POLICIES ENGL102 Writing Rhetorically with Sources
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LEE TORDA 310 Tillinghast Hall Bridgewater State University 508.531.2436 [email protected] www.leetorda.com Attend Zoom Class (when told to on the syllabus) by clicking on this link. |
All office hours for students will be held on Zoom until further notice.
Attend Any Zoom Office hours by clicking on this link. M&W 12:30-1:30 T 4:00-5:00 and by appointment Schedule a time to meet with me, during office hours or otherwise, by clicking on this link. |
Course Description
This course will give you intense practice in writing, reading and research, primarily for academic purposes. The thematic focus of our course will be a topic that should be of interest to you: attending university in the United States. What it means to attend college in the United States means different things to different people. For US citizens attending US colleges and universities, they must weigh the cost of attending university with the benefits of a college degree. A college degree seems to be required for more and more jobs, and yet a college degree is no guarantee of getting a job you want or a job that pays you enough to pay back college debt. And what about attending the right school? What even makes a school the right school?
The question here is not simply, “should I go to college or not”. Of course, you might start with a question like that (but more specific), but the work we will do together will rely on formal and informal research to explore just how complex these questions are for us. In fact, I hope that you will show the complexities of getting a college degree from a range of perspectives: for yourself, your family, and for the various communities you might be a part of.
These kinds of questions will be the focus of our research and writing in these fifteen weeks. You will explore various research techniques including locating and evaluating source material, conducting interviews and surveys, and ethnographic research. You will write and respond to a variety of readings and you will write about your own research into the questions you are interested in asking. Finally, you will put together your materials in a final report, accompanied by a presentation that you will share with your classmates. You will get extensive practice in producing, collaborating, and revising writing that is appropriate for the university classroom.
By the end of this course, beyond any skills you learn as a researcher, skills that I hope will serve you well as you move into your major coursework, I hope that you will have a better sense of who you are as a student and what your goals for your college experience will be. Welcome!
Learning Objectives/Course Outcomes
In this course, students will
Selections from They Say/I Say by Graff & Birkenstein, The New York Times, and other supplementary readings. All required texts will be provided to you as links on the syllabus for this course.
NOTE: Any text in light blue is a live link. It will take you to a related page on this website or to a reading, video, or podcast for our class.
Policies & Requirements
Attendance: The first two classes of this semester are onlien, but, after that, we meet face to face three times a week.Students are required to attend class regularly. What happens day-to-day in this class only works if we are all here and ready to work as much as possible; therefore, attendance is mandatory. Here is my policy on how absence will affect your evaluation in this class:
Covid-19 and attendance. We are all tired of hearing how these are unprecedented times--but they are. Attendance matters a lot to me. And I think you will quickly figure out that if you miss class you miss a lot. And this isn't high school. I will not, and am not required to, re-teach the class or classes you missed. So, I want to say that: come to class. It's the most important thing you can do to insure your success in this class. But if you test positive for Covid, you need to stay away from class for the required number of quarantine days and/or until you test negative. I would very much like for us to not be a super spreader event on campus. If you need to be absent due to Covid or a family member's Covid, let me know and we will work out how you will stay a part of a class. We can arrange for you to zoom in to class. Please note: zoom is not meant to serve as a replacement for attending class just becuase you don't feel like getting out of bed.
In-Class Mask Mandate. When we are inside together, we are required to wear a mask and to wear it correctly: snug and over the nose and under the chin. I will inform this mandate in our class. For the safety of everyone in our class and for myself, I am authorized by the administration to do so. Here are the guidelines I have been given: "If a student, who does not have a mask exemption, refuses to wear a mask, a faculty member should inform the student that they are required to do so. If the student continues to refuse to wear the mask, the unit member can dismiss the student from class and instruct the student to leave the immediate area. If the student continually refuses to leave the teaching area while still refusing to wear a mask, the unit member shall have the right to dismiss the class and shall report the incident to the university’s student conduct officer. Student refusals to wear a mask shall be treated as a student conduct violation and addressed through the code of conduct mechanisms at the university."
Informal writing/Reading Journals: For every reading, video, or podcast I assign to you, you are expected to produce a 500 word, typed, double-spaced response. Reading journals are a way to give you credit for the considerable work you must do as readers in this class. They will ask you to demonstrate that you've read the material and are prepared to work with it in class. You will practice the skills of research writing in these journals in a low-stakes way--it's not about getting things right, but practicing these skills in order to eventually get them right. Complete details for this assignment will be available on our class website. Reading Journals count for 20% of your final grade in the class.
