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 260 Points (26% of
Your Semester Grade), Essay 4: Alone
Together by Sherry Turkle
In a 6-page research paper, not including your Works Cited page, address the
following question with an argumentative thesis:
In Sherry Turkle’s Alone Together, does she argue
convincingly about the personal destruction resulting from our growing
dependence on social media technology or is her argument sodden with luddite
paranoia, one-sided bias, too much reliance on personal anecdotage (as opposed
to research), and any other fallacies you see? 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) 260
Four 500-word Quizzes, 50 each, 200.
Grand Total: 1,000 points
Reading and Writing
Schedule
June 17 Introduction
June 18 Cooked, read first 75 pages
June 19 Cooked, read to page 200
June 20 Cooked, finish. Quiz One Due in Class
June 24 Essay 1 (A-M) Due in my
office PE4
June 25 Essay 1 (N-Z) Due in my office PE 4 (Next
book: A Good Fall by Ha Jin)
June 26 “The Beauty,” “Temporary
Love”
June 27 “A Composer and His
Parakeets,” “Choice”
July 1 “In the Crossfire,” “A Good
Fall”; Quiz 2 due in class.
July 2 Essay 2 (N-Z) due in PE4
July 3 Essay 2 (A-M) due in PE4 (Next
book: Back in the World by Tobias Wolff)
July 4 Holiday
July 8 “The Missing Person,” “Say
Yes”
July 9 “The Rich Brother”
July 10 “Desert Breakdown”
July 11 “Our Story Begins”; Quiz 3 due in class.
July 15 Essay 3 (A-M) due in PE4
July 16 Essay 3 (N-Z) due in PE4 (Next
book: Alone Together Part II, NOT Part I)
July 17 Alone Together 151-200
July 18 Alone Together 200-end
July 22 Quiz 4 Due in PE4; show me
your thesis for Essay 4.
July 23 Essay 4 (N-Z) due in PE4
July 24 Essay 4 (A-M) due in PE4
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