Course Syllabus

Hello everyone! Welcome to class! 

To start English 216 Technical Writing, LOOK OVER THE ENTIRE COURSE.  Most students find it helpful to print out the Master Semester Schedule which shows assignments and work week by week and the Module instructions.  You are responsible for this information, especially instructions for the discussions, projects,  final exam and all due dates. You will also be responsible for the information that the instructor send to you in announcements and emails.

Eng216MasterCourseScheduleSU14.pdf

NOTE: The final exam is a paper and pencil exam to be taken in person at the Testing Center on campus. (Every semester I  have students who are surprised by this, so please take heed and prepare to make arrangements.  This is a departmental requirement to pass English 216)

 NOTE:The discussions require two postings.  Your first post is due by Thursday 11:59 PM each week. Your response to another students' posts is due by Sunday 11:59.  This is true all the time unless there are specific instructions concerning the posting of rough drafts for peer editing.

NOTE:Attendance is taken, even in an online class.  Missing a week is the same as an absence.  After three weeks of no attendance, you may be dropped from the course.  Check Attendance Policy at the end of this page.

NOTE: The College Plagiarism Policy is provided at the end of this page.

 Online students new to Canvas or wanting a refresher

will benefit from the Canvas Orientation to Students. If students are unable to attend any of these sessions, the online student orientation can be found in JACK on the Academic Support tab in the Studying Online channel. All sessions will be held in Room 416. For more information contact Lyn deMartin at 428-1515 (ext. 1515 from campus)

Grading

 The following is a breakdown of how the work in the course is weighted.

Discussions	25% of course grade
Assignments and papers	65% of course grade
Quizzes	10% of course grade

I use pluses and minuses with all grades (A through F) to indicate degrees of improvement based on the usual 90-100% + A, 80-89% = B, 70-79% = C, 60-69%=D, 59 and below=F.

Grades for this class are based on both form and content. "C" stands for  acceptable work for this level of class—sophomore-level college English. When I grade your projects, "C", or the equivalent in points—75% of the total will be my starting point. If there are problems in the writing—rhetorical, grammatical, otherwise—the grade will go down.

In technical writing, correctness is considered to be a given. If there are exceptional passages, if the writing is particularly cogent and precise, especially in light of the particular audience it’s aimed at, if the analysis is rock solid—in other words, if the writing is above and beyond competent—the grade will go up. On assignments requiring peer-editing revision, evidence of your offering good revision suggestions as well as evidence of your following through on revision suggestions (or considering them and coming up with thoughtful alternatives) will count in your favor.

Plagiarism, the use of someone’s work (whether from a book, another student, or the Internet) as your own, without citation will affect your grade. Feel free to ask me if you’re in doubt about what plagiarism is. For further discussion of grading criteria and plagiarism (and its consequences), please see the departmental statements at the end of the syllabus.

Attendance: There is such a thing as being absent from the course in the sense of missing assigned discussions with your classmates or missing quizzes. This is not a self-paced class. Assignments are due when they're marked due.

It is much easier to get behind in an on-line class than in a "face –to-face” class for the very reason it's easy to put off logging on when there's no physical attendance requirement. So try to set aside at least three or four times a week for logging in and joining the discus­sions, turning in assignments, taking a quiz or test, and seeing if there are any new announcements.  Because this is a writing-intensive class (thus a time-intensive class), it can be hard to catch up if you fall behind.

Note that for collaborative assignments (assignments where you are requested to work with other students), points will be taken off if you don't participate fully.

Late Papers & Other Assignments: I don’t want late papers. If some emergency arises or you know ahead of time that your paper might be late—for unavoidable reasons—please get in touch with me. Points that add up to full letter grades may be  taken off for late work.

On all assignments due in the Assignment Dropbox, I give some leeway to take into account the possibility of technical difficulties. Please don't wait until the last minute, however, to turn in your work, as those technical difficulties  seem often to come when time is tight. Due dates for rough drafts for peer review are equally important. Late rough drafts (and/or your unexcused absence from a peer-review session) can cause your final project to lose one letter grade).

Discussion postings: To make this more of a “real-time” class, it's important to post discussions on time. That way, everyone can be discussing the week's topics at the same time.  Some discussions are “open” longer than others, but, as a general rule, discussion postings that come in more than 48 hours after we have begun the next part of a module will be considered late. If in doubt, write me. Read Discussion Posting Instructions on the discussion board.

Tutoring and Special Accommodations: If you’re having some difficulty with the class or simply think tutoring would be helpful to you, free tutoring (up to two hours a week) is avail­able through the Tutoring Center (505-428-1260 or http://www.sfcc.edu/tutoring

The Americans with Disabilities Act mandates that federally funded institutions of higher education make accommodations for students with disabilities. If you know or believe you have a disability that requires special accommodations of some sort, get in touch with the Special Services office (call 505-428-1186 or 428-1455; click on the link in JACK under the Student Services tab; or go to their Web page, http://www.sfcc.edu/disability_services) to see what can be done.

