FYC@UTEP: Composing Your Success
Fall 2011
English 1311: Expository English Composition
CRN:
21907
TIME/DAYS: MWF 930-1020 AM
PLACE: UGLC 230
INSTRUCTOR: SYRETTA JIMENEZ
E-MAIL: STJIMENEZ@MINERS.UTEP.EDU
PHONE: IT IS BEST TO EMAIL ME!
OFFICE HOURS: MWF 1030-1130 AM
OFFICE LOCATION: BURGES HALL, RM # 201
Course Description
The goal of English 1311 is to develop students’ critical thinking skills in order to facilitate effective
communication in all educational, professional, and social contexts. This effective communication is based on an
awareness of and appreciation for discourse communities as well as knowledge specific to subject matter, genre,
rhetorical strategy, and writing process.
English 1311 is designed to prepare you for the writing you will do throughout your university experience as well
as in professional and civic environments. Through these assignments, you will learn how to write to explore, to
inform, to analyze, and to convince/problem solve. This course offers you a curriculum that empowers you to
determine the most effective rhetorical strategies, arrangements, and media to use in different rhetorical
contexts.
The course emphasizes the use of technology through a variety of assignments and activities. One important
piece of technology utilized is the Blackboard system. Blackboard provides students with permanent access to
the syllabus, supplemental reading materials, e-mail, and discussion groups. It is vital that students check and
participate in Blackboard consistently as it is an integral part of the course.
To make your learning experience an even better one, this semester we will be sticking to a theme: Advocacy
through Popular Culture. We will be looking at and discussing popular music, art and photography. This will not
only help you analyze and complete your major assignments but it will give you a wider view of the culture:
yours, ours, and the world at large.
Learning Outcomes
At the end of this course, students will be able to:
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Understand a theory of discourse communities.
Engage as a community of writers who dialogue across texts, argue, and build on each other’s work.
FYC@UTEP: Composing Your Success
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Fall 2011
Draw on existing knowledge bases to create “new” or “transformed” knowledge.
Develop a knowledge of genres as they are defined and stabilized within discourse communities.
Address the specific, immediate rhetorical situations of individual communicative acts.
Develop procedural knowledge of the writing task in its various phases.
Develop an awareness of and involvement in community issues and problems.
Required Texts & Materials
Roen, D., Glau G., & Maid, B. (2011). Custom Edition of The brief McGraw-Hill guide. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Department of English. A guide to first-year composition. (14th ed.). Follett. Available through CafeScribe at the
bookstore and online.
Course Assignments
(This syllabus only provides an overview of assignments for the class--specific assignment
sheets will be discussed in class and posted on Blackboard):
Solo Assignments:
Discourse Community Map: Using the definition and discussion of a “Discourse Community” provided in class,
students will construct a discourse community map that outlines the various discourse communities they belong
to and the different literacies needed to be a member. Students will need to consider the goals of each discourse
community and how those goals shape communication (oral, visual, written). A written response essay will
accompany the visual construction. 50 pts.
Agency Discourse Memo: Students will observe an agency in the community and write a memo reporting their
findings. They will detail the agency and its characteristics, its discourse practices, and its relation/contribution to
an important community or social issue. 50 pts.
Homepage for Website E-Portfolio: Students will create a homepage for their website E- Portfolio that reflects
the subject matter of their research project and provides the interface to access completed semester’s
assignments. 75 pts.
Annotated Bibliography: For this assignment, you will construct an annotated bibliography that centers on the
community issue or problem that students have selected to focus on for the semester. Each annotation in this
annotated bibliography will consist of two parts: a summary and the student’s evaluation of the source. 125 pts.
Community Problem Report: Students will create a report which draws attention to a community problem. 125
pts.
Persuasive Letter: 100 pts.
Visual Argument: (Photostory) This project prompts students to explore their community issue in a multimedia
form. They will employ multimedia to advocate for the position in their opinion piece. In addition, students will
write a memo detailing their rhetorical choices in the creation of their visual argument. 125 pts.
FYC@UTEP: Composing Your Success
Fall 2011
In-Class Group Assignments: DO NOT MISS CLASS on these days!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Website Analysis: Students will conduct a rhetorical analysis of a website to gain a better understanding of the
purpose, method, and effectiveness of the website’s appeal to its audience. 50 pts.
Rhetorical Analysis: Students will write an essay analyzing the use of rhetorical strategies within a text. Using
a text related to your community issue, they will provide an objective analysis of the strengths and weaknesses
in the writer’s use of ethos, logos, and pathos within his or her argument(s). 50 pts.
