English 1127: Essay Writing and Short Prose Selections
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Section M05, Spring 2011
Dr. Noel Currie
Office: A205 604.323.5470
ncurrie@langara.bc.ca
Office hours: M 12:30-13:30, R 13:30-14:20
English 1127 has two related aims: to help you improve your critical reading and essay writing
skills (both of which are essential for college) and to explore the art of short fiction. We will read,
analyse, and discuss short prose selections to learn how other writers communicate with their
readers. You will do a good deal of writing, practicing strategies of drafting and revising
designed to help you produce effective college-level essays. We will also devote considerable
time to research: finding, evaluating, and using sources; understanding and avoiding plagiarism;
and documenting sources clearly and correctly in MLA format.
Successful completion of this course means that students should be able to
• write a short college-level essay with a clear and significant thesis, effective paragraphs,
and coherent sentence structures
• analyse a short story using the elements of fiction and the figures of speech
• do basic academic research
• use and document secondary sources appropriately
Note: In this hybrid version of ENGL 1127, we will meet twice per week in a traditional classroom; you
will do the other half of your coursework online. You will need to attend class and complete online
assignments regularly in order to succeed in this course. If you find it difficult to come to class, motivate
yourself to work on your own, or manage your time effectively, this section is probably not right for you.
Prerequisites for English 1127:
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80% in BC English 12 or BC English Literature 12 or equivalent; or
LET 3; or
LPI 26 on the essay with 5/10 or higher in sentence structure; or 5/10 or higher in English
usage; or 10/20 or higher in reading comprehension
Note: Students who have the minimum prerequisite score on the LET or LPI are strongly encouraged to
register in ENGL 1121 in order to upgrade their reading and writing skills. ENGL 1121 will help students
at this prerequisite level succeed in ENGL 1127.
Required Texts:
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Faigley et al, The Brief Penguin Handbook (Canadian edition)
Gaunce & Mayr, The Broadview Anthology of Short Fiction
Furberg and Hopkins, College Style Sheet (6th ed.)
A good desk dictionary (Oxford Concise or Advanced Learners recommended)
Course Requirements:
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Blackboard assignments
MyCanadianCompLab assignments
Essay #1: in-class literary analysis
Essay #2: home revision of in-class literary analysis
Essay #2: literature review, home
Essay #3: in-class literary analysis
Essay #4: research, home
Final examination
10 marks
10 marks
5 marks
5 marks
10 marks
10 marks
25 marks
25 marks
MY POLICIES:
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1. Attendance: I expect you to come to every class on time and prepared to discuss the day’s
topic. Do the reading before coming to class, and bring the appropriate course text(s) every day.
If you need to miss a class, please let me know (in advance if possible); you are responsible for
any material you miss (call a classmate). Repeated absences will lower your participation mark
(days of religious observance are the exception), and if you miss a significant number of classes
in which we discuss material related to an assignment, I may refuse to accept that assignment.
2. Late or missed assignments: Without documentation of illness or emergency, you cannot
make up missed assignments, and late papers will lose one letter grade per day. I do not accept
papers more than one week after the due date.
3. Plagiarism: Any home paper without full and accurate documentation of sources will receive an
F. Please note that having someone else make editing or proofreading changes for you also counts as
plagiarism. See the Statement on Plagiarism on the last page of this course syllabus; if you have
questions, please see me.
4. Cell phones: Please turn off cell phones before class begins. Texting during class is both
disrespectful and inappropriate.
5. Contact information: you may call me either “Noel” or “Dr. Currie,” as you prefer. If you
email me, please be sure to use your name or the course name in your subject line as I delete
(unread) all email from unfamiliar addresses. I will use the myLangara email function to
communicate with you; please make sure that you can receive these messages.
6. Class cancellation: if ten minutes have passed and I am not in class, someone should check
the postings for class cancellations to confirm my absence.
7. Grades: You must earn an average grade of C- on in-class essays and the final exam to pass
this course. Because your transcript contains letter grades rather than percentages, I use the
following percentage equivalents (and corresponding descriptions) to calculate grades:
A+
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD
F
90%
85%
80%
78%
75%
70%
65%
60%
55%
50%
45%
Excellent work – an essay with an unusually insightful argument which is clearly presented and
thoughtfully developed. There are very few errors of expression, and none which obscure meaning.
MLA format is correct.
Good work – the argument, though less insightful or original than that of an A paper, is solid, well
presented and supported. There are more errors of expression than in an A paper, but these are
neither serious nor frequent.