Formal Writing/Research project: You will be responsible for drafting a part of your research final project over the course of the semester. You will submit drafts to me, get feedback from me, and from your classmates, and complete a revision plan for each draft you submit. In the final weeks of the course, you will assemble the various parts of your research project and put it together in a final research report. There are four parts to your research projects (the percentages in the parenthesis shows the value of each assignment toward your final grade). More information about each part of the research project is available on our class website:
Positioning yourself as a researcher/formulating your question (10%)
Answering your question part one: locating and evaluating online sources, summarizing, paraphrasing, quoting. (10%)
Answering your question part two: conducting interviews and preparing your data, comparing and contrasting, ethical considerations in research. (10%)
Reformulating your question/Answering your question: Bringing together all the parts of your draft into a final product. (20%)
Researcher’s Notebook & Final Report/Presentation. At the end of the course, you will submit a portfolio that includes all the drafting work you’ve done on your research project. You will include drafts, revisions, reflections on your progress that you will be asked to submit as part of each of the four parts of the research project (see above). In the researcher’s notebook, you will include a final reflection letter that asks you to reflect on what you’ve learned about reading, writing, and research in our class. You will turn in your research notebook twice this semester: once at midterm and once at the end of the semester. The research notebook functions as a kind of portfolio for the class. Finally, you will create a 6-minute recorded Pecha Kucha— a recorded version of your research project using a voiceover and visuals that the rest of the class will watch and respond to. The Researcher’s Notebook is worth 20% of your grade--10% at midterm and 10% at the end of the semester. The Final Presentation is worth 10% of your final grade.
Evaluation
Information for the requirements for earning the “A”, “B,” and “C” grade are outlined for each assignment on the assignment page, all of which are located in the “assignments” folder on the Blackboard site for our course. If you do not complete the work required for one of those three grades, you will fail the course. There is no “D” grade. How much each assignment is worth towards your total grade is explained above and repeated here (as well as on each assignment page):
Reading Journals 20%
Positioning yourself as a Researcher/Formulating
Your Question (750 words) 10%
Locating & Evaluating Sources Part I (750-1000 words) 10%
Locating & Evaluating Sources Part II (1000 words) 10%
Final Research Report (2500-3000 words) 20%
The Research Notebook at midterm 10%
The Research Notebook at the end of the semester 10%
Final Research Presentation 10%
In order to earn a strong grade on each of your pieces of formal writing, you are required to complete certain assignments that I will ask you to do as part of each paper. For complete details on what you need to do for each paper, see the assignment descriptions themselves on this website.
Comments on Reading Journals are meant to help you read more thoughtfully and write better reader's notes. In order to earn a strong grade for your work on Reader's Notes, you will need to meet certain standards on a certain number of reader's notes. The details about your evaluation is available here, along with all of the details on my expectations for Reading Journals
Comments on informal writing shouldn’t be treated like evaluation but rather like an ongoing conversation between you and me: think of it as a talk between us, only in written form. If I’m not commenting, it means I’m bored.
WEEKLY UPDATE: As a way to help us make connections across conversations we have in class and in your reading journal posts, I will post an update each week that brings together your ideas in one place. Sometimes this will be a letter or a video. In any case, I will highlight really excellent points that you make in class.
At midterm and at the end of the semester you will receive a “grade-so-far” and a “final grade” letter respectively. They will be come attached to your midterm and final research notebook returns. In these letters you will receive a letter grade and an overview of your performance in the class up to that point: in-class performance, including in-class writing; Reader's Journals; Drafts of formal writing, with revision; and your cover letter discussing your own progress and revision work.
This course will give you intense practice in writing, reading and research, primarily for academic purposes. The thematic focus of our course will be a topic that should be of interest to you: attending university in the United States. What it means to attend college in the United States means different things to different people. For US citizens attending US colleges and universities, they must weigh the cost of attending university with the benefits of a college degree. A college degree seems to be required for more and more jobs, and yet a college degree is no guarantee of getting a job you want or a job that pays you enough to pay back college debt. And what about attending the right school? What even makes a school the right school?
The question here is not simply, “should I go to college or not”. Of course, you might start with a question like that (but more specific), but the work we will do together will rely on formal and informal research to explore just how complex these questions are for us. In fact, I hope that you will show the complexities of getting a college degree from a range of perspectives: for yourself, your family, and for the various communities you might be a part of.
These kinds of questions will be the focus of our research and writing in these fifteen weeks. You will explore various research techniques including locating and evaluating source material, conducting interviews and surveys, and ethnographic research. You will write and respond to a variety of readings and you will write about your own research into the questions you are interested in asking. Finally, you will put together your materials in a final report, accompanied by a presentation that you will share with your classmates. You will get extensive practice in producing, collaborating, and revising writing that is appropriate for the university classroom.
