Oakland University
College of Arts and Sciences
Department of Writing and Rhetoric
WRT 150, Composition I, 4 credits
Fall Semester 2013
Career Exploration
http://ouwrt150careerexplorations.wordpress.com
Instructor: Cindy Mooty, Mootyhof@oakland.edu
Office: ODH 143
Courses: (44442) MW, 9:20-10:27 268 SFH; Fridays: online
(43972) MW, 12-1:07 169 SFH; Fridays: online
Office Hours: Tuesdays, 10 a.m. -noon; Wednesdays, 1:30-3:30
Catalog Description:
A course emphasizing the rhetorical and stylistic demands of college writing through focus on experiential,
analytical, and expressive writing. Students learn to generate, organize and develop their ideas and to make
choices as writers that are appropriate to the rhetorical situation. A grade of 2.0 or higher must be achieved to
advance to WRT160. Prerequisite: Placement by faculty evaluation of writing or successful completion of WRT 102.
Students in WRT 150 (Composition I) will learn to:
 Analyze and understand rhetorical situations (purpose, audience) in a variety of genres and media.
 Explore and construct ideas in a variety of writing contexts, including focused essays and one inquiry-based
project with limited documented sources.
 Develop strategies for interpreting, evaluating, and responding to visual, electronic, written, and verbal
texts.
 Understand writing as a process of making meaning, requiring multiple drafts and revision.
 Demonstrate syntactic fluency and control of language conventions, including awareness of sentence and
paragraph structure
 Understand principles of documentation systems, generally MLA.
Required Text(s) and Supporting Course Material:
Grizz Writes: A Guide to First-Year Writing at Oakland University
Course Procedures: My class is set up as a writing workshop, we’ll meet within the classroom twice a week and
on-line Fridays within our Moodle site. Please note the department attendance policy below: Missing a class an
online meeting is equivalent to missing a class meeting and, thus, will count as an absence.
Attendance policy: All WRT classes adhere to the OU Excused Absence Policy for OU events and activities:
http://www2.oakland.edu/provost/web/reports/OU_Excused_Absence_Policy_Final.pdf For absences not
covered by the university policy, you are allowed three absences without penalty; this includes absences due to
illness, car trouble, or schedule conflict. Non-participation in online activities counts as absence. For each absence
beyond those allowed, your final course grade will be lowered by 0.1 points on the 4.0 scale respectively. Students
who miss more than three combined weeks of class are not eligible to receive a grade above 0.0. Absence in my
class also includes sleeping and/or missing more than 15 minutes of class.
Academic Conduct Policy: Cheating on examinations; plagiarism; falsifying reports/records; and unauthorized
collaboration, access, or modifying of computer programs are considered serious breaches of academic conduct.
The Oakland University policy on academic conduct will be strictly followed with no exceptions. See
Undergraduate Catalog, “Academic Policies and Procedures”: www.oakland.edu/?id=1610&sid=75
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Peer Review and Sharing Your Work: The texts you produce in our classes will be shared with your classmates as a
part of our regular peer review process. Our classes will prepare you to meet the needs of a variety of readers in
college and beyond, and to do so, we provide ample opportunity for your compositions to be read and responded
to by classmates and by the course instructor. You should, therefore, always assume that the work you compose in
our classes is public, not private.
Midterm Progress Reports: Students in all 100-level and 200-level WRT courses are given an indication of their
progress sometime around the middle of the term and no later than a week prior to the last day to take an official
Withdrawal (W grade), normally the ninth week of the term.
Add/Drops: The University add/drop policy will be explicitly followed. It is your responsibility to be aware of the
University deadline dates for dropping this course.
Accommodations: Students with disabilities who may require reasonable accommodations should make an
appointment with OU’s Disability Support Services office by calling (248) 370-3266 or TTY: (248) 370-3268; faxing
(248) 370-4989; or e-mailing dss@oakland.edu. The DSS provides Faculty Notification Letters detailing approved
services. Students are responsible for delivering these letters to their professors and are encouraged to discuss
specific arrangements for reasonable accommodations with their professors. Please see the DSS website at
www.oakland.edu/dss for more information.
WRT 104, Supervised Study: At the beginning of the semester your course instructor will ask you to provide a
writing sample, which s/he will use to determine if you would benefit from enrolling in WRT 104, Supervised Study.
But you do not need a referral from a WRT instructor to enroll in this elective class: any student who wants
additional help with his/her writing in any of our introductory writing courses or in any of the university’s writingintensive courses may elect to enroll in WRT 104. This 1-2 credit course provides students with one-on-one tutorial
instruction from a WRT faculty member based on writing areas the student desires.
Writing Center: The Oakland University Writing Center is open to OU students, faculty, and staff in all disciplines
