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Dr. Morache
Office: 112 Shields
English Composition 101 Syllabus: Spring 2010
Office Phone: 732-6802
Office Hours: MW 11-12;
T 2-3; F 11-1
Or by appointment
E-Mail: jmorache@csi.edu
Welcome to English 101! Writing is the essential means for deepening and clarifying our
thinking—for expressing our ideas personally, professionally, and artistically. Through reading
what others have written and struggling to put our own thoughts on paper, we learn in profound
ways. Writing well allows us to participate significantly in the discussions that define our lives.
Catalog Description: English 101 emphasizes the process and strategies of writing with critical
attention to purpose, audience, and style. Students write analytical essays based on reading,
observations, and ideas: develop their inventiveness and voice; and edit for style conventions of
standard usage. This course requires students to produce a documented essay. Students will also
produce a portfolio of collected works. Placement in 101 is based on a proficiency test and a
departmental writing sample.
Prerequisite: You must have completed English 090 successfully, or you must have achieved
the appropriate placement exam score (COMPASS >69 or ACT >17 to enroll in English 101. In
addition, you will write a Writing Sample Placement Essay on the first day of class. Based on
this sample, the professor may recommend a different course for you.
Required Texts and Materials:
 Interactions: A Thematic Reader, 6th edition, Special Edition for College of Southern
Idaho editors Ann Mosley and Jeanette Harris (note that this book has a yellowish
cover—be careful not to purchase the 7th edition with the dark blue cover)
 A Pocket Style Manual 5th edition with 2009 MLA update editor Diana Hacker
 A light-weight, two pocket folder to be used exclusively for handing in each Final Draft
of your essays with the required First Draft and process work.
 Another folder for saving all of your essay drafts throughout the entire semester (First
Drafts, Final Drafts, Returned Graded Drafts): This is an English Department
requirement for Outcomes Assessment.
 I recommend a three-ring binder with pockets for keeping your handouts, notes, and
work-in-progress organized. (I also recommend a small stapler and a hole punch for
organizing your handouts in your 3-ring binder.)
Basic Course Requirements:
 Complete Placement Writing Sample Essay
 Come to class prepared and participate in discussions of readings, class activities, and
peer/self review of essays. Write and submit ORIGINAL (not plagiarized or reworked)
first and final drafts of essays on time throughout the semester
 Word process all drafts of essays, with the exception of the Placement Essay. You must
write at least two drafts of all four assignment essays in order to pass the course and
to be eligible to write the Outcomes Assessment Essay.
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Submit Outcomes Assessment Essay and Portfolio with Cover Sheet
Access and use CSI’s website, including eaglemail, the Blackboard course site, and the
English Department’s Outcomes Assessment site
Complete the course evaluation
Course Goals:
When you’ve successfully completed English 101, your portfolios will show that you can do the
following: Write essays that matter because you have invested thought in understanding the
complexities of the topic and in writing an interesting paper to help readers understand the
topic.
 Write thesis driven, analytical essays for an academic audience
 Use an effective writing process
 Shape writing according to purpose and audience
 Polish and present final work
 Discuss the writing process and rhetorical strategies in basic but meaningful ways
 Make basic but effective use of sources in MLA format
Outcomes Assessment (OA): Students must pass Outcomes Assessment, demonstrating writing
proficiency, at the end of the semester in order to receive a grade for English 101. To be
eligible for Outcomes Assessment, you must submit a First Draft and Final Draft of all four
graded essays on time throughout the semester—and submit the Outcomes Assessment Essay.
Students whose writing is assessed as Not Proficient (NP) will need to repeat the course. Save all
of your essay drafts both electronically and in a paper folder that you keep in a safe place
throughout the semester. (See the OA Policy Statement.)
CSI uses Google Eaglemail. Since email is the primary source of written communication with
students, all registered CSI students get a college email account. Instructors and various offices
send messages to these accounts. Student e-mail can be accessed from http://eaglemail.csi.edu.
Students must check their CSI e-mail accounts regularly to avoid missing important messages
and deadlines.
Classroom Communication Skills: This course is designed to be face-to-face interactive and
discussion-oriented. Please be thoughtful, speaking out and allowing others the opportunity to
talk. Academic integrity requires voicing our ideas while phrasing our comments in words and
tone that show respect, empathy, and tolerance for other people’s ideas and backgrounds.
Remember that a college class is a professional environment where one works with diversity.
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Focus your mind to be present during our class. Please turn off cell phones and put them
away before entering the classroom. Do not text message. Do not multi-task during class
(this includes working on assignments for other courses or balancing your checkbook). Be
here with us, your attention fully present in class!
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Participate in class discussion, but be attentive when other people are addressing the
whole class. Avoid rude side conversations; instead share your thoughts in class discussion.
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Computer monitors must remain off unless we are using them for in-class writing,
research, or activities. Please turn off your monitor when I am speaking to the class,
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including the beginning of class. Do not engage in any activity that is not directly related to
the class task at hand (no browsing, Facebook, game playing, shopping, checking email, and
so forth).
