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Coronavirus (COVID-19) Information

Students must be prepared for any, and all, classes to be moved online in response to changes in the coronavirus status. Please visit the COVID-19 website for the latest update.

Course Syllabus

ENG 101 241: College Composition I

CRN: 33387

Fall 2020

Instructor Name	Contact Information	Office Hours
Dr. Todd Rohman English Department Saint Louis Community College at Forest Park	Phone: 314-644-9374 E-mail: [email protected]	Online or phone by appointment Please contact me to schedule a time of mutual convenience.

Welcome to ENG 101: College Composition I. This course syllabus serves as a type of contract between the instructor and students. It details the course information, expectations including grading policy, and other pertinent information that will be helpful to your success in the course. It is essential that you review the syllabus carefully. If you have questions about the policies or other information, please contact me as soon as possible.

Course Communication

Communication sent via e-mail should always come from your @my.stlcc.edu e-mail address. If you do not use this e-mail address, your message may not be received due to spam/junk filters. As a good practice, include your FULL NAME (first and last) in any e-mail communications to me, as well as the course title and section (ENG 101.408) in the subject line of the message. This helps ensure that I know what course the message is regarding so I can more quickly respond to your concerns.

Outside of e-mail, you can make use of the Course Q&A forum in the Discussion Board area of the course, as you may be able to answer the questions of your peers, or you may benefit from the questions/information being shared by others. Otherwise, you may set up a time to discuss the course via phone.

Course Description

This course primarily focuses on the development of writing techniques. Students will develop effective writing styles, writing processes, revision practices, and analytical skills.

Course Objectives

Upon successful completion of this course, students demonstrate the ability to:

1. Respond critically to a variety of texts.

2. Use appropriate techniques that effectively paraphrase, summarize, and synthesize small amounts of information.

3. Identify, describe, and develop an essay’s controlling idea with a balance of generalizations as well as specific, illustrative details.

4. Identify, classify, and arrange appropriate patterns of organization for subject, audience, and purpose.

5. Organize a logically structured, coherent, and developed essay that achieves its rhetorical purpose.

6. Communicate without major sentence-level errors in grammar, usage, diction, and mechanics.

7. Demonstrate evidence of pre-writing techniques and multiple drafts of writing.

8. Write for a variety of audiences.

Prerequisite Knowledge

Placement score or ENG 030 or ENG 070 with a grade of "C" or better or recommendation of department and Reading Proficiency or concurrent enrollment in RDG 030 or RDG 079.

Required Textbook(s)

Axelrod, Rise B. and Charles R. Cooper. The St. Martin’s Guide to Writing.12th ed. Boston: Bedford St. Martin’s, 2019.

ISBN: 978-1-319-10437-5.

Course Structure

This is a three-credit, 12-week online course. All course communication among students and the instructor, as well as access to and submission of the course work will be completed using the Blackboard learning management system.

Course Requirements

Over the course of our six weeks, students will complete a variety of exercises, discussions, assignments, and other assessments. As this is a writing-focused course, many of the graded assignments involve a substantial amount of writing and students should carefully review the grading policy, assignment requirements, and other information both in the syllabus and the Blackboard course site for full details and expectations about the assigned work.

Grading Policy

Course Discussions - Criteria/grading expectations

Discussion boards are assigned throughout the course. Each discussion will have its own structure and you should read each discussion prompt carefully to determine the requirements for that week’s discussion assignment.

In general, full points will not be awarded if the entire prompt is not addressed, if you do not respond to the minimum number of peers, and if you do not complete your original post and response post(s) to peers by the given deadlines. The deadlines will be stated on the link to the discussion forum in the Course Content area, as well as in the Course Schedule below and on Blackboard.

Written Assignments/Exercises

In this course, you will complete written assignments or exercises of varying lengths and point values. Written assignments and exercises will all have specific criteria available in Blackboard. Please review the assignment details and requirements carefully for each assignment.

