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English 100, Section 50—Introduction to College Writing (3 credit hours) Instructor: Dr. Christopher Ervin Office Location: Cherry Hall 100 E-mail: christopher.ervin@wku.edu Office Hours: by appointment Office Phone: 270-745-4650 Class Location: Cherry Hall 102 Class Meeting Time: MWF 8:00-8:55 + W 9:10-10:05 & one-to-one conferences Learning Contract Your continued enrollment in this course constitutes your acceptance of this syllabus as a learning contract. By remaining enrolled in this course, you agree to abide by the policies outlined below. NOTE about course meeting time This course is scheduled officially for MWF 8:00-8:55 AND W 9:10-10:05; instead of meeting regularly on Wednesdays, we will normally be meeting one-to-one (instructor and student) in individual conferences every two weeks. You will sign up for a regular conference time at the beginning of the semester, and that will be your permanent conference time. Conferences will take place in Cherry Hall 100 (my office) and will take place roughly every two weeks. I reserve the right to meet class on any Wednesday of the semester for special research days or writing workshops, however. About the Course Overview Welcome to English 100: Introduction to College Writing. In this course we will study writing and rhetoric and develop a working knowledge of how writing is produced by novice and professional writers, how it is studied by writing scholars, and how writing shapes our everyday human experiences. The course is designed as a writing workshop, which means that if you succeed in English 100, you will have worked through several drafts of longer essays, and you will have honed your writing skills by composing shorter assignments (reflective writing, e-mails, discussion board postings, essay exams, and journaling), as well. Drafting, revising, discussing ideas with peers, experimenting with writing, playing with language, and polishing, proofreading, editing, and finalizing a draft are all part of the writing process that you will practice in this course. Goals & Learning Outcomes By the end of English 100, you should be able to: • Identify, analyze, and evaluate statements, assumptions and conclusions representing diverse

points of view; and construct informed, sustained, and ethical arguments in response. • Write short formal essays that include expository, evaluative, and basic argumentative language and

structures. • Make choices of voice, tone, format, structure and usage based on an analysis of audience and rhetorical

situation. • Articulate a basic understanding of your own writing processes and employ those processes to produce text. • Work in a collaborative setting both with your own texts and with those of other students. • Be able to read basic college-level non-fiction and to comment critically on its meaning and structure. • Use library and other online databases to identify, locate, and obtain research/scholarship that is appropriate

for use in general academic writing. • Produce generally error-free prose that is appropriate for a general academic audience. • Summarize, paraphrase, and quote meaningfully and correctly from appropriate research. • Utilize in-text documentation consistently according to the MLA documentation style. • Write a correctly-formatted references list for each paper that requires it.

Required Texts

• Troyka, Lynn Quitman, and Douglas Hesse. Quick Access Compact. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2010. ISBN 978-0-205-68734-3.

• Wardle, Elizabeth, and Doug Downs. Writing about Writing: A College Reader. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. ISBN 978-0-312-65681-2.

• Additional readings (newspaper, magazine, web, and scholarly articles) and audio/video to be provided in Blackboard.

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You will find these texts at the WKU Store in its temporary location in the Garrett Conference Center (right behind Cherry Hall). You may also find used copies of the texts online at http://www.bn.com (Barnes and Noble), http://www.amazon.com, http://www.abebooks.com, or http://www.alibris.com . Be sure to use the ISBN listed to ensure that you order the correct edition. Grading Minimum Requirements for Passing this Course: Students who wish to pass this course will (1) complete multiple drafts of each major writing assignment (essays + annotated bibliography); (2) submit ONLY writing that has been written by the student and produced during the Fall 2012 term and only writing that has been written for English 100; and (3) submit the final portfolio by the deadline. Course grades will then be determined as outlined below: Course Grades Portfolio 300 30% Participation 200 20% Short Essays (900+ words each) 200 20% Long Essay + Annotated Bib: (1500+ words + Ann Bib) 100 10% Essay Exams (300+ words X 3) 150 15% Presentation 50 5% Total 1000 100% Writing Portfolio Your culminating project in the course will be a final portfolio that contains an introductory essay (600-900 words), your final annotated bibliography (six sources), and revised final drafts of one short essay and a revised final draft of the long essay. The total cumulative word count of all formal writing you will produce in this course is around 5400 words minimum, or around 18 pages of writing. Congratulate yourself at the end of the semester for being such a productive writer! A Note on Length of Writing Writing assignment prompts will specify word ranges or minimum length requirements, such as “150-200 words,” “minimum of 900 words,” or “900+ words.” Grades on assignments that do not meet these length requirements will be reduced by 25% (see “25% Rule” below). The 25% rule applies also to assignments that exceed the maximum word count when a word-range has been specified. Course Policies Attendance You should attend every class meeting. You should arrive on time and be prepared for class, and you should remain in class for the duration. We rarely will end class early, and we will begin on time. You are responsible for all material and assignments missed because of absence or lateness. Habitual or egregious tardiness (arriving to class late or leaving early more than three times, or arriving more than 5 minutes after class starts) will earn you a -5 point participation penalty per instance. If you must miss an occasional class, it is your responsibility to visit me during my office hours to obtain notes or other information from class. Do not e-mail me and ask “What did we do in class today?” If serious health or personal crises arise that cause you to miss a lot of class, contact me immediately (do not wait until the end of the semester). I will not ask you to share private information, but in the case of emergency situations, you and I should discuss what options might be best for your situation as a student in the course. Normally, class meets three times a week (with occasional writing workshops on Wednesdays from 9:10-10:05), and we will meet individually in conferences throughout the semester. You’re expected to attend all of those class meetings and conferences. If you don’t, you won’t do well in the course. You’ll miss participation activities, which will affect your grade. You’ll miss discussions of writing and writing assignments, which will lead to poorer writing,

Final Grading Scale 1000-895 = A 894-795 = B 794-695 = C 694-600 = D Below 600 = F