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Use your EagleMail account when emailing me and classmates. Include a subject line.
Represent yourself professionally by using Standard American English: writing complete
sentences, capitalizing, and spelling correctly. Use a salutation and closing. Please be
courteous and think about your message before you send it. You can expect a return message
from me within 24 hours, Monday through Friday; if you do not receive a response, please
call or stop by my office during office hours.
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Assignments are due at the beginning of class. Do not plan on printing your paper right
before class or during class time. The computers and printers are not always in working
order. Printing during whole class discussion/lecture time is rude (noisy and distracting).
Reading and Writing Skills
 Reading: The famous American writer Henry David Thoreau reflected that reading
“requires training such as athletes” undergo, explaining that “books must be read as
deliberately and reservedly as they are written.” Deep reading requires the willingness to
spend time reading and thinking when one’s mind is alert, developing close reading
abilities. It means paying attention to concepts, noting word choices, images, and ideas
relationships. Deep reading skills are extremely useful in all walks of life.
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Freewriting is done during class to generate and explore ideas. Freewriting is informal
and does not require complete sentences and correct spelling. It is focused on fluency:
getting words on paper to find ideas and possibly essay material without being critical.
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Writing-to-Learn Tasks (usually posted in Discussion Board) help you to be an active
reader and organize your thoughts before class, so you are ready to engage in class
discussion and possibly create essay material. Writing-to-Learn is somewhat more
composed than “off-the-top-of your-head” free-writing but certainly less composed than
an essay. I am looking for intellectual engagement in response to reading selections. In
other words, I’m not looking for a single “right” answer (multiple interpretations are
possible as long as they are supported with specific references to the text). Responses that
pose questions and explore possible interpretations are the most successful. This writing
should help you discover concepts to develop in your essays. Writing-to-Learn
assignments must be readable—legible and coherent with complete sentences,
capitalization, and correct spelling of Standard American English—but not polished.
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Essay writing refers to the drafts that you compose working towards a polished Final
Draft of a meaningful, well-formed essay.
Attendance: In-class activities and discussions are vital to the development of the critical
thinking and analytical skills that are at the core of this course. We need your presence and
participation in class!
 Your success in the course depends greatly on your attendance and participation in each
class session. Missing class will adversely affect your grade. Save your absences for
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circumstances (such as illness, participation in school events, work conflicts, family
emergency) that may occasionally prevent your attending class.
Please be on time: Students who are not present when roll is taken at the beginning
of class or who leave before class is dismissed will be marked absent. On the rare
occasion that you might come in late, enter quietly without interrupting (remind me after
class to mark your presence). Repeated tardiness or leaving class before it has been
dismissed is unacceptable. However, feel free to slip out to the rest room and return
without disrupting class, if necessary.
If you find that you are consistently missing class due to other obligations i.e. work,
illness, or family, please make those obligations you first priority, drop the class, and take
it another time. If you stop attending class, it is your responsibility to drop yourself
from the course: otherwise, you will receive an F on your transcript.
Late Work: My policy is not to accept late work; however, I will work with you to a point in
extreme situations as long as a pattern of lateness and/or absence does not persist. See the
following parameters.
 Only those assignments that I request to be submitted by email will be accepted. If you
email me an assignment that I have not requested electronically, it may not receive credit.
In cases of extremity, please call or email me to request permission to send the
assignment by email.
 Tasks must be submitted on time and cannot be made up.
 In-class activities and quizzes cannot be made up.
 Essay First Drafts must be submitted on time and self-evaluated in order to be eligible
to submit a Final Draft; otherwise you will receive a 0 for both the First Draft and Final
Draft. If you have an emergency you must contact me before the First Draft is due to
negotiate a limited extension.
 Final Drafts must be submitted on time. If you have an emergency you must contact me
before the Final Draft is due to negotiate a limited extension; otherwise, you will receive
a 0 for the Final Draft.
 I am happy to clarify questions in person, but please do not leave voice mails or emails
requesting assignments or expecting me to recreate the class for you.
Academic Integrity and Avoiding Plagiarism
Authentic education means taking the time to engage in deep thinking, reading, and the effort to
express meaningful concepts clearly in writing. It is essential not present other writers’ words,
ideas, or information as your own. You must carefully cite the other person or source. You are to
be evaluated on your own work in this course. Cheating and plagiarism are not acceptable.
Plagiarism is a serious academic offense and a mark of dishonesty. Some examples of
plagiarism are the following:
 Using a phrase or a sentence from a book, magazine article, or website in your essay
without acknowledging your source i.e. without putting quotation marks around the
quoted material and without mentioning the author.
 Borrowing specific ideas or phrasings from another writer without acknowledging your
source, even if you write the ideas in your own words.
 Cutting and pasting into your own paper paragraphs of information retrieved from the
world wide web, without acknowledging the source
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 Handing in as your own paper a paper someone else has written
 Downloading an essay from the web and handing it in as your own.
If you plagiarize an assignment or part of an assignment, you may receive a 0 for the assignment
and an F for this course, and you may be subject to further disciplinary action (see the CSI
Catalog and Student Handbook).