Average work – although such an essay has a thesis, it is weaker in both form and content than those
in the higher grades. There may be problems with organisation or logic. Errors of expression
increase in number and seriousness.
Marginal work – meets the demands of the assignment by a bare minimum.
Inadequate work – an essay which lacks a workable thesis; does not support its thesis; is off-topic;
makes no specific reference to the text it analyses; ignores MLA conventions or assignment
guidelines; has serious and pervasive errors of expression; has more sentences with errors than
without.
Online Assignments on MyCanadianCompLab and Blackboard
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Each week, you will have small assignments to complete on Blackboard (BB) and
MyCanadianCompLab (MCCL); together, these account for 20% of your final course grade.
These assignments are designed to
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prepare for an upcoming class
follow-up on a previous class
improve your essay, paragraph, and sentence structures
Some of these assignments will generate a score; others are marked for completion (and effort)
only. Both BB and MCCL assignments are due by 11:59 PM on the day they are listed in
the course outline. Work completed after that deadline will not be included in your final course
grade. Some assignments, especially the MCCL exercises, can be submitted early.
Follow the handout entitled “MyCanadianCompLab_Student_Registration_Guide.doc” to register
for MCCL and join the class. Make sure to join the class before doing any MCCL work. If you
do not join the class, your score will not be submitted to me via the Grade Tracker. Also, be
careful that you receive acknowledgment (a mark) that your work has been submitted and that
you have joined the class. If you are in any doubt that an assignment has been received, print a
copy so your work is not lost forever.
Completing MCCL Exercises
I have assigned diagnostics and exercises from the grammar and research areas of MCCL.
Before doing the assigned exercises, look at the related sections of your Brief Penguin Handbook
(BPH) and/or the material in the unit on MCCL.
**I encourage you to do additional exercises for practice before you complete the assigned
exercises, because I’ll count ONLY the first attempt of each assigned exercise towards your
MCCL mark. You may do the other exercises multiple times, but be sure to complete the assigned
exercises just once.**
Grammar: The grammar diagnostic (first week) is in the Grammar section of the Resources tab
one; you can also find it on the MCCL home page in week one.
Research: There’s an excellent Research unit within MCCL, and the exercises in formatting
entries for a MLA Works Cited page are excellent. This is definitely an area of the course where
practice CAN make perfect, so I would encourage you to spend a fair bit of time on practice
exercises – looking things up in your BPH as you go through them, before doing the assigned
exercises for marks.
Writing: I haven’t assigned specific sections of the Writing unit because none of the examples
deal with writing about literature. However, there’s lots of useful information about the writing
process, and I encourage you to consult it
There’s a wealth of good material in MCCL; use it as assigned and on your own to improve your
writing.
Course Outline
You are responsible for doing the readings before coming to
class, bringing the related text(s) to class, and knowing what
you missed if you were absent.
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BA = Broadview Anthology
BPH = Brief Penguin Handbook
CSS = College Style Sheet
MCCL: MyCanadianCompLab
BB: Blackboard
Monday
1/ Jan 1014
Tuesday
Wednesday
Intro to the course &
each other
Thursday
Friday
Intro to Blackboard &
MyCanadianCompLab
MCCL: Grammar
Self-Assessment
Diagnostic 1
Unit One: The Writing Process
2/ Jan 1721
3/ Jan 2428
4/ Jan 31Feb 4
BB: Read Elements of
Fiction HO &
Chopin, “The Story of
an Hour” (BA)
BB: Essay &
Paragraph Structures;
Making Claims about
Literature
MCCL: comma
splices, fused
sentences, run-ons
Chopin, “The Story of
an Hour” (BA)
BB: discussion
questions for
Mansfield, “The
Doll’s House” (BA)
Mansfield, “The
Doll’s House” (BA)
MCCL: Clauses and
Phrases
Sample Claims about
“The Story of an
Hour”
TBA
Essay # 1 (in class)
MCCL: Fragments
Intro to the Revision
Process
BB: Revision
workshop: Content &
Development
Intro to MLA
Documentation
MCCL: MLA
Practice - Books &
Periodicals
BB: Revision
workshop: ¶
Coherence
Library Research