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which will affect your grade and leave you confused and bewildered about “what Dr. Ervin wants” in the essays. You won’t have opportunities to ask questions to clarify concepts and assignments requirements, which are many in this course. Basically, if you miss enough class, you can bet you’ll fail the course. That’s why I don’t have to give you a “maximum number of absences” like most teachers. Students who miss a lot of class generally fail English 100. If you know you’ll miss class, let me know ahead of time, and we can arrange early submission of work, etc (in keeping with the other policies described below). If you miss class without warning, you’ll miss those points. Activities that cannot be made up, even if you notify me in advance that you’ll miss class, include in-class writing, discussion, and group activities. Those can only take place in class. Student athletes and other students who miss class due to university-sponsored activities must notify me in advance and in writing with a notice from the athletic department, forensics team, or other university official. Only when I am notified in advance will I accommodate those absences. Participation Participation in this class means coming to class on time; leaving on time; actively participating in face-to-face and online discussions in a meaningful, productive, and respectful way; completing peer review (online) in a timely manner; asking questions during class; completing quizzes; completing in-class writing; attending individual and group conferences with your instructor; and giving your full attention to your instructor and peers and to the learning activities taking place. Participation points (200 total) will be distributed rather evenly across the semester; during almost every class, you will have the opportunity to earn participation points. Students who do not actively participate in class, complete homework, or come prepared to class will see significant reductions in their final course grades due to low participation grades. I keep meticulous records pertaining to your participation, as it comprises 20% of your course grade, enough to mean the difference between failing and passing, or a B and an A. The mere presence of one’s body in class does not constitute participation; to succeed in this course, students must be engaged, exercise their minds, and contribute to the learning community. The 25% Rule for Assignments that Do Not Meet Basic Requirements The grade on any assignment that does not meet the basic requirements as listed in the assignment prompt will be reduced by 25% automatically. Examples of “basic requirements” are length, submission deadline, minimum number of drafts, minimum number of sources, and so on. For example, if an assignment has a 750-word minimum requirement, that means that 750 words are the absolute minimum accepted and that, for example, a 700-word essay does not meet the basic requirements. Grades for such assignments will automatically be reduced by 25%, which means the highest grade possible (everything else being perfect) will be 75% C. Another example: if the annotated bibliography assignment calls for six sources, at least four of which must be scholarly sources, and only three scholarly sources are submitted, the grade will automatically be reduced by 25%. Late Work Only major assignments (essays + annotated bibliography) are accepted late with the 25% penalty deducted. Low-point value homework will never be accepted late for any reason. An assignment is late if it is not submitted in class or Blackboard by 8:00 on the day it’s due, or for Discussion Board posts and peer reviews, by noon on the day they’re due. Presentations can only be rescheduled if requested in advance. Otherwise, you lose the 5% of your course grade for your presentation. Make-up Policy If you must miss a class when you’ll be asked to complete an essay exam, you must notify me in advance, and ideally we’ll arrange for you to take the exam in advance. If you do not notify me in advance (a general rule of thumb is 24-hours notice), you will not be allowed to make up the exam. No other quizzes, in-class writing, etc. may be made up. Part of the participation policy is that you actually participate in the activities in class, and you must be in class to participate. Research Requirements Typically, all sources used in this course must be current, relevant, scholarly research accessed from print sources or library databases. Other sources, like credible websites, newspapers, magazines, and the like will be

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accepted only if the student justifies the use of such non-scholarly sources. Use of scholarly sources constitutes a “basic requirement” on all assignments unless otherwise noted on the assignment prompt. Blackboard Requirement & Submission of Work We will be using Blackboard extensively throughout the course. Homework schedules, downloadable documents and materials, links to online materials, grades, and assignment submissions will all take place in Blackboard. See appendix for more details about submitting work in Blackboard (and see course FAQ in Blackboard). Failure of Technology Technological failure of any kind is no excuse for submitting assignments late or failing to submit assignments. Students who are not confident with their technology skills are encouraged to work ahead and submit work early. All students should back up their work on a flash drive or e-­‐mail files to themselves as a precaution. E-mailing Backup Copies of Your Assignments Students must not submit their assignments via e-mail. Blackboard submission is the only acceptable method of submitting work to the instructor. That said, students who wish to e-mail their assignments as attachments solely for the purpose of backing up their work may do so by e-mailing them to english100.assignment.backup@gmail.com. I have set up this account solely for this purpose. Remember, e-mailing as an attachment to this address is not equivalent to submitting an assignment. In fact, as a rule I will not check this e-mail account at all. Blackboard is the required method of submission. E-mail I will usually respond to e-mails within 24 hours or, if received over the weekend, by the end of the day Monday, and I expect you to do the same. All students should check their WKU email accounts and the Blackboard Announcements page at least once each weekday. Not checking email or the Announcements page is not an excuse failing to keep up with course assignments or updates. When you e-mail me, appropriate etiquette for professional e-mails is expected. Don’t take offense if I respond to a poorly-written e-mail with a request for you to revise it and send it again. The Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab) provides a useful set of guidelines for composing professional e-mails at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/636/01/ . More specific to this course is the e-mail and Discussion Board etiquette document, which is available in Blackboard in Bboard->Grading Documents or BboardFAQ. Class Disruption and Use of Portable Electronic Devices Disruption of class is grounds for dismissal from class for the day. Repeated disruption of class will result in permanent dismissal from the course and a failing grade. Disruption includes using phones or texting in class, using laptops or computers in CH 102 for inappropriate purposes, listening to Mp3 players or using other portable electronic devices, arriving late, leaving early, sleeping, and disrupting others by talking out of turn. Students who disrupt class in any of the ways listed above will be assigned a -5 point participation penalty, which will be documented in Blackboard in the Grade Center. During the first few weeks of the semester, I will notify students who receive a -5 point grade deduction due to disruption of class. After that, though, it will be up to you to monitor your grade deductions, as I will not call attention to them in class or via e-mail. Academic Integrity In this course, we trust each other to adhere to the principles of academic integrity discussed in this section of the course syllabus. My assumption is that you will submit work that is your own because you wish to be evaluated on the quality of your own work rather than the quality of someone else’s and that you understand that doing otherwise is unethical. However, if I begin to question the integrity of your work, I will submit your work to Turnitin.com, which will generate a report that will help me determine whether your work is original or not. Academic dishonesty is any act that violates the rights of another with respect to academic work or that involves misrepresentation of a student’s own work. Academic dishonesty includes (but is not limited to) cheating, plagiarizing, and submitting the same or substantially similar papers for more than one course without consent of instructors. Plagiarism occurs when a student knowingly or unknowingly submits another person’s published or unpublished (print or web) writing as his/her own, has another person dictate what should be written, has another person write an assignment and submits that work as his/her own, or fails to document research correctly. Students must complete their own work in this class, and they should not ask for or receive inappropriate assistance on their

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work. Students who violate this policy should understand that they are making a decision that may result in an automatic failure in this course. On the other hand, students who adhere to this policy make the decision to challenge themselves intellectually; these students decide to abide by ethical principles that illustrate they value the educational opportunities presented to them and that they believe the quality of their contributions should be given a fair evaluation. Plagiarism or academic dishonesty on any single assignment, including quizzes, exams, short papers, reflective assignments, and drafts, will result in a course penalty up to course failure. Plagiarism also includes use of all or part of another student’s Blackboard Discussion Board postings. Length or nature of the assignment will not be factors affecting the course penalty. In other words, plagiarism in a one-page paper might result in course failure just like plagiarism in a six-page paper might; or cheating on a daily quiz might result in course failure just like cheating on a final exam might. Finally, students often do not realize that plagiarism isn’t limited to the undocumented use of verbatim (word-for-word) text from a source. Ideas and arguments may also be plagiarized, and the penalty for “borrowing” the general progression/ideas/argument of another person’s (student’s) work is the same as “borrowing” verbatim text without documentation. Take these scenarios, for example. A student posts to the Discussion Board his outline and rough draft for essay 1. Then, another student “borrows” that draft, rewrites her own version of it, which is very similar to the first student’s draft, and submits it as her own. The second student is guilty of plagiarism, and the penalty for such a breach of ethics is described above. Another example: For a restaurant review, a student in the class submits to his peer workshop partners a review of the new Mellow Mushroom Pizza restaurant on Chestnut. The review is generally positive with one or two negative points—price and location. One of the student’s peer workshop partners “borrows” the evaluative points and reviews Mellow Mushroom in Nashville, using the same positive descriptions and negative points. That’s also plagiarism. In short, students must do their own work and be evaluated accordingly. Recycled Writing All writing submitted for English 100 must be produced this semester. Students who submit writing completed during previous attempts at English 100 or writing submitted for other courses must rewrite the assignment, and a mandatory 25% penalty will be applied to the new submission. Students who continue to recycle old papers after one warning will fail the course. Extra Credit No extra credit will be offered in this course. Respectful Behavior and General Civility In my classes, I like to have free and open discussions of what we think and feel about the things we read and write. To that end, I ask that everyone be respectful of each other, even if we don’t agree about everything. If someone chooses to use hateful, bigoted, or inappropriate language, I will first consult with that student and, if the behavior continues, I will remove that student from the course. Getting Help with Your Writing, in English 100 and Beyond Writing Center Assistance The Writing Center is located in Cherry Hall 123 on the Bowling Green campus and also offers online consultations for students who live at a distance or who cannot visit during our operating hours. Our writing tutors have been trained to provide helpful feedback to students at all phases of a writing project: they can help you brainstorm ideas, structure your essay, clarify your purpose, strengthen your support, and edit for clarity and correctness. But they will not revise or edit the paper for you. See instructions of the website www.wku.edu/writingcenter <http://www.wku.edu/writingcenter> for making online or face-to-face appointments. Or call (270) 745-5719 during our operating hours (also listed on our website) for help scheduling an appointment. The Learning Center Should you require academic assistance with your WKU courses, The Learning Center (located in the Downing University Center, A330) provides free supplemental education programs for all currently enrolled WKU students. TLC @ DUC offers certified, one-on-one tutoring in over 200 subjects by appointment or walk in. Online tutoring is

