English 101, Composition
Prof. Miruna Stanica
mstanica@gmu.edu
Office: Robinson Hall A, Room 407A
Office Hours: M 1:30-2:30pm, W 4:30-5:45pm
Section 22/23
MW 10:30-11:45am
or
MW 3:00-4:15pm
Full Course Information Is Available Online
You are responsible for reviewing and following all course policies and assignments.
*Full syllabus is available on our Blackboard course page, available from the Mymason portal at
mymason.gmu.edu. Click on the “Courses” tab.
Brief Description of Course Goals
This course is designed to help you improve your abilities to read, write, and think at a college
level. In English 101, you will develop strategies to help you use writing as a tool for exploring
and reflecting on your own ideas, as well as for informing and persuading your readers. You will
need to develop critical reading and research techniques to support your writing, and learn
appropriate technologies to assist your writing. English 101 emphasizes writing as a rhetorical
process: you will explore beneficial ways to break a writing task into smaller steps such as
generating and organizing ideas, investigating your topic, creating early drafts, seeking feedback,
and revising. You will also improve your ability to adapt your writing to the needs of an
audience or a situation, and your ability to revise and edit your own writing.
Required Book (available at GMU Campus Bookstore)
Daniel Rosenwasser and Jill Stephen, Writing Analytically. Sixth Edition. Thomson Wadsworth.
*Additional readings will be available on Blackboard. They are marked with a * on the weekly
schedule.
Course Grading Overview
15%
25%
30%
5%
15%
10%
Essay 1 (750 words): Rhetorical Analysis
Essay 2 (1250 words): Texts in Conversation
Essay 3 (1500+ words): Research-Based Argument
Annotated Bibliography
Homework/Participation/In-Class Writing
Take-home Final-Exam Essay
Due 2/22
Due 3/28
Due 5/2
Due 4/9 and 4/11
Due throughout
Due 5/9 at
10:30am
Students who earn less than a "C" for their final grade will earn a grade of NC (no credit) and be
required to re-take the course in order to graduate.
Students with disabilities
If you are a student with a disability and you need academic accommodations, please see me and
contact the Office of Disability Services (ODS) at 703-993-2474. All academic accommodations
must be arranged through the ODS.
REVISED, FULL WEEKLY SCHEDULE
*NOTE: EVERY WEDNESDAY IS LAPTOP DAY. You must bring a laptop to class with you
for in-class writing. If you do not have your own laptop, you must go to Robinson A Room 104
with your GMU ID and check one out before class. Return it immediately after class.
Date
Mon 1/23
Wed 1/25
None
WA Ch.1
Writing/Other due
(writing assignments may be added)
None
(laptop day)
Mon 1/30
Wed 2/1
Mon 2/6
WA Ch. 2
*logos/pathos/ethos reading
*Gladwell, “Listening to Khakis”
WA Ch 3, and WA pp.101-3
Literacy narrative (WA p. 20 #1: 250
words)
(laptop day)
Bring your ads to class
Wed 2/8
*Reid, “Ten Moves…”
Mon 2/13
WA Ch 4
Bring your ads to class
(laptop day)
Essay 1 draft due
Wed 2/15
NO CLASS (teacher conferences on essay 1)
Mon 2/20
WA pp. 391-98
Wed 2/22
*Bull, “Iconic Designs” and Juliery, Essay 1 final version due
“Inside and Outside the Ipod”
(laptop day)
WA pp. 86-90 and 105-118
Answer “Things to do with reading” #1
*Rosen, “Our Cell Phones,” and
at the end of the Goldberger essay (min.
Goldberger, “Disconnected
250 words, upload to Blackboard by
Urbanism”
midnight the day before)
WA Ch. 6 and pp. 94-99
(laptop day)
*reread Bull and Juliery; excerpts
from Jobs biography
WA pp. 111-116
Reading response, assignment TBA (min.
*NY Times articles 1 and 2; listen to 250 words, upload to Blackboard by
This American Life episode 454
midnight the day before)
*Schor, “Creation of Discontent;”
(laptop day)
Rockwell, “Defense of
Consumerism,” and Surowiecki,
“Feature Presentation”
SPRING BREAK
WA pp. 307-309
Essay 2 draft due (email a copy to your
*reread Reid, “10 Things to Do with peer-review partner)
Writing”
Mon 2/27
Wed 2/29
Mon 3/5
Wed 3/7
Mon 3/19
Reading due
Bring current draft of paper 1 to class
2
Wed 3/21
Mon 3/26
Wed 3/28
Mon 4/2
Wed 4/4
Mon 4/9
Wed 4/11
NO CLASS (professor away at a conference)
Peer Review due (by email)
WA pp. 333-344
Bring draft to class
*Cain, “The Rise of the New
Groupthink”
WA Ch. 7
WA pp. 283-298
*Purdy, “Wikipedia is Good for
You?!”
(read sources for your paper)
WA Ch. 13
(read sources for your paper)
Mon 4/16
Essay 2 final version due
(laptop day)
Freewrite on potential research paper
topics
(laptop day)
Annotated Bibliography (2 sources)
Annotated Bibliography (2 more sources)
(laptop day)
Essay 3 exploratory draft due
Wed 4/18
NO CLASS (conferences for Essay 3)
Mon 4/23
WA Ch. 12
Wed 4/25
WA Ch. 11
Mon 4/30
WA pp. 349-353; 357-371
Wed 5/2
None
Wed 5/9
Take-home Final Exam due at 10:30am (submit on Blackboard)
(laptop day)
Essay 3 final version due
3