Essays

Each essay assigned in this course is considered a key assessment, as the main purpose of this course is to improve your writing skills. All essays have their own assigned rubric, which will explain in detail the grading criteria. It is strongly recommended that you review the rubric for each essay prior to starting the assignment, as the rubric provides clear guidance about how your writing will be assessed.

Late Work

I encourage everyone to try to read and work ahead of the course schedule. However, late work will not be accepted in this course. While it is understandable that unforeseen events can occur, I encourage everyone to keep to the deadlines. It is the student’s responsibility to appropriately practice time management. All outstanding work will be due at the conclusion of the course on December 11th, 2020.

Points and Weighting

The following table provides you with details about the points available for various graded assignments and weighting information.

Category/Item	Points
Scavenger Hunt	5
Discussion Boards (## - weekly)	50
Written Assignments/Exercises	155
Peer-Review Draft Essays	60
Narrative Essay	50
Profile Essay	50
Explaining a Concept Essay	50
Final Reflection & Portfolio	80
Total Points	500

Letter Grading Scale

Letter Grade	Point Range
A	450-500
B	400-449
C	350-399
D	300-349
F	0-299

Attendance and Drop Policies

To formally withdraw, students must submit official forms to the Admissions/Registration office. The class will be shown on the transcript with a grade of W, and students are not eligible for a refund of fees. It is always the student’s responsibility to initiate a withdrawal.

The withdrawal date is November 20th.

Attendance

First day of attendance will be verified by the submission of the first assignment in this course. If it is not submitted by the due date, you will be considered absent. Weekly attendance will be verified by submission of discussion board assignments and other assignments due.

Drop for non-attendance

We are required by law to track the attendance of students in face-to-face and online courses. At the end of the second week of classes, students who have registered and paid for a class but have never attended, as evidenced by lack of any course participation by submitting assignments, will administratively be withdrawn from the course.

Netiquette Statement

Netiquette is the etiquette of cyberspace. Prior to starting the course, please review these expectations as explained in the document "The Core Rules of Netiquette." You may select the link to learn more about each of the netiquette rules below.

1. Remember the human.

2. Adhere to the same standards of behavior online that you follow in real life.

3. Know where you are in cyberspace.

4. Respect other people's time and bandwidth.

5. Make yourself look good online.

6. Share expert knowledge.

7. Help keep flame wars under control.

8. Respect other people's privacy.

9. Don't abuse your power.

10. Be forgiving of other people's mistakes.

The quality of your responses, to your peers and to me as your instructor, is a key component to your success in the course.  All responses for this course should be well written (use spelling and grammar check, correct punctuation and capitalization, no text lingo) and relevant to the topic at hand. You must use apostrophes with all contractions, and always use capital letter I for the personal pronoun I.  Do your best to spell correctly (avoid abbreviations and symbols) and write using complete sentences. Please do the same when you email your instructor. For further information on email etiquette, please review the "Email Etiquette" webpage at the Purdue OWL. Formal diction is required for most assignments, although some assignments, such as discussion boards and wiki projects, will allow for less formal diction.  When using informal diction, you must refrain from vulgar or offensive language, and should maintain a professional tone suitable to a college classroom.

Academic Integrity

St. Louis Community College recognizes that the core value of academic integrity is essential to all activities of an academic community and provides the cornerstone for teaching and learning. It is characterized by upholding the foundational principles of honesty, equity, mutual responsibility, respect, and personal integrity. Advancing the principles of academic integrity because doing so enhances academic discourse, the quality of academic work, institutional operations, and the assessment of educational goals.

Observing academic integrity involves:

· Maintaining the standards of the college’s degrees, certificates, and awards to preserve the academic credibility and reputation of the college;

· Communicating expectations, best practices, and procedures in order to promote the principles of academic integrity and ensure compliance;

· Providing environments, instruction, and access to resources necessary for maintaining integrity in learning;

· Taking responsibility and personal accountability for the merit and authenticity of one’s work;

· Giving proper acknowledgement and attribution to those who directly contribute to a project, or whose work is used in the completion of a project;

· Recognizing what compromises academic integrity, whether intentional or unintentional (plagiarism, cheating, uncivil behavior, etc.).