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offered to distance learners. TLC is also a quiet study area, with side rooms designated for peer to peer tutoring, and offers a thirty-two machine Dell computer lab to complete academic coursework. Additionally, TLC has three satellite locations. Each satellite is a quiet study center and is equipped with a small computer lab. These satellites are located in Douglas Keen Hall, McCormack Hall, and Pearce Ford Tower. For more information, or to schedule a tutoring appointment, please call TLC at (270) 745-6254. www.wku.edu/tlc Hours of Operation: TLC @ DUC Sunday 4:00pm – 9:00 pm Monday – Thursday 8:00am – 9:00pm Friday 8:00am – 4:00pm TLC @ Keen Sunday – Thursday 6:00pm – 11:00pm TLC @ McCormack Sunday – Thursday 6:00pm – 11:00pm TLC @ PFT Sunday – Thursday 6:00pm – 11:00pm (PFT residents and their guests only) The Fine Print (Required Policies and Such) Prerequisite for this Course Prerequisite: Minimum score of 16 on English section of ACT or successful completion of DENG 055 with a grade of C or better. Catalog Description English 100 emphasizes writing for a variety of rhetorical situations with attention to voice, audience, and purpose. Provides practice in development, organization, revision, and editing. Introduces research skills. General Education Goal Fulfillment English 100 helps to fulfill the A.1. (Organization and Communication of Ideas) general education requirement at WKU. The course will help you attain these general education goals and objectives: 1. The capacity for critical and logical thinking and 2. Proficiency in reading, writing, speaking. Important Dates Last Day to Add or Drop a Class: Tuesday, Sept. 4 Last Day to Withdraw from a Class: Wednesday, October 17 F/N Date*: Monday, October 29 Incompletes Typically, incompletes will not be granted for this course. When extenuating circumstances arise—for example, if a student in the military and is deployed, or if a student has a personal or medical crisis that comes up toward the end of the semester—the student must discuss the situation with me if possible and I will consider an incomplete. I will only consider an incomplete for students who are in good standing (C or higher) in the course. Resolving Complaints about Grades Any student who takes issue with a grade or another aspect of a course ordinarily speaks with the instructor first. If the student and instructor cannot resolve the issue, the student may refer the matter to the Department Head, who will assist the instructor and the student in reaching a resolution. If either party is dissatisfied with the outcome at that level, the matter may be appealed further. The Student Handbook (available online at http://www.wku.edu/handbook) outlines procedures for appeals beyond the department level. I encourage you to ask me about all matters pertaining to grading, fairness, and course policies prior to approaching the Department Head. ADA Notice Students with disabilities who require accommodations (academic and/or auxiliary aids or services) for this course must contact the Office for Student Disability Services, Room A200, Downing University Center. The OFSDS telephone number is (270) 745-5004 V/TDD. Please do not request accommodations directly from the instructor without a letter of accommodation from the Office for Student Disability Services.

English 100-050, Fall 2012

Essay 1: Etiquette in Texting or E-mail (Letter to the Editor of the College Heights Herald) *Items marked with an * are considered “minimum requirements” for this assignment, and failure to meet those minimum requirements will reduce the grade by 25% automatically. Rhetorical Situation You’re assigned to write an opinion piece for the College Heights Herald about either e-mail or text message etiquette. An opinion piece is a persuasive piece of writing by definition, so your purpose is to persuade your audience with regard to your position. Thesis Statement and Topic Sentences In all drafts, underline your thesis statement and all paragraph topic sentences. The thesis statement will be one or two sentences that outline the main argument of your essay. Topic sentences begin or end each paragraph, sometimes serve as transitions from previous paragraphs, or to the following paragraph, and forecast the single topic of the paragraph. Audience Your audience includes readers of the College Heights Herald and the Herald online. Length First draft: 600 words Final drat: 900+ words Research Requirements No research may be used for this op-ed essay. We will be doing some reading on the subject, but you may not draw on any research, directly or indirectly, for this essay. Use your own thoughts and ideas and your own ability to persuade. Due Dates First draft written in class on Wednesday, September 12. You may complete prewriting for the assignment outside of class, including an outline, but you must write the full draft in class. Student who are found to have completed the essay out of class and e-mailed it to themselves and submitted it without having written it in class will earn zero points and will have to write an alternative essay to replace this one. Draft returned on Friday, September 14. Final draft due Monday, September 17. Submitting the Assignment You will submit all drafts in Blackboard. More instructions to follow. Grades This short essay, along with the other short essays, will be graded with a letter grade only, and the letter grades for all short essays will be averaged. The average will make up the 200 points of the short essay part of your course grade. One additional requirement: Grammar, punctuation, and other errors should be part of the argument for all essays.

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Essay 2: Literacy Narrative1 or Literacy Autobiography *Items marked with an * are considered “minimum requirements” for this assignment, and failure to meet those minimum requirements will reduce the grade by 25% automatically. Purpose: In this essay, you will reflect on how some kind of literacy (reading, writing, language use) event has shaped some facet of your identity. You will have two options: (a) a literacy narrative, or (b) a literacy autobiography. The final draft of literacy narrative essays will focus on one or two literacy events or anecdotes. Literacy narratives should give the reader a clear sense of time, place, and situation, it should contain dialogue, and it should center on a tension that is resolved over the course of the narrative. Literacy autobiographies will present a series of related events that build a theme around a literacy topic. Literacy autobiographies provide short anecdotes with exposition that links the anecdotes to create some clear theme. For both literacy narratives and autobiographies, you are encouraged to make connections between the beliefs and values represented by this narrative or autobiography and larger cultural values and beliefs about literacy. In other words, write an essay that connects your personal literacy experiences with the state of literacy in our culture at large. Audience: The targeted readers of your literacy narrative or literacy autobiography will be other English 100 students and faculty. Thesis The thesis for this essay may be explicitly written into the essay or it may be an implied thesis. *Length: Successful essays usually exceed 900 words (900 words is the bare minimum). *Due dates: First draft due Monday, October 1; second draft due Monday, October 8 Research Requirements: No research may be used for this essay. Submitting the Assignment All drafts must be submitted as uploaded documents in .docx or .rtf format to BlackboardSubmit Writing Here->Submit Unit 2 Assignments Here. Grades The essay is assigned a letter grade, which will be averaged into the 20% of your course grade that is made up of the short essays. Invention, Drafting, and Revising the Literacy Narrative Begin prewriting your Literacy Narrative by completing the following activities: Listing Prompts The centerpiece of this essay is a “literacy event” or series of events—a reading/writing or other literacy experience in your life that you can turn into an engaging narrative that can be made to reveal values and beliefs about literacy in your own life and in our culture at large. Brainstorm by completing one or more lists from the following prompts:

• The education and literacy levels of current and preceding generations of your family (go back as far as you can in your family history to consider schooling and occupations of parents, grandparents, etc.)

