Fall Quarter 2014
ENGLISH 092 – Developmental English
ENGLISH 093 – Composition for Non-Native Speakers
item #s 1051& 1052 /1064 & 1065
Instructor: Kathleen White
(425) 564-2596
kwhite@bellevuecollege.edu
This course is the training zone to get you into fighting form for college writing. Students will
write complete essays, both personal and academic, composing them through drafts and
tweaking them in editing sessions. 092/093 will also address the basic grammar errors that
cause students injury: sentence structure errors, agreement problems, punctuation mysteries.
The goal is to write confident, grammatically correct work, and to achieve an overall grade of Cor higher, to qualify the student for 101 placement.
This section of Developmental writing mixes both English 092 and English 093, two different
forms of the same class. There may be slightly different supplementary grammar assignments
and readings, so make sure to note on the syllabus where your section asks for something
different: otherwise, the assignments posted below are required for both sections of the
course.
English 092/093 is taught completely on line; students are not required to attend classroom
sessions. However, this is not a correspondence course, completed on your own timetable in
isolation. Also, if you sign up for this course thinking that it will have less work than a course in
the classroom, you will be unhappily surprised. On-line courses require the student to be
responsible for reading the syllabus, tracking the posted deadlines, and proactively asking
questions of the instructor through the appropriate communication methods, for instance the
website e-mail.
Finally, this is an English class, not a computer class. If you are not comfortable on a computer,
if you are not familiar with uploading and downloading files, if the terms .doc or .rtf are unknown
to you, seriously ask yourself if an on-line class is a good choice for your education. The
website does present a brief overview of how to get around it, but beyond that, students need to
be willing to troubleshoot for themselves, or contact Distance Education or the instructor as
soon as concerns appear.
It's also worth remembering that in on-line classes the instruction comes through written text,
not verbal instruction. It is very rare even to have occasional phone conferences or the odd,
desperate office meeting. Students should be prepared to read from the computer screen, or
print out lectures for home reading.
TEXTBOOKS
There are two textbooks for this class: The Compact Reader (9th Ed)
,
and Rules of Thumb (9th Ed) . These two books provide the materials for studying essay form,
readings to give us a sense of what works and what doesn't in writing, and grammar reference.
If you feel you're going to need added grammar work, start with the support links under the
Course Information icon on the home page of this course; there are several very good on-line
grammar sources and references, though you may have found others on your own. If so, share
them with the class! Also remember that you can take drafts of any writing you're working on to
the BC Writing Lab on campus, and get live, direct feedback and help.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Throughout the quarter, English 092/093 will generate 4 essays, 2-4 pages long, uniformly
double-spaced. These will be run through different levels of development, and some drafts will
be edited in group sessions. Participation in the editing will factor in with the essays as part of
the quarter grade. Students will also write four shorter written assignments, applying different
methods of development and practicing issues covered in the weekly readings.
Participation in threaded group discussion is also required. Topics will be posted every week,
and each student must make a minimum of one, three-to-four line comment responding directly
to each question in the topic, and at least one further reply to another student's post. (More
comments are warmly encouraged.) The discussion topics are listed on the syllabus and will be
linked to the weekly modules.
Be sure to check this syllabus at the start of every week: do not rely solely on the Canvas
Calendar, as it only shows due dates for graded writing assignments, and you will miss readings
in the text, and possibly other important requirements.
The largest part of a student's grade (80%) will come from writing; however, the group editing
and threaded discussion factor in 15%. That leaves a 5% instructor slush fund reserved for
crediting student progress.
Work turned in late will lose credit points every day it's past the due date, roughly to one-third of
the grade. No papers will be accepted one week beyond the due date without prior agreement.
