ENGLISH 1101: COMPOSITION I
FRESHMAN LEARNING COMMUNITY: WHAT IS SOCIAL JUSTICE ?
FALL 2011
MONDAYS AND WEDNESDAYS 3:00-4:15, SPARKS HALL 430
Instructor
Office Hours
E-mail
CompClass
uLearn
Sarah Higinbotham
GCB 964
12-1 Mondays and Wednesdays
I am available to discuss your work and answer questions before or after
class, during my office hours, by special appointment, or by e-mail.
engsth@langate.gsu.edu
http://www.yourcompclass.com (works best with Mozilla Firefox)
https://c.view.usg.edu/webct/entryPage.dowebct
Course Description
Our goal is to write clearly. We will learn specific skills that will enhance your writing, such as
organization, clear thinking, use of details, sound argument, focus, imagery, academic research,
and of course basic conventions like clear grammar and proper citation. I encourage you to
write about what is of greatest interest to you, and to develop an expressive, natural voice.
Required Texts
Lunsford, Andrea. The Everyday Writer. 4th edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2009. Print.
Singer, Marti. Ed. First Essays: A Peer Approach to Freshman Composition. 3rd Edition.
Plymouth: Hayden McNeil, 2009. Print.
Course Assignments
Essays, 90% total grade
English 1101 is a writing-intensive course:
o Weekly, informal response papers to the readings (8 total) submitted
through CompClass on the date noted on syllabus by 3 pm. 10%, 1 full
page each
o An initial in-class writing assessment based on Jonathan Safran Foer’s
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
5%, 1-2 pages, full credit upon submission
o A personal narrative
15%, 3 pages
o A second descriptive paper on a person or place
15%, 3 pages
o A third paper where you formulate and defend your point of view, known
as an “academic argument”
15%, 3 pages, peer response required
o And a final paper in which you will learn how to conduct academic
research in order to answer a question
30%, 4 pages, plus the proposal and an annotated bibliography
Paper Submission:
All papers, except the annotated bibliography, will be submitted through the electronic
dropbox in CompClass. Instructions are on-line. The program will reformat slightly, so
read through your essay and adjust the paragraphing and center the title. Check for any
other oddities, such as extremely small font size or arbitrary paragraphing, before you
submit. You are responsible for checking CompClass to ensure that your paper uploaded
successfully.
For the Annotated Bibliography:
printed before you come to class
Times New Roman font in 12 point
double-spaced with one-inch margins (remember to reverse indent)
2009 MLA style (see The Everyday Writer)
labeled with your name, course, and section
Revision
Writing is a process, and revision is a gift, not a punishment. I will accept a revision of any
of the papers by December 5, the last day of class. A revision isn’t just a quick fix of the
grammatical errors, but a “re-vision,” or a second look at your work. If you choose to
revise it can only help, not hurt your grade. The revision must include a cover letter, in
which you explain to me what and why you revised what you did, and should be turned
in to me in paper format. You may send revisions as e-mail attachments, but make sure I
respond and tell you I received the paper. If I do not respond within a day, I did not
receive the paper.
Attendance and Participation
See attendance policy below. 10% for participation
If you miss more than 4 classes, unless you discuss the circumstances with me, I will
remove your name from my roll and you will be given an F, regardless of your paper
grades.
I use the standard GSU grading scale: A (90-100), B (80-89), C (70-79), D (60-69), F (below 60)
Because English 1101 is a general education requirement, you must earn a C or above to pass
the class.
Please note: the Hope Scholarship requires you maintain a certain grade point average. My
grading policies are fair, and I’m always willing to discuss concerns you have over any specific
grades. But I will not negotiate an overall course grade based on your jeopardized Hope
Scholarship.
Attendance, Participation, Classroom Expectations
Our class time will involve discussion, instruction, student presentations, group work, and
lecture. Research shows that students who come to class and participate are generally
successful. So I take roll each day, and if you are present and engaged in class you receive full
credit. I consider “engaged” to be asking at least one question or making at least one
comment. Every missed class is 5% deducted from your attendance grade, up to four classes,
when you automatically fail English 1101. Please contact me if you are serious about English
1101 but have circumstances (serious illness, family emergency) that may warrant an
exception.
CompClass will accept late assignments, but every day an assignment is late, the grade will be
lowered by a letter grade (ten points). This includes weekends and there are no exceptions.
Incompletes Receiving an Incomplete: The notation of “I” may be given to a student who, for
nonacademic reasons beyond his or her control, is unable to meet the full requirements of a
course. In order to qualify for an “I”, a student must:

Have completed most of the major assignments of the course (generally all but one);
and
 Be earning a passing grade in the course (aside from the assignments not completed) in
the judgment of the instructor.
When a student has a nonacademic reason for not completing one or more of the assignments
for a course, including examinations, and wishes to receive an incomplete for the course, it is
the responsibility of the student to inform the instructor in person or in writing of the reason. A
grade of incomplete is awarded at the discretion of the instructor and is not the prerogative of
the student. Conditions to be met for removing a grade of incomplete are established by the
instructor.
