Office PE4; Work Phone: 5673; email:jmcmahon@elcamino.edu
Students with Disabilities:
If you have a documented disability and wish to discuss academic accommodations, please contact me as soon as possible.
Essay Assignments
Essays should have a 12 font Times New Roman, be double-spaced, have headers (page numbers in the upper right corner) and MLA Works Cited page.
Essay 1: Cooked by Jeff Henderson
A wise man once said that when we think we're rising in life, we're really falling and when we think we're falling, we're really rising. In a 6-page essay, apply this wisdom, in all of its psychological complexity, to Jeff Henderson's journey and compare to someone from a personal interview. Use blog, book, and personal interview for your sixth page, your Works Cited page.
Essay 2: A Good Fall by Ha Jin
In a 6-page essay, contrast freedom and imprisonment in 2 of the stories. Use 2 personal interviews to give further depth to your contrast of mental freedom and imprisonment. Your sixth page, your Works Cited page, should have my blog, the book, and your 2 personal interviews.
Essay 3: Back in the World by Tobias Wolff
Describe 4 types of irony that you identify from the assigned stories. Use 2 personal interviews to give more in-depth examples for your 6-page essay. Your sixth page, your Works Cited page, should have 4 sources, the book, my blog, and your 2 personal interviews.
Alternative Assignment: Explain the book’s title by comparing at least 3 stories.
Final Essay Worth 280 Points (28% of Your Semester Grade), Essay 4: The Vegetarian Myth by Lierre Keith:
Write an argumentative thesis in which you agree or disagree with the argument that a vegetarian or vegan diet is a superior diet to the caveman (meat-eating) diet on grounds based on, ethics, health and the environment. Your guidelines are as follows:
- This research paper should present a thesis that is specific, manageable, provable, and contestable—in other words, the thesis should offer a clear position, stand, or opinion that will be proven with research. You should analyze and prove your thesis using examples and quotes from a variety of sources.
- You need to research and cite from at least five sources. You must use at least 3 different types of sources.
- At least one source must be from an ECC library database.
- At least one source must be a book, anthology or textbook.
- At least one source must be from a credible website, appropriate for academic use.
- The paper should not over-rely on one main source for most of the information. Rather, it should use multiple sources and synthesize the information found in them.
- This paper will be approximately 5-7 pages in length, not including the Works Cited page, which is also required. This means at least 5 full pages of text. The Works Cited page does NOT count towards length requirement.
- You must use MLA format for the document, in-text citations, and Works Cited page.
- You must integrate quotations and paraphrases using signal phrases and analysis or commentary.
- You must sustain your argument, use transitions effectively, and use correct grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
- Your paper must be logically organized and focused.
Policy on Plagiarism
Any attempt to commit fraud, misrepresenting someone else’s writing as your own, including turning in essays from previous semesters, will result in an automatic F grade, zero points, which mathematically, will disqualify you from earning a grade higher than a C for the semester. You will not be allowed to rewrite for a higher grade and because of the breach of trust it will be preferred that you drop the class.
Grading (Based on a Total of 8,000 Words)
First Three 6-page Essays (1,500 words): 180 each, for 540.
Final Fourth Research Paper (1,500 words) 280
Six 333-word Quizzes, 30 each, 180.
Grand Total: 1,000 points
Reading and Writing Schedule
February 11 Introduction
February 13 Cooked, read first 75 pages
February 18 Holiday
February 20 Cooked, read to page 200
February 25 Cooked, finish
February 27 Quiz 1 due in my office
March 4 Essay 1 (A-M)
March 6 Essay 1 (N-Z) (Next book: A Good Fall by Ha Jin)
March 11 “The Beauty,” “Temporary Love,” “Choice”
March 13 Quiz 2 due in my office
March 18 “A Composer and His Parakeets” (discuss with “Choice”)
March 20 “Weeping Cherry,” “A Good Fall”
March 25 “In the Crossfire”
March 27 Quiz 3 due in my office
April 1 Essay 2 (N-Z)
April 3 Essay 2 (A-M) (Next book: Back in the World by Tobias Wolff)
April 15 “The Missing Person,” “Say Yes”
April 17 Quiz 4 due in my office
April 22 “The Rich Brother”
April 24 “Desert Breakdown”
April 29 “Our Story Begins”
May 1 Quiz 5 due in my office
May 6 Essay 3 (A-M)
May 8 Essay 3 (N-Z) (Next book we read one story, The Vegetarian Myth)
May 13 The Vegetarian Myth
May 15 The Vegetarian Myth
May 20 The Vegetarian Myth
May 22 The Vegetarian Myth
May 27 Holiday
May 29 Quiz 6 is due in my office
June 3 Essay 4 (N-Z)
June 5Essay 4 (A-M)
Classroom Decorum
No smart phones can be used in class. If you’re on your smart phone and I catch you, you get a warning the first time. Second time, you must leave the class and lose 25 points. Third time, you must leave the class and lose 50 points. Same with subsequent violations.
The above also applies to talking and doing homework from other classes.
SLO in brief:
Students will complete a research-based essay that has been written out of class and undergone revision. The essay must use multiple sources and be focused on a particular topic. It should demonstrate the student’s ability to thoughtfully support a single thesis by integrating sources using analysis and synthesis. Citations must be in MLA format and include a Works Cited page. The final draft should be organized and technically correct in terms of paragraph composition, sentence structure, grammar, spelling, and word use.
Student Learning Objectives:
I. Review of Grammar and Usage
The student will locate and demonstrate the ability to correct the following errors in a composition:
A. sentence fragments
B. comma splices
C. misused commas
D. fused sentences
E. misplaced and dangling modifiers
F. incorrect pronoun case
G. faculty pronoun references
H. pronoun-antecedent disagreement
I. subject-verb agreement
J. wrong tense
II. Instruction in Reading
A. Essays
The student will
1. locate and paraphrase the thesis/preposition
2. identify the basic types of support used to develop the thesis or proposition: examples, facts, details, reasons, illustrations, anecdotes
3. indicate the shift from general to specific levels of support
4. distinguish statements of fact from statements of opinion
5. identify the method of development/strategy used: comparison, contrast, classification, definition, cause/effect, process, persuasion
6. summarize the idea and content
7. advocate or challenge the author's opinions
B. Short fiction and poetry
The student will
1. paraphrase the work
2. identify and define the central theme or metaphor
3. assess the aesthetic qualities of the work
4. compare the work with another, drawing conclusions based on appropriate criteria
C. Book-length nonfiction
The student will
1. summarize the work in its separate units and as a complete entity
2. identify the central theme or themes
3. judge the value of the information
4. advocate or challenge the author's opinions
D. Novels
The student will
1. summarize the plot
2. identify the central themes
3. indicate the functions of characters, plot, and setting in relation to the themes
4. judge the aesthetic value of 2 or 3 and of the whole work
III. Instruction in Composition
The student will
1. compose theses/topic statements of a proper scope for the composition
2. delimit subjects by brainstorming and outlining
3. organize the content of a composition using spatial, climatic, and/or chronological principles
4. use a range of general and specific levels of support with proper transitions to signal shifts from one level to another
5. compose introductory and concluding paragraphs for a composition
6. compose a timed essay
7. perform research techniques (use library resources, cite and document sources) and compose a formal research paper of at least 1250 words, utilizing parenthetical documentation