A FINAL WORD ABOUT HONESTY AND THE ON-LINE FORMAT:
This being an on-line course, we will never actually see each other as a whole, trapped in a
class room together on a cold winter evening or fighting to stay awake on a sleepy, overheated
afternoon. Be advised, though, that teachers actually can pick up a student's individual style
fairly quickly, and therefore, can detect when essays come from sources other than the
student's own hand. We also now have software which runs checks on suspected plagiarized
essays, and I will run such a check at the slightest provocation. If any work done for this course
is plagiarized, the student will receive a zero for the assignment with no chance of rewriting it,
and the episode will be reported to the Dean of Students. More than one such episode, and the
student will receive an F for the course. Do not be tempted by on-line essays floating out there
in the ether; to tell you the truth, most of them aren't really all that good anyway.
SCHEDULE: (Note: All assignments due to me via Canvas submission tool by midnight of the
due date)
Week One: September 22nd - 27th
Read
Getting Started on the home page
Module One, Lecture One: How Did We Get Here?
Compact Reader Chapter 2 (pgs 19-31)
Rules of Thumb page 2 and check the Troubleshooting Guide on the back two pages
Begin Diagnostic Writing Assignment (description posted under Assignments on the tool bar, or
in the weekly module)
Post Comments and Follow Instructions on Beginning Discussion Thread
Week Two: September 28th - October 4th
Diagnostic Essay Due Wednesday, October 1st
Read:
Lecture Two: Process Writing and the Writing Process
Compact Reader 63-70; 91-97
Annie Dillard "The Chase" 72
Amanda Fields "The Cairo Tunnel" 102
Rules of Thumb 28-37; 63-71
Post on Discussion Thread
Week Three: October 5th - 11th
Short Writing Assignment One due Wednesday 10/8
Lecture Three: What do Teachers Want?
Compact Reader 115-122
Kim Kessler "Blah Blah Blah" 123
Anita Jain "A Nameless Respect" 128
Rules of Thumb 49-55
Post on Discussion Thread
Week Four: October 12th - 18th
Essay One Due 10/15
Read:
Lecture Four: Examining Mechanical Issues
Compact Reader 192-199; 250-258
Lars Eighner "Dumpster Diving" 205
Isaac Asimov "What is Intelligence, Anyway?" (attached to weekly module)
Rules of Thumb 21-27
Post on Discussion Thread
Week Five: October 19th - 25th
Short Writing Asst Two Due 10/22
Read:
Lecture Five: Punctuation
Compact Reader 141-148; 167-173
Thomas de Zengotita "American Idol Worship" 160
Jonatham R. Gould Jr. "The People Next Door" 181
Rules of Thumb 38-42
Post on Discussion Thread
Week Six: October 26th - November 1st
Essay Two Due 10/29
Lecture Six: A Brief Review
Compact Reader 33-44; 47-60
Post on Discussion Thread
Week Seven: November 2nd - 8th
Short Assignment Three Due 11/5
Read:
Lecture Seven: Loose Ends
Compact Reader 220-229; 276-286
Cheryl Peck "Fatso" 236
Dana Thomas "The Fake Trade" 292
Post on Discussion Thread
Week Eight: November 9th -15th
Essay Three Due 11/12
Read:
Lecture Eight: Tightening the Screws
Compact Reader 311-320
Linda Chavez "Redefining the Problem Won't Make it Go Away" 333
Charlie Spence "Sixteen" 338
Compact Reader 311-320
Post on Discussion Thread
Week Nine: November 16th - 22nd
Short Assignment Four Due 11/19
Read:
Lecture Nine: Further Fine Tuning
Rules of Thumb 72-74
Compact Reader:321-326
Anna Quindlen "The C Word in the Hallways" 327
Margaret Mead "This I Believe (attached to weekly module)
Post on Discussion Thread
Week Ten: November 23rd - 29th
Essay Four Due 11/26
Read:
Lecture Ten: Can We Go Now?
Reading: (attached to weekly module)
Post on Discussion Thread
Week Eleven: November 30th - December 6th
Closing Thread discussions
BC Finals
There is no final for English 092-093
Grades will be available on the BCC Website no later than 12/16