ENC 1102 Course Policy Sheet


ENC 1102-07 11:00-12:15 M-F BEL 020

Instructor: W. Nesbitt
Office: 214 D WJB
Office hrs: 12:15-12:50 Tues.-Thurs.
e-mail: wcn5418@mailer.fsu.edu

I enjoy order, consistency, precision, and I am very detail oriented. We will read a lot of poetry in this class. If these things disturb you, drop as soon as possible.

Do not e-mail me your entire paper and ask me to "look over it." By the same token, do not e-mail me with broad questions such as "Can I talk about music?" E-mail me with specific, focused questions. At the end of the semester, do not e-mail me about your final grade.

First-Year Writing Courses at FSU teach writing as a recursive and frequently collaborative process of invention, drafting, and revising. Writing is both personal and social, and students should learn how to write for a variety of purposes and audiences. Since writing is a process of making meaning as well as communicating, FYW teachers respond to the content of students' writing as well as to surface errors. Students should expect frequent written and oral response on the content of their writing from both teachers and peers. Classes rely heavily on a workshop format. Instruction emphasizes the connection between writing, reading, and critical thinking; students should give thoughful, reasoned responses to the readings. Both reading and writing are the subject of class discussion and workshops, and students are expected to be active participants of the classroom community.

Course Goals: The purpose of this course is to develop research, reading, and writing skills which may be applied throughout your academic career. As in ENC 1101, you will be encouraged to treat writing as a process. As we focus on the different writing assignments, I will discuss various elements of organization, stylistic concerns, and, occasionally, even punctuation and grammar; some may be familiar, some not. Expect that my style of teaching may be different from your previous instructor.
In this class, we will focus on a range of literature consisting of American literaure after 1875 and nineteenth-century English literature. These readings may include stories, poems, and novel excerpts.
Unlike ENC 1101, we will focus on critical analysis of individual readings. Quite simply, your opinion is beside the point, and whether you like the work or not is completely irrelevant. In writing for this class, you will never use I. For each class with a reading due, we will begin class by taking a quiz. The quiz will be composed of five to ten questions that will ask for factual answers.

You should also be prepared to constructively evaluate and criticize peer work. While we may or may not discuss every reading, you are expected to read all the readings for your own exposure and to make sure that we have plenty of material to discuss in class.
Much of the work of this course will lead toward skills in developing the major project for this course--your research paper. Reading strategies, argument methods, MLA style documentation and research methods are a few of the tools that you will learn, develop, and employ during the course of this semester.

Required Texts:
Everything that we will read in class is on-line under the list of links; look for the 1102 section
Buy the following two books: The Longman Writer's Companion , by Chris Anson, et. al.
A dictionary (a cheap, used paperback Webster's will suffice)

Requirements of the Course:
Attendance is a requirement (more than 4 absences is grounds for failure). What does "grounds for failure" mean? It means that if you miss more than four classes, I can flunk you at my discretion. Documentation of medical illness is not necessarily an excused absence, and I am under no obligation to excuse any absences due to sickness or any other personal misfortune. If you miss more than four classes due to illness, you can use that documentation to apply for a medical withdrawl. Each absence or lateness beyond the first (you do not get one each) will result in a deduction from your final grade. Bring the appropriate text to class every day as I will randomly check from time to time. If you do not have the text for the day, you are absent.

Requirements:

1. A presentation, a prospectus, an annotated bibliography, a research paper, a journal.
2. quizzes
3. SUSSAI evaluations
4. One conference
5. Thoughtful, active, and responsible participation. This includes preparation for class.

Evaluation:
presentation 10%
prospectus 10%
annotated bibliography 10%
quizzes 20%
journal 15%
research paper 25%
participation 10%
Presentation 10%
I will bring a sign-up sheet. You will sign up for one of the days. If there are two groups of readings assigned (a and b) pick one group. You will give a presentation on the assigned reading. Any changes, such as switiching writers with a classmate, must be okayed by me. Do not, for example, e-mail at 5 A.M. the morning of your project telling me that you aren't going to present and then, in class, say, "but I e-mailed you and let you know I wasn't going to present." You might consider discussing the historical context and/or biographical information about the authors in relation to the work at hand, but these approaches should be secondary to a discussion of the text, the words on the page. Keep in mind, the focus of the presentation should be on the work; I am primarily interested in the interpretive possibilities of a text. Your presentation should give a broad consideration to a variety of viewpoints and aproaches towards the work, including explaining various references that the poet makes to other people, events, and other such references that are not common knowledge. Your presentation must be researched and worked out before you come to class. I will want to see some typed notes that you will hand in after your presentation.
Also, I would prefer that only one person present on a particular work. We will double up only if absolutely necessary. However, should you present on the same day as someone else, I will expect each of you to handle a different aspect of the work and to have two entirely different prospecti, annotated bibliographies, and research papers.
I do not use a plus or minus system for the presentation.

