J. Graupman
English 1500
Course Syllabus
English 1500-31 Off-line
Fall 2008–Start Date: October 6, 2008
Instructor: Janet Graupman
Contact: Telephone (661) 763-7700 leave message
Email: jgraupman@taft.org
Office Hours: M & W 4:30-6:30; T & Th 12:30-1:00 in T-12A or by appointment
Mailing Address: Janet Graupman c/o Taft College, 29 Emmons Park Drive, Taft, CA
93268
Prerequisite: Qualification by assessment process or successful completion of English
1005 and English 1000 with a grade of “C” or better; Information Competency 1548 or
concurrent enrollment in Information Competency 1548.
Course Description: This course focuses on critical thinking and composition through
reading of essays, poetry, drama, and fiction. It introduces critical evaluation, develops
techniques of analytical, critical and argumentative writing, explores inference,
evidence, inductive and deductive reasoning, identification of assumptions, underlying
conclusions and other terms of logical thinking, and continues expository writing.
Textbook and Required Materials
Brandon, Lee. Paragraphs and Essays, Tenth Edition. (Contact the Taft College
Bookstore for current price).
Burchers, Sam. Vocabulary Cartoons. 3rd Edition. New Monic Books, 1997. (Contact
the Taft College Bookstore for current price).
Animal Farm by George Orwell (available for purchase from the Taft College
Bookstore for $9.99 or from most major bookstores).
Estimated Time per Week: 8-10 hours per week.
What is Distance Learning Off-line?
Distance Learning offline is a mode of delivery that does not require Internet access and
is NOT delivered through the Etudes system. The class material is available through
the Taft College Web page or by contacting the instructor. You do not have to come to
campus. Instead, you will follow the directions given in this syllabus, complete and
submit your assignments by the deadlines given, and contact me if you have any
questions, comments, or concerns. All assignments must reach me by the deadlines
given in the class calendar. You can submit your assignments by email (best option),
through the Taft College Learning Resource Center (LRC), in person, or mail to my
attention to Taft College, 29 Emmons Park Drive, Taft, CA, 93268 (posted date must be
on or before due date). Make sure all work you leave it in the LRC is date stamped. If
you would like your papers returned to you, you will need to send me a self-addressed,
stamped envelop in care of the college address.
Special Note: If sending assignments via email, please send as attachments in Word.
Each paper must have a proper heading (name, date, and assignment or essay title). I
will always send a “received” email just to let you know that your email made it to me. If
you do not get a response from me within a couple of days, assume I did not receive
your assignment and resend it.
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J. Graupman
English 1500
How Does This Class Work?
You will need to read this syllabus carefully. All assignments are listed with a detailed
description and an assignment calendar format that shows what you need to complete
each week. I purposely made the due day on Saturday, so you would have an extra
“non-work week” day to accomplish the assignment if needed. The assignment will be
considered late if received after midnight of the due date.
If there are extenuating circumstances that make it impossible to get your assignment to
me by the due date, please email or call so we can discuss it. Being on time with your
assignments is vital to your grade. Assignments will always be taken before they are
due, just please double-check to make sure you have your name and the assignment
name on each paper. Late assignments will be taken for up to one week, but the grade
will be lowered by 10% for each day they’re late. Even though this is a distance
learning class, it does not mean you are completely on your own. You can contact me
anytime you have questions or concerns regarding an assignment or this syllabus.
Email is the most efficient way to get in touch with me.
Attendance Policy
Because this is a distance learning course, attendance is determined by the coursework
you submit. If you do not submit the first assignment by the submission deadline
listed on the class calendar, I will assume you do not wish to remain in
attendance and will drop you from class. I will usually not drop you after that date.
Students may choose to drop the course unless the deadline for dropping with a “W”
has passed. It is your responsibility to notify the College if you wish to drop the course.