By the end of this course, beyond any skills you learn as a researcher, skills that I hope will serve you well as you move into your major coursework, I hope that you will have a better sense of who you are as a student and what your goals for your college experience will be. Welcome!
Learning Objectives/Course Outcomes
In this course, students will
- Become familiar with conducting research through the use of electronic academic research tools, such as online catalogues and electronic research databases.
- Locate both primary and secondary source materials and evaluate their credibility.
- Approach research as a recursive process, consisting of a series of tentative hypotheses that are then tested and affirmed or revised.
- Effectively integrate secondary sources into their own texts, using an appropriate citation style, while demonstrating a clear awareness of the relationship of these sources to the writer’s central point and a clear distinction between the ideas and language of the writer and those of the sources.
Selections from They Say/I Say by Graff & Birkenstein, The New York Times, and other supplementary readings. All required texts will be provided to you as links on the syllabus for this course.
NOTE: Any text in light blue is a live link. It will take you to a related page on this website or to a reading, video, or podcast for our class.
Policies & Requirements
Attendance: The first two classes of this semester are onlien, but, after that, we meet face to face three times a week.Students are required to attend class regularly. What happens day-to-day in this class only works if we are all here and ready to work as much as possible; therefore, attendance is mandatory. Here is my policy on how absence will affect your evaluation in this class:
- You are allowed three absences in ENGL102, free and clear, no excuses necessary
- After your three absences, any and all absences, regardless of the reason, will adversely affect your final grade in the course you miss them in. There is no such thing as an excused or unexcused absence.
- After six absences, you risk failing the course you miss them in.
- Excessive late arrivals, more than five minutes, more than three times per semester, will accumulate to equal one absence.
- Absence is not an excuse for late work: assignments will not be accepted after the class period they are due.
- In-class work cannot be made up.
Covid-19 and attendance. We are all tired of hearing how these are unprecedented times--but they are. Attendance matters a lot to me. And I think you will quickly figure out that if you miss class you miss a lot. And this isn't high school. I will not, and am not required to, re-teach the class or classes you missed. So, I want to say that: come to class. It's the most important thing you can do to insure your success in this class. But if you test positive for Covid, you need to stay away from class for the required number of quarantine days and/or until you test negative. I would very much like for us to not be a super spreader event on campus. If you need to be absent due to Covid or a family member's Covid, let me know and we will work out how you will stay a part of a class. We can arrange for you to zoom in to class. Please note: zoom is not meant to serve as a replacement for attending class just becuase you don't feel like getting out of bed.
In-Class Mask Mandate. When we are inside together, we are required to wear a mask and to wear it correctly: snug and over the nose and under the chin. I will inform this mandate in our class. For the safety of everyone in our class and for myself, I am authorized by the administration to do so. Here are the guidelines I have been given: "If a student, who does not have a mask exemption, refuses to wear a mask, a faculty member should inform the student that they are required to do so. If the student continues to refuse to wear the mask, the unit member can dismiss the student from class and instruct the student to leave the immediate area. If the student continually refuses to leave the teaching area while still refusing to wear a mask, the unit member shall have the right to dismiss the class and shall report the incident to the university’s student conduct officer. Student refusals to wear a mask shall be treated as a student conduct violation and addressed through the code of conduct mechanisms at the university."
Informal writing/Reading Journals: For every reading, video, or podcast I assign to you, you are expected to produce a 500 word, typed, double-spaced response. Reading journals are a way to give you credit for the considerable work you must do as readers in this class. They will ask you to demonstrate that you've read the material and are prepared to work with it in class. You will practice the skills of research writing in these journals in a low-stakes way--it's not about getting things right, but practicing these skills in order to eventually get them right. Complete details for this assignment will be available on our class website. Reading Journals count for 20% of your final grade in the class.
