English 1A

English 1A: Composition I (Section 59)

Professor Adrienne L. Eastwood

Tuesday/Thursday: 1:30 p.m. – 2:45 p.m., Clark 306.

Office Hours and Location: Faculty Office Building, Room 116

Hours: Wednesdays 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. and Thursdays 4:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. I am also available by appointment.

Phone #: (408) 924-4509

Web page: http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/eastwood

Course Description: This course is designed to help you build the skills necessary to read and think critically, and to write clearly and confidently at the college level. We will read, discuss, and write about a variety of texts, and explore the ways in which cultural myths are established, maintained, and challenged.

Main Objectives:

v Successfully perform the various steps in the writing process

v Read and analyze a variety of scholarly writing

v Effectively express ideas and opinions, both verbally and in writing

v Organize sentences and paragraphs effectively

v Learn to use grammar and syntax accurately

Required Texts:

Colombo, Gary, Cullen, Robert, Lisle, Bonnie eds. Rereading America: Cultural Contexts for

Critical Thinking and Writing. Sixth Edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004.

Krakauer, John. Into the Wild. New York: Anchor Books, 1996.

Raimes, Ann. Keys for Writers. Fourth Edition. Boston, Houghton, 2005.

Any collegiate dictionary (such as those put out by Oxford, Longman’s, or American Heritage) published in the last three years.

Requirements:

1. Participation: A portion of your grade will be based on your participation in class.

In order to receive an A or a B in participation, you must do more than just regularly attend class. You must also demonstrate to me that you have been keeping up with the readings and thinking about the questions raised by the lectures. I expect each of you to engage in the class discussions, participate in group activities, and come to class with the relevant materials.

2. Quizzes: Quizzes on grammar and reading will be given frequently throughout the semester and counted as 5% of your grade. In-class work can not be made up; therefore, if you miss an in-class quiz you will receive a zero for the assignment.

3. Informal Writing: At the end of each of the selections in Rereading America there are a few questions under the heading “Engaging the Text.” Where indicated on the reading schedule with an “*”, I would like you to prepare a response to these questions. Your response, though informal, should be typed. I will collect these each week, and they will count towards your participation grade.

4. Workshop: Writing workshops give you an opportunity to read and evaluate classmates’ work, and to receive valuable feedback on your own essays. Your participation will count as 5% of your grade for the course. Detailed instructions for workshops will be distributed later in the semester; however, failure to comply with any of the steps involved will result in a significant loss of points.

5. Essays: You will be required to write 7 graded essays throughout the semester: 3 written in-class (informal); 4 written outside of class (formal). All formal essays must be typed, 12 point font, 1 inch margins, and following MLA guidelines as detailed in Raimes (pages 140-182).

6. Final Exam: The mandatory departmental final exam will be given on Saturday, December 2nd, from 8:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. You must take this exam in order to pass the class.

Late Papers: Turning in assignments late is unfair to the other students; therefore, I will lower your grade one full letter for each day the paper is late. In the case of emergencies, please see me.

Academic Integrity:

"Your own commitment to learning, as evidenced by your enrollment at
San Jose State University and the University's Integrity Policy, require you to be
honest in all your academic course work. Faculty members are required to report
all infractions to the Office of Judicial Affairs." The policy on academic
integrity can be found at: http://sa.sjsu.edu/judicial_affairs/index.html

Avoiding Plagiarism: Plagiarism is the unacknowledged use of somebody else’s words or ideas and is considered an instance of academic dishonesty that instructors must report. Repeated instances of plagiarism will result in a student’s expulsion from the University. You commit plagiarism by

· buying, stealing, or borrowing a paper;

· hiring someone to write a paper;

· building on someone’s ideas without providing a citation;

· or copying from another source or using a source too closely when paraphrasing.

In other words, submit only your own work. To learn how to cite sources accurately and forthrightly, consult your handbook.

The instructor reserves the right to revise the requirements and to notify students of such revision in a timely manner, e.g., "subject to change, announced at least one class meeting in advance."

If you have any questions about when or how to document a source, do not hesitate to ask me for clarification. The SJSU library has an on-line tutorial on plagiarism that you can access at http://tutorials.sjlibrary.org/plagiarism/index.htm

Accommodations for Students with Disabilities: If you need course adaptations or accommodations because of a disability, or if you have emergency medical information to share with me, or if you need to make special arrangements in case the building must be evacuated, please make an appointment with me as soon as possible, or see me during office hours. Presidential Directive 97-03 requires that students with disabilities register with the Disability Resource Center to establish a record of their disability (924-6000).

Grading Policy:

In English Department courses, instructors will comment on and grade the quality of student writing as well as the quality of ideas being conveyed. All student writing should be distinguished by correct grammar and punctuation, appropriate diction and syntax, and well-organized paragraphs. Grades issued will represent a full range of student performance and will adhere to the following SJSU academic standards of assessment:

The “A” essay will be well organized and well developed, demonstrating a clear understanding and fulfillment of the assignment. It will show the student’s ability to use language effectively and construct sentences distinguished by syntactic complexity and variety. Such essays will be essentially free of grammatical, mechanical, and usage errors.

