English 102 Section 1011– Composition I
Course Outline/Policies
Instructor: Laurel Topken
Class: Tuesday/Thursday 9:30-10:45/11-12:15
Number of Credits: 3
Transferability of Course within Nevada: This course is designed to apply toward a
WNC degree and/or transfer to other schools within the Nevada System of Higher
Education, depending on the degree chosen and other courses completed. It may transfer
to colleges and universities outside Nevada. For information about how this course can
transfer and apply to your program of study, please contact a counselor.
Linkage of Course to Educational Program Mission and Outcomes: This course is a
degree requirement for the Associate of Arts and Associate of Science degrees and
satisfies the 3-credit writing requirement for these degrees. It is designed to provide
instruction that contributes to a student’s personal, social and intellectual growth by
fostering the abilities to speak and write effectively; to think critically and solve
problems, … to locate and evaluate information resources; and to appreciate the arts and
the humanities. English 101 also contributes to WNC’s General Education Mission: The
purpose of the Associate of General Studies degree is to provide academic knowledge
and skills for personal growth, professional advancement, and/or successful transfer.
Instructor Contact Information:
Office hours:
email: lktopken@gmail.com
Laurel.Topken@wnc.edu
Mondays 5-7 at the Daily Grind
Tuesdays 1-2 in Pinion Hall
You can also leave a message at the Fallon office.
Course Description in WNC Catalog: Continues the study of expository writing.
Students read and analyze writing and discursive techniques of interpretation, argument,
and research.
Course Objectives or Outcomes:
Upon completion of this course the student should be able to:
 Read and think critically
 Purposefully interact with professional and academic audiences.
 Engage in critical inquiry.
 Learn to explore, observe, and synthesize information both orally or in writing.
 Discuss and write about college level topics with critical insight, precision, and
clarity.
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Required Materials
Bullock, Richard, Maureen Daly Goggin, and Francine Weinberg. The Norton Field
Guide To Writing with Reading and Handbook. 3rd e. New York: W.W. Norton
and Co., 2013. Print.
Hacker, Diana, and Nancy Sommers. The Bedford Handbook. 9th e. Boston: Bedford/St.
Martin’s, 2010. Print.
Beavan, Colin. No Impact Man: Adventrues of a Guilty Liberal Who Attempts to Save
the Planet and the Discoveries He Makes About Himeslf and Our Way of Life in
the Process. New York: Picador, 2009. Print.
Notebook for journal and homework
Grading Policy and Procedures:
Your grade will be calculated as an average of the grades earned on assignments. Fs will
be given when applicable. There is a maximum of 800 points to be earned. Your course
grade will be calculated as follows:
Preparation and Participation
20
Peer Response
150
Writing Assignments
180
Presentation
100
Journal
25
Homework (3 at 5 points each)
15
Reading Responses (5 at 10 each)
50
Annotated Bibliography
25
Experiment/Study/Survey
100
Conference with Ron
20
Justification of Source
20
Chapter Responses (15 at 5 each)
75
Research Post
20
Grade Scale:
A 100-94
A- 93-90
B+ 89-87
B 86-83



BC+
C
C-
82-80
79-77
76-73
72-70
D+
D
DF
69-67
66-63
62-60
59-0
If you withdraw yourself from the course, you will receive a W. Last day to
withdraw with a W is March 27.
If you drop out of sight and do not officially withdraw yourself, or if you
plagiarize, turn in unacceptable college-level work, or fail to turn in every written
assignment, you will receive an F.
Early Alert System – Please note that in an effort to help students successfully
complete their courses, the Counseling office on campus will ask faculty for
names of students they feel may be in need of additional assistance. A counselor
may contact you to offer some ideas.
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Scholarly Honesty/ Plagiarism:
Plagiarism is taking someone else’s work and claiming it to be your own. This can be
intentional or accidental; that is by choice or by carelessness and misunderstanding.
Plagiarizing may result in a failing grade on the paper and/or failure of the course.