Here is one way to set up the presentation:

Part I

Biography
include as many of the following elements as possible:
1) Give us a time line--what are the major dates in your writer's life?
2) What made your writer want to write?
3) Provide any quotes your writer may have had on writing and explain their importance. For example, Ezra Pound said "make it new." What is he talking about?
4) Any obstacles or advantages that the writer had?
5) How did other artists/writers influence positively and/or negatively your writer's life and work?
6) Assuming your writer is dead, how did your writer die; does this death comment in any way on your writer's life?
7) If your writer is alive, what is she or he doing today?

Part II

References
Provide us with an explanation or a key of any unfamiliar names, places, dates, and so forth in the work. For example, in Allen Ginsberg's "A Supermarket in California" who is Walt Whitman? Who is Garcia Lorca? Who is Charon? What is the Lethe?

There are several key places to look for such information:
1) A dictionary, which may or may not have the information but is certainly a convenient place to look.
2) An anthology such as The Norton Anthology of American Literature, The Norton Anthology of British Literature, The Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry or some other anthology. An anthology typically includes a few pages of vital information about the poet, some discussion of the work, and, most imporant for this section of the presentation, extensive footnotes explaining unfamiliar names, places, dates, and so forth.
3) An annotated or critical edition of your author's work(s). Such books sometimes have articles and bibliographies of other articles useful to your project.
4) The Internet. It's extensive, quick, and often incorrect. However, after raiding the books on my own shelves, this is usually my next stop when I want some basic information on a writer and his or her work. Sometimes, you can find a version of the work that the editor of the webpage had annotated, footnoted, or hyperlinked. This is the only assignment that I will allow Internet use for. However, this comes with several qualifiers: Try to use more established webpages such as those of universities or official institutions such as The Academy of Poets. Do not use some fool's webpage who claims to have a deep interest in your author but spouts broad information without anything to back it up. Also, do not use any of this information for the prospectus, the annotated bibliography, or the research paper. Do not say, "I had to use this webpage because I couldn't find this information anywhere else." You can go to the same places the maker of the webpage went--books and periodicals.

III

Interpretation
*Note unless only one work is listed you are responsible for talking about at least two of the works listed for the author on the syllabus. However, the more works discuss, the less in-depth I will expect you to go and vice versa.

1) What does the work mean? I will expect you to present some possible interpretations based on non-Web research that you have done. As we have a major library at our disposal and all of these authors are "big" authors, you will have no problem finding a variety of information concerning your author. Feel free to give your own interpretation(s) as well; however, make sure that your interpretation roots itself in some sort of research. Using specific examples from and references to the text will be a key ingredient.

For Modernism, Postmodernism, or Romanticism, give us a basic overview of the movement for your presentation. For your prospectus and research paper, take one of the authors from the syllabus and argue, by referring to a few poems, that your writer fits within one of the movements Usually, we speak of a particular writer as belonging to a particular movement. However, writers are often ahead of their time and/or draw from several movements/traditions. Therefore, an argument can be made for any of these writers fitting into any of these movements.

*General encyclopedias such as Compton's are not ever acceptable as a research source.
Remember, this is where the bulk of the presentation should be at. Also, I'm looking for ten to fifteen minutes as the total length of the presentation.

An overall point to keep in mind is that while you can summarize other people's observations and opinions about the text, you want to present, at some point, some original points of your own since it will be an original view or point that you come up with that will provide the basis for your prospectus and research paper.

Don't forget to give me the typed notes immediately after the presentation.