• The role of written language in your immediate family’s social, economic, religious, political, and cultural practices. How did reading and writing mediate your relationships with parents, siblings,

1 This assignment was adapted from Deborah Brandt’s literacy narrative assignment, developed for her Composition and Literacy seminar at the University of Minnesota, Spring 1992.

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and other family members at various stages of your life? How did reading and writing mediate your family’s relationships with other groups/institutions?

• School-based reading and writing—self-sponsored reading and writing (reading and writing you do outside school)

• The role of libraries, bookstores, technologies (television, radio, computer, etc.) in your development as a literate person

• The role of reading and writing in your developing identity • Family experiences such as parents spelling words out that they didn't want you to understand • Childhood insights and misconceptions about reading and writing • Attitudes toward reading and writing at different ages • Foreign language experiences • Good and bad experiences with English teachers • Ways your writing has changed as you’ve implemented different media (paper and pen, word

processors, e-mail, crayons, etc.) Fastwriting Prompts Write for at least eight minutes in response to each of the following prompts:

1. What role did language (including talk) play in your family and immediate social group as you were growing up? What kinds of talk typically took place in your household among adults, between parents and children, and children and children? What language patterns were typical of your extended family? neighborhood? other social groups?

2. What role has language had in play and friendships? How did reading and writing figure in your peer group relationships at various stages of your life?

3. Explore at least one instance in which writing has enabled you to accomplish an important goal or task. How has writing empowered you?

Visual Prompts Construct a “literacy timeline.” Using the significant events in your life of literacy, create a timeline that includes the most important events. A literacy timeline will allow you to visualize the progression of your own literacy throughout your life. See the example literacy timeline posted in Blackboard. Warning: Plagiarism resulting from the use of cheat sites like the following will result in automatic course failure: http://www.oppapers.com/subjects/literacy-narrative-page1.html http://www.123helpme.com/search.asp?page=9&text=narrative http://www.allfreeessays.com/topics/literacy-autobiography/ and so on Schedule of Assignments Is Available in Blackboard

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Student 1 Christopher Ervin English 100, Section 35 22 April 2010

Writing and the Life of [Student’s Name]

My writing experiences obviously start way back from my first day of kindergarten and continues

on today. The school system I am from, in my opinion, has a relatively lax composition program. The

first research paper I wrote was a one-page report about pneumonia in fifth grade. I have been writing

papers every year in school since then. The papers have obviously been getting longer and more in

depth for every year I have progressed. There are three instances in my career as a student that sticks

out in my mind that somewhat changed me, but not really, after doing the writing and reading

assignments.

The reasons I say my high school had a weak grammar and composition department is because there

are a lot of topics we have talked about in composition 101 that I was not familiar with. The approach to

teaching composition at my high school was not very strenuous. The teacher would tell us to write a

paper about our favorite vacation, hobby, or anything along those lines, and we had a set amount of time

to complete it. When the deadline came around, the class handed them in. The turnaround time for

return of the paper would be a couple of days, and the paper would just have a grade written at the top.

When the end of the semester approached, we just wrote a long research paper that was unusually hard.

The teachers went over how to cite our sources, and that was about it. They didn’t even go into that

much detail describing how to cite sources, so it was difficult. So that is why I feel like I am behind

everyone in composition 101.

As for the instances that stand out in my mind in the area of writing there are a few. The first one

was in the year 2002 when I was a sophomore. It is kind of ironic that my first big memory of writing

came during my high school speech class. We had to read a novel and then write a paper and also

perform a speech informing the class about the book. My choice of novel was A Maiden’s Grave written

by Jeffery Deaver. That was the most interesting and suspenseful book I have ever read. I have always

heard about books that “you can’t put down” and personally I never believed that. “A Maiden’s Grave”

was one of those books for me that I could not stop reading. Everything just happened to fall into place

for me on this project. It was ironic that my favorite movie at the time was The Negotiator with Samuel L.

Jackson. The book and the movie were based on the same theme of a hostage taker that had hostages

while the police tried to resolve the situation. When I picked out a novel for my project I randomly went to

the shelves in my school library and picked out a book that sounded interesting. After reading the book I

wrote a paper over what I thought about the book and a little background on the author. It was really kind

of easy and then I had to perform a five-minute informative speech along the same lines of what the book

was about. This sticks out in my mind because I got A’s on both the paper and my speech. I was proud

of my work at that time because our teacher was very picky in different areas of our writing and especially

how we performed speeches. She would take off for trivial errors, and everyone complained about their

speeches, but I got a one hundred percent on it so I was happy.

The next writing project was my biggest piece of work I did in high school. The last semester of

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my senior year we didn’t have a final for senior English. Instead we just wrote a research paper. At that

time I was not smart enough to write about something I had a lot of knowledge about, but I decided to

write about nuclear medicine. Through interlibrary loan I got an eight hundred-page book talking about

nuclear medicine and its usages. When I was done I had compiled a fourteen-page report over my given

topic. I listed the number of benefits, uses, and also went down and explained nuclear medicine on the

molecular level. I was especially proud of that detailed part because I took chemistry in high school, so I

understood what the medical book was talking when explaining that part. I wasn’t so educated in the

area of chemistry that I understood everything, but I felt comfortable putting it into my paper and being

able to comprehend what was being said. As for my composition teacher I highly doubt she understood

most of what my paper was talking about. I did end up getting an A minus on the final paper, so I was

very happy with that for the extraordinary amount of time I put into it. I got points taken off for citing

some of my sources incorrectly since that was never explained to us very clearly. I am not trying to make

excuses for the mistakes on my paper I wrote. I was just relieved to get it done since I did a lot of

reading. I wish I had thought of writing on a subject I was more informed of like I did for my research

paper in composition 101. It is humorous to think that a research paper in college was easier than high

school, but it depends on the approach the instructor takes.

Through the two examples I mentioned above I feel that it didn’t really prepare me for more

advanced writing classes. I was timid for composition 101 the first day I walked into the classroom.

Personally, I feel a lot more comfortable writing papers. I believe the peer review sessions helped me

take criticism a lot better and it isn’t the end of the world if the writer’s paper needs revision. So my

writing experiences that I mentioned stick out in my mind because I did well on them grade wise, but

overall didn’t prepare me enough for more advanced composition classes.

