Jackson Community College Course Syllabus English 131 Writing Experience Section 71 Lenawee Campus – Summer 2007Instructor: Kathy Goolian, E-Mail: [email protected] Lenawee office: (517) 265-5515Textbook: Sts. Martin’s Guide to Writing, Axelrod and Cooper, seventh edition.JCC catalog description of course:“This is an intensive writing course designed to help students improve, strengthen, and refine writing skills. Research methods are introduced. An end of the semester portfolio of narrative and informative writings and an additional 16 hours of writing activities and workshops are required.”The writing process has many stages. First, we read professional writers’ works as examples to emulate. Next, we generate and brainstorm ideas for a possible paper and share with other students. Writers will then ask and answer the journalist’s questions (Who? What? When? Why? Where? and How?) to begin to sketch out ideas and details for the paper.Next, writers complete a draft copy of the assigned paper. They workshop in small groupsand critique each other’s drafts by answering specific questions. That way, students can get ideas for improving their papers. Next, the draft with critiques is handed in to the instructor, who corrects and grades it. A one-on-one conference between instructor and student occurs. The writer takes all critiques and revises the draft to hand in. The instructor corrects and grades the revised copy. Writers continue to work on revising the paper for the portfolio.English 131 Course Objectives and Associate Degree Outcomes:The board of trustees has determined that all JCC graduates should develop or enhance certain essential skills while enrolled at the college. These skills are summarized in a set of Associate Degree Outcomes. The ADOs are achieved through students’ achievement ofcourse objectives. Objectives and ADOs specific to Writing Experience 131 are listed below:1. To write and produce a variety of writings, graded and non-graded (ADO 1a)2. To demonstrate effective use of the writing process (ADO 1a)3. To demonstrate the ability to organize and develop ideas (ADO 4)4. To learn to recognize form in writing, appropriate to purpose and audience (ADO 1a)5. To participate in responding to and evaluating writing produced by the student and others (ADO 5)6. To produce writing which uses primary or secondary research (ADO 1a)7. 7. To produce papers which demonstrate basic computer technology skills, such askeyboard use, formatting of academic papers, and web navigation for obtaining information (ADO 7)8. To explore of seven “Transcendent Understandings” defined as outcomes by JCC.Selection to be determined by the instructor (ADOs 9-15)9. The focus for this course is “an understanding of human behavior.” (ADO 10)Essay AssignmentsPaper one – a remembered event. Students will use descriptive and narrative techniques as explained in class and the textbook. Select an event which has somehow changed your outlook on life or helped you to grow as a person. Minimum length: 3 pages.Text: Chapter 2: Remembering Events, Chapter 14: Narrating.GPAW online workshops: Invention and Discovery; Leads.Paper two - a remembered person, someone who has had a strong effect on your life, in apositive, negative, or somewhere-in-between way. We are ambivalent about the people we know. Therefore, the person selected should be portrayed as having a wide variety of specific characteristics as revealed in specific situations. Paper should show the significance of the relationship. Minimum length: 3 pages.Text: Chapter 3: Remembering People.GPAW online workshops: Dialogue; Family StoriesPaper three – a profile paper resulting from an interview of one or several people, or an observation of a place or activity in the community. The purpose of the profile is to find out more information about a topic such as a future career, special interest, or to present an intriguing person. Minimum length: 3 pages.Text: Chapter 4: Writing Profiles; Chapter 15: Describing.GPAW online workshops: Revision Strategies; Writing with Meaning.Paper four: a research project explaining a concept that is interesting to you and that you want to explore further. A concept is an abstract idea, a belief system, an ideal, an emotion, a phenomenon or condition that you can analyze and explain with the help of outside sources of information. Refer to the text for ideas. Minimum length: 4 pages.Text: Chapter 5: Explaining a Concept, Chapter 16: Defining, Chapter 21: Library and Internet Research, Chapter 22: Using and Acknowledging Sources.GPAW online workshops: Intro: Summary, Quote, Paraphrase; Evaluating Resources; Citing Sources.The portfolio: A student cannot pass Writing Experience 131 without the portfolio. It is a collection of 10-12 pages of your selected and polished essays that are produced over the semester. (See handout for portfolio guidelines and formatting. Do the GPAW onlineworkshop on the portfolio). The portfolio will be read and evaluated by another instructor. It should represent a student’s ability to write with a variety of strategies and genres. The student’s understanding of purpose and audience are essential to the effectiveness of a piece of writing. A paper must have been graded by the instructor in order for it to appear in the portfolio.Guided Practice and Workshops: GPAW. JCC composition students must complete a totalof 16 hours of on-line and in-person writing labs outside the class. To help students accomplish this task, members of JCC’s composition faculty have devised a variety of activities. The assignments are geared to subject matter and should be accomplished during specified weeks. Please see the accompanying handouts related to the 16 hours forspecific opportunities and dates. Eight of the GPAW hours must be completed by midterm.The in-class writings provide opportunities for students to think through a hypothetical oractual situation, or plans for the future. (In-class writings also include reflections on revised essays.) They allow students to view a situation from several perspectives and seea variety of options through critical thinking. As a collection the in-class writings becomethe class journal. Students should save all writings from this course.Oral
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