Plagiarism is not acceptable. Plagiarism refers to using other peoples’ words and/or
ideas as your own, either verbatim or by close paraphrasing without providing
necessary quotation marks and/or citations. If you closely paraphrase material from
another source, you must use quotation marks if appropriate and cite the source. You
may cite the source by embedding it in the text of the paper. Do this by listing, in
parentheses and immediately after the quoted or paraphrased material, the text and
pertinent paper number(s). DO NOT PLAGIARIZE; PLAGIARISM MERITS AND
AUTOMATIC “F” OR “O” ON THE ASSIGNMENT. CONTINUED PLAGIARISM
MERITS AN “F’ GRADE IN THE COURSE.
Additional Help: If you’re having problems with some of the concepts in this book and
need help, the Taft College Library offers free tutoring services M-F, 8:00 am until 9:00
(Friday until 5:00). Please feel free to make use of this service as much as needed.
Students who believe they may need accommodations in this class are encouraged to
contact Student Support Services at (661)763-7927 as soon as possible to better
ensure student accommodations are implemented in a timely fashion.
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English 1500
GENERAL FORMAT OF CLASS
You will be required to read and complete all assignments from the textbook; read and
complete assignments from the vocabulary book; read “Animal Farm” and complete the
assigned essay, and complete a 3-5 page research paper on the topic of “Should the
drinking age be changed from 21 to 18?”
Textbook Reading and Assignments: You should read each assigned chapter and
complete the assignments. Type each assignment on a separate piece of paper (do not
send the torn-out page from the book) with a proper heading (your name, date, exercise
number and page number). Each assignment should have the questions and a
complete answer. If the exercise tells you to underline something in the text, please
type the beginning . . . and ending of the section that should be underlined or
highlighted. Make sure your answers are clear and you’re using complete sentences.
The assignments from the book jump around so we can complete all sections of the
book in the allotted time. The book has sections on The Writing Process; Writing
Paragraphs and Essays; Research Papers, and the Grammar and Punctuation
Handbook.
Vocabulary Cartoon Assignments: Read through the book and complete all of the
Review exercises; correct these assignments using the answers in the back of the book.
Complete the three Vocabulary Assignments by typing your choice of 20 words from the
completed sections; type the word, a synonym, an antonym, and a sentence for each
word. Make sure to have a proper heading on each assignment and clearly define
which word is the synonym and which one is the antonym (you might want to type each
one in a table or list format).
Literature Book: Animal Farm is the assigned literature book for this class. Read the
book throughout the semester and then write a 2-3 page essay about the book. The
first section of the essay should be a summary (like a book report) of the text. The
second part of your paper should be your reaction to the text. This section should
consider things such as: What did you think about the story? What thoughts/ideas did it
provoke? This book was written in 1946, does it still have meaning today? If so, what
current events/issues does it remind you of? These questions are just some ideas for
you to use. There are no right or wrong answers to these questions. It is your personal
opinion! Just make sure you back up every opinion/idea with facts or examples. This
paper needs to be double-spaced and have a proper heading. It should not be longer
than 3 pages. It’s the quality I’m looking at, not quantity.
Research Paper: Paper should be 3-5 pages, double-spaced with one inch margins,
size 12 font, Times New Roman or Ariel. Follow guidelines in textbook (Chapter 16:
Writing the Research Paper). For research, go to the Taft College website;
Library/Learning Center (on left-bottom of home-page); Research Room in box under
LLRC Menu; Username: taftcollege, Password: tcstudent; go to Professional and
ERIC Database. The paper’s topic is: SHOULD WE CHANGE THE DRINKING AGE
FROM 21 TO 18? Type in any appropriate words and/or phrases in SEARCH TERMS.
Pick three (3) relevant articles that will allow you to view the full article (bottom left of
each box it will say “ERIC Full Text with a PDF symbol). Print your articles and read.