Literacy Narrative

5

Student 2

Christopher Ervin

English 100, Section 35

22 April 2010

“There and Back Again”: Reading The Hobbit . . . Finally

My childhood was not unusual. It consisted of playing outside, eating ice cream, battling dragons

along side wizards, going to the beach, riding bikes, saving damsels in distress, and traveling to far away

lands. Normal kid stuff, or at least so I thought. Since a very young age I have been blessed (though I

thought at the time it was a curse) with an extremely active imagination. It was not uncommon to find me

in my backyard, brandishing a stick and slaying goblins one minute and the next creeping around like a

spy. My imagination made my transition into literature both smooth and enjoyable.

My first memory of an experience with literature was my mother reading to my siblings and me

She would sit in the hallway outside our rooms and coax us into slumber by reciting fantastic tales of

Winnie the Pooh and other such stories. I recall the first book that I became entirely engrossed in through

this ritual, J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. The images came alive in my head of a stout little man who lived

in a hole in the ground being selected to go on a fantastic journey. After the first night of my mother

reading this book to us, I lay awake with the images still dancing in my head. I wasn’t done yet. So after

my parents had gone to bed I stole off into the living room to acquire this magical device that made me

feel so great. I saw my target resting upon the bookshelf, and I removed it with utmost caution and

reverence. I retreated to my room with my newly acquired prize, ready to delve further into this amazing

world. However, much to my dismay the magical device didn’t work for me. I opened it and nothing

happened. All I saw was squiggles and lines, not hobbits and wizards. I was so perplexed by this that I

inquired to my mother the next morning how I was make the hobbits come out and play. She told me that

it was called reading and that I could learn how if I wanted. I had a new task before me.

Despite my protests, my mother insisted that I start at a slightly lower reading level than The

Hobbit. We started out with the Little Critter series, books that I had been read several times and were

simple enough for me to find the correlation between the sounds and the letters. The squiggles became

meaningful letters and the letters became words and words became sounds, and before I knew it I could

struggle my way through most any children’s book they threw at me.

By the time I was in the first grade I was reading at a third grade level, a fact that I was both

proud and ashamed of. I was often singled out as a very strong reader, which made me very

uncomfortable. Even from a very young age I thought that reading should be more about personal

satisfaction rather than some sort of competition. My imagination was fueled by the written word, and I

loved it so much that I thought everyone should feel the same way. However I was often made fun of for

being weird and reading too much. This trend continued as I read increasingly difficult books in order to

work my way up to my coveted goal.

Finally in fourth grade I was ready to read The Hobbit. I ravenously gobbled it up and was

extremely pleased with the result. Before I assumed that once I was able to read The Hobbit, I would be

satisfied and I would reach a sort of literary plateau. I am so thankful that I was wrong. After I finished The

Literacy Narrative

6

Hobbit I found out that there was not only one sequel, but three. I eagerly devoured the next three

installments and still wanted more. I found a copy of The Silmarillion on the bookshelf and tried to read it.

I think after the first chapter my brain quit working and sparks came out of my ears. Definitely not ready

for that one yet. But I didn’t let it discourage me. I kept on reading as much as I could and developed my

vocabulary as much as possible throughout my schooling.

Because I had so much respect for the written word of good authors when I was young, writing

became almost a sacred act that I should not taint by trying it. My writing should be limited to school work

and nothing else. Again, I am glad that I was wrong.

The first time that I wrote something purely for leisure I was probably in fifth grade. I was roller-

blading around my block with a small pad of paper and a pencil, writing letters to people in my class and

then crumpling them up and throwing them away. I let my imagination do the talking and made up weird

scenarios that had never happened and told people about them.

My most memorable writing milestone came during my freshman year of high-school. I found a

black spiral notebook in my room and felt compelled to start writing in it. It wasn’t a journal of a traditional

sense, but it was a journal that documented my consciousness, how I viewed the world. I would sit down,

stop thinking, and just write. This process helped me organize my thoughts and develop my ideas. By just

writing I could look back on it and think about it in more depth after the thought had passed. By the middle

of my sophomore year the notebook was full and tattered, with extra sheets of paper stuck in the back so

that I could keep writing.

After the notebook had been filled, I kept writing for personal pleasure. During class I would

sometimes get so bored that I would compulsively write a short story or random essay. I would then take

the paper I had written on and fold it several times and then leave it in the hallway in the hopes that

someone would pick it up and read it. I would never sign a name and always state at the beginning that

hopefully it would end up in a receptacle of some kind, whether that be a trash can or a mind. This is a

ritual that I still continue to this day.

I would like to think that I am a strong reader and writer because of my past being immersed in

literature and writing. My imagination is still very vivid and strong and I have learned how to harness the

creative aspect of it in order to create some interesting works. Hopefully throughout my life I will continue

to gain more knowledge in regard to the written word and become a better person because of it.

Literacy Narrative

7

Student 3 Christopher Ervin English 100, Section 15 29 April 2010

Literacy Narrative It is funny how one title can spur a whole decade's worth of reading choices. In a very real way, a single title can influence where you spend book-budget money, what bookstores you frequent, what you spend free time on, to even what Internet sites you visit. For some people romance novels dominate, others prefer mystery fiction, many choose non-fiction, but there is a group that selects fantasy, as I have, and that choice has affected my attitude towards reading and writing as a whole. The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan is where it started. Oh, I suppose there were warning signs prior to being introduced to that particular novel. A journal assignment in sixth grade English detailed my reaction to finishing Michael Crichton's Sphere. It was one of the first novels I read that evoked an emotional response on my part. I really struggled to find words to describe how bereft I felt upon completing that book. The following year I would experience what I have come to consider my ‘second awakening.’ During yet another journaling exercise I found myself attempting to describe the intense mélange of feelings manifested by Frank Herbert’s Dune series, especially the eponymous opening volume. These novels merely whetted my appetite, whereas The Eye of the World brought the hunger to full awareness. I was in eighth grade, and in the unfortunate position of prowling the mall with my father. As if growing up the oldest of six siblings wasn't hard enough, considering the other five were all girls, I also came from a broken home. One of my half- sisters had recently been diagnosed with viral cardiomyopathy requiring a heart transplant, my mother birthed the youngest of my sisters, and I bore the burden of not only being teen-aged, but also heavily advanced in many of my classes, to the point requiring busing to a nearby high school for math classes. I sought refuge from my dad in Waldenbooks, and found it in the only section I could remember having a book I truly liked reading: Fantasy. My book selection was based on the most scientific of criteria: which author seemed popular, and had written many thick books. I picked one up, and found that the jacket presented little direct information about the plot of the novel. There was not much to recommend the book, in actuality; only the fact that the novel was a New York Times bestseller drew any attention. Trusting my instinct, I took a chance and purchased the book. I plopped onto a bench in the mall, opened the book, and began to read. My surroundings melted away. I stumbled into the world of Robert Jordan. From the prologue, describing action thousands of years removed from the plot’s setting, I was hooked. Jordan’s masterful skill at trickling just enough details to impel the reader to turn page after page, confident that a major discovery is just sentences away, kept me doing just that. Maintaining mystery, Jordan deftly wrapped me in the plot’s excitement using complex mythology and sympathetic characters. Never before had I been as exhilarated by a story. The Eye of the World to this day is one of my most cherished books. I proceeded to read the entire novel in a two-day span, and immediately forced my parents to get me the next book. So I went through that series, to Modesitt, to Kate Elliott, to Melanie Rawn, to whomever offered the serenity I could find immersed in thousands of pages of world-building escapism. I was, and still am invigorated by these new places I have discovered in fiction. To date, I have now spent