Netiquette (Net Etiquette): You’ll do fine in this class and other online classes if you apply what your textbook (Markel’s Technical Communication) calls “the ’you attitude’—that is, looking at the situation from the reader’s point of view and adjusting the content, structure, and tone to meet his or her needs” (366). In this class—in which being able to write effectively to different audiences is fundamental—all discussion board postings and other communication should be written with your immediate audience in mind: your class­mates and me. For a useful rundown of netiquette rules, see “The Core Rules of Netiquette—Excerpted from Netiquette by Virginia Shea” at  http://www.albion.com/netiquette/corerules.html. (Albion, the Web site’s owner, is the company that published Shea’s book.)

 

Departmental Plagiarism Statement

Plagiarism is a serious offense. The penalty, in addition to an F on the assignment, may be an F in the course as a whole, expulsion from the college, and/or notation of academic dishonesty on the student’s permanent record. (Generally, I give an F for a first offense and go from there.)

Plagiarism exists when:

1. The work submitted or presented was done, in whole or in part, by an individual other than the one submitting or presenting the work (this includes having another impersonate the student or otherwise substituting the work of another for one’s own in an examination or test)

2. Parts of the work are taken from another source without reference to the original author

3. The whole work (e.g., an essay or report) is copied from another source

4. A student submits or presents work in one course that has also been submitted in another course (although it may be completely original with that student) without the knowledge of or prior arrangement of the instructor involved. This rule also applies to work that a student may have submitted at another college or university, or at a high school.

While it is recognized that scholarly work often involves reference to the ideas, data, and conclusions of other scholars, intellectual honesty requires that such references be explicitly and clearly noted.

Plagiarism occurs not only when direct quotations are taken from a source without specific acknowledgement but also when original ideas or data from the source are not acknowledged. A bibliography (Works Cited page) is not sufficient to establish which portions of a student’s work are taken from external sources; footnotes, parenthetical documentation, or other recognized forms of citation must be used for this purpose.

You will be using the Internet for assignments in this class. Bear in mind that the Internet does not generally have the same checks and balances system that printed material has: Internet sources may themselves be plagiarized. To protect yourself, cite all Internet sources that you use in your work. If you use the same wording as a Web site does, even if other Web sites use the same wording, make sure to put quotation marks around the quoted text and to cite the site you took the wording from. The complete Web page address is desirable (see LB on citing Web sources);you may also attach copies of materials that you downloaded when you wrote your paper if you think it pertinent that I see what you were working with.

Cheating: Cheating means copying other people’s work and submitting it as your own or going beyond the time limit during quizzes or exams. Cheating in this class will result in an F for the assignment and can be grounds for academic suspension. If you are aware of cheating in this class that you think I need to be made aware of, please do not hesitate to bring your concerns to my attention.

Departmental Grading Guidelines

The following are the English Department's guidelines for grading papers. Like other SFCC English instructors, I will follow these guidelines closely with some variations based on our focus in this class (that is, technical communication).

A Excellent content, style, structure, control, logic, grammar and support. The essay is responsive to the question asked, is cogent, well organized, and clearly expressed. A specific thesis is either stated or strongly implied. A clearly discernible, logical pattern of development is present from beginning to end. Major ideas are supported with explanations and illustrations and joined by transitional words and phrases. The writing achieves closure with a meaningful conclusion that emphasizes the significance of the discussion. The sentences reflect a pleasing command of standard written English. Grammar, punctuation, and spelling are generally good (few or no errors). If reference to external material is made, the material is introduced and acknowledged appropriately.

B Good content, style, structure, control, logic, grammar and support. The essay responds to the question asked and states or implies a thesis. Supporting points are introduced, developed logically, and clarified with examples (i.e., the assignment has satisfactory organization and logic, and its supporting evidence is appropriate and substantial). The assignment ends with a meaningful conclusion. There is sufficient variety and accuracy in the vocabulary used. The expression is reasonably clear, and the syntax and punctuation are generally correct. Spelling of common words is good. The writing in general shows that the writer has a fairly good command of standard written English. If reference to external material is made, the material is introduced and acknowledged appropriately.

C Satisfactory content, style, structure, control, logic, grammar and support. The writing addresses the question asked, offers some supporting points, includes examples, and ends with a conclusion (i.e., the writing has at least the rudiments of organization and logic). There is acceptable variety and accuracy in the vocabulary used. The expression and syntax are reasonably clear. If reference to external material is made, the material is introduced and acknowledged in some fashion. While there may be some errors in punctuation and spelling, these errors do not severely damage the coherence of the writing overall. The writer demonstrates a fair command of standard written English.

D Weak content, style, structure, control, logic, grammar and support. The question is addressed tangentially, if at all. A point is suggested but is undeveloped or is presented in a generally repetitious way. The pattern of the writing is random, and relationships between sentences and paragraphs are rarely signaled. The syntax and vocabulary are unclear, confused, or very basic. External material is referred to but not acknowledged. The syntax and vocabulary are unclear, confused or simplistic. The writing has many punctuation errors, misspellings of common words, and serious grammatical problems.

F Poor content, style, structure, control, logic, grammar, and support. The writing suffers from general incoherence and has no discernible pattern of organization. There are many punctuation, grammar and spelling errors, and/or the work is so brief and undeveloped that reasonable accurate judgment of the writer's competence is impossible.