Visual Analysis: Similar to the rhetorical analysis assignment, students will analyze the rhetorical strategies
within a visual. Using a printed visual related to your community issue, you will provide an objective analysis of
the strengths and weaknesses in the visual’s use of ethos, logos, and pathos. 50 pts.
E-Portfolio Presentation: Students will present their visual argument project and Website to the class. 100 pts.
Attendance and Class Participation: In-class and online. 100 pts.
Grade Distribution (Students can earn a total of 1000 points for the course):
1000-900 = A
899-800 = B
799 -700 = C
699- 600 = D
599 and below = F
Course/Instructor Policies
Project Format: All projects must be word-processed using Microsoft Word--12 pt. font, one-inch margins, and
double-spaced. Microsoft Word is available to students at all campus computers and can be purchased at the
UTEP Bookstore using a current UTEP ID card at discount. Students may also go to openoffice.org and
download a free and compatible version of Word/Office--12 pt. font, one-inch margins, and double-spaced. Use a
font style that is easily readable like Times New Roman, Arial, or Georgia.
Be sure to name each submitted assignment with your first initial, last name, and an abbreviation of the
assignment.
For example:
jmartinez rhetanalysis draft
jmartinez rhetanalysis final
University Writing Center: UTEP’s University Writing Center (UWC) offers free writing tutoring assistance for
all UTEP students. The tutors are undergraduate and graduate students who can help with all parts of a writing
assignment, including prewriting, organizing, revising, and editing. They can also help to understand any writing
assignment and help work on comprehending difficult textbook material. Note: To facilitate revision, UWC tutors
will not hold a tutoring session fewer than 12 hours before the assignment is due.
Technology and English 1311: This course makes heavy use of technology and multimedia. It is strongly
recommended that students have access to the Internet from home and are comfortable using a computer. If a
FYC@UTEP: Composing Your Success
Fall 2011
student does not have access, he/she can get free access through the university.
(http://admin.utep.edu/Default.aspx?tabid=40).
If home access is not possible, arrangements can be made to use a computer regularly on campus in order to
complete the work. Student computer labs such as ATLAS (http://atlas.utep.edu) are often available until
midnight, but schedules do vary. A great deal of work will be done online, and not having access to a computer
will not be an excuse for incomplete or late assignments.
Technology problems are also not an excuse for work that is late or missing. Students need to get into the habit
of completing assignments for this course well before the due date to allow time for dealing with technology
problems. Expect that at some time, the network will be down, computers will go on the fritz, or some other small
catastrophe will occur. If students are prepared ahead of time, they can go to plan B.
Instructions for Accessing Your Course Online: Students must have a UTEP email ID and password before
they can access Blackboard. UTEP automatically generates an e-mail ID for students when they are entered into
the system. Any questions or problems can be directed to the Helpdesk at 747-5257.
All the course content will be delivered via Blackboard. Students can access Blackboard by the steps
outlined below:
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Go to http://my.utep.edu
Login is e-mail ID. Password is e-mail password.
Click on the link to Blackboard
Once logged into Blackboard, all the courses a student is registered for are listed under the appropriate
semester.
Click on the course title to access the course.
Classroom Etiquette:
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No checking email, typing assignments, or surfing the web during class.
Absolutely no using the printer after class has started. It can be difficult to hear in this room; the
printer only makes it that much worse.
Absolutely no food or drinks in this classroom.
Turn off cell phone ringers, and please do not text message or listen to iPods/MP3 players during
class.
Online “Netiquette”:
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Always consider audience. Remember that members of the class and the instructor will be reading any
postings.
Respect and courtesy must be provided to classmates and to instructor at all times. No harassment or
inappropriate postings will be tolerated.
When reacting to someone else’s message, address the ideas, not the person. Post only what anyone
would comfortably state in a f2f situation.
Blackboard is not a public internet venue; all postings to it should be considered private and
confidential. Whatever is posted on in these online spaces is intended for classmates and professor
only. Please do not copy documents and paste them to a publicly accessible website, blog, or other
space. If students wish to do so, they have the ethical obligation to first request the permission of the
writer(s).
FYC@UTEP: Composing Your Success
Fall 2011
Email Etiquette:
Email is a useful tool if you have questions for me; emailing me is generally the easiest and most efficient way to
make contact outside of class. Given that this is a university setting and we are all adults, you should recognize
that your emails are documents that represent you professionally, and therefore should rise to certain standards
of professional decorum. There are some basic guidelines that you should follow, both in my class and in your
other classes.
 All emails should have a clear subject heading.
 All emails should have a clear, courteous salutation. “Dear Professor or Ms. Jimenez”.
 All emails written for professional purposes should adhere to standard grammar, punctuation, and
capitalization.
 All emails should be signed with your name, otherwise your reader may not know who you are.