Literacy Narrative

8

thousands of dollars purchasing and reading hundreds of books from dozens of authors, only to realize that the mass market paperback editions I had collected cannot survive the eighth, ninth, or tenth readings I have put them through. My story has many parallels to the millions of people who have been entranced by the writings of the classic authors and poets traditionally learned about in literature courses around the world. It even mirrors the mania experienced by those affected by JK Rowling's Harry Potter novels, likely the most important literary juggernaut of the last decade. I now understand those people who have been so touched by various literature they decide to make their life's work some sort of contribution to English, whether writing, teaching, or even publishing. I am personally thankful for my literary enlivening because it has sparked a burning interest in literature and, to a (much) lesser extent, writing. I feel that these very personal awakenings are as, or possibly more, important to English and literature than many other disciplines simply because passion will drive innovation. Someone who truly believes in writing has the potential to create more excitement than someone who writes because it is required. Though this notion is not relegated solely to the subject of English, I feel English may benefit the most from it. In my experience, English has never been the most popular of subjects, so almost anything that comes along that can invigorate the subject is positive. In a world that seems to be dominated by math and sciences, I feel that a proponent of the humanities would be very welcome. As Harry Potter winds down to its inevitable conclusion, what will rise in its place? Literature needs a new champion for its cause, and I'm not sure if that entity currently exists. I think the next gargantuan of literature waits in the wings, anticipating its chance to inspire the next generation to read and write. This is the idea that needs to be fostered to engender more growth and creativity. As much as I wish I could bring the story full circle, and say that I have decided to pursue writing as my career, I must aver that my talents lie elsewhere. Though I envy the authors I read for their ability to create individual story threads, and weave them together into a complex tapestry of multiple-volume series and story-arcs, I cannot imagine the time, effort, research, note-taking, cross-referencing, sketching, or outlining that is put into novels before a line may even be typed. That, to me, is what is truly impressive about writing. Just as I know I will never be a professional athlete, or a venerated songwriter, I don't believe I would be able to create as artfully as the authors I enjoy, so I would rather take my pleasure and play to my strengths.

English 100-050, Fall 2012

Essay 3: Rhetorical Analysis, the 2012 Debates *Items marked with an * are considered “minimum requirements” for this assignment, and failure to meet those minimum requirements will reduce the grade by 25% automatically. Overview/Purpose of Assignment To analyze the argumentative elements of one or more of the debates from the 2012 presidential election. Definitions Remember the distinction between analysis/interpretation and summary/description. The essay contains both, but summary/description should be limited to a couple of paragraphs at the beginning. Thesis The thesis must be analytical in focus and must suggest how a feature of an argument works or what an element of the argument means. For example, my example essay’s thesis suggests that logical fallacies are successful in swaying an audience in these debates, despite the fact that Mr. Romney took President Obama to task for logical fallacies. My thesis focuses on how logical fallacies work in the debates, not what they are. Instead of only summarizing the logical fallacies, I’m describing how they work to sway an audience. Audience You’re writing to an academic audience, so use formal language and diction. Your audience is familiar with the debates but needs some reminder of specifics. Length Sketches: 1.5 pages First and subsequent drafts: 900+ words Research Requirements No research allowed. Period. Invention/Pre-writing Numerous pre-writing activities will lead up to this essay, including notes on the debates, sketches 1, 2, and 3, and notes from in-class review on Monday and Wednesday, November 5 and 7. You must submit an outline of your first draft by Wednesday, November 7, and resubmit the outline (possibly revised) in the essay folder along with all notes, drafts, and notes from peer review. Due Dates First draft due Monday, November 5. Final draft due Monday, November 12. Time Commitment I expect students who are successful with this assignment will spend X hours on X, X on X, etc. Grades Graded as part of your 200 points short essay grade (essays 1, 2, and 3 averaged together).

English 100-050, Fall 2012

Annotated Bibliography (Presentation Prompt Is on Back) *Items marked with an * are considered “minimum requirements” for this assignment, and failure to meet those minimum requirements will reduce the grade by 25% automatically. Overview/Purpose of Assignment To pose a researchable problem, write a research question, conduct initial scholarly (library) research on the problem (with a team of peers), plan a research project that would help you investigate the problem and answer the research question, and present your proposal to the class. Skills you will learn during this unit:

• Writing research questions • Using full-text online databases to locate appropriate scholarly research (journal articles, books) • Summarize each source in 150-200 words • Write works cited entries in MLA style • Work in a team • Plan a presentation for the class

Your topic for this project will be (broadly) how technology is shaping how we read and write Audience Your instructor and classmates *Length of Annotated Bibliography Introduction to annotated bibliography (the research proposal): 200-400 words Each source entry (excluding works cited): 150-200 words (FIRM!) Total number of sources required: 3 unique sources (you may not use the same source used by another person on your team) *Research Requirements At least two of the three sources must be scholarly. The third may be a credible website, a magazine or newspaper article, or another scholarly sources. A guideline for length of scholarly sources is 10 or more pages. *Evidence of Active Reading Copies/printouts of all research must be submitted with the annotated bibliography folder. My expectation is that you show evidence of active reading on these copies. Part of your assignment grade will be based on the evidence of active reading—the quality of your notes, annotations, etc. *Due Dates Summary drafts due November 19, 26, and 28 Draft of introduction (written by team) due Friday, November 30 Annotated bibliography final draft due Monday, December 3 Submitting the Assignment Submit in Bboard->Submit Writing Here->Submit Unit 4 Assignments Here. Grades Annotated Bibliography: 100 points Example I will provide an example of an annotated bibliography w/introduction and a presentation during class on Wednesday, November 30.

English 100-050, Fall 2012

Research Proposal Presentation

*Items marked with an * are considered “minimum requirements” for this assignment, and failure to meet those minimum requirements will reduce the grade by 25% automatically. Overview You and your team will present a summary of your research plan for the project you’ve been working on. Purpose To present, with a team, your proposal for a research project that will help you investigate your team’s research question. Time No more than ten minutes. No fewer than five minutes. Content

• Introduction/context for the project • Why the project is important (for college students) • Research question • Overview of the research reviewed for the project • Tentatively answer your question

*Visual Requirement Use PowerPoint or alternative, Prezi, or a research poster to help organize your presentation Grade 50 points, assigned individually to each team member. Each team will anonymously evaluate each other team member. All audience members will evaluate all team presentations. Planning You will plan during class between Monday, November 26 and Friday, November 30. *Due Dates Draft of presentation by the end of class on Friday, November 30 Presentation during class on Monday, December 3

English 100-50, Fall 2012

Example Annotated Bibliography This example annotated bibliography is intended to provide direction on formatting, length of summaries, organization, etc. The topic of the annotated bibliography is not one you that will be writing about. It is intended to provide an example of formatting and the general purpose of an annotated bibliography. NOTE: The introductory commentary below is only an excerpt. Yours must be 200-400 words total. I’ve also highlighted a few key elements of the annotated bibliography introduction and summaries that you’ll want to include in your own assignment. NOTE ALSO that I’ve moved the right margins over so you’ll have room to take notes. Jenn Hamm Dr. Ervin English 100, Section 111 24 April 2011

Annotated Bibliography: Sustainability in Society Today

Nowadays, the issues of environmental problems influence all human activities.