at any stage of the writing process. The center provides writers with an interested and supportive audience of
well-trained consultants who help both novices and experts develop ideas and revise drafts into polished products.
You are strongly encouraged to visit the Writing Center for your formal essays. Extra credit will be given to
students who choose to do so (usually +.2). You must turn in your rough draft (with OUWC stamp) the day the final
copy is due. This will help you greatly in the revision of your papers and prevent last minute writing panic.
Grade Determination:
Grades are based on the Oakland University 4.0 scale:
3.6 - 4.0 (90%-100%) 3.0 - 3.5 (80%-89%)
2.0 – 2.9 (70%-79%)
1.0-1.9 (60%-69%)
0.0 (0-59%)
Your Participation and Blog grades will initially be graded as check (average) or minus (below average). These
marks will be converted to the OU scale just prior to the mid-term evaluation date.
Assignment submission: Assignments are to be submitted to Moodle, your Blog, or within a composition
notebook; usually, they will usually be due before the next class. Specific requirements are outlined with each
assignment and will be posted on our blog. http://ouwrt150careerexplorations.wordpress.com
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Participation, Moodle forums (10%): This course is designed as a workshop with in-class reading, writing, and/or
group work. You are expected to be prepared for each class, arrive on time, actively participate, and be respectful
to your fellow classmates and instructor (please no continual texting or snapchatting during class!). Most classes
will begin with a writing prompt (please use a traditional composition notebook without spiral binding) and will be
followed by discussion and activities to enhance your learning. You earn a “check” for each full day of active
participation whether it is in class or within the Moodle forum.
The goal of this class is to introduce you to a variety of career options and rhetorical forms available to you beyond
the academic essay, Powerpoint, and Facebook. The new medium will always be introduced in class to allow you
time to use the software before the assignment is due. On those days, I suggest you to bring your laptop (our
student technology center does have laptops available to rent for free!) I also suggest for you to seek assistance,
sooner rather than later. Meet me during office hours, visit our student technology center, or visit our writing
center. We’re all here to help you succeed.
Online Fridays: Every Friday, instead of meeting in person, you will be required to participate in an online
activity/discussion. I will create an assignment by Wednesday evening, and you will post a response no later than
midnight Friday night. You will also be required to respond to at least one classmate's posting by 10pm Sunday;
these assignments allow us to continue our discussions outside of class. Late postings will be dropped from a
“check” to a “minus.” Because this is a hybrid course, missing an “online” meeting is equivalent to missing a class
meeting, and thus will count as an absence.
Blog Assignments (5%): The entire class, me included, will use Wordpress.com. The online journals/blogs will be a
space for expressing thoughts, brainstorming, revising, and sharing feedback and ideas. I encourage you to read
and comment on your classmates’ blogs often. However, as this is a writing class, your blogs are not to be written
as a free flow rant to your BFFs. This will be a public blog designed to evaluate your learning within a rhetoric class.
As such, pay attention to your word choice, spelling, and grammar.
Late assignments: I will accept one of the major project assignments listed below up to one class late, but the
assignment will be reduced one full grade point. For example, if a paper is due on a Monday, you will have until
Wednesday to submit it. If this assignment earned a 3.5, it will now only receive a 2.5. Please see me if we need to
discuss any special circumstances which might have prevented you from success.
Project 1: Literacy Autobiography (10%) This assignment calls for you to create a 3-page academic essay outlining
a pivotal moment within your literacy development. You will also repurpose this essay into an animoto
presentation and write a process memo outlining your learning during this project.
Inquiry-based Research Assignments
You will be researching a tentative career. This first part will be to investigate careers that interest you. You’ll be
taking aptitude tests to determine the type of field that most suits your personality and then conducting primary
and secondary research to examine the types of jobs within this field. Primary interviews need to include a current
student within the major and a professional working in the field. Secondary research will include researching job
ads, expectations, salary. The major projects within this assignment will be:

Project 2: a 1-page visual ad (10%) to be posted within a public blog for future students to use

Project 3: a 4-5 page academic essay (15%)

Project 4: a video presentation (30%) also to be posted publically
Project 5: Portfolio (20%) The semester will culminate with the submission of your selected assignments
documenting your learning, a final reflective essay, revision of one major project (if you desire to improve your
grade), and recreating your literacy autobiography into a new genre.
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