Irwin Weiser |
Class Information, Policies, and Syllabus English 102K May 1998 MATERIALS: You'll need the following materials for this class:
OFFICE HOURS: ATTENDANCE (15%): Since we're packing a semester of work into 19 days, your regular attendance and participation are vital. Please be here at every class meeting, on time. More than one absence will reduce your course grade. More than three absences will lead to a failing grade. LATE WORK: Again, because of the compressed time we're working in, I can't accept late papers. Each paper is due at the time indicated on the syllabus. The only exceptions to this will be documented medical excuses or equipment failures in the lab which prevent you from completing and printing a project by the time it is due. PAPERS (70% total): You will be researching and writing four papers for this course, described below. To accompany the fourth paper, you'll develop a short PowerPoint presentation which you'll present to the class. Paper 1 (10%): Paper 2 (15%): I encourage you to work in pairs or groups of three on this paper, but each of you should conduct a separate topic search. The topic could be one which you think you'd like to investigate further for the next two papers (something to do with technology), and, if possible, a topic which involves computer technology--for example, the impact of computers on a specific career or profession; computers and entertainment; computers in education; computers and athletics, etc. Paper 3 (15%):
Paper 4 (20%): Your research for this paper must include both library and web or internet sources, and it may include information you get from interviews, email correspondence, surveys, or observational visits. On Friday, June 12, and perhaps on part of Thursday, June 11 as well, each of you will give a brief PowerPoint presentation about your research paper (10%). JOURNAL (15%): Your journal will be a daily in-class writing, written most days during the first 10-15 minutes of each class. Typically, you'll come in to class, log-on, and write. Save your journal on a separate disk, in files named with your last name (or some abbreviation of it) and an entry number as the suffix (for example, my first entry would be Weiser.J01). Date each entry. Topics will vary: Some days I'll suggest a topic, some days you can choose your own. I may also ask each of you to suggest a topic. You'll submit your journal disk to me each Friday after you write that day's entry. PROTECTING YOUR WORK: Make sure you have at least one hard copy and/or disk copy backup of everything you write for this class. When you are writing, be sure to save your work regularly--every fifteen minutes or so. ETIQUETTE AND APPROPRIATE USE OF TECHNOLOGY: The Internet and network and World Wide Web technologies we have available to us give us access to all kinds of people and information. In fact, one of the virtues of the Internet is its wide-open access: people with the technical skills can say or display anything they want, and you can find just about anything on the Internet or World Wide Web. During this class, please exercise consideration and responsibility both in your browsing and posting. Specifically, do not browse sites displaying material which others may find offensive and which are not related to your work for this course, and be sure any messages you post to the class listserv and folders or that you send to other class members are connected to the work we are doing. HONESTY AND THE USE OF SOURCES: The following statement about honesty and the use of sources is from the Introduction to First-Year Composition Courses: When writers use material from other sources, they must acknowledge this source. Not doing so is called plagiarism, which means using without credit the ideas or expressions of another. You are therefore cautioned (1) against using, word for word, without acknowledgment, phrases, sentences, paragraphs, etc., from the printed or manuscript material of others; (2) against using with only slight changes the materials of another; and (3) against using the general plan, the main headings, or a rewritten form of someone else's material. These cautions apply to the work of other students as well as to the published work of professional writers. Of course, these cautions also apply to information you find on the Internet, World Wide Web, or other electronic or on-line sources. Since we will be discussing how to acknowledge and cite sources, you should be able to avoid accidentally plagiarizing anyone else's work. If you are in doubt, please ask me, since the consequences for plagiarism are severe. The university policies about plagiarism include penalties ranging from failure of an assignment to expulsion from the university. In this class, anyone who plagiarizes fails the course, and I will probably inform the Office of the Dean of Students of the reason for the failing grade. Syllabus for English 102K-0101 May 18-June 12 Mon. 5-18: Course introduction; introduction to the computer classroom. Discussion of
first paper topic. Mon. 5-25: Memorial Day: No Class Mon. 6-01: Paper two due at beginning of class. Begin topic development for
paper three. Researching the Purdue library system online; documenting sources Mon. 6-08: Introduction to PowerPoint and topic development for paper four. Mon. 6-15: You may pick up your journal disks and final papers in my office between 10 and 12. |