These three articles will be the basic documentation for your paper. You may add
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English 1500
more, but do not have more than a total of FIVE (5) documents for this paper. Final
paper must have a Title page, a Thesis statement and outline, body, and Works Cited
page. It should look basically like the example in your book (without any additional
spaces between paragraphs). The ENTIRE paper should not exceed 5 pages!
Important Note about Assignments: ALL assignments must have a proper heading
(your name, class, date, and assignment name – essays should also have a title) to
receive full credit.
ASSIGNMENT SCHEDULE
Week
Assignment
Due Date
Textbook: Chapter 1, pp 9-27
Read “The Struggle to Be an All-American Girl”
pp 22-24 Complete exercises 3 and 4
October 11th
#1: October 6-10
Vocabulary Cartoons: Reviews #1, #2, & #3
Start Reading “Animal Farm”
Textbook: Chapters 2, 3, 4, 5, & 6 pp 31-94
Write a one to two page paper about what you
learned from this section about writing
October 18th
#2: October 13-17
Vocabulary Cartoons: Reviews #4, #5, & #6
Continue Reading “Animal Farm”
Textbook: Chapter 7, Descriptive Narration
pp 95-127
Write a one-two page objective descriptive essay
from the choices on page 125 (11-15).
Parts of Speech pp 377-387
Exercise 2, page 384
October 25th
#3: October 20-24
Vocabulary Cartoons: Reviews #7, #8, & #9
Vocabulary Assignment #1: Pick 20 words from
the book and type a synonym, an antonym, and a
sentence for each word.
Continue Reading “Animal Farm”
Subjects and Verbs pp 387-393
Exercise 5, page 392
Vocabulary Cartoons: Reviews #10, #11, & #12
November 1st
#4: October 28-31
Write a one-two page essay about “Animal Farm”
Essay must include a summary of the book and
your reaction/thoughts about the story.
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English 1500
Chapter 15 Argument pp 321-344
Write a 1000 persuasive essay using one of the
topics from page 344 (7-27).
#5: November 3-7
Kinds of Sentences pp 394-402
Exercise 11, page 401
November 8th
Vocabulary Cartoons: Reviews #13, #14, & #15
Correcting Fragments, Comma Splices, and Runons pp 415-434
Exercise 17, page 422
#6: November 10-14
#7: November 17-21
Vocabulary Cartoons: Reviews #16, #17, & #18
Vocabulary Assignment #2: Pick 20 words from
the book and type a synonym, an antonym, and a
sentence for each word.
Verbs pp 425-447
Exercise 25, page 440
November
15th
November
22nd
Vocabulary Cartoons: Reviews #19, #20, & #21
#8: November 24-28
Pronouns pp 448-461
Exercise 35, page 458
November
29th
Vocabulary Cartoons: Reviews #22, #23, #24, #25
Adjectives and Adverbs pp 462-471
Exercise 41, page 468
December 6th
#9: December 1-5
Vocabulary Cartoons: Reviews #26, #27, #28, &
#29
Punctuation and Capitalization pp 477-494
Exercise 50 page 493
#10: December 8-12
#11: December 15-19
Vocabulary Assignment #3: Pick 20 words from
the book and type a synonym, an antonym, and a
sentence for each word.
Research Paper Due
NO LATER THAN MIDNIGHT ON 12/15/08!!
December
13th
December
15th
Grading System
Textbook Exercises:
Textbook Writing Assignments:
Vocabulary Assignments:
Literature Book Paper:
Research Paper:
15%
20%
10%
25%
30%
Total 100%
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J. Graupman
English 1500
Grade Scale: 90%-100%=A; 80%-89%=B; 70%-79%=C; 60%-69%=D; 59% or below=F
Checking Grades
To check your grades at anytime (give me about a 3-5 day window from the due date to
get them posted) you may access www.eClassInfo.com from the Internet. Your ID is
your last name and your password is the last four digits of your student ID number. If
this is not an option for you, or you have problems with the program, please contact me
so we can discuss other options.
Looking forward to working with you.
Janet Graupman
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