WR 122 Syllabus - Fall 2005

WR 122 Syllabus - English Composition II - Fall 2005
CRN # 40594: Tues. & Thurs. 11:00 - 12:15, Pioneer 111 - 3 Credits
Instructor: Cora Agatucci
Office Location on Bend Campus: Modoc 224
Office Hours: See current Schedule; also by appointment
URL: http://web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/schedule.htm
Office Phone & Voicemail: (541) 383-7522
Mailbox (Humanities Dept. Bend campus): Modoc 226
Electronic mail: cagatucci@cocc.edu
Fax (Humanities Dept.): (541) 330-4396 [Attention: Cora Agatucci]
Cora's Home Page: http://web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/index.html
Cora's WR 122 Course Home Page:
http://web.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/wr122/index.htm
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Welcome to Writing 122!

From current COCC Catalog Description of WR 122: Using critical reading, observation, and investigation to explore topics in depth, students learn to incorporate, accommodate, or refute other voices, use evidence and persuasion, and follow patterns of reasoning to support their positions. Recommended Prerequisites: WR 121. Credits: 3.
WR 122, the second course in the college-level English Composition sequence, builds on essay writing skills students have learned in WR 121 and focuses on writing effective arguments to persuade targeted audiences. WR 122 provides instruction and guided practice in critical reading, summary, analysis, and evaluation of others' arguments; and in responsible and effective use of evidence, logic and persuasion, language and style in one's own written arguments, with emphasis on fairly assessing and responding to alternative and opposing viewpoints. The final essay assignment will require students to conduct some outside research on a focused topic so that students can incorporate relevant evidence from at least three reliable outside sources, correctly documented using MLA style, to develop their final argumentative essay.

WR 122 COURSE LEARNING OUTCOMES . . . OR, What Will You Learn in WR 122?

Upon successful completion of WR 122 (with a grade of "C" or better), students will be able to:

Outcome 1. Demonstrate the ability to use a variety of analytical and argumentative essay patterns, such as evaluation of a published argument, comparative analysis of sources, persuasion, argumentation synthesis.

Outcome 2. Demonstrate the ability to use several quotations from either published sources or interviews, which are (1) integrated into the student's own writing (at both the paragraph and the sentence level), and (2) correctly documented according to some currently accepted practice.

Outcome 3: Demonstrate the ability to adopt a persona or tone that serves one's persuasive purposes in written argument, and to identify and anticipate audience considerations (e.g. readers' knowledge, assumptions, beliefs/values, attitudes, needs) in the selection of evidence and presentation of the writer's argument.

Outcome 4: Summarize published arguments and analyze components of written arguments, such as claim, support (including the distinction between observation and inference, fact and opinion), warrants, assumptions, logic, rebuttals, credibility, psychological appeals, connotation, tone, slanted language, irony.

Outcome 5: Use writing to provide a peer with alternative viewpoints and suggestions for revising and editing.

Outcome 6: Adopt a writing process to incorporate the special concerns of arguments such as analyzing opposing viewpoints, synthesizing personal opinions with written sources, thesis formation, organization, drafting, revising, editing and proofreading.

Outcome 7: Analyze and evaluate one's own argument, identifying strengths, weaknesses and potential biases, assumptions--and suggest some means of improving his or her argumentative practice.

Approved by Composition Committee, rev. 4-14-99

Recommended Prerequisites for WR 122:

Students are best prepared to succeed in WR 122, who have successfully completed Writing 121 (grade of "C" or better) or equivalent preparation, which means Cora assumes that students entering WR 122 are already able to:

--(a) Write essays that use a thesis to establish control over content; supply relevant and adequate supporting details drawn from observation, personal experience and/or responsive reading; employ the organizational strategies of effective beginnings, transitions, and endings; and conform to standard edited English.
--(b) Demonstrate the ability to use a variety of expository essay patterns, such as definition, classification, analysis, problem-solution, and comparison-contrast.
--(c) Employ one or more sources responsibly (without plagiarizing) in a summary or another writing assignment.
--(d) Demonstrate, in an essay, a sustained style employing rhetorically effective tone, persona, diction, idiom, and syntax.
--(e) Use critical reading and writing to analyze and synthesize ideas in an academic writing sample, identifying rhetorical patterns, major assertions, and supporting details.
--(f) Complete appropriate written (and oral) critical peer reviews of other students' essay drafts, including suggestions for revision and editing.
--(g) Complete written reviews (formal or informal) of the student's own writing strengths and weaknesses, including effective self-prescriptions for improvement.
--(h) Demonstrate, monitor, and articulate the complete idiosyncratic process that the individual writer uses to complete an essay, including such steps as invention, thesis formation, organization, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading.
--(i) Demonstrate an awareness of a variety of purposes and audiences.