Please note The college classroom is a place where ideas are exchanged respectfully. I look
forward to an environment where this will occur, but I don’t have much tolerance for
distracting behavior, such as texting, sleeping, or updating your Facebook page during class.
Please
see
GSU’s
policy
on
disruptive
behavior
at
http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwsen/minutes/2002-2003/disrupt2.html.
If your behavior is
disruptive or inconsiderate, you are subject to removal from the classroom at my discretion.
First Year Book program: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
At Incept, you should have received a copy of Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel. Our first
assignment, a writing assessment, will be based on the novel. The following is an excerpt from
an interview with Foer, when asked how the idea for the novel originated:
Interviewer: How did the idea for the novel originate?
Very organically. It began with a museum, actually. A once-famous European writer
disappeared for forty years, and then reappeared. Over the course of successive
rewrites—as my passions and sense of writing changed, and as the world changed—the
novel was destroyed and rebuilt many times. The writer and museum fell by the wayside.
A precocious young boy in a damaged city took center stage. I've written thirty-nine
distinct drafts of this book. Like a boat whose every plank is replaced while journeying at
sea, the first and last drafts have nothing tangible in common— no characters, themes or
plot—and yet are one in the same. And to get to the 400 or so pages that ultimately
comprise the novel, I had to write well over 2,500. Which is to say the boat has been an
aircraft carrier, at times. It's been a volatile process.
To make a long story short, I've tried to follow my instincts. I've tried to write the book I
would want to read, rather than the book I would want to write. I've tried never to ask if
something was smart, but instead if it felt genuine. A set of themes rose to the surface:
silence, invention, anxiety, naiveté, absence, the difficulty of expressing love, war… I felt I
couldn't push them down, and I chose not to try to. Voices became pronounced. Some
characters became vivid, others vanished. A plot… happened. If it sounds inefficient, I've
described it properly. I cannot imagine how I could have been less efficient. But maybe
inefficiency is the point. One can use a map and drive to a destination. Or one can follow
the most interesting, beautiful roads—trusting oneself, trusting the car, and trusting the
logic of the pavement—and end up where you couldn't have realized you wanted to be
until you got there. Writing, for me, is about following roads. And that intuitive,
wandering approach explains not only why this book is so far from where I started, but
why I feel it so personally, so viscerally, and so, well, loudly and closely.
(www.bookbrowse.com)
As you prepare for the writing assessment, and more broadly for a college writing course,
consider the following: How much did Foer’s work change from its beginning to its end?
What does that tell you about the process of writing? What controlling metaphor does
he use to describe the writing process?
In the writing assessment, I will ask you to consider one of Foer’s themes: silence,
invention, anxiety, naiveté, absence, the difficulty of expressing love, or war.
Writing Studio
The writing studio is located on the ninth floor of the General Classroom Building (GCB 976).
The staff can help you at any stage of the writing process although they will not “edit” your
work. Students who use the writing center for additional help consistently improve their
writing and their final grades. Make an appointment online at www.writingstudio.gsu.edu.
Learning Outcomes
 Engage in writing as a process: invention, gathering evidence, considering
audience, drafting, revising, and editing.
 Engage in the collaborative, social aspects of writing, and use writing as a tool for
learning
 Use language to explore and analyze contemporary multicultural, global, and
international questions
 Demonstrate how to use writing aids, such as handbooks, dictionaries, online
aids, and tutors
 Gather, summarize, synthesize and explain information from various sources
 Use grammatical, stylistic, and mechanical formats and conventions appropriate
for a variety of audiences
 Critique your own and others’ work in written and oral formats
 Produce coherent, organized, readable prose for a variety of rhetorical situations
 Reflect on what contributed to your writing process and evaluate your own work
Academic Honesty
Plagiarism, from the Latin word for kidnapping, is presenting another person’s work as your
own. It is a serious offense and can ruin your academic career. When you use another person’s
words, ideas, information or insight and don’t acknowledge it, you risk several penalties: you
could fail the assignment or the course itself, and according to GSU guidelines, you could also
face suspension, transcript annotation, or expulsion.
(available online at http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwdos/codeofconduct_conpol.html)
Mistakes are welcome
A writing teacher I admire, Nick Carbone, has this to add about plagiarism:
Unfortunately, the term “plagiarism” is more technical than practical. It's used to
describe equally mistakes in handling and citing sources and deliberate cheating and
lying about the authorship of the work you hand in. In fact, one refuge of many cheaters
is to say that they merely made mistakes in source handling. So by plagiarism in this
course I want us all to distinguish between fraud and cheating, which is always wrong,
and mistakes in learning, which are inevitable, correctable, and for many people,
necessary for learning. Mistakes are welcome; deliberate fraud is not. (“Talking about
Plagiarism: A Syllabus Strategy”)
Topic Choice
You will write best if you are personally invested and highly interested in your topic. So I
encourage you to develop arguments based on your areas of interest, except for abortion, the
legislation of drugs and alcohol, euthanasia, or environmental policy. Because so many
students write on these topics, and our current news is saturated with them, it is difficult for
me to grade you fairly. We’ll work on invention strategies throughout the semester and I’m
always available to discuss them.
