Syllabus
English 106: Presenting University
Fall 2006
Marc C. Santos
mcsantos@purdue.edu
This is the course policies page, please familiarize yourself with it as you are responsible for everything detailed below.
Attendance
I list attendence first because, well, it is quite simply the most important aspect of this course. Unlike many classes, there is no discrete body of knowledge that I will be transmitting to you this semester. Rather, I will help you hone skills--these skills will be dissected and practiced in class. Furthermore, my pedagogical style is hands on and "experiential," meaning that you have to be here to experience what we do, the "learning" cannot be distilled down into some notes that you can receive later.
Thus, I will permit you to miss only three classes all semester. Evey absence above three constitutes a ten point (full letter grade) deduction from your final grade. Missing a conference counts as an absence. Please do not bother to contact me and explain why you are missing class: you have three absences, use them if necessary. You will be responsible for any work that you missed and should contact a classmate. If a serious problem arises that will force you to miss extended amounts of class, then contact me immediately so that we can work something out.
Required Materials
Over the course of the semester you will need:
- Coursepack
- We will not be using a standard text book this semester. Rather, a few other instructors and I have put together a collection of readings and materials. This coursepack is on sale at CopyMat in the Chauncey Hill Mall. While it is not inexpensive, it costs far less than most composition text books.
- 3 Ring Binder (pockets recommended)
- As I will be distributing a number of handouts and assignment sheets, I request that you purchase a three-ring binder for our class. Decorating it with images and other cool stuff earns bonus points. Bonus points are not formally calculated into your final grade, but never hurt.
- 5 Blank CD's with cases
- Over the course of the semester I will collect each of our major projects on CD (in addition to any print copies). At the end of the semester I will ask for all your materials form the semester on one CD. The fifth CD (if you are counting) is a just-in-case CD. Cause you never know...
- Pens, pencils, white lined paper (for binder), paper clips (instead of staples), printer paper
- Duh, this is an English course
- An issue of your favorite magazine (I'll explain in class)
- A fully-functioning human brain
- This is perhaps the most obvious and most important. As freshmen, you will likely encounter new levels of time management issues and strain. Remember to sleep. Remember to eat. Falling asleep in class counts as an absense, so rest up.
Obligations
Additionally, this course calls upon you to:
- Check your email daily.
- I will be sending out a number of emails to clarify assignments, etc. We will establish a course email list--all students are encouraged to pose questions (to either me or to each other) or respond to questions. Dialogue is good.
- Check our course websites daily.
- This semester will call upon you to do a significant amount of online writing. As detailed below, nearly a quarter of your course grade comes from participating in these online environments. You will be expected to check our forum daily and to contribute to it (for those not familiar with technology--don't worry, I don't expect you to know how to do this yet, I only expect that you are willing to learn how to do it). Homework assingments can be found on the calendar sections of this site. Finally, in weeks 8, 9, 10, & 11, we will be participating in forum discussions with 3 other sections of English 106 here at Purdue.
Assessment
This semester, your grade will be determined by the following:
| Project One: | 25% |
| Project Two: | 30% |
| Project Three: | 15% |
| Electronic Participation: | 25% |
| Instructor Evaluation: | 5% |
You should take a look at the breif project descriptions listed here. My evaluation will be based on conference preparation, in-class participation, and general effort (cheifly measured by visits to my office hours or to the writing lab). As far as electronic participation, you will be expected to make at least two forum posts (at least 100 words) every week. Furthermore, you will need a total of 40 total posts by the end of week 14.
Conferences
You might have noticed that this is a four credit course. That extra credit directly relates to our conference time--reserved time for one on one (or two on one, sometimes four on one) instruction. If you check your schedule, then you will notice that you are in Heavilon 223 or 225 on either Tuesday or Friday. This is you conference time. We'll discuss this more in class
Late Work & Revisions
Late work will be severely penalized—assignments will loose one letter grade for every day (not class session) late. Work will not be accepted after five days.
Revisions will only be granted in cases where a student has displayed effort—second chances are a reward, not a guarantee. Revisions constitute a major reworking of the logical structure and components of an argument (not the mere correction of surface changes). I will accept one revision of an assignment provided a student does the following:
- The student meets with either me or a member of the writing lab to discuss changes before revising.
- The student writes a one page cover letter detailing the changes they made.
Intellectual Property & Plaigarism
Plagiarism can be loosely defined as the appropriation of another person’s intellectual property without proper permission or citation—in other words stealing someone else’s work without giving them credit. I consider this the highest of academic crimes, and so does this university. Offenders will automatically receive a zero on the assignment and will be reported to the dean.
More information can be found at the Dean of Student’s “Academic Integrity: A Guide for Students” page.
Disability
If you have a disability that requires special accommodations, please see me privately within the first week of class to make arrangements.
Disclaimer
Finally, I hope I haven't scared you off. If you've read this far, then I'm hoping you're an individual. I am fond of individuals. I am not particularly fond of students. Individuals are self-motivated, interested in challenges, and willing to take risks. Students are motivated by grades, interested in personal advancement, and often drop my course in the first two weeks.
I should conclude with a general disclaimer: my teaching style has been labeled “different.” I will not spoon feed you answers—in this class there truly is no spoon. Rather, I will provide you opportunities to ask questions, and answer them yourself. If I don’t frustrate you, then chances are you aren’t trying hard enough (or I'm not trying hard enough--but no one has ever suggested that that's the case...).