 Emails should be sent from your UTEP emails account. If you decide to use another email address be
sure that the name on your account is professional and appropriate for interactions with your teacher.
 If there are any attachments please include an explanation of them in your email along with the program
in which the attachments were written.
 Consider rhetorical context when emailing. What is the purpose of your email, and how can you most
effectively accomplish that purpose? Three particularly important matters to keep in mind are brevity,
clarity, and courtesy. If your email is not clear, specific, and to the point, you may not elicit the response
you desire. If your email is discourteous, you diminish he professionalism of the persona you represent
to others. To cite just one example, some professors find emails that include calls for action, such as
“ASAP”, to be discourteous or even presumptuous.
 Emails that do not meet these standards of professionalism, clarity, and courtesy outlined above will be
disregarded and no reply will be given.
Attendance:
Students are expected to attend all class meetings and to participate in discussions and workshops. The class
discussions will help you learn to improve your writing, often through the discussion of a sample student project
(sometimes yours, sometimes one written by a classmate). This is part of the work of the course. Thus, you need
to be in class on time and with the books and your work in front of you to complete successfully your composition
courses.
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To preserve a student’s GPA, he/she may be dropped from the course after missing four classes
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Each tardy counts as ½ an absence.
To be counted as present or tardy, you must be present at the end of class also (Unless previously
discussed with the instructor). Please schedule outside appointments accordingly.
FYC@UTEP: Composing Your Success
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Fall 2011
Missing a scheduled conference with the instructor constitutes an absence.
 Each semester has a drop date beyond which an instructor can no longer drop a student with a “W.”
Students who fail to attend or fulfill assignments after the drop date must necessarily receive an “F.”
However, in the event of exceptional circumstances, and with the approval of the instructor of the course
and the academic dean, a grade of “W” may be obtained. The student is responsible for supplying
written documentation to support the request for a “W.” Acceptable reasons for a "W" include: personal
or family medical emergencies, death of family member, military leave, or an exceptional work schedule
that prevents you from completing the course.
 Please also be aware of the six-course drop limit. According to the Texas Education Code, "all first-year
students enrolled for the first time at any Texas public college or university are limited to six drops during
their academic career. This includes student and faculty initiated drops and courses dropped at other
Texas public institutions. This policy does not apply to courses dropped prior to census day or to
complete withdrawals."
Additionally, the third time a student registers for the same class requires approval from the program
director or chair as well as an additional fee (generally $100 per credit hour). So, be sure to start your
college experience on the right track by attending class regularly.
Late Work:
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Students who fail to submit assignments on time do not receive feedback on performance. Therefore, it
is important to submit work before deadlines for full credit and feedback.
Assignments submitted one class day after the due date will be penalized up to one letter grade.
Assignments submitted more than one day late will not be accepted by the instructor for credit.
Be sure to submit all major assignments in order to pass this class. While late work may adversely
affect a grade, a zero can adversely affect enrollment.
If a major assignment is over two class days late, the student faces failure for this section.
Academic Dishonesty: Academic Dishonesty is NEVER tolerated by UTEP or the First-Year Composition
Program. All cases are reported to the Dean of Students for Academic Sanctions. These sanctions may include
expulsion. All work submitted must be original; students may not submit graded work from another course.
Forms of academic dishonesty include: Collusion—lending your work to another person to submit as his or her
own; Fabrication—deliberately creating false information on a works cited page, and Plagiarism—the
presentation of another person's work as your own, whether you mean to or not (i.e. copying parts of or whole
papers off the Internet). See the Dean of Students website at http://www.utep.edu/dos/acadintg.htm for more
information.
Copyright and Fair Use: The University requires all members of its community to follow copyright and fair use
requirements. You are individually and solely responsible for violations of copyright and fair use laws. The
University will neither protect nor defend you nor assume any responsibility for student violations of fair use laws.
Violations of copyright laws could subject you to federal and state civil penalties and criminal liability, as well as
disciplinary action under University policies.
Group Assignments: Group assignments can sometimes create tricky situations. Some students don’t always
“pull their weight” and this upsets group members that are doing their work and being good contributors to the
group. Despite this, group assignments are valuable because they help students work together for a common
goal. Group work is a “real life” reality and learning how to work in a group will be central to one of the projects
FYC@UTEP: Composing Your Success
Fall 2011
in this class. Students who are not doing their group work can be voted off of their groups and will have
to complete the entire work of a group on their own, or in some cases not allowed to complete the
assignment at all. Therefore, it is imperative that everyone carries their assigned “weight” in their
groups.