Essay Drafts and Writing Workshop:
 You will write four graded essays during the semester, and you will write a minimum of
two drafts for each essay assignment. You must hand in a first and final draft of every
assignment on time. Final Drafts will not be accepted without First Drafts having been
submitted on time.
 Writing Workshop: You must participate in the First Day of Writing Workshop, selfevaluate, and revise your First Draft.
 You must submit drafts of all four essays and your Portfolio Cover Sheet to be eligible
for Outcomes Assessment and, therefore, a passing grade.
First Drafts
 A First Draft is not a “rough” draft. It is not a handwritten draft, or an outline, or a few
paragraphs. It is a complete (meaning it’s the required length), word-processed response
to an assignment.
 First Drafts are due at the beginning of class on the date listed on the course schedule
and must be re-submitted with your Final Draft.
Final Drafts
 Final Drafts must show evidence of revision from First Drafts, incorporating the
revision suggestions from Writing Workshop as appropriate.
 I will evaluate Final Drafts, giving feedback, a grade, and a score of P (Proficient) or NP
(Not Proficient), according to the English Department’s criteria for English 101 essays.
 Final Drafts must be submitted on time throughout the semester in order to receive
points and be eligible for inclusion in your Collected Works File and Portfolio.
 When submitting Final Drafts, place the polished draft on the left side pocket of your
folder (be sure that the pages are in order). Place the First Draft (the version you selfevaluated for Writing Workshop)—in the right side pocket of your folder.
Grading:
16% = Attendance, Class Activities, Reading and Writing Assignments (Tasks, First Drafts,
Self-Evaluations of Drafts), Quizzes
16% = Essay 1
16% = Essay 2
16% = Essay 3
16% = Essay 4
20% = Portfolio grade (includes Cover Sheet and two revised essays)
*Note that your Collected Works Folder for Outcomes Assessment requires that clean copies of
all four essays be re-submitted.
Grading Scale: A (90%-100) superior; B (80%-89%) above average; C (70%-79%) average; D
(60%-69%) below average; F (59% and below) failing
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TO RECEIVE A GRADE FOR THIS COURSE, YOU MUST ALSO SUCCESSFULLY
COMPLETE OUTCOMES ASSESSMENT ESSAY AND COLLECTED WORKS FILE
REVIEW.
Electronic submission of your Collected Works is required.
Course Concepts Overview:
Writing Sample Placement Essay
Essay 1 Developing ideas: narration, analysis, paragraphing, thesis, academic essay format
Essay 2 Unity and coherence, MLA documentation
Essay 3 Developing analysis and integrating sources
Essay 4 Rhetorical awareness
Outcomes Assessment Essay
Essay Format: You must present your work in a professional, polished format. We will use
Modern Language Association (MLA) format for all essays in this course. See an example in the
MLA section of A Pocket Style Manual (151). The entire document is doubled-spaced with no
extra spaces added between titles or paragraphs. Margins are 1” all around. Leave the right
margin edge ragged (do not right justify). Each page (including the first page) has a pagination
header aligned with the right margin containing your last name and the page number. The first
page begins with your heading information aligned with the left margin, with each of the
following elements on separate lines: your name, my name, the course title and section and the
date (this heading only appears on the first page while the pagination headers appear on each
page). The essay’s title is centered below the heading. Here is an example of the required first
page heading:
Your Name
Professor Morache
ENGL 101
24 January 2010
Submitting Essays: On the day that your essay is due, please hand it to me in a light-weight,
two-pocket folder (required) that contains only drafts pertaining to this particular essay. In the
left pocket, place the Final Draft of your essay, making sure the pages are in proper sequence. In
the right pocket place the version of the First Draft that you self-evaluated.
Disabilities:
Any student with a documented disability may be eligible for related accommodations. To
determine eligibility and secure services, students should contact the coordinator of Disability
Services at their first opportunity after registration for a class. Student Disability Services is
located on the second floor of the Taylor Building on the Twin Falls Campus. 208.732.6260
(voice) or 208.734.9929 (TTY), or e-mail accessability@csi.edu
On-line Course Evaluation:
Students are strongly encouraged to complete evaluations at the end of the course. Evaluations
are very important to assist the teaching staff to continually improve the course. Evaluations are
available online at: http://evaluation.csi.edu. Evaluations open up two weeks prior to the end of
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the course. The last day to complete the course evaluation is the last day of the course. During
the time the evaluations are open, students can complete the course evaluations at their
convenience from any computer with Internet access, including the open lab in the Library and in
the SUB. When students log in they should see the evaluations for the courses in which they are
enrolled. Evaluations are anonymous. Filling out the evaluation should only take a few minutes.
Your honest feedback is greatly appreciated.
Writing Assistance:
The Academic Development Center provides an English Help Desk. Go to ADC 202 on the
second floor of the Meyerhoeffer Building to take advantage of this writing resource.
I am here to clarify and help, if you have concerns, please see me to discuss during my office
hours in Shields 112 or by appointment.