Required Texts:

• The Writing Process (9^th ed.) By John Lannon

(ISBN: 0-321-33570-9) (Library Reserve X1328)

• Man’s Search for Meaning. By Viktor E. Frankl

(ISBN: 0-671-2442-1)

• A Thousand Splendid Suns. By Khaled Hosseini
  (ISBN: 1-594-48385-X)

Other readings will be available as library reserve items or web resources
 

Course Description: “This course guides the student through the writing process to develop expository prose with an emphasis on effective organization and on correctness.” This course meets transfer requirements at four-year institutions: CSU; UC
** Taken from the Cerritos College 2008-2009 General catalog

Learning Outcomes:

• Employ the writing process in order to understand and complete the writing task
• Write an essay that has a specific purpose, in response to specific writing prompts and course assignments
• Write a multi-paragraph essay with specific details, examples, and illustrations to fulfill a purpose
• Demonstrate critical engagement with outside sources
• Write in prose style characterized by clarity, complexity, and variety
• Adhere to the conventions of standard written English in accord with MLA style

Attendance and Participation: You cannot be successful in a class if you are not in the class and actively participating. Class will be promptly at 9:00. If you miss class more than three times, it will have an impact on your final grade.

4-5 absences lowers your final class grade one full letter.

6-7 absences lowers your final class grade two full letters

 8 absences and you are dropped from the class.

Coming to class late will impact your grade as well. Three tardies will count as one absence. I will take attendance at 9:00, and if you are not in class at that time, it will be your responsibility to come and see me after class to make sure you were marked late and not marked absent.

Puente Activities: As you learned in CG200 last semester, developing mutually supportive relationships can help you succeed in college and in life. In addition, the ability to work with others as a team is a vital component of many careers. As we continue building our Puente community, there will be three formal activities this semester: a mentor picnic, the Northern Cal trip over spring break, and the end-of-the-year mentor banquet. Your participation is required for each of these activities.

 Reading Response Notebooks: The ability to understand and interpret written work is key to success in college and professional careers. To facilitate your development of these skills, you will continue your work in your reading response notebooks as we read two texts this semester: Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini.

 Presentations: The Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills identified speaking and presentation skills among the five “Basic Skills” necessary for career success. To help you further develop these skills, each of you will be actively involved in presenting information to your classmates. A variety of topics will be assigned to you as individuals or as groups. I expect the presentations to be professional and well organized. This means you will need to thoroughly understand the information you are presenting. You will not be permitted to simply stand in front of the class and read from a book, handout, or PowerPoint slides. You will need to communicate with your audience and be sure the audience understands the information you are presenting.

Essays: One of our primary goals this semester will be to learn how to find and effectively utilize source material to support claims in a paper. Over the course of the semester, you will complete three in-class essays and five out-of-class essays, including a 7-10 page research paper. All essays must be submitted to Turnitin.com prior to submitting them in class. Essays will be returned unread and ungraded if they:

• do not meet the minimum page requirement
• do not meet the minimum requirement for secondary sources (this means you need to include a list of works cited AND show evidence that you have used the work in the essay itself.)
• are not typed in MLA format (the format discussed in class)
• are not accompanied by strong evidence of the writing process: prewriting, drafting, revision, editing, proofreading.

Late papers (including those that are returned with any of the above listed problems) will lose one full letter grade (10 points). Papers that are submitted more than 15 minutes late on the day they are due will be considered late. Late papers will not be eligible for any revision opportunities that might be offered.

 Plagiarism and MLA Documentation: It seems like we hear news reports of corporate corruption and political scandal almost every day. While this can certainly be depressing, it can also be motivation for each of us to rise to a higher level of personal responsibility and integrity. Accurately documenting sources used to develop or support an idea in an essay is one way to demonstrate your desire to maintain a high standard of personal ethics. We will spend significant time helping you understand when and how to cite your sources correctly. While making mistakes is a normal part of the learning process, making poor choices, such as intentionally copying someone else’s work, should be avoided. This is considered plagiarism. If it is determined that you have intentionally plagiarize on any assignment, you will earn a 0 for that assignment.

 Grading: Your final grade in this course will be comprised of the following:

 __________ Essay #1 (100 Points)

  __________ Essay #2 (100 Points)

  __________ Essay #3 (100 Points)

  __________ Essay #4 – Research Paper (200 Points)

  __________ Essay #5 – Letter to the Future (50 Points)

  __________ Reflective Writing (50 Points)

  __________ Timed Writings (3 x 100)

  __________ Reading Response Journal (2 x 50)

  __________ Presentations (100)

  __________ Mentor Picnic (25)

  __________ Northern Cal Trip (50)

  __________ Mentor Banquet (25)

  __________ Total (1200)

Grading Scale                                     __________ Tardy

A = 1080 - 1200

B = 960 – 1079                                   __________ Absent

C = 840 – 959

D = 720 – 839

F = 719 and below

** Remember that you should also be tracking the numbers of times you miss class as well as the numbers of times you are late as those can have a direct impact on your final course grade.