Recyclable material, waste re-usage, energy conservation, alternative fuels, global

warming – these are just some of the terms that are used on an everyday basis. Since

society becomes more concerned with the natural environment, businesses begin to

determine their behavior to fit to society's new concerns. On the other hand,

sustainability has become a great field in maintaining business along with protecting the

environment and contributing to the society. . . .

One business area in which environmental issues receive a great discussion is

marketing. "Green marketing" appears everywhere. According to the American Marketing

Association, green marketing is the marketing of products that are presumed to be

environmentally safe. However, a large number of people believe that green marketing

refers to only the promotion or advertising of products with environmental characteristic.

In fact, green marketing combines a broad range of activities that can be applied to

consumer goods, industrial goods and even services, including product modification,

changes to the production process, packaging changes, and modifying advertising. . . .

The research that follows includes a couple of sources that cover the

introductions of the terms and concepts of Green Marketing, discussions of why going

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English 100-50, Fall 2012

green is important, examination of some of the reason that organizations are adopting a

green marketing philosophy and some of the problems with green marketing. . . .

Anderson, Andrea. "Green Marketing." Holland & Hart LLP. The Federal Trade

Commission, n.d. Holland & Hart. Web. 24 Feb 2011. According to Andrea

Anderson, today, it’s very natural that almost every industry is trying to find the

“green” fields of their products and services by any chance they get. But an

uninformed and poorly prepared “green” advertising initiative can severely

backfire to the company. Anderson’s paper provides general guidance on

developing a company’s green advertising. Anderson gives examples and

explains the concepts of environmental claims, general terms, and comparative

claims. Moreover, business also should take extra care with “hot button” terms

such as degradable, compostable, recyclable, recycled, refillable, organic, or

ozone friendly. Lastly, the article gives business guidance on the use of recently-

coined advertising terms, which should be taken care of in doing green

marketing. This article provides information on how the firms should determine

and perform the right concepts of green marketing to deliver the right information

and get the attentions of the consumers. It is a guide for the discussion of how

green marketing affects the marketing mix and the product diversity of an

organization.

Lurie , Bob. "How to Recognize Your Green Business Deficits and Solve Them." Harvard

Business Review (2009): n. pag. Web. Harvard Business Review. 1 Mar 2011.

Bob Lurie discusses the five traits that companies which are not engaged in a

serious sustainability effort show: the responsibility for sustainability, the potential

for competitive advantage in sustainability, sustainability tab in the business plan

binder, lack of green metrics to measure the progress on building a sustainable

business, and the relationship with key NGOs. Lurie states that business should

not treat sustainability as a crisis to manage. Lurie also proposes four ways to

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English 100-50, Fall 2012

address deficits. First, elevate sustainability to a C-Suite post responsible for

coordinating both capability and accountability. Then treat sustainability as a

product or service and establish permanent, value-added partnerships with

critical members of the sustainability community. Lastly, make green crisis

management part of the ongoing commitment to sustainability. Giving an

example of Wal-Mart’s making sustainability a centerpiece of its business

strategy, Lurie observes, “What sustainability has [done is] unlocked the true

potential of linking up both saving money and living better.”

Prakas, Asee. "Green Marketing, Public Policy and Managerial Strategies." Business

Strategy and the Environment 11 (2002): 285–29. Print. The article examines

issues in understanding the relationship between the marketing discipline, the

public policy process, and the natural environment. It focuses on promoting

products by employing claims about their environmental attributes or about firms

that manufacture and/or sell them, the products, and their pricing issues. Prakas

suggests promoting products by employing claims about their environmental

attributes. The paper discusses the market and nonmarket contexts of

consumers’ attitudes versus behaviors, stakeholder and institutional pressure,

and collective action dilemmas. Prakas discusses whether and how information

on greenness impacts consumer decision making. It mentions the green

marketing strategies and the managerial implications. The article identifies key

ideas in relation to promoting green products that may be most relevant to both

scholars and practitioners of green marketing. This article contains important

information about the key challenges for green marketers, including the role of

economic and noneconomic factors in influencing consumer behavior and what

kinds of information disclosure strategy to adopt.

 

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Final Portfolio Assignment Prompt, English 100, Fall 2012 Purpose: To demonstrate that you have developed the writing, research, and documentation skills necessary to

complete college-level writing and research. Contents: Showcase Section 1. Reflective introduction to the portfolio (450 words) 2. Final revised draft of ONE of the following: either Essay 1 (E-mail etiquette), Essay 2 (Literacy

Narrative), or Essay 3 (Rhetorical Analysis) (900 words) 3. Revised annotated bibliography, with copies of sources w/evidence of active reading

Process Section 1. One example of pre-writing/invention that has proven useful this semester 2. One example of an essay that has undergone extensive revision (include all drafts) 3. Exemplar active reading of a scholarly source (exemplar means the very best example)

Due Date: NO LATER THAN Friday, December 14 at 8:00 AM Grading: The final portfolio is worth 300 points of your final course grade. Submission: Submit entire portfolio in hard copy in essay folder to Dr. Ervin in Cherry Hall 100B. Organize the

materials like this: Right Pocket: Showcase Materials in the order listed above Left Pocket: Process Materials in the order listed above Plagiarism: All quotations and paraphrases must be appropriately documented according to the rules outlined in

Quick Access, chapter 34. Significant documentation errors will significantly reduce portfolio grades (possibly causing the portfolio to fail). Portfolios found to contain academically fraudulent writing—writing that has been copied verbatim from a source with no attempt to document that source—will result in automatic course failure.

Getting Help: Dr. Ervin is available for one-to-one conferences during the final week of the semester and during finals

week. E-mail to arrange a conference. Introduction to the Showcase Portfolio The reflective introduction for the portfolio is your opportunity to assess your own writing and to indicate to your reader (me) that you understand the strengths of your writing and the qualities of successful college-level writing. The reflective introduction also gives you an opportunity to discuss yourself as a writer who follows a writing process. If you’re a writer who plans extensively and drafts quickly, describe that process. If you’re a writer who relies heavily on freewriting and who drafts multiple times before submitting for instructor’s feedback, describe that process. In short, describe what you do when you sit down to complete an academic writing assignment, or a letter to your mother, or an important e-mail to a friend—the challenges, the roadblocks, the successes, the failures. Write the introduction as a letter to the reader (your instructor). The letter should be professionally written and adhere to the conventions of professional correspondence. It should have a beginning, middle, and end. It should have a main point/thesis. It should be organized into paragraphs, which should move smoothly from one to the next with strong transitions. Overall, the introduction should be effectively organized. It should be sufficiently detailed and fully developed. The introduction will be your first impression on your reader (me), so it should illustrate the qualities of successful writing. In the reflective introduction, you must address each piece that’s included in the portfolio. In other words, describe the strengths of the essay and annotated bibliography, and discuss your writing process as illustrated through the process work you’ve included. As you draft and revise the introduction, review the learning objectives in the course syllabus (copied below); review the writing assignment prompts that were distributed throughout the semester; become familiar with the grading criteria for the final portfolio, provided below; and review your own writing.

