ENG101 Requirements, Fall 2008

ENG 101 Requirements
Fall 2008

On this Page:

1. Attendance
2. Computer Use
3. Writing
---Formal
---Informal
4. Quizzes
5. Reading
6. Research
7. Deadlines

1. Attendance and Participation:
This class requires interaction and participation that includes writing in class, individually or collaboratively, as well as face-to-face discussion and peer response to one another's writing. What happens in class is a large part of the learning experience of the course, and it cannot be "made up" through reading or copying someone's notes. Please make every effort to be here for every class, on time and prepared.

See the English Department's Standards.

2. The Workshop Approach in a Computer Environment:
We will usually meet in a computer lab. "Workshop" means that you'll actually be working on your writing in class a fair proportion of the time--planning or drafting or giving and receiving feedback or revising. It is important to your success that you stay on task and pay attention in class, rather than attempting to multitask by checking your email or sports stats or Facebook. Also, many students report that one of the biggest adjustments they must make in this class is remembering to check the online syllabus and take responsibility for being prepared for class. You should plan to check the online syllabus regularly, since I update it as needed throughout the semester.

3. Writing:
Expect to do a lot of writing, both informal and formal, and expect to do a lot of revising.

a. "Formal writing" for your final portfolio will include reflective portfolio cover essays and three well-developed reading-based essays, representing each of the three disciplinary areas: the humanities, the sciences, and the social sciences. I will ask to see evidence of revision in your portfolio, in accord with the English Department's Standards.

b. "Informal writing" will consist of biweekly the notes you take on your reading and some in-class and out-of-class activities (like the Inventory of Writing Experience, peer responses/critiques, and writing exercises). I'll ask you to keep these pieces of writing in a folder or binder as your Writer's Notebook.

4. Quizzes:
Early in the semester, you will take a test on a wide range of handbook rules for good writing. The purpose of this test is to establish your baseline knowledge coming into this class. Also, it will help me decide which areas I need to talk about with the group as a whole and which areas we can address in small-group instruction, which areas you may need some one-to-one help with. I'll score the test, but it won't count toward your grade, because it isn't a test of what you've learned in my class but of what you know coming into my class. Then, throughout the semester, you will take biweekly quizzes on what we've been discussing in class.

5. Reading:
The whole class will read Into the Wild, some short readings to illustrate writing principles, and some materials on writing (handouts or on the Web). I will also draw on your reading for PDP 150, to talk about the way the writers present information and ideas and to generate writing topics.

6. Research:
You will incorporate some research into at least two of your formal essays. We will spend some time in Alexander Mack Memorial Library and will use databases that our library subscribes to. There will be instruction in making ethical use of others' writing in your papers through accurate quoting, paraphrasing, and summarizing, as well as through appropriately documenting sources, and we will review Bridgewater College's Plagiarism Policy and Honor Code, as it applies to writing from sources. We will also use some class time for evaluating Web and print sources.

As a classroom community, we are engaged in developing every member's understanding of good writing. To be better readers and writers, we all need to do the work honestly. It is probably obvious that when a writer attempts to take shortcuts (like substituting reading an online summary for reading the assigned pages of a book or article, or copying and pasting bits of Web documents rather than writing original essays), that student does not improve his or her reading and writing skills. Can you imagine how it would undermine your confidence in your instructor's expertise if you learned that she had read summaries of Into the Wild and seen the movie but had never read the book, or that she had copied and pasted instructional handouts from Web documents? (She hasn't!) Such actions violate community members' confidence in each other. That is why plagiarism will not be tolerated.

7. Meeting Deadlines and Doing Your Best Work
Most of your grade will be based on your final portfolio. Sometimes students have interpreted this deferred grading to mean that "nothing counts" until the portfolio is turned in, or that what they were turning in was "just a draft" and did not have to be their best work. Please try to make each piece of writing as good as you can before you turn it in.

There's a good reason for doing your best. Students who do not do their best work may receive instructor comments that tell them to make revisions that they already know they need to make. When that happens, the instructor's time is wasted in making those comments, and the student's time is wasted in reading those comments. The student misses out on suggestions for better writing quality that the instructor might have made if those more glaring matters had been addressed sooner.

When you turn in your best work, and then you carefully consider and respond to the comments on your writing as you revise, you will improve as a writer.

Return to the ENG101 Welcome page.

Updated by Dr. Trupe Sept. 2, 2008