Workshop
Integrating Quotations
TBA
Summary and
paraphrase (bring your
BPH and CSS)
TBA
MCCL: Dangling and
Misplaced Modifiers;
Parallel Structure
Mar 4: Last Day to
Withdraw
MCCL: MLA
Practice - Electronic
Sources;
Documenting Sources
Literature Review
due
O’Brien, “The Things
They Carried” (BA)
Essay #3 (in class)
MCCL: Pronoun
Reference/Pronoun
Agreement
Claims and
Development
Yamamoto,
“Seventeen Syllables”
(BA)
Essay #4 due
Cisneros, “My Lucy
Friend…” (BA)
MCCL: Commas
Unit Two: The Research Process
5/ Feb
7-11
BB: Revision
workshop: ¶ Structure
6/ Feb
14-18
MCCL: Evaluating
Sources
7/ Feb
21-25
MCCL: Integrating
Sources
8/ Feb
28-Mar
4
MCCL: Avoiding
Plagiarism (MLA)
Avoiding Plagiarism,
part 1 (BPH 262-77;
CSS 33-62)
Essay 2 due
Intro to Research &
Evaluating Sources
(BPH 213-58)
Summary and
paraphrase (bring
your BPH and CSS)
Avoiding Plagiarism,
part 2 (BPH 262-77;
CSS 33-62)
TBA
BB: Revision
workshop: Sentence
Structure
Feb. 17-18: Spring Break; Classes cancelled
Unit Three: Literary Analysis and the Research Paper
9/ Mar 711
BB: Gilman, “The
Yellow Wallpaper”
(BA)
Gilman, “The Yellow
Wallpaper” (BA)
BB: O’Brien, “The
Things They Carried”
(BA)
10/ Mar
14-18
BB: Mistry,
“Swimming Lessons”
(BA)
Mistry, “Swimming
Lessons” (BA)
11/ Mar
21-25
12/ Mar
28-Apr 1
BB: The Research
Essay
BB: Atwood, “Death
by Landscape” (BA)
Structuring the
Research Essay
Atwood, “Death by
Landscape” (BA)
13/ Apr
4-8
BB: Poe, “The Cask
of Almontillado” (BA)
Poe, “The Cask of
Almontillado” (BA)
BB: Gilman, “The
Yellow Wallpaper” or
O’Brien, “The Things
They Carried”
BB: Research Essay
Outline
BB: Yamamoto,
“Seventeen Syllables”
(BA)
Polish your research
essay!
Apr 1120
Study Day
Final Exam Period April 12-20– please do not make arrangements to leave
Vancouver until the date of the final exam is confirmed.
MCCL: Redundancy
and Wordiness;
Stringy Sentences
MCCL: Semicolons
and Colons
Last day of classes
Course work
completed
STATEMENT ON PLAGIARISM:
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One of the requirements of English 1127 is the research essay, an assignment which
combines a number of skills:
• developing an argument
• researching the topic to find ideas and/or support for the argument
• supporting the argument with secondary sources (both quoted and paraphrased)
• citing those sources using an approved documentation style (i.e., MLA or APA)
• expressing the argument clearly at the essay, paragraph, and sentence levels
By the end of English 1127, you should understand the basics of the appropriate
use of sources, as well as what constitutes plagiarism. Plagiarism includes (but is
not limited to) the following:
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knowingly submitting the work of another person, in whole or in part – for
example, an essay purchased from an essay-writing service; copied from a
book, article, or website; or written, edited, or revised by a tutor, friend or
family member
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failing to distinguish between your ideas and the ideas of others – for
example, not citing properly an idea you got from your research
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failing to distinguish between your own words and the words of others – you
must clearly distinguish between quotation and paraphrase (and paraphrase
means more than changing a few words; you must change sentence structure
enough so that the expression of someone else’s idea is truly your own)
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failing to cite your sources, both quoted and paraphrased, correctly using an
approved documentation style – in this class, using MLA parenthetical
citation keyed to a separate Works Cited page
Note that plagiarism is not always intentional; it may be caused by sloppiness in
the research and writing process – for example, if you paste a quotation from a
web source into your essay without immediately providing the citation, and then
forget to provide the citation before handing the essay in. However, lazy
plagiarism is still an academic offense. In this class, if I discover plagiarism in an
assignment, I will give it 0 and report you to the Dean of Student Services. Other
penalties may then apply.
I don’t expect you to know everything about documentation, but I do expect you
to make responsible, educated choices when you run into difficulties: see me to
talk about it, for example, or consult a reputable source – a good grammar
handbook with a section on documentation, a reference librarian, the Writing
Centre.