Attendance and Late Work:
Since this course requires everyone’s participation, you have 2 classes you can miss
without potential consequences. Use it wisely; you never know if there will be a time
when you absolutely cannot make it to class. Absences over 2 will result in your being
unable to earn over an A in the class, 4 a B, 6 a C, and with 8 you will not be able to
pass the course. If you must miss class (death in the family, personal emergency, ECT),
you must contact me on the day of the missed class or immediately after to make
arrangements. If you must miss class for school activities (band, athletics, etc), you must
bring me, before the absences happen, a list, signed by the appropriate faculty or athletic
department member, of the dates the absence(s) will occur. You are responsible for all
assignments, whether you are in class or not. Part of your attendance is arriving to class
on-time, actively participating, and staying for the entire class period. Being late to class
or leaving early 3 times will count as an absence. Our workshop days are the most
important days; they cannot be made up and others are affected by your absence. If you
miss them it will affect your grade.
Reading and writing assignments are to be completed at the beginning of the class they
were scheduled for. If you absolutely cannot make it to class send your work with a
friend. All late papers will be docked a letter grade for every week it is late, and will not
be accepted beyond two weeks. No late papers will be accepted after May 4.
I will not be giving any extra credit points during the semester except for 5 points per
paper for going to the Academic Skills Center (ASC). If you are absent multiple times
and would like to make up for one class time, you must write a two page paper about
going somewhere in Fallon or Fernley. This could be to the park, an event, or even a
business. Only one absence may be made up. Your presence and participation is
important to this class.
Preparation and Participation:
To receive full credit for this portion of your grade, you must come prepared and willing
to participate. That means that you have completed any reading or writing required and
are ready to discuss or do activities with your classmates. You will join in on the
discussions and activities, contributing to the lesson with your perspective and thoughts.
Quizzes may be given on reading assignments due to lack of participation. You must
also have your writing assignments ready to turn in at the beginning of class.
Writing Assignments:
In this class, you will be writing one argument paper 8-12 pages, two 3-5 page essays,
and multiple short papers. You will read essays and stories to help you with your
assignments and workshop the rough drafts of the essays and the research paper.
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All written assignments must be completed to pass the course. Any two papers may
be revised for a better grade. The revised papers need to be resubmitted within one week
after the original has been returned, and must be accompanied with the original. In all
cases of revision, the final assigned grade will be an average of the original and rewritten
scores. A revision does not automatically guarantee an improved grade. There must be
substantial improvement in the revision (not simply correcting errors) to warrant a higher
grade.
Document Style:
In this class, we will use the MLA Format to cite other’s writing. The papers will be in
Times New Roman 12 point font double spaced with 1 inch margins on white paper with
black ink. The page number must be in the upper right corner, and the entire assignment
must be stapled before class. No title pages are necessary; simply list your name, date,
my name and assignment double spaced in the upper left hand corner. Your title should
be centered double spaced below your information, and the body of the paper double
spaced below the title. All papers must be at least to the bottom of the minimum
page requirement, and will include a rough draft.
Students with Disabilities:
*If you have a disability for which you will need to request accommodations, please
contact Susan Trist, Coordinator for Disability Support Services at 775-445-3268 or
susan.trist@wnc.edu as soon as possible to arrange for appropriate accommodations.
If an issue occurs, that will affect your education, please contact a counselor immediately.
They are there to help you get the most out of your time in college. Please note that in an
effort to help students successfully complete their courses, the Counseling office on
campus will ask faculty for names of students they feel may be in need of additional
assistance. A counselor may contact you to offer some ideas.
Code of Conduct:
We are a class full of adults and I expect considerate behavior. This is a class, as well as
Western Nevada College, where ideas are shared, debated, and sometimes argued over. I
encourage this, as it is one of the great reasons to come to college. But be aware that
others may not share the same values as you and you should judge your comments and
actions accordingly and speak respectfully. If you become disruptive, I will ask you to
leave or have you taken out of the class.
Some of the papers you will read in class may be sensitive; they need to be handled with
care. Do not discuss them with people not taking the class. On the other hand, keep in
mind that when you share your writing it then becomes public. You may want to
carefully consider what you write about. Do you want others to know about this topic?
Will you be able to take constructive criticism on the writing?
Finally, please turn off your electronic devices (i.e. cell phones, PDAs, MP3s, ect.) and
put away your ear buds and headphones at the beginning of class. If there are multiple
offences you may lose participation credit for the day. Lap tops may be allowed on
workshop days with prior approval. Also, there will be no texting in class. Any cell
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phone use in class will result in having to write a cell phone poem and reading it in
class that day. If you fail to do this, you will lose your participation points for the
day.
