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ENG108 – College Composition and Research Syllabus
Your name
Your Office Number
Office Hours
Contact information (phone/email)
Required Texts
Everything’s An Argument by Lunsford
The Everyday Writer (style manual)
Required Work
In-class writings
Engaging in peer review/writing workshop
Four major projects (4-6 pages)
Revision work on projects
Weekly Readings
4-6 short assignments (2-3 pages)
End-of-semester portfolio (consisting of revisions of work written during the
semester)
ENG108: College Writing and Research is a course that builds on ENG104: College Writing
and Rhetoric. Many of the foundations of ENG104 will be emphasized again in ENG108 with
the addition of an emphasis on college level research and more sophisticated source-based
arguments. In ENG108, there will be continued emphasis on writing practices/processes (prewriting, drafting, revision) as well as reinforcement of rhetoric as the art of persuasion
(argument). Critical thinking skills are developed in many areas (identifying and understanding
scholarly or credible sources, integrating others’ perspectives into one’s own argument,
analyzing audience). The goals and objectives outlined below are those used by all instructors
teaching ENG108 at Missouri Western State University.
Goals and Objectives
College Writing
- Framing and integrating quotes/paraphrases effectively
- Practicing various types of academic argument (e.g. proposal, report, analysis, literature
review, multi-genre work, formal email, formal letter, annotated bibliography, works
consulted, video, oral presentation)
- Inserting one’s own voice/perspective/knowledge in an argument (moving beyond
creating an argument by quoting others who agree with the rhetor’s perspective)
- Knowledge and use of rhetorical terms and concepts (ethos, pathos, logos, kairos)
- Practicing rhetorical strategies within the context of an academic argument (e.g.
comparison, cause/effect, logical connection, appeals, writing analytically, personal
examples)
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Reinforcing the centrality of audience awareness and how it connects to effective rhetoric
and writing
Awareness of counter arguments; practicing rebuttals
Research
- Locating sources and use of university library databases to locate sources
- Evaluating and analyzing sources for credibility and relevance (particularly those found
via a university library database)
- Citing sources (MLA style should be emphasized, but other styles such as APA, CMS or
Turabian can also be covered)
- Learning to credit sources for each and every usage
- Using a style manual – style manual lessons should be integrated as part of course
content, not passive directives to “consult your style manual” (the director of composition
recommends the Everyday Writer or the pocket version of the same; the former is a more
comprehensive style manual, but the latter is less expensive)
- Understanding the difference between primary and secondary research; engaging in both
- Learning strategies to avoid being accused of plagiarism (summary, paraphrase, correct
attribution)
Your personal statement about the course here.
Course Policies
Grading
Insert your grading policy here and how A-F is determined for the course. Your grades can be
based on points, percentages or a combination of both, but you need to make sure it is clearly
outlined how you configure an A-F in the course.
Grade Appeal Process (Student Handbook available online at
http://www.missouriwestern.edu/handbook/index.pdf, page 26)
Attendance
You may create your own attendance policy, but you also need to abide by MWSU policy for
100-level courses, which is 5 absences before mid-term results in the student being removed
from the course. Most composition teachers have an attendance policy that is more strict than
the university policy.
University Attendance Policy (Western Course Catalog available
online at http://www.missouriwestern.edu/catalog/academicpolicies.pdf,
page 22)
Expected Classroom Behavior
You can insert your own policy here, but also please refer students to the university’s policy on
classroom behavior.
Classroom Behavior Guidelines (Student Handbook available online at
http://www.missouriwestern.edu/handbook/index.pdf, page 28
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Late Assignments
Insert your policy on late assignments here.
Plagiarism
Insert the university’s policy on academic honesty here. You can also define what your personal
policy is on plagiarism in your course, i.e. does a student fail the assignment, fail the course, or
something else?
University Academic Honesty Policy (Student Handbook available
online at http://www.missouriwestern.edu/handbook/index.pdf, page 26)
Cell phone and Laptop policy.
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Course Schedule/Readings/Assignments
NOTE to instructor: The syllabus will follow four three-week units, with a week at the
beginning of the semester for introductions and a week at the end of the semester for catch-up
revision.
Week 1:
Introductions; reviewing course policies
Writing Assignments: short paper #1 (2-3) pages; letter of introduction or
another sort of personal essay.
UNIT 1: Ethos, Pathos, Logos, Kairos
Week 2:
Reviewing Aristotle’s Triangle; students who took ENG104 at MWSU will know
the terms ethos, pathos, logos, kairos and rhetoric, but you will find many of your students didn’t
take ENG104 at MWSU and therefore you will need to teach these concepts.