Talk to me before your presentation. On most, not all days, after the first week I want to wind class up in an hour. Having class five days a week leads to heavy burnout (I've never heard anyone say that class wasn't long enough) and I want to take the last fifteen minutes to talk with the next presenter(s). I suggest that you read your poem(s)s or story well in advance and do some preliminary research so that you come mentally prepared (i.e. you have some ideas) to talk with me. I am not handing your presentation to you, but I am happy to help you develop ideas/angles, and work out problems that you may have, assuming that you have already done some basic work and have some ideas. Also, you can talk with me via e-mail, but I suggest that you talk to me in person as I can answer questions very easily via e-mail, but anything requiring a conversation will take days to work through e-mail. Some of these works are very difficult and you may find it quite hard to find a way in the work. Other times, the works may appear deceivingly simple, and you have no idea what there could possibly be to talk about. Often, I can give you some hints. If you do not talk to me, you advance at your own risk. This presentation is not something to wait until the night morning before or morning of to do.

Prospectus 10%
The prospectus is, essentially, a two-page compressed draft of your research paper. Basically, I want you to take a point from your presentation and concentrate your paper on that point. Whereas the presentation should seek to give us a broad overview of the work, the prospectus should be specific, focused, and concentrated. I do not want a summary of the work or something bland and thoughtless such as "Shaskespeare had a huge effect on English literature." Besides being much too broad, the thesis isn't telling us anything we don't already know.
Your prospectus will be on the same work that your presentation is on. Ideally, the prospectus will focus on one work. On the day of your presentation, in addition to the notes that you will give me, and anything else that you choose to hand to the class, you will have a copy of your two-page prospectus for every class member. We will workshop this prospectus as a class. If you do not have copies on the day of your presentation for everyone, you lose thirty points right off the top. Work hard on this prospectus because the version we workshop as a class is the same version I will grade for this assignment. We will workshop the prospectus as a class immediately after your presentation, so bring enough copies for each class member to have his or her own copy, or lose 30 points.
Here are some things to keep in mind:
As with all assignments, proofreading counts. I will give your prospectus a letter grade and use grammar to figure out the plus and minus.
Develop an original title; the subject of your paper is not the title.
Originality.
Focus. I want to see your prospectus focus on one specific aspect of one work by one writer. The only exception is when dealing with a poet. Then, you may bring more than one poem into the paper.
Introduction
(a) interest level (does the introduction pull the reader in?)
(b) thesis (an underlined or italicized thesis of one to two sentences that takes a position and attempts to argue something)
Integration of research with appropriate citations
(a)one source with four direct quotes used in the paper and appropriate ciation after each quote
(b)a second source with four direct quotes used in the paper and appropriate citation after each quote
(c) a works cited page with citation of each of the two sources
Use of Internet sources should follow the same guidelines as those for the annotated bibliography. This assignment will receive a flat letter grade, with plus or minus determined by grammar. Satisfactory grammar will not result in a minus, but only near flawless grammar can earn a plus.

Annotated Bibliography 10%
Ten sources each source counts 10% 10X10=100
*For each grammar mistake, formatting, mistake, missing header, and other such imperfections including but not limited to the aforementioned list, I deduct one point, out of one-hundred, from your annotated bibliography grade. Please number each source.

one source
I do not want any sources off of the Internet unless they are sources that also exist in print. For example, finding sources via the MLA database that exist in an on-line form is perfectly fine. However, using some professor's webpage is not acceptable. The text that your research project concerns does not count as a source.
Citation . . . . 1% (it is either correct or it is not)

annotation
a) summary/description of the work . . .2%
an okay summary will yield one point
a good summary will yield two points
b) incorporation into the summary of three direct quotes, not paraphrases, with page numbers . . . 3%
c) explanation of why it will
or won't be useful to your study . . . 2%
an okay summary will yield one point
a good summary will yield two points
length at least 50 words per source. . . 2%
If the length per source is under fifty words, you lose the whole two points. Usually, it will be impossible for you to give a good summary and a good explanation of usefulness in less than one-hundred words.

Quizes 20%
This is how we will start class. The quiz will be five to ten questions that call for some sort of factual information. This will be written by hand, in print. Any answers in cursive or that are unreadable will be counted wrong. I am not going to waste class time waiting for your to beg, borrow, steal, or find pen and/or paper. I will simply read off the first question of the quiz. If you come in late, do not ask me to repeat a question and do not speak to anyone until the quiz is over. If you do, you will receive a zero. Missed quizzes will result in a zero, unless you can present proof of unavoidable absence that is satisfactory to me. The moral of the story is come to class and come on time. I will drop the two lowest quiz grades, and you must take the quiz even if you are the presenter for the text.