The “B” essay will demonstrate competence in the same categories as the “A” essay. The chief difference is that the “B” essay will show some describably slight weaknesses in one of those categories. It may slight one of the assigned tasks, show less facility of expression, or contain some minor grammatical, mechanical, or usage flaws.

The “C” essay will complete all tasks set by the assignment, but show weakness in fundamentals (usually development), with barely enough specific information to illustrate the experience or support generalizations. The sentence construction may be less mature, and the use of language less effective and correct than the “B” essay.

The “D” essay will neglect one of the assigned tasks and be noticeably superficial in its treatment of the assignment—that is, too simplistic or short. The essay may reveal some problems in development, with insufficient specific information to illustrate the experience or support generalizations. It will contain grammatical, mechanical, and usage errors that render some sentences incomprehensible.

The “F” essay will demonstrate a striking underdevelopment of ideas and insufficient or unfocused organization. It will contain serious grammatical, mechanical, and usage errors that render some sentences incomprehensible.

“The Department of English reaffirms its commitment to the differential grading scale as defined in the SJSU Catalog (“The Grading System”). Grades issued must represent a full range of student performance: A= excellent; B= above average; C= average; D= below average; F= failure. Courses graded according to the A, B, C, No Credit system shall follow the same pattern, except that NC shall replace D or F. In such cases, NC shall also substitute for W (or Withdrawal) because neither grade (NC or W) affects students’ GPA.”

Grading Breakdown:

Participation 10%

Quizzes 5%

In-Class Essays: 5%

Essay 1: 10%

Essay 2: 10%

Essay 3: 15%

Essay 4: 20%

Workshop 5%

Final exam 20%

Recommendations: Read the materials thoroughly before class. Read actively: mark passages that interest you and formulate questions about them. Come prepared to discuss what interests you about these texts. Bring the appropriate texts with you to class so that you can follow the lectures and participate in the discussions.

Reading Schedule (Subject to Change):

Week Zero

Aug. 24 Course policies; Introductions

Week 1 COLLEGE WRITING

Aug. 29 In-class essay (diagnostic)

Aug. 31 Transitioning to College Writing – Thinking and writing//different kinds of writing. Raimes pages 3-12 Tips for successful reading. [G1]

Week 2 MYTHS AND MARRIAGE

Sept. 5 Thinking Critically Rereading America (RA) 1-15; Chapter 1, 18-25.

Sept. 7 Coontz (RA 31-48)*; Crittenden (RA 48-63). [Prompt for Essay 1]

Week 3

Sept. 12 Aulette (RA 64-83); Gamson (RA 91-108);

Sept. 14 Writing (Raimes, “Common Sentence Problems” 303-378) [Essay 1 Due] [G2]

Week 4 EDUCATION

Sept. 19 RA Chapter 2: Learning Power. RA 136-141. Mann (RA 142-151)*

Sept. 21 Moore (RA 153-172), Gatto (RA 173-182).

Week 5

Sept. 26 In-class Essay 1 (bring yellow books) [Prompts for Essay 2]

Sept. 28 Anyon (194-210), Visual portfolio (211-214),* Rodriguez (214-227)

Week 6

Oct. 3 Steele (RA 231-243), Malcolm X (243-252); Raimes on summarizing, paraphrasing, citing, and quoting (122-138). [G3]

Oct. 5 Raimes, “Punctuation, Mechanics, and Spelling,” 381-422. [Essay 2 due]

Week 7 SUCCESS

Oct. 10 Money & Success: RA (294-297), Alger (297-303), Dalton (303-309), Mantsios (331-347),* Visual Portfolio (375-380)*

Oct. 12 Hamblin (384-392), Ehrenreich (317-330)

Week 8 INTO THE WILD

Oct. 17 Krakauer

Oct. 19 Krakauer [R1]

Week 9

Oct. 24 Finish Krakauer. Grizzly Man. [Prompts for Essay 3]

Oct 26 In-class Essay 2

Week 10 MYTHS OF GENDER

Oct. 31 RA (413-416), Devor (424-434), Visual Portfolio (451-454),*

Kilbourne (455-476)

Nov. 2 Vazquez (489-497),* Marcus (498-507), Morgan (539-545) [Essay 3 Due]

Week 11 EQUALITY

Nov. 7 RA Chapter 5 EQUALITY (547-556); Robinson (RA 557-577);

Parrillo (RA 577-591) [Prompts for Essay 4]

Nov. 9 Steele (RA 602-613)*; Liu (RA 660-674); [G4]

Week 12 WRITING & WORKSHOPS

Nov. 14 Writing (Raimes, TBD)

Nov. 16 Workshop

Week 13

Nov. 21 Workshop

Nov. 23 - THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY (no class)

Week 14

Nov. 28 In-class Essay 3

Nov. 30 Final Exam prep.

FINAL EXAM DECEMBER 2^nd

Week 15

Dec. 5 Conferences on final essay

Dec. 7 LAST DAY OF INSTRUCTION [Essay 4 due]

Final Exam: Saturday, December 2nd, 8:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m.