English 102 – Composition II
Exploring Cultures and Subcultures
Instructor: Christy Scheuer
Course Time and Location: 9:00
a.m., CC3360
Office: IB2306D
Assignments and Readings:
E-mail: christina.scheuer@seattlecolleges.edu
Office Hours: 12:00-1:00 p.m. daily and by appointment
Office Phone: 206-528-4538
http://angel.northseattle.edu/default.asp
COURSE OBJECTIVES
This class will explore the personal archives that come to define people’s lives—the
artifacts, rituals, and texts that gesture towards the history of a family or a culture. These
personal archives are often incomplete or difficult to reconstruct, especially since it’s so
easy for individual stories to get lost. In Maus, Art Spiegelman is trying to figure out ways
to approach stories that often seem impossible to tell. In the subculture narratives that we
will explore, the writers explore how a person’s membership in a group helps to define his
or her identity.
In your final paper, you will begin to use research to construct your own archive to create
an Autoethnography that focuses on a significant part of your own culture or subculture.
REQUIRED TEXTS
Art Spiegelman, Maus I and II
Arielle Greenberg, Youth Subcultures: Exploring Underground America
Andrea Lunsford, Easy Writer (4th Ed.)
You will be asked to print various texts, all of which will be found on Angel. Therefore, you
should be prepared to locate a printer and, if necessary, pay for these copies.
I recommend keeping all of these copies, as well as copies and drafts of all of your papers, in a
3-ring binder. I also recommend having a special section for grammar handouts, lessons, and
quizzes so that you can see how those lessons build on one another.
COURSE OBJECTIVES/LEARNING OUTCOMES
The English Department at NSCC has established the following course objectives for
English 102. This course is designed to help you improve your ability to:
1. Read critically in order to analyze, discuss, evaluate, and respond to texts.
2. Access, evaluate, and apply information from a variety of sources.
3. Write in order to discover the meanings in other texts.
4. Write in order to discover your own ideas in relation to the writing of others.
5. Write to communicate ideas to a particular audience.
6. Paraphrase, summarize, quote, and cite sources according to MLA form and integrate
source materials smoothly into your own words to add support and emphasis to your own
writing.
7. Understand the importance of intellectual honesty and avoid plagiarism.
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8. Take responsibility for producing writing that has been revised, edited, and proofread.
9. Continue the development of your own voice as a writer.
10. Work and communicate effectively in both large and small groups, which requires that
you recognize the value of divergent views, tolerate ambiguity, and develop both listening
and speaking skills.
GRADES
Essay 1: Maus: Analysis
2 Seminar Papers (2 x 25 pts)
Paper Proposal
Introduction and Outline Draft
Revision Plan
Full Rough Draft
Peer Review
Final Draft
50 points
5 points
5 points
5 points
10 points
10 points
150 points
Essay 2: Synthesis: Reading Ethnographies
Paper Proposal
Introduction and Outline Draft
Revision Plan
Full Rough Draft
Peer Review
Final Draft
5 points
5 points
5 points
10 points
10 points
150 points
Essay 3: Autoethnography (Research Paper)
Seminar Papers (1 x 25 points)
Project Proposal (brief)
Project Proposal (longer)
Annotated Bibliography
Introduction and Outline Draft
Full Rough Draft
Peer Review
Final Draft
25 points
5 points
10 points
50 points
5 points
10 points
10 points
150 points
Grammar and Sentence-Level Work
Weekly grammar worksheets (6 x 5 pts)
In-class writing and assignments (7 x 5 pts)
Participation and Attendance
Total:
30 points
35 points
50 points
800 points
DEVELOPING A COMMUNITY OF WRITERS
Students come to this class with a broad range of educational and personal experiences.
This diversity enhances our class archive by expanding its range and providing us
with new ideas to discuss in class. It is very important that you are supportive of every
student’s work and opinions so that the classroom is an environment in which everyone
feels welcome. To do so, all of us need to show respect for people of every race or
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ethnicity, color, age, disability, national origin, religion, marital status, sex, gender identity,
sexual orientation, veteran status, political affiliation or belief.
Writing can be difficult and frustrating at times, but the writing process is much more
enjoyable and rewarding if we work through it together. I hope that, during the course of
the quarter, you will become increasingly comfortable and confident with the writing
process. Please communicate with me at any time regarding any concerns or questions
you have about the course. You can come to my office hours or make an appointment if
you would like to talk about your progress in the class, specific assignments, or any other
concerns or questions that arise during the quarter. I’m here to help you, and I enjoy
talking to students about their writing.