Additional Resources:
Your class mates and I are your prime resources. Workshopping, office time, and before
and after class you can talk to me or your classmates about the assignments. Also, in the
event that you do miss a class, make sure to contact a classmate or me for the next class’s
assignment. It is your responsibility to find out what you missed (handouts, changes, due
dates, etc.) Missing a class is no excuse for coming to the next class unprepared.
Conferences – It is suggested to attend a conference with me before the last drop date.
Class time has not been set aside for these conferences.
Academic Skills Center (ASC) – Visits to the tutors in the ASC are not required, but
they can give you five extra credit points on every final draft. This only counts if you
attended the scheduled class workshop, you spend at least ½ hour with a tutor working on
your draft, and the tutor signs your sheet. If you miss a workshop, you can only make it
up by going to the ASC. For these visits, you will need to make an appointment. The
ASC is located in Room 307 in Getto Hall, Fallon Campus. Go through the library to the
back and through the double glass doors on the left. The ASC phone number is 423-7565
ext. 2278.
Grammar and Punctuation practice – We will be working on some of these issues in class
but I recommend doing additional practice or work on specific problems through
www.dianahacker.com/bedhandbook; www.bedfordstmartins.com/exercisecentral or
additional exercises out of the handbook.
English 101 Composition and Rhetoric Tuesday/Thursday
Spring 2015 Tentative Syllabus
Week 1
Read
1/20 Introduce semester plans, explain the roll of
No Impact Man
No Impact Man, Syllabus and assignment explanation
Post on Canvas about Research
1/22
Active and critical reading
Ron to discuss Research Process
Chapter Response on Canvas Due
Bedford 109-126
No Impact Man
Week 2
1/27 Reader’s Response Due
No Impact Man
Assign Information Paper and subsequent assignments
Get a book on your topic
Watch movie
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1/29
Amazon Reader’s Response Due
Watch movie
Discuss movie and book
Week 3
Understanding Approach
2/3
Ron to talk about research projects
question vs. Question
Joining the discussion
Chapter Response on Canvas Due
2/5
Reasoning behind course research papers
Innovated thinking
Scientific method
Reading Response Due on Canvas
Week 4
Brainstorming and Narrowing Topic
2/10 Discussion of topics in No Impact Man
Brainstorming
Chapter Response on Canvas Due
2/12
Familiarize self with
Norton chapters 48-50
and Bedford part X
Norton 19-24, 87-94
“Into the Wild”
Norton 251-254, 105-107
Narrowing the topic
Must meet with Ron by the end of this class to discuss topics and research plan
Week 5
Research
2/17 Discuss research
Research time
2/19
Gather sources on assigned topic
Reading Response Due on Canvas
“Shipbreakers”
Week 6
2/24 Ron to evaluate some of those sources
You’ve evaluated the sources, now what
Chapter Responses on Canvas Due
Norton 421-431
Bedford 515-529
2/26
Norton 457-461
Citations both in-text and works cited
Chapter Response on Canvas Due
Week 7
Note Taking
3/3
Annotated Bibliography Due
Note taking discussion
Chapter Responses on Canvas Due
Norton 462-474
Bedford 530-537
6
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3/5
Thesis statement discussion
Chapter Response on Canvas Due
Week 8
Drafting
3/10 Drafting exercise
Chapter Response on Canvas Due
3/12
Bedford 557-562
Bedford 570-581
Revisions Exercise
Peer Response
Week 9
3/17 Spring Break
3/19
Spring Break
Week 10
3/24 Informative Paper Due
Assign Position Paper
More work on citations
Chapter Response on Canvas Due
3/26
Critical Thinking
Assign Experiment/Survey/Study
3/27
Last day to withdraw with a “W”
Norton 13-15
Week 11
3/31 Position discussion on chosen topic
4/2
Watch documentary and discuss
Week 12
4/7
Justification of Source Due
Experiment Results Due
“Debate”
4/9
Revisions exercise
Peer Response
Week 13
4/14 Position Paper Due
Assign Argument Paper
Putting it all together
Chapter Responses on Canvas Due
Norton 119-151
Bedford 141-175
7
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4/16 Watch “Trashed”
Reading Response Due on Canvas
“Dumpster Diving”
Week 14
4/21 Audience and Purpose
Chapter Response on Canvas Due
Norton 4-9
4/23
Norton 323-341
Voice, Introductions and Conclusions
Chapter Response on Canvas Due
Week 15
4/28 Claims and Opposing claims
Review citations and common errors
Chapter Response on Canvas Due
4/30
Revisions exercise
Peer Response
Week 16
5/5
Argument Paper Due
Work on presentations
5/7
Work on presentations
Week 17
5/12 Presentations
5/14
Presentations
Norton 731-745
8
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Research Rubric
Below are the criteria used to evaluate your research paper in English 102. Each section is given a numeric
value of 1-5: 0 or 1 indicates it wasn’t done/non-existent, 2 means poor, 3 indicates average or acceptable,
4 means good or above average, and 5 denotes excellence or nearly perfect. With these values totaled, a
paper may receive a maximum of 60 points. A chart on the next the page offers a breakdown of these point
totals and their equivalence to a letter grade.