Journals 15%
I will provide fifteen journal topics that you are free to write about in first-person. You will produce one double-spaced, typed page for each topic for a total of fifteen pages. Do not waste space with giving your name, the class, or the topic on every page. Instead, include the number of the journal topic, in bold, beside your first sentence; do not give the journal number its own line, or your entry will be too short. Use a header on each page with your last name. Here is an example:
4 If I could have one power in the world, it would be the power to travel through time . . .
At the start of your journal, you will include a cover page that will use the same type of heading explained at the bottom. The pages should be in a notebook or folder of some type. If you hand me stack of typed papers that are not in some type of notebook or folder (i.e. the journal is simply stapled or paperclipped at the top), you will lose ten points. The journal will be due on the date stated on the syllabus. I suggest you that you do not wait until the night before to do fifteen typed pages of journal entries, but it's your life. Every missing entry will lose one point. Every entry under a half-page will lose one point. Every entry over half a page but under a full page will lose half a point. Fifteen entries that are fifteen pages long will result in a full fifteen points worth of credit. I will be reading, but probably not responding, to these, so don't cut and paste something you've already done for another assignment and use it for the journal.

Research Paper 25%
Remember, the research paper should do more than spout research, summarize, and restate commonly know positions; the research paper should question, analyze, synthesize, make new points, and fresh conclusions. I should see at least four to five quotes or paraphrases per page.
Grammar . . . 7%
Title . . . 3%
Introduction
(a) interest level 5%
(b) underlined or italizied thesis 5%
Conclusion . . . 10%
Overall Content (this includes such things as use of examples, voice, originality, analysis, detail, focus, the absence of "filler," and using new information rather than information that is commonly
known). . . 20%
Transitions . . .5%
organization . . .5%
use of research (this includes integration of research, citations, and amount of research in the paper). . .28%
Also include a works cited page. If you do not, you will lose ten points. The works cited page does not count toward the minimum required length of six pages. For the works cited page, you are not limited to only the works you have in your annotated bibliography. I expect that you may uncover some new sources while writing the paper. I will, however, find any works cited page than does not use at least some of the works from the annotated bibliography to be suspect. I should see at least as many sources on your works cited page as there are pages in your paper. The primary text does not count toward this minimum. Use of Internet sources should follow the same guidelines as those for the annotated bibliography.

Participation/Attendance 10%
(strictly speaking, I can't take away from your grade due to absences. However, if you aren't here then you obviously can't participate, and I can grade you on participation)
first absence . . . -0 (if you miss no classes, you will receive one point added to your final grade; this is your only chance for extra credit)
second absence . . .-1
third absence . . . -1
fourth absence . . .-2
(be warned; to make sure that you print out and bring in the appropriate texts, I will periodically take roll by having you pass in a printed out copy of your text with your name on it. If you don't have the text, you are absent)
participation . . . approximately 6% since this has the ability affect your grade by almost one entire letter.
At the end of the semester this six percent will give you the plus or minus for your grade. If you are at a B+, superior participation will bring you up to an A-. If you are at a C- a poor participation grade, will pull you down to a D as there is no D+. A satisfacory participation grade will neither harm nor help you. I keep a running mental list of who participates and how much. At the end of the semester, I use this list to figure out your participation grade.


Participation in workshops, participation in class discussions, timely arrival to class, and preparation for class affect your grade. If you do not bring the appropriate text(s) to class you face losing points. Final papers should be accompanied by any and all drafts that I ask for. Final papers will be graded on such things as editing, revision, organization, thoughfulness, and originality. All other written and oral work will be graded on meaningfulness, thoughtfulness, appropriateness to the assignment, and originality.

STAPLE ALL PAPERS IF YOU WANT CREDIT.

Late paper: For each week day that the paper is late, I deduct ten points. If your paper is more than three days late, don't even bother turning it in. I don't care if your computer froze, your disk melted, or the printer in the library exploded; you either have the paper on time or you don't--the reasons don't concern me. This is a personal problem.

