WRITING EFFECTIVE PROSE

E-Mail:                      rich@wpc.wpunj.edu
E-Mail for Papers:  varronr@gw.wpunj.edu
Class Homepage:    ENG 110-20 Homepage
Forums:                    ENG 110 20 FORUMS CONFERENCE
 

1. Deadlines to Drop Course
2. Texts
3. Class Policies
4. E-Mail, Forums, Listservers and Other Electronic Media
5. Reading and Writing Assignments
6. Grading
7. General Guidelines For Typing Papers
8. Plagiarism
9. Academic Integrity Policy

Deadlines to Drop Course

9/10/97         100% refund

10/8/97        50% refund

10/22/97       last day to drop class

ATTENDANCE:

Since you will be working in small groups and critiquing each other's papers, on time attendance and participation is mandatory. Each absence lowers your final grade by 3% per absence (e.g. A to A-, B+ to B) 2 lateness (10 or more minutes) will count as an absence. 6 absences will result in a grade of "F" at the discretion of the instructor. Your computer disks, textbook, journal and writing assignments are an integral part of your attendance and class participation. Not being prepared for class will result in a lost of your class grade for the day (an absence).  Game playing, non-class related discussions or other disruptive behavior will result in lost of class participation grade (an absence) for that day.

GRADING:

In addition to the term paper, there will be 6 formal, TYPED papers to be handed in. Late papers will lower your  grade by one letter grade per class and will not be eligible for revision. (e.g. A to B, B to C, C to F). Papers that are more than 2 classes late will receive an F.  (Extensions will be granted if more time is needed to improve a paper; however, a completed draft must be handed in or E-mailed at the time the assignment is due. It is up to YOU to contact me in a timely manner if there is a problem in getting the papers in on time.) Plagiarism, Collusion, and/or Cheating will result in an "F" for the assignment and/or the course. Returned papers may be revised once. At the end of the semester, you will be required to hand in your essays along with any revisions.

GRADES:

A-C,F,N (there is no grade of D). You must get a grade of C or better to pass the course.

E-JOURNAL:

As part of this course, you will be required to participate in an electronic journal. At least once a week, you will submit your reactions in the class FORUM on essays we read in class, papers from other students or reactions to other events that your would like to share. The information in FORUMS is available to all in the class. If you want to address one or more people individually, you can also send them an E-mail message. This method of responding will allow you to share your ideas with other in a written form and give you a chance to get feedback to your comments and questions. E-mail is available from almost any campus computer open to students.

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E-MAIL, FORUMS AND OTHER ELECTRONIC MEDIA

FORUMS  

The class will be using a product called FORUMS. This product allows you to use a net browser such as NETSCAPE or INTERNET EXPLORER to read and post messages to various class forums. A forum is an organized discussion on a specific topic within a conference. Within a forum, there are various threads or subtopics. It will be possible to organize a forum on a particular paper, a specific problem  anything else related to class. It should also be possible to post your papers for others to review. As a general rule, the FORUMS are not restricted to members of the class.

Other sources of information: On NETSCAPE / WWW, WPUNJ has a home page at  /. It has information on E-mail, campus events and much more such as other listservers that may be of interest to you either for this course or other courses that you are taking.
 

What is the purpose of using E-mail in a Writing course? The first goal is to get people to discuss writing outside of a formal class setting. This will help you to get questions answered either by me or one of your classmates rather than having to wait until the next class. Instead of the traditional journal, you as a class are writing a journal. This allows you to work as part of a group even when you are not physically together. Second, though the use of electronic searching, you may be able to find more recent information or find information quicker. You will also be able to discuss questions you might have with students at other colleges. Third, it is a way for me to get feedback and to offer suggestions. It also gives me a chance to answer questions that come up in class or add something. Lastly, I work in College Hall as a programmer in the Office of Information Systems / Planning, Research and Evaluation. It is a long trip; with E-mail, I can answer questions whether I am in my office, on campus or home. At the same time, if you are someplace where you have INTERNET access (such as an off campus library), you can do the same.

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Reading and Writing Assignments

 

Specific Reading and Writing assignments will be posted to FORUMS. It is your obligation to check FORUMS regularly for updates to assignments.

 

Some Areas for Reading and Writing from the Textbook:

 

Arrivals, Roots, and Meanings	Parents and Children	Ways of Learning
American Conflicts and Struggles	American Dreams and Creations	Men and Women
Rights and Responsibilities	Questions of Language	Media Messages

 

Readings of Writing From the Text:

 

Critical Reading and Writing	Understanding and Evaluating
The Processes of Writing	Prewriting, Drafting, Revising, Editing
The Aim of Writing	Explanatory, Persuasive, Expressive
Guide to Finding and Using Information	Source Material and Documentation

 

Steps in Writing the Term Paper

 
• Week 7     Steps in the Term Paper process
• Week 8     Developing a Topic / Locating Initial Sources
• Week 9     Defining the Thesis - Limiting the Topic
• Week 10   Locating Specific Sources
• Week 11   Outlining the Paper
• Week 12   Bibliography / Citations
• Week 13   Proofreading

 
 

TERM PAPER DUE: DEC 9, 1997

The 6 thematic papers will allow you to expand on some of the ideas you come across in your readings. They will focus in on narration, description, argument, definition and comparison/contrast essays. Lastly, you will write a fully developed research paper. While I may give specific assignments, feel free to discuss any other ideas that you might have for a paper with me.
 

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Electronic Journals     10%                 Term Paper      40%

Class Participation     10%                 6 Papers        40%

The reason I require drafts to be available is that in the past students have had others write their papers for them or make substantial corrections. I want to be able to see what you are going at each stage of the writing process.

As I said on the first page, if you run into any kind of problems, please let me know and we can sit down and go over them. While I will generally go by the guidelines in the syllabus, I will look at individual problems on a case by case basis. The fact that I give one person some latitude does not mean anyone else is entitled to it since each person's situation is unique.

Your last name should be in the top right hand corner along with the page number (except for the first page). There should be a one inch margin on all sides. The cover sheet should have the title in the middle of the page and your name, course/section, instructor's name and date in the lower right hand column.

Papers should be double spaced. There should be no additional space between paragraphs. The title of your paper should not be underlined or put in quotes; however, if it contains a book or poem, these should be quoted or underlined as required. Text references generally have the form of (author pages) or (author lines) in the case of poetry [or just (pages) or (lines) if the work is mentioned in the paragraph]. It is not necessary to include the course text in your work cited for this class, but you are required to site quotes and paraphrases that you use in your papers.

While assignments may vary, your papers should contain citations from the texts to support your arguments. Papers which lack citations are usually not specific enough while papers with too many (or long) quotes/citations without adequate explanation do not allow you to express your own views. Make sure that quotes relate to the points that you are making If you are not sure of what a quote means, leave it out; don't expect your reader to understand something that you are not clear about.