Audience
How advanced is the essay’s content? Does it respond appropriately to a controversy or debatable issue that
concerns a college level audience? Is the paper part of a larger and significant discussion that is somehow
relevant or important to adults who are critical thinkers? So what?
Main Point
Is the paper’s introduction effective? Does its beginning, first paragraph(s), effectively introduce the paper’s
topic and state a clear thesis?
Are paragraphs in the essay’s body controlled by the thesis? Do clear topic sentences (or implied supporting
points) relate or point the reader back to the thesis? Do these topic sentences (stated or implied) control the
content within each paragraph? If any paragraphs do not develop a specific supporting point for the thesis, do
they otherwise function effectively within the discussion of the paper’s thesis (such as explanatory transitions
between two supporting paragraphs)?
Mechanics
Is the essay correctly written? In forming sentences, has the writer followed proper grammatical rules and used
proper punctuation (commas, pronouns, apostrophes, etc)? Are sentences correctly constructed in order to avoid
sentence fragments, run-ons, and confusing phrases? Has the writer avoided other errors: verb or tense shifts,
spelling mistakes, and incorrect word choice?
Does the essay demonstrate effective use of style and voice? Has the writer selected varied and interesting
words that avoid needless repetition? Does the essay maintain a consistent and effective point of view (3 rd
person only)? In other ways, is its tone appropriate for its purpose and its audience: does it avoid slang, stock
phrases, and contractions, for example?
Does the essay use correct MLA formatting and documentation? Proper in-text citations? Block quote use?
Works cited page? Proper MLA heading, margins, and indentation?
Organization
Is the paper well organized overall? Are there effective, logical transitions between supporting paragraphs in the
body of the essay? And are the paragraphs in the body of the paper generally arranged with an effective logical
strategy? Does the writing flow? Does the concluding paragraph clearly relate the author’s
ideas/content/argument to a larger social discussion or issue, or otherwise effectively wrap up the writer’s main
point?
Is the organization within the paragraphs effective? Within each paragraph, is there a clear pattern of
development from a topic sentence to the evidence that supports this topic sentence? Does logical linking
language effectively demonstrate the connection between the writer’s evidence and his or hers supporting idea?
Is the evidence arranged in an effective organizational pattern? Does the writing flow?
Support
Does the paper provide adequate proof for its argument (quotations, paraphrased information, data, experience,
research, etc.)? Are the connections between the writer’s evidence and his or her claims clear? Do supporting
paragraphs in the body develop distinct points, each of which meaningfully advances the writer’s argument?
Has the writer provided enough support to answer reasonable and important questions from his or her audience?
Does the paper use quality evidence for its argument? Has the writer used salient details, credible facts, data
from peer reviewed and scholarly research, properly cited quotations from subject experts or otherwise reliable
sources? Has the writer avoided dubious sources that undermine the credibility of the argument? Have these
sources been properly cited in a works cited page?
Voice
Has the writer integrated the voices of the source into his or her voice? Are there jumps or distinct places where
it is obvious that the writer has copied the voice of the source being used? Does the paper flow between the
writer’s voice and the source’s? Are sources used effectively in context to the point being made?
Is there evidence of sound research questions being used? Does the writer critically look at the topic and try to
find an innovative approach to the subject? Is there indication that the writer stayed away from researching for
their established point of view? Does the writer consider multiple points of view on the topic? Are various
options explored?
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60-57
56-54
53-52
51-50
49-48
47-46
A
AB+
B
BC+
45-44
43-42
41-40
39-38
37-36
35-0
C
CD+
D
DF