“Belief Preservation”
When we strongly believe or disbelieve something, we tend to do the following:
1. We seek evidence that supports what we believe, and avoid or ignore evidence that
goes against it.
2. We rate evidence as good or bad depending on whether it supports or conflicts with our
position.
3. We stick with our beliefs even in the face of overwhelming contrary evidence.
To combat belief preservation, and foster critical thinking, I encourage you to do the following:
1. Put extra effort into searching for and attending to evidence that contradicts what you
believe.
2. When you weigh your evidence, give “extra credit” to those arguments that go against
your position.
3. Cultivate a willingness to change your mind when evidence compels. (adapted from Tim
van Gelder)
Because this is such a crucial part of academic argument, I will not give above a C to any
paper that does not fully consider the counter evidence.
English Major Senior Portfolios
The English department at GSU requires an exit portfolio of all students graduating with a
degree in English. Ideally, students should work on this every semester, selecting 1-2 papers
from each course and revising them, with direction from faculty members. The portfolio
includes revised work and a reflective essay about what you’ve learned. Each concentration
(literature, creative writing, rhetoric/composition, and secondary education) within the major
may have specific items to place in the portfolio, so be sure to check the booklet located in the
front office of the English Department. See the front office for additional information.
Students with Disabilities
If you have a disability that may affect your performance in this class, or if you require special
accommodations to perform successfully in this class, please tell me by the end of the first
week of class.
Online Evaluation of Instructor
Your constructive assessment of this course plays an indispensable role in shaping education at
Georgia State. Upon completing the course, please take time to fill out the online course
evaluation
1101 Course Schedule
Items in bold indicate a submission is due. This syllabus reflects a plan for the course. Deviations
from this plan may become necessary as the semester progresses. Students are responsible for
taking note of any changes that may occur.
Monday 8/22 Syllabus, Expectations
Week 1
Introduction
Week 2
Critical Thinking
Wednesday 8/24 Critical Thinking; Read Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” on
CompClass, under “Course Materials”
Monday 8/29 First Essays 1-10; Lamott reading on CompClass;
Response Due
Wednesday 8/31 First Essays 27-48; Response Due
Introduction, Conclusion Strategies
Monday 9/5 No class – Labor Day
Week 3
Writing Process
Week 4
Rhetorical Situations
Week 5
Clutter
Week 6
Conferences
Wednesday 9/7 Writing Assessment: In Class
Monday 9/12 Draft of First Essay Due: 3 pages. Print -- Peer Review in
Class
Wednesday 9/14 Upload First Essay to CompClass. First Essays 49-124
Monday 9/19 Clutter: Zinsser reading on CompClass: Response Due
Wednesday 9/21 Second Essay Due: 4 pages. Print -- Peer Review in
Class
Monday 9/26 Upload Second Essay to CompClass
Wednesday 9/28 Conferences A-E:
All conferences in my office, GCB 964
Week 7
Conferences
Monday 10/3 Conferences F-L Making Claims, Defending views. “Not for
Sport” and “Play With Our Name” on CompClass. Response Due
Wednesday 10/5 Conferences M-Z
October 7: Last day to withdraw from classes
Monday 10/10 Peter Elbow reading on CompClass: Response Due
Week 8
Argument
Wednesday 10/12 Outline of Argument due: bring printed
Monday 10/17 Upload Third Essay to CompClass
Week 9
Research
Week 10
Proposal, Citation
Week 11
Questioning Texts,
Managing Writing
Week 13
Organizing
Week 14
Final Paper Due
Wednesday 10/19 Come to class prepared to share your research topic
Narrowing Your Focus
Monday 10/24 Proposal Due for Research Essay: 1 page
Meet in Library, Classroom 1, for Workshop
Wednesday 10/26 Library Research Day
Monday 10/31 First Essays 163-193 (student examples); Citation Styles
“Trojan Horses of Race” on CompClass: Response Due
Wednesday 11/2 Continue citation instruction and source use
Monday 11/7 Annotated Bibliography Due, bring printed to class
Wednesday 11/9 Organizing the essay
Monday 11/14 Draft Essay Due (bring printed to class); Peer Editing in
Class
Wednesday 11/16 Final Essay due: upload to CompClass
Week 15
Thanksgiving Break
GSU closed
Monday 11/28 Conferences
Week 16
Wednesday 11/30 Conferences
Week 17
Week 17
Final Exam
Monday 12/5 Final Class, review and evaluation: All revisions due
As stated in the revision policy, you may submit a revised version of
any of the four major essays. Include a cover letter indicating how you
improved each paper.
Monday, 12/12 1:30 – 4:00