Late person: If you are not in class by the time that I have finished calling roll, you will be absent. On quiz days, I will probably call roll immediately after the quiz. Whatever your excuse is, I am not interested in hearing it. The reason for your lateness is a personal problem.

Personal responsibility issues: Consult your syllabus frequently, I may or may not, probably not, remind you of what is due. The whole reason I have made a syllabus for you is so that I do not have to constantly remind you of what is due. If you cannot print out and keep up with a syllabus, you may want to reconsider your career path.

I can't stand cellular phones. If your cell phone or pager goes off during class, you will be marked absent. Turn off such devices before you walk into my class. This policy is not open to modification, negotiation, or explanation. If you have a problem with this, drop the class.

Reading/Writing Center: The Reading/Writing Center offers one-on-one help for students with their writing, whether they need help with a writing problem, need assistance understanding what their teacher wants, or just want to do better with their writing assignments. The Center is staffed by teaching assistants who are trained in writing and teaching. Make an appointment by calling ahead (644-6495) or stopping in (WJB 230). Remember, they are not proofreaders, but they will show you how to proofread.

Plagiarism is grounds for suspension from the university as well as for failure in this course. It will not be tolerated. Any instance of plagiarism must be reported to the Director of First-Year Writing and the Director of Undergraduate Studies. Plagiarism is a counterproductive, non-writing behavior that is unacceptable in a course intended to aid the growth of individual writers. Plagiarism is included among the violations defined in the Academic Honor Code, section b), pargraph 2, as follows: "Regarding academic assignments, violations of the Academic Honor Code shall include representing another's work or any part thereof, be it published or unpublished, as one's own."
A plagiarism education assignment that further explains this issue will be administered in all First-Year Writing courses during the second week of class. Each student will be responsible for completing the assignment and asking questions regarding any parts that he or she does not fully understand. Stealing the ideas of another is thievery, plain and simple. I will do my utmost to see that plagiarizers are punished to the fullest extent possible.

Gordon Rule: Succesful completion of all writing in this course and a final course grade of C- or better will allow you to satisfy the Gordon Rule requirement. The university requires you to write 7,000 words, but you will be writing much more than that in any 1101 or 1102 English course.

Type all papers. I refuse to go blind this early in life. The quizzes are the only thing that should not be typed for this class, and they are the only thing that I will except not typed.

Students with disabilities needing academic accomodations should in the first week of class 1) register and provide documentation to the Student Disability Resource Center (SDRC) and 2) bring a letter to me from SDRC indicating the need for academic accomodations. Atheletes and other individuals who miss school due to unavoidable school related activites need, in advance, to provide signed documentation on letterhead informing me of any absences that they will incur due to participation in such activities in sports games or band performances.

Format and Heading:
The single-spaced heading, placed in the upper left hand corner of the first page, will adhere to the MLA format for headings. Here is an example:
Mustaine Dave (lastname firstname)
ENG 1102-07 (course prefix, number, and section number)
Mr. Nesbitt (Instructor's name)
20 March 2002 (numerical day month year)

Title

The first sentence of your paper.
Paper will be typed and double spaced unless otherwise undicated. A page number shall appear in the upper right hand corner of all pages except the first (i.e. last name 2). The title will be centered and capitalized but will not be bolded or italicized, and, as shown in the above example, one, and only one, blank line will both precede and succeed the title. Use 12 pt. type in the font of Times New Roman with one-inch margins surrounding the paper. If you decide to deviate in anyway from this format, you will lose at least ten points.

A note about conferences: Once during the semester, I will set aside conference time. Although you are free to talk to me anytime during the semester, this is built in time for us to talk. You're supposed to be an adult. Come or don't come. It's up to you. You will not get any deduction in grade for not coming, and you will get no extra point(s) for coming. If nothing else, I suggest you come to me to talk about your final paper. I recommend that you talk you me about your presentation as well. Also, my office is hard to find; find it before you plan on coming to talk to me.

A final word: Please don't come to me in the final days of the semester and tell me that you have to make such and such a grade or you will lose your scholarship/car/mind. This is a personal problem. The time to make a dedicated, concentrated effort is early in the semester. Also, if your grade is in danger don't ask me to give you an incomplete, drop you, or withdraw you from the course because it is not in my power to do those three things.

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