Course Description

MSWord Version Here

Objectives. English 125 is a challenging course that demands a significant investment of your time. You will be required to produce written work in advance of each class meeting. You will also be required to write during portions of each class period. 125 is an important preparatory course for the sorts of reading, thinking, and writing you’ll be expected to engage in at York College. We will work to develop our analytical reading and writing skills. We will improve our ability to summarize, paraphrase, and critically engage with complex readings. We will spend time on appropriate conventions of documentation and citation so that we learn to acknowledge sources appropriately and avoid inadvertent plagiarism.

Required Texts (you must bring all texts with you to class)
>Behrens & Rosen, ed., Writing and Reading Across the Curriculum, Custom Edition. Boston: Pearson, 2003.
>Diana Hacker. The Bedford Handbook, Sixth Edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2002.
>A good “collegiate” dictionary.
>A folder/binder to store written work, class notes, etc.

Attendance. Class meetings in English 125 are focused around peer-review of draft writing and discussions of the readings and important writing skills, techniques, and conventions. For this reason, you can expect a reduction in your final course grade if you miss more than four (4) classes. Four class absences should be sufficient to account for the occasional emergency (child care difficulties, illness, transportation disruption, etc.). Any student who misses more than nine (9) class meetings will fail. And since tardiness is a significant disruption to the classroom dynamic, any student more than 15 minutes late will receive a one-half (1/2) absence. Any student more than 40 minutes late for class is counted as absent for that day. Do not expect me to deviate from this policy.

Written Assignments. English 125 is a writing class. You will be expected to produce written work in advance of, and during, each class meeting.
Low Stakes Assignments. Many of these assignments will take the form of something we call “low stakes” writing assignments. I mark these assignments as either completed or not completed. You must complete at least 90% of these assignments or risk a reduction in your final grade.
Middle Stakes Assignments. Other assignments take the form of “middle stakes” assignments. These assignments will be marked as satisfactory/unsatisfactory, and will often include some brief comments. You must complete at least 90% of these assignments or risk a reduction in your final grade. Additionally, failure to complete a majority of these assignments with a mark of “satisfactory” will negatively impact your final grade.
Formal Papers (High Stakes Assignments). The most important writing assignments are the formal papers for English 125. These are “high stakes” writing assignments. You will write four (4) formal papers in this class. Each paper will go through a drafting process, a peer-review process, and an instructor-review process before being submitted for a grade. All low stakes and middle stakes assignments are tailored to help you with your formal papers.
Final Exam. English 125 has a 110 minute in-class final examination. The exam serves two main purposes. First, it assesses your grasp of the fundamental skills in English 125. Second, it provides you with a sense of the Analytic Reading and Writing portion of the CUNY Proficiency Exam, an test that all in the CUNY system must pass before moving onto their junior year.

Participation. English 125 depends on class participation to function effectively. I cannot “lecture” on techniques for critical reading, thinking, and writing. You will be well positioned to participate if you complete the writing assignments before coming to class, volunteer your ideas in class, and generally come to class ready to talk. I will also assign individual class “presentations” over the course of the term. You must complete these presentations to receive full participation credit.

Calculation of Grade
75% - Performance on four (4) Formal Papers of 1000-1500 words (4-6 pages) each.
15% - Completion of Low and Middle Stakes writing assignments.
10% - Class Participation
Completion of the Final Exam

Note on Late Work. Obviously, none of us plans to hand in late work. To ensure that our intentions are linked to incentives in the class, late work is significantly penalized. Low stakes and middle stakes writing assignments are considered “uncompleted” if not handed in on time. (This means that you are not permitted to hand them in late.) On the other hand, all drafts of the formal papers must be submitted. Late first and second drafts are penalized by a one-half (1/2) grade reduction on the final draft grade for each class day that a draft is late. Late final drafts are penalized one full letter grade for each class day they are late. What does it mean to be “late” with an assignment? An assignment is late if it is not submitted by the end of class on the date it is due. I do accept email submissions of assignments, and won’t count a paper as late if you are absent on the due date and I have received the paper by email. But my “failure to receive” an emailed paper does not excuse your failure to submit a hard copy on the due date.

Note on Technology. This class has plenty of opportunities for you to develop competency in software and internet technologies. While I do not require you to make use of most of these opportunities, I strongly encourage you to do so. Technological competency is highly valued by employers, and employees are increasingly expected to come to the workplace with these skills. All formal paper assignments (including drafts) must be typed and double-spaced using a word processing program of your choosing. (York College has a new lab available to students for just this purpose.) I regularly check email, encourage you to send me your formal paper drafts as attachments, maintain a bulletin board for students to post and share low-stakes and middle-stakes writing assignments, and am open to other possibilities as well. In the first three weeks, the class will visit a computer classroom for an introduction to some of these technology-enabled features of the course.

Note on Plagiarism. In our work this term we will pay special attention to the ways writers draw on the work of others, and to using sources effectively and appropriately. A related concern is plagiarism – using words or ideas of another person without acknowledging your debt. While the sharing and exchange of ideas are central to an intellectual and professional community, plagiarism is the theft of another person’s ideas. For this reason, plagiarism is severely penalized. Deliberate plagiarism on any assignment (low, middle, or high stakes) will result in a grade of F for the course. This F can become a permanent mark on your transcript. Please see the York College Bulletin for the College’s policy and penalties regarding plagiarism, including a statement of your rights should you be accused of plagiarism (page 29 in the 2002-2003 Edition).