writing/
To submit material for online tutoring, consult the Writing Center HOOT website
(Hypertext One-on-One Tutoring): http://www.clas.wayne.edu/unitinner.asp?WebPageID=1330.
Instructors may require individual students to attend the Writing Center to receive
tutoring on a specific assignment, skill, or aspect of the writing process. Instructors may
also require individual students to attend the Writing Center to receive instruction in
grammar and mechanics. For more information about the Writing Center, please contact
center director Jule Wallis (phone: 577-2544; email: au1145@wayne.edu).
OWL
The Online Writing Lab (OWL) at Purdue University is an excellent writing resource with
information on a wide variety of writing and research issues
http://owl.english.purdue.edu/
Student Disabilities Services
If you need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability, please contact me
privately to discuss your specific needs. The Student Disabilities Services Office
coordinates reasonable accommodations for students with documented disabilities. The
office is located in 1600 David Adamany Undergraduate Library, phone: 577-1851/5773365 (TTY). http://studentdisability.wayne.edu
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Adamany Undergraduate Library
http://www.lib.wayne.edu/info/maps/ugl.php
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Academic Success Center http://www.success.wayne.edu/
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Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS)
http://www.caps.wayne.edu