Additional WR 122 Recommendations & Resources

A handbook, college dictionary, thesaurus
COCC Writing Lab when you need extra help with writing assignments for this or other classes. Writing Lab is located in the lower level of the COCC Library. Writing Lab hours will be announced during Week #2 of the term. Tutoring is on a drop-in, first come first serve basis.
Basic College-Level Academic Research Skills or concurrent enrollment in Library 127 will also be helpful with the research-based project.
Basic Computer Competencies. Competency in using word processing software will be invaluable in preparing required copies of preliminary drafts, as well as in revising these drafts and preparing final drafts of formal WR 122 writing assignments. Furthermore, student-instructor access and timely conferencing is greatly expanded when COCC students use electronic mail (via their personal and/or College network accounts) to contact Cora. Finally, students' ability to use an internet browser to access online WR 122 course, COCC Library, and WWW resources is also invaluable.

Student Accounts: http://computerlabs.cocc.edu/Student+Accounts/default.aspx
COCC Accounts: http://its.cocc.edu/Info/Accounts/default.aspx
Student Network Account:
http://computerlabs.cocc.edu/Student+Accounts/Student+Network+Account/default.aspx
Help: http://computerlabs.cocc.edu/Student+Accounts/Help/default.aspx
Drop-In Computer Lab Hours:
http://computerlabs.cocc.edu/Lab+Facilities/Hours/default.aspx
Off-Campus Services for COCC Patrons:
http://campuslibrary.cocc.edu/Library+Services/Connect/default.aspx
Virus Information: http://virus.cocc.edu/
Computing: Ask COCC for Help: http://computerlabs.cocc.edu/support.aspx
Maps: http://directory.cocc.edu/maps/default.aspx
Redmond Campus: http://redmondcampus.cocc.edu/default.aspx
If you have any questions or need more information, you can also contact Computer Lab Coordinator: Telephone:(541) 383-7719 (or ext. 7719); E-mail: mmccullough@cocc.edu or stop by the Computer Lab Office: Pioneer 200 - Room 200E.

Plagiarism Policy & Manuscript Form

Plagiarism Policy: Plagiarism—intended or not—is a serious violation of academic honesty and legal intellectual property rights. Proper citations and documentation of any sources that you quote, paraphrase, and/or summarize in your writing are required whenever you borrow the words, facts, and/or ideas of others. NOTE WELL that even putting others’ ideas into your own words still means you are borrowing, and you need to give credit where credit is due.

To avoid plagiarism, source(s) must be cited and documented, both:

(a) at the point in your papers where the borrowing occurs (using parenthetical citations for most documentation styles), and

(b) in complete bibliographical entries for all sources cited, usually listed at the end of formal essays and research papers.

Quick and acceptable ways of citing your sources, using MLA style, in written assignments will be discussed further in class and/or in assignment direction handouts.

Plagiarism in any Wr 122 formal writing assignment is grounds for an "F" on that assignment.

Manuscript Form: With the exception of in-class essays, the Final Drafts of letter-graded writing assignments must:

be typed or word processed using a standard, readable font & point size;
be double spaced;
be printed on only one side of standard-sized (8 1/2" X 11") white paper;
have one-inch margins on all four sides of each printed page;
avoid plagiarism & cite sources (see above);
be carefully edited before submission for grading
be properly identified with standard MLA-style Heading and Running-Page Headers:

MLA-style Heading (see example below), placed on the first page in the upper left-hand corner (please do not prepare a separate title page) - Example:

Janet Mikulski (your name)
Wr 122, Prof. C. Agatucci (identify course & instructor)
Essay #1 - Final Draft (identify assignment)
25 October 2004 (identify date assignment is due)

MLA-style Running Page Header (see example below) placed in the
upper right-hand corner on subsequent pages - Example:

Mikulski 2
(your last name and the page number)

WR 122 Course Grading
20%	Course Preparation/Participation Credits [PC] - "PC" points awarded based on thoughtful work completion skill-building assignments & participation in class activities (e.g. Exercises, Preliminary Drafts & required copies, Workshop participation, Writer’s Profiles. Late/"Make-Up" of "PC" assignments/activities may be permitted by arrangement with Cora.
15%	Comparative Essay (Argument Aims & Methods) - letter graded. Revision Option will be offered if turned in on time. Late papers will be penalized 1/2 letter grade.
15%	Formal Academic Summary & Critical Response Essay - letter graded. Revision Option will be offered if turned in on time. Late papers will be penalized 1/2 letter grade.
*40%	Research-based Project –at least 3 sources on one focused issue: (1) Inquiry/Exploratory Paper and (2) Argument Essay to Convince, Persuade, or Mediate – letter graded. Revision Option will be offered if turned in on time. Late papers will be penalized 1/2 letter grade.
*SEE Fall 2005 SYLLABUS REVISION to this portion of Course Grading NEGOTIATED & APPROVED IN CLASS during Weeks #6 & #7.
10%	Peer Reviews (Summary & Analysis) of Other Students’ Essays - letter graded.