Formal Writing/Research project: You will be responsible for drafting a part of your research final project over the course of the semester. You will submit drafts to me, get feedback from me, and from your classmates, and complete a revision plan for each draft you submit. In the final weeks of the course, you will assemble the various parts of your research project and put it together in a final research report. There are four parts to your research projects (the percentages in the parenthesis shows the value of each assignment toward your final grade). More information about each part of the research project is available on our class website:
Positioning yourself as a researcher/formulating your question (10%)
Answering your question part one: locating and evaluating online sources, summarizing, paraphrasing, quoting. (10%)
Answering your question part two: conducting interviews and preparing your data, comparing and contrasting, ethical considerations in research. (10%)
Reformulating your question/Answering your question: Bringing together all the parts of your draft into a final product. (20%)
Researcher’s Notebook & Final Report/Presentation. At the end of the course, you will submit a portfolio that includes all the drafting work you’ve done on your research project. You will include drafts, revisions, reflections on your progress that you will be asked to submit as part of each of the four parts of the research project (see above). In the researcher’s notebook, you will include a final reflection letter that asks you to reflect on what you’ve learned about reading, writing, and research in our class. You will turn in your research notebook twice this semester: once at midterm and once at the end of the semester. The research notebook functions as a kind of portfolio for the class. Finally, you will create a 6-minute recorded Pecha Kucha— a recorded version of your research project using a voiceover and visuals that the rest of the class will watch and respond to. The Researcher’s Notebook is worth 20% of your grade--10% at midterm and 10% at the end of the semester. The Final Presentation is worth 10% of your final grade.
Evaluation
Information for the requirements for earning the “A”, “B,” and “C” grade are outlined for each assignment on the assignment page, all of which are located in the “assignments” folder on the Blackboard site for our course. If you do not complete the work required for one of those three grades, you will fail the course. There is no “D” grade. How much each assignment is worth towards your total grade is explained above and repeated here (as well as on each assignment page):
Reading Journals 20%
Positioning yourself as a Researcher/Formulating
Your Question (750 words) 10%
Locating & Evaluating Sources Part I (750-1000 words) 10%
Locating & Evaluating Sources Part II (1000 words) 10%
Final Research Report (2500-3000 words) 20%
The Research Notebook at midterm 10%
The Research Notebook at the end of the semester 10%
Final Research Presentation 10%
In order to earn a strong grade on each of your pieces of formal writing, you are required to complete certain assignments that I will ask you to do as part of each paper. For complete details on what you need to do for each paper, see the assignment descriptions themselves on this website.
Comments on Reading Journals are meant to help you read more thoughtfully and write better reader's notes. In order to earn a strong grade for your work on Reader's Notes, you will need to meet certain standards on a certain number of reader's notes. The details about your evaluation is available here, along with all of the details on my expectations for Reading Journals
Comments on informal writing shouldn’t be treated like evaluation but rather like an ongoing conversation between you and me: think of it as a talk between us, only in written form. If I’m not commenting, it means I’m bored.
WEEKLY UPDATE: As a way to help us make connections across conversations we have in class and in your reading journal posts, I will post an update each week that brings together your ideas in one place. Sometimes this will be a letter or a video. In any case, I will highlight really excellent points that you make in class.
At midterm and at the end of the semester you will receive a “grade-so-far” and a “final grade” letter respectively. They will be come attached to your midterm and final research notebook returns. In these letters you will receive a letter grade and an overview of your performance in the class up to that point: in-class performance, including in-class writing; Reader's Journals; Drafts of formal writing, with revision; and your cover letter discussing your own progress and revision work.
| 101_sample_evals__1_.pdf |
| sample_101_midterm_letters.pdf |
Other Things to Know About
Plagiarism: One of the conventions of writing in the US university that we will discuss is what plagiarism is and what constitutes plagiarism in the US classroom. Students who plagiarize work in this class will be subject to the student code of conduct at Bridgewater State University. You can read that that policy by clicking on this link.
Students who require accomodations. Students who need special accommodations due to a documented disability should come to see me with written documentation of the specific disability and suggested accommodations before the end of the first week of classes. We can discuss specific accommodations at that time. It’s no big deal if you need accommodations, so just come see me—don’t put it off until midterm.
The Writing Studio. You will meet your writing fellow in the Writing Studio in the Academic Achievement Center every week. Located in the Academic Achievement Center, on the bottom floor of the Library, the Writing Studio is available to any and all students at whatever level of expertise you might be at. In your first semester, you might not use the writing studio as often as you would in other semesters because, as I said, you will be meeting with your writing fellow weekly (how much peer consultation can one person take), but keep this space in mind this semester, and definitely remember it for future semesters.
Other Resources on Campus. There are a wide variety of services available on our campus that you might want to know about but also might just be too inundated with information to remember you have access to, so I'm including links to a variety of places on campus that I think you might want to know about. First and foremost is probably the counseling center and the wellness center. Other places you can go if you want to connect with folks: the Legacie Center, the Pride Center, the campus food bank, and Commuter Services. Making a connection to this campus is the number one way you'll get from day one to graduation.
Need some help figuring out how to be successful in your classes? Check out these successful learning strategies and support resources.
There are also some great folks in the Academic Achievement Center who can help you develop strong skills around time management, studying for tests, tallking to your faculty when you need help, and other habits of successful students. You can make an appointment with an academic coach (free for BSU students) by clicking here.
