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
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