OBJECTIVES

     There two primary objectives for this course.  The first is to develop your reading, critical thinking, and writing skills and to invest you with confidence in your abilities to read, think, and write.  The second is to develop your technological skills by teaching you how to use email for correspondence and the internet for study and research.  By course end, you should be able to produce a coherent and unified piece of writing that develops a central idea by using appropriate examples and specific details while keeping errors in language a minimum.

TEXTS  

1. Wyrick, Jean.  Discovering Ideas. 5th ed.  Fort Worth:  Holt, Rinehart, and Winston,  1997. 

2. a hard bound college dictionary 

REQUIREMENTS  

     In addition to writing six revised and edited compositions, each from 500 to 750 words and each accompanied by all preliminary writing, you are required to complete two weekly assignments in the Writing Center, to participate in the peer editing of drafts, to complete reading assignments, and to contribute to class discussions.  All assignments must be finished and submitted by the due date.  Failure to submit any of two of the six essays or missing any more than seven and a half hours of class is sufficient grounds for failing the course.

GRADES

WRITING CENTER

     Just as professional writers consult their editors and agents about their work, you will be consulting the instructors in the Writing Center about yours.  Each week you will be given one assignment that requires you to spend at least one hour in the Center.  The assignment may be directly related to one of your five essays, or it may designed to exercise specific skills.  Whatever the assignment, it is imperative that you clock in, write, get your work reviewed and signed by one of the instructors, and then clock out.  Be sure to keep your work in a folder; it will be collected at the end of the course.

PLAGIARISM

     In every writing course, plagiarism is a serious concern for both teachers and students, and the practice is as welcome in a writing class as kidnapping is in a class on childbirth.  See your Cerritos College Catalogue for a discussion of academic honesty.

GRADING CRITERIA

A:  An "A" paper commands attention.  It presents a thoughtful and  well-organized discussion of its subject, and it uses appropriate examples and sensible reasoning.  Although it may lack the fluency and complexity of a professional piece of writing, an "A" paper does show that the writer can develop an idea with appropriate examples, choose words accurately, vary sentences effectively, and observe the conventions of written English.

B:  A "B" paper is clearly competent.  It presents an adequate discussion of its subject and elaborates with sufficient examples and acceptable reasoning.  Just as these examples and this reasoning will ordinarily be less developed than those in "A" papers, so will the "B" paper's style be less effective. Nevertheless, a "B" paper shows that its writer can usually choose words of sufficient precision, control sentences of reasonable variety, and observe the conventions of written English.

C:  A "C" paper is satisfactory, sometimes marginally so.  It often offers an uneven discussion of its subject, occasionally using inappropriate examples and/or unsound reasoning.  Also, the style may be simplistic or repetitive, and the choice of words may lack precision.  Still, the "C" paper does address and seek to develop its subject, and there may be some minor grammatical or syntactic errors.

D:  A "D" paper is unsatisfactory in one or more of the following ways.  It may discuss its subject illogically; it may lack coherent structure or elaboration with examples; it may reflect an incomplete understanding of the subject.  Its prose is usually characterized by at least one of the following:  frequently imprecise word choice; little sentence variety; occasional major errors in grammar and usage or frequent minor errors.

F:  The qualitative "F" paper shows serious weaknesses, ordinarily of several kinds.  It frequently presents a simplistic, inappropriate, or incoherent discussion of the topic, one that may suggest some significant misunderstanding of its subject.  Its prose is usually characterized by at least one of the following:  simplistic or inaccurate word choice, monotonous or fragmented sentence structure; many repeated errors in grammar and usage.  The quantitative "F" fails to arrive on time.