It is the shared duty of faculty, students, and staff of the college to understand, abide by, and endorse academic integrity.

Plagiarism

A student who deliberately or unintentionally submits as his or her own work something that was taken from another person’s work without proper acknowledgement, is guilty of plagiarism. As such, plagiarism is a serious academic, intellectual, and legal offense.

Plagiarism will be handled according to the severity of the offense by:

1. Failure of the plagiarized assignment.

2. Dismissal from the course with a grade of F and referral to the Dean for disciplinary action.

FERPA – Students Rights to Privacy

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) afford eligible students certain rights with respect to their education records. An “eligible student” under FERPA is a student who is 18 years of age or older or who attends a postsecondary institution. Please follow this link for more information. Learn more about students rights

TECHNICAL SUPPPORT

Technical support is provided by the college’s Help Desk. The Help Desk can assist you with troubleshooting basic issues involving:

· Blackboard

· Student Email

· Office 365

· Connecting your personal devices to Wi-Fi

· General computer questions

STLCC student technical support resources

If you are experiencing technical issues, stay in communication with your instructor so they understand the situation. Depending on the problem, they may be able help you resolve the issue.

Diversity & Inclusion, Non-Discrimination Statement

St. Louis Community College is committed to non-discrimination and equal opportunities in its admissions, educational programs, activities and employment regardless of race, color, creed, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, age, disability, genetic information, or status as a disabled or Vietnam-era veteran and shall take action necessary to ensure non-discrimination.

The College maintains a complaint procedure for the purpose of investigating and providing prompt and equitable remedy.

Student inquiries concerning discrimination or harassment, and the procedure for complaints of discrimination or harassment may be made to: Mary Zabriskie, Director, Student Conduct/Title IX Coordinator, 314-539-5345, [email protected].

Disability Resources and Access Office Information

STLCC is committed to providing all students equal access to learning opportunities. 

Access Office staff, available on each campus, work with students who have disabilities to provide and/or arrange academic accommodations. Students who have, or think they may have, a disability are encouraged to contact the campus Access Office:

· Florissant Valley: 314-513-4551 or [email protected]

· Forest Park & Harrison Center: 314-644-9039 or [email protected]

· Meramec & South County: 314-984-7673 or [email protected]

· Wildwood: 636-422-2000 or [email protected]

· Online: 314-513-4771 or [email protected]

Students with academic accommodations are responsible for providing their professors with Instructor Memos and should do so early in the course. For more information, see Access services (https://www.stlcc.edu/student-support/disability-services/).

Title IX

Discrimination includes any form of unequal treatment on the basis of sex, sexual orientation or gender expression such as denial of opportunities, harassment, and violence. Sex based violence includes sexual assault, sexual harassment, dating violence, domestic violence and stalking.  If you experience discrimination in any of these forms, you are encouraged to report the incident to the Title IX Coordinator, or campus-based Title IX Investigators.  To learn more, including information on campus and community resources, go to STLCC's Sexual Misconduct Policy (https://www.stlcc.edu/docs/policies-and-procedures/sexual-misconduct-guidelines.pdf).

Academic Support Services

At STLCC, we recognize that students often need academic enrichment beyond the classroom experience. There are several types of assistance available, including:

· Supplemental Instruction

· Tutoring

· Writing Assistance

· Speech Assistance

· Resources to Support African American Scholars

Learn more about academic support

Student Services

In addition to providing quality academic instruction, St. Louis Community College offers the support services and resources you need to succeed before, during and after attending STLCC, as well as activities and opportunities to help you make the most of your college experience, including:

· Career and Employment Services

· Counseling

· Discounts for STLCC Students

· Financial Aid

· more

Learn more about student support resources

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