Definition of argument (as persuasion)
Readings from text
Writing Assignments: project proposal for first major project
Week 3:
Continue review of ethos, pathos, logos, kairos
Lesson on writing a claim/thesis
Lesson on library databases, keywords, and locating sources
Lesson on what constitutes a scholarly source; a credible source
Readings from the text
Writing Assignment: short assignment #2: Annotated bibliography for first
major project
Week 4:
Review of MLA style (you may want to look at other styles in addition to MLA)
Lesson on finding sources
Lesson on integrating research/sources in an argument (paraphrase, summary and
direct quote)
In text citations
Framing and citing quotations and paraphrases
Continue to review/reinforce the importance of a clear and narrow claim
Teach supporting paragraph structure
Readings from the text
Peer review
Writing Assignment: short paper #3 (2-3 pages) argument integrating sources
using MLA or another style
Draft of major project 1 (4-6 pages)
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UNIT 2: Learning to Respond to Counter-Arguments (Rebuttals)
Week 5:
Readings from the text, focusing on rebuttals
Lessons on counter-arguments and rebuttals
Lesson on organization/transition (style manual lesson)
Review integrating sources and MLA/APA/CMS styles
Writing Assignment: Major Project I final draft due
Week 6:
Readings from the text
Lessons on supporting paragraph structure
Review organization/transition
Lesson on Introduction/Conclusion (moving away from summary ending)
Writing Assignment: Short paper #4 (2-3 pages): short argument on topic related
to Major Project II
Project proposal for Major Project II
Week 7:
Readings from text
Discussion on audience awareness
Analyzing audience for various texts (essays, videos, commercials, magazines)
Lesson on close reading skills
Lesson on using the style manual
Comma splice lesson (if you feel the majority of class needs it)
Writing Assignment: Short assignment #5 is an annotated bibliography for
Major Project II (you might assign APA or CMS for this bibliography)
NOTE TO TEACHER: If you haven’t conferenced individually with students about their midterm grades and about their writing, you need to do that this week.
UNIT 3: Inserting Your Own Voice
Week 8:
Review paraphrase, summary and direct quote (style manual)
How to insert one’s own analysis in a supporting paragraph
Framing quotes (introducing quotes and assigning ethos to the source)
Peer review
Start talking about the difference between primary and secondary research
Writing Assignment: Draft/Final of Major Project II.
Week 9:
Lesson on primary and secondary research
Designing a survey or questionnaire and analyzing data
Using interviews as sources
Readings from the text
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Writing Assignment: short paper #6 (2-3 pages) An argument based on a
personal interview in addition to at least two credible sources
Project Proposal for Major Project III (including annotated
bibliography; project III incorporates both primary and secondary research – you will need to
step them through how to write a survey/interview and how to pull info from those data sets to
use as evidence); you may want to have them turn in interview/survey questions with project
proposal and a plan for when they are doing the primary research.
Week 10:
Creating solid interview/survey questions
What questions to ask/how many questions to ask in an interview and on a survey
Learning about conclusions (and doing something other than a summary
conclusion)
Other ways to end a paper:
- “So What?” (who cares about the topic and why should the audience care?)
- “It’s personal!” (the author makes a personal connection to the issue and attempts to
appeal to the audience that they could be affected by the issue, too)
- “Call to Action” (the author outlines something specific that he/she wants the audience to
do with the information)
- Analogy (comparing the issue of the paper to something else)
- “Call Back” (the author calls back to the introduction by extending a narrative, analogy,
example, or personal connection to the topic
Readings from the text
Peer review
Writing Assignment: Draft of Major Project III (which includes both primary
and secondary sources); you may want to push this off until the beginning of Week 11.
UNIT 4: Learning Different Genres and (re)thinking Audience and context (Kairos)
Week 11:
Looking at similar arguments in different context
Looking at different genres of similar arguments
Readings from the text
Writing Assignment: short paper #6 (2-3) pages: Synthesis of primary research
Week 12:
manual)
Lesson on digital rhetorics (emails, texts, Facebook)
Analyzing audience on the Internet
Readings from the text
Documenting electronic sources and other digital texts appropriately (style
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Talking about moving from an academic paper to another format (multi-modal
project); have them report their proposal for this project in class so they can start work on it
immediately after handing in Project III.
Writing Assignment: Final draft of Major Project III (including annotated
bibliography)
Week 13:
Lesson on rewriting and revising for different genres/audiences
Talking about revision (and the portfolio expectations)
Review key concepts; review course objectives and goals
Writing Assignment: Multi-Modal project (typically this is a revision of one of
the previous major projects in another format, e.g. speech, web site, facebook page, powerpoint,
prezi, blog, brochure, video. You may let students work in groups on this. They should have a
specific audience in mind for their project and be able to rationalize how/why they constructed
the project in a way that appeals to that audience.
Week 14:
Review key concepts of the semester
Presentations of multi-modal projects
Working on revisions
Working on the portfolio.
The end-of-semester portfolio should include:
- A cover letter of the portfolio
- Revisions of at least three different artifacts from the semester (revised after instructor’s
comments)
- One revision that includes changing the genre of the original piece
- One revision that includes changing the audience of the original piece