Title IX and Sexual Violence. The Office of Equal Opportunity and the Title IX Coordinator work to ensure that all members of the campus community flourish in a supportive and fair climate. See https://my.bridgew.edu/departments/affirmativeaction/SitePages/Home.aspx to learn more.
Syllabus/Policies Check-in Assignment: due by Friday at 11:15
Good for you. You got to the end of the policies. To reward you, you have the opportunity to earn one "A" for Acceptable for a Reading Journal simply by completing the following assignment.
1. Send me an email at [email protected], CC me at [email protected]
2. In the subject line, write "Syllabus Check-in Email". Write it exactly as I've written it here.
3. In the body of the email, include a greeting: "Hello LT," "Hi Professor Torda," "Hey Dr. Torda." Whatever. But have a greeting.
4. Cut and paste this sentence into the email: "I've read through the policies and syllabus for the course, and I understand how to use the blackboard to find out information about assignments, texts, course policies, due dates, and classroom expectations."
4. POST TO THIS CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD: Ask me one questions about any thing on my website for our class: policies, due dates, classroom expectations, assignments. You can't tell me you have no questions.
5.IN YOUR EMAIL TO ME: Include a meme or tic-toc of your choosing or design that sums up how you are feeling about being in school so far.
6. Sign off on your email, "best, so & so" "see you in class, your name here" "sincerely, John Doe." Again, whatever. But sign off on your email.
Plagiarism: One of the conventions of writing in the US university that we will discuss is what plagiarism is and what constitutes plagiarism in the US classroom. Students who plagiarize work in this class will be subject to the student code of conduct at Bridgewater State University. You can read that that policy by clicking on this link.
Students who require accomodations. Students who need special accommodations due to a documented disability should come to see me with written documentation of the specific disability and suggested accommodations before the end of the first week of classes. We can discuss specific accommodations at that time. It’s no big deal if you need accommodations, so just come see me—don’t put it off until midterm.
The Writing Studio. You will meet your writing fellow in the Writing Studio in the Academic Achievement Center every week. Located in the Academic Achievement Center, on the bottom floor of the Library, the Writing Studio is available to any and all students at whatever level of expertise you might be at. In your first semester, you might not use the writing studio as often as you would in other semesters because, as I said, you will be meeting with your writing fellow weekly (how much peer consultation can one person take), but keep this space in mind this semester, and definitely remember it for future semesters.
Other Resources on Campus. There are a wide variety of services available on our campus that you might want to know about but also might just be too inundated with information to remember you have access to, so I'm including links to a variety of places on campus that I think you might want to know about. First and foremost is probably the counseling center and the wellness center. Other places you can go if you want to connect with folks: the Legacie Center, the Pride Center, the campus food bank, and Commuter Services. Making a connection to this campus is the number one way you'll get from day one to graduation.
Need some help figuring out how to be successful in your classes? Check out these successful learning strategies and support resources.
There are also some great folks in the Academic Achievement Center who can help you develop strong skills around time management, studying for tests, tallking to your faculty when you need help, and other habits of successful students. You can make an appointment with an academic coach (free for BSU students) by clicking here.
Title IX and Sexual Violence. The Office of Equal Opportunity and the Title IX Coordinator work to ensure that all members of the campus community flourish in a supportive and fair climate. See https://my.bridgew.edu/departments/affirmativeaction/SitePages/Home.aspx to learn more.
Syllabus/Policies Check-in Assignment: due by Friday at 11:15
Good for you. You got to the end of the policies. To reward you, you have the opportunity to earn one "A" for Acceptable for a Reading Journal simply by completing the following assignment.
1. Send me an email at [email protected], CC me at [email protected]
2. In the subject line, write "Syllabus Check-in Email". Write it exactly as I've written it here.
3. In the body of the email, include a greeting: "Hello LT," "Hi Professor Torda," "Hey Dr. Torda." Whatever. But have a greeting.
4. Cut and paste this sentence into the email: "I've read through the policies and syllabus for the course, and I understand how to use the blackboard to find out information about assignments, texts, course policies, due dates, and classroom expectations."
4. POST TO THIS CLASS DISCUSSION BOARD: Ask me one questions about any thing on my website for our class: policies, due dates, classroom expectations, assignments. You can't tell me you have no questions.
5.IN YOUR EMAIL TO ME: Include a meme or tic-toc of your choosing or design that sums up how you are feeling about being in school so far.
6. Sign off on your email, "best, so & so" "see you in class, your name here" "sincerely, John Doe." Again, whatever. But sign off on your email.