COURSE POLICIES:
 Attend daily. The importance of attending regularly cannot be overestimated. Please
arrive at class on time and expect to remain until class is over. Your attendance and
participation will figure into your final grade in the form of points assigned for in-class
exercises and in your final participation and attendance grade. Daily exercises cannot
be made up. If you arrive late or leave early and miss an in-class exercise, you will not
be permitted to complete the exercise you missed.
 Papers must be typed. All assignments (including drafts) should be typed, doublespaced, using 12 point Times New Roman font. I will not accept handwritten drafts.
 Save your work. It is your responsibility to keep an extra copy of all assignments that
you turn in.
 Submit your work on time. An assignment is counted late if you do not submit it
during class on the date it is due. For each class period an assignment is late, your
grade on that assignment will be reduced by one letter grade. For example, an A paper
that is received one class late will be reduced to a B; two class periods late, a C; three
classes late, a D; and four classes late, an F. If an assignment is turned in even 1 minute
after class time on the day it is due, it will be counted as one day late.


In-class writing and quizzes cannot be made up. Therefore, the only way to get credit
for in-class work is to be there on the day that it is collected.
Work that is due should be brought to class in paper form when stipulated in the
course schedule. In this class, major essays will be submitted electronically, but
shorter papers (homework, proposals, and seminar papers) should be brought to class
in paper form.
Drafts and revisions are required for the three major papers. The major papers
will go through a typed draft version and a final, corrected version before a grade is
assigned. In terms of the grading system, drafts and final versions constitute separate
assignments, with drafts receiving point for completion. If a draft is handwritten,
haphazard, or incomplete, you will not receive full points. Failure to bring a draft to
class on the assigned date will result in a zero.
RESOURCES
Accessibility and Disability Services: My goal is to make the classroom as accessible as
possible to all students. If you require any disability-related accommodations, I
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recommend contacting disability services. Their website can be found here:
http://northseattle.edu/disabiltiy-services. To make an appointment, contact the
Disability Services office by phone at 206-527-3697, TTY at (2-6) 526-0079 modem, or email at ds@sccd.ctc.edu.
The Loft Writing Center: Visit the Loft Writing Center Plus on the top floor of the library
to get help during every stage of the writing process from brainstorming and outlining
through the final polishing phase. You'll find more information at
https://northseattle.edu/loft-writing-center
Library: The library is a phenomenal resource to use if you have questions about research
or sources—or really questions about anything. We will head to the library a few times as
a class so that you can become more familiar with all that it has to offer. You can find
useful information at https://library.northseattle.edu/
E-MAIL
E-mail is usually the most effective way to get a hold of me. Please e-mail me at any time
with any questions that you may have about the course. I will have office hours each week,
but feel free to e-mail me if these hours do not work for you, and we can set up a different
time to meet. We can also arrange e-office hours (over the internet) if it becomes difficult to
meet in person.
In this class, we will focus on developing effective rhetorical skills; therefore, I expect your
e-mails to be written in clear and communicative prose and proofread for mistakes.
A NOTE ON (AND AGAINST) PLAGIARISM
Plagiarism is the intentional use of someone else’s words or ideas without giving that
person credit. This includes submitting someone else’s essay in its entirety or in parts as
your own, using any words, phrasing, and/or ideas from a source (this includes the
Internet) without proper citation, having someone else write your paper or assisting so
much that the phrasing and ideas are no longer your own, and re-submitting an essay
previously written for another class. Plagiarism is absolutely prohibited and may result in
receiving a “0” on the paper and/or discipline on the part of the college administration.
One of the primary objectives of this course is to learn and implement proper methods for
documenting sources so that you can avoid accidental plagiarism, both in this class and in
your other courses.
COURSE SCHEDULE
Please come to class having completed the previous night’s homework assignment (HW),
with annotated copies of necessary readings and ready to participate actively in class.
Pages numbers below refer to Youth Subcultures (YS) or Maus I or II (M I or M II). Other
readings are referenced in full form. The schedule is subject to change at some points in
the semester based on our pace and progress. If the schedule does change, I will make an
announcement in class and send out an e-mail informing you of the change.