Syllabus
WSU Department Name: English
WSU Course Number & Listing: ENG EN1010: Introductory College Writing (3Credit Hrs.)
High School: Bonneville High
WSU Concurrent Adjunct Instructor: Hillary Finder
High School Course Name: English 1010
School year: 2010-2011
Concurrent Adjunct Instructor’s Office Hours: Monday – Friday, 7:15am – 3:15pm
Concurrent Adjunct Instructor’s phone and email: 801-452-4050, hfinder@wsd.net
Prerequisite High School Courses if any: none
WSU Course Description:
This course may deal with material that may conflict with your core beliefs. It is my judgment
that this material is relevant to the discipline I am teaching and has a reasonable relationship to
my pedagogical goals. If you do not feel you can continue in this course, please drop it within
the designated time from to avoid penalty.
Students will learn about and practice imaginative and expository writing. They will focus on
the writing process, parts of speech, paragraphs, and sentences, and on the interrelationship
between reading and writing. Writing assignments will emphasize modes of organization
including narration, description, and clarification, with content based in on the student’s personal
experience, feelings, and critical thinking.
WSU Course Objectives:
Controlling Philosophy for English 1010
Writing is not a course of study or a collection of facts to be memorized. Writing in a college
setting deals with ideas the writer takes seriously enough to want to explore and support with
good reasons. It is a question-and-answer process completed by both teacher and student. Your
writing will be enhanced as you respond critically to the ideas of others and by writing about
your own ideas in such a way that you try to earn the understanding and assent of your audience.
Writing is the tool this institution uses to ensure and evaluate the independent learning you do
here. This class requires you to read and think about broad issues and then write about them
using a process to come up with the best possible paper.
Outcome goals
The overarching goal of composition is to provide our students with the necessary skills and
understanding to enter the discourse communities of the university and larger society. This is
accomplished best by creating a similar community within the classroom so our students can see
2
how they can take part in the larger intellectual conversation. Students in English 1010 students
should produce a minimum of 20 pages of revised, finished prose over the course of the
semester. Students exiting English 1010 with a C or better should be able to do the following:
Writing
Compose sentences and paragraphs and essays that are grammatically correct and coherent
Understand and use the pre-writing, drafting and revision process in composing written
assignments
Compose writing assignments with a clear thesis or point that has stasis
Indicate quoted or paraphrased material properly (including citations)
Understand differences in tone and voice in their own writing and be able to apply each
appropriately to their writing assignments
Use topic sentences and transitions effectively
Produce writing that requires structure and organization
Use a style manual to find answers to grammar or usage questions
Use texts in combination to make arguments
Reading
Read and understand texts of a variety of genres, styles and complexity
Consider critically the texts and ideas presented in the course
Understand that texts are structured in specific ways for specific reasons
Identify connections between and among texts and their ideas
Critical Thinking
Approach issues and ideas in an objective fashion
Recognize contradictions and logical problems with issues and ideas
Work with complex ideas without over-simplifying or treating them in a reductive manner
Recognize a writer’s agenda
Research and Argumentation
Use sources to make arguments without ceding their own voice
Use library databases and other online resources
Evaluate potential source material for credibility and usefulness
We will meet the above goal by the following:
Help you to think, read, and write critically
Help you master the basic skills of standard American English and use them
appropriately for the rhetorical situation
Help you discover ideas about issues that are significant to you and your community
and to communicate these ideas in clear, logical, well-reasoned writing
Help you to evaluate and incorporate other voices into your own writing
Help you to come to the best possible conclusions from the available reasons
Academic Dishonesty:
Plagiarism is a form of academic dishonesty in which you represent someone else’s work or
ideas as if they were your own. Don’t submit someone else’s work. You must give credit to
other people’s research and opinions when you use them. Plagiarism is grounds for dismissal
from the university.
3
WSU Required Textbook & Materials:
Writing Matters, A Handbook for Writing and Research by Rebecca Howard. 2011
Ways of Reading, eighth edition. David Bartholomea and Anthony Petrosky. 2008
WSU Course Requirements:
Students must be Seniors and must have taken either the English Accuplacer Test (and received a
score of 90 or better on both the English and reading sections), or the ACT Test (and received a
score of 17 or better on both the English and Reading Sections), or the SAT Test (and received a
score of 340 or better on the critical reading and verbal or writing section depending on the
version). The English Accuplacer test can be taken at either the WSU Ogden or Davis campus.
Students can call the Ogden testing center at 626-3532, the Davis testing center at 395-3495, or
go online to www.weber.edu/accuplacer for specific information and directions.
Attendance:
Attendance is crucial. You must have 90% attendance in order to get credit for Concurrent
English 1010.
Peer Reviews:
All of your papers will be peer reviewed prior to turning them in. Receiving feedback and seeing
what and how others are writing will give you additional insight into improving your papers.
Improving Writing workshops:
In class we will discuss and experiment with ways to make your writing stronger, such as
abstractions, wordiness, punctuation, grammar, tone, audience, active verbs, and concrete nouns.
Strong writing is more powerful than weak writing. These strategies will help you make your
writing stronger and give you confidence in writing.
Class discussions:
You will read a number of professional essays and then discuss them as a class. You need to
participate by having read the essays, developing questions or counterpoints to the essays.
Quizzes can and will be given to make sure you have the reading done.
Late work policy:
Any paper can be turned in late. One class period after its due date, it will lose 10% of the total
credit. Two or three class periods late, it will lose 25%. Any paper submitted 5 or more days
after its original due date will lose 50%.
Essays: You will not receive credit for this course unless you have at least 20 pages of essays
*4 pages can come from personal writing
*12 or more pages can come from argumentative and informative research in MLA format.
These papers need to be four pages or more.
*4 pages can come from responses to essays in the text along with additional sources.
Essay Assignments:
Benchmark Essay
I Am…
Bill Gates
Personal Reminiscence
1 Page
1 Page
2 Pages
2 Pages
4
2 Responses to text with sources
Informative Research with sources
Argumentative Research with sources
Final Reflection
WSU Grading:
94 -100% = A
90 – 93% = A87 – 89% = B+
83 – 86% = B
80 – 82% = B77 – 79% = C+
3 Pages each
4-5 Pages
4-5 Pages
1 Page
73 – 76% = C
70 – 72% = C67 – 69% = D+
63 – 66% = D
60 – 62% = D-
Again, no matter what grade you earn, if you don’t have 20 pages of final essays, you will not
receive credit for English 1010. You must have a C or better to take 2010.
*Calendar of Course Content:
Reading
Paper
Benchmark Essay
I Am…
Bill Gates
Reminiscence
Paulo Friere
Richard Rodriguez
Cornelius Eady
Adrienne Rich
Week 1
Week 2
Week 3
Week 4
Week 5
Week 6
Week 7
Week 8
Week 9
Week 10
Informative Research
Week 11
Week 12
Plagiarism
Argumentative Research
Week 13
Writing a Research Paper
Week 14
MLA Documentation
Week 15
Week 16
Final Exam
Final Reflection
Week 17
Week 18
WSU Course Evaluation:
As a concurrent student, you are given the privilege of evaluating this course. This is an
anonymous evaluation which allows you an opportunity to express your opinions of the course
and the instructor.
WSU Student Code of Conduct: Download the WSU Student Code of Conduct at:
www.weber.edu/concurrent/students/CodeOfConduct.asp