ADA: The Americans with Disabilities Act requires that reasonable accommodations be provided for students
with physical, sensory, cognitive, systemic, learning, and psychiatric disabilities. If you suspect that you have a
disability and need an accommodation, please contact the Disabled Student Services Office (DSSO) at 7475148 or dss@utep.edu. The DSSO is located in Room 106, Union East Bldg. Students are responsible for
presenting the instructor any DSS accommodation letters and instructions.
FYC@UTEP: Composing Your Success
Fall 2011
Weekly Schedule (Provisional -- Subject to change)
MH = McGraw-Hill Guide; GFC = Guide to First-Year Composition, BBR = Blackboard Reading
Week One 1/18 -1/19
Assignment: Introduction to class, review of syllabus. Introduce and Discourse Community Map and
Response. “Pop-culture” Definition dues in class 1/19 (hardcopy)
MH: Chapter 1
GFC: 147-162
Week Two 1/23 -1/27
Assignment: Introduce and discuss semester topics. Discourse Map and Response due Friday 1/27 in class.
MH:
Continue Chapter 1
GFC: 139-146
BBR: (Storey) Music Hall and the Masses, Imagining the Past to Make the Present 1/27
Week Three 1/30 - 2/3
Assignment: Introduce and discuss Agency Discourse Memo. Semester topic due on BB by 12 noon 2/3.
MH:
90-100
GFC: 166-176, 163-165
Week Four 2/6 - 2/10
Assignment: Continue Discourse Memo discussion. Memo due 2/8 @ 9:30 am. Bring hard copy to
class. In-class group assignment on 2/10: Visual Analysis (Do NOT miss class).
MH:
429-447
GFC: N/A
Week Five 2/13 - 2/17
Assignment: Introduce, discuss and work on Homepage and E-portfolio
MH:
Chapter 17,
GFC: Continue 139-146
Week Six 2/20 - 2/24
Assignment: Homepage due 2/20 @ 9:30 am. Introduction and discussion of Ethos, Pathos, and
Logos. Watch and discuss videos
MH:
12-13, 20-23 & 459-460, 528 & 231
GFC: N/A
Week Seven 2/27 - 3/2
Assignment: Introduction to Rhetorical Analysis. In-class group assignment (Do NOT miss class on
2/29). Group assignment due 3/2 @ midnight.
MH:
180- 189, 132-137
GFC: 182-195
FYC@UTEP: Composing Your Success
Fall 2011
Week Eight 3/5 - 3/9
Assignment: Group evaluations due in class 3/5. Introduce and discuss Annotated Bibliography and
Community Problem Report.
MH:
GFC:
533-556
229-246
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3/10-3/18 *SPRING BREAK*
Week Nine 3/19 - 3/23
Assignment: Turn in first three bibliography annotations in class. (hardcopy) 3/19, Introduce Community
Problem Report
MH:
559-566, 594-608
GFC: 249-270 (10/20)
Week Ten 3/26 - 3/30
Assignment: Annotated Bibliography due 3/30 @ 9:30 (bring hardcopy to class). Continue Community
Problem Report, Discuss BBR (3/30)
MH:
Revisit the MHG Readings sections suggested for this section in the guide!
GFC: N/A
BBR: TBA
Week Eleven 4/2 - 4/6* (* Spring Study Day- no class)
Assignment: Community Problem Report rough draft due in class 4/4 (hardcopy), final copy due 4/11 @ 9:30
(bring hard copy to class). Peer Review Workshop Week
MH: 300-302, 79-81, 118-123, and 125-126
GFC: N/A
Week Twelve 4/9 - 4/13
Assignment: Introduce Persuasive Letter and Photostory.
MH:
222-231, 358-367, 375-378, 457-475, and 505-530
GFC: 281-288, 289-295
Week Thirteen 4/16 - 4/20
Assignment: Persuasive Letter due 4/16 @ 9:30 (Bring a hardcopy to class). Stonewall Uprising Video
MH:
186-187, 198-200
GFC: 209-222
BBR: TBA
Week Fourteen 4/23 - 4/27
Assignment: Stonewall Response Due 4/23. Answer questions and work on Photostory in class. Photostory
due Sunday 4/29 @ noon.
MH:
N/A
GFC: N/A
Week Fifteen 4/30 - 5/4
Assignment:
E-Portfolio Presentations
FYC@UTEP: Composing Your Success
Fall 2011
Week Sixteen Wednesday 5/9 Final Exam Day 10-1245 pm
Assignment: E-Portfolio Presentations. Website Analysis Due: Friday 5/11 12:00 pm! NO
EXCEPTIONS!!!!!!!!!
*NOTE: The rubrics in the FYC guide are NOT correctly calculated for the
assignments assigned in this class! I will provide you a copy of the corrected rubric
on the days that the assignments are introduced through Blackboard.
* This syllabus is subject to revisions at the instructor’s discretion.