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ENGLISH 102: COLLEGE WRITING AND RESEARCH
SUMMER 2016
Section: 204 (Online)
Instructor: Andrew Urban
Email: acurban@uwm.edu
COURSE MATERIALS
Reading assignments and other course materials will be made available on the course D2L site. You will
also need to use a word processor to write essays—a free one is available at libreoffice.org. You are
responsible for saving backup copies of your work. No late work will be excused because of technological
malfunction. I recommend using a free internet backup service such as OneDrive, dropbox.com, or
drive.google.com.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Assignments and Discussion Posts
(25%)
Each week, you will be asked to complete an assignment and a discussion post. Your discussion posts
will form the starting point for our online discussions, while your assignments will be submitted directly
to me. Detailed instructions will be provided for each assignment and discussion post. A discussion post
will be due each Wednesday before midnight, and an assignment will be due each Friday before midnight
(this is not a “take-at-your-own-pace” course). Each week, instructions for the following week's
discussion post and assignment will appear as a “News” post on our course's D2L homepage.
Assignments and discussion posts will receive either “Full Credit,” “Half Credit,” or “Zero Credit.” To earn
Full Credit, assignments and discussion posts must respond fully and thoroughly to the assignment
prompt. Assignments and discussions posts that respond only partially to the prompt will be given Half
Credit. Late or missing assignments and discussion posts will receive Zero Credit.
“Students enrolled in an online section of 101 or 102 will receive a grade no higher than C- in the course
if they miss more than the equivalent of two weeks of class” (A Student's Guide to the First-Year Writing
Program at UWM 15). Because you are asked to complete one assignment and one discussion post per
week, each will be considered equivalent to half a week of class. This means that any student who
exceeds four late or missing (“Zero Credit”) assignments or discussion posts will be ineligible to receive a
grade higher than a C- and will have to retake English 102.
Discussion Participation
(25%)
Each week, in addition to completing an assignment and a discussion post, you will be asked to
participate in class discussion by responding to your classmates' discussion posts. To earn a passing
grade for discussion participation, you must respond to at least two of your classmates' posts each week.
Discussion responses will be due each Friday before midnight.
Discussion responses should be at least one substantial paragraph (about 150 words) in length and
should show substantial engagement with your classmates' writing and ideas. They should extend,
complicate, or critique your classmates' thinking or pose critical questions to your classmates, rather
than merely echo or affirm what others have already said.
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Research Project
(50%)
You will spend most of this course preparing a “Final Portfolio” for submission at the end of the semester.
Your Final Portfolio will include a ten-page research essay built around a research question of your
choice, as well as a five-page reflective essay on your research process.
At the end of the semester, your Final Portfolio will be anonymously evaluated by at least two English
102 instructors other than myself on a pass/fail basis according to the Course Goals listed on page 7 of A
Student's Guide to the First-Year Writing Program at UWM. Students who submit a passing portfolio will
receive a passing grade (C or higher) in the course. Students who submit a failing portfolio will receive a
failing grade (C- or lower) in the course and will be required to retake English 102.
Your Final Portfolio will also be given a letter grade based on the Course Goals (C or higher for passing
portfolios, C- or lower for failing portfolios). Your Final Portfolio will be due on Wednesday, August 10.
COMMUNICATION
The best way to communicate with me one-on-one is via email. I will make every effort to respond to
emails within 24-48 hours. By the same token, I expect you to read any emails from me within 24-48
hours. Before asking a question over email, please check to make sure that your question isn't already
answered in this syllabus or in A Student's Guide to the First-Year Writing Program at UWM.
TIME MANAGEMENT
Time is structured differently in an online course than in a face-to-face course, but both formats require
the same amount of time. Although online courses don’t require physical attendance, this does not mean
that they take less time; rather, you should account for this lost class time calculating how much time to
expect to spend working on this course each week.
IMPORTANT DATES
Last day to add courses or change sections:
Last day to withdraw without a “W” on your transcript:
Last day to withdraw from classes:
Final Portfolio due:
Friday, June 3
Friday, June 10
Friday, July 1
Wednesday, August 10