Here are the learning outcomes for this course. In the introduction, you can address some or all of these learning outcomes—discuss how you met these and how your portfolio serves as evidence of you having met these outcomes: • Write short formal essays that include expository, evaluative, and basic argumentative language and structures. • Make choices of voice, tone, format, structure and usage based on an analysis of audience and rhetorical situation. • Articulate a basic understanding of your own writing processes and employ those processes to produce text. • Work in a collaborative setting both with your own texts and with those of other students. • Be able to read basic college-level non-fiction and to comment critically on its meaning and structure. • Use library and other online databases to identify, locate, and obtain research/scholarship that is appropriate for use

in general academic writing. • Produce generally error-free prose that is appropriate for a general academic audience. • Summarize, paraphrase, and quote meaningfully and correctly from appropriate research. • Utilize in-text documentation consistently according to the MLA documentation style. • Write a correctly-formatted references list for each paper that requires it.

Length: The reflective introduction should be 450+ words. Successful introductions will likely need to be a couple of pages in length. Grading Criteria for Portfolio A: Writing that demonstrates unusual competence through the following qualities. Writer responds to the essay prompt.

Audience is considered: context provided, terms defined, opposing viewpoints considered. Thesis statement is clear and specific. Content is both unified and coherent; the essay reads as a single line of thought. Paragraphs have clear topic sentences with transitions that provide direction between ideas/paragraphs. Grammatical/mechanical or documentation errors are minimal, with no patterns of serious error. Writer uses grammatically correct and stylistically appropriate language. Sentence patterns are varied. Diction is tight, fresh, and appropriate to audience and purpose. In research-based essays, evidence from primary text and secondary scholarly source material is abundant and directly develops thesis statement, which supports a cogent, persuasive argument; MLA style documentation of secondary source material is accurate. “A” writing is imaginative, thoughtful, and avoids the obvious.

B: Writing that demonstrates competence through the following qualities. Writer responds to the essay prompt. Thesis

statement is clear and specific. Content is organized and generally coherent with topic sentences and transitions that provide direction in the essay. Essay may contain grammatical/mechanical and documentation errors, but those errors do not detract from the essay’s content. Sentence patterns are generally varied but may show some repetition. Diction is generally concise, accurate, and appropriate to audience and purpose. In research-based essays, key ideas are supported with details from primary text and secondary scholarly source material; MLA style documentation is sufficient with few errors. “B” writing offers substantial information with few distractions.

C: Writing that suggests competence, but needs improvement as demonstrated through the following qualities. “C” essays tend

to depend upon the self-evident and the cliché. Thesis statement is non-specific. Content may be ineffectively organized, with weak or missing transitions. Grammatical/mechanical errors may be repeated or frequent. Diction is limited in range, occasionally marred by repetition, redundancy, imprecision. Sentences may be choppy, monotonous. Development is thin: Generalizations are not developed with appropriate details. In research-based essays, source material may be used inaccurately or ineffectively; MLA style documentation contains errors but may still be judged as sufficient for freshman writing. “C” writing lacks both imagination and an awareness of choices that affect style.

D: Writing that suggests incompetence as demonstrated through the following qualities. Thesis statement may be unclear or

missing. Content is disorganized. Essay fails to provide the reader with clear direction and focus, and transitions between ideas are missing. Ideas are left undeveloped. Generalizations are not supported, with source material frequently used inaccurately or ineffectively. Grammatical or sentence structure errors may distort the intended meaning. In research-based essays, mechanical errors or problems with MLA style documentation are prevalent. Diction is limited in range and may be inappropriate. Evidence of proofreading is scanty. “D” writing often gives the impression of having been conceived and written in haste.

F: Writing that demonstrates incompetence. Essay lacks thesis statements, unity. Writing is marginally coherent. Few ideas

are developed or supported, and inaccuracies are common. In research-based essays, serious errors in MLA style documentation are frequent, or documentation is missing. Grammar, spelling, and sentence structure are weak. In short, the ideas, organization and style fall far below what is acceptable in college writing. Additionally, portfolios that fail to meet minimum requirements will earn an F.

FAQ: Helpful Information for Students 1. Question: What is the #1 reason a portfolio fails evaluation?

Answer: The #1 reason a portfolio fails is that it’s incomplete; it doesn’t include all the required materials. Examples of materials commonly omitted (whether due to an oversight or failure to pay attention to the requirements): A required essay; works cited pages; reflective introductions; copies of research with the annotated bibliography; any of the required process pieces.

Portfolios that are submitted without the required materials will not be graded (will earn zero points). 2. Question #2: What’s the #2 reason a portfolio fails evaluation? Answer: Documentation problems. Knowing how to properly quote, paraphrase, use in-text citations, and compose correct works

cited entries is a basic requirement for passing the course. Your portfolio is your final exam, of sorts, and if you demonstrate you don’t have these skills, you’ll need another semester of English 100 to learn them.

3. Question: What does Dr. Ervin value most in the showcase section’s contents? Answer: I value the general qualities of successful writing:

• Essays that accomplish the purpose as indicated on the writing assignment prompt • Strong, clear, focused thesis statements (for essays 1, 2, or 3) • Paragraphs with clear topic sentences that directly show how the paragraph develops the thesis • Unified paragraphs (paragraphs that are about ONE topic rather than several) • Fully developed paragraphs with examples, details, evidence that support the topic sentence • Writing that proceeds in a logical manner and is easy to follow • Writing that shows the writer has a good sense of audience and does not write just for him/herself • Careful documentation of secondary source material • Evidence that the writer has proofread carefully and has, if necessary, sought the assistance of others (other readers,

Dr. Ervin, writing consultants in the Writing Center) for help with grammar, punctuation, etc. 4. Question: What does Dr. Ervin value most in the process section’s contents? Answer: A couple of things:

• Evidence that the writer works through a process, understands that process, understands his or her own strengths and weaknesses, and cares about his or her writing and writing process

• An honest, genuine, detailed appraisal of the writer’s progress over the course of the semester. In other words, I’m not looking for the “conversion narrative” (a story about how much the writer has improved and how much the writing in this course has been more enjoyable and has taught the writer to love to write). If that’s genuinely the case (and it seldom is), that kind of reflection is welcome. But what I really want to know is how English 100 students understand where they fit as introductory college writers, and how their progress over the semester has prepared them for the kinds of writing that are to come.

Checklist for Final Portfolio Submission

Complete the following checklist as you finalize your portfolio. Check off each item as you complete it. Showcase Section q Reflective introduction (450+ words) q Revision of either e-mail essay, the literacy narrative, or the rhetorical analysis (900+ words) q Annotated bibliography with evidence of actively-read sources additional considerations for showcase section q Each piece of writing you’ve included in the showcase section is discussed in detail in the reflective introduction q You’ve included your works cited page for essay 3 if you submitted essay 3 Process Section q One example of pre-writing or invention writing q One example of a draft that has undergone significant revision q Exemplar of a scholarly source with evidence of active reading Submission of Portfolio q Portfolio materials organized according to the list on page 1 q Portfolio submitted (hard copy only) no later than 10